City of Rochester
News Release
(Wednesday, April 19, 2023) – City leaders are inspiring hope and delivering opportunity to all, with a goal of loosening the grip of poverty on Rochester’s most challenged neighborhoods and cultivating prosperity, Mayor Malik D. Evans said in his first State of the City Address.
Speaking at the Rundel Memorial Library, Mayor Evans recalled a quote from former First Lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson: “Where flowers bloom, so does hope. And hope is the precious, indispensable ingredient, without which the war on poverty can never be won.”
“Every neighborhood in Rochester is home to people who have hope, and that’s where we will find the solution to our challenges and the key to our success. In their hope,” the Mayor said. “All they need is a chance. An opportunity to turn their hopes and dreams into reality.”
However, Mayor Evans cautioned, Rochester’s history of segregation and discrimination has denied opportunity to large swaths of the city’s minority population and left a legacy of poverty that is clearly visible in the city’s most challenged neighborhoods. The effects of that poverty threaten the confidence, or hope, of potential investors who can create more opportunity.
“We must feed that hope with opportunity to move Rochester from its poverty mindset to a prosperity mindset,” Mayor Evans said. “We create a safe, equitable and prosperous Rochester by inspiring hope and delivering opportunity for everyone. We accomplish that mission by bringing people together.”
Fortunately, the solution to this paradox can be found in the unprecedented levels of collaboration taking place among leaders from all sectors of the community.
“We’re working together like never before,” he said. “These partnerships are historic because the challenges are historic.”
Mayor Evans said the progress of that work since he took office in January 2022 is coming into view.
After historic spikes in 2021, crime and violence, especially gun violence, is on a downward trend as a result of sweeping alliances among law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal level that has put an intense focus on the most violent offenders, the most violent street segments, and illegal guns.
Funding from the American Rescue Plan Act is creating historic opportunities to change the trajectory of poverty with programs like Buy The Block, the Guaranteed Basic Income initiative, and the Lead Service Line Replacement program. Investments are also transforming the city’s physical and economic landscape with projects like ROC the Riverway and Inner Loop North.
The most pressing challenge is the effects of pandemic isolation and social media on many of the city’s youth, prompting life-altering decisions they’re not old enough to understand. To confront this in the year ahead, the Mayor and his team will focus the City’s priorities “through the lens of youth” to find new opportunities to support them.
“The vast majority of our youth are doing the right thing,” he said. “But there are many youth who need our help, and unfortunately, that number is growing.”
Mayor Evans closed with a reflection on the historical significance of the moment. The pandemic has accelerated Rochester’s course to an inevitable turning point. On one path, the challenges of poverty will undermine economic prosperity. On the other, the city’s economic prosperity will overwhelm the challenges with poverty.
“It’s up to us to determine which path we’re going to take,” the Mayor said. “Which legacy will we leave our children? Poverty? Or prosperity? ”
As he considers the path ahead, Mayor Evans said he draws inspiration from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Drum Major Instinct sermon: “I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others. So that we can make of this old world a new world.”
“Let us create a new Rochester,” the Mayor said. “A Rochester of hope and opportunity.”
To learn more, visit www.cityofrochester.gov/SOTC.