2010 State of the City Address
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The HonorableMayor Greg BranchState of the City AddressFebruary 4, 2010 at 7:30 a.m.Dow Event Center |
“So ... what do you hear about Saginaw these days?
That America’s Promise called it one of the nation’s best cities for children? That it’s a cesspool of drugs, gangs and crime?
That it’s a key part of a region on the cusp of explosive economic growth? That it’s got the highest unemployment in the country?
That things are getting better? That things can’t get any worse?
Because when you hear about Saginaw, it’s usually one or the other. All or nothing. The best or the worst. It’s almost like you’re hearing about two different cities.
That led me to call in an expert on the subject, a guy who wrote a book about two cities and the best and the worst. And even if you’re not a word nerd like I am, you probably know how it starts:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way —
In short … some of its noisiest authorities insisted on Saginaw being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
We’ve got the best people. We’ve got the worst crime. We have the most affordable housing. We have the worst blight.
Wherever you go, whomever you talk to, you can hear either the best, or the worst, our city has to offer. Sometimes in the very same sentence.
And each year, the mayor of Saginaw must wade into this maelstrom of optimistic, pessimistic, even apocalyptic visions and assess “the State of the City.”
I really can’t do that.
Because the state of the city of Saginaw is what each of us makes the city of Saginaw. In our minds. In our words. In our actions. And in our commitment.
Action and commitment have led to a lot of good things in the past year. As is customary, I’ll highlight some of those. For some people, it’s the only opportunity they have to shine before a group like this.
Public safety
With a department of justice grant, Saginaw hired five additional community police officers ... giving us a total of nine, and more sworn officers than we’ve had in nearly a decade.
We have installed new technology — ShotSpotter being one example, and one we think has played a role in a drop in gun violence. Installation of phase two is underway.
The city will be awarded an additional $300,000 in grants for the next fiscal year to expand its crime-fighting technology.
Justice Assistance Grants gave us nearly three quarters of a million additional dollars to help fight crime.
Hundreds volunteered for Arson Watch, and they reduced our Devil’s Night and Halloween arson fires to three.
We’re working more closely than ever with more neighborhood groups.
The results of all this effort: Reported firearms-related crime is down 31 percent. Homicide is down 48 percent. The overall violent crime rate is down 16.4 percent.
Fire prevention and education efforts helped us realize a 51-percent reduction in arson, a 52-percent reduction in overall fire emergency response and a 25-percent reduction in fire losses.
That doesn’t mean we’re without our challenges. Twelve people lost their lives in homicides last year, and that included the brutal and senseless murder of a 9-year-old boy. 2008 statistics still listed Saginaw as one of the most violent cities in America.
And, perhaps our biggest challenge: the ground we’ve gained since 2006 is the direct result of a public safety millage that expires next year.
Neighborhood revitalization and city beautification
SCENIC helped us get 200 abandoned structures boarded up and secured and wrote hundreds of code enforcement tickets.
The city tore down 265 dangerous buildings last year, 780 in the last four years.
Through the Michigan Cities of Promise program, we’ve secured $2.3 million in blight elimination funds. And, as we complete phase one in one neighborhood revitalization zone, we have received $17.4 million in federal funds to complete phase two there — and expand into other neighborhoods.
In the coming year, you’ll see the city recover more demolition costs from the owners who give up on their properties.
And we’re going to become even more proactive, by identifying and remedying “tipping point” properties — the ones at risk of becoming the first bad apple on a block.
Recreation and youth activities
We continue to work with recreation providers throughout the city – most notably, First Ward Community Center, but others as well.
But you’ll see the biggest achievement this summer: Completion of the redevelopment of an obsolete and decrepit water park into the Frank N. Andersen Celebration Park ... thanks to $1.6 million in private donations ... much of it from the Dow Chemical Co.
Organizational development
Not long ago, this was a city of 90,000 people and more than 1,100 employees. Today, it has shrunk to 50-some thousand ... and city government to about 450. Departments have merged, split and re-arranged, usually reactively as people have retired and in response to the needs of the moment.
The result has been an organization that’s lean, but doesn’t always have its muscle in the right places.
As you may have seen in the news over the past few days, the city recently underwent a study that you could call “Extreme Makeover, Municipal Edition” — an organizational efficiency plan to help re-shape City Hall for tomorrow.
