Mayor Indya Kincannon's State of the City Address
April 25, 2025
11:30 a.m.
Covenant Health Park
Good Afternoon!
We are all here…in this very space—because we were not afraid to swing for the fences!
Isn’t this amazing?
How many of you were at Opening Night for the Knoxville Smokies ….raise your hand!?
Who will be at tomorrow’s home opener for One Knox Soccer? (raise your hand)
It is so much fun to cheer for our hometown teams, but this stadium stands for more than just sports.
This stadium is about:
• Creating a great new public space
• Honoring the history of this community
• Revitalizing a forgotten part of town
This stadium shows what can happen when we pull together and work as a team.
When you win the World Cup, or the World Series, it represents years of work by many different people. Covenant Health Park is no different..
So, to Mayor Jacobs, our teammates at Knox County and the State of Tennessee, to Drew McKenna and One Knox Soccer, to the members of the Sports Authority, to all the construction crews, to City Council and the incredible City workers who helped finance, engineer, plan, and operate this space, to Mayor Rogero and KCDC for making sure we developed hundreds of new homes at First Creek at Austin, before the stadium even started, to all the people who keep this facility clean, safe, and fun, and to Randy Boyd and the Smokies, our team MVP - THANK YOU!
Covenant Health Park is in the spotlight, but it’s one of many positive things happening in Knoxville right now.
Each success story is the result of people—just like you—coming together and working toward a common goal.
Thanks to our team:
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Crime is down.
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Housing is UP.
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And, from the Vols to the Ice Bears—our teams have a track-record of winning!
Public Safety is job # 1, and I am happy to say
violent crime is down for the third year in a row!
You may have noticed two particularly strong, handsome new additions to the KPD team as you entered the stadium, Phyl and Waggoner. I’m not sure their horse tails conform to the hair length policy, but they are already earning their keep by increasing visibility and bringing positive attention to our KPD team..
Our new mounted patrol is part of a broader effort to keep Knoxville safe.
One of my favorite initiatives is Project TLC.
We identified three neighborhoods that have significant violent crime, and we’re giving them some Tender Loving Care.
This TLC comes in the form of cleaning up blight, removing abandoned cars, increasing walking patrols, fixing broken street lights, and hosting community gatherings.
The City is not doing this alone, but in partnership with Church groups, neighborhood leaders and nonprofits. And guess what,
these neighborhoods are safer, thanks to this team approach.
I want to introduce you to one of our teammates, Caroline Platt, an AmeriCorp Vista member in the Western Heights neighborhood. Caroline goes above and beyond to, as she puts it, “build stronger relationships, for a stronger community”.
This past winter, Caroline joined us to canvas community members, to ask them what they needed to feel safer. One thing they mentioned over and over again was the need to feel more connected as a neighborhood—one solution: a holiday party.
So Caroline helped organize the holiday party, then she loaded up her personal vehicle and hand-delivered more than 150 Christmas gifts—to make sure every child had a gift to open Christmas morning.
Caroline, can you please stand up to be recognized!
Since taking office we have added more than 2600 affordable homes in Knoxville… and there's more to come!
We have some big hitters—like Kevin Dubose working on this every day.
Kevin and his team make it possible for us to see huge returns on our investments!
Did you know, for every dollar the City invests, we see $15 in private investment—that rate of return would make any banker proud! Lynne Fugate….I know you agree!
Just this past year we opened:
• Liberty Place to house homeless veterans,
• We added 180 more affordable homes at First Creek at Austin,
• And, just last week we celebrated 96 new homes at Riverside at Holston
It’s not just City staffers and bankers who make these projects possible.
We need pinch-hitters like Kara Strouse and the South Haven Neighborhood Association.
Instead of fighting proposed development, Kara and her neighbors teamed up with the developers, to find common ground. Thanks to their team work, the historic Giffin School will be redeveloped into 77 new affordable homes!
We are so grateful to have neighbors like you in our city!
Kara—and anyone from the South Haven community—please stand to be recognized.
And,
City employees are hitting it out of the park too!
For decades we have heard “it’s difficult to do business with the City. Permits are hard to get and inspections take too long.”
Well, those days are over!
This past year, we turned around reviews and inspections —in record time!
That’s because of
players on our team like Darren Oldham—who has turned around as many as 30 inspections in one day!
Darren is part of a bigger team that last year alone reviewed 5200 hundred plans, and issued 1500 permits worth nearly $370 million!
Darren and everyone from Plans Review and Inspections—please stand to be recognized!
While I am so proud of all we are accomplishing together, we know that the
strongest teams learn from mistakes and honor the past.
It is not lost on me that where we are standing is sacred ground, and those who lived and played here—helped pave the way for the Knoxville we have today.
So, I want to take a moment to share a piece of our history—to make sure it becomes part of our playbook for the future….
This video reminds us that with each decision we make, we are collectively writing a new piece of Knoxville history.
I am a competitive person—in case you didn’t know. And, I like to win….just ask my husband Ben….
But as Captain of the team….I don’t want to win for me…..
I want to win for the whole city!
The whole city wins when:
• Our neighborhoods are safe.
