State of the City 2025

Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird
October 7, 2025

Good morning, everyone!  It's wonderful to be back here with the members and supporters of Leadership Lincoln. Thank you for all you do to cultivate leadership in our community, and thank you for once again hosting my State of the City address. 

As a teenager, I hung posters on my bedroom walls of the first band I ever saw in concert, a place I dreamed of visiting one day, my movie star crush,...and this one, that came out shortly after Nike first launched its “Just Do It” campaign. On the right it reads: "There are clubs you can't belong to, neighborhoods you can't live in, schools you can't get into. But the roads are always open. Just do it." I now realize that Nike didn’t quite get that right - the roads are not always open.

What Nike did get right, though, was the power of its call to action. “Just Do It” became part of our generation’s lexicon. “Just Do It” challenged us to start, to try, to move forward even when it’s hard. I could really relate to that gritty mindset as a high school cross-country and track distance runner. In other sports my friends played, coaches used running as a punishment!

Nike recently reintroduced the “Just Do It” rallying cry with an updated version for a new era: “Why Do It?” By reframing the original phrase as a question – “Why Do It?” – they ask us to see greatness as something we earn with the choices we make and as something we pursue with purpose.

This emphasis on the power of our choices resonates with me now as much as the original slogan did back in high school. Today, my teammates wear different kinds of uniforms, but all of us at City Hall who choose to serve our community are united by the ‘Why’ we do it. With a vision of leading Lincoln toward a more successful, secure, and shared future, we aim to make life better for you and everyone who calls Lincoln home. To make life even more affordable, safe, and vibrant for all. Like our friends at Lincoln Public Schools, our City government team knows all means all. When we answer your calls to 9-1-1, when we feed your grandparents at our senior centers, when we help build or repair your homes, when we care for your children at our rec centers, we show up for all of you, our neighbors. We work to create a welcoming community where all people belong and experience equal opportunity to reach their full human potential.

All of us who serve in local government bring our own personal ‘Why’ to achieving this vision, and I encourage you to seek out my City of Lincoln colleagues after this program and ask them about their ‘Why’ – their inspiring answers make me incredibly proud to serve alongside them.

Here are just a few of the amazing leaders I’m talking about: members of the Lincoln City Council, would you please stand and let us thank you for your leadership? Would members of my Cabinet – our department Directors – please stand and let us thank you for all you do for Lincoln?

Our City team works in partnership with many others whose ‘Why’ has also led them to serve our community. Would you please join me in thanking all of our elected officials who are here with us? And thanks to all of you who are here this morning, the incredible community leaders with whom we achieve important outcomes for Lincoln.

All of us in this room are not the only ones applauding the important outcomes we are achieving together for our community members. Recently, Lincoln received these national accolades:

13th best city for first-time homebuyers
11th best city in America for renters
9th best place to retire
8th best run city
6th best state capital
6th happiest city in America
6th best city for working moms; and
2nd best city for working families.

Given that, by population, Lincoln is the 72nd largest city in the country, it’s clear that, here in the heart of Husker Nation, we outkick our coverage! Yes, THE STATE OF OUR CITY IS STRONG. And while we are proud of our strength, we strive each day to build on our successes as we cultivate the quality-of-life capital of the country.

This morning, let’s take a closer look at what our City team has just done during the past year, and let’s consider why we do it.

Collectively, our ‘Why’ is this: to make life in Lincoln even more safe and healthy, strong and resilient, equitable and inclusive, prosperous and vibrant. 

We make strides toward making Lincoln the safest and healthiest capital city in America because public safety is our top priority. We continue to invest in people, partnerships, training, equipment, and facilities that keep our community members safe and healthy.

This spring, together with our partners at CenterPointe, the Lincoln Police Department began our Co-Responder program. This initiative pairs trained mental health professionals with police officers to respond jointly to calls for service involving mental health crises. Since March, our Co-Responders have helped answer more than 220 calls, connecting community members experiencing mental health challenges with the services and treatment they need to heal.

LPD's Alternate Response Program for unsheltered individuals is another public safety innovation delivering results. We redirect calls that don’t require a law enforcement response to CenterPointe’s Street Outreach Team, and to date, these efforts have successfully housed more than 60 individuals.

To protect the safety of the traveling public, we have put the brakes on dangerous driving. LPD and our City Law Department have worked with City Councilmembers to pass an ordinance giving police officers more enforcement tools to hold reckless drivers accountable – making our streets and neighborhoods safer.

