City of Oklahoma City Mayor & Council, 19 Jan 2018

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From YouTube: Oklahoma City - 2018 State of the City

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Mayor Mick Cornett made his final State of the City address on Thursday at the Cox Convention Center, addressing the successes and challenges during his 14 years as Mayor and for Oklahoma City’s future.

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Thank you for coming today on behalf of your city. Thank you and happy russell.

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Westbrook day, how about that you have filled the room and for the 14th and.

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Final time I will be giving the state of the city address.

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As many of you know, this is an annual chamber of commerce event, which gives me.

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The chance to thank them for this incredible relationship, they've had with.

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The city, and especially over these last 14 years, we have worked on the front.

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Lines on so many different tasks, I'm trying to increase the number of jobs.

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Trying to diversify the economy, fighting for a pro-business environment.

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That could help us attract and grow businesses. What I would like is for.

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Everyone who's on the chamber's board of directors or on the staff of the chamber.

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Would you please stand so we can show our appreciation to all the chamber. Does.

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Please stand right now, let's show our appreciation. Thank you.

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Roy and rhonda and everybody's standing. Thank you very much.

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And over at city hall, I am fortunate to work with a great city council and.

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Several members of the city council are here today if they would stand and.

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Remain standing as I call their name in all, there are eight individuals who give.

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Generously of their time and expertise, james greiner, representing ward, one ed.

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Shadid ward, 2-, larry, mcatee ward, 3 todd stone is in ward, 4.

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David greenwell is from ward 5 meg salyer, representing ward 6.

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John pettis is ward 7 and mark stonecipher is ward. 8 now remain.

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Standing I'd like the rest of the people, I work with at city hall, with jim couch and the rest of our city, employees that are.

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Here today, would you please stand along with the council hold on hold on just.

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Second, and now would anyone who serves on a city, commission or an advisory board.

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Or an oversight board or one of our trust, would you please stand and then.

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The rest of us can show our appreciation by applauding our council, our city staff.

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Our community volunteers, with one big round of applause,.

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Down front over here to the left, I want to recognize my family. Terry, is here.

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Along with my three boys and my three daughters-in-law they're all here, and I.

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Must say of all the thank-yous that are gonna come out of my mouth over the last.

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Two or three months, none are more sincere than for you all. Thank you and.

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My grandchildren three of them, are here as ronda mentioned, seventh generation.

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Oklahomans, let's first meet lace, lilly and macy. Would you two please stand and.

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Wave, yeah and- and I want you to meet five-year-old fern she's, making her.

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State of the city address debut today stand up fern, where everybody can see.

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You it's a big room, fern, please thank you for helping me, recognize them and.

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For all their support there, those girls are growing up in a great city and thank.

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You to everyone here for helping to create it for them no city in the.

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Country has come as far as this one and if you find yourself looking around the.

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Room today and saying to yourself who are all these people, it is not your.

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Imagination, we have a lot of people moving into the city we've a little.

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Young people that go off to college and then they move back and they're bringing their friends now I'll. Take you back in the 2000 census. We had about 500,000.

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People inside the city limits today we're at about 650,000 and the metro.

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Area is also reaching a new milestone. Kind of depends on how you define the.

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Metro area, but we're now at about 1.5 million people and while we're gaining.

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People we're also raising the standards, we're raising the expectations of what.

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We expect of ourselves, you know I remember soon after I was elected in in.

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2004 I was invited back to the very grade school that I had attended.

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Coronado elementary over at 58th and portland, now at the time we were just.

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Finishing the maps projects that final project was the downtown library and we.

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Gathered around we held a celebration complete with.

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Balloons park avenue has never seen such a since.

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A wild time, it was a big deal, I mean finishing maps- was a big deal anyway.

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A few days later, I'm back in my grade school and a fourth grader.

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Walks up to me and she says, mayor cornett, I saw you on television, the.

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Other day and there were balloons released and everyone was cheering, and I.

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Immediately knew that she was talking about the maps celebration well, she's.

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Just nine years old, so I took the time to explain to her that we had just.

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Finished this this very long initiative we built a new sports arena and a new.

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Ballpark and we built a canal in bricktown and we improved the.

