WREX.com – Rockford’s News LeaderA look back at Mayor Morrissey's State of the City addresses

A look back at Mayor Morrissey's State of the City addresses

By Samantha Ptashkin

ROCKFORD (WREX)- In his past four State of the City addresses, Mayor Morrissey has set a lot of goals for the city. Some he has achieved, others have been put on the back burner.

One of his promises from 2006, to tear down Rockford's three major housing complexes, has been an issue every year since.

The plan was finally set in motion in 2008, starting with the Jane Addams Housing Complex. Since it came down the Rockford Housing Authority has picked a developer for the area and construction should take off by the end of this year.

Concord Commons and Fairgrounds are still around, but the RHA hopes to see some projects begin there by the end of 2011. "I think it's moving very well. The RHA has not done any re-development activity in its history and it hasn't built any new properties in the past 25 years," said Rockford Housing Authority President John Cressman.

This past year the RHA has also cracked down on its residents, handing out a record number of evictions. It's a promise Mayor Morrissey made in his speech last year.

In the 2006 address, Mayor Morrissey also stressed the importance of community policing. The program started that year. It's a program that forms a partnership between law enforcement and the public. According to the Illinois Uniform Crime Reporting, Rockford's crime rate dropped 12.8% in 2009, but homicides from 2008 to 2009 stayed the same and robberies were up.

Education has also been a key issue. In 2007 Morrissey talked about something called "Rockford Promise" that would help pay college tuition fees for District 205 graduates. "I have not seen anything more about it," said Ald. Carl Wasco (D-4).

While that idea didn't take off, Morrissey's 2007 goal to pursue charter schools did. Rockford's third charter school opens this fall. He also wanted to crack down on kids who skipped school. He did that by handing out tickets to truancy court.

The city is still trying to create a network of higher education facilities. "If you look at all the schools that are coming to this town, Rasmussen, Upper Iowa University and others like Judson University, it shows that this area is certainly wanting to have that," said Ald. Frank Beach (R-10).

RockStat became reality in January of 2009, after Mayor Morrissey introduced it at his 2006 State of the City address. It's a management program that allows city departments to track statistical information about what they do. Then they use that data to determine which areas are working well and which need improvement.

Another major issue is bringing high speed rail to Rockford. Although President Obama announced in January that Rockford won't get federal funding, the city still hopes to get some state money for that initiative to gain speed.

In his 2009 State of the City address Mayor Morrissey expressed his goal to bring more green jobs to the area. The city made a green deal with Wanxiang America, when its solar panel facility broke ground in September in the Rockford Global Trade Park.

In 2009 the Mayor also talked about taking ownership of the old Fordham Dam on the Rock River, but no progress has been made on that initiative. ComEd owns it, but it's not used for power production.