2005 State of the City Address

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Coyote
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2005 State of the City Address

Post by Coyote »

OWH wrote: Growth, development key themes for Fahey
 
Omaha is taking the lead in firing up the regional and statewide economies by partnering with private enterprise to promote growth and development, Mayor Mike Fahey said Thursday in his State of the City address.

"The nation will hear that Omaha is indeed open for business," Fahey told a room full of business leaders and city officials.

This year Fahey chose the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce in downtown Omaha as the location for the annual speech and emphasized efforts to spur development and business opportunities.

Fahey, who will be running for re-election this spring, also highlighted city initiatives from his first four years in office and touted his handling of the city's tough budget times.
 
He pointed to improvements along the Missouri riverfront and said that momentum is being carried into neighborhoods.

Other efforts to improve the city continue, Fahey said, with grants to neighborhood associations, park renovations and measures to slow traffic through neighborhoods.

The city is resurfacing more residential streets with asphalt and has hired more inspectors to help facilitate growth, he said. New soccer and ball fields mean more recreational opportunities for the city's youth, he said.

Faced with lean budgets during each of his four years in office, Fahey responded by eliminating positions, laying off civilian workers and negotiating wage freezes in exchange for future bonuses and other compensation.

His critics say that will cost the city down the road.

But Fahey said in his speech Thursday that his approach has allowed the city to manage through the tough times with a budget surplus and without raising property tax rates.

On public safety, Fahey said crime and police calls are down.

Looking ahead, Fahey talked about continuing to merge city and Douglas County government functions and finding ways to keep young professionals in town.

"Omaha is on the right track and moving into the future with optimism and great expectations," Fahey said.

Chamber President David Brown said it's important to have a mayor who is engaged in growth and development issues. The regulatory attitude at City Hall can have a big effect on the business environment, Brown said.

"We have to make sure that's a friendly place for business to go," Brown said.

Dave Friend, retired Omaha police captain and mayoral candidate, criticized the speech as all talk and no action.

For example, Omaha has a higher crime rate per capita than some larger cities and needs more police officers on the streets, Friend said.

"I'm not satisfied with where Omaha is today under his leadership, and I'm convinced that I could do better," Friend said.

In a press conference after his speech, Fahey was asked about the 12,000 jobs the Omaha metropolitan area has lost since 2001 - the year he took office.

Fahey said that jobs are down nationwide and that the city has been working hard with the chamber to retain businesses already here and attract new enterprises to the city - particularly in the defense sector.

"It's incumbent upon any mayor to work and try to bring new businesses in," Fahey said.

On the horizon

Mike Fahey listed these initiatives as priorities during his state of the city speech Thursday:

New or improved trails at Zorinsky Lake, Standing Bear Lake and along Turner Boulevard through the Leavenworth neighborhood.

Dreamland Plaza on North 24th Street emerging as an important destination for jazz enthusiasts.

A $200,000 study to look at redesigning Dodge Street, Saddle Creek Road and Harney and Farnam Streets through midtown Omaha

A city-funded $200,000 improvement project along North 40th Street from Cuming to Dodge Streets, as part of St. Cecilia Cathedral's planned new plaza.

Redevelopment efforts in the Benson, Florence, Millard and Ak-Sar-Ben neighborhoods.

Mayor Fahey's state of the city address

State of the City
January 13, 2005
Presented by Mayor Mike Fahey

Good morning, it is a great pleasure to be here at the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is a strong and important partner to the City of Omaha. From its President David Brown and Chairman John Boyer to the vice presidents and Chamber staff, you are a driving force behind the region's and the state's active business community and its ongoing success.

Together we have an aggressive agenda paving the way to an even brighter future for Metropolitan Omaha. And together we can set a tone statewide that further strengthens our economy. We'll build off our recent success with companies like Pacific Life, AAA Nebraska, and AFLAC, just to name a few. And we'll continue to nurture our growing defense sector.

Omaha is the place to be to grow your business, and from the city's partnership with the Chamber to your GO Campaign to our work at the Unicameral, the nation will hear that Omaha is indeed open for business.

My message today is simple. Omaha is on the right track and moving into the future with optimism and great expectations. Our ongoing partnerships and willingness to pull together remain our greatest strength.

Omaha's new gateway from Abbot Drive to 10th Street surprises even Omaha natives. Our streamlined, modern skyline presents an image that represents what we've always known. Omaha, Nebraska, is not only a fabulous, diverse city to call home and an exciting get-away for visitors, but also boasts an economic climate where any business, both large and small, can succeed.

I am pleased with our riverfront development, and particularly proud of the Omahans who had the vision and drive to make it happen. From business and civic leaders to all levels of government, this new era is the result of critical partnerships and great teamwork. Many Omahans have invested not only financially, but personally in its success. And now that we see the results, we all earned the right to be proud.

But as good as the riverfront and downtown development is, I envision more.

What Omaha didn't have - and needed - was a long-term commitment and sharpened focus on our neighborhoods and smaller business districts. Solid neighborhood communities are critical as we build Omaha's new national image. So we took the riverfront momentum that made us the envy of cities nationwide and moved that energy into our neighborhoods and smaller business districts.

