Buddy’s Priorities
Keeping our community safe is (and always will be) Mayor Dyer’s top priority.
Expanding police protection has kept crime low. Through his leadership, the City annually dedicates more than half of its general fund budget to public safety services, investing in the latest tools, training and technologies that keep our community safe.
Additionally, Mayor Dyer has prioritized funding to ensure that every single school in Orlando has a School Resource Officer on campus.
To continue enhancing the city’s public safety response, the Orlando Police Department launched a new program to send behavioral health experts to respond to non-violent 911 calls.
His commitment to the safety of residents has also made the Orlando Fire Department one of the most elite departments in the country. The Orlando Fire Department has an “ISO Rating” of 1, meaning they are one of the top 50 fire departments in America out of more than 55,000 departments. To continue providing the highest level of emergency medical services, the Orlando Fire Department has added paramedics and EMTs and is replacing three fire stations.
Orlando is a leader in the country in job growth and Mayor Dyer is leading the effort to diversify Central Florida’s economy and create a new breed of high-tech, high-wage careers for residents in cutting edge industries such as digital media, life sciences and biotechnology, modeling, simulation and training, and aviation and aerospace.
In just over a decade, Medical City has attracted cutting-edge health and training facilities, world-renowned hospitals and research centers and global headquarters to the southeast part of the city.
Under Buddy Dyer’s leadership, the City of Orlando introduced the Creative Village, an urban neighborhood dedicated to innovation, education and creativity. Anchored by the UCF-Valencia Downtown Campus, Creative Village is a magnet to attract new companies and new industries to Downtown.
Mayor Dyer is helping Orlando become a hub for technology companies. It’s the fastest-growing US city for IT talent and the second fastest-growing city for tech worker salaries. In 2022, more than 2,500 tech jobs opened up in our community.
Additionally, the Main Street program has transformed neighborhoods, like Mills 50, Audubon Park and Ivanhoe Village into hubs of community events, unique restaurants and more than 1,000 small business openings.
Orlando is internationally recognized for being a welcoming and inclusive city for everybody, regardless of gender, race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation or gender identity.
Since Buddy Dyer took office, he has fostered an inclusive government that embraces equality and diversity, and celebrates our cultures. For the last nine years, Orlando has received a perfect score on the annual Municipal Equality Index by the Human Rights Campaign.
In 2019, Buddy Dyer created the first Multicultural Affairs Committee and Orlando became the first city in Florida to recognize LGBTQ-certified businesses. And last year, in the wake of a series of bills aimed at silencing the LGBTQ community, Mayor Dyer recommitted the City of Orlando to continuing to take action to help create an inclusive community for all. Under his leadership, the city has added the LGBTQ+ community as a core part of the Community Investment program, which provides millions of dollars in grant funding to nonprofit groups making an impact in Orlando.
Mayor Dyer was instrumental in launching the region’s first commuter rail system, SunRail, and has been a leader in the effort to complete the Brightline high-speed rail between Orlando and Miami, which is expected to be open to the public sometime this year.
Mayor Dyer also has plans to expand the SunRail routes and operation times so that residents can use it to get to the airport and to travel within the city more easily.
Mayor Dyer has made Orlando friendlier to bicyclists with the introduction of the bike share program in 2015, and the expansion to more than 300 miles of urban trails, signed routes and lanes created specifically for biking and walking, with nearly 35 of these miles off-street paths. He has also introduced Project DTO 2.0, a long-term action plan aimed at improving local roads, civic spaces, and transportation in Downtown Orlando.
Mayor Dyer is committed to working with Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings to make significant investments in expanding our region’s mobility options.
Under Mayor Dyer’s leadership, the city has made significant investments in affordable housing, ensuring anyone who wants to live in the city, is able to live in the city.
Over the last few years, the City of Orlando has invested more than $43 million to create or preserve housing options for residents at all income levels. Since 2017, the city has built or rehabilitated over 1,000 units for residents. In total, the city has initiated the creation of 14 affordable housing developments.
Mayor Dyer has also served as one of the region’s leading voices on ending homelessness, guiding a collaboration among jurisdictions, service providers and community groups. Through the Housing First Initiative, 96% of chronically homeless persons placed into permanent supportive housing remain housed.
In 2022, Mayor Dyer re-committed to this effort by announcing Accelerate Orlando, a plan to address both affordable housing and homelessness using $58 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan. He plans to invest in the creation of new, affordable apartments for families and individuals, as well as developing units specifically for our workers, for low-income residents, and for LGBTQ youth.
Mayor Dyer remains committed to working with regional partners and across jurisdictional lines to continue to address our region’s housing challenges and provide quality, affordable housing to our residents.
Through recycling, composting, energy efficiency and the planting of thousands of trees, the city is conserving more and wasting less, evolving into one of the Greenest Cities in America under Mayor Dyer’s leadership.
Through a Bloomberg Climate Change grant, Mayor Dyer has made the bold commitment to achieve 100 percent renewable energy for municipal buildings by 2030, zero waste by 2040 and 100 percent renewable energy citywide by 2050.
Earlier this year, the U.S Green Building Council awarded Mayor Dyer the Sustainability Legend Award and Orlando received a LEED Gold City designation. Under Mayor Dyer’s leadership, the City of Orlando government has been working on transforming community centers into resilience hubs by constructing weather-resistant shelters for residents battling hurricanes, severe weather, and extreme heat.
Mayor Dyer is also committed to investing in more charging stations around the cities to encourage the use of electric cars.
Mayor Dyer is committed to investing in our neighborhoods to make sure our residents have access to the best amenities and up-to-date infrastructure.
Under his dedicated leadership, the City of Orlando has introduced three new state-of-the art Fire Department stations, a new citywide parks master plan to build more parks and create better access to existing parks, and a revival of our main street districts.
Mayor Dyer and his team also have plans to restore our brick streets, create an Orlando Bicycle Beltway, clean up our lakes, add greenspace around our city, and more.
