R.T. Rybak for Mayor

New Blog!

2005-03-16T18:46:00.000-08:00

Hey friends and fellow bloggers,

I've set up a new blog that's more useful and fun at http://rtrybak.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Hope you check it out so we can continue to dialogue about the future of Minneapolis, my campaign for reelection, and just day-to-day life in this great city.

R.T.

Day in the Life: March 14

2005-03-15T19:34:00.000-08:00

I made a one day lobbying trip to Washington D.C. with two goals: update the Minnesota delegation in Congress on Minneapolis' agenda, and deepen contacts with other Minnesota officials in town for the League of Cities Conference.
My meetings with the delegation included Council Members Paul Ostrow, Scott Benson, Sandy Colvin Roy and Robert Lilligren. The top issue we talked about was the proposed massive cut in Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). These are the dollars that are the backbone of our affordable housing and job training program, many of our health initiatives, programs like Nokomis Healthy Seniors that keep seniors in their homes. This is the second time I've been on Capital Hill to lobby against these cuts and it seems there is progress. Both Minnesota's Senators are fighting them so please thank Sen. Coleman and Sen. Dayton. And, as always, Congressman Sabo is fighting hard to protect them.
During our vitists I also delivered a petition from some of our faith partners who are working in our coalition to fight the cuts. It was very effective to be able to give the Congress people these peitions, including the one from St. Mark's Cathedral that included people from all over the region.
Another of the major issues we talked about was the airport. I've been talking with our Congressional delegation to get their support for work in Minnesota on a statewide aviation strategy....a statewide look at how airports like St. Cloud, Duluth, Rochester, Willmar and even Mankato can be used to carry some traffic...improving air traffic into the state, opening access to low cost carriers and , in the process, hopefully giving our neighborhoods some relief from the worst traffic, esp. loud night flights and cargo.
After our meetings we had a reception the city hosted for Minnesota officials in D.C. for the conference. I estimate we had about 100 people there, including Mayors from many cities (Stillwater, Minnetonka, Crystal, Plymouth, Rochester, St. Cloud, Morehead) and lots of council members (including Debbie Montgomery and Dave Thune from St. Paul). Building these bridges with local officials in other parts of Minnesota is really helpful as we try to develop broader coalitions.
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In the morning I heard a really great speech by Howard Dean, new chair of the party, who really rallied everyone there. It's great to see him in this position. ....he gets the need to fight hard for our principals, to not back down...but he also understands the need to build a strong grass roots organization. I'm really happy he's running the party.
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Over the lunch hour I walked a couple miles through town and ran into a really interesting situation. A man who may well have been homeless was walking down the street barefoot. A few seconds after I noticed him, a woman in a bright yellow parka holding a walkie talkie approached him and very compassionately started talking to him. She moved him into the sun so he could get warm and then called on her walkie talkie for help. A homeless advocate arrived and left with the man.
I asked the woman who she worked for and found out she was a public safety ambassador who worked for the downtown association. She isn't a police officer...she works with them, identifying trouble spots before they become larger, giving people directions, making them feel safe. This is the kind of ambassador we have been talking about for downtown and some of our neighborhood commercial districts. After seeing this I called Sam Grabowski of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, who has been a strong advocate of this to say how well this works and that I want to continue to work on getting these in downtown. They are supported by the businesses and would be possible if we get the Special Service District we are proposing for downtown. I also stopped into the downtown association to hear more....so will you because this can really do a lot to improve safety and perception on our streets.