You've heard about our success - from Destination Midtown to Omaha By Design to individual economic development plans for North and South 24th Street - together, we are reshaping our city's urban design standards so every corner of this city is a unique destination of its own.

I know Omaha has room for more destinations like the Old Market, Village Pointe, and Regency. And each will be unique because the plan will be based on the neighborhood's character. The possibilities are endless but some examples of future redevelopment are areas like Benson, Florence, Millard and Aksarben.

For Destination Midtown we've dedicated $200,000 this year so we can review the potential relocation of the Dodge Street to Douglas Street "S" curve; the potential conversion of Farnam and Harney Streets back to two-way traffic and the potential reconstruction of Dodge Street and Saddle Creek Road.

Secondly, we have dedicated $200,000 in 2006 to the Cathedral Plaza project.

These public street and streetscape improvements will help anchor redevelopment near one of our city's most important landmarks and down the 40th Street Corridor from Cuming to Dodge Streets.

If you haven't yet, visit our city's newest park at Dreamland Plaza on 24th and Lake. It's a celebration of North Omaha's rich jazz culture and already a popular new destination for the whole community to gather.

In South Omaha the relocation of parking stalls has already encouraged more to stop and shop. Business owners and residents are pleased by the improvements to this thriving area.

Last year we embraced a citywide initiative to strengthen our design codes.

Omaha By Design is the largest initiative of its kind ever undertaken by a city in the United States. We've added the tools, defined a structure, and rallied consensus to ensure desirable outcomes. It compliments my vision as it embraces neighborhood planning and empowerment and tailors unique economic plans. Its implementation will tie a common thread through all our recent accomplishments.

With city government's sharpened focus our neighborhood communities continue to blossom:

Sixteen more neighborhood associations benefited this year from our Neighborhood Grant Program. Now in its third year, we've awarded 57 grants totaling $185,000 to neighborhood leaders who before this program, could only dream about improvements. Now city government provides them the tools necessary to make their own corner of Omaha even better.

A shining example of the grant program's impact is the master plan the Leavenworth Neighborhood Association drafted with grant funds for future area development. It called for a new midtown trail. And I was pleased last month to stand with them and the Papio NRD to announce the new Turner Boulevard Trail. To be completed next year, it will connect to the Field Club Trail doubling its length.

We continue our steady pace to renovate 70 neighborhood parks. Nearly half way through the program neighborhoods citywide are celebrating new playground equipment, green space and trails with ribbon cuttings and bike parades. All renovations are planned with input from neighbors, who without this plan, would not have seen renovations to their parks for another 15 to 20 years.

Funding has been added for more traffic calming projects. Whether it is pole mounted speed monitors, speed bumps or roundabouts, city government is willing to help neighborhoods control their traffic problems.

More residential streets boast new asphalt because of our Residential Street Resurfacing Program, which paves five times the blocks for the same amount of money.

We added four new inspectors - one to each of the Electrical, Building, Mechanical and Plumbing Divisions and one clerk to the Planning Department.

This new staffing commitment is critical to facilitate the growth and development that our building and trade industries continue to bring our city.

To bring city government to citizens, we continue our Neighborhood Town Hall Meetings where my cabinet and I answer neighbor's questions face-to-face.

It's also why I am here today instead of City Hall.

Standing Bear Lake and Zorinsky Lake will see significant improvements to their heavily used walking and biking trails. Zorinsky is receiving a total resurfacing of its popular trail and new trail construction at Standing Bear will for the first time go around the entire lake. These are two of our city's most widely used trail systems.

Through our Youth Sports Initiative, we have increased our ongoing commitment to youth soccer, baseball and softball facilities citywide. In cooperation with our private partners, this means four new soccer complexes and the doubling, from 36 to over 80, of our irrigated, game-quality fields for Omaha's young soccer players. We are also adding new amenities and improvements for our numerous youth baseball and softball fields over the next six years.

All this and more has happened in an economy of historically low proportions. In a quick review the largest hurdle we each faced was the significant budgetary challenges our recent slow economy presented. The post 9/11 economy tested city government. But I know it tested all of you as well, so as I crafted each budget over the past few years I kept your businesses and families in mind. I knew that all of you were tightening belts, cutting expenses and doing more with less and that you expected nothing less from your city government.

The 2005 Budget reinforces that our strict management of taxpayer dollars is paying off. While we're not totally out of the woods yet, we are starting to emerge. And, it is clear that the wage freezes, hiring freezes, contract renegotiations, program reductions and lay-offs endured over the last three years have allowed us to successfully manage through a sluggish national economy with a budget surplus and without raising property taxes. That's something many other state and local taxing entities did not avoid. I said from the start, we must control spending and we have. As a businessman, I am proud of our work.

Overall, the City of Omaha's general fund budget increased from approximately $223.7 million in 2004 to approximately $232.1 million in 2005 - a modest 3.75 percent. To put this in perspective, the city's general fund budget has increased at a total average growth rate of only 1.4 percent per year over the last 4 years under my administration.

