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I grew up in Harlem, a block away from what was then the most crowded block in New York City, according to the 1950 census. Something like ten thousand people lived in one city block.

Hong Kong has always been a dynamic and exciting and high-energy city, and it has that New York thing going on, and people here care about how they look.

Two-thirds of all growth takes place in cities because, by simple fact of population density, our urban spaces are perfect innovation labs. The modern metropolis is jam-packed. People are living atop one another; their ideas are as well.

I grew up in New York where there is such a different variety of people.

Growing up in a suburban home, the world seems so massive to you. It seems like cities are so big and so far away, and there's so much in them. So your imagination runs wild, instead of when you are born in the middle of Manhattan, you'd know, like, that this is the biggest city.

People don't know that New York really is just made up of a group of very small neighborhoods.

There is more sophistication and less sense in New York than anywhere else on the globe.

I know that New York City remains the highest density urban area in the country and by far dedicates more of its own funds to fighting terrorism than any other municipality.

People often think of New York as a city, a concrete jungle with soaring skyscrapers and yellow taxis and the bright lights of Times Square. And it is that, in part. But beyond that, it's rolling hills of fruit orchards and fields of grain and ice-cold waters brimming with oysters.

Neighborhoods change. In some ways, it's part of the beauty of New York City. It's in a constant state of flux.