Thanks Dr. Todd, Judge Coffman, Cheryl Ann, Drew and Will for your participation today. Your presence means more than I can express.

My fellow Lexingtonians:

Almost a quarter century ago, Transylvania history professor John Wright authored a history of Lexington, and in his epilogue, he observed, “What we are and where we have been will determine where we are going and what we shall be. The early 19th century leaders in Lexington had some vision of what they wished their town to be, and did remarkably well in fulfilling that goal.” Professor Wright then raised the question that challenges us this day: “Will Lexington in its third century produce leadership similarly cognizant of the total community in all its aspects: the human needs as well as physical growth; cultural creativity as well as economic expansion; and a shared sense of purpose in a burgeoning urban environment?”

Today we gather to both celebrate and renew our city. Inaugurations are, by definition, about new beginnings, and mayoral inaugurations are times for our city to ponder its past, present and future, to confront its shortcomings and to consider its potential. Today, we should pause to consider our past, to evaluate our present and to begin to chart our city’s course in the 21st Century, and in the process, perhaps address Professor Wright’s challenging question.

Lexington’s past is fascinating, and it provides great insight about how we came to our present state. Professor Wright’s history entitled “Lexington - Heart of the Bluegrass” tells us much about our earliest years. In June 1775, a handful of frontiersmen camping near McConnell Springs named this place Lexington at a time when there was really nothing here to name. At that point, all they had was a dream, but their dream endured, and on April 17, 1779, work began on a blockhouse just across the street near the intersection of Main and Mill Streets. By October 1779, Lexington consisted of the blockhouse and four cabins.

In January 1780, the political organization of Lexington began when the settlers signed a citizens’ compact - the prevailing social contract tradition of that day - and five men were selected to be the first trustees of the community. Soon thereafter, the trustees adopted Lexington’s first development plan. It used the traditional grid pattern that was found in Philadelphia and New York – the preeminent cities of that time, but rather than using compass points to guide the streets’ direction, the Town Branch, which runs underneath this complex, was the defining feature of downtown. Streets ran either parallel to the Town Branch or at right angles to the stream.

In 1784, shops and a transportation network of roads radiating into surrounding counties began to appear, and Lexington began to emerge as the region’s service center. Taverns and inns, the precursors of today’s hospitality industry, began to appear in the mid 1780s, as did churches. Our first school started in 1783, and teachers then had their own peculiar problems to overcome.

John McKinney, Lexington’s first schoolteacher, was attacked in his schoolhouse by a wildcat that entered an open door, leapt on Mr. McKinney and buried his fangs into Mr. McKinney’s ribs. Remarkably, Mr. McKinney found a way to strangle the wildcat before help arrived, but even after the wildcat’s demise at the hands of one tough schoolteacher, his teeth had to be extracted from Mr. McKinney’s side. Mr. McKinney’s tenacity, I suspect, was a fair reflection of the character of our earliest settlers.

By 1800, Lexington was a bustling urban center that impressed our visitors. The visitors spread the word about Lexington, and dozens of entrepreneurs flocked to the area to avail themselves of the business opportunities arising in Lexington. Soon, physicians, lawyers, including Henry Clay, architects, and craftsmen followed. Lexington’s arts and cultural activities prospered as innkeepers promoted theatrical performances to entertain their guests. Transylvania University’s campus was established, and Henry Clay and other trustees recruited a nationally renowned president - Horace Holley - who led the institution to national prominence - especially in the fields of law and medicine.

By 1830, Lexington was known as the “Athens of the West”. Its educational institutions, its arts and cultural offerings, its strong medical community, its fertile land and its industrious people created a quality of life such that a settlement consisting of a blockhouse and four cabins emerged as one of the country’s preeminent cities in just fifty years. Looking back with the perspective afforded by about 200 years, the accomplishments of our predecessors were remarkable. Their example raises a question for us: When future generations survey our contribution to our city’s history, will our contribution be viewed so favorably?

Some may challenge this comparison. Some may say our forefathers were working with a blank page - unencumbered by the mistakes of prior generations. Some may say ours is a different time with different challenges that preclude the sort of dramatic changes seen in early Lexington. Perhaps those observations are fair, but it matters not.

