City of Bloomington, Indiana VIDEO UPDATES with Mayor Hamilton, 9 Mar 2023

Previous Meeting Next Meeting

⏯

youtube image

►

From YouTube: VIDEO UPDATE: State of the City Recap

Description

Join Mayor John Hamilton and Deputy Mayor Mary Catherine Carmichael as they discuss the State of the City event held on February 23 at the Waldron Arts Center.

Mayor Hamilton's eighth State of the City Address featured three main sections: reflecting on the last seven years of accomplishments and thanking staff, priorities and projects still to come in 2023, and imagining Bloomington in 2030 and the opportunities/challenges ahead.

Since 2016, the Hamilton Administration, in collaboration with City Council and the community, has helped coordinate an unprecedented series of advancements in Bloomington and has been noted or awarded for various city strengths. Visit https://bton.in/8vYDQ for a list of selected accomplishments.

Access Mayor Hamilton's entire State of the City remarks, slide presentation, and a video of the complete program provided by CATS at: https://bton.in/0LY8n

------------------------
Each week, Mayor Hamilton, Deputy Mayor Carmichael, and other city employees provide video updates on recent news and key initiatives. Access all of the weekly video updates at bloomington.in.gov/videoupdates.

A

A

Hamilton and.

B

I'm deputy mayor Mary, Catherine Carmichael recently, we did I can't even believe these words are leaving my mouth, the eighth state of the city since you've been mayor. We.

A

Did Bloomington we've seen eight years now of reporting on things, and it was a big night really fun. We did it at the Waldron this time, the first time ever and and it really was kind of three separate things. The first was part. Thank you and part.

A

Look back, I mean we have 16 cabinet department, heads who just do fantastic work and I wanted to really highlight them and brought them each up to the stage and thanked them and- and you know, in kind of Rapid, Fire talked about there's just too much to talk about all the public safety work, the jobs, the housing, the quality of life climate all that stuff, but that was a really fun celebration.

B

It was fun and we haven't done anything like that before, so it made this night kind of unique. So that was a neat.

A

Thing there was even a soundtrack for.

B

A

Then the second thing was really in that that first one by the way we said our city is doing great, we're in a really strong position. The state of the city is strong, financially the prospects and all then I talked a little bit about 2023 itself. What's coming, we know we have 32 million dollars of Public Safety Investments, that's a big deal coming for our new police headquarters and fire facilities Etc.

A

We know we've got fiber coming it's being built right now, all through the city miles and miles of fiber coming in and that's going to really change our city and 23 should be a big Landmark for that we have a a new 501c3, a new non-profit, that's going to be helping us move forward with hope well and all that development, and then I also made a new announcement that we're looking at a major waste to energy facility at our wastewater treatment, plant yeah.

B

Pretty unique too.

A

It's unusual and it would be, we don't know for sure if it can work, we'll be doing some more in the coming weeks, but 2023 will be busy with all of that, going on and more yeah and then the last piece I kind of took the liberty of trying to imagine Bloomington in 2030.

B

Tried to inspire time well.

A

I'll give you credit for that. Thank you, I try, I, don't know anyway, um but so I really talked about four big challenges and opportunities and how you know I mean I've been in the seat. It's the cities, it's hard to change sometimes, but it's really important to change, and one of them was about climate, just being a climate leader that we're going to have to do it, the state's not going to do it.

A

uh We have the capacity to do it, I kind of imagine what, if we had the best public transit system in any small city in America, we're on our way there, but what what would it mean and that's, of course, just part of climate, but we're investing in that? The second was really leaning into the job growth and the new economy and how we can work with Indiana University and our Workforce and Education and Training, and all the quality of life that is driven by that too.

A

The third thing was talking about housing, and it is you know in a way it's thinking about what we've seen on both coasts. Those who've been familiar, seeing how cities just get stuck because it is so expensive and what we can do to.

B

Make that better and.

A

I really challenged us to think about making a room for a 30 growth in our population, with housing to make room for people.

B

So everybody can live here. Yeah, that's a continuing challenge for our community. It.

A

Is huge but- and we see not, how not to do it I think in some ways so we're working on and then the last thing I talked about were two areas that are not really the city's responsibility but really important to us to.

B

A

The city, if they affect all of us in the city, public health and the criminal justice system and.

B

um Very connected now.

A

They really are we're not where we ought to be on that. We have resources at the county level. So I talked about the importance of.

B

That right right, you know we shouldn't wrap this up before we thank our hosts at the Waldron Art Center they've done such a beautiful job put made such an investment in that building constellation stage and screen has has just been a terrific partner to work with we still own the city of Bloomington by we I mean.

A

The residents of Bloomington.

B

Still own that building but they're doing a lovely job of operating it they've got the galleries up and running, and it's a neat space.

A

It's a great space and we also had high school poets and we had pianists and Linus and opera singers, who made it a really beautiful. It's.

B

An art center: yes, you.

A

Had to include.

B

A

There's a lot of detail: if you want to watch the whole speech or read parts of it, you can any part of it. You can get that online and thanks for all of what you do paying attention to it and I hope you find it. Educational yep.

B

Right, thanks for watching I'm, Mary, Catherine Carmichael.

A

Mayor John Hamilton.