This is in stark contrast to the spending rates of previous years. By way of comparison, the previous four years before I arrived grew at an average rate of 6.3 percent per year. It also continues a trend of a reduced civilian workforce and doing more with less that began when I took office. The 2005 budget cuts 34 vacant civilian jobs from the 2004 budget. This brings the total civilian jobs cut under my administration to 236 over the last four years - a 16 percent reduction overall.

Our work to merge areas of city and county government remains important. We must always seek new and better ways to serve the taxpayers and a more streamlined, efficient government is a great start. So we continue our work with functional mergers - between planning, parks and purchasing. Ultimately, it's an opportunity for all of us and a strong message of efficiency and good government for the rest of the state.

Omaha is a safe city. Chief Warren and his police management team continue to strengthen community policing and crime rates are down. We increased the funded strength of officers from 745 to 781 in the last four years. Calls for police service are down and crime has significantly decreased. The Total Index of Offenses, which are the Part 1 crimes reported to the FBI, decreased by approximately 14 percent since 2001.

Nearly 80 percent of fire and rescue calls are medical. We purchased six new rescue squads, the largest purchase of squads in our city's history, to meet that demand. In addition, we added two new rescue squads to West Omaha and will shortly be adding a second heavy rescue truck to help our professional firefighting force continue its excellent emergency medical services.

A unique initiative has opened three new day shelters to provide our homeless population the services they need the most under one roof. From the bare necessities like showers and food, to legal, medical and mental health, we are now better able to help the citizens who need it most.

Last Spring I formed a task force to address our road construction. It was the first time in our history city officials, public and private utilities, developers, contractors and labor leaders sat down at one table to discuss the road construction process. Our results will make road construction projects quicker and more efficient.

We quickly embraced our Qwest Center Omaha. I personally have seen more concerts than ever before. Omaha is a fun city and we've kept it under wraps for far too long. With the opening of the Qwest Center Omaha we entered a new era for tourism, entertainment and conventions. We are getting great acts to come to town and you will be pleased at the 2005 offerings. As word spreads to the nation, I know our convention and tourism scene will explode.

As we move our city to the next level we must also capture a relatively untapped, yet rich resource. Our young professionals have critical insight that we'll need to move our city forward and I applaud the Chamber for recognizing the great potential. I know some members of this group are here today and I thank you for your interest in building an even better tomorrow for Omaha.

On our horizon we anxiously await the opening of the Holland Performing Arts Center which will further upgrade our city's tourism and arts profile. We continue to celebrate growth with projects like Nebraska Medical Center's construction of a second research tower and bask in the national recognition our Holiday Lights Festival received.

Let me close by saying that Omaha is a fabulous city - full of diversity and opportunity. We love to call our town home. It's an entertaining get away for visitors and boasts an economic climate where any business can succeed. I will support and continue any program that keeps us moving forward. We have a great future and with your help we will achieve our dreams.

I have enjoyed the last four years tremendously. It's a pleasure to serve as your mayor and I thank you again for the opportunity. Best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.
DTO Luv
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Re: Fahey's first re-election Speech / State of the City Add

Post by DTO Luv »

Coyote wrote:
OWH wrote:

But as good as the riverfront and downtown development is, I envision more.


We quickly embraced our Qwest Center Omaha. I personally have seen more concerts than ever before. Omaha is a fun city and we've kept it under wraps for far too long. With the opening of the Qwest Center Omaha we entered a new era for tourism, entertainment and conventions. We are getting great acts to come to town and you will be pleased at the 2005 offerings. As word spreads to the nation, I know our convention and tourism scene will explode.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: I waonder what his vision of more is. More civic projects with the appeal of a Motel 6? Whatever.

And this also someone who opposed building the Qwest Center. He thought it was fiscally irresponsible to build the place and was very vocal in his lack of support. But now it's great. Tourism. Concerts. :roll: If these isssue were so important he should have talked about the them the last four years and not before and election.
DTO
StreetsOfOmaha
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Post by StreetsOfOmaha »

A $200,000 study to look at redesigning Dodge Street, Saddle Creek Road and Harney and Farnam Streets through midtown Omaha

Another study? WOW? I thought that's what Destination Midtown WAS. Oh well. At least they're moving ahead with it.

I'm glad he's mentioned some of these development goals, but I think he's a total hypocrite for only mentioning them right before the election. It's like he realized they're important enought issues that he must mention them in order to get re-elected, yet he has taken little to no action over the past four years to really make Omaha's development boom take off.

Sadly, I don't think Friend would be ANY better at all. So it looks like we're stuck with Fahey for another 4 years. Maybe he'll actually do stuff in his next term. There's an idea.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963
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Zephyr
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Post by Zephyr »

Streets, maybe we can get him to think the Midtown Streetcar Line was HIS idea, that's something he can do...

I'd really like to see what exactly he can "envision" beyond downtown and the riverfront - I had no idea that word was in the dude's vocabulary.
omahastylee459
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Post by omahastylee459 »

i still think fahey would be better than friend though
StreetsOfOmaha
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Post by StreetsOfOmaha »

omahastylee459 wrote:i still think fahey would be better than friend though
I agree, which is really sad.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963
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