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2015 State of the City Speech

April 29, 2015
Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
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Thank you Jim and good morning.

Thank you for joining us today.

This building is a testament to all that we have accomplished through our partnerships.

I want to take a moment and acknowledge some key individuals who were not only instrumental in making this building a reality but have also been integral partners as we shape our City and our region.

Our City Commissioners….
Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs…
Our County Commissioners…..
And the other elected officials who are here this morning……

Thank you for all that you do.

And I also want to recognize my wife Karen and son Trey who are here with us today as well as my other son Drew, who hopefully is studying for finals out at the University of Colorado. I want to thank them for all the love and support they give me that allows me to get up every morning and serve our community.

This building, the performers we’ve seen this morning and the patrons who visit each and every day embody the success, vibrancy and creativity we are seeing all across our City.

Thanks to our world-class venues, Orlando can host any event and numerous events on the same day.

Recently on a single night, more than 80,000 people enjoyed everything Downtown has to offer.

People dined in our award winning restaurants and toured our galleries …
Lions fans cheered on Orlando City at the first Major League Soccer game
the Magic took on the Celtics at the Amway Center
and this building was filled for the Orlando Ballet’s Battle of the Sexes

That night our City was alive. And now that’s the norm.

And that night it became clear, Orlando IS one of the BEST CITIES in the nation to call home.

But all of this didn’t happen by accident. We’ve developed a shared vision for our City and we’ve focused on creating partnerships to achieve this vision.

At a time when the State and Federal governments are in gridlock, here in Central Florida we are celebrating unprecedented achievements through strong collaborations that reach beyond partisan politics and create a unified community.

It is through partnerships… with our residents, our business community, our faith-based organizations, our arts groups, our tourism industry, and other local governments that I can share with you today…the state of our City is stronger than ever.

Our region is buzzing about what we’ve accomplished together.

Think about what we’ve done…we opened this amazing facility, reconstructed our Orlando Citrus Bowl, secured a Major League Soccer team and broke ground on their Stadium, added eight iconic art sculptures downtown, kicked off SunRail and started planning a Downtown UCF/Valencia Campus.

But the strength of our City is more than shiny buildings . It’s about being named one of the top 10 cities of the future, being one of the nation’s happiest cities in which to work and being the friendliest city in Florida for small business.

It isn’t just small business thriving here, some of the world’s most recognizable companies are choosing to call Orlando home. This is a direct result of our community following through on our vision to provide world-class amenities. We’re now seeing private investment flowing into our city and creating jobs.

JetBlue opened a lodge at the airport where pilots and flight attendants come to get trained
Red Lobster relocated their headquarters to Downtown
Ruby Tuesday is moving their key business operations to our City
The US Tennis Association broke ground on its National Campus, the new Home for American Tennis at Lake Nona
Orlando Health opened their 10-story North Tower
Florida Hospital is getting ready to open their new Women’s Tower at Health Village
International air service has expanded to locations like Dubai, Oslo and Havana
We added more than 2,500 new housing units
And Orlando set the record for the most visitors with 62 million last year…and that spurred Universal Orlando to create 3,500 new jobs for our residents many of which are managerial, high-tech or highly-skilled.

We are building an innovation ecosystem where people can take their business concept from idea to reality. Because the next major company to have a headquarters in Orlando may still be an idea in an entrepreneur’s head.

In the past year, we’ve worked hard to bolster this ecosystem

The Church Street Exchange has gone from vacant to fully leased in one year..home to nearly 70 startups. It has become the living room of our growing tech community.
The Orlando Tech Association continues to build and grow our tech industry…and was just recognized by the White House for having the largest tech-focused Meetup in the southeast.
The City partnered with UCF, Rollins, Canvs and Starter Studio to create a seed fund that will provide critical capital to Orlando’s most promising tech startups.

And our efforts are working…. two Orlando startups, CodeSchool and Pentaho sold for nearly 600 million dollars. Both started from scratch in Orlando and the founders are committed to staying and growing in Orlando.

And it’s not just the past year that our City has been focused on growing this industry. Shortly after I took office, we partnered with the State, UCF and EA to create the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy in the vacant Expo Center. FIEA is now the world’s number two graduate school for game design.

Building off FIEA’s success, we are working with UCF and Valencia to open a downtown campus at the Creative Village that will serve up to 13,000 students. It will open up educational opportunities for ALL of our residents and provide best-in-the-nation training for emerging animation, digital media, communications, film and public affairs.

