Mayor Becker’s 2015 State of the City Address

Today Mayor Ralph Becker visited Whittier Elementary for the presentation of his 2015 State of the City Address.

Mayor Becker was joined by Whittier students from grades 3-6 and aimed his speech at these future leaders with a focus on themes including air quality, the outdoor environment, mobility, housing, economic prosperity and civility.

“When I spoke to the adults last year about air quality, they weren’t very good listeners,” quipped Mayor Becker. “So, I thought maybe talking with the kids about the important issues facing our city might help bring more positive progress.”

At last year’s State of the City address, which focused on air quality and called on the Utah Legislature and Governor to take five specific actions to address the issue, students from Whittier’s fourth grade ELP class attended and sang a song they’d written about cleaning the air.

“Since the class took transit and trudged through a big snowstorm last year to attend my State of the City speech, I thought the best way I could repay their effort and commitment this year was to bring the speech to them,” said Mayor Becker.

And to keep things interesting, throughout the State of the City Address Mayor Becker encouraged students to growl whenever he said “bear”, gave everyone a “wiggle break” halfway through the address and read out wishes that the students had written on slips of paper. Wishes ranged included several for cleaner air, that everyone would have a home, and that no child would go hungry.

Mayor Becker explored themes of fairness, education, mobility and access to transit, civility and environmental protection. To learn more about Mayor Becker’s Livability Agenda, please visit http://www.slcmayor.com/#home

The complete text of Mayor Becker’s 2015 State of the City speech can be viewed at http://goo.gl/bvGgL3.