I think this speech deserves its own thread. It will run over four or five posts. I'll comment at the end. Bolded words are from my own emphasis. From okc.gov:

2007 State of the City

Every January, the Mayor speaks to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce on the State of the City. The State of the City message looks back on recent accomplishments, updates the Chamber on current developments and looks ahead to the future.

Mayor Cornett delivered the eighth State of the City message on January 17, 2007.

Welcome to the State of the City for 2007.

If you live in Oklahoma City, feel free to pinch yourself. We’ve been a city for 118 years and we’ve had a history of good times and not so good times and I think it is clear that we’re in good times. 2006 was an incredible year. Our
economy is soaring. Unemployment is low. Schools are being built. New hotels and new housing units are being built downtown and in the suburbs. We have emerged into a regional center of destination tourism. At first glance, our biggest problem might appear to be trying to get 2007 to top 2006. But then you remember that it is our state’s centennial year, you remember the significant number of events that are scheduled in our city, and you realize we have every opportunity to make 2007 our best year yet.

A year ago, I stood before you during the State of the City address and discussed our top priority: the implementation of MAPS for Kids. It is our decade-long initiative to build new schools and provide our children with state-of-the-art technology. Let me report now on our progress. We’re in a phase where the focus has been on the high schools.

Frederick Douglass High School has now been open for a year. The new John Marshall High School opened this past fall with middle school students and will be used as a high school beginning in August.

U.S. Grant High School, our largest high school opened last week. I would love to invite each and every one of you down to see this beautiful school, but security issues being what they are, we can’t have 1,000 people showing up and saying that the Mayor invited us to come look around. So, take my word for it.

And construction is about to begin on Centennial High School near Britton Road and Kelly. It will open in the fall. The pace is quickening.

All in all, MAPS for Kids will rebuild or renovate 75 school buildings in the Oklahoma City Public School System. Meanwhile, in the classrooms, test scores are up. And financially, the School Board is consistently receiving clean audits.

When we started down this road, we set ambitious goals and expected big improvements. And while I suppose a critic could still find something to not like, our inner-city school system is significantly improved over where it was five years ago.

It is a work in progress but it is exciting to know that it is working and there is progress. To watch three new high schools open up in the past year has been thrilling to see.

One other effect has been a boom in the housing market in the school district. The Las Rosas neighborhood is a perfect example: new construction, and entry level housing in an area that has not had new development in decades. This would not have occurred without MAPS for Kids.

As mayor, I want to first thank the voters who helped pass MAPS for Kids back in November of 2001.

I also want to, not only thank, but ask to stand, the members of the oversight bodies: the Oklahoma City School Board, the Oklahoma City Council and the MAPS Trust. All members, please stand so we can show our appreciation.

And four additional individuals that have put much into this that are here today, please stand: School Board President Cliff Hudson, City Manager Jim Couch, Interim Superintendent Linda Brown, and Project Manager Eric Wenger. Let’s show our appreciation.

When executed successfully, government is not separate from the people. I note that when I hear citizens discuss the success of the original MAPS projects they use the pronoun “we.” As in, “look what we have accomplished since MAPS.” That’s the buy-in so necessary to moving forward.

I believe that elected leaders should monitor and judge their effectiveness by the pronouns their citizens use. Oklahoma City is moving forward largely because its citizens so identify with its success. Oklahoma City is our city. And its success is a reflection on what we’ve done. MAPS showed us what we could do for ourselves.

And MAPS for Kids is of course providing incredible progress for the capital needs of our inner-city school district, but it is also meeting the needs of the suburban districts. All 24 school districts that educate kids that live in Oklahoma City are receiving money from MAPS for Kids. The amount of money is based on the number of Oklahoma City kids that attend the schools, and the money is getting to districts all over the metro: Putnam City, Moore, Edmond, Mustang, Norman, Choctaw, Banner, Crooked Oak, Crutcho, Deer Creek, Harrah, Jones, Little Axe, Luther, McLoud, Midwest City-Del City, Millwood, Oak Dale, Piedmont, Robin Hill, Union City, Western Heights, & Yukon. Millions of dollars for eductation. This is what we are doing for our schools. This is what we are doing for our kids and our future.

Now that we have moved past MAPS and are making great strides in addressing our City’s educational needs through MAPS for Kids, we must continue to develop and nurture the same culture that has brought us this far. We must not be complacent.

In the wake of MAPS, and more than five years beyond the vote on MAPS for Kids, I am asked almost every day, “What’s next?” What are we going to do “next,” as in what initiative are we going to do after MAPS for Kids?

After hearing that question nearly every day for three years, you can imagine that I have a well-rehearsed response.

First of all, what we have to continue doing is making sure we execute the plan for MAPS for Kids successfully. MAPS for Kids is making an impact all across the city. Not only in downtown, but in your neighborhood and my neighborhood. And because its direct impact is spread across the city it is important that it succeed all across the city. Well, today I can report that it is succeeding all across the city. What city? Our city.

And because MAPS for Kids touches every neighborhood in Oklahoma City, I sense that we are getting that buy-in from the citizens that is so important. The original MAPS projects, because they were largely concentrated in our downtown area, also have had that feeling of ownership from the community. It is our downtown, our ballpark, our civic center, our sports arena, our convention center, our canal, our river, etcetera.

As we move forward, it is crucial that we continue to be ambitious, but that we also move forward together. That brings me back to the question I hear so often – “What’s next?” And today, with the collection of the MAPS for Kids sales tax ending next year, I’m ready to begin that conversation.