Mayor Malik Evans’ State of the City address on Wednesday focused on “momentum” — providing a look back on his first term in office.
It also set the stage for a re-election campaign to come.
He used the word “momentum” 52 times throughout the hour-long speech — second only to “Rochester,” which was used 83 times.
Little in the way of new initiatives or projects was announced during the address, delivered at the William A. Johnson Jr. Terminal Building at the Port of Rochester in Charlotte. Rather, the State of the City speech recounted some of Evans’ proudest accomplishments over the past three years.
Public safety was a focus. Evans took office in 2022, with the city still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and some of its worst violent crime rates in decades. In 2021, for example, the city saw 85 homicides and 419 shootings, Rochester Police Department data shows.
Those numbers have dropped significantly in the years since. In 2024, the city saw 47 homicides and 205 shootings.
While still somewhat high, those figures are more in line with trends prior to the pandemic.
“Rochester is getting safer,” Evans said. “That is what momentum looks like. And the true signs of our momentum toward a safer Rochester are visible beyond the numbers.”
Evans’ top priorities have been housing, development, and small businesses. He pointed to programs like the Kiva crowd-funded microloan program. That program — allowing small businesses to access loans outside the traditional banking system — started under former-Mayor Lovely Warren.
A total of $1.5 million in loans have been given from the program, $200,000 of which was recorded last year.
“This is what we not me looks like. This is what us moving Rochester forward together looks like,” Evans said.
A key focus of Evans’ environmental efforts has been toward the concept of “tree equity.” That concept focuses on the dearth of trees in low-income, often majority Black neighborhoods in the city.
Evans said he is on quest to be the “Johnny Appleseed of mayors.”
“We’re on-pace to fulfill my pledge to plant 6,000 street trees within Rochester’s urban forest by the end of this year and close the gap in tree disparity between affluent and low-income neighborhoods,” Evans said.
On the housing front, Evans pointed to a slew of efforts, many of which started under previous administrations but have been continued or bolstered in his time in the office. Among them were the Buy the Block program, which allows first-time homeowners to buy affordable houses renovated by the city.
“As we create more opportunities for our residents to find secure housing, we continue to also invest in the ongoing physical transformation of Rochester and our region’s quality of life,” Evans said.
Evans, if re-elected, also stands to oversee at least a portion of some of the largest development projects the city has seen in years. Among those are Aqueduct Reimagined, High Falls State Park, and the filling in of Inner Loop North.
“We’re not going to repeat the sins of the past, when the voices of those who lived in the neighborhoods along the Inner Loop’s path were ignored,” Evans said of the 1.5 mile-long, $220 million undertaking. “We’re going to make sure this project reflects the will of the people who live in that area.”
Evans is challenged in the June Democratic primary election by City Councilmember Mary Lupien and businessman Shashi Sinha.
Lupien, who attended the State of the City, said that Evans’ speech failed to address the needs of the city of Rochester.
“It’s important that we need to do more with less,” Lupien said. “And we have to stop prioritizing these giant projects like the aqueduct, like expanding the BlueCross Arena and (Joseph A. Floreano) Convention Center with COVID relief money. The community overwhelmingly said do not spend the money in that way, and we did it anyway.”
Among Lupien’s top campaign priorities are expanding access to affordable housing and implementing a city-wide guaranteed basic income program that she describes as one of the largest of its kind in the country.
Sinha, meanwhile, said he would respond to Evans’ address Thursday morning.
