On Friday, April 15, the Mayor delivered her State of the City address to the Greater Houston Partnership. This annual event is one of the largest of the year and I have been attending it through several Mayors.
Approximately 1500 leading Houstonians from the business sector and elected leadership gathered to listen to the Mayor’s speech. It was originally scheduled for what became Houston’s “Snow”, I mean “Ice” day.
One of the more interesting ironies of the luncheon was that Blue Cross Blue Shield was the lead, named sponsor of the event. Earlier this year, they were fighting to retain their health insurance contract with the City but have since lost that battle to Cigna.
The Mayor’s first State of the City address last year was full of pomp and circumstance with the Rice band playing and optimism radiating through the luncheon. Not so much the case this year. It was much more of a typical business lunch and austerity seemed to be the message of the day.
The Mayor talked about the challenges she has faced with the budget and the fight to secure NASA jobs in Houston. Admittedly, Mayor Parker has faced a tougher time than any Mayor since Kathy Whitmire in the 1980s.
With announcements of extreme budget cuts to NASA, the impending relocation of Continental Airlines headquarters to United in Chicago and rapidly falling tax revenues, the problems just keep coming.
Yet, she had good news to report. The following are highlights of her success from the speech:
•Houston has had the largest 5 year employment gain;
•Houston is the best place to start a new career;
•Houston has the highest level of entrepreneurial activity of any of the largest metro areas;
•Violent crime is down and Houston Police Officers have negotiated a new contract that keeps experienced officers and places more officers on the street;
•A new stadium will be built for the Houston Dynamo and will serve to revitalize East Downtown, now called E-Do;
•Drainage and streets will be repaired on a “pay-as-you-go” basis with the implementation of Proposition 1/Rebuild Houston;
•Passage of the Historical Preservation Ordinance;
•Houston ranks 8th in the nation in the number of LEED certified buildings.
One comment the Mayor used in her speech has sparked some controversy. She related to the budget this way: “A tight budget is like a corset – it hold things in and emphasizes the assets.”
The crowd responded with a laugh and many people truly liked the comment. Personally, I didn’t care for it. Corsets were meant to hide the true nature of women and some literally died from the excruciating pain while others passed out frequently. I’m sure this is not the message she meant to convey – hiding and presenting a false image – but it did not sit well with this Women in Politics teacher.
You can read the full text of the speech here.
Very informative blog Nancy, thanks. I think the better analogy is: Budgets, like corsettes, are often a necessary evil.
P.S. I’m dying to take off my corsett.
Good job, Nancy, of covering Mayor Parker’s State of the City speech. Did you notice the music playing in the background? It was different to hear Patsy Cline’s love song “Crazy” at a GHP luncheon.
Re. the corset comment. The Mayor is just not very bright. When during the weekly meeting councilmemembers move to delay an item for a week, it is called a “tag”. When several people tagged an item, the Mayor thought it was very funny to say it was “gang-tagged.” Appalled, CM Clutterbuck asked her several times to stop saying that. And when she finally called out the Mayor during a meeting, saying “I plead with you”, the Mayor was clearly pissed off. But I believe she has finally stopped.