Day in the Life: March 12

2005-03-12T20:50:00.000-08:00

Megan and I were at two very different but wonderful community events in the past two nights.
Friday night (after a really nice dinner at the Birchwood) we went to Theater Mu's production of "The Walleye Kid." Theater Mu's executive director Rick Shiomi is co-chairing the Mosaic Arts celebration (www.minneapolismosaic.com) with Megan and he's one of the real bright lights in local theater. This production is based loosely on a children's fantasy story Megan and I used to read to our kids called "Peach Boy", about an elderly couple that really wants a child and gets its wish when a baby suddenly is brought to them by a magical fish. The twist in the Theater Mu production is that the baby is from Korea and her adoption reflects the experience of playright Sundraya (Sonny) Kase as she grew up in Minnesota.
It's a really wonderful production, a musical in fact, that works well for both kids and adults. Like many of the art we want to showcase in Mosaic, it deals with themes of the mixing of cultures and does a great job of showing how the adopted girl had a place in two worlds.
The story is great, as is the production.....A real gem is the star Isabella Dawis who played Annie at the Chanhassen.
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The second great community event was tonight (Saturday). ....a celebration to honor one of my favorite people in Minneapolis: Laura Waterman Wittstock. Laura has been a writer, community activist, member of untold numbers of boards and one of the country's most respected American Indian voices. She started and for many years has run MIGIZI Communications, which has fostered Indian voices and trained kids of many cultures in technology and communications. She is retiring from MIGIZI but she is hardly retiring. She will continue to be very active in the community.
The speeches were really moving. Of special note was one by Kelly Morgan, co-chair of the Minneapolis Urban Indian Directors(MUD) group as she talked about how Laura has helped show her leadership roles. There were other great tributes by Roger Buffalohead, Hoang Tran, Marlene Helgemo, Kwame McDonald and Clyde Bellecort. (The master of ceremonies was Syd Beane, the executive director of the National American Indian Development Corporation....Shortly after he moved here a couple years ago, Megan and I had Laura and her husband Lloyd, and Syd and his wife over for dinner...It was an amazing evening that reminded us how lucky we are to have them in Minneapolis.)
I named today Laura Waterman Wittstock Day....and honor she deserves.
My first appointment as Mayor was to name Laura to the Library Board. She's now running for the position and I hope people support her at the DFL convention.

Day in the Life: March 11

2005-03-12T20:08:00.001-08:00

Met in the morning with the Achieve!Minneapolis Board. This is the board I serve on that raises money for Minneapolis Public Schools. Today we had a very good discussion about job training programs and how we can continue to help the schools expand this work. We also had a report on Step Up, which now has more than 200 jobs committed. I gave two more speeches on it this week to business groups and I'm encouraged that people are getting the message about the importance of getting our kids meaningful work this summer.
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Wednesday we had a great celebration at Plaza Verde, the former Antiques Minnesota Building on Lake Street. The building had fallen into disrepair and was dragging down the very successful projects around it like Mercado Central, MeGusta Marketplace and Heart of the Beast. Heart of the Beast first tried to develop it alone but that did not work so Erik Takeshita of my staff and I helped bring in Neighborhood Development Center which is also doing the Global Marketplace in Midtown Exchange. NDC and Heart of the Beast ended up being great partners so the top floor has the great celebration/performance space for Heart of the Beast while the ground floor as emerging businesses and the second floor has support services for creating new businesses. One of my favorite projects we have done. Stop by and help celebrate.
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Friday afternoon at the State Capital we had a big victory. The Senate Transportation Committee approve unanimously a plan to develop a statewide aviation strategy. This is the result of several years of our lobbying to get a new vision for aviation in Minnesota that moves beyond just jamming more planes into the already over burdened MSP and over the already overburdend neighborhoods of south Minneapolis. I testified with Herb Bergson, the Mayor of Duluth. Previously I've testified with the Mayors of Rochester, St. Cloud, Willmar and Mankato. This coalition has made it possible to help change the direction of aviation debate at the Capital and for the first time in many years Minneapolis is not fighting this battle alone. I also have been working with members of the Congressional delegation from around the state to get them involved in this and will be talking with them again when I'm in Washington Monday.

Day in the Life: March 9

2005-03-12T20:08:00.000-08:00

A very busy week that left me little time for blogging....Much of it was dominated by public safety work. Chief McManus and I announced the STOP division in the police department...a flexible tactical unit that we can deploy strategically to do proactive policing....The intent is to give better ability to have manpower that can be used to quickly respond to a growning challenge in an area. The most pressing need right now are sections of north Minneapolis where we had a very tragic shooting in the Best Steak House on Penn.... but it will be moved quickly depending on need. (FYI: The Best Steak House opens for business again Sunday and I encourage all of us to go to support them after they faced this tragedy.) Our Code 4 meetings each week identify safety trends and the STOP unit will give us another tool to address this.
At the time of the announcement we also announced we are hiring a new recruit class that will be on the street by summer. They will replace some of the more experienced officers who will be reassigned to STOP
Two other public safety developments: At the Empowerment Zone we approved about $250,000 in community based crime fighting grants. We are also continuing the work made possible by General Mills to coordinate other partners involved in fighting crime in north Minneapolis....The General Mills grant allowed the hiring of Chuck Wexler of the Police Executive Research Forum to work with regional, state and federal law enforcement agencies to coordinate all their efforts on attacking the problem...Wexler was involved in the successful efforts to combat crime and gangs in the Phillips neighborhood a decade ago, as was Mike Christenson, who leads the city's economic development team. Also involved in that effort back then was Ellen Lugar of General Mills, who helped create this partnership so we are happy to have this experienced team to help coordinate an all out attack on crime. (More on this coordinated effort in the next couple weeks.)