This campus will change the landscape of Orlando forever.

We created the Orlando Tech Association to build on the success of our Main Streets, the economic engines of our neighborhoods.

And we’re seeing results.

Walk or bike down Corinne, Mills or Edgewater and you can feel the vibrancy throughout our Main Streets and into our neighborhoods. And if you haven’t had a chance to visit, don’t worry you can read about them in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the New Yorker, and even Wine Enthusiast.

Main Streets aren’t just your favorite places to eat or shop, they’re employment anchors for thousands of residents.
We want Orlando to remain one of the best and least expensive places to launch a business.

Now, we’re making it even easier for our contractors and small business owners to do business in Orlando. We’re updating our development software to the latest cutting edge technology to provide easy tools to navigate our planning and permitting process.

There’s a reason Forbes’s recognized Orlando as the number one city in the country for job growth. It’s because we recognize that economic development doesn’t just happen at City Hall, it happens when we listen to what our residents need and work with our private business and not-for-profits to impact our community.

Commissioner Gray has seen this first hand at the Medical City where there’s more than 3 billion dollars and 7 million square feet of construction. The VA, one of Medical City’s original anchor tenants, will open later this year. This strategic growth means more high-quality jobs and now 400,000 veterans will have access to the top-notch healthcare.

To ensure that local residents benefit from this investment, we’ve created the Orlando Medical Careers program, which is an outgrowth from our successful BLUEPRINT program. The BLUEPRINT program has employed more than 3,000 Central Floridians from areas with historically high unemployment rates.

You’ve told me that sustainability is a priority. Together with our partners, including OUC, we developed a community action plan to help us build a sustainable City.

As a government, we’ve been focused on saving money through energy efficiency. And we’ve reduced our energy costs in 24 buildings by 30 percent. And our private sector is following suit, Orlando now has more than 50 LEED Certified or soon to be certified buildings.

To help our businesses go even further, last year we launched a Commercial Food Waste Collection pilot in three locations.. diverting more than 175 thousand pounds of food waste from our landfills.

Our residents are also embracing the opportunities to keep our City green by making improvements to their homes and in their neighborhoods.

Residential recycling participation is up by 10 percent.

We’re working to turn our neighborhoods into EcoDistricts where residents use resources more efficiently, invest in green buildings and facilitate smarter infrastructure and transportation methods. Audubon Park Garden District and Richmond Heights are the first two neighborhoods working on this designation.

Commissioner Sheehan and I brought sustainability efforts to your doorstep when we delivered residential composters. Already we have 1,500 requests for composters that will divert more than 56 tons of food waste each month.

Our community has come together and rallied around sustainability. I can NOW declare that Orlando is the MOST sustainable City in the Southeast.

But one thing is clear when I talk to residents….they want to do more. We want to transform into one of the most sustainable cities in all of America.

Here’s our plan to get there..

Investing in energy retrofits at more than 50 City facilities. And oh by the way, these savings will help pay for nearly half the cost of the new Police Headquarters.
We’re expanding our multi-family recycling and our commercial composting program
Our City fleet will keep getting greener. This means less gas, less emissions and less noise on our streets.
And we are going to increase the amount of trees we have in our City.

A City full of trees provides not just beauty, but health benefits, economic value and makes our City a cooler place to live.

We want each and every resident to plant one new tree. And we’re going to help you do it by kicking off our One Person, One Tree campaign later this year. Accomplishing that goal will increase our tree canopy from 25 percent to 40 percent by 2040.

Part of being a sustainable city is enhancing and expanding our transportation options.

Over the past couple of years, our entire region has collaborated on a plan to make getting around our City easier.

It’s starts with the backbone of our new transit system, SunRail.

On Friday, we will celebrate one year of SunRail. I know it’s a success because people have stopped asking me WHY do we need SunRail and are now asking me WHEN are we going to expand to nights and weekend.

For SunRail to remain successful riders must be able to easily connect to their final destination.

Through a partnership with LYNX, we’ve added a new LYMMO line, extended the original line and we’ll break ground next month on a third.

And Friday, just in time for bike to work day, we’re expanding our bike share program.

Even with just 20 bikes so far, I’m seeing them all over Downtown. As a matter of fact, bike share members have traveled over 2,600 miles, that’s the equivalent of one person riding from Orlando to LA.

