PORTLAND, Maine — Mayor Michael Brennan delivered his annual State of the City address at Portland City Hall on Wednesday evening, surrounded by city councilors and staff.
This year, Brennan started on a light note, pointing out the national attention Portland receives.
"The Huffington Post said we're one of 13 greatest destination food towns in the United States," he said.
During his speech, Brennan touched on affordable housing, economic development, education, sustainability and transportation. He also used the opportunity to outline several new goals for the city.
Brennan announced the goal of bringing citywide fiber-optic broadband Internet to Portland. "
By wiring the peninsula and by wiring the city, it will ensure our economic and social future," Brennan said. "We talk about building roads, building highways and building housing. But, one of the most important pieces of the future of the infrastructure of this city is broadband."
He announced a new program to create year-round school, giving children educational programming and healthy meals during the summer.
"Everybody looks at the summertime as a wonderful time in Maine and in the city of Portland," Brennan said. "But for too many children, it's a time they go without food. And whatever educational gains they may have made fall by the wayside."
He encouraged the city to designate publicly owned property for affordable housing during a time when he says there is a zero percent rental vacancy rate in Portland.
"We need more housing across the spectrum of housing," Brennan said. "We'll continue to work with the Trust for Public Land on the work that they are doing assessing open space and public space within the city of Portland, to determine what space is city-owned space that we will designate for affordable housing projects."
He also said it's time to develop Forest Avenue.
"I believe the future of the city and future development is tied to Forest Avenue," Brennan said. "There are great economic opportunities and residential opportunities between downtown Portland and all the way out to Morrill's Corner."
Brennan pointed out that the city needs to attract more residents.
"We are a city today that is smaller than we were in 1950 in terms of population," he said. "We do need to grow. We need to grow the city. We need to grow our population. But, that growth needs to be strategic growth, it needs to be planned growth and it needs to be strategic growth, and we also needs to have planned development."
He talked about Gov. Paul LePage's budget.
"The governor's budget now contains a great deal of uncertainty," Brennan said. "There are any number of moving parts. Some have a tremendously positive impact for Portland, and others that move us in the wrong direction. So we will be working with all of you, with the council, to analyze that budget impact and to more fully understand the effect of the budget on the city of Portland."
The annual State of the City address is required by a City Charter amended by Portland voters five years ago.