State of City Address

Year 2002

Mayor Don Cunningham
State of the City Address
City of Bethlehem
January 22, 2002

Today I'm honored to present my fifth state-of-the-city address and the first of my second term in office. Just a little more than two weeks ago, I took the oath for my second term in office. At that time, I commented on how quickly the last four years went by - and the pleasure and honor it is to serve as your mayor.

As I stand here before this group that has done so much for this city, I can't help but note that the most lasting impression that I've taken from my first term is how astounded I've been time and again at the community spirit of Bethlehem's people. They are passionate about their city. They are deeply respectful of its past and profoundly concerned for its future.

The question I am asked most is not about taxes or development or even basic services. The question I am asked most is: "How can I help?" How can I help with this project or that, with this task force or that, with this special event, or that economic program. I am mayor of this city, but I have always had 72,000 assistants willing to lend a hand. It makes the job so much easier.

Since September 11 of last year, we all as Americans have seen a renewed sense of community in our nation. We are all more ready to lend a hand, to offer comfort or assistance, to honor our everyday heroes, to be a proud and active member of the larger community.

Those of us lucky enough to call Bethlehem home have seen that community spirit in action for many years, for many generations, in fact. Perhaps it is even stronger after September 11, but it was always there, always evident, always strong even before.

And that is why, in this era of great change in Bethlehem, in a time of fiscal austerity and economic renaissance, we have every reason to be optimistic. Thanks to the people of Bethlehem and their spirit, the state of our city is always very good.

Today, I'm happy to say - as I've said four times before -- the state of our city remains very good. Investment in Bethlehem is up, jobs are up, construction is up. Taxes - at least city taxes - are not up, for the fourth consecutive year. City finances are stable. City services continue to improve - we have more police, more paramedics, better fire equipment, better parks and recreation facilities, more aggressive snow removal and leaf collection.

The past four years have been busy and exciting and - I believe - full of progress. But in this era of transition for the City of Bethlehem, the future is still to be determined. Challenges and opportunities loom before us; our success as a community will require public policy that is both wise and bold. I believe we have made the right decisions in the last four years; but the next four years and beyond require new thinking, new ideas, new decisions.

Today, let's look to the future. It has always been a tradition of Bethlehem to respect the past while building for tomorrow.

As all of you know, challenges remain. There is more work to be done. Much more work. That's what we are here today to talk about. Let's take a look at where we are as a city right now and what challenges and opportunities we face.

As always, by way of organization, I'll focus on three areas of priority - the same three on which I've focused since my first mayoral campaign in 1997. First, economic development and job growth. Second, the financial stability of city government. And third, the provision of basic city services.

In the first area - economic development - the City of Bethlehem remains in a great era of transition. The movement continues from an economy based on one industry - steel - to a more broadly based, but just as dynamic, economy.

The last year alone has seen great economic progress. The $600 million Conectiv power plant - the city's largest single economic project in more than 40 years - moved forward through the regulatory process and, in fact, began construction last week.

In our north side downtown, the hole at Broad and Main was finally filled after 30 years by the new $24 million Liberty Center and public parking garage. Federal funding was secured for this year's re-opening of the Broad Street plaza mall. On the South Side, plans moved forward for a third technology center. Lehigh University began construction for its $23 million Campus Square in our south side downtown. Just as important, it seemed that a new restaurant or shop or business opened on every street corner of our two thriving commercial districts. From the largest corporations to the smallest of small businesses, everyone wanted to make an investment in Bethlehem.

But Bethlehem's new economy is still far from secure. And the year past was not without its troubles. We were disappointed - although not surprised - when Bethlehem Steel declared bankruptcy. That muddied the waters regarding the redevelopment of Steel land comprising one-sixth of the city's total acreage. The rejuvenation of that land is still the most important part of Bethlehem's economic renaissance.

I believe the Steel's bankruptcy will not alter the long-term prospects for redeveloping that land. It is too important to our city; we cannot afford to fail at rebuilding the land that has housed the engine of our economy for the last 100 years. But in the short-term, the redevelopment efforts have at least become more unsettled.

We are heartened by news that both Majestic Realty and LVIP are interested in Steel land for building business parks, projects that could represent hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and thousands of new jobs.

As in the past four years, city government will play its role in this process by supporting development with needed public infrastructure. Last year we built $13 million of roads, utility extensions, and glistening new streetscapes on 80 acres of the Steel land, worked with Northampton County officials to secure $13 million in county funding for construction of an access road, and advanced plans for the upgrade and improvement of Route 412 from the I-78 interchange deep into South Bethlehem.

And we will continue to make prudent and reasonable public investments to further economic development - if and only if, after careful public deliberation, these investments are determined to be absolutely necessary for economic progress. That goes for Steel land and non-Steel land. Last year we completed $400,000 in streetscape improvements for our north side downtown; this year we will use nearly $2 million in state funding to improve streetscapes in the Southside business district - as we continue to work to develop our second downtown retail district.

And - moving on to the second broad topic, city finances - I'm happy to say that we have seen economic growth and made public investments while still balancing City Hall budgets and not increasing taxes.