Through Orlando Walks, we’ll be adding another 20 plus miles of sidewalks, better connecting our City at more than 150 different sidewalk connections. This adds to the 180 miles of sidewalk that we’ve added since I took office.

And we’re working with our Commissioners to enhance our major transportation corridors.

Commissioner Ings has worked with our tourism partners and residents to overhaul North International Drive, making it easier and safer for all modes of transportation.

And Commissioner Ortiz worked with our Gateway Orlando Market Street to develop the Semoran Boulevard Vision Plan. As a result we’re seeing not just sidewalk and streetscape improvements but more than 22 million dollars in private investment.

In Orlando our roads should be focused on serving people, not just cars. Which is why when we make transportation improvements, we are using the national complete streets model and treating all modes of transportation as equal.

Biking and walking options aren’t just about making it easy to get around, it’s about making our City more livable.

We work every day to make our City more livable for everyone.

This commitment extends to homeless individuals you see on our streets day after day, particularly in our downtown core. Sadly, among these, are men and women who have served our country and who now need our help.

I am proud that as a result of our regional partnerships we have significant community momentum toward the effort to end veteran homelessness.

In 2014, Orlando and Orange County were selected for the VA’s “25 Cities Initiative,” and the Mayor’s Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness.

Recent numbers show that since 2011, Central Florida has seen a 57 percent reduction in total veteran homelessness. But we can do better. Our goal is to end veteran homelessness by the end of this year.

Just like our community partnered on SunRail, the development of Medical City and the Community Venues, our region is working together like never before to end homelessness – both for chronic homeless individuals and homeless families.

Through the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness, we’re modeling the success of cities across the nation with the Housing First model. This approach houses people as quickly as possible and surrounds them with the necessary services to keep them housed.

Thanks in part to Florida Hospital, who made the largest one-time private commitment in our region’s history to end chronic homelessness, our community can hire case managers and provide the essential services needed to keep homeless individuals off the streets.

Everyone deserves a place to call home. Not only is the Housing First approach the right thing to do, it also saves our community money.

It’s a win-win, and together, we can end chronic homelessness in our City.

Our partnerships with our community continue to help us solve tough problems, but they also help us to solve and prevent crime.

I am pleased to report that as Orlando continues to grow, we continue to grow safer.

Crime has gone down six of the last seven years and that equates to nearly a 20 percent decrease since 2007. In 2014, we had the same number of homicides as we did in 1969, and that was with a population of less than 100 thousand people.

This success reflects the excellence of our Police Department, one of the nation’s finest.

In fact, OPDs homicide solve rate is 88 percent, that’s more than 25 percent higher than the national average.

Yes, they solve crimes – But it is what they do to prevent the crimes from ever happening that makes our community safer. Crime reduction efforts focus on outreach, where officers go out into communities and develop relationships with our residents.

They participate in programs like youth basketball leagues, which has helped reduce juvenile crime by 50 percent.

They walk along residential streets, encouraging people to lock their cars and homes, an effort led by Commissioner Stuart, helping to reduce residential burglaries by 27 percent this year.

The cop on the beat still works.

And our new Police Headquarters which is scheduled to open next year will bring OPD even closer to the community. It’s designed to make interacting with our officers easier.

For this kind of community policing to work, there must be mutual respect and trust between officers and residents.

We count on the support of our citizens, and we know our officers must earn your confidence.

I take it very seriously when someone from our Department violates that trust. As most of us are aware, that has happened of late.

And we have responded. Severe disciplinary action has been taken against officers accused of excessive force. One has been terminated and another suspended. Both are facing criminal charges.

We have no qualms about turning over such incidents to FDLE or the State Attorney’s Office for investigation.

We respect and honor our police officers, but we also hold them accountable to the highest professional standards.

We have seen on the national level what happens when divides form between police and communities. It is important that we take proactive measures to ensure that doesn’t happen here.

That’s why I have charged Byron Brooks, our Chief Administrative Officer, who was born and raised in Orlando and has deep community ties, to work with Police Chief John Mina to lead a department and community effort to address these issues. This will include:

Ensuring our officers are equipped with the latest tools and technology to fight crime
Completing a thorough review of our policies
Engaging third parties from UCF to FDLE to ensure accountability and best practices
Launching community outreach programs like the Chief’s Community Leadership Academy
Implementing new and enhanced training programs
And deploying body cams to provide critical evidence in solving crimes, increase transparency and accountability and strengthen trust with the community.

