Bill Purcell Special
Speech Bill Purcell (May 24, 2007, Nashville/TN)
State of Metro
Mayor Bill Purcell
May 24, 2007
It is a great privilege in this our 200th year as a city to be together with you in this our great new Public Square to report on the state of our city.
For the first time in our history Nashville stands at the front of all American cities.
The place we now hold is the one we sought. It is the result of a strong will and hard work by us all. Leadership is rarely achieved by accident or serendipity and it is never maintained by luck. Nashville's new leadership in our world follows a general agreement and sustained commitment to assuring that this city delivers that which only a city can provide: education, public safety and quality of life.
When you first elected me your mayor this was my premise and my promise. You have supported and sustained this work throughout the last eight years. Today the greatest comfort and assurance for me is that you have the objective proof, with internal and external validation, that proves the course and where it leads. And most importantly the people of Nashville understand all of this and they approve. The people of Nashville know we have been single minded in pursuing what makes a city great and you have been there every step of the way.
Nashville now understands the work of a city happens every day. It begins with the school buses picking up children at dawn. It is in the morning roll calls in our six police precincts. The Curby trucks pick up carts in our alleys and streets. It continues in the class rooms and courtrooms, the community centers and libraries. At night the patrol cars roam neighbourhoods and the nurses at General Hospital check on patients.
Every school day 74,000 students enter a building that the citizens of Nashville constructed and now maintain. Every day the police officers of this city report to a precinct and leave in well-equipped patrol cars supplied by Metro. Every day people visit parks and walk on sidewalks funded through our capital plan.
This administration changed the way Nashville funded these projects by creating a capital plan every year to pay for the schools, and precincts and police cars and parks and sidewalks that people use every day.
These capital plans total $1.6 billion since the first in 2000. This includes $362 million for school construction, maintenance and renovations; almost $79 million for sidewalks and ADA improvements; nearly $200 million for public safety including courts, police precincts and fire halls, and 900 new jail beds. Today, we have 30 new and renovated schools, we have completed or are planning five new police stations, we have a total of 100 miles of new bikeways and greenways. And there are 137 more miles of sidewalks in Nashville than when we began.
This is work that has been proposed by a mayor and funded by council members who understood that only by planning ahead could we assure that our schoolchildren, our workers and our citizens would have the facilities they needed--instead of waiting until the roof was leaking, or the air conditioner was broken or the bus was ready for antique license plates.
Today I am proposing and asking the Metro Council to approve next month my final capital plan of $264 million. This plan will include almost $85 million for our schools including funding for improvements to our high schools and more than $13 million for additional classrooms at middle and elementary schools, and makes a $14.5 million improvement in technology for all our students.
The plan includes the design and construction planning funds for the West Precinct, $2 million for the renovation of the Criminal Justice Center, $6.8 million for the Fire Department Master Plan, and full planning funds for a new Police Crime Lab. The funding is also provided for the construction of a new library in Goodlettsville, $5 million for the African-American Museum on Jefferson Street, and finally, as promised, $8 million for the first phase of the Riverfront Redevelopment project.
I believe now is the time for us to focus on our Riverfront. The planning and work that have occurred since the closing and demolition of the old Nashville Thermal Plant show that we are ready to move to the next stage. We cannot afford to delay any longer.
Therefore, I will submit legislation that will give MDHA the authority to take the old Thermal Site, and build what we know is important for the development of our riverfront. I believe we have the chance to grasp the momentum of all that is going on in the surrounding Rolling Mill Hill and SoBro areas and create a Riverfront neighbourhood that will draw investment and retail to our downtown. The largest part of the land should be devoted to public park space that can also serve as a public performance venue for concerts and shows, and speeches like this one perhaps.
Today I report the State of Metro is better than ever. Again, we did not get here by luck and happenstance. It was because we focused on doing the things a city can and must do.
We invested in our schools and increased annual funding by over 43 percent. Having made 538 school visits and visited every school three times, I can say that we will have fixed or replaced every school in this city.
We have made similarly historic investments in public safety, and a Police Department that now has the greatest level of community trust ever seen, has achieved the lowest overall crime rate since 1990.
We have added to our quality of life. The whole city now has new places to play and exercise and be entertained and be inspired. And I believe it can be better still in the future. But it will require that Nashville remain focused on these core functions.
The people of Nashville are the friendliest, most welcoming and most productive people in this nation. Today we are where we wanted to be on our way to where we want to go. From this place there is no going back because we are the first generation that fully appreciates the difference.
This knowledge will guide us through all the months and years ahead. With thanks to a loving God, we claim and hold our place in the world now and forever. Thank you for allowing me to serve as your mayor which will always be the greatest honour.
