“The future ain’t what it used to be.” — Yogi Berra.
Leave it to Redding Mayor Rick Bosetti, a former major league baseball player, to use Master Yogi as the jumping-off point for his State of the City address. While the stumbling economy is “intimidating,” Bosetti said, the state of the city is strong, partly because of funding decisions (including layoffs) made within the past year.
Bosetti spoke to hundreds of people at lunchtime today at the Redding Convention Center. The speech will be repeated at 6:15 p.m. tonight at the Cascade Theatre; admission is free.
While Redding has been hurt by the economic slowdown, it’s in better shape than many other California cities, the mayor said. Tax revenue’s down, the state budget is in a logjam and the credit crunch hurts, but many improvement projects are under way and the quality of life here lifts Redding above its peers, he said.
“We’re building for the future and I am convinced the future will be bright,” Bosetti said.
Among the projects he mentioned were the new Cypress Avenue Bridge, Stillwater Business Park, the Dana-to-Downtown highway revamp, the South Bonnyview widening and landscaping, the Hilltop Boulevard beautification project and the ongoing improvements to the Downtown mall.
Bosetti said he wished the City Council could promise no more layoffs, but that’s not possible at this time. The city general fund budget was adjusted three times in 2008, including a 4 percent cut in December, and more belt-tightening may come.
Other hard decisions that got a passing mention included putting the brakes on a new police headquarters and raising rates at Redding Electric Utility.
