Mayor Buddy Dyer
Speech hypes neighborhood investments, inclusiveness
delivers “60 Reasons to Love Orlando,” his annual State of the City speech, on his 60th birthday Tuesday.
Mayor Buddy Dyer praised Orlando’s investments in its neighborhoods and infrastructure, as well as its continued efforts in combatting the region’s affordable-housing crisis Tuesday in his annual State of the City speech.
Dyer’s address — themed “60 Reasons to Love Orlando,” a nod to the mayor’s 60th birthday Tuesday — was delivered to a packed house of city officials, community and neighborhood leaders, politicians and business executives in the DeVos Family Room at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
“We’re so fortunate to have strong, diverse neighborhoods with great parks and green spaces,” said Dyer, who was first elected in 2003. “They’re the foundation of our quality of life.”
Touching on an array of topics, Dyer highlighted more than $80 million in neighborhood projects, including the building of an 8-mile Orlando Bicycle Beltway connecting downtown to the Fashion Square area, the construction of a pedestrian bridge over Colonial Drive, as well adding more than 50 acres of athletic fields, playgrounds and fitness trails with the creation of McCoy Park and Heroes Community Park in southeast Orlando.
The downtown area also will get parks upgrades, with the Orange Robinson pop-up park being constructed and a dog wash station and lights planned for the popular Constitution Green dog park.
Dyer touted Orlando’s reputation as an inclusive city, including the recently passed Trust Act, the forming of a Mayor’s Committee on Multicultural Affairs and the announcement that Orlando would soon open Florida’s first multi-stall all-user restroom in a government building. The restroom is scheduled to open in late August on the second floor of City Hall near the City Council chambers and can be used by a person of any gender identity.
Orlando also plans to allocate $1 million in its upcoming budget for affordable-housing initiatives and will dedicate two employees to develop policies and partnerships in hopes of triggering more housing options, Dyer said.
“We’re way behind the curve in terms of affordablehousing units,” Dyer said in a news conference following the speech.
In his speech, he also called on business and faith leaders to join the city in its “housing first” strategy to combat
Dyer’s 60 reasons to love Orlando ranged from adding and improving parks to boosting opportunities for “our most vulnerable young people” to celebrating “our growing arts and culture scene and our philanthropic leaders.”
homelessness.
The mayor said the strategy helped get 339 chronically homeless people off the streets and into permanent housing, with 96 percent of them remaining housed. He also said the return of the downtown ambassador program — which was relaunched last week — also will help direct the downtown homeless population with resources and social services available to them.
“But loving our city isn’t just about the fun stuff,” he said. “It’s about working together to solve problems.”
Dyer also said the city will fund 15 additional school resource officers, which places an Orlando police officer in each public school within the city limits.
Orlando also is hiring 10 new police officers, and 29 new paramedics to further efficiency in the fire department. His 60 reasons to love Orlando ranged from adding and improving parks to boosting opportunities for “our most vulnerable young people” to celebrating “our growing arts and culture scene and our philanthropic leaders.”
He also ticked off another 27 more “quirky” things including the shuffleboard club at the Beardall Center, moonlight history tours at Greenwood Cemetery, the new city flag and the Lake Eola swans.
After finishing his lists, he called Orlando a “wonderful mix of people who don’t agree on everything” but agree they want to live in Orlando.
“When it comes down to it, we’re a city that seems to be able to do what a lot of people are unable to do in these days of political polarization. We work together despite our differences,” Dyer said. “And for this reason, the state of our city is strong.”
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