‘Thank you, Columbia.’ Mayor Benjamin delivers his final State of the City address.
Columbia has been through a lot in the last year, as the specter of the coronavirus pandemic has colored seemingly every aspect of day-to-day life in the Capital City.
But, in his annual State of the City address on Tuesday night, third-term Mayor Steve Benjamin said Columbia still stands tall.
“The state of our city is strong,” Benjamin said. “Our city and its people have prevailed.”
It was the final State of the City for Benjamin. First elected in 2010, he made the decision recently not to run again this year.
Unlike past State of the City speeches, which typically take place in front of packed houses at places like the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center or the auditorium at the University of South Carolina’s law school, with police officers decked out in their finest and city judges lining the front row in their robes, this year’s address was a virtual affair. Only a handful of the members of the city press corps and a few of the mayor’s friends, like longtime Councilman Sam Davis, were gathered at City Hall.
In many State of the City talks in the past, Benjamin has laid out big dreams and plans for the future. In his final such address, Columbia’s first Black mayor struck a more wistful tone, one that looked back on accomplishments of past years, and leaned heavily on recounting the ways the city has dealt with COVID-19 in the last 11 months.
“I came here tonight to say, ‘Thank you, Columbia,’” Benjamin said. “I want to thank my colleagues who I’m honored to serve with for making the difficult, rapid and momentous decisions that have been made that allowed us to confront the unforeseen onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Last spring Columbia City Council was among the first in the state to suspend its normal meetings and opt for virtual gatherings. Benjamin also touted the Resilient Columbia economic relief package Council authorized in 2020 that put $1.4 million in the hands of small businesses amid the coronavirus, as well as a robust COVID testing program that was put in place for city employees. The mayor also noted Columbia was one of the first South Carolina cities to adopt a mask ordinance, even as the state government has continued to resist such a measure.
“I will always and forever maintain that these measures were the right things to do to try and halt the spread of the virus,” Benjamin said. “It took courage and leadership. And as the virus continues to spread at alarming rates across the state, I want to thank the members of City Council for making the difficult and, at times, unpopular decisions that others refused to make. I’ll always maintain we did the right thing in the interest of public health.”
Benjamin also said Tuesday night that he has received the COVID-19 vaccine, a procedure that was captured on video. He said that video will soon be “shared broadly.”
The mayor took time to recognize Columbia Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins, a 40-plus-year veteran of the department, for currently serving as the first African American president of the South Carolina Association of Fire Chiefs.
“We thank you, Aubrey, for a job well done,” Benjamin said. “You, our firefighters and our fire marshals have stood in the gap for all Columbians, and indeed you have since the first day that I walked into this office in 2010.”
Benjamin also specifically lauded the city’s Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Palen, noting the city has now gotten the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association of the U.S. and Canada for six consecutive years. That represented quite a turnaround for the city’s financial books: Prior to this six-year run, there was an eight-year drought in which the city had not received the nod from the finance officers association.
The third-term mayor took time to point out the revitalization of Main Street in the last decade, with new bars, restaurants, entertainment venues, and copious streetscaping and facade upgrades. He also noted the city’s efforts in the BullStreet District where, through a strong push from Benjamin, the city has committed to $100 million in public investment to revamp the vast, 181-acre former State Mental Hospital site.
“We’ve begun an ambitious project to support the development of the largest downtown revitalization project east of the Mississippi at BullStreet, where now there is a Starbucks, an REI (outdoor store), Segra Park, which is the stadium of the decade, according to Ballpark Digest,” Benjamin said. “And even as flames attempted to destroy the Babcock Building, we forge ahead, as it will be rebuilt, cupola and all, in a $55 million project underway as we speak.”
As for the pandemic, Benjamin said, while case numbers have been falling across the state in recent weeks, he thinks South Carolina may still be “in the eye of the storm” and must be vigilant of the more contagious variants that have been popping up here and nationwide.
“We must continue to fight and to sacrifice, together,” he said.
