On Thursday, June 6, 2019, the Center for Civic Innovation’s (CCI) Founder and Executive Director, Rohit Malhotra, was invited to lead a thoughtful and challenging discussion with presidential candidate and Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg. The unscripted conversation, set to the backdrop of a packed theater at the Variety Playhouse in Little Five Points, centered on the challenges and opportunities unique to Atlanta and on creating trust between government and the people it serves.

Ahead of the event, Mayor Pete Buttigieg agreed to meet with local community leaders from CCI’s Fellowship program, which supports community-driven solutions to inequality in Atlanta. These Fellows talked about issues in education, art and culture, housing, food justice, and civic engagement with the candidate, who called the moment “one of the most inspiring ones thus far on the campaign trail.”

The conversation kicked off shortly thereafter, and was themed against Malhotra’s 2016 TEDx talk on the importance of trust in government. This event brought those issues to a national stage, touching on topics such as affordable housing, government transparency, and neighborhood-level engagement.