Homicides down, housing investment up, more updates in Lexington mayor’s State of City speech

Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton celebrated the city’s declining homicide rate, emphasized new investments in technology and praised efforts to increase funding for affordable housing in her state of the city speech on Tuesday.

Tuesday marked Gorton’s sixth state of the city speech.

Much of Gorton’s first term was spent dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, its economic fall out and racial justice protests. The former nurse and vice mayor won re-election by a landslide in 2022.

“It has been five years since my first state of the city-county speech on Jan. 22, 2019, when I challenged us all to dream big. In that time, we’ve marked five years of progress,” Gorton said during her speech in front of the Lexington Forum, a local civics group.

Decreases in homicides

The One Lexington program has worked to address a surge in violent crime, particularly homicides, among youth, Gorton said. One Lexington has partnered with other nonprofits, along with offering mentoring and other youth programming.

The work of One Lexington is evident in the city’s declining homicide numbers, Gorton said.

“In 2022, Lexington had 44 homicides compared to 24 in 2023,” Gorton said. “For the first time in five years, Lexington had fewer than 100 shootings in 2023.”

Multiple investments in police cameras, internet and website

Gorton also touted the city’s use of Flock license plate readers, which were installed in 2022 and 2023, and a real-time intelligence center, which helps coordinate the city’s traffic and license plate reader cameras.

The Flock license plate readers, which were met with questions and pushback at the time they were installed, have helped police catch wanted criminals and find stolen cars, Gorton said.

In 2023, Flock license plate readers assisted police in:

• Recovering 127 stolen vehicles with a total value of $1.6 million.

• Recovering 17 guns through stolen vehicle investigations, guns that are now off the streets.

• Locating four missing people who had been entered into the National Crime Information Center.

• Serving 127 warrants or subpoenas.

“This technology provides up-to-date, real time intelligence, allowing our police to respond to calls quickly and with more precision,” Gorton said.

In addition, the city is also helping to install high-speed internet to the rural area. Metronet built out the city’s broadband network inside the city’s urban service area several years ago. But the rural area was left out.

Thanks to a combination of federal and state grants, build out of the broadband network outside the urban service area has begun, Gorton said. Installation should be complete in the next two to three years.

In addition, the city is completely revamping its website. It’s also offering more and more services online, she said. For the first time this year, businesses can pay annual fees online.

Record investments in affordable housing

The city set a record in 2023 for the amount of money it puts toward affordable housing, Gorton said.

It invested $7.4 million. The city also set a record for the number of units city funding helped build — 234.

The milestone comes as the city celebrates the 10th anniversary of the creation of the affordable housing fund. Since 2014, the city has invested $30 million in the fund. That has drawn more than $400 million in other funding for affordable housing projects.

More will be going into the fund in coming years, she said.

“Beginning in the next budget, we will allocate 1% of the prior year’s revenue to the affordable housing fund. This will generate about $5 million annually, a significant increase,” Gorton said.

A new city hall, business park and improvements to New Circle

Gorton also spoke about several long-term capital projects.

Long on the city’s to-do list is a new city government center. The city recently released a request for proposals to developers for a new city government center. Those proposals will be returned the first of February.

“We anticipate having definite plans by summer,” Gorton said.

The city’s Legacy Business Park, on land once owned by the University of Kentucky off of Georgetown Road, will break ground this spring.

“There will soon be 146 acres of industrial office park land available for development, and hundreds of new jobs,” Gorton said.

The city also recently broke ground on Cardinal Run North, the first major regional park in decades. Cardinal Run North should open in 2025.

New Circle Road on the north side of Lexington will get a makeover thanks largely to a $22 million federal grant. That grant will help reconfigure the road to increase pedestrian safety. Another $8 million grant will help redesign a railroad overpass on North Broadway near New Circle Road, Gorton said.