St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said the city is "strong" and "the best place to live" while giving the State of the City address Tuesday morning. He also highlighted the city's continued "pursuit of progress." Ahead of the public meeting, 10 Tampa Bay was able to get a look at 2023 achievements and statistics inside this impact report, which goes over several community initiatives, recovery during Hurricane Idalia, as well as the most prominent projects the city is still working on, such as affordable housing. Among the largest commitments, and most expensive, includes the Rays-Hines development project. The deal was announced during last year's State of the City address but has made significant progress in the last 12 months. Welch and his staff laid the groundwork, completing months of negotiations ending in a public-private collaboration between the City, Pinellas County and the Hines Historic Gas Plant Partnership. MORE: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/pinellascounty/st-petersburg-state-of-the-city-2024-ken-welch/67-99a6adda-40eb-444e-b347-971bda104924 ►Subscribe: https://on.wtsp.com/youtube ►Website: https://www.wtsp.com/ ►Facebook: https://facebook.com/10TampaBay ►Twitter: https://twitter.com/10TampaBay