After a year marked by new innovations, budget cuts, hot-button issues and a national standoff between the city and a controversial local church, Gainesville has much to look forward to in the upcoming year, Mayor Craig Lowe said in his address Tuesday.
In his first State of the City address, held at the Hippodrome State Theatre, Lowe praised the community for its character and its resilience in the face of what he described as “tough choices.”
“The obstacles of the past year were not easy to overcome,” Lowe said. “But we addressed them head on and moved forward because we are committed to making this city great.”
Some of the toughest challenges facing Gainesville residents involve the tightening budget.
Despite slicing $10 million in spending, the city is projected to run into an $8.3 million deficit for the 2011-12 fiscal budgets.
“It’s safe to say that the low-hanging fruit has been harvested,” Lowe said. “We were left with few choices for balancing the budget and none of them were easy.”
Instead of dwelling on these figures, Lowe spent most of his time propping up his vision of a city saving taxpayers money, pointing to the city’s traffic management system and the upgraded traffic light system as examples, while still funding services and programs, such as afterschool and mentoring programs.
He also hinted that the city may re-examine some of the cuts made in the past year.
One of the issues that is non-negotiable, Lowe said, is the preservation of the Gainesville Police Department.
As talks of consolidation between Gainesville Police Department and the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office heat up, the mayor told the audience where he stood.
“Any attempt to abolish this integral part of our city is an attack on our home rule. In short, we must save GPD,” Lowe said as he was met with cheers and applause.
In regard to what was arguably Gainesville’s most contentious event of the year, the proposed “International Burn a Koran Day“ on Sept. 11 by the Dove World Outreach Center, Lowe praised residents for coming together to combat what he described as “inflammatory rhetoric.”
“When the eyes of the world were upon us,” Lowe said, “You, the citizens, expressed our city’s true character.”
Lowe also spent a good chunk of his 22-minute address discussing future plans like the development of Innovation Square, a project involving UF, the implementation of a bus rapid transit system in Gainesville and the continued battle to clean up the Superfund site.
While he acknowledged a sense of uncertainty for the upcoming year given the calls from the governor’s office and the state legislature for an adherence to stricter fiscal policy, Lowe remains optimistic for Gainesville’s future.
“We have faced the challenges of the past year head on and moved Gainesville forward through innovative thinking and proven strategies gathered from across the nation,” Lowe said. “But the successes we have engineered, even in light of these difficult times, are not the pinnacle of our city’s potential.”
