Mayor Corbett’s State of the City — Looking back.

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett will deliver his sixth State of the City speech today. His first, back in 2010, was in the old Crowne Plaza ballroom. That joint was torn down to make way for the city's new Convention Complex where the mayor will speak today.

So many changes. We've gone from a venue with a faded 80s feel to today's whiz-bang plan to allow Corbett's audience to register instant opinions on the mayor's ideas through text-message polling, with results up on big screens.

Risky! Although this event, with its business pooh-bahs, community leaders and the like, tends to be Corbett's kind of crowd.

One thing that has not changed is some local columnist listens to the mayor's big speech each year and writes something flippant and snarky. What a jerk, that columnist. I bet he does it again.

To prove it, here are some excerpts from what I wrote about past SOCs:

2010 - 8 Cylinders or Life Support.

I bravely trekked through a frigid wind to the Crowne Plaza over the noon hour to see Mayor Ron Corbett's State of the City speech.

It was an important moment in our civic history. And lunch was free.

Was it the finest piece of oratory I've ever heard? No.

Was it the first speech I've ever heard that quoted the Bible, the musical 'Wicked” and Emeril Lagasse? Yes.

The ballroom was packed, with lots of business people, development types, local leaders, city staff and a couple of tables reserved for flooded-out residents. Clearly, a broad spectrum of the city still is very interested in what this guy has to say. Or they just really like chewy chicken.

Corbett didn't plow much new ground. He spent the opening graphs talking about how the city has a split personality, with some businesses humming along while others are barely breathing. I seem to remember hearing an opening like this somewhere before.

Ron Corbett: 'I believe that we are somewhere between running on eight cylinders and life support ...”

Charles Dickens: 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ...”

This was a speech that focused on consensus. Corbett said the city must have goals and objectives and focal points for action. Flood recovery must be focal point one, along with building a 'fruitful” economy. Tough to disagree with any of that.

2011 - Three-Legged Stool

The mayor's speech was well-received, but it should have been riskier.

I'm not saying that Mayor Ron Corbett should have added dangerous stunts, expletives or a wardrobe malfunction to his State of the City speech. He was, however, in real danger of being crushed by a very large pile of metaphors, famous quotations and anecdotes.

Auto racing, three-legged stools, Freddie Mercury, Mother Teresa and Pearl Harbor?

Forget it, the mayor's on a roll.

Clearly, Corbett said a lot in 38 minutes. The city is like a racecar on a curve, ready to hit the gas and make its move. It's time to get out of our comfort zones. It's fashionable to smack at government, but it still delivers drinking water, treats sewage and plows snow. Judging by the applause, people really like water and plowed snow.

But at its core, this speech was a sales pitch for the city's contention that Cedar Rapids truly needs a 20-year penny sales tax to help pay for a $375 million flood protection system. Corbett spent a lot of time methodically trying to make that case, wrapped in an emotional appeal to be 'our brothers' keeper.”

But he was strongest when he explored the real risks and consequences of doing nothing. He touched on the potential for decay in the city's core that could have consequences for citizens who live far beyond the flood zone.

'Mother Nature is a formidable opponent,” Corbett said. 'She has a way of getting the best of you. Last time we were unprepared. Do we really want to be defenseless the next time?”

2012 - Love

If Mayor Ron Corbett's third Condition of the City speech were a book, I'd call it 'Spend, Pray, Walk, Love.” Anybody else smell a movie deal?

Really, it was two speeches. The first 30 minutes was suitable for C-SPAN. The last 15, more geared toward Lifetime. The mayor clearly delivered the first part. But from my seat way in the back of the room, squinting, I wondered if Dr. Phil had stepped in for the second.

The first part was all meat and spreadsheets.

