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Buttigieg touts city's 'momentum' in state of city address

South Bend Tribune - 3/14/2018

March 14--SOUTH BEND -- In his annual State of the City address Tuesday night, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said the city's "momentum right now is extraordinary. We have a lot to celebrate, and we have our work cut out for us."

Giving the speech in the John Adams High School auditorium, Buttigieg began with the most recent challenge to the roughly 1,000 city employees who make up his administration: Responding to rainfall and snow melt that drove the St. Joseph River 7 feet about flood stage, a 500-year flood by some measures. Recalling flooding on the city's south side in 2016, Buttigieg said he now considers it "probable" that increased rainfall in the area, "as predicted for decades by climate scientists, is potentially here to stay."

"For South Bend, climate issues are no longer a political football," he said. "They are an on-the-ground reality we will need to plan for, even if it means changing some of our assumptions about land use and disaster preparedness."

Buttigieg broke the rest of his hour-long speech, which spanned 36 pages, down into subject areas that included safety and health, infrastructure, the economy, quality of place, neighborhoods, finances, inclusion, sustainability, national outlook and "our future."

Regarding safety, the mayor said the city's police and fire departments are making strides toward hiring more women and minorities. "Overall major crime" fell by about 1 percent compared to the prior year, but there have been an "unacceptable" number of violent crimes, including "three heartbreaking deaths of teenagers this year, a rise consistent with recent national trends."

Buttigieg said he continues to have faith in his Gang Violence Initiative, a program entering its fifth year that seeks to intervene in disputes and prevent revenge-motivated violence. The majority of people engaged through the effort have gone on to stay out of trouble, but the program must continue reaching new people, and the city this year has added street outreach workers "who can help connect people to services and break cycles of violence and retribution."

In infrastructure, Buttigieg highlighted completion of his signature endeavor downtown, "Smart Streets,'' the $21 million project that has returned one-way streets to two-way traffic and made them more narrow. The more pedestrian-friendly environment has sparked more than $90 million in private investment downtown, including the renovation of existing buildings and the construction of new apartment buildings and hotels.

"I confess to a one- to two-minute increase in the time it takes to get from one end of the city to another," he said. "We think it's worth it."

Common Council President Tim Scott afterward said he was pleased with the speech and Buttigieg's achievements after six years as mayor. Scott said he particularly liked hearing that the city this year plans to install WiFi beacons along the Lincoln Way West and Western Avenue corridors. Council vice-president Oliver Davis agreed, saying he liked to hear that the city's unemployment rate has dropped to around 3 percent, and that it seems that all parts of the city are sharing in the city's progress.

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(c)2018 the South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Ind.)

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