• Our children have great jobs and can afford homes.
• And, when we have great public spaces that promote togetherness.
This budget reflects a commitment to responsible, compassionate, and strategic local government—
A budget that works to make sure a rising tide truly lifts all boats!
Success begins with having the best players on the team.
Last year alone, the men and women of the Knoxville Fire Department responded to more than 26,000 calls.
Knowing that most of those calls were medical, last year we significantly increased stipends for Advanced EMTs and paramedics. Our firefighters responded enthusiastically! So this budget adds even more money to reward this additional training that will save more lives.
My budget proposal also includes funding to raise fire department salaries up to a competitive, market-rate. Chief Sharp and Larry McAfee —who leads the Firefighter Association—asked me to study this issue and we have delivered.
Thank you Chief Sharp and Firefighter Larry McAfee for your leadership. Everyone from KFD here today—please stand so we can thank you for your service!
Our firefighters also deserve top notch equipment and stations —this budget includes $1.2 million for air pack replacements, and I am thrilled to say this Summer we will be breaking ground on the first new fire station in 30 years— right in the heart of Burlington!
I want to take you back to October of last year. At around 2 p.m. on a blue-sky Fall afternoon, 9-1-1 operators got a call from a recycling business in Lonsdale. The worker said they were trying to dismantle a metal box with a blow torch when it broke open. When they peeked inside they saw a jumble of wires, blasting caps, and sticks of dynamite. And it was smoldering.
Before this day, I only knew about explosives from Road Runner cartoons…..
Thankfully, our team of highly trained first responders knew what to do.
First KFD, KEMA, KPD, community leaders, KAT and the Red Cross, worked together to safely evacuate nearly a thousand people.
A safety perimeter was set up. Then, without hesitation, our KPD Bomb Squad members put their lives on the line to meticulously untangle the dangerous mess of explosives. Thanks to this heroic team effort, nobody was hurt and residents returned home safely in 36 hours.
I hope this never happens again, but the City’s job is to be prepared. So this budget includes money for a new robot for the KPD bomb squad.
Keeping people safe also means making sure—whether you are walking, biking or driving—you can get around our city safely.
Our Vision Zero team is dedicated to eliminating traffic deaths on city streets by 2040. This sounds ambitious, but we are making huge strides—deadly crashes are 60% lower than this time last year!
To keep this momentum going, I am proposing more than $14 million for paving, traffic-calming, and for our Vision Zero quick builds—these investments will save lives!
Another key component in teamwork—is compassion.
And we have compassion in Knoxville!
It took a team of City, County, non-profit, and church leaders, to protect unhoused neighbors from the exceptionally cold winter temperatures.
The Joint Office of Housing Stability coordinated warming centers across the city for the second year—each location had only committed for 21 days—it was so cold for so long—they ended up being open for 32!
That’s a lot of resources, planning and volunteers. Thank you to everyone who helped at the Warming Centers—you are part of an amazing and caring team!
I want you all to know that this budget proposes more than $8 million to address the housing crisis, including significant new investments for warming centers and shelter beds.
Every good coach knows, you have to keep players healthy for them to thrive.
I am proud to announce this budget sets aside more than half a million dollars for healthcare partners in our City.
This money includes funding for a new Cherokee Health Clinic in Mechanicsville, and money for the expansion of Interfaith Health Clinic into a new, larger facility.
Anyone here from Cherokee or Interfaith—please stand up to be recognized!
Every team needs places to play, and our parks provide incredible spaces for everyone to enjoy!
We need YOUR input to help protect and improve our City parks in the coming years.
We’ve made it easy for you—there is a cup at every seat that has a link to
PlayKnoxvilleTN.com—where you can look at the schedule of public meetings, take a survey, and leave feedback on an interactive map.
While we gather your ideas, we will continue to invest in our outdoor spaces.
This budget includes $3.1 million in parks and community center improvements, including money for Lakeshore, area playgrounds and ballfields, and pool improvements across the City.
We also need to tackle deferred maintenance.
This budget includes $12 million for improvements at the Convention Center, the Civic Coliseum and a complete make-over of the World's Fair Park Amphitheater.
And, we can’t forget our most visited attraction—Zoo Knoxville.
That’s why we are pledging $1.4 million over 2 years to support some cool things like expanding the raptor exhibit, and some more practical things, like better bathrooms!
Speaking of animals—did you see our new “mascot” when you came in today?
Rocky the raccoon, or “Rocky Bot” is our new online friend available to help you—24/7.
Rocky will be live on our website next month.
Reporting a downed tree?
Is a streetlight out?
Have a trash pick-up question?
Rocky has you covered!
Rocky Bot is one more way we are serving you better!
We have an unstoppable team here in Knoxville.
We will continue to:
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Lift up neighbors who are struggling,
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Deliver essential services that make Knoxville a great place to call home!
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And, do big things together—like Covenant Health Park!
I’ll close with a final sports metaphor: remember—life is like baseball. We won’t hit a homerun every time, but we must keep stepping up to the plate—in order to knock it out of the park!
Thank you for coming and have a great day!