( video of the entire speech is at the bottom of this story)
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren delivered her 2nd State of the City Address on Wednesday night, and as many of these speeches go, it included a list of successes during her administration and challenges for the future.
The address was delivered at the Genesee Brewery, which Warren noted has added hundreds of jobs and made a big investment in the community in recent years.
One of the new elements discussed was Warren saying that she will request that the NYS Education Commissioner and the Board of Regents establish a special Receivership District to help failing schools that fall under receivership by the state. Warren said the mayor should have a role in the administration of the district, but stressed she is not seeking mayoral control.
“I am simply asking to be part of the solution,” she said.
Warren says that students are bound to be left behind if each of these schools is administered individually by a state-appointed receiver.
“Rochester needs a comprehensive strategy that will bring success to all of our failing schools so all of our children are given an opportunity to succeed,” she said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HylrwO1QIpg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HylrwO1QIpg
Warren also pledged to begin the “La Marketa” project on North Clinton Avenue and said that a grant application has already been submitted to the Regional Economic Development Council to begin reconstruction of the northern portion of Inner Loop, similar to what is happening along the Eastern portion.
“Our neighbors to the north deserve the same attention,” she said. “Thus, we must insist that the Inner Loop North be filled in next.”
Mayor Warren applauded the Rochester Police Department for keeping crime at historic lows last year, but she decried the heart-breaking challenge of gun violence.
“I dread the 2, 3, 4, o’clock in the morning calls because I know it’s not good news,” the Mayor said. “I know a family has just lost a loved one to this culture of violence.”
Warren urged the audience to join her as she works to reclaim Rochester’s history as the kind of city where people like her grandparents moved to find better opportunities.
“We are Rochester,” Mayor Warren said. “And our future is as bright as our past.”
