Belvedere talks state of the city at its annual town meeting

Belvedere officials emphasized recent accomplishments and highlighted upcoming housing and infrastructure projects at its first state-of-the-city meeting since the pandemic began.

Residents gathered at Belvedere Community Park for the 42nd community-style town hall, during which the city also honored 2021’s Citizen of the Year, Adam Gavzer, and its Citizen of the Year Emerita, Ann Allen. The meeting was canceled in 2021 over coronavirus concerns, and this year, in a nod to lingering public-health concerns, the meeting was pushed from February to April and held outside on the park’s basketball court rather than indoors at the Community Center.

Outgoing City Manager Craig Middleton, who is retiring next month, led off the meeting by acknowledging the stress of the pandemic on the community.

“Who would have anticipated at that January 2020 town meeting the fear and dislocation that would occur over the subsequent couple of years?” he said. “A lockdown. People isolated from one another. Watching those daily case counts and hospitalization rates. Worries about loved ones. Testing challenges. Even the hoarding of toilet paper. But this community mobilized. People who could walk, walked. Block captains checked in on their neighbors. People gathered, safely distanced, in parks and walking paths. We helped each other and together we made it through, so give yourselves a hand.”

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