We can’t let the actions of a few taint the reputation of a department that serves this community with compassion and courage every day, under conditions most of us can’t imagine.

I know that our OPD officers support these efforts. And I thank them for the job that they do every day protecting our community.

I’m proud to be mayor of such an inclusive City. Our diversity is our greatest strength.

Our City has festivals and events that celebrate almost every culture in the world.

It’s through initiatives like our HOLA office which offers bilingual services and referrals to Hispanic residents and newcomers, that we are able to serve our diverse residential population.

Being mayor, I get to do a lot of cool things, but one of the more meaningful days since my time in office was marrying 44 same-sex couples at City Hall.

Being an inclusive City is not just the right thing to do, it secures our economic future and makes us a more interesting and dynamic City.

Being a City for Everyone means continuing to be a great place to raise a family. That starts with providing the best education options in the nation.

It’s why our afterschool programs go beyond sports activities and provide mentoring and tutoring
It’s why we work closely with O-C-P-S to build neighborhood schools including our new Parramore Pre-K through eight.
It’s why through our Orlando Cares program we’re increasing youth literacy, providing hands on education opportunities and guiding students to graduation.
And it’s why we launched Stand Up Orlando to help prevent bullying.

Being a City for Everyone means providing our residents access to affordable and safe housing.

Recently the City purchased seven foreclosed apartment complexes in the Lake Sunset, Clear Lake and Mercy Drive Neighborhoods that are vacant and boarded up. Our community has come together and formed a public-private partnership, called LIFT Orlando, to transform these eyesores into safe and attractive housing uplifting all of our west side neighborhoods.

Our heroes deserve affordable housing options too.

Through a partnership with the Florida Real Estate Foundation we will redevelop six lots at Jefferson Park into single family homes for veterans and local law enforcement officers as part of our Heroes’ Commons project. Later today I’ll join Commissioner Hill and break ground on the first home.

Being a City for everyone means adding even more amenities to our neighborhood parks and community centers.

Including

Renovating our neighborhood center computer labs like we did at the Smith Center
Adding a paddleboard and canoe launch at Lake Ivanhoe
Enhancing Loch Haven Cultural Park through new wayfinding, sidewalks and a plaza
Adding an exercise trail around the Park of the Americas
And renovating our playgrounds

There’s one group that’s been barking that Orlando needs to be more dog friendly. And enough is enough, and so this year we’ve opened our first off-leash dog park at the Park of the Americas and we’ll soon add a pop up dog park in downtown.

We’re able to tout these achievements because of the dedicated team working at our City.

A team that fills 90 percent of potholes within 24 hours. A team that handles half a million trash pickups each week…of which 99.98 percent are on time. That’s a heck of a lot better than my success rate when it comes to taking out the trash at home.

When you find those potholes or you have a question about trash pickup, we’re making it easier for you to interact with us. Soon you will be able to use the Orlando Connects app to report issues or ask questions. As a 21st century city, it should be as easy to report a pothole as it is to buy diapers on amazon.

It is through our strong leaders that we continue to look for ways to improve services and become more efficient. Our new Orlando Fire Chief Roderick Williams knows first hand about quality and efficient service.

The number of accreditations our fire department has could probably fill an entire speech. It puts them in the top one percent of fire departments in the entire country.

And they are working with our Police Department on new joint dispatch technology to respond even faster to our residents.

AND we do all of this on sound financial footing. We’ve maintained our triple A credit rating with Fitch, the highest rating available. We can stand with any city in the Country when it comes to being fiscally responsible.

You know….I don’t like to give long speeches, but even with one this long, we’ve struggled to fit every success we’ve had over the past year.

We live in a special city, in a special time and this is because of people like you here today.

I’d specifically like to recognize again our City Council members, our City staff, our partners at Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake Counties, our business and community leaders and our residents. Each and every one of you helps us create a City that is recognized throughout the world.

Our community’s shared vision allows us to work together to get things done. Today, that puts our City at a remarkable point in our history.

But just imagine where we will be next year…or ten years from now. As we shape our City for generations ahead.

I feel my journey here is not yet done. There is so much more that we can accomplish together. My passion for Orlando is larger today than it’s ever been.

It’s for that reason, I’ll be running for another term as your Mayor.

Thank you.

God Bless America.

God Bless the City of Orlando.