Day in the Life: March 4

2005-03-04T20:48:00.000-08:00

Enough about work....let's talk about food......In between a bunch of meetings I was at some great Minneapolis restaurants......check them out.

Breakfast at Maria's on Franklin Avenue. I had my favorite...the corn pancakes with cheese. After work met a group at Coconut Grove on Penn Av. N. in Fowell....this is a real find....wonderful island food, plenty spicy in a warm room with salsa and sooka music. We were there filming this community television piece encouraging people to go out after the smoking ban goes into effect....the owner of Coconut Grove went smoke free from the start, in honor of his mother who died of lung cancer.....a good reminder of why we are doing this.

Late night glass of wine at the great new wine bar across from the Riverview Theater in Longfellow.....It was packed with people in the wine bar having reasonably priced drinks off a very broad wine and beer menu....and others listening to the band in the coffee shop next door.

We stopped in there after seeing a movie at the Riverview Theater.

None of the businesses I mentioned above were open five years ago, and most opened in the past year or two.... Watching the owner of the wine bar rushing around from table to table reminded me there is a lot of sweat in opening these one of a kind businesses but it's also what makes the city so much better than a run of the mill 'burb filled with chains.

Day in the Life: March 3

2005-03-03T19:47:00.000-08:00

A great coalition of busines, civic and political leaders....and a big group of students joined me for this morning's press conference to kick off Step Up. We seem well on our way to creating 300 summer jobs for kids, including this piece of great news: 75 kids from Edison High School alone have signed up. Think about what it will mean for north Minneapolis is 75 more kids are workign this summer....I really hope everyone can find a way to create a Step Up job....go to www.achieveminneapolis.org. The crowd included Richard Davis, president of US Bank; Ben Taylor, sr. vp. of Star Tribune; Ben Taylor of the University of Minnesota, Supt. Peebles, School Board Chair Joe Erickson; Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar.....lots more......and some great kids who deserve their first step on a career ladder.
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Over the noon hour we filmed the first part of a show for city cable about what it will be like to have smoke free bars and restaurants. Today's segment was an in awesome new restaurant...the Longfellow Grill on Lake Street and the River Road.....Really great food in this wonderful new building with big windows overlooking the river....and in summer an outdoor patio.....I predict this will be one of the city's most popular restaurants this summer.....and the added bonus is it's already smoke free.
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Tonight was at a meeting to tell residents who were promised full mitigation for their homes when the airport was expanded what the airports commission is up to now. Talking with people in the audience I heard a series of stories of people who were promised improvements in their homes....the largest investments almost all of them will have.....and are now being told their airports commission won't come through.....Worse, the money that was supposed to go to these homeowners is being used to expand the airport so Northwest can take over the main terminal. It's really arrogant and we are going to sue to protect them. Long term the solution is to continue to move forward with our goal of a statewide airport strategy that moves some traffic to places like St. Cloud and Rochester. I talked today with the mayors of St. Cloud and Willmar about this and will continue to lobby it at the Capitol. In the meantime it will take more of these meetings to get citizens the information they deserve....