In doing my reading and preparing for today's speech, I came across a line from my last state-of-the-city address. It still holds true today and I think it's worth repeating: While we in Bethlehem are enjoying a cultural and economic renaissance, we are still in a time of fiscal austerity in City Hall. Job number one for us will continue to be keeping the cost of city government down.

That's because our real estate tax revenues - the main source of city funds - have remained flat or dropped slightly in recent years, during a time of great national and regional economic growth. Despite development across Bethlehem, our real estate tax base has actually shrunk by nearly $50 million because of the downward reassessment of Bethlehem Steel property.

So in Bethlehem we know we have to run a tight fiscal ship. We've slashed wasteful spending, dropped expensive consultants, rebid and renegotiated nearly all contracts with outside vendors. We've redirected resources away from non-essential uses to important basic services like police, fire, roads, and parks.

This year, we implemented an early retirement plan that will result in substantial savings to our taxpayers and at the same time has allowed us to reorganize and reduce the size of our workforce - all while not laying off employees.

We also put behind us the stranded debt left over from the losses sustained from the city landfill being reopened in the early 1990s at the cost of $35 million. Through creative financial work, Dennis Reichard and his team have lifted the last remaining black cloud of this city's debt challenges.

And we've aggressively pursued economic development, trying to increase our tax base, not our tax rates. We've improved collection of traditional revenue sources like taxes and aggressively pursued innovative sources like timbering.

And we've managed to balance four budgets in a row with no tax increase. Sometimes in City Hall or out in the community, people say to me: "Well, why are you so against tax increases? It's got to happen sometime. Other government bodies keep increasing our taxes."

My answer is this: When you're mayor of an older American city, struggling to rebuild your economic base, fighting every day to keep jobs and residents from moving to some new suburban greenfield development, fighting for the renaissance of a grand old city - you can't afford to hike taxes every year or two.

You need a stable tax environment to attract investment in the city, to recruit and retain jobs, to make city living affordable for hard-working families. The record of American cities that have not held the line on taxes is, quite frankly, miserable. High taxes chase away families and businesses. High taxes leave in their wake urban decay. And that simply won't do in Bethlehem.

All this fiscal austerity would be meaningless, however, if we in City Hall did not provide excellent basic services - our third area of priority.

What does the average resident of Bethlehem want out of city government? I'll tell you what: Safe neighborhoods, safe streets, clean and safe parks and playgrounds. They want the assurance of great fire, police, and ambulance service. And they want their leaves collected, their snow removed, and their recycling picked up - on time, every time. And they want it all done without taxes going through the roof.

So we have invested heavily in services in the past four years. We have the largest police force in city history - adding two officers this year -- and we saw a drop of more than 15 percent in robberies and burglaries in the city, our largest crime problem. In addition, we now have the largest paramedic squad. We've upgraded all major fire apparatus. We've repaved more roads than in any comparable four-year period in city history. We've spent more than a million dollars improving 15 neighborhood parks, making them safer for our children. We've completed the Monocacy Way hiking trail and improved our ice skating rink.

Our award-winning Strategic Neighborhood Action Plan has reached nearly a dozen city neighborhoods. We've passed new ordinances to better regulate rental housing, blighted buildings, and abandoned vehicles. We've brought a new customer service orientation to City Hall, running a pothole hotline, mounting an anti-graffiti campaign, and aggressively upgrading snow removal and leaf collection.

But we cannot rest on the achievements of the past four years. There is always room for improvement in basic services.

Just as four years ago, we launched our Strategic Neighborhood Action Plan, this year we will launch a comprehensive City Livability initiative. My goal - and I think we are already there, but there is always room for improvement - is to make Bethlehem the most livable - and visitable -- city in Pennsylvania for residents and visitors.

We have begun several initiatives under this program.

• This year we will present a $100,000 plan for directional signage for entering the city as well as signs to guide people to points of interest within the city.
• We will continue to improve our efforts in pedestrian safety. Working with the Coalition for Alternative Transportation, Bethlehem led the way in this area - all you need to do is see our bright, fluorescent pedestrian crossing signs. There are other new and innovative plans in the works.
• A new planning department this year will undertake major looks at improving the appearance of our Five Points gateway, use of the Steel land, and finally giving the proper attention deserved to an improvement plan for our West Broad Street corridor in West Bethlehem.
• As I mentioned, we will open the Monocacy Way - a one-of-a-kind, two-and-a-half mile long walkway through our city.
• We will continue our massive upgrade of city neighborhood parks and start the expansion of Sand Island.
• Our Parking Authority will become part of our economic development team and work with the business community, our neighborhood groups, and our visitor service entities to be a partner in the improvement of Bethlehem.
• And, we will continue our improvement and expansion of the tourism and marketing efforts in Bethlehem, which began with our privatization of those services and resulted in one of the best financial Christmas seasons in recent history for our merchants, restaurants and hotels.

There is always a way to do things more efficiently and more effectively. There are always ways to better tailor services to specific neighborhoods and specific needs. Our streets and parks can never be too clean or too safe, our crime rate can never be too low, and our services can never be too good.