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Fairgrounds and we worked on the civic center and the convention center and.

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We're building a better city for you and your friends to grow up in and she.

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Politely had waited till I finish, and then she said mayor cornett were those.

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Balloons biodegradable she had high standards and and really higher.

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Standards is the best way to describe the ascension of oklahoma city. It's.

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Higher standards for public buildings and sports venues, you see all of that in.

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Maps and maps for kids and maps three: we have higher standards for public safety.

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Which you see with our commitment to hire additional police officers and.

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Firefighters, we have a new police station on line. We have new fire.

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Stations coming next month, we'll complete the process and have body.

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Cameras for every police officer in the field, major improvements that the.

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Fairgrounds, our recently new they're driving economic development impact at.

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Improving our experience at the great state, fair of oklahoma, we have better.

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Parks, better programming, more things to do when you get to the parts they're.

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Places that you want to spend the day and of course we have better streets.

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They're built around the needs of people, not necessarily the needs of cars. This.

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Transformation started with project 180, but it continues today with the new.

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Boulevard and then the largest street resurfacing project in the nation built.

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Over the next two years, sidewalks hundreds of miles of sidewalks that are.

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Connecting neighborhoods with school neighborhoods with shopping.

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Neighborhoods with restaurants, we're building biking and jogging trails.

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Funding now in place to exceed one hundred miles of trails in our.

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Comprehensive system the newest will be the will rogers trail. It's going to.

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Connect the oklahoma river with lake hefner and then next, the third maps.

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Three trail will start in southeast oklahoma city and it will encircle lake.

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Draper, of course, you're well aware about the senior health and wellness centers. That really is our generations recognition.

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That the baby boomers are gonna be around a long long time. We need them to.

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Be healthier than any generation before the first center opened up northwest it.

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Is a huge success? The next will open up in april in capitol hill and, of course,.

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We've made more improvements on the river, it has become the home of the best.

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Canoe, kayaking and rowing in the world, we have a nationally recognized transit.

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System with newer buses, cleaner buses, a third of our buses, now run on cng and.

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The system is reaching more people than ever before.

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Last year, the oklahoma city zoo had the busiest year ever more than 1 million.

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Visitors and we broke ground on the new sanctuary. Asia exhibit a 7 acre.

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Expansion that will be home to asian elephants, indian rhinos, red pandas.

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Komodo dragons and more now it doesn't open till july, but I got them to let us.

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Have the video that they're gonna show to introduce it to the rest of the world.

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So it's making its debut right now.

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All right coming to the zoo, sanctuary, asia, now there's a picture there of our.

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New court building- you know our court system is becoming a statewide model in.

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Reducing incarceration a person shouldn't be in jail just because.

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They're poor, our numbers are down 30%, it's providing real relief at an area.

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Where we need help our animal welfare department working.

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Along with the private sector has become a national model and of course it's at.

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City hall, we're all about urban planning with unprecedented citizen involvement.

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We have a fairly new modern, comprehensive plan. That's gonna allow us.

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To better plan prepare for the even faster changes that are heading our way.

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And all in all, I think everyone appreciates the process and is glad that.

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We've got that plan under our belt all right, let's, let's focus for a second.

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On 2017, let's see what else happened last year, let's oh yeah, there was an.

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Eclipse, I think I had a sore neck for like two days and one of our millennials.

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Had a really good year, russell westbrook named the most valuable player in the.

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National basketball association! How about that.

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And that, along with a few million dollars, inspired a couple of other.

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Millennials to move here squad goals and before you know it they're all smiling.

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We also had a lot of ground breakings and ribbon cuttings in the year and two.

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Of them in particular, are going to reshape the way that we look and think about oklahoma city and, of course, the streetcar project had its groundbreaking.

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And is now under construction. That's not much of a secret because it's.

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Created quite a bit of havoc for you perhaps on your way down here today, but.

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The cars will be arriving next month. The maintenance facility also just about.

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Completed and the entire system should be running in less than a year and as.

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You know we began work on the maps three park. This was one of the first projects.

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I got to work on in the summer of 2004 as we begin to plan for the relocation.

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Of I-40 and the opportunities that would be created because of that relocation.

