Photo Courtesy Connie Jackson Mayor Lester E. Taylor III, just before delivering his 2017 State of the City Address on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts Theater.
Mayor Lester E. Taylor III, just before delivering his 2017 State of the City Address on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts Theater.
EAST ORANGE, NJ — Based on the feedback by attendees, East Orange Mayor Lester Taylor’s fourth annual State of the City Address on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the Cicely Tyson School of the Performing and Fine Arts Theater, was an unqualified success.
“I think tonight’s event was fabulous,” said 4th Ward Councilman Casim Gomez on Tuesday, Jan. 24. “I think anything that brings a people together, that gives them a direction, a vision of where they’re going, is positive. You can’t get to a destination if you don’t know where you’re going and, on top of it, you need feedback.”
Feedback is “important to any type of growth,” Gomez said, adding that Taylor’s speech was an example of good feedback. The focus on “what we have accomplished; what we have done; the good things and our opportunities for improvement” are important in a city whose leader has set the bar of urban excellence high.
“So this is what this does; it gives you feedback,” said Gomez. “In those opportunities for improvement, that’s where we are going to continue to work to build. If you just constantly say we’re doing this wrong, we’re doing that wrong, then people get despondent, they get depressed. No, we’ve done a lot in this city and we can do a lot more.”
According to Gomez, “Leadership depends on people continue their vision and accomplishing things and getting good feedback and making the adjustments when required.”
City Council President and 3rd Ward Councilman Ted Green, who introduced Taylor on Tuesday, Jan. 24, agreed with his colleague’s leadership philosophy, but he focused on the need for Taylor and the city to do more.
“If I had to judge tonight’s State of the City, I’d have to say that it’s more of the same that we’ve been hearing from our mayor for the last four years,” said Green on Tuesday, Jan. 24. “He spoke about the same things last year. He talked about redevelopment here in the city of East Orange where, if you take a closer look, you’ll see that there’s not much new development or redevelopment going on here. There are no new shovels going into the ground; most of this was existing projects that were already in the pipeline when he was sworn into office. We need more.”
The perfect example is the city golf course near the Short Hills Mall, Green said.
“He talked about the golf course but, when you think of the golf course and all of the money that we put into it, that does not resonate down in the city where we’ve got a 46 percent unemployment rate and we’re trying to create job opportunities,” said Green. “We welcome the golf course and we want the people, too, but to the average homeowner whose taxes increased, whose water went up a percentage, for them, the golf course doesn’t resonate. So I think that, when we talk about our golf course, the average citizen does not understand how that operates and it doesn’t resonate with them when they’re paying water bills, taxes, trying to put their kids through school, (worry about) PSE&G bills and job loss. So, again, I believe that’s something that we will have to revisit because, at the end of the day, we have to create opportunities here.”
Right now, Green said there is not enough progress to go around in East Orange.
“It’s just not happening,” said Green. “But I promise that the council is doing everything that we can to keep the administration’s feet to the fire.”
“The bottom line is, people want to be safe and live in a clean city,” Green said. Taylor agreed, saying it’s all about urban excellence and turning East Orange into a destination city.
“I set high goals for my team and I didn’t hope for results; I expected them,” Taylor said Tuesday, Jan. 24, in his speech. “I earned a reputation as a taskmaster and rightly so. As a mayor, I knew that, in order to bring the change I promised, I had to become that leader who would not back down from demanding solutions and holding people accountable to the citizens of East Orange. I expect nothing less and nor should you. It’s about results for our community!”
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