Mayor Leppert says ‘State of the City is Strong’

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert delivered his annual “State of the City” address to an audience of over 400 Chamber members and business leaders in September. Mayor Leppert spoke about the importance of being competitive, pushing economic development, building our downtown, protecting the environment and improving education.

Mayor Leppert focused much of his attention on the economic growth of the City of Dallas, focusing particularly on the Downtown Dallas area. In recent years, Downtown Dallas has seen growth in the number of residents, new local retail and hotel entertainment venues. The City of Dallas has also expanded its green space by adding parks and plazas to the downtown area.

To highlight the economic growth of the City, Mayor Leppert highlighted some very recent milestones. He mentioned the opening of DART’s Green Line, breaking ground on the Woodall Rogers Park Deck and on the Convention Center Hotel, the upcoming opening of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, as well as the progression of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, a component of the Trinity River Corridor Project.

To further capitalize on the economic development of Dallas, Mayor Leppert introduced the City of Dallas’ newest marketing effort… Bold Move. The Bold Move initiative’s main focus is to target CEOs primarily from California and the Northeast whose businesses are feeling the effects of the poor economy, tax increases, etc. This campaign highlights the benefits of moving to Dallas and how the bold move of relocating headquarters will create positive change in a company. Some of the campaign elements include videos, direct marketing, e-mails, iPhones and an invitation-only Web site.

During his address, Mayor Leppert also highlighted the achievements and progress that the City of Dallas has made in other priority areas…public safety, education and the environment. He spoke about the increased police force and the efforts the City of Dallas has made in cleaning up our neighborhoods to make Dallas a safer city.

On the education front, Mayor Leppert discussed the need for significant improvement. Although, Dallas Independent School District has made strides by increasing the number of recognized and exemplary schools as well as increasing the number of programs offered to students, the Mayor said there is still a lot of work to be done to improve education.

He also discussed the significant improvements that the City of Dallas has made in promoting environmental issues, specifically related to the City’s adoption of comprehensive green building standards.

Mayor Leppert ended his address saying that the ‘State of the City is strong’ and highlighted some keys to future success. He focused on the importance of the public and private sectors working together to strengthen the city and stressed the importance of looking to the future. He said, “As we work together and build on the foresight of those who were willing to take risks to build this City… we will set the stage for a future that is stronger, more productive and more promising than ever.”

For more information, please contact Meredith Armstrong at marmstrong@dallaschamber.org.

The Dallas Regional Chamber would also like to give a special thanks to our event sponsors.
Gold Sponsors included: Atmos Energy, Bank of America and Hunt Consolidated Inc./Hunt Oil Company; Silver Sponsors included: Baylor Health Care System, Fidelity Investments and HKS Architects.