Our commitment to keeping everyone in Lincoln safe is paying dividends. I’m pleased to share that, after reaching a 25-year low in 2024, Part 1 crime – which includes violent crime – fell even further this year, setting a new 25-year low.

We could not achieve these results without “Lincoln’s finest” – the talented members of our Lincoln Police Department. I’m proud of them, and I’m proud that our investments in recruitment are paying off, too. LPD is now nearly fully staffed at 97% of authorized strength, thanks in part to the 22 recruits we welcomed in our current academy – the largest class in recent history!

Just yesterday, the City Council approved a new contract with the Lincoln Police Union that increases wages 17% over the next three years, putting LPD in an even stronger position to recruit and retain the best law enforcement professionals to serve you. Professionals like Officer Antonia DeGeorge, whose own experience with harassment as a teenager motivated her to become the kind of police officer she once needed – experience that informed her recent rescue of a Lincoln teenager from a cycle of abuse. Officer DeGeorge, would you please stand and let us thank you for what you do and why you do it?

Alongside LPD, our amazing team at Lincoln Fire & Rescue forms the foundation of our public safety response. In January, we literally laid a solid foundation when we opened LFR’s new Station 8! This modern station represents the City’s commitment to ensuring our first responders have the facilities, tools, and resources that they need to keep themselves and our families safe.  

As part of this commitment, I’m pleased to announce I recently convened a new Public Safety Facilities Task Force. This group of community members will review Lincoln’s fire and police facility needs and make recommendations about how best to meet them. Why do it? Because strengthening our public safety infrastructure is pivotal to keeping everyone in Lincoln safe.

As is preparation! We know that first responders’ training, technology, and equipment can be the difference between life and death, which is why we invest in them and why we invite our community members to download the Pulse Point app and gain skills to be life-savers, too. In 2024, Lincoln residents performed bystander CPR at a rate far above the national average, helping LFR achieve a cardiac arrest survival rate more than double the national average. Last year, LFR brought 24 people back to life from sudden cardiac arrest.

To continue achieving results like these for our growing community, we need to continue to grow our team that delivers them. And we are! I am so pleased that the City recently secured a 2.3 million dollar grant from FEMA that we will use to hire nine new firefighters.

As we grow LFR, we outfit them with the tools they need to keep us safe, like these two newly acquired tanker trucks. These trucks provide a reliable and mobile water source, helping LFR safeguard areas on the edge of town.

Safeguarding our community’s health and wellness is the ‘Why’ behind the work of our team at the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department.

To strengthen families and support youth behavioral health, our Health team collaborated with Bryan Health, CHI Health St. Elizabeth, and other community partners to develop the “6 Pillars for Emotional Wellbeing” video series. This series empowers parents to create healthy habits that grow emotional health for their children and families.

One challenge to our healthy rhythms and routines is extreme heat, and our data shows local cases of heat-related illnesses are on the rise. That’s why our Health Department recently created a Heat Response Plan, which we activated for 11 days this summer. During those 11 days, we helped hundreds of residents beat the heat through cooling centers and heat relief kits.

One of the chief architects of our Heat Response Plan, Climate and Health Resilience Coordinator Maizie Humm, feels called to this work. As a descendent of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, who grew up with the teachings that individuals should live and work in ways that benefit the next seven generations, Maizie brings a deep sense of responsibility to her work of protecting our neighbors. Maizie, would you please stand and let us thank you for what you do and why you do it?

As we work to fortify the health and safety foundations of our community, we also fortify our actual foundations – the infrastructure that accelerates Lincoln’s growth and resilience. Here’s how and why we are building a strong and resilient city.

Well-maintained streets support public safety, economic development, housing construction, and our high quality of life. That’s why, in April, voters decisively reaffirmed their importance by choosing to continue our Lincoln on the Move initiative, enabling the City to invest in streets at record levels.

Through the first six years of Lincoln on the Move, our City’s Transportation and Utilities Department has delivered hundreds of lane miles of new or resurfaced streets, like this one: Leighton Avenue. Over the next eight years of Lincoln on the Move, we expect to invest an additional 144 million dollars in our streets and achieve results that you can see and feel – like smooth commutes and swift emergency response times. In the coming year, we will continue to focus on how strategic street investments can support construction of even more housing.