Day in the Life: March 2

2005-03-02T19:19:00.000-08:00

Great time this morning at Orchestra Hall for the first of two days of concerts for all third graders in Minneapolis Public Schools. At each of the concerts I do a reading of The Tin Forest to a really wonderful orgininal composition played by the orchestra. It's wonderful to see the kids so into the music.......an especially lively group from Bryn Mawr. I had nice talks with the kids on the way in an out....A few of them were asking me about what it was like to be Mayor. I asked them if they wanted to be one some day. "Nah," one boy said. "I want to be Michael Jackson." I wasn't quite sure where to go with that one.
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Spoke this afternoon to a business group in south Minneapollis with another pitch for Step Up....and then did a radio interview on Step Up for WCCO....This leads up to tomorrow's press event to get more business leaders to create summer jobs this year.
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Jobs were also the focus this afternoon when I made a presentation to the Chancellor of the MNSCU and a board helping to decide which bonding projects the system should support at the state legislature. I was encouraging them to support their plan to build a Health training institute on the MCTC campus in downtown Minneapolis.....It amazes me that 12% of the city's population now works in health care so this training facility is a great way to build more career ladders.
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Abbott Northwestern's Heart Hospital had its grand opening tonight....really encouraging to see this big investment in Phillips, right next to the new Sears project.....The event gave me another chance to thank Allina and it's CEO Dick Pettengill for the decision to move it's headquarters to the former Sears building....and to promote our work on the new Lifesciences Corridor....the hope is to attract more medical related companies, especially medical devices and bio technology. Leaving I let myself dream about what this area will be like in 5 years....1300 or so more jobs, Global Marketplace, streetcar on the Midtown Greenway(?), people biking to work on the greenway, housing at all income levels, new businesses being launched in Plaza Verde......definately moving in the right direction.

Day in the Life: March 1

2005-03-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

I just got in from a night at precinct caucuses....Great to see so many Democrats out tonight. Obviously I want to get as many as we can to support me at the convention...and early reports are we did extremely well tonight. But I was also just pleased to see some many people out regardless.....It's clear the momentum we generated in the last election has not gone away and we are ready to say united to get the change we need in the state in the next couple years. Minneapolis will continue to be the heart of the Democratic party and it's clear from tonight the energy is here. I also want to brag a bit about by family. My wife Megan spoke for me in the 13 ward...and was reportedly great.....Megan made me promise that if I ran she wouldn't have to speak.....but she's changed her mind and is doing great.....And Charlie and Grace went to the 7th Ward....and I've gotten five calls already saying they were awesome...OK I'm biased but it was great to hear....We decided to do this together, over a lot of family dinners four years ago, so it's great to see it has given them a chance to speak their views and play a role. Thanks for everyone for showing up.
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I had a lot of fun this afternoon in a rehearsal with the Minnesota Orchestra. The Orchestra got a great from the NEA to do a concert for every third grader in Minneapolis Public Schools. This will include a piece in which I perform a reading of The Tin Forest to their orchestration.....Totally new turf for me, to be reading while this amazing orchestra plays. The rehearsal went really well and tomorrow is the performance. I think the kids will love it.
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Good meeting today of the Phillips Partnership. This is the public private partnership that works together on the Phillips neighborhood. We heard about the plan to reconstruct Lake Street. Our community meetings have shown that there is a concern that the emerging businesses on Lake Street could suffer during construction so Target agreed to donate a lot of their advertising department's time to help develop a campaign to promote business there during construction. They had some great ideas and we are going to try to raise money to get it done. This is exciting work because we are getting out ahead of the curve....saying that construction projects can be successful IF they plan for helping businesses during the transition....The Phillips Partnership meeting also included updates on the Sears building, going well, and the Global Marketplace at Sears, which is attracting a lot of private contributions and so far appears to be competing well for state bonding money. We also talked about some interesting ideas for adding public art to the Midtown Greenway.
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We had our regular meeting of city department heads this morning. Steven Bosacker gave an update on the 311 system....this is the program that will eventually mean you can call a single number 311...to get a response to a city need....The city assessor also went over values in the city...property is going up in value all over town....not only homes but also commercial property, espeically on commercial streets. Good news generally, but the state's tax policy continues to harm homeowners, and the maps we saw today very clearly showed the state's policy is especially harmful to middle class and lower class neighborhoods....so we will continue to work at the state for reform.

