Mayor Luke Bronin Starts Second Term

Mayor Luke Bronin at Hartford Public Library, Oct., 2019
Photo credit Dave Mager, WTIC News

Luke Bronin, 40, has been sworn in for his second term as Mayor of Hartford.

He took the Oath of Office Monday night at a City Hall ceremony.

Emphasizing Hartford's "heart, and passion, and creativity and hard work," he promised to continue to focus on building a better future for the city.

He also asked for the public's help in promoting the great things about Hartford.

 

Here's a transcript of Bronin's Inauguration speech as prepared, as provided by the Mayor's Office:

"Good evening, everyone.  Happy New Year, and Feliz Dia de Reyes – Happy Three Kings Day.Congratulations to the members of the Court of Common Council, and to Treasurer Cloud.  I’m proud to be serving with you.And Congratulations Council President Rosado. Esta noche, usted y sus colegas han hecho historia.  Estoy muy orgulloso de servir y trabajar a lado de la primera Presidente Latina del Concejo Municipal en la historia de Hartford.  Felicidades.  Thank you, Clerk Bazzano, members of the clergy, our State Troubadour, our State delegation, Constitutional officers, and to the city employees, the public servants who work so hard for our city every day, and to everyone for being here tonight.  To my wife Sara, who serves Hartford in her own right, and our three kids, and my parents, I’m so grateful to you.  And I love you so much.  And thank you, Yahaira, for emceeing tonight’s proceedings.  You can see from Yahaira’s energy and passion why we asked her to emcee.  She’s one of one hundred young people from Greater Hartford who were chosen to be part of President Obama’s Community Leadership Corps.We take the oaths tonight, but Hartford’s future depends a lot more on those young leaders than on us.  Our job is to pass to them a stronger city.  We’ve worked hard over the past four years, through one of the most challenging times in our city’s history.  And we have so much more to do.  Because of our work together, our fiscal situation is more stable than it was a few years ago, but it’s fragile.  We’ll still have tough financial decisions to make, and we’ll have very few easy ones.  We have to keep pushing hard to attract investment and growth, everywhere we can.  We have to keep working side by side with the Superintendent and the Board of Education to strengthen our neighborhood schools.We have to keep working to get Connecticut to more fully recognize that our cities are key to Connecticut’s economic future.We have a lot to do.  But we are moving forward.  You can see it in buildings being renovated, in feet on the street, and in companies choosing to come to Hartford for the first time in a long time.  And we are also starting to make progress on something less tangible, but just as important: the way people think about Hartford, and the way we in Hartford think about ourselves.  And that’s what I want to talk about tonight.  When I did that tour of towns around Hartford a few years ago, the message was simple: as a region, we rise or fall together.I encountered so many people who had written Hartford off.  Who would have walled us off if they could, and took a strange pride in how long it had been since they’d come into their Capital City.  And even though I got an earful from them, I felt sad for them.  Because our Hartford – the one that belongs to all of us here tonight, and to everyone who can see it, and anyone who wants to be a part of it – is a city with a huge heart.  Ours is a city where you can see world-class theater and hear great jazz and experience amazing art and take walks by the riverfront and dance salsa on Pratt Street and Double Dutch at block parties and clap with church choirs and cheer for blue and green at the Yardgoats or at Dillon Stadium……and eat stewed chicken or pernil or patties or pasta or banh mi or dosas or whatever you want, all of it as good as you’ll find anywhere – and where you can do all of that and know that, if you didn’t go with friends, you’re probably going to run into an old friend, or meet someone new who can be a part of your life afterward. 

That’s not to ignore the pain, and the poverty, and the trauma, and the suffering in our city.  Those things are part of Hartford, too.  They’re why many of us choose to do the work we do, and why the work matters so much.  But despite those who would like to see us as only that, those things don’t define Hartford.  What defines Hartford is the compassion, and the resilience, and the determination, and the beauty of this community in the face of all of that.  Just as much as Hartford is the city that was home to Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe once upon a time, it’s the city where the poet Ocean Vuong arrived as a refugee thirty years ago, moved into a one-bedroom apartment with six relatives, became the first person in his family to read, and last year became one of seven writers on the planet chosen as a MacArthur Genius.

It’s the place where world-class Jazz musician Nat Reeves, who’s played with people like Miles Davis, plays at First Night, because Hartford is his home; much like Chef Xavier Santiago, who came to Hartford from Puerto Rico as a child and just won “Chopped” on Food Network.  It’s home today to innovators who are reimagining industries – including the young women at Girls for Technology, who were invited out to California last spring to pitch their ideas to the team at Facebook HQ.  And so many more.   Because when it comes to heart, and passion, and creativity and hard work, this city punches way above its weight. 

Especially heart.  Ours is a city that puts its reentry welcome center right inside city hall, because we don’t give up on anyone.  Where members of the Youth Service Corps shovel snow or cut grass for neighbors who can’t.  Where business leaders rally to build a new Boys & Girls Club.  Where families take care of one another and neighbors lift each other up in times of need.And that’s why I am so proud, and grateful, and humbled to continue leading the City of Hartford alongside everyone here tonight.

My pledge to you is the same one I’ve made before: to work my heart out, to try to do the right thing, to always welcome criticism, but never be distracted by those who make negativity a hobby, and to worry less about what’s popular or easy and more about what kind of city we’re going to leave to our kids.

My ask of my colleagues on this stage is to join me in that pledge.  Let’s chart the path forward together, and when we disagree, let’s do it respectfully. And let’s not get distracted by small differences, when there’s so much we have to do together.

My ask of everyone in our city: Let your pride for Hartford show in ways big and small.  Let it show in the expectations we set for ourselves, and our neighbors, and our kids.  Let it show in the way we treat our city, talk about our city, believe in our city.

And if we all keep our pledges, I think we’ll achieve the most powerful thing we can for Hartford: we’ll help to build a place where more and more young people do what Yahaira and many others are already doing – decide to make their mark not by leaving, but by following their hearts and changing their world right here at home.

Thank you everyone.  God bless you, and may God bless the city of Hartford."