Page last updated on March 9, 2023 at 4:12 pm
Each week, Mayor Hamilton, Deputy Mayor Carmichael, and other city employees provide video updates on recent news and key initiatives. Access all of the weekly video updates at bloomington.in.gov/videoupdates.
Join Mayor John Hamilton and Deputy Mayor Mary Catherine Carmichael as they discuss the State of the City event held on February 23 at the Waldron Arts Center.
Mayor Hamilton's eighth State of the City Address featured three main sections: reflecting on the last seven years of accomplishments and thanking staff, priorities and projects still to come in 2023, and imagining Bloomington in 2030 and the opportunities/challenges ahead.
Since 2016, the Hamilton Administration, in collaboration with City Council and the community, has helped coordinate an unprecedented series of advancements in Bloomington and has been noted or awarded for various city strengths. Visit https://bton.in/8vYDQ for a list of selected accomplishments.
Access Mayor Hamilton's entire State of the City remarks, slide presentation, and a video of the complete program provided by CATS at: https://bton.in/0LY8n
Transcript
John Hamilton:
Hello. I'm Mayor John Hamilton
Mary Catherine Carmichael:
And I'm Deputy Mayor Mary Catherine Carmichael. Recently we did; I can't believe these words are leaving my mouth, the eighth State of the City since you've been mayor.
John Hamilton:
We did. Bloomington, we've seen eight years now of reporting on things, and it was a big night, really fun. We did it at the Waldron this time, the first time ever, and it really was kind of three separate things. The first was part thank you and part look back. I mean, we have 16 cabinet department heads who just do fantastic work, and I wanted to really highlight them, and brought them each up to the stage, and thanked them, and kind of rapid-fire talked about accomplishments. There's just too much to talk about, all the public safety work, the jobs, the housing, the quality of the life, climate, all that stuff, but that was a really fun celebration.
Mary Catherine Carmichael:
Yeah, that was fun, and we haven't done anything like that before, so it made this night unique, so that was a neat thing.
John Hamilton:
There was even a soundtrack for it.
Mary Catherine Carmichael:
Yeah, it was pretty good.
John Hamilton:
Then the second thing was really, and that first one, by the way, we said our city is doing great. We're in a really strong position. The State of the City is strong financially, the prospects and all. Then I talked a little bit about 2023 itself and what's coming. We know we have $32 million of public safety investments. That's a big deal coming for our new police headquarters and fire facilities, et cetera.
We know we've got fiber coming. It's being built right now all through the city, miles and miles of fiber coming in, and that's going to really change our city, and 2023 should be a big landmark for that. We have a new 501(c)(3), a new nonprofit that's going to be helping us move forward with Hopewell and all that development. And then I also made a new announcement that we're looking at a major waste-to-energy facility at our wastewater treatment plant.
Mary Catherine Carmichael:
Yeah, yeah. Pretty unique too.
John Hamilton:
It's unusual. We don't know for sure if it can work. We'll be doing some more in the coming weeks, but 2023 will be busy with all of that going on and more. And then the last piece, I kind of took the liberty of trying to imagine Bloomington in 2030.
Mary Catherine Carmichael:
Mm-hmm. I think you did more than imagined it. You tried to inspire at the same time. I'll give you credit for that. Thank you.
John Hamilton:
All right. I try. I don't know anyway. So I really talked about four big challenges and opportunities. I mean, I've been in this seat, it's hard to change sometimes, but it's really important to change. And one of them was about climate, just being a climate leader that we're going to have to do it, the state's not going to do it. We have the capacity to do it. I kind of imagined what if we had the best public transit system in any small city in America. We're on our way there, but what would it mean? And that's, of course, just part of climate, but we're investing in that.
The second was really leaning into the job growth, and the new economy, and how we can work with Indiana University, and our workforce and education, and training, and all the quality of life that is driven by that too.
The third thing was talking about housing. In a way, it's thinking about what we've seen on both coasts, those who've been familiar, seeing how cities just get stuck because it is so expensive, and what we can do to make that better. And I really challenged us to think about making room for a 30% growth in our population with housing to make room for people so everybody can live here.
Mary Catherine Carmichael:
Yeah, that's a continuing challenge for our community.
John Hamilton:
It is huge. And we see how not to do it, I think in some ways so we're working on it. And then the last thing I talked about were two areas that are not really the city's responsibility, but really important to us in this.
Mary Catherine Carmichael:
And impact the city.
John Hamilton:
They affect all of us in the city, public health and the criminal justice system
Mary Catherine Carmichael:
Very connected.
John Hamilton:
They really are. We're not where we ought to be on that. We have resources at the county level do it. So I talked about the importance of that.
Mary Catherine Carmichael:
Right, right. You know we shouldn't wrap this up before we thank our hosts at the Waldron Art Center. They've done such a beautiful job, made such an investment in that building. Constellation Stage & Screen has just been a terrific partner to work with. We still own the building. By we, I mean all of us residents of Bloomington still own that building, but they're doing a lovely job of operating it. They've got the galleries up and running, and it's a neat space.
John Hamilton:
It's a great space. And we also had high school poets, and we had pianists, and violinists, and opera singers who made it a really beautiful event.
Mary Catherine Carmichael:
That's right. Hey, it's an art center, so you had to include the arts.
John Hamilton:
There's a lot of detail. If you want to watch the whole speech or read parts of it, any part of it, you can get that online. And thanks for all of what you do, paying attention to it, and I hope you find it educational.
Mary Catherine Carmichael:
Thanks for watching. I'm Mary Catherine Carmichael.
John Hamilton:
Mayor John Hamilton.