Day in the Life: Feb. 28

2005-02-28T19:23:00.000-08:00

I don't always agreee with everything I see going on at the State Capitol, but I sure did today. Thousands of us were lined up a few hours ago on the front lawn and front steps to say Minnesota needs to put more resources into public education. It was a really encouraging rally because it reflected what I hear so often from parents and so many others in the community....Minnesota has been a brainpower state and if we want to keep it that way we have to stop underfunding education. I rode over on a bus from Kenny with a great group of kids and parents....wonderful to see so many people there.
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This afternoon I made a brief visit to one of Minneapolis' great restaurants, the Black Forest on 26th and Nicollet, to meet with businesses along the Eat Street Corridor. They are the second of several neighborhood commercial districts where I am bringing the Convention and Visitors Association. The goal is to increase business by driving conventioneers from out of town...and visitors from in town...who look to the Association's web site for attractions. We are creating special pages for these commercial districts (see post about Northeast in Day in the Life: Feb. 16) and it's a good example of the Association understanding that one of the most attractive parts of the city is it's neighborhood shopping districts.
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Commissioner Gail Dorfman, St. Paul City Council Member Dave Thune and I spoke to a large group of health care professionals this morning about implementing the smoking ban...lessons we have learned. My pitch was that they should all, in the name of making the smoking ban successful, do the great service of going out and having a beer. Tough job but somebody's gotta do it. The idea is to help the small bars, espeically, with the transition by getting smokefree advocates to go out to show there is a new market that will be attracted to non smoking businesses. So if you support the smoking ban, start contacting your friends and ask them to join you after April 1 at places like the Chatterbox, Maslyk's, Nokomis Bowl, Westrums, 5-8 Club...those wonderful corner busineses that can be even better because you won't go home smelling like smoke.

Day in the Life: Feb. 26

2005-02-26T15:56:00.000-08:00

The Rainbow Families event this morning was really encouraging. There were hundreds of people there, celebrating the strength of GLBT families. In my introduction I said welcomed them to Minneapolis, "a city where the Rainbow Families event is not held in private, or in a small room, but in a school, filled with hundreds of people with cars overflowing the parking lot. " (I also welcomed them to Minneapolis, "a city where the Mayor doesn't know how to fix a parking ticket so be careful where you put that car in the lot.") I also declared today Deborah Talen Day in Minneapolis, to honor her work to get Rainbow Families to this 10th Anniversary.
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Fun event over the noon hour. The Food and Wine Experience was going on at the convention center....thousands of people bellying up to rows and rows of booths. I was there to help call attention to the Taste of Central Avenue, a booth orchestrated by the great John Vaughn to let people from around the state see all the great international food coming to Central. Yesterday Chiapas Restaurant was a big hit....John says that their surveys say Chiapas is the restaurant on Central that draws the most people from outside the area......Today the booth featured Cresant Moon, and I had an awesome pudding called something like Farna. Tomorrow's Palm Court, a Jamacian/Asian restaunt, which is an example of the fusion foods starting to spring up in Minneapolis; It's great to have restaurants from so many culutures but even better to start to see them mix the cuisines into something neither culture could do on it's own. This cross polination makes for better restaurants but in a larger sense...better cities.

Day in the Life: Feb. 24

2005-02-24T19:17:00.000-08:00

Just got back from a fascinating community meeting" Drug Court comes to the community"

Judges, attorneys, Minneapolis police and community groups came together to share experiences with drug court and see ways to make it better. I've been especially interested in this topic since two years ago when I went with an undercover police team to observe how they make drug arrests. That night our team included about eight police officers, in two cars...the first a decoy, those of us in the van with a camera. A drug buy was made, the police made the arrest and it was captured on camera. A couple days later I followed the person arrested into drug court where he was given a penalty and "geographic restrictions" that prevented him from going back into the area where the arrest was made. About a month later, we found out he was arrested again, and then again and again. This "revolving door" creates tremendous frustration for our police and certainly for the community. ...as well as those in the judicial system.
Tonight's meeting was one of several being held to make this system work better. I'm really looking forward to their recommendations, and have to applaud the judges who were open enough to bring the issue out to the community to look for ways to improve. I'm also hopeful the improvements can take advantage of the great restorative justice network that operates in these neighborhoods. (Thanks to the sponsors: Franklin Avenue Community Safety Center, Phillips Weed and Seed, Phillips Partnership, West Phillips Neighborhood, Powderhorn Park Neighborhood and Hennepin County Drug Court.)
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The day ended with crime issues, and it also stated that way. The Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee met to talk about coordinating public safety resources in downtown Minneapolis......Chief McManus and Inspector Rob Allen, who leads the downtown command and I have been working with the Downtown Council and the Building Owners and Managers Association on coordinating our police with building security and off duty police hired by businesses...to create a more unified force. Our city attorney has also focused on coordinated enforcement, as has County Attorney Klobuchar's office. Hennepin County has agreed to coordate its probation staff. And Chief Judge Lucy Weiland has made some real progress in working with our police and the attorneys to improve the effectiveness that cases move through their system. Her work is part of three years of efforts by Council President Ostrow, Council Member Niziolek and I to better coordinate courts and cops. -
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I had lunch at the Downtown Council meeting, where I pitched the Step Up program, hoping to get more business leaders to contribute summer jobs for our kids. The main speaker for the lunch was Vicki Tigwell, chair of the Metropolitan Airports Commission. She's speaking to a business groups these days trying to get support for a plan to expand the airport. During her presentation it was clear most of the group couldn't see the drawings so I held them up for her as she gave her talk. Too bad a photographer wasn't there....I can guarantee you there won't be many times when I'll be seen as part of a pitch on the airport.
In the question and answer period she was asked: Do you and Mayor Rybak agree or disagree on this plan. My answer was pretty direct: In 1996 there was a plan to expand the airport and in return we believe there was a very clear promise made to more than 6000 Minneapolis residents that they would get complete noise mitigation on their homes. Now the MAC wants to break that promise and use part of the money to expand the airport. So we are going to sue to protect those citizens. I think a better way would be to keep their promise, and instead of expanding the current airport, expand the Northstar Rail line to the St. Cloud airport, or high speed rail to Rochester's airport...where we could move some cargo flights and get a low cost carrier. More on this later.