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Now, at the groundbreaking we announced the name of the park and that's not an.

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Easy name to spell, and it took the kids a little while to get in the proper.

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Order but scissortail park is that the name of.

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The park, and eventually we got it all handled alright, let's talk about jobs.

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Now, since I first got elected we've added about 100,000 new jobs and about a.

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Hundred and fifty thousand people, which I guess means we got about 50,000 people.

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That are just kind of hanging out somewhere, but the good news is, they have.

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Someplace to go and there's a lot to do around here, we've seen an explosion in.

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New housing and new hotels and many of our neighborhoods have been revitalized.

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Let's take a look at a few before and after pictures see if you can recognize.

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Some of these places- this is the plaza district before and this is it today.

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Remember what midtown looked like a few years ago.

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There you go, and today up north more of midtown chisolm creek more of midtown.

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Okay, though that was yeah that was 23rd street uptown and there's chisolm creek.

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Before and after amazing development, okay, one more east bricktown before and.

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Now and thanks to gary brooks the first national building, the most impressive.

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Skyscraper to rise in oklahoma city in the 1930s is undergoing an amazing.

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Transformation in the heart of our central business district, it's an.

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Enormously important project- and I know we all can't wait till the first.

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National comes online, the skydance bridge has forever changed a visitors.

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Impact on oklahoma city, the millions of people that pass on I-40 loves, seeing.

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The skydance bridge and the different lights that illuminate the sky and the.

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Land run, sculptures, keep getting better and better. The final few pieces are just.

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Around the corner, my thanks to artist paul moore for creating such an.

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Unforgettable place and we could go on and on about how oklahoma city has.

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Changed but the truth is, as we know it, not. Every neighborhood is better, not.

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Every adult, not every kid, is better off and we can talk in big-picture.

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Perspectives about how far the city's come and we can nod our collective heads.

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And collective amazement about all of the good things that have occurred. But.

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It is a common urban story that no matter how much economic success a.

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Community enjoys no city ever becomes problem-free, no city is ever totally.

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Successful at addressing that intersection between poverty and.

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Homelessness and mental illness, and it doesn't mean we haven't, tried and it.

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Certainly doesn't mean we don't give up, and I want to highlight some of the.

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Philanthropic efforts that have been made to address our social needs because.

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They've been extraordinary, we have so many faith-based organizations creating.

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Efforts to help improve lives- and you know it's counterintuitive, but I've seen.

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It in cities across the nation, the more a local economy, succeeds the more its.

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Social needs increase and in this community we have so many efforts that I.

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Want to draw attention to just a few. First of all, the family justice center.

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Known as palomar is working on domestic violence, the homeless alliance is.

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Working to end long-term homelessness in oklahoma city.

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And heartline is working on suicide prevention, helping on others that are.

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Facing an immediate crisis and there's so many more, let me let me see what we.

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Can come up with you? There's catholic charities curbside chronicle a chance to.

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Change the red cross, the ywca in the ymca infant crisis center, the salvation.

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Army, big brothers, big sisters, boys and girls, club dale, rogers, training, center new view, oklahoma goodwill, north care, the lcda.

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Positive: tomorrow's reemerge sunbeam family services teem upward transitions, urban.

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League variety care first tee first serve and, of course, the united way, and I.

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Know many people in this room are involved in one of those agencies giving.

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Of your time, giving of your resources, how about a collective round of applause.

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For all of those that are doing so much.

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As for education across our 24 school districts, you see a wide range of.

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Strategies and a wide range of outcomes. You see a wide range of student.

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Engagement but overall, when you look at it and step back, it's the inconsistency.

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That, I think, is the biggest problem we face. We have some of the top performing.

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High schools in the country- and we have some of the lowest performing schools in.

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The state we have it all in the same community.

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One thing is clear: that we concentrate a lot on education and we should it's for.

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A kid a good school can mean a great life. Success is about inspiration and.

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Motivation with a real-world curriculum that is intellectually challenging. We.

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Need parental involvement. We need genuine accountability, but we.

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Know that education is a shared responsibility, there's a role for all.

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Levels of government there's a role for the business community. We have to.

