The State Of Our Silent Facebook Mayor

Last week, the new mayor of the City of Poughkeepsie gave her State of the City address in front of the city council and the public.  Yvonne Flowers, in office for just 3 months, touched on topics familiar to our silent mayor:  homelessness, public park improvements, recruiting more police officers, finances, public safety, fire department issues, hiring a city administrator (!), housing, quality of life issues, economic development and their comprehensive plan. 

Mayor Flowers ended her address with this:  As the first African American mayor of this city... I am humbled by this opportunity and pledge to work on behalf of all city residents as we all work together in moving the City of Poughkeepsie forward. The transcript of the speech, found on the city's website, is 24 pages long.

Kamal Johnson first took his seat in the Mayor's Office at 520 Warren Street in 2020.  As far as I know, in over 4 years he has never come in front of the public to offer anything even resembling a State of the City address.  One wonders if our silent $75,000 mayor even has the ability to stand in front of a crowd to offer reassurances that the city is doing well and that his City Hall is busy working on issues that affect everyone.  You know, to show he is managing things properly, keeping an eye on things and maybe even talking to the officials working for him.  Apparently, though, Kamal doesn't want to bother with something as simple as a State of the City address, otherwise he would have done so at least once sometime in the past 51 months.  

If Kamal Johnson won't -- or can't -- occasionally update Hudson residents in some sort of professional, reassuring manner, one wonders if he even cares how Hudson is doing or if he knows what is going on outside of his office, both inside and outside of City Hall.  Maybe he thinks that getting reelected every two years is sufficient effort to be a mayor.  Maybe he thinks that his regular posts on social media are just as helpful, if not more so, than a State of the City address made in front of people.  Or maybe he has no idea what he is doing.

Poughkeepsie Mayor Flowers' predecessor, Marc Nelson, gave his State of the City address in March of 2023.  It appears that in the City of Poughkeepsie there is an annual State of the City address given by the mayor.  I wonder why that is.