Brown's State of the City Address

On February 16 Mayor Brown issued his annual state of the city address. Here is what he had to say. "

Thank you for attending the 2011 State of the City address.

Please join me in thanking the East High Panthers Vocal Ensemble,  Dashuri Egriu for her beautiful singing of our National Anthem, Sister Denise Roche for her inspiring Invocation, Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld for blessing our meal and Reverend Dr. James Lewis who will conclude today’s State of the City Address with the Benediction.

I also want to recognize my wife Michelle and our family members who are here.  Thank you for your love and support.  This job often requires a great deal of time away from my loved ones and I could not do it without them.

Last week, I visited Washington and Albany and I communicated a clear message directly to President Obama and the New York State Legislature – the City of Buffalo, like cities across our state, has been affected by the national recession and the state’s fiscal crisis, but we recognize that we must do our part to help improve the health of our city, state and nation.

Therefore, despite these external national and state pressures, I am here today to say that the City of Buffalo remains fiscally sound and well positioned for greater investment and job growth in the future.

We cannot, however, avoid the reality of our time and environment.

Since the beginning of the state’s fiscal crisis in 2008, the City of Buffalo has lost over $43 million in state aid.

At the same time, expenses beyond our control continue to rise. For example, city health care and pension costs continue to grow.

Yet, we have maintained our “A” credit rating, while at the same time are making progress thanks to our conservative budgeting and creative fiscal management practices.

Since 2006, we have reduced the city’s property tax rate by almost 15%. In a time of rising costs, I will create property tax certainty for both residents and businesses by pledging not to raise the tax rate for the next three years.  And, I will go one step further by changing the city’s assessment practices by ending the yearly revaluation of property. Therefore, the city property tax bill you receive this July will remain substantially the same in 2012 and 2013.

While we recognize the need to tighten our belts, through these types of initiatives we have created a city environment poised for greater investment in key projects that add jobs to our city’s economy, strengthen our tax base and position us for greater economic development.

Our $2 million commitment leveraged a $10 million investment for the new Galvstar steel mill in the formerly abandoned American Axle plant, will produce 50 jobs initially and will grow to as many as 120 jobs.  Working with Erie County Executive Chris Collins and Erie County Legislature Chair Barbara Miller-Williams, the city’s and county’s allocation of federal stimulus dollars is making this project a reality.  This is an example of partners in government working together across the aisle.

Recently, Rich Products Corporation entered into an agreement with Massachusetts-based Island Oasis, which will result in the creation of 90 new manufacturing jobs in Rich Product’s Niagara Street facility on Buffalo’s West Side.

And Western New York Immediate Care plans to demolish the Gallagher Printing building on Delaware Avenue in North Buffalo and replace it with an over $3 million state-of-the-art urgent care facility that will employ 28 people.  I would like to thank Dr. Gregory Daniel for his investment in Buffalo.

We have had other successes in recent years; exciting developments in and around the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, attracting new tenants to the redeveloped brownfields of the Buffalo Lakeside Commerce Park, continuing investment and development in the growing Larkin District and attracting new businesses into the city like TVGA Associates, a multi-faceted engineering firm.

Edward Schiller, President of TVGA is with us today and I want to thank him for his faith in Buffalo and for bringing 50 employees to the 600- block of Main Street.

In addition to moving its corporate headquarters and hundreds of jobs into Buffalo two years ago, First Niagara Bank under John Koelmel also contributed $1.5 million, along with the city’s $200,000 investment, for the Larkin District streetscape improvements last year.

I believe these types of successes in Buffalo contributed to my appointment to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Council of Economic and Fiscal Advisers. I am honored to represent Buffalo on this committee; we recently met in New York City and laid the groundwork for future economic development.

To further ensure the continued viability and competitiveness of downtown, I recently asked the Buffalo Niagara Partnership to oversee a process to evaluate the reuse of downtown buildings.

Known as the Buffalo Building Reuse Project, it will bring together many experienced stakeholders in Buffalo’s downtown community who have agreed to volunteer their time to this effort, which will help us develop strategies to make downtown buildings more competitive.

I want to thank the Partnership’s Board Chairman Jon Dandes and its President and CEO Andrew Rudnick for their cooperation and support of this important initiative.

The Buffalo Building Reuse process underscores my strong commitment to keeping HSBC Bank and its 4,000 employees in downtown. My preference has always been to keep HSBC in its current location, however, working with the Common Council, especially Majority Leader Richard Fontana, we showed our responsiveness to business in Buffalo by giving HSBC the flexibility to make its best business decision.

The City of Buffalo possesses excellent examples of the work of our nation’s most respected architects.

The Statler Towers is surely one of downtown’s most iconic structures and it occupies an important location on Buffalo’s historic Niagara Square.

Abandoned, it reflects an era gone by and it reinforces our need to focus on the redevelopment of downtown buildings.

