Mayor Bill White’s Final Address

State of the City

Jay Blazek Crossley, Jan 15, 09.

Mayor Bill White gave his final State of the City Address at a Greater Houston Partnership luncheon today. His major theme was the resiliency of the Houston community, which he credits to a can-do attitude and extensive efforts to build bridges across race, background, and economic lines.

He highlighted the importance of doing business with Minority-Owned and Women-Owned Businesses and how the attitude of openness and partnership are crucial strengths to both our economy and community.

He also said that Texas is a state that believes in empowerment as opposed to entitlement and went on to explain that he believes that for that philosophy to work, each of us has to step up in times of need, such as the current economic crisis, to help our fellow citizens. He added to this that the City would advocate at all levels of government for repairing the social safety net.

He touched on many other topics, most notably noting the many accomplishments of his administration in making the City government more efficient. Perhaps this is most evident in the fact that the City has reduced its power consumption over the last five years at a time that the city continues to grow, adding 380,000 jobs over that time.

He announced one major policy goal for his final year as Mayor of the City of Houston during the address, to divert at least 150,000 tons of wood and yard waste from the City’s waste stream through recycling programs, such as the mulch program that has billboards around town advertising Houston Mulch. According to Mayor White, were the City to achieve this vision, which he says can only be accomplished through the partnership of the City, the business community, and the citizens, we would achieve the single greatest change in the rate of recycling in any City ever. The City would move from what has recently caught national attention as a very low rate of recycling to a position of diverting 20% of our waste from filling land fills if this goal is met.

Mayor Bill White’s 2009 State of the City Address Text Video not yet available

The Mayor’s past addresses:
Mayor Bill White’s 2008 State of the City Address Text - Video
Mayor Bill White’s 2007 State of the City Address Text
Mayor Bill White’s 2006 State of the City Address Text
Mayor Bill White’s 2005 State of the City Address Text
Mayor Bill White’s 2004 State of the City Address Text