LIVE: Durham Mayor Leo Williams gives State of the City address
DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Durham Mayor Leo Williams is set to deliver his annual State of the City address Tuesday evening, outlining what he describes as "specific frameworks" for several projects the city is pursuing.
In a one-on-one with ABC11 ahead of the speech, Williams said he plans to take a candid tone and acknowledged that some of his remarks may make people uncomfortable.
Last year, the mayor outlined his vision to usher in what he called "Durham's next renaissance." One year later, he said the upcoming address will provide more specifics on how the city is addressing key issues, including crime, homelessness, mental health and rising costs.
"Tomorrow is not going to be a just high pie in the sky. Everything is great. The state of the city is strong," Williams said. "It's going to be very honest, brutally honest. Tomorrow, I'm going to talk about some of our challenges and where we have a lot of work to do."
Williams also said he plans to highlight Durham's local and national partnerships during the address. As part of that effort, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is expected to attend to illustrate the focus on violence prevention strategies that have contributed to a 65-year low in violent crime rates in that city.
While violent crime rates were down in Durham at the last quarterly crime update, Williams said not enough is being done to address youth crime prevention in the city. He said he's not confident those crime statistics will be down at the next update from DPD, and he wants city leaders to step up.
"We have families that are not feeling safe in this community. They are in a few very concentrated neighborhoods, and no one is talking about it. And when you look at our votes on city council, you look at our actions, not what we say, but our actions. We're not meeting the mark. So I'm going to continue to speak about that," he said.
The address is scheduled to take place Tuesday night at the Durham Performing Arts Center at 6 p.m.
