I want to begin today by acknowledging the tremendous commitment that the members of our City Council make to this city each and every day. Their hard work and dedication to Kansas City is commendable. I also want to thank City Manager Cauthen, the thousands of hardworking members of the City staff, and in particular, the members of my staff in the Mayor’s office. And, special thanks to the hundreds of Kansas Citians who serve as volunteers on our many boards and commissions. Council members, City staff, volunteers and other citizens are all people who keep this city moving forward. Give yourselves a round of applause.

A year ago in my State of the City Address, I talked about creating the “New Kansas City.”

We now see this New Kansas City coming to life throughout our community. We no longer have to “imagine” what it will look like, we are starting to see it. Today I’ll outline further what this new city can become in the future.

The biggest mistake we could make is to pat ourselves on the back for the progress we’ve already made – rather than expanding our vision for the years and decades ahead.

Therefore, our vision for the future should include:

1. Expanding our emphasis on basic services...
2. Escalating city-wide residential development.
3. Addressing the spike in violent crime in our community.
4. Increasing momentum on the revitalization of our greater Downtown.
5. Implementing an expanded connectivity strategy for the River-Crown-Plaza.
6. Moving forward a new concept for Truman Boulevard downtown.
7. Supporting and encouraging to a new level the life sciences initiatives underway at the Stowers Institute.
8. A major expansion of economic development at Kansas City International Airport which will be unrivaled in the nation.
9. Creating an intermodel port between Kansas City and Mexico that will be the envy of every city in this country.

This may sound like an ambitious set of initiatives to address – it is. But cities on the move don’t rest. Now is the time for us to be even more visionary…to be more creative, and more innovative.

And frankly, setting ambitious goals for this city is an activity about which we now have some experience.

Before we take a brief look at each of these priorities, I want to make a comment that may be as important as anything I say today… That is, economic development and the health of neighborhoods are inextricably bound together. It is through economic development that job opportunities for citizens are created and additional tax revenues are generated. These revenues enable City government to more successfully provide basic services and respond to neighborhood priorities.