Editors note: WXXI News will broadcast the State of the City address live in on FM 105.9. The address is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Tune in to hear Mayor Malik Evan's address and post-speech analysis and wrap-up from WXXI's Gino Fanelli and Brian Sharp. Or click here for a weblink to a livestream of the speech.
Mayor Malik Evans’ final State of the City address of his first term will take place Wednesday evening.
Evans will give the address beginning at 6 p.m. at the William A. Johnson Jr. Terminal Building at the Port of Rochester in Charlotte.
The State of the City is an annual speech in which mayors tout their accomplishments over the past year, and lay out their priorities for the coming year. Last year, Evans’ speech at the Linc on East Main Street painted a rosy picture of Rochester, pointing to declining violent crime and rising property values
“From City Hall to the County Office Building, to the State Capitol in Albany, to the halls of Congress in Washington, all of Rochester’s elected leaders are working together toward the same fundamental goal: empower the people of Rochester to reach their full potential, so the city of Rochester can reach its full potential,” Evans said at the time.
Facing re-election, Evans’ State of the City this year will be his last catch-all address before the June primary. He faces four Democratic challengers, in Councilmember Mary Lupien, businessman Shashi Sinha, and Minister Clifford Florence.
Where the governor’s State of the State and the president’s State of the Union are both required addresses to the legislative branch outlined in the New York and U.S. constitutions, no such requirement exists for mayors, though most mayors of cities big and small perform some version of a State of the City out of tradition.
In Rochester, the tradition dates back at least to 1995, when then-Mayor Johnson spoke for 30 minutes delivering a pointed address to an audience of 300 in the atrium of City Hall.
The speech was front-page news in the next day’s Democrat and Chronicle, with Johnson recounting the city’s efforts on public safety, education and jobs — and a call for action after a year in which the city saw 66 homicides, 41 of whom were Black males.
It was Johnson’s second year in office. He would serve through 2005. He said in his era the speech was a way to stand before a captive audience and speak to them face-to-face. In the social media age, he said, such a practice is less valuable.
“I’m not going to second guess anybody on why they still do it, it’s still an opportunity to physically connect with your constituency,” Johnson said. “But in terms of the message, and the vehicle for that message, I think that may have changed from my time.”
Johnson recalled, for example, the annual State of the State address being a pivotal place to be for every elected New York Democrat. Likewise, State of the City was a major chance to stand by your actions, explain the good work being done, and quell concerns of the bad.
It was, in many ways, the signature of each year of a mayor’s term.
But that was before City Hall was on social media, and before the mayor could share whatever message they wanted multiple times a week in a way that could easily reach more people than a place like Arbor at the Port could seat.
Johnson said the State of the City may have outlived its original purpose as a capstone political event, but it still fares best as an avenue to reach people where they are with the issues that matter to them.
“It’s not to get up there and pound your chest and say, ‘I’m great, I did this, that, and the other,’” Johnson said. “But here we are trying to solve real problems.”
Includes reporting by WXXI enterprise and investigations editor Brian Sharp.