As we make strategic street investments, we look to one of the busiest in Lincoln. 20,000 people drive along “O” Street every day, evidence of its vital role in getting us all where we need to go. Given the age of “O” Street and that monthly parking in our downtown garages has returned to pre-pandemic levels, we see multiple reasons to reinvest in our city’s iconic main street. Through Project “O” Street, the City will repair or replace aging street, sidewalk, and water main infrastructure and improve the streetscape. This generational investment will enhance economic opportunity and quality of life for Lincoln residents, businesses, and visitors far into the future.

Another generational investment came in January in the form of our largest ever competitive grant award to rebuild the intersection at 33rd and Cornhusker Highway. When the late Mayor Don Wesely heard the news of this $66.7 million-dollar federal grant award, he immediately sent me a message, sharing his pride that there was finally a finish line to this project in his beloved northeast Lincoln. We can all share his pride, knowing this important project will improve safety, reduce traffic delays, and enhance mobility for Lincoln drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.

Now, I know infrastructure can seem like a dry subject to some, but what about when it’s wet? Water is essential to growing a strong and resilient city. That’s why my administration created Water 2.0, a project to develop a second source of safe, clean drinking water that will support the people of Lincoln for generations to come. This summer, we laid the first pipes in the ground along North 98th Street. In the short term, this new water transmission main will add important redundancy to our water system; in the long term, it will provide a crucial connection between Lincoln’s existing water supply and our future second source along the Missouri River.

LTU’s Steve Owen leads our Utilities team and brings a profound sense of purpose to our Water 2.0 effort. Steve’s parents taught him from a young age that, when you have something nice, you have to take care of it. This value they instilled in him is a big reason why Steve has devoted more than 40 years to caring for Lincoln’s essential infrastructure. When a bomb cyclone caused flooding of our water system’s well-fields back in 2019, Steve was in this Blackhawk, helping to drop sandbags and prevent further flood damage. Steve, would you please stand and let us thank you for what you do and why you do it?

As Steve and the rest of our City team maintain and build even better, stronger infrastructure, we must consider our changing climate. My administration's Resilient Lincoln initiative recognizes that within climate-related risks – like flooding, extreme heat, and drought – lie opportunities… opportunities to create new jobs and technologies, reduce our carbon footprint, and protect our quality of life.

One of these opportunities lies at our City’s Bluff Road landfill, where we intend to turn trash into cash. Last November, I announced the City’s new partnership with Sparq Renewables to develop our landfill biogas system that will transform methane waste into clean, renewable natural gas that we can sell. Over the course of our 25-year agreement, we expect to generate more than 96 million dollars in renewable natural gas sales. This public-private partnership will enhance our landfill’s efficiency, reduce harmful emissions, and improve our air quality.

Reducing harmful emissions and improving our air quality are a big part of why the City added this new electric truck to our LFR fleet. I am pleased to share that more than 40% of the City’s light fleet now runs on electricity or other alternative fuels, accelerating progress toward our goal to transition the entire fleet by the year 2040. EVs like this provide the added benefit of saving the City money on maintenance and fuel costs.

Our investments in a strong and resilient Lincoln build a strong and resilient future. We believe that future shines brightest when everyone has equal opportunity to shape it, which is why we prioritize City services and investments that create a more equitable and inclusive city.

We want everyone to afford the good life in Lincoln. That’s why we work to grow the supply of housing at every price point, which makes housing more affordable for all. Our development review teams have now issued more residential building permits over the past five-year period than in any other five-year period in Lincoln’s recorded history!

Key to our progress – and to making Lincoln even more equitable and inclusive – is growing the supply of affordable housing. Here's a snapshot of affordable housing projects getting done all across our community with City support: 

Union at Middle Creek in west Lincoln created 192 new affordable units;
Union at Antelope Valley created 187 new affordable units;
Hoppe Development’s 23rd Street Net Zero Ready Project in Antelope Valley created new affordable housing, along with small commercial spaces for entrepreneurs and opportunities for rooftop solar;
Family Service Lincoln’s FiftyOne Commons will combine affordable housing with youth programs, a community center, a garden, and supportive services in northeast Lincoln;
NeighborWorks’ Promenade at Pioneers will provide affordable single-family housing in southeast Lincoln;
Center Terrace will provide 125 units for community members earning no more than 60% of area median income and create a new home for Clinic With A Heart; and
the first City-owned Permanent Supportive Housing will house 24 individuals who currently experience chronic homelessness. I’m pleased to announce that we expect to wrap construction and welcome the first tenants before the end of this year!

