South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is ready to take a look back at his first year in office and see where his administration can improve in the upcoming year.
Buttigieg will hold his state of the city address Wednesday night. He will speak at LaSalle Intermediate Academy on Elwood Avenue, which was named a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education in 2012.
South Bend has a number of issues on its hands. Last week Mayor Buttigieg gave the FOX28 Morning Show an exclusive preview of some of the most pressing issues he will discuss.
One of his top priorities for 2013 is to end violence in South Bend. He said there were far too many deaths last year, many of which involved young people.
"What was particularly alarming is that it was affecting our youth," he said. "In a lot of these cases, either the victim or the perpetrator was a young person. I don't want to have another summer like last summer."
"I'll be announcing a major initiative that will pull together people from all different parts of this community to tackle this challenge head-on. We've got to do something and it starts now."
We also expect Buttigieg to talk about the city's progress with the vacant and abandoned housing situation. Earlier this year, the mayor's office announced a plan he believes will help rehabilitate or demolish one-thousand homes in one-thousand days. This month he teamed up with an organization called "Rebuilding Together" to get started.
FOX28 will give you complete coverage on the State of the City address right here on FOX28.com as well as tonight on FOX28 News at 10.