The mayor asked his large audience dotted with community leaders and business barons to conjure up a metaphorical Viewmaster (youngsters, to the Google) picturing the many major, pricey recovery projects the city is digging into, from the new library to the Paramount Theatre to the Convention Complex. Corbett insisted that local taxes are covering only about 30 percent of the tab, with piles of state, federal and private dollars footing the rest. The guy elected three years ago vowing to whisk away delay for a new era of decisiveness now has to spend much of his time defending decisions.

'This is what had to be done,” he said.

… Then came the love.

'I want you to fall in love with Cedar Rapids,” Corbett said. 'We know we can love other people, we can love animals and we certainly can love food like ice cream, but can we love a city? The answer is yes.”

Ice cream? Surely he meant celery.

'And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make,” Corbett said, quoting The Beatles after urging citizens to get involved in their community.

2013 - Second Wind (No online version available, for some reason)

In the fourth year of his first term, Mayor Ron Corbett says Cedar Rapids is catching its second wind.

It was the theme of Corbett's State of the City speech Wednesday in front of an overflow crowd of local lunching leaders, movers and shakers gathered in The Hotel at Kirkwood Center.

'Second wind - you bet!” said Corbett, more than once, inspired by Bill Joel's song 'You're Only Human (Second Wind).” Not the mediocre 1980s pop song I would have used to illustrate the power of redemption. 'Eye of the Tiger” worked great for Rocky, for instance. But I'm also not the powerful mayor of Iowa's second-largest city, so what do I know?

'We were tired, worn down and not too sure about the future,” Corbett said of immediate post-flood Cedar Rapids. 'Yet, we found the strength to push on. We have our second wind.”

Maybe that's also true of Corbett. A year ago, he gave this speech just as a local-option sales tax extension for flood protection was about to be voted on for a second time. It failed, again, and for a long time, the mayor and his allies were in a seriously gray funk. Finger-pointing. Blame-assigning.

That seemed both understandable and odd. It stinks to lose, especially twice, when the stakes are so high and so personal. But this mayoral regime also had a lot of big successes, so why the long faces?

The book of Joel further tells us that these setbacks can actually be teaching moments. 'You better believe there will be times in your life when you'll be feeling like a stumbling fool. So take it from me you'll learn more from your accidents than anything that you could ever learn at school.”

Wise words from the Piano Man. Wise words.

2014 - Five Smells

Today, Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett officially proclaimed an end to the 'The City of Five Smells.”

It's still very much the 'City of Five Seasons,” but the mayor wants to expel Cedar Rapids' smelly, snarky longtime alter-motto. He presented a proclamation during his State of the City address intended to do just that. 'We are no longer the City of Five Smells,” he declared.

And, apparently, the last straw was a radio show.

In December, Corbett said, Mike Golic, one half of ESPN's popular Mike & Mike morning radio duo, was stuck in Cedar Rapids due to lousy weather. The show asked people to call in with suggestions on what Golic could do during his unplanned stay. A friend of Corbett's in Colorado was listening to the show and called to alert the mayor. It was not pretty, Corbett said. Even local citizenry were 'trashing” the town.

At one point, a caller deployed the dreaded 'City of Five Smells.” Gasp.

'Is this really how we want to portray ourselves to the world?” Corbett asked the 650 people who showed up to hear the city's condition. He called on citizens to make a list of things that are great about this town. And start praising it, stop knocking it.

'How we portray ourselves is pretty important,” the mayor said.

I agree. I do. I know this is a clever, symbolic gesture to make a point. Community pride is important. Stopping to think about all the things that make us proud about this town and region is a healthy, positive exercise.

And on my list, oddly enough, are the so-called five smells.

I'm a Midwesterner by choice. And the Midwest smells. It smells because our people are raising, harvesting, processing, milling, toasting, grinding and shipping agricultural products to people all over the world who need them. That manufacturing forms the sturdy economic backbone of this city, a Midwestern city.

If there comes a day when Cedar Rapids no longer smells, we'll all be smelling big trouble. And no, it doesn't smell like Crunch Berries.