Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton this morning made her final public remarks as Minneapolis Mayor. What follows is the news release regarding her comments. - Sara Dietrich, Communications Department, City of Minneapolis (and Kingfield resident)
Mayor Sayles Belton gives final remarks December 28, 2001 (Minneapolis, MN)-Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton today gave her final public remarks as Mayor of the City of Minneapolis during a special meeting of the Minneapolis City Council in the newly restored Council Chambers. The Mayor also released a Summary of Accomplishment document, which chronicles the remarkable record of Mayor Sayles Belton and her administration from 1994-2001. A copy of the document is available in PDF format at http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/citywork/mayor/belton-goodbyespeech.html Below is the text of the Mayor's remarks: Thank you. It has been my honor and privilege to serve as Mayor of the City of Minneapolis for the past eight years. When I first took office as Mayor, in my inaugural address I asked every elected official, every city worker, and every citizen: * to commit ourselves - in spite of our doubts; * to listen - in spite of our certainties; * to persist - in spite of our failures; * and, in spite of our fears, to allow ourselves to be guided by our basic humanity." I believe we have honored this oath and I want to thank each of you for your commitment to the people of this city. I am proud of the work we have done together. As I leave office, Minneapolis is a safer, stronger, and more vibrant city than the one we inherited. First and foremost, our city is safer; safer than it's been in 34 years. In 1993, serious crime was skyrocketing in Minneapolis and people were scared. People were leaving the city. I knew that to attack crime, we needed to address crime at its root causes. In addition to a strengthened police force and criminal justice system, we needed to provide intervention and prevention measures to make lasting change. We needed to address unemployment and poverty. While the work continues, we have been successful. We have restored confidence and hope in our community. Public safety is at the core of the wellbeing of a city. When people feel safe, they invest, they live here, they raise their families here. We can take pride in our many accomplishments. Our city is thriving. Our children and families have more support and resources to lead strong and healthy lives. We have joined with our schools in their mission to provide a quality education for every child. We are revitalizing our neighborhoods and are building housing to meet the needs of citizens in all stages of their lives. We have grown our tax base and our prosperity is providing more people with jobs and opportunities for economic self-sufficiency. We have turned brownfields into green fields and given life to a remarkable renaissance on the Mississippi River. Our city is thriving. How did we make such progress? We came together and worked together. We built coalitions and partnerships. We embraced one another and brought our collective talents and wisdom together for the greater good. This is a great city first and foremost because of the good will of our citizens. We all share credit for this remarkable record. We challenged the Board of Education to return to community schools so that parents could choose to send their children to school in their own neighborhoods. We built new schools in troubled neighborhoods where no schools existed. We invested in our parks and libraries. We opened school and park doors on the evenings and weekends so all children could have safe places to play and grow. We challenged our community to deconcentrate poverty and provide people with choices to live in mixed income neighborhoods rich in cultural diversity and public amenities. I love this city and the people who live here. I am proud and humbled to have been able spend 18 years in public service to the citizens of Minneapolis. I dedicated myself to improving our community for all people and I believe I have made a difference. As I leave office, I ask that those who follow continue our commitment to all of our people. We must continue to fight for true economic and social justice. We must not rest until every child is successful in school. We must not rest until every adult has the education and training to get and keep a living wage job, until every street is safe and everyone has the opportunity to live in a safe, affordable home. I have always believed that as a people, our diversity is a tapestry of strength and beauty. That we live our lives with shared values of work, education, respect and personal responsibility. As I leave office am inspired to remind us of our shared values and common humanity. I ask that continue to hold these values close to our hearts and that we continue to weave a collective tapestry so vibrant and strong that this city will go stronger still and every person will thrive. Thank you. For more information, contact: Ann Freeman, Communications Director, Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton ### _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