Day in the Life: Feb. 22

2005-02-23T19:51:00.000-08:00

As Mayor I don't have an official place on city council committees, but I do go to many of them to stay coordianted with the council......and one of my favorite committees is Intergovernmental Relations. The committee's job is to help coordinate our work with other government bodies, especially the Legislature....and it has worked better than I've ever seen it under the past couple years under the chairmanship of Council member Scott Benson. It's also especially effective right now because we have a great team of lobbyists, led by our new director Gene Rieneri. Today Gene went over the details of the bonding bill that just passed out of the House and it has in it many of the important projects we are working on: the Planetarium, Northstar Rail project, Sears, the Shubert, University Research Park and Heritage Park.
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After the committee and a few internal meetings in the morning, I spoke at the annual lunch of the Greater Minneapolis Convention and Visitors' Association. This association now includes both Minneapolis and Bloomington and Mayor Gene Winstead, who has been a good partner, also spoke.
My remarks were about two key areas: The first was transportation, making a plea to the business leaders there to be part of Go Minnesota, the bipartisan group that is pushing for more aggerssive transit action in this legislative session. The point I'm making to business leaders is that transit progress has to be made for them to be competetive.
The second point I made to them was to work with us on workforce development....if we can take the kids now going to our schools, who speak 81 different languages, and train them in the jobs of tomorrow, we will be far better able to compete in a global economy than any earlier generation. I've been saying lately that one of the biggest mistakes we ever made was to close the old Vocational High School...and we are trying to work with the community colleges to find better ways to train kids coming out of school. The short term pitch I made about this at the lunch was for them to be part of Step Up, the summer jobs program we are working on with Achieve Minneapolis, which has a goal of creating 300 jobs this year.
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I left the lunch to meet a group of USBank execs on Broadway Avenue. They have a branch at Emerson and Broadway and are interested in finding more ways to increase investment on the avenue. They really loved the Bean Scene coffee shop on Penn. Just as we were leaving Chief McManus was coming in for one of his regular open houses in the community.
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Later in the afternoon I had a meeting with Congressman Sabo about opportunities to find federal dollars to help with the Dutch Elm crisis that has taken so many of our trees.
The afternoon ended with a couple hour meeting with a group of leaders of the Asian Pacific Islander community that has been meeting since our summit two years ago.
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Day in the Life: Feb. 18

2005-02-19T06:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday started in the California Building in northeast Minneapolis with a group of business, neighborhood and arts leaders to continue our plans to bring more customers to the stores, restaurants, galleries and other businesses in the area. A few months back we talked about increasing business and I offered to bring in some of the marketing team from the Greater Minneapolis Convention and Visitors Association. So this morning Mike Rainville of the GMCVA, who is also a northeast resident, walked through the internet promotion we are going to do that creates a web page for northeast on the convention and visitors site in hopes of reaching the people visiting who may not otherwise find the great collection of restaurants, galleries and stores in the area. The promotion we are working on would be called something like Arts and Eats....so keep watching www.minneapolis.org for details
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Later in the morning I headed over to the State Capital where we met with members of the Minneapolis House delegation, brought together by their new chair Rep. Jim