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Livermore Mayor John Marchand recently delivered his second state of the city address since his return to the helm of the city in 2022.
In his remarks on May 23, Marchand highlighted the special and unique spirit of Livermore that has persisted for more than 100 years. To illustrate his point, he shared a clip from a 1924 ad in The Livermore Journal that compared the community-driven spirit of Livermore to the hustle and bustle of larger cities like New York and Chicago.
The theme of Livermore’s cohesive ethos carried on throughout Marchand’s speech as he provided an overview of the city budget, at which point he echoed similar sentiments he has shared in the past about public safety being a top priority for Livermore with nearly half of the city’s budget going toward police and fire departments.
“The budget is a numerical representation of your priorities, so your top priority is where you spend the most money and our top priority in Livermore is public safety,” Marchand said.
Community development, public works and the library are among some of the other expenses accounted for in the city’s budget, according to Marchand’s presentation which took place at the Robert Livermore Community Center.
“A lot of people talk about ‘A city should be run like a business,’ that’s nonsense,” Marchand said. “Cities do things much better than some businesses. It’s very important that we run a very efficient operation and I assure you that Livermore is very efficient. We do a great job, the people here are dedicated and passionate,” he added.
He used examples of resources like the public library and police and fire departments to reiterate that much of what makes a city different from a business is being about public service and community service.
Among other updates Marchand discussed was the recent groundbreaking of the Blacksmith Square expansion, which had taken place just two days before the state of the city event and celebrated the start of construction on the project that is set to bring approximately 13,000 square feet of additional retail and restaurant space adjacent to Stockmen’s Park, including a three-story building with a second-floor restaurant and rooftop dining.
He also touched on a number of ongoing capital improvement projects, the General Plan update, the Climate Action Plan and the ongoing Livermore airport land use analysis to help determine current and future uses for the airport as a regional asset.
The mayor also highlighted the plans to transition airport fuels to unleaded which are already underway, following the city’s approval of a resolution amending the minimum standards for commercial aeronautical activities to require the provision of unleaded aviation fuel.
Marchand’s mention of the opening of the Vineyard Resource Center — also known as Vineyard 2.0 — was met with applause from the audience. The facility offers supportive housing and services to support low-income families and people who are unhoused.
Although earlier in his speech Marchand emphasized the difference between a city organization and a business, he did take the time to shout out the many new businesses that have made a home in Livermore — bringing jobs, diverse food options, goods and services to the community in recent months and contributing to the city’s economic vitality. Some of those include Patisserie by Simone, Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice, Teaspoon boba shop, JOLLI Faces balloon art studio and The Fat Pigeon bar, among several others.
For those who missed it, Marchand’s speech is airing on TV30 through the end of the month at various days and times and streaming at tv30.org.
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