JACKSON, Mich. — Wednesday night Mayor Daniel Mahoney of Jackson gave his second and the city's sixth State of the City Address, and he addressed many of the topics that residents said they wanted to hear about.
"The streets are horrible in this town," city resident of 10 years Terese Spiess said.
"I wonder why we can't get some of these streets done, especially in the Black neighborhoods," city resident Gary Russell said. "It's been like that at least the last four or five years, and it got worse, it's getting worse."
In his address, Mayor Mahoney said while fixing the roads may sound like an, "easy and reasonable request," it's actually, "complex, layered and expensive."
"The roads and construction that's been going on, a lot of it's been causing back-up traffic, and it's been a little hard getting around," city resident Kaitlyn Danbury said.
Mayor Mahoney added, however, "We can always do more. We can always fix more. It's not enough until you all get fixed."
Another concern Spiess said she has for the city is crime and violence.
"Not long ago...just a couple doors down from me there was a car almost stolen," Spiess said.
Mahoney addressed the city's implementation of the of "Group Violence Intervention," and the six new officers the city hired.
"The impact of those efforts led to a reduction in homicides from seven in 2021 to four in 2022. That's a 57% reduction," Mahoney said, followed by the crowd's applause.
Mahoney also said gunshot victims were down from 31 in 2021 to 14 in 2022, and the community is also working to organize neighborhood watch groups.
Another issue some residents, like Krys Peterson, mentioned was homelessness in the city.
"In the summertime, there's a huge population of homeless that are downtown and around the surrounding area," Peterson said.
Mahoney said the city purchased 10 pallet shelters to create a transitional housing project and funded an emergency hotel program "to provide a safe, warm place to be during the most vulnerable months of the year."
This is not all that was addressed in Mahoney's speech Wednesday. For the full speech, see below.
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