It was 1965. I was standing at the top of the tallest building in
Minneapolis: The Foshay Tower. To the north was the river, flanked on
either side by block after block of solid, tree line neighborhoods.
To the south, was
� Lake Harriet, where I learned how to swim,
� the corner near Honeywell where my parents store was being demolished for
35W
� the corner of Chicago and Franklin where the store was moving.
� Below me was downtown, where my parents met, where I took the bus to the Y
and where the Nicollet Mall was about to be built.
Standing there I thought I was looking out over the greatest city in the
world.
And I wasn�t alone. People from everywhere were talking about Minneapolis
� the city that works
� the city that leads
� the city that found a way to solve its problems. Together.
I knew then that I wanted to be part of making this great city an even
better place.
Over the years I�ve seen Minneapolis from many sides.
� Delivering prescriptions door to door with my mom in the Phillips
neighborhood.
� Playing baseball at Pershing Park.
� As a beginning crime reporter for the Star Tribune interviewing victims
every night.
� As the development director of the downtown council, helping to bring
businesses to town and the Farmer�s Market to Nicollet Mall.
� In the private sector: Running the Twin Cities Reader and Q Monthly, on
the ground floor of an Internet start up, helping some of our best companies
create jobs in the New Economy.
� As a community volunteer: coaching our kids, planning our parks, raising
money for our schools and charities, fighting airport noise, creating
visions for our libraries.
But over all those years, no single experience have given me more hope for
the city of Minneapolis than the experience I am having right now. Night
after night I�ve been listening to you. Hearing your enthusiasm and
committment. Hearing one great idea after the next.
When I look out at this room, and think about our hundreds of
convensations ---your energy, your commitment--- I think how much better off
we would all be if the Mayor of Minneapolis spent more time listening to
you. Not just at Election time, not just in a phone call a few days before
the convention. Every day for all four years.
We talked about the many things we love about Minneapolis, but also about so
many lost opportunities:
� When the economy was surging, they could have invested more in getting
this city on solid financial ground. Instead they squandered the good times
with big checks to bloated developments. Now, as the economy slows,
Minneapolis� financial picture grows shakier by the day. For the first time
in 30 years--30 years-- our AAA Bond rating is in jeopardy.
� We needed housing. They gave us excuses.
� We needed police leadership that respected EVERYONE, regardless of their
race or politics. They gave us defensive press conferences.
� We needed a vision for the upper Riverfront. They gave us a Kondirator
AND a lawsuit.
� We needed to fight airport pollution. They gave us another runway and
took campaign contributions from the companies that pollute our skies.
� We gave them a plan for a great central library. They let it gather dust
while they talked about stadiums. They couldn�t find money to build the
library, so we had to raise our own taxes...but they found plenty of money
for Target.
More than anything else, in my conversations with delegates, we talked over
and over and over again about how leaders at City Hall have become more and
more isolated from the people they represent.
And the real tragedy is that is happened just when the people of
Minneapolis have so much to say:
We are in the middle of the greatest surge of citizen involvement in the
history of Minneapolis�..the NRP program, block clubs, community groups of
all kinds---have brought hundreds out of their homes every night to make
Minneapolis better�..Humbolt Greenway to Midtown Greenway. Neighbors
working together to take back their blocks from crack dealers. And plant
trees in parks.
But when the Mayor of Minneapolis had a vacancy on the Planning Commission,
the citizen body that should be creating our vision for the future, she
looked at everyone in this room, and all of us doing the work �and could not
find one person, NOT ONE, who she thought was qualified. She left it open
for a year and finally appointed another insider, a lobbyist for Northwest
Airlines.
Our leaders have become isolated from the great people who could make this
a great city.
Sometimes when times get tough even good leaders can rely on a smaller and
smaller circle of advisors. And sometimes a leader needs to work behind the
scenes. But when the results that come out of those meetings with that
small group of advisors no longer reflects the basic values of the people
they represent....it is time for a change.
The Mayor of Minneapolis has work to do at City Hall. I know about the
way City Hall works, and I can bring a fresh prespective that can mend the
divisions and get it back on course.
But I also know that not one of the problems or opportunities Minneapolis
faces today can be solved solely within City Hall. That�s why I will also be
a Mayor who also gets outside of City Hall. You will see me at the corner,
on my bike, in the store, at the Farmer�s Market, at yous event. You may be
sick of seeing me BUT YOU WILL SEE ME. And when you hear The Mayor is
coming on TV, don�t expect to see Norm Coleman!
I have laid out a plan for the city with achievable goals:
1. A comprehensive housing strategy that creates decent, affordable shelter,
and protects those who are being priced out of the very neighborhoods they
helped build.
2. New spending priorities that shift money from bloated developments back
to basic services.
3. A unbending stewardship of our natural environment
*We will ban phosphorous-based lawn chemicals that feed the algae choaking
our water and
*We will finally have a Mayor who isn't afraid to stand up to the polluters
who are ruining our neighborhoods with noise and toxins from airplanes.
4. A reorganization at City Hall that brings the MCDA back in touch with
neighborhoods and the workforce back into decision making. It's time the
people who live here, and the people who do the work, are part of creating
the vision.
We will walk into office with an aggressive 90 day action plan. Right from
the start it will be clear that Minneapolis is on the move again.
Focus first on results. Then let�s start to dream. Big dreams.
Sweeping visions for Bassett Creek and the full stretch of the Mississippi,
for Lake Street on the south and Lowry Avenue on the north. For parks and
schools and libraries working together. Innovative transit. Universal
access to technology that spans the Digial Divide.
There aren�t simple solutions for any of these issues. And I cannot do
this alone. No one person can.
That�s why I stand here today as a different kind of leader:
Born and raised in Minneapolis, a citizen activist, tempered by the ups and
downs of the business world, a life time of work in public and private;
downtown and in neighborhoods, fighting with City Hall and fighting against
it, rolling up my sleeves and, when I have to�putting on my pajamas.
Working together with the greatest people in any city in America. The great
people I grew up with. And the thousands more who have joined us: And think
about who they are-- Immigrants with the determination to come here halfway
around the world. Families who came together to a place where they didn't
speak the language. The single mother who left a city with no hope so she
could find a safe place to raise her kids.
We ARE a great people. We CAN BE a great city.
I am ready for this job, and Minneapolis is ready for its next chapter to
begin. I can hear it in your voices. I can feel it in my bones.
So now prepare to make your choice:
You can choose the status quo, choose to coast along for a few more years.
Or: In the next few hours we can put Minneapolis on a dynamic new course. A
city that once again leads. A city that innovates. A city with big arms
that reach out to everyone. A city as great as its people.
R.T. Rybak
www.rtformayor.com
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