You see, for better or worse, this era is our time, and now, this city is our place. What we collectively choose to do or choose not to do will determine whether future generations will judge us kindly or judge us harshly. The question then for each of us is: Will we choose to follow in our forefathers’ footsteps, address our challenges and make Lexington one of the nation’s preeminent cities as it was in 1830 or will we accept mediocrity as our standard?

The choice is ours.

Today, Lexington is at a crossroads. We’ve grown past the point of being a big country town. We’re now to the point at which we must recognize our status as the city which will be hosting the world in 2010, and certainly we must recognize our status as the horse capital of the world, in large measure as a result of the magnificent land which surrounds us in almost every direction.

But we must also recognize our city as both a regional and national health care center, and, as the home of the University of Kentucky, we must recognize our city as a center for high tech research and development - a place where technology is being developed to improve the quality of life for our fellow man.

We must acknowledge our city’s status as the region’s service center, and we must acknowledge our city as the arts and cultural center for the eastern half of our state. As the home of an outstanding public school system, UK, Transylvania, Bluegrass Community and Technical College, and as a support center for multiple institutions of higher education in the region, Lexington serves as the state’s educational center.

Indeed, today as 200 years ago, Lexingtonians have many wonderful attributes upon which we can build our future – in many instances the very same attributes that enabled Lexington to become the Athens of the West. But today we are confronted with significant challenges which demand our attention.

Candidly, we haven’t done a good job of maintaining our home. Just like the houses in which we live, the city in which we live cannot go indefinitely without some repair and maintenance. Our streets, roads and sewers need our attention.

Our friends from around the globe will be arriving in less than four short years, so now is the time to start our efforts to fix up, spruce up and clean up our gateways.

Our water supply needs attention. The Kentucky River has provided the entire region with water for decades, but the stress of growth and the impact of time on an aged network of dams have made the river a less than reliable water source. Together with our friends and neighbors in the Kentucky River watershed, we must work to assure our city and region of a reliable water supply.

And the river isn’t the only asset that requires regional attention. We must build relationships throughout central Kentucky to develop regional solutions to our transportation problems and to address our mutual land use issues.

In decades gone by, we have allowed our farmland to be consumed while paying precious little attention to the potential presented by infill and redevelopment efforts. We have allowed our older neighborhoods to deteriorate while we have built new developments. We have failed to be good stewards of our environment as our streams have been polluted to such a degree that we are now confronted by an enforcement action brought by federal authorities requiring us to do the right thing.

Finally, our city has been adrift. Oh, things have gone okay in recent years, but sometimes it seems as though we have often succeeded in spite of ourselves. While good things have happened, there’s a sense that many other good things that should have happened did not.

That is our present reality. If these challenges are left unattended, Lexington could lose its distinctive place in America and become merely another city on the interstate.

So we are confronted by a fundamental choice as we ponder our future. Indeed, since this moment is now our time in history and since this place is now ours to protect and preserve for our children and for generations yet to come, the question still confronts us: Will we choose to follow in our forefathers’ footsteps, address our challenges and make Lexington one of the nation’s preeminent cities as it was in 1830 or will we accept mediocrity as our standard?

Mediocrity has never been an option for this city, and I hope it never will be. Further, on our watch, it will not even be a consideration.

So, how do we enable Lexington to achieve its promise? We have those same enduring assets which enabled Lexington to spring to prominence 200 years ago – strong educational institutions, vibrant arts and cultural offerings, a strong medical community, fertile land and industrious people. What will it take to capitalize on those attributes? It will take our united effort – togetherness, if you will.

Undoubtedly, there are matters to which we must immediately attend. The EPA enforcement action and the completion of the comprehensive plan update are upon us, and regardless of our preference for more time, those issues must be handled now. Together, we will address those challenges.

Our General Assembly will soon be meeting, and our legislative agenda must be prepared and advanced. Together, we will prepare and advance that agenda.

Our government must immediately be more open and accessible. Together, we will make it so.

We must take immediate steps to coordinate our economic development efforts with our business community and with the University of Kentucky. Together, we will build a more vibrant economy.

