Gore to Speak at Summit on Inner-City Development

Vice President Al Gore is the featured speaker at a daylong summit Saturday on inner-city economic development, organized by Operation Hope, a nonprofit banking and financial center set up to serve South-Central Los Angeles after the 1992 riots.

Summit topics will include bridging the digital divide, investing in the inner city, and empowerment through home and small-business ownership.

Participants include former Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman Preston Martin, U.S. Economic Development Administration Acting Assistant Secretary Chester Straub, Reps. Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles) and Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Rockard Delgadillo, Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn, Union Bank of California Vice Chairman Rick Hartnack, Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack and Operation Hope CEO John Bryant.

The goal of the summit, to be attended by invited delegates, is to develop strategies to foster economic renewal in neglected communities.

Bryant said he hoped the vice president’s involvement would plant the issue of urban revitalization in the nation’s consciousness as well as help him recruit “brilliant minds” from around the country to hash out revitalization strategies.

“How do you make the viability of America’s inner city a mainstream issue?” said Bryant. “One of the ways is you use the bully pulpit of the White House.”

For more information, visit https://www.inner-cityeconomicsummit.org.