In pursuit of my administration’s goal to achieve 5,000 new or rehabilitated affordable housing units by 2030, I am thrilled to announce that, as of last week, we have reached 3,201 units, putting us more than 64% of the way toward achieving our bold goal.

As we increase access to affordable housing that grows opportunity for all, we likewise deliver access to recreational opportunities that foster well-being and a sense of belonging for all.

The laughter of hundreds of children of all abilities delightfully demonstrated why this work matters when, in July, together with our community partners, we opened the City’s first fully inclusive playground at Mahoney Park.

Our inclusive recreation offerings don’t stop at the playground. Lincoln Parks and Recreation Department proudly sponsors the Shooting Stars Special Olympics team. This year, we served more than 200 athletes through a growing number of sports, which now include cornhole and volleyball!

Inclusive recreation in Lincoln gets a major boost from people like the Assistant Supervisor of the City’s Easterday Recreation Center, Greg DeWall. Greg became blind as a teenager, an experience that motivates him to serve others facing disabilities. Greg encourages those participating in our adaptive recreational programs to reach for their dreams, and he leads by example: Greg won the bronze medal in Judo at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics! Greg, would you please stand and let us thank you for what you do and why you do it?

When it comes to cultivating an equitable and inclusive city, we made strides this year for people of all ages. Lincoln recently ranked 9th nationally on AARP’s Livability Index. We continue to affirm Lincoln’s status as an Age-Friendly Community through efforts like our new How to Ride Project, funded by AARP Nebraska. Through this project, our Aging Partners team is joining forces with StarTran and Lincoln's cultural centers to create hands-on public transit training that makes it easier for older adults to get where they want to go.

To protect older adults from those who prey upon their trust, I'm announcing today I will soon propose a new City ordinance that would protect our seniors, and all residents, from scams that involve cryptocurrency.

And while we're on the subject of scams, please be advised: it is not me asking you to send Xbox gift cards!

When our city works for everyone, everyone can work to make our city prosper. That's why our team builds partnerships to create an even more prosperous and vibrant city.  

To grow prosperity in Lincoln, my administration invests in our workforce, helping community members gain new job skills, earn new credentials, and start high-wage careers. When we invest in people's workforce readiness, we enhance local employers’ access to the skilled talent they need, and we empower our residents to afford the good life for themselves and their families.

Today, I’m thrilled to share that our workforce investments using American Rescue Plan funds have now served more than 1,550 community members. So far, more than a thousand have earned credentials, and 294 have secured jobs.

Earning a credential drives economic mobility for our community members – and sometimes that means actually getting in the driver’s seat! To meet the local need for more truck drivers, my administration set a goal to credential at least 40 individuals with Commercial Driver’s Licenses, or CDLs.

Destiny Miller is one of these individuals, and her story illustrates why we do it. While on work release through the Nebraska Department of Corrections, Destiny earned her CDL, started driving a truck, and was able to save up 30,000 dollars. Upon release, she gained full-time employment driving for Uribe, filling a vital need in our community and significantly reducing her risk of recidivism.

Our workforce investments not only helped change Destiny’s life, they are also changing destinies across Lincoln! This morning, I am thrilled to announce that – with support from our American Job Center team and industry partners – we more than doubled our initial goal and have now credentialed 83 community members with CDLs!

As we equip our workforce for today’s high-demand careers, we keep an eye on the needs of tomorrow. That’s why, in February, we launched the Future-Ready Workforce Initiative. Through this partnership with Southeast Community College and IBEW Local 265, we expect to support 125 community members as they become electricians, HVAC mechanics, and automotive service technicians. Our first cohort of City-funded apprentices has already begun their training for these high-wage careers.

Another way my administration aims to grow our workforce is by removing barriers to employment. Access to high-quality, affordable childcare is critical to supporting working families and to giving our littlest residents a great start in life. That’s why I’m excited to announce today that the City will soon introduce new zoning changes that make it easier to expand an existing childcare center or to open a new one. I’m also pleased to announce that the City will commit $250,000 to Lincoln Littles to provide tuition assistance for as many as 83 children, helping working families afford early childhood education.

