In office for just about a year, Kansas City Mayor Sly James delivered his first State of the City address on Monday.
And Up to Date was there to bring you the speech live beginning at 10:30 from the Kansas City Convention Center, followed by a conversation with the mayor and City Council members Cindy Circo, Jan Marcason, and Scott Wagner.
As James enters his second year in office, the mayor stands at a crossroads, with major financial decisions looming on the city budget, his call for $1 billion in infrastructure spending, a multi-billion-dollar sewer project, a proposed streetcar system, and even a new downtown convention hotel.
Today: a clearer look at the mayor’s priorities, and Sly James himself, who recently told a gathering of neighborhood residents that it was taking longer than he had hoped for positive changes to occur.
You'll find the full text of Mayor James' speech here.
Learn more about the mayor's "Turn the Page initiative":
Sylvester "Sly" James was sworn in as Kansas City's mayor on May 1, 2011. James was honorably discharged from the United States Marine Corps in 1975 and earned his law degree in 1983. He joined Blackwell, Sanders, Matheny, Weary & Lombardi and became the firm's first African-American partner. He started his own practice, the Sly James Firm, in 2003. He has led or served on the boards of multiple legal organizations as well as the United Way, Committee for County Progress, Partnership for Children, Bishop Hogan High School, Notre Dame de Sion schools, Operation Breakthrough, Genesis School, the Kansas City Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority, Enhanced Enterprise Zones of Kansas City and the Jackson County Ethics Commission. Learn more about the mayor on his website.