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Produce graduates with problem solving critical thinking, skills who are.

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Prepared for college and career and real life and to get there we're going to.

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Need a higher level of thinking. We've also got to understand that a person's.

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Education should not end when they're in their 20s. The world is changing too fast.

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Part of the answer is about more people tapping into our career-tech and our.

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Higher ed system, overall, it's about raising the standards it's about.

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Changing the culture and addressing the inefficiencies and understanding that.

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For too many kids, the current system is not working and our current level of.

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Thinking is not going to get us there as soon as possible. We need to get our.

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Teachers, up to the regional average stem teachers need to be paid more, but more.

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Than ever, it's important in today's society you've got to have education.

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Excellence everywhere- and this could be one of the leaders.

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Alright, now, let's talk about jobs and particularly this community's ability to.

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Create jobs there's my two youngest granddaughters fern and penny. They were.

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Over at the donut shop apparently got hired while they were in line, but you.

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Can never start too young. Thank you, girls that cornett work ethic on display.

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Our unemployment rate down to 3.3 percent and you might think job creators.

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Are having trouble filling positions here, but for the most part it appears.

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People are moving into the city as fast as jobs are being created. There's a lot.

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Of isolated issues with training and getting people to the right skills, we do.

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Have an issue with some people being underemployed, but jobs are being created.

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Very quickly, and it seems like it's less and less of an issue- the city has done a.

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Really good job of diversifying its workforce, we are still known for energy.

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Jobs and corporate headquarters in the energy industry, but energy is now down.

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To 3% of our workforce, much of our growth, much of that success is in.

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Aviation tinker has just added 200, more.

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Scientists and engineers and the tech industry is taking off right before our.

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Eyes star space 46 is a tech incubator.

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Located near film row, it has nurtured, startups and watch small businesses take.

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Off they announced last week that they're doubling their space and the.

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Tech growth is, of course, not limited to startups paycom spears, new technologies.

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Boeing northrop grumman I could go on and on tinker now has 1,500 tech professionals on campus and they're gonna hire 200.

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More this year, I've been mayor for 14 years, and I've been saying it for 14.

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Years it skills are in very high demand and so are a lot of other technical.

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Degrees and skills, but at the end of the day it's it's about. How are we doing how.

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Are we comparing and wallet hub recently made a list of the top 10 large cities.

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In the united states to start a business, so if you're from any of these place,.

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Feel free to applaud for your hometown number. Ten sioux falls south dakota, okay,.

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I didn't hear anybody amarillo, texas, number, nine, all right, austin, texas,.

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Number eight st. louis number, seven durham, north carolina's number, six grand.

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Rapids michigan number five tulsa oklahoma number, four there's a few of.

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Splatterings of applause charlotte north carolina number, three salt lake.

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City number: two: I wonder: what, with the number one large city in the u.s. to.

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Start a business be its oklahoma city. All right, that's a good list. I want to.

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Spend a couple of minutes discussing the arts in our community, because the arts.

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Affect all of us in so many ways and the power of the arts is currently on.

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Display at the oklahoma city, museum of art, if you've not been in the last few.

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Months, you need to go to powerful, exhibits right now, master, strokes.

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Featuring the dutch and flemish drawings from the golden age and the art of.

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Oklahoma featuring art- that's by or about our state, and course art crosses.

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Over our efforts into education and enlightenment- and it was a big year for.

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Allied arts there was a national competition that was styled after the.

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Ncaa basketball tournament: it was called brackets for good and sixty-four.

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Nonprofits across the country entered an allied arts one at all, and they brought.

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Home a big check and it helped them reach their yearly fundraising goal of.

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Three million dollars their 2018 campaign kicks off tonight and I'm sure.

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You're gonna hear some more about opportunities to help. There's volunteers.

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In the arts, of course, opening night the arts festival the memorial marathon.

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Thank you to all those who volunteer to make those arts events possible. We've.

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Seen a lot of success, we've seen a lot of efforts to create jobs and growing.

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The economy, diversifying the economy, all of those efforts are paying off.

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One thing I want to concentrate on in our effort at city hall is: we've never.

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Been in a better position to fund our priorities in public safety, 1,100 police.

