Dyer pushes civic building projects, says he won’t run for governor in ’14
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer used his “State of the City” address on Wednesday to push the strong public-building campaign that has marked his10 years in office and to say he won’t leave that work unfinished.
Dyer also said hewill not run for governor next year against Rick Scott, ending speculation about his immediate political future.
“I believe that I have a responsibility to the people of Orlando to finish what we started,” Dyer said to a standing-room crowd of community leaders gathered at City Hall for his annual speech. “The next few years are going to be criti-
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Highlights from the address: cal in terms of Orlando’s economic recovery and our efforts to create the jobs of the future.”
Dyer made clear he will not be among the field of Democrats to challenge Scott’s bid for a second term. Dyer’s intentions became an issue in his re-election campaign last year when he refused to sign an opponent’s pledge to serve a full four years at City Hall.
Now in a third full term, Dyer talked about the big projects hehas championed, including three that have not yet been completed. The SunRail commuter train is supposed to begin running next year, the first phase of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts is expected to open in 2014, and the city is about to hire a contractor to handle the $175 million renovation of the Florida Citrus Bowl stadium.
Asthe economy has struggled to emerge from recession, there have been few big announcements at Dyer’s State of the City speeches in the past few years. But this time, the mayor made the case that Orlando has bounced back, noting that the area’s unemployment rate is the lowest since 2008, commercial permitting has nearly doubled in the same period, and downtown development has picked up.