Mayor delivers State of the City
Note: Mayor Nan Whaley presented the annual State of the City Address on Feb. 14. Highlights of the address are included here. For the complete text, go to daytonohio.gov.
It is fitting that this year’s State of the City address should fall on Valentine’s Day. It’s an honor to share with you this review of the city we all love, and to highlight our accomplishments, our challenges and the opportunities that lie ahead.
This past year we witnessed strong job creation in Dayton, both in the creation of new businesses and through investment in current employers. Additionally, much has been done to build our entrepreneurship culture.
The housing market is rebounding from the Great Recession — downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods continue to be some of the hottest areas around. Walkability, amenities, diversity, and inclusivity are driving this market. There is simply no other place like downtown Dayton in the rest of the region.
Dayton has been able to invest in its neighborhoods like never before because of the love our voters showed for the city in 2016 by approving Issue 9. We are on track after one year to keep our promise of every residential street being in satisfactory condition at the end of the eight-year cycle. Our streets are looking and feeling better, and so are our neighborhoods because of the Your Dollars Your Neighborhood Program made possible by voters. We were able to mow vacant properties every month, making a significant difference to both the look and safety of all of Dayton’s neighborhoods. Our parks are getting a needed facelift, and we were able to increase the number of police officers. We will continue with our work through 2018.
The announcement of the closing of Good Samaritan Hospital was one of the toughest days I have had as mayor. Good Samaritan has had significant impact on the neighborhoods that surround the hospital. It is why the city has invested nearly $12 million in those neighborhoods and why we have seen nearly $64 million of investment in northern Salem Avenue.
Further, the commissioners and I are very concerned about health access for the residents who live in the northern and western parts of Dayton and Montgomery County. Good Samaritan reports nearly 60,000 emergency room visits every year.
After loss, it is difficult to move forward, but move forward we must. The City Commission is committed to doing everything in our power to make sure that access to health care is addressed with this closing. We are grateful for the help of Jeff Cooper and Public Health as well as the leadership at Five Rivers Health Clinic to help guide us in this important work. The City will work to make sure the community has meaningful input with the redevelopment of the Good Samaritan site. We will use all of our tools to make sure these two objectives are met.
Access to healthy foods is needed and again, we are disappointed in the lack of leadership coming from private companies on this front. The Gem City Market saw a need in our community and is endeavoring to meet this need. Its leaders and members are working to locate a vibrant, community-centered, full-service grocery store along lower Salem Avenue.
We have made great progress and expect to continue to see growth in Dayton, but much of the growth we have experienced is uneven. The inequality in market forces can be seen throughout the Dayton region. And nowhere is it seen more glaringly than in West Dayton.
The West Dayton framework, under the leadership of Commissioner Shaw and John Lumpkin, is a crucial element as we continue the HUD Choice neighborhood grant. The work is broad and deep, encompassing 18 Dayton neighborhoods and being holistic in the needs of the neighborhoods and the people who live there.
Already this work is making a real difference. The clean-up of Lakeside Lake, with the partnership of the Ohio AFL-CIO, is stunning, with more amenities coming this year. This past year’s Mayor’s Porch Tours were held in neighborhoods that previously had no organization. Community members are taking ownership of their neighborhoods, and it is making these neighborhoods stronger.
Another major challenge I want to address is the opioid epidemic. With the prevalence of fentanyl in our community, we had the highest death rate for accidental overdoses last year in our history — a 35 percent increase from 2016. Dayton’s public safety forces responded to over 3,400 calls for service related to overdoses last year. Since 2015, we have administered almost 23,000 doses of Narcan throughout Dayton. And, in 2017, Montgomery County’s CarePoint harm reduction program exchanged over 125,000 needles, a nearly 60 percent increase from 2016.
Nearly every week, almost every day, I encounter a personal story of loss to the opioid epidemic. All are different, but many have similar threads. One that nearly 80 percent have is where it started — with a prescription pain reliever. That is why in June Dayton was the fourth city in the nation and first in Ohio to file suit against the drug manufacturers, distributors and doctors who started this mess. Today over a hundred cities and counties across the country have followed Dayton’s lead. Right now taxpayers are paying for this clean up. It is time we hold those who started this epidemic accountable for it.
Because this epidemic has hit our community harder than anywhere else in the nation, we are learning and acting faster than anywhere else in the country. The work of the Community Overdose Action Team that was created in 2016 has provided a county-wide table for us to collectively work. And it is allowing us to deploy resources quickly and effectively. And, the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association is looking at a better way to serve individuals with addiction, dependence, and mental health issues. These are just a few examples of the work the community is doing to combat this disaster.
As we continue the work to rebuild our city from the challenges of the Great Recession, we know that providing our children with high-quality educational opportunities is extremely important. It is our most urgent economic development strategy. That’s why when I began my first term as mayor I called for Dayton to become a City of Learners. While the City and the mayor have no governing authority over the system of public and charter schools, I believed then and continue to believe that it is the mayor’s role to call on our community to work on issues that are critical to the well-being of our city. Our education system surely determines Dayton’s future.
In these past four years much has been done. We have defined quality in mentorship and afterschool programs. We have begun the work of aligning our workforce needs with our K through 14 system. And, we have begun offering high quality pre-K to every fouryear-old in our city. Robyn Lightcap and her Learn to Earn team continue to show great progress with this preschool work. We are offering tuition assistance to families so they can afford preschool for their children. We have 50 preschools across the city that are opting into the preschool promise. The teachers in these schools are receiving coaching skills and getting help as they focus on quality programming for our youngest learners. Other cities are regularly coming to Dayton to see the amazing work that is underway by Robyn and her team.
At last year’s City of Learners yearly report, I said that K-12 was the toughest part of the City of Learners work. I am happy to report much progress has been made since last August. First, the relationship between the City and the Board of Education is the strongest I have seen in my 12 years at City Hall. School board members and commissioners are in constant dialogue, working together in partnership to improve Dayton schools’ performance and quality. Under Superintendent Libbie Lollie’s leadership we are all now singularly focused on providing a high-quality education to all of Dayton’s children.
We still have our challenges. The members of the Board of Education are having to make tough decisions quickly to get our schools on track. I want to commend them for their openness in receiving public input about these decisions. The task force co-chaired by board member Mohamed Al-Hamdani and Commissioner Jeff Mims will get input from potential business partners about how our facilities should be used most effectively to maximize educational opportunities. Public forums will be starting in March. The superintendent has already begun meeting with parents of the nine schools that have enrollment below 50 percent capacity.
I am so excited to continue this important work of partnership with Dayton’s Board of Education, with the citizens of Dayton, and with education leaders in providing a culture of high-quality education that this city needs and deserves.
My fellow Daytonians, I love this city. I love serving as your mayor. I love the progress we have made. And, I look forward to the tough work we have before us. After all, what is Dayton if not a labor of love?