Focus is on more jobs, safer, more vibrant neighborhoods, better educational opportunities
(Wednesday, April 13, 2016) – Rochester’s path to future success is built on the foundation of a proud history, which should inspire the decisions of the present, Mayor Lovely A. Warren declared in her State of the City Address today.
“As we reclaim our city, I implore you to never forget about our past,” Mayor Warren said. “Understand how it impacts our present and how it will ignite our future.”
Mayor Warren said she remains committed to a relentless focus on three core priorities: Creating more jobs; safer, more vibrant neighborhoods; and better educational opportunities. These focal points are successfully guiding a host of policy decisions that seek to reverse decades of neglect and disinvestment across the city.
She quoted Frederick Douglass, who said “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” The same is true for Rochester, she said.
“I am working every day to build the strongest possible foundation for our city going forward in the hope that we never again need to fix broken neighborhoods, broken schools or the broken promise of the American dream that has bypassed generations of our poorest citizens,” she said.
Mayor Warren delivered her 2016 State of the City Address in the Genesee Brewery on Saint Paul Street because the iconic Rochester employer offers the perfect visual symbol of the city it has called home since 1878.
“A once great company staggered, but it regained its stride and is once again leading its industry,” she said. “A great city that in some ways lost its footing has once again regained its stride.”
That new stride is evident in the attention of federal and state officials who recognize Rochester’s potential and are making investments to propel the city’s economy forward. She cited the federal government’s plan to establish Rochester as the “Photonics Capital of the World” along with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Upstate Revitalization Initiative, which will bring 1,400 jobs to Eastman Business Park.
To help city residents fill these jobs, the Mayor is partnering with local businesses and non-profit agencies to create employment readiness programs like the Young Adults Manufacturing Training Employment Program and Operation Transformation Rochester.
And the Office of Innovation and Strategic Initiatives is working in concert with the Rochester Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative to create new job-creation opportunities through local entrepreneurship.
Major developments like the Port of Rochester, Stadium Estates and Bulls Head Revitalization are benefitting citizens in every corner of the city and the coming years will see more construction in the Northeast. Mayor Warren pledged to begin the “La Marketa” project on North Clinton Avenue and help the House of Mercy build a new facility to help the homeless.
A grant application has already been submitted to the Regional Economic Development Council to begin reconstruction of the northern portion of Inner Loop, similar to what is happening along the Eastern portion.
“Our neighbors to the north deserve the same attention,” she said. “Thus, we must insist that the Inner Loop North be filled in next.”
Mayor Warren applauded the Rochester Police Department for keeping crime at historic lows last year, but she decried the heart-breaking challenge of gun violence.
“I dread the 2, 3, 4, o’clock in the morning calls because I know it’s not good news,” the Mayor said. “I know a family has just lost a loved one to this culture of violence.”
She thanked the many community partners, including the City Council, the judges of the 7th Judicial District, District Attorney’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office, who are working with the city to end the plague of illegal guns through such initiatives as the new Gun Part.
A focus on early learning has yielded a host of new programs to encourage children and families to embrace the joy of reading and generated a 25 percent increase in summer-learning programs in the libraries and recreation centers and resulted in the donation of more than 1 million books to city children. Partnerships with programs like the White House’s Reach Higher Initiative, the Rochester College Access Network and the United Negro College Fund are helping more city students aspire to seek a college degree.
The Mayor said she has also requested the State Commissioner of Education and the Board of Regents establish a special Receivership District to provide comprehensive administration with failing schools that fall under receivership. She said the mayor should have a role in the administration of the district, but stressed she is not seeking mayoral control.
“I am simply asking to be part of the solution,” she said.
Some students are bound to be left behind if each of these schools is administered individually by a state-appointed receiver.
“Rochester needs a comprehensive strategy that will bring success to all of our failing schools so all of our children are given an opportunity to succeed,” she said.
Mayor Warren urged the audience to join her as she works to reclaim Rochester’s history as the kind of city where people like her grandparents moved to find better opportunities.
“We are Rochester,” Mayor Warren said. “And our future is as bright as our past.”
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