I'm glad the link was posted to the story about the council meeting
today...Everything you read in the story was true...but from my vantage
point there was much more to this day than meets the eye....
14 people who have to work together could have gone off into our corners and
gossiped behind backs...OR...we could do what we did: Get into a room IN
FRONT OF THE MEDIA...and talk honestly.
We've all seen public bodies deteriorate into pettiness...and I think we are
determined not to let that happen. The stakes are too high right now.
That won't always be pretty but I was very proud to be working in City Hall
today....and I think the people who are paying our salaries should be happy
we are trying to do things differently..
I'm also attaching a rough draft of the speech I gave yesterday....I didn't
bother to proofread, and I didn't exactly go from the script...but you get
the idea:
Here's the speech:
R.T.Rybak
East Harriet
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I�ve just spent a year walking around the city I love.
Door to door, neighborhood by neighborhood, parks, festivals, church
basements, parades.
Every part of Minneapolis.
Most of the places I saw were familiar�.but this time so much of what I saw
looked different.
Not all of it was good:
I saw too many boarded apartments, too much litter and too many streets
passed over by the economic boom.
But most of the places I went seemed better than I�d remembered.
Neighborhoods like Powderhorn and Botteneau never seemed stronger. Streets
like Lake Street and Central Avenue are alive again.
Corner coffee shops, community gardens and farmers markets bringing
neighborhoods together.
Immigrants opening new businesses everywhere.
I saw a city I lived in all my life in a different light because this time I
was seeing it through the eyes of the hundreds of new people I met. And it
never looked better.
Our city is ready for greatness.
Now my year finishes in another familiar spot that I�m again seeing through
fresh eyes. I�ve stood here many times before. As a kid, as a reporter, a
civic leader, business person, a protester.
Playing different roles, but always on the outside looking in.
Until today.
I�m not alone:
Dean, Scott, Paul, Gary, Robert, Dan, and Natalie: We are the largest
group of elected newcomers ever to come to City Hall.. We took different
roads but our paths crossed many times. None of us got here because the Red
Carpet was rolled our for us. In many ways we represent people who have
stood on the outside, people who haven�t always felt welcome within these
walls.
Over the years the 8 of us will move in many different directions,
not always together. But no matter where we go over the years we should
have a special bond with each other to always remember the winds of change
that brought us to City Hall. When things get tough, when the bonds begin
to fray, let�s always remind each other who sent us here�.and why.
Barb, Joe, Paul, Sandy, Barrett and Lisa: You can teach us a lot. You have
been through the battles, and each in different ways, have proven to be
entrepreurs from within the system.
Together we can be a powerful force�.but only if 14 talented individuals
find a way to set aside ego and personal agendas to see this city through
each other�s eyes.
This important in ANY time. Today it�s imperative.
We come into City Hall in the wake of one of our country�s worst nightmares.
Our economy has slowed. Minneapolis has serious budget issues. So does our
state.
Over the next 90 days my staff and I will be bringing forward a series of
initiatives to address these issues. We will start with plans to provide
more affordable housing, and to reorganize the city�s development functions.
Plans for ethics reform, environmental protection and improved
police/community relations will follow.
None of this will be easy. And we don�t have all the answers.
Now more than ever we need the talent of the 4,200 people who work for us.
You are on the front lines every day, you know more than any of us what
reforms we need. Bring those ideas forward. And use this new era of change
to see the familiar work you do every day through different eyes. The eyes
of our partners in the neighborhoods:
As you inspect the building, remember you�re working for a single mom trying
to find her kids a decent place to live.
As you plow the streets, remember you�re working for the housebound older
man afraid he�ll fall on the ice.
As you prepare the budget and set the levy, look up from the spreadsheet and
remember the young couple who see rising taxes chasing them out of the city
where they grew up.
Write the manual remembering the immigrant just learning the language.
Answer every phone call knowing we really care who�s on the other end.
See Minneapolis through the eyes of those we serve.
Cities face tough challenges. We live closer together, our populations are
more diverse, most social problems start here.
But Minneapolis has been at its best when it took all these issues, and
turned them to our advantage.
When we made our neighborhoods safer�not by locking ourselves in our
houses �but by banding together in a block club.
When are commercial districts became livelier�not because they tried to
imitate suburban strip malls�but because they were rejuvenated by immigrants
and entrepreneurs.
When our children had a better future because they are comfortable with
people who are different than them.
Cities that fail are filled with people who hide from each other.
Minneapolis has always succeeded when we opened the doors, reached out to
someone different, and saw a new solution through their eyes.
So the mission for those of us here today, and all around Minneapolis, is
to spend then next few years walking together through a city we all love.
Longtime residents and new arrivals.
Landlord and tenant.
Bureaucrat and activist
Driver and police.
Downtown and neighborhood.
Every part of Minneapolis
Any one of us can see Minneapolis for what it is. But only together can we
can see Minneapolis for what it can be.
A city that leads.
A city that innovates.
A city with big arms that reach out to everyone.
A city as great as its people.
_______________________________________
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