In the packed public square at the Gaslight District on Thursday, the mayor of Cambridge gave her first state of the city address since getting elected in October.
Cambridge Mayor Jan Liggett was joined by a few high ranking city officials on stage to preach to their constituents and community members the positive work that has been going on in the last year.
In her speech, Liggett talked about getting the city back on track to normalcy after a rough few years due to the pandemic and becoming a place where people want to work.
"I have long thought that we have lost the spirit of our community, the loss of volunteers through apathy, time available attrition or feeling unappreciated," she said. "But, since taking office I have actually started to see a change."
On the 50 anniversary of the city's amalgamation, Liggett and her team are happy and excited to see Cambridge starting to become a place that is recognized on all levels; provincially, nationally and globally.
She touts companies such as Moderna investing millions of dollars in Cambridge businesses as well as the continued growth of manufacturing and automation behemoths Toyota and ATS.
"Cambridge is starting to become a place for industry again and we're so happy to see it," added Liggett.
Another big piece of her address was making Cambridge feel like home and one of the most important ways to do this is by building more homes.
Habitat for Humanity along with the Region of Waterloo and local municipalities have introduced a plan on constructing over 10,000 homes locally at affordable and obtainable costs, "This is one of the most important things to happen over the last year," commented Liggett.
"The same type of innovative thinking for which Waterloo region is world renowned, has brought a collective of minds together to solve one of the greatest social issues of our lifetime," said Liggett.
"We were the first city in the region to join in the conversation and promote the project. So many different groups came together for the betterment of people living in our city and throughout the region."
One of the city's biggest issues facing housing is developers actually getting their shovels in the ground.
Liggett mentions that they can approve all the applications they want, but they cannot force developers to start building. They need to step it up and start building if they are going to hit their goal of 19,000 homes.
The city has put an emphasis on becoming a space for placemaking and being a place where organizations and groups want to host events and for families to grow.
According to the mayor, there have been more applications for events on city property than pre-pandemic and city-led events are seeing record breaking attendance numbers.
City buildings such as public pools are starting to get renovations and Liggett is making a point to re-open previously closed pools to offer the community a space to learn to swim and cool down during the hot months.
"It is so important to have neighbourhood pools for children to learn to swim, and families to have a sense of belonging and place," she added. "All these things combined with the partnership and the ice park for a quad ice facility has provided the community with updated facilities and opportunities for our growing city."
The legacy Liggett wants to leave when she is done leading the city is to have started the community process of helping the homeless and those suffering from drug addictions.
"I am making inroads with the provincial government that I will be able to share soon, but we need to act fast," she said. "Often times there is only so much we can do for those living on the streets, but we need to focus on people who are addicted who are still in their own homes, who have jobs, who have family and housing, those are the people we have to help."
She wants to see bricks and mortar recovery and detox rehabs as well as social clubs taking on the recovery part and providing care for people who have gone through rehab and have started to settle down.
"I want to see a mental health facilities so the people that we see on the street that have no idea of what's going on around them have support there to look after them and a place where they feel safe to get treatment," said Liggett.
She mentioned that her staff and those on council all agree on one thing; that Cambridge is home and they are looking forward to the future and creating a place to grow.