This reorganization, which will take place over the next year or two, should reduce the cost of government an estimated $1.6 million to $3 million a year.
Economic development
The sunniest ray of economic news? GlobalWatt will soon begin making solar panels on a site in northeast Saginaw, in a plant that may grow to 500 jobs. It’s been a long time since we’ve had that kind of home run.
But we’ve also had a lot of base hits throughout the season. There are bright spots ... from pickles to printing, from the sun to the wind, we have businesses who, despite the odds, are growing in Saginaw.
The stuff we take for granted
Last year, we had 80 inches of snow and ice — the third-highest recorded snowfall for the area. We still got through the streets.
City crews cut and trimmed more than 300 trees. They processed more than 50,000 cubic yards of solid waste into compost. They managed to deliver, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, what’s often been called “the world’s best water.” They processed 8 billion gallons of wastewater, removing 7 million pounds of solids, with no discharge violations.
They maintained 540 acres of parks and right-of-ways, 300 miles of streets and water mains, traffic signals at 105 intersections, 7,000 street lights and 2,500 fire hydrants.
Every time the other guy stops because of the stop sign, every time you can get to work because the street is plowed, every time you turn on the faucet and water comes out, every time you flush the toilet and it goes ... somewhere ... you have a city employee to thank.
It’s easy to think of municipal employees in the abstract: As functions, as an expense necessary to fulfill a need. More and more, people see more expense than they feel need.
So when the city announces, as it did last weekend, that it will reorganize, and that may eliminate as many as 30 positions, it’s important to remember that the employees of the city of Saginaw are not abstractions. They are people. And some of them will lose their jobs. Through no fault of their own ... but because of economic, technological or political changes beyond their control. I know many of you have been in the same position in the last few years ... so I know you respect the human cost as well as the P&L.
And while we’re talking about city employees, I would just like to say: I know they are not perfect. Are there any employers out there who have a workforce that is perfect?
City employees are dedicated and, as much or more than anyone, they want to see Saginaw become a better place. I am tired of them all being characterized as lazy, crooked, irresponsible, overpaid and/or incompetent ... especially by people who hide behind the anonymity of an online username.
If you’ve got a constructive criticism, offer it. If you’ve got suggestions, ideas or even legitimate complaints, we’re all ears. But if you’re a narrow enough thinker to believe the one employee you dealt with is all 450, if you’re going to spatter 10- and 15-year-old mud on people who had nothing to do with it — and not even have the guts to sign your name to it — maybe you just keep it to yourself.
Of course, by mid-afternoon the blogosphere will report that I’m “thin skinned,” that I’m denying the truth. But here’s the thing:
I know the truth. In fact, I probably know the truth a lot better than a lot of people. I know what our police officers, our firefighters and our building inspectors see every day. Unlike some self-appointed arbiters of the truth, I live in the city, I work in the city, and I have children in the Saginaw Public Schools.
I see the truth every waking moment of every day.
And the truth is this: Although we have torn down nearly 800 blighted buildings in the last four years, nearly that many more are going bad. There are few neighborhoods in the city that have not been touched by blight, and there are many that have been crushed by it.
The truth is this: Our city has criminals. It has people who, faced with too many hard choices, often make the worst one. It has people who have never developed a moral compass, and turned into hard-core, sub-human predators. It has too many people who give birth, but are not parents ... and too many children being born to children.
The truth is this: We have one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates. Our median household income is just over half the nation’s median, 28 percent of our residents are under the poverty level and 53 percent of our children live in a household without a father.
But the truth is also this: More than 50,000 people live in the city. The overwhelming majority of them are good, helpful, law-abiding citizens ... who want nothing more than a decent job, good schools and a safe place to raise their families. They do not shoot people, they do not rob people, they do not buy or sell drugs. In fact, they are not very different from the people who live in exclusive suburbs – or in Midland or Bay City – except that they make less money, are a little less educated and, often, have different colored skin.
The truth is also this: Every morning of every day, the city of Saginaw’s population grows by 18 percent. Eleven-thousand people who don’t live here drive into the city of Saginaw to go to work. Several thousand more come into the city to go to Covenant, or St. Mary’s, or MCVI, or to do business at any of its other 3,000 businesses. And at the end of the day, they all go safely home again.
