Gainesville Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan delivered her final State of the City address Wednesday morning at the Hippodrome State Theatre.
Hanrahan, who spoke for 40 minutes to a crowd of roughly 80, addressed many of the city’s successes and shortcomings.
“Each of us carries an obligation to take individual responsibility for our community’s quality of life and to nourish our shared dreams and plans for the future,” she told the audience.
Hanrahan stressed Gainesville’s efforts to combat the turbulent economic climate despite recent setbacks in the job market.
She also discussed the city’s efforts to promote environmental awareness, urging citizens to keep Gainesville clean.
“There’s no place for a decades-old, contaminated super-fund site,” she said. “With your perseverance and your voice, we will prevail.”
She praised the performance of Gainesville Fire Rescue and police departments, notably Police Chief Tony Jones.
“Chief Jones is moving quickly to restore public confidence in a department whose distinguished record of service has been unfairly tarnished by the individual actions of a few disgraced officers,” she said.
Looking toward the future, the mayor addressed projects concerning the city’s proposed $18.2 million traffic management system, which is slated to be finished by September, as well as Gainesville’s homelessness prevention campaign.
Although she recognized many of the city’s successes, Hanrahan said there’s much more to be done within the city, especially improving graduation rates, attracting more businesses to the area and reducing poverty.
“This is not the time to go back to old, outdated paradigms, but to capture the innovation and market advantage that define who we are,” she said. “I encourage all of us to lift ourselves on the buoyancy of hope and begin now to fulfill our aspirations. That’s the way to achieve the Gainesville that we want.”
