PROVIDENCE — When Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline took stock of the city in a speech last February, he saw the gathering clouds of economic and financial trouble.

The foreclosure crisis was devastating neighborhoods in the capital city. The price of gasoline hovered around $3 a gallon. The mood across the nation, both politically and economically, was grim.

“A hurricane is headed right for us,” said Cicilline, delivering his annual State of the City address before a crowd at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

With his city and the rest of the nation now in the midst of that hurricane, Cicilline will give his sixth State of the City address at 7 tonight in the convention center.

The mayor will outline the city’s response to the difficult economic challenges it faces, according to a news release on the event, and will announce a “bold initiative” to help families. Cicilline spokeswoman Karen Southern declined yesterday to give details.

The annual address comes as the two-term mayor, generally regarded as a leading candidate for governor in 2010, has seen his approval rating decline.

A Brown University poll conducted in September found that 46 percent of state residents rated Cicilline’s job performance as good or excellent, as opposed to the 64 percent the previous year. Last February, Cicilline’s approval rating was at 51 percent, according to the university.

But those polls predate the recent setbacks Cicilline’s administration has faced, including a tax bill scandal involving Cicilline’s brother, John, which ultimately led to the firing of Tax Collector Robert Ceprano.

Cicilline has previously used the State of the City to highlight the previous year’s accomplishments and to spell out his agenda for the coming year. But last year marked a turning point in the mayor’s annual address: the optimism found in previous addresses was replaced by more cautious rhetoric and less lofty goals.

Cicilline announced city legislation designed to stem the impact of foreclosures. He noted the city’s continuing decline in crime and the pension reforms spearheaded by the City Council, but called on the state government to enact major changes in the public school system and the state tax code.

And not everything that Cicilline outlined last year has come to fruition.

Cicilline said he would seek city legislation to curb interest rates that check cashing facilities and payday programs charge and spoke of a city transit plan, called Transit 2020, whose centerpiece would be a streetcar system. Neither the legislation nor the transit document has yet to materialize.

Tonight’s speech will be Providence’s 22nd State of the City address.

The custom started with Mayor Joseph R. Paolino Jr. in 1985. His successor, Vincent A. Cianci Jr., continued the tradition, although he opted not to give the address in 1999, 2000, and 2002, as his administration was mired Operation Plunder Dome, the federal corruption probe that eventually landed Cianci in federal prison.

Cicilline revived the address in 2004, following his first full year in office. He broke with tradition, however, by taking the speech out of City Hall and into the convention center, just a few blocks away.

The State of the City will be broadcast live on streaming video at www.providenceri.com/video.

pmarcelo@projo.com