Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon gave her second State of the City address on Wednesday night in the Circle K Fieldhouse at NexusPark.

After remarks by Columbus City Council Vice President Grace Kestler, D-at-large, an invocation by Pastor Frank Griffin of Calvary Community Church and a rendition of the national anthem by Columbus North High School senior Natalie Cantu Garcia, Ferdon began her speech, discussing how “possibilities” she touched on in her inaugural State of the City address “have begun to come to fruition.”

If last year’s address was about “possibilities,” the mayor said the word-of-the-evening this year was “gratitude.”

“As you remember, last year we made it through year one as a Class 2 City and learned the game of playing with a full nine-member team,” Ferdon said as bats clinked in the background. “There were some fouls and errors— but also a lot of home runs.”

Some of those, according to the mayor, included the opening of the city’s parks and recreation spaces, AEI Fitness Center and the Healthy Communities/Cummins Teaching Kitchen as NexusPark became operational.

“Around you are local volleyball, pickleball and youth baseball teams at their regular Wednesday practice times,” Ferdon told those gathered. “We’ve been booked solid with sporting events and tournaments for months, and a few weekends ago we had a gymnastics event with more than 800 gymnasts.”

She went on to say the Midtown Green park on the southside of NexusPark and most of the exterior campus will be completed this summer, thanking the city’s parks and recreation team “for all of their work over the past seven years to get us to this point.”

“We had hurdles and bumps and have done some pivoting along the way, but the long-term goal has never changed— imagine a facility which serves the needs of our residents, visitors and focuses on health and wellness.”

On public safety, the mayor mentioned a 12% reduction in property crime since 2023 and an 18% reduction in violent crime, going on to tout the city’s fully-staffed police and fire departments and a 40% increase in training budgets approved by Columbus City Council members.

After city government experienced a cyber attack in July, $450,000 was budgeted this year for new servers as public safety becomes something municipalities need to maintain in both physical and digital spaces.

“Unfortunately, businesses, individuals, organizations and municipalities have been forced to spend an increasing amount of resources to physically protect citizens and personal data. Our goal is to be as efficient as we can with tax dollars, while protecting people and places,” Ferdon said.

Some of the more significant incoming changes to the city came on the housing front in the past year. The city completed its first housing study in a decade-plus and saw three housing developments gain local approval.

The city has allocated $9.1 million through several means, including federal and tax-increment financing (TIF) funds, towards affordable housing and homelessness in 2024.

Ferdon said two projects that will bring 174 new units of affordable housing to Columbus will break ground this summer after Thrive Alliance’s Haw Creek Meadows at 2100 Midway and TWG Development’s Flats on 14th at 1520 14th St. were awarded federal low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC).

Another 120 units of housing at market-rate price ranges, subsidized by the city through $6.4 million in TIF contribution from redevelopment, are likely to be coming online after Rubicon Development’s mixed-use development at 11th and Washington streets steadily made its way through the city government process in the past year, although not without a fair amount of resistance from community members and some city council members.

“We also have several other projects in the early stages of development which will address our needs, but we have to recognize that providing affordable, workforce and other housing is a long journey that will require dedicated strategies for years to come,” the mayor said.

That $9.1. million also includes $500,000 in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding that went towards the implementation of United Way of Bartholomew County’s homelessness initiative, announced during Ferdon’s first State of the City.

“Our community has shown extraordinary compassion in helping those in need and we’ve seen evidence of that this year as individuals, churches and businesses in this community have been very engaged in public private efforts,” she said.

Ferdon said United Way is working with 57 people experiencing homelessness and have secured stable housing for 36 of them in collaboration with local agencies like Love Chapel, VIMCare, Centerstone, CRH, and the Community Engagement Center, among others.

Other areas the mayor addressed were what the city has learned so far as it nears the completion of its transportation study, an incoming new animal care shelter and the city’s ongoing Downtown Columbus 2030 plan, along with a paired down remake of the city’s riverfront that will focus on safety aspects including the removal of the low-head dam in the East Fork White River and connecting to the People Trail.

Towards the end, Ferdon discussed this quote from J. Irwin Miller: “We would like to see this community come to be, not the cheapest, but the very best community of its size in the country.”

With that in mind, the mayor asked how that statement could be adopted as a collective vision for the future “that ensures we maintain a long-term focus on key community initiatives, regardless of short-term needs.”

Tentatively titled “Vision 2050,” the mayor said more information will be available about it later this year.

“Our desire to be the best focuses our attention on areas where we aren’t, and need to improve,” Ferdon said in conclusion. “So yes, we’re strong, and I’m grateful to you for making this a place we can aspire to be bold, brave, and unapologetic about wanting to be a welcoming community which people call home.”
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