There are other pressing matters demanding immediate attention, and together we will successfully address those matters.

Despite the number and the magnitude of these issues, I thank the citizens of this community for the confidence which they have shown in me by allowing me to serve as Mayor of this city at this time. I also thank the citizens of Lexington for permitting me to have an outstanding group of individuals serving on the Urban County Council.

I am blessed to be surrounded by a group of commissioners and mayoral staff members of whom I am immensely proud. I am blessed to have the opportunity to work with many loyal and dedicated career employees of our Urban County Government. So, regardless of the number and magnitude of the immediately pressing matters, we will make good progress.

We will undoubtedly make mistakes - I know that I certainly will. But I am confident that in the coming years, Lexington will be well served by this council, this administration and this government because I am confident that we will work well together.

These immediate problems are important, but their successful resolution will not enable Lexington to achieve its full potential. That endeavor will take a much greater and a much more united effort. It will require an effort that extends beyond the tenure of these fine folks on the council and beyond my tenure as mayor. Nevertheless, just like our predecessors 200 years ago, we can succeed in making Lexington one of America’s preeminent cities. How? I propose two steps.

First, like our forefathers, we need to dream a dream that will endure. Together we must develop a common vision for our future. I dream of Lexington being nationally recognized as one of our country’s preeminent cities.

We all have some general notion of what it might take to make Lexington achieve that potential, but we need to inject that notion with an element of clarity so that we all understand what that concept means from a physical perspective, a cultural perspective, a human perspective and an economic perspective.

Why undertake such a process? There are at least three reasons. First and foremost, if our city fully attains its potential, it will create both a quality of life and an economic environment that will enable our citizens, both current and future, to fully attain their own potential.

Second, a shared sense of direction will provide each of us with some context within which to assess our own civic involvement.

Finally, by having a shared sense of direction, we can alleviate much of the acrimony that arises when a large group of people simply don’t know where they are going. This orchestra full of talented musicians would not be effective if it had no sheet music and everyone was left to play as they pleased. Figuratively speaking, Lexington needs some sheet music if we want to hear some harmony.

However, we must not only dream an enduring dream. We must also identify and begin taking the steps necessary to make that dream a reality. Whatever steps may be required, we will all have to contribute mightily and perhaps even sacrificially - just as our community’s citizens contributed to the making of this city some 200 years ago. While some of those steps must be taken 20 or 25 years from now, others must be taken soon so that we can prepare for the World Equestrian Games, and so that we can develop the momentum necessary to accomplish the big tasks which lie ahead.

Some will no doubt say that this agenda is not where Lexington needs to go. They will point to other ways we need to spend our limited time, our limited financial resources and our limited community energy. They will say that local government needs to concern itself with pigeons and potholes.

I, too, will concede that our pigeons must be dispersed, our potholes must be filled, and all the other day-to-day needs of local government must be addressed. But, addressing a city’s day-to-day needs and its long-term needs are not mutually exclusive goals. In fact, addressing both immediate and long-term issues is what great cities do. In fact, it is what this great city will do in the coming years.

At this time of new ideas and new beginnings, let us begin today to think anew about what each of us can contribute to our city’s success. Let us begin today to address our city’s immediate needs while starting to dream an enduring dream for our community. Let us begin today to achieve a level of greatness in the next 25 years that will inspire Lexington’s future generations just as the stories of our predecessors from some 200 years ago inspire us today.

So now let us address the challenge of John Wright’s epilogue of some 25 years ago. He said: “The early 19th century leaders in Lexington had some vision of what they wished their town to be, and did remarkably well in fulfilling that goal. Will Lexington in its third century produce leadership similarly cognizant of the total community in all its aspects: the human needs as well as physical growth; cultural creativity as well as economic expansion; and a shared sense of purpose in a burgeoning urban environment?”

The answer is “Yes.” In 2006, Lexington has produced that leadership, and in years to come, I am confident that Lexington will continue to do so in order that both our city and our citizens can fully achieve their unlimited promise. If that occurs, future generations and historians will thank us all.

May God bless our efforts, and may God bless our city!