The truth is also this: There are nine people on City Council and 450 on the city’s payroll. There are the owners of those 3,000 businesses and 10,000-plus homes. There are dozens of human service organizations. There are hundreds of people in this room. All of whom are working to make things better. Because they all know the truth about Saginaw.
And they know the greatest truths of all: That there is no barrier that good, smart, committed people can’t overcome if they fight hard enough... and that you never, ever, ever give up if you’re fighting for your home.
This is my home. This is our home. And if you don’t think it’s worth fighting for, that’s your call.
But you know what? We really don’t need you to tell us how much work needs to be done; we know. And if you’re not going to help, shut up and get the hell out of the way so we can do it.
Please stand if you are a city employee ... a resident of the city ... the owner or manager of a business in the city ... if you work in the city.
Each of you is doing something to make this a better city. I know that many of you are doing an awful lot more than I ever will. And the people standing right now deserve nothing but respect and gratitude for their efforts and their commitment.
We’ve been through the winter of despair. We’ve heard some things this morning that let us believe, perhaps, in the spring of hope.
But there’s a reason I chose “A Tale of Two Cities” besides that whole best-worst thing. The dominant theme of the book is expressed best by the title of the first section: “Recalled to Life.”
It’s a book about resurrection and rebirth.
Those of you who just stood are leading a resurrection and rebirth in Saginaw. It started with new energy, new attitudes and new fiscal accountability in City Hall. It’s continued with a more intense, more focused and more proactive battle against blight. It’s continued with a constant pursuit of new resources and new partnerships to fight crime. And it’s been driven by an attitude that doing things the same old way will only get us the same old thing.
Yes: There’s still a lot to be done. “A Tale of Two Cities” is also a tale of sacrifice for a greater good. I’m not going to ask you to do as the hero of the book does and go to the guillotine. But if you are, like me, a stakeholder in the city of Saginaw, here are some things we need to do if we are to be successful.
Make sure we’re counted. This is a census year. The census will determine our eligibility for federal and state funding streams ... and it will decide how much clout we have in the state and federal legislatures. Make sure your family, your friends and your employees understand the importance of the census – and participate in it.
Understand the importance of the public safety millage, and advocate for its passage. It’s not a threat, it’s not some kind of extortion, it’s a simple truth: Without a renewal of the public safety millage, we will need to reduce our police and fire complement by at least one-third. Period.
Find Norm Braddock or John Humphreys and get involved in the Promise Zone initiative, one of the most promising economic development programs we will ever see. It will help pay for college for any student who attends Saginaw Public Schools. We’ve seen what Kalamazoo’s Promise has done there: a huge reinvestment in the city. It will do the same here. All we need to do is build an endowment ... and we’ve done that many times before.
Find ways to help organizations who serve youth and families. We can’t arrest our way out of our crime problem. Faster than we can put criminals away, new ones are being turned out – because we have too many children being born to people who lack the skills, the desire or even the interest to be parents. There are dozens of organizations in this community that offer parent skills training, after-school programming, educational assistance or mentoring for children. They all need volunteers. They all need financial assistance. Get involved in one of them.
Get involved in a neighborhood association. If there isn’t one serving the neighborhood where you work or live, start one. They are the infantry in the fight against crime and blight. Strong neighborhood associations create strong neighborhoods ... and only strong neighborhoods will create a strong city.
Speak up when you see something. If you walk into any dead neighborhood in Saginaw, what you’ll see is people who “didn’t see anything” or “don’t know anything” ... who don’t want to get involved. Get involved. We stay quiet, the bad guys win. And another piece of our city dies.
Invest. Don’t wait for the other guy to do something. Don’t sit back to see what the Shaheens are going to do. We have enough followers. GlobalWatt didn’t sit back to see who else was going to build in Saginaw. If you have an idea, if you have a dream, go see Saginaw Future or the SEDC and be a leader. We can’t depend on the government to create jobs. It’s what leaders do.
Take ownership. It’s not “their” city. It’s your city. Whether you own a home and are raising a family here, it’s where you work, or it’s where your favorite Chinese restaurant is: It’s your city.
Take pride. In your home or your business. In your neighborhood. In your city. No matter what last year’s FBI statistics say, you all know this city has wonderful people ... and wonderful things. Be proud of them.
The best or the worst ... light or darkness ... hope or despair. In your commitment, in your actions, in your hearts and minds, the state of the city of Saginaw is what you make it.
Keep making it better.”