Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin knows how to put on a show.
And his fifth – and possibly his last – State of the City address Tuesday night was no exception.
He even chose as a location the top place in Aurora to stage a show, the Paramount Theatre downtown. And his speech had a bit of everything – some chest thumping about past accomplishments, some introduction of new things coming in the future, some music and even some unexpected drama caused by a few protesters who came into the theater.
There was even a bit of hyperbole, when the mayor announced that the state of the city is “not only strong, but undeniably better and more promising than at any time in the city’s 185-year history.”
If that might be a little over the top, Irvin went about proving his case by punctuating some of the accomplishments of his five years in office, including the development of 2,299 residential units – more than 500 of them downtown – 4.64 million square feet of construction, $1.01 billion of constructed valuation added to the city in the past two years alone, and some 70 ribbon-cuttings for new businesses in just 2021.
“People want to live in Aurora,” he said. “Aurora is the place to be.”
But though the mayor’s speech was punctuated by applause and cheering, the speech did not have one thing – any mention of Irvin’s current campaign to become governor of Illinois.
The closest he came was a couple mentions of how much he gets around the state.
“I travel all over the state of Illinois and let me say, there is no place like home, there’s no place like Aurora,” he said.
Even the applause at times was a bit muted – for an Irvin affair, at least – as if the uncertainty of Irvin’s future as mayor hung over talk about the positive nature of some of the future events the mayor announced.
The biggest of those announcements was that the popular suburban version of Christkindlmarket, the German-themed Christmas market and entertainment holiday event, will be coming to Aurora this year.
The market still will have its ongoing event in downtown Chicago, but the suburban version will take place during this coming holiday season at RiverEdge Park in Aurora. The suburban version took place in Naperville through 2019.
The event will bring thousands of people to downtown Aurora in the middle of winter, officials said.
In addition to the new location for the market, Irvin announced another Christmas change for this year’s holiday season – the Festival of Lights in Phillips Park, for many years run by the Rotary Club of Aurora, will become a city festival, set up and run by the city.
Another new celebration for the city will come on St. Patrick’s Day 2023, with a new parade. On Thursday – St. Patrick’s Day 2022 – the city will raise the Irish flag at the Civic Center plaza downtown.
Irvin also announced that the Boys and Girls Clubs of America will open a chapter in Aurora.
As Irvin moved into talking about how the Aurora Police Department has more officers than at any time in its history, as well as “impressive increases in accountability and transparency,” three members in the audience begged to differ.
The protesters about halfway up the first section of seats stood and shouted at the mayor. Irvin raised his voice and continued to give statistics about Aurora having less murders, shootings, burglaries, robberies, thefts and motor vehicle thefts during his time as mayor.
As this was going on, the audience stood, cheered and clapped, drowning out the three protesters, who were led from theater, to be seen again after the speech outside.
The protesters had been part of a small group which stood on the sidewalk outside the Paramount before the speech, holding signs indicating their displeasure with the police.
Erika Garcia, identified as the leader of the group, said they were protesting what they see as a lack of accountability for the way Black and brown people are treated by police.
Specifically, the group believes the newly-created Civilian Review Board does not have enough power, that there should be more community control over the police budget and that the police gang database should be eliminated.
“They (City Hall) have not done anything,” Garcia said.
Inside, Irvin continued his speech, asking people to give “our law enforcement a massive round of applause for the job they do every day, keeping us safe.”
As he introduced members of the police command staff in the audience, he told them, “I will yell and scream for you any day, brothers.”
The speech, and accompanying video, also took the effort to stress Aurora’s diversity, for which it has been recognized.
“Diversity makes us a better city,” Irvin said.
