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REGULAR MEETING
<br />participation rate is high, because sometimes those unemploym
<br />deceptive if people have dropped out of the workforce. Of cours
<br />but it is nice to see that it's above the average. The City's popul
<br />pace that is modest, but—at that pace— represents the fastest we
<br />century. We are seeing a lot of residential units, including quite
<br />downtown area. The period for the absorption of those residents
<br />year. We will find out which demand remains. I did want to stre
<br />this community— $34,000 per year —and the per- capita persona
<br />surprise to many. We remain a community with a great many to
<br />percent (28 %), according to the Census Bureau, were below the
<br />it numbers can be a little
<br />we would like to drive it up,
<br />Lion is growing, once again, at a
<br />have seen in about a quarter of a
<br />few coming online in the
<br />I units is really going to be this
<br />s, though, the median income in
<br />income of $19,000 comes as a
<br />i- income residents: twenty -eight
<br />ederal poverty rate.
<br />Mayor Buttigieg continued, We are approaching the completion
<br />f Smart Streets— pending
<br />weather, which could affect the construction schedule —but our intention
<br />was to, by the end of
<br />the Fall, complete anything that would require lane closures. So
<br />the ongoing work you are going
<br />to see is principally signal - related and streetscape - related work that
<br />will continue until the final
<br />completion date of June, which should not significantly affect tr
<br />ffic. We issued the Executive
<br />Order a little over a year ago, establishing the Diversity and Inclusion
<br />initiative, and the work
<br />associated with that initiative is now going full- steam - ahead, thanks
<br />to the efforts of our
<br />Diversity and Inclusion officer, Christina Brooks in cooperation
<br />with City partners. We are one
<br />of the few cities of a scale and size in this region that did not exI
<br />lerience a substantial uptick in
<br />homicide. In fact, homicides are down to fourteen (14) in 2016.
<br />e believe the Group Violence
<br />Intervention, which has enjoyed support from this Council, is partly
<br />to credit for that, but we
<br />continue to work hard and be vigilant in making sure that we dri
<br />ve down the rates of group and
<br />gang- related gun violence in the City.
<br />ially break that down now by
<br />Mayor Buttigieg continued, The priority -based budgeting appro
<br />ch helps us clear up our
<br />priorities for the 2017 budget, but it is really in the year ahead tt,
<br />at you will see the best of what
<br />that process has to offer: laying out the specific uses of the our f
<br />mds in a way that's different
<br />from our traditional fund -based accounting. There are some chaj
<br />Lges in the way we approach
<br />placemaking in the City. A new Department of Venues, Parks, and
<br />Arts that represents the
<br />reorganization of previous departments and is already underway
<br />on several placemaking
<br />initiatives —it is through that department that we are working to
<br />mplement the Riverfront Parks
<br />and Trailers initiative, thanks to the Regional Cities grant that the
<br />Region won from the State,
<br />including our City, adding up to some $42,000,000. Mayor Butt
<br />gieg presented to the Council
<br />and public a chart breaking down 311 calls. Mayor Buttigieg sta
<br />ed, When we look at the 311
<br />calls, we have been able to start mapping them. Water Works ac
<br />punts for 44,926 calls; Solid
<br />Waste is the next largest category, followed by people reaching
<br />he Mayor's Office. I just want
<br />to give you a sense of what people are calling about. We can act
<br />ially break that down now by
<br />district, if you are interested in seeing whether your district, frlaot
<br />a City Council perspective,
<br />accounted for more calls on one issue or another issue. We thi
<br />that this is going to allow us to
<br />better serve residents, and I would note that every district sees
<br />of callers to that 311 line.
<br />Mayor Buttigieg continued, We also have conducted a neighbor
<br />ood survey to find out how
<br />community residents feel about the assets in their City. The area
<br />where residents express the
<br />greatest satisfaction were streets, parks, and housing. The areas
<br />here residents expressed the
<br />least satisfaction had to do with sidewalks, and the variety of businesses.
<br />Regarding the variety
<br />of businesses, approximately half of the community described themselves
<br />as dissatisfied or
<br />extremely dissatisfied; when it came to the condition of sidewall
<br />s, about the samea total of
<br />forty- six - point -six percent (46.6 %) dissatisfied. I know that the
<br />Zouncil has been speaking a lot
<br />about the importance of sidewalks, so this backs that up. Again,
<br />ve can give you a district -by-
<br />district breakdown of this, if that's helpful, to give you a sense
<br />what's on people's minds. TIF
<br />is always a hot topic, so I wanted to give you a very broad ove
<br />ew of where TIF funding went
<br />in 2015 and 2016. The bulk of it was invested in the River West
<br />TIF area. The River East area
<br />accounted for approximately $10,000,000, and the south side, $
<br />,000,000. In terms of where that
<br />went, just over half was for what we call "public infrastructure.'
<br />So, we're thinking about things
<br />that benefited the neighborhood of the area or the community br
<br />adly. Forty -five percent (45 %)
<br />was more specific to a particular project: a capital expenditure o
<br />infrastructure design to have a
<br />particular building or particular business expansion take place. I
<br />you map the seventy (70)
<br />development projects approved between 2014 and 2016, you wi
<br />l see that the bulk of them
<br />F.
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