New Britain State of the City
Mayor Tim Stewart delivered a State of the City address earlier this week. Here are some things contained within that I’d like to hear more about:
As the year progresses, I intend to move forward with a comprehensive “Clean City” initiative designed to make New Britain a cleaner and environmentally better city for all of our residents.
The “Clean City” program is designed to encourage a spirit of cooperation and community responsibility. This will be a collective effort to enhance the City’s appearance, encourage business and property owners to join the effort and enforce environmental, health and safety rules and regulations.
Stewart goes on to say that the first step is a rollout of some 95 gallon trash containers. Well, they’ve already come to my neighborhood. What’s interesting is that I live in a three family house, and so we received three containers–but we barely fill up one. Trash is collected weekly, and if people are separating their recyclables as they should, should they really generate 95 gallons of waste per week? Most of the homes on my block are three family–and I don’t recall seeing more than one of these receptacles actually pushed to the curb at any of them.
One of the most exciting accomplishments of this past year was a partnership between our City and Habitat for Humanity. With the help of many dedicated volunteers, we were able to provide new homes for several families who will invest in their own future as well as that of our city.
What was once a blighted neighborhood is now home to a block of single family homes that will enhance the value of other properties and make the area a safer and more attractive place in which to live.
Because of the success of last year’s effort, we will again this year work with Habitat to provide even more families with homes of their own. It is a program that benefits everyone in our community and enables deserving families to realize the dream of owning their own home.
That’s good news.
Finally, the finances of our City remain sound. Three tax cuts in three years, balanced budgets, a boost in the City’s bond rating all indicate that fiscally New Britain is on sound footing and should remain that way for the foreseeable future.
Of course, we must remain committed to limiting the growth of City spending and to finding new ways to make our operations more efficient and effective.
It sounds great, but it’s not very ambitious. I had hoped to read about the solar energy project at New Britain High School. Stewart talks about his vision of New Britain, and it’s fine, but it doesn’t inspire me. Jobs are mentioned twice, but with no indication as to what kind. Famous Dave’s restaurant is alluded to, which surely brought a handful of jobs to town, but the service industry isn’t going to buoy New Britain.
I think that’s where Stewart is going to be very weak. We need a mayor who can bring good jobs to the city. Don’t get me wrong, the new garbage cans are very nice. And in the event that we don’t get more jobs here, at least they’re big enough to sleep in.