I want to acknowledge Mark Croce, the leading force behind Statler City LLC, who has worked so hard to line up support and save the Statler for future development opportunities.

By waving city claims of back debt on the building, I have paved the way to revitalize the Statler Towers.  Today I am pleased to announce my commitment of $5.3 million upon approval of a comprehensive development plan that will ultimately preserve the Statler Towers.

As with the investments we have made on economic development projects, I know that in order to continue to grow our city, we must further invest in our neighborhoods.

Our $2.4 million city investment helped leverage an additional $13.6 million in the St. Martin Village redevelopment project, championed by Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples, that will transform a once blighted and abandoned group of buildings on the city’s East Side into a new 60-unit residential development, providing safe and affordable housing to Buffalo’s citizens. This is similar to our nearly $1 million investment last year in the $8.2 million Holy Family senior housing development project in South Buffalo.

In the Riverside section of the city, the $21.3 million renovation of School 60, which includes a $1 million city investment, will transform this vacant school building into a modernized, state-of-the-art residential property for our military veterans, providing them with the type of living conditions they deserve and creating 20 new, permanent jobs.

I want to thank North District Councilmember Joe Golombek for his leadership and vision on this excellent project.

R&P Oak Hill Development has led the redevelopment of St. Martin Village and the renovation of School 60 and I thank them, including the firm’s partner Gary Bichler, who is with us today, for their innovative approach to the adaptive reuse of the buildings in both of these projects.

In North Buffalo, the Colvin Estates project, with a city investment of close to $1 million, is planned to ultimately bring 126 new market rate homes to North Buffalo on a parcel of land that was once a railroad line.

We will also invest $2.7 million to the East Side development project, led by Pastor Michael Chapman and the St. John Fruit Belt Development Corporation, which will be a catalyst for economic development and improve the quality of life for the residents of the Fruit Belt neighborhood.

A key component to our economic development and housing initiatives has been my commitment to public safety.

Crime overall continues to decline in Buffalo, with violent crime dropping 8% this past year versus 2009 and overall crime declining 11.4% since I became Mayor.
 
We have achieved this through the hard work and dedication of the men and women and leadership of the Buffalo Police Department.   We’ve  further reduced crime by adding more police officers since I became Mayor, establishing a new housing police unit, increasing foot and bicycle patrols, implementing a new Violent Crime Task Force and expanding the highly successful surveillance camera system throughout the city.

This past year Buffalo Police seized 859 illegal guns, bringing the total to over 7,000 guns removed from city streets since I took office in 2006. My message to drug dealers and other criminals is very clear: find a new line of work or go to jail.

And, I’m pleased that the D-District police station on Hertel Avenue formally reopened yesterday. The city’s investment of $750,000 to clean and renovate D-District and upgrade its technology is one of many capital improvements we are making across Buffalo to city-owned buildings.

This past year, through the outstanding efforts of the Buffalo Fire Department, the rate of arson fires is down and arson related arrests are up.  These trends continue our 5-year pattern of arrests being up and arson fires being down and reflects my administration’s pledge to step-up arson-related investigations and demolish vacant, blighted structures.

And I continue to strengthen manpower of both our Fire and Police Departments by adding a new class of 35 firefighters this year and a class of 43 new police officers early next year, which will bring a total of 108 new firefighters and 169 new police officers put on Buffalo’s streets since I took office.

The new public safety personnel will enhance our residents overall quality of life and I will continue to invest in other city assets that support these efforts.

With the successful transfer of city parks back to Buffalo from Erie County, we have in place a new operating agreement between the city and the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy. My administration is investing in a $1.6 million citywide park playground equipment upgrade program. This represents the largest investment specifically for playground equipment in 20 years.

In addition, we will initially invest $750,000 for improvements to Broderick Park, which was designated this year by the National Park Service as a part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. It is my intention to continue to invest in this location and I am confident it can be developed into a cultural attraction that will draw visitors from around the country.

Additional city park investments included the $3 million reconstruction of Centennial Pool, which was reopened in 2010 after being closed for 7 years, providing a much improved recreational experience for over 14,000 users this past summer.

Going forward, we have scheduled over $2 million for improvements throughout all city parks, including: upgraded basketball courts, shelters, pathways, fencing and security lighting. Between 2009 and 2011, we will have increased our commitment to city parks with an investment of $7.4 million.

Let me assure you that although we have experienced difficult fiscal challenges, my administration remains focused on doing the things that will make Buffalo a stronger, more vibrant city.

We have faced our challenges and remain focused on our core principles of improving quality of life, reducing crime and making city government more efficient and accountable. We have established and maintained a strong financial foundation, while making the necessary preparations for continued investment, economic development and job growth.

Buffalo is headed in the right direction.

We will maintain this positive course and continue to move forward together for a better future for generations to come.

Thank You!