BOISE, Idaho — It's been 100 days since Boise Mayor Lauren McLean took office.
"Nobody expected on January 7 that our community would be dealing with a pandemic,” McLean said. “So of course, that's factored into the work I’ve done over the last 100 days, but I want the public to know from day one we jumped in and started working on my vision.”
She went on to say that while the pandemic has challenged the city of Boise, she is incredibly proud of how the Boise community has come together to respond.
In the coming weeks, McLean will be working with the budget teams to determine what’s possible, what's most important given where we are today and where we have to be in a year, two years and even four years.
"We will announce a recovery team and begin the work of our economic development plan that's tied to that. You will see a lot of conversations about our budget," McLean said. "In the presentation of our budget you'll see the value of housing policy, climate, and innovation, as well as transportation reflected because all of those are building blocks of a strong economy."
On Thursday, the Boise mayor also released citizen-centered transition reports that focus on what she says is a collective vision of a "city for everyone."
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Of course, the pandemic is on top of mind for a lot of people here.
KTVB asked if Mayor McLean had any plans of further postponing major city events, following the mayor of Los Angeles’ announcement that major events there will likely be pushed back to 2021.
“Given what we know now, I’m optimistic that in the fall there are events that will be able to move forward, but everyday I recognize that something could occur that makes it so we have to make a different decision,” McLean said. “No city is alike, so New York has their dates, LA announced theirs, Chicago has theirs… so locally here we've got to talk as a region, and nothing is off the table, but I’m not going to make pronouncements until we know it's time to do that.”
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Here are the top things Mayor McLean said she hopes to accomplish in the next 100 days: prepare a budget that reflects the values that she brought to this office and the needs of our community, create a climate and innovation proposal that factors into our economic development future, and develop her economic development plan as well as an introduction of housing policies that need to be implemented.
She will also hold a telephone town hall on April 20 at 4 p.m. in place of her regularly scheduled listening sessions.
“To grow an economy and to recover an economy you have to make investments, and I want to do that on behalf of the citizens of Boise so that we, at the end of this, have recovered and find that we're more of a vibrant, thriving community,” McLean said.
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