Along with people, we invest in projects to grow economic opportunity and prosperity. Here are just a few of the development projects completed this past year that my administration has helped finance:

Eden Childcare Center at the former Epworth Church;
The Shops at Lincoln near Gateway Mall;
The League of Nebraska Municipalities’ new office downtown;
SCC’s new Sandhills Global Technology Center and Office of Work-Based Learning;
And the Sandhills Global Youth Complex, which has already hosted more than 2,300 youth baseball and softball games and tournaments, infusing millions of dollars into our local economy.

Successes like these take vision, commitment, and the leadership of people like Urban Development Planner Ernie Castillo. Early in his career, Ernie discovered his ‘Why’ along North 27th Street, where he helped expand economic opportunities for new American business owners whose livelihoods depended on the outcome of his work. His pride in helping people and businesses succeed inspired his dedication to the 75 projects he’s managed since. Ernie, would you please stand and let us thank you for what you do and why you do it?

Another reason why work like Ernie’s matters? Projects that grow our local economy and tax base enable the City to provide the services that grow everyone’s quality of life.

Becoming the quality-of-life capital of the country doesn't happen by accident. We make intentional investments to cultivate an even more vibrant city.

One of these investments is our development of a Music District that amplifies our live, local music scene, grows our local economy, and creates an even more dynamic downtown. This summer, we renamed the District ‘Boehmer Street.’ By renaming the heart of Lincoln’s music scene after longtime Zoo Bar owner, the late Larry Boehmer, we celebrate his influence and tell more of our Lincoln story to all who come here.

Just a block away from the Zoo Bar, we turned up the volume by opening the Music Box with our partners at the Downtown Lincoln Association. The Music Box is a rehearsal, recording, and education space designed to help emerging musicians and technicians build successful careers in the music industry right here in Lincoln.

Just a little further from the Music Box than you can throw a guitar pick, another new space is coming – one that also will catalyze creativity, build community, and enrich our quality of life. 21st century libraries power 21st century cities, and we have a once-in-a-generation chance to transform the Centrum Building at 11th and “O” Streets into a dynamic space that will grow everyone’s access to cultural, economic, and life-long learning opportunities.

Just as our libraries connect residents to knowledge and opportunities, our trails connect people to each other and to the outdoors. And while our roads may not always be open, our trails definitely are! Lincoln’s award-winning trails give all of us the freedom to run, bike, and stroll across our city. We grew this asset last December, when our Parks team opened the Fletcher Landmark Trail in northwest Lincoln, adding to our 187-mile trails network. We are proud that 95% of Lincoln residents live within one mile of a public trail, a boost to quality of life in every zip code.

As our City team delivers results like these that make life in Lincoln even more safe and healthy, strong and resilient, equitable and inclusive, and prosperous and vibrant for you and your families, we do so in innovative and operationally excellent ways. 

At City Hall, we recently merged our Planning and Building and Safety Departments into a single, unified Planning and Development Services Department that helps our customers experience even faster, more consistent service. By streamlining our development services, we build more homes, support new and existing businesses, grow economic opportunity, and save time and money.

By focusing on innovation and operational excellence, we ensure that you receive a good return on your investment as taxpayers. The City of Lincoln receives just 17 cents of your property tax dollar. I am so proud of our City team that works so efficiently to turn those seventeen pennies into the infrastructure and services that cultivate Lincoln as the Quality-of-Life Capital of the Country. That’s what being innovative and operationally excellent is all about!

So much of the innovative and excellent work that Officer DeGeorge, Maizie, Steve, Ernie, Greg, and the rest of our City team do for you traces back to our unique answers to the question Nike poses: “Why do it?” During the high school and college years that those posters hung on my bedroom walls, I lost close friends of mine – to car accidents, to gun violence, to cancer – and I became keenly aware that life is short. Part of my ‘Why’ is that I want to be worthy of the time I have on this earth that my friends didn’t get – I want to earn this time I still have and make it count for others with the choices I make and the steps I take. My purpose is to make life better for all of us who are still here – my family, my friends, my neighbors, my community.

What is your ‘Why’? What will you do with the priceless time you have on this earth, and why will you do it? Because we in Lincoln ask ourselves these powerful questions about our purpose, and choose to act on the answers, we are crossing the finish line on so many initiatives that cultivate our high quality of life. And we will keep suiting up for the challenges that come next.

While the rest of the world too often feels chaotic and in crisis, here in Lincoln, we stay stable and steadfast in our pursuit of creating a more successful, secure, and shared future – together. We are a city of neighbors helping neighbors. Neighbors who know that we can make a difference, and who do! Neighbors – all of us – who know our ‘Why’...and run with it.