State of the City Address & Luncheon will be held today, February 22, from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm at the Tucson Convention Center ballroom, 260 S. Church.

The Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Greater Tucson Leadership sponsors this annual event. It is an opportunity for the 3 term Republican Mayor of Tucson to present the State of the City Address to residents outlining accomplishments and goals for the city.

Advance copy of the Mayor’s speech today:

MAYOR WALKUP TO ANNOUNCE HE WILL NOT RUN AGAIN IN FINAL STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS

“It has been a great joy to give these addresses and a great
privilege to serve as your Mayor. There is no greater satisfaction in
life that serving one’s community and working for the common good.
But now Beth and I need to take care of our families and each other.”

In his final State of the City Address, Mayor Walkup articulates his
vision for Tucson today and into the future. Tucson seeks “the
highest quality of life and place for all of our people.” And in
order to meet the needs of both our people and of our fragile desert, we
must strike “that delicate balance between our economy and our
environment.”

Tucson’s successes over the last decade have come when the community
has come together to support policies that achieve these twin
objectives. We stabilized our water system after the water wars of the
1990s, reducing our dependence on groundwater and restoring parts of our
central aquifer. We passed a multi-modal regional transportation plan
that balance roads and transit investments and served the entire region.
These and other ongoing efforts to reform the land use code, revitalize
downtown and focus on high-tech jobs all aim to meet these twin goals.

Looking to the future, Mayor Walkup lays out specific challenges to our
community. These include: supporting the University of Arizona and
other education and health care systems, immigration reform, city
charter reform, city budget focus on quality core services, continued
investments in public safety and increased investments in technology.

Mayor Walkup says, “We should be very proud of how far Tucson has
come. And while we find ourselves in very difficult times, opportunity
abounds for individuals and communities that can see the future and act
decisively to grab it.”

Contact:
Andrew Greenhill, Chief of Staff
(520) 791-4201

UPDATE: I attended the lunch, along with about 600/700 other business/professional people, and City of Tucson staffers. All Tucson City Councilmembers from wards 1 to 6 were present, along with representatives from the offices of U.S. Senator Kyl, Congressmember Giffords, Governor Brewer, and Sandra Kennedy, Corporation Commissioner. Mayors from the Cities of Marana, Oro Valley, and Sahuarita were also introduced, along with some of their Councilmembers.

The Mayor spoke of the recent January 8 tragedy and how that brought us together, and his hopes for a more viable economy. I have posted the entire text of his speech separately. (By the way I sat at the table with “The Man who Would be Mayor”, Democrat Jonathan Rothschild, and Tucson Weekly’s reporter Jim Nintzel.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011 at 10:48 am and is filed under Life, Politics. Tags for this post: Andrew Greenhill, City of Tucson, Greater Tucson Leadership, Jim Nintzel, Jonathan Rothschild, Mayor Bob Walkup, State of the City address & luncheon, Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.