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Officers within the next few weeks, every single officer on the streets is going.

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To be wearing a body, camera we've added, even more fire stations and firefighters.

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To address our city's needs they're getting the tools they need. The first.

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Responders are well supported by the taxpayers and in public works, as I.

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Mentioned earlier, we're embarking on what I believe is the largest street.

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Resurfacing project in the united states we're also more involved in the health.

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Of our community than we ever have been before the physical improvements to the.

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Built environment, the sidewalks, the jogging and biking paths, the senior.

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Wellness centers, all of that changing the level of health and wellness in our.

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Community, the oklahoma city county board of health recently completed a.

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Community-Wide assessment on our community's health and, of course, we.

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Still have a long way to go, but they measured 15 different categories on.

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Health and we were improving in 13 of the 15, including heart disease and.

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Strokes and infant mortality and a lot of other really important indicators all.

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Of that is really good news. We need to continue to make health a priority in.

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Our city in our state and yeah, please applaud to that one.

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If you think the last five years have been remarkable, just hang on the next.

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Five years are going to be even more dramatic, keep in mind. We currently have.

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The three largest maps, three projects, the street car the park and the.

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Convention center coming online omni hotels of dallas is investing 150.

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Million dollars, odot's finishing the boulevard, all.

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Combined, that's over a half a billion dollars that are being invested in your.

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City and of course, we never quit planning, we are in the early stages of.

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Upgrading our route 66 corridor and to do that we're inviting the cities of.

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Bethany and yukon and war acres, and as well as the chickasaw nation to join us.

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In an effort to make that a more memorable corridor, I still have a couple.

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Of months on the job to go still working on a few projects. But for many of us.

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It's probably gonna be the last time I have a chance to thank you in person, so.

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Thank you for coming to this event today and if you've come in previous years,.

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Thank you for those attendance as well. Your support means a lot. I have come to.

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Learn that the people that come to the state of the city address are turning.

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Into our best ambassadors, because when I travel around, I hear so many nice things.

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Said about us, and people will quote something that I remember that I said at.

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A state of the city address and I'll remember that our ambassadors are out.

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There talking about the city talking about all the good things that positive.

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Energy is very, very important to our our statewide image, so please keep it up. I.

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Have been fortunate to build a special relationship over these years with the.

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Chamber when I was first elected, I guess the chair was fred hall, then larry.

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Nichols david thompson, carl edwards, pete, delaney, david rainbolt and now rhonda.

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Hooper and obviously this community could not have accomplished nearly as.

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Much without each of you and I want to thank the board of directors, specifically a special shout-out to tom mcdaniel tom. Thank you so much for your.

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Oversight on the maps three projects when I was first elected roy williams,.

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Was also fairly new to his role as the president and ceo of the chamber. What a.

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Remarkable run, roy's had you, you may not know it, but.

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Probably suspect it, but roy is known across the country for this chamber's.

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Accomplishments and I've had the good fortune to visiting with mayors and.

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Chamber leadership from coast-to-coast: this is the best chamber of commerce.

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We have worked together on almost all of the major projects bringing the nba to.

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Town horse shows maps three tinker air force base, education, bond issues.

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Economic development efforts and then jobs, jobs, jobs before I let you all get.

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Back to work, I feel like I want to provide a little bit of closure to that story from 14 years ago, when the nine-year-old girl.

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Asked me about the balloons well, first of all, she's not getting ready to walk.

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Out here and some sort of big reveal, I mean if this is not dr. phil, I don't. I.

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Don't know who she is, I don't know where she is, but, as I wrote this speech, I was.

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Thinking all of this through she's now 23 years old, perhaps a recent college.

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Graduate well for the record, those balloons were biodegradable, so we met.

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Her standards in 2004, but the question it would be: are we still meeting those.

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Expectations today- and I hope we are- and I bet we are because we have all worked.

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So hard to improve the wide world brand of oklahoma city, we have taken a city.

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That had been branded by tragedy and built it into a cosmopolitan.

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Job-Creating economic powerhouse that is also known for its compassion and.

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Speaking personally, it's been the honor of a lifetime to be your mayor. Thank you.