Mayor on the state of Allentown: ’Thank God we made it’ through 2020
Updated Jan 22, 2021;
In other years, Allentown’s State of the City is marked by mayors crowing about their administration’s accomplishments over the past year and touching on glowing plans for the future.
Friday’s speech, however, had Mayor Ray O’Connell celebrating the fact listeners and the city have survived during a historic pandemic that so far has a 400,000-person death toll, sickened many more, and created a devastating economic toll that still has not been completely realized.
“When I look back on 2020, the first thing I want to say is ‘thank God we made it,’” O’Connell said in the pre-recorded speech. “Baby boomers and those that followed have never seen anything like it. Our way of living has been totally turned upside down to try to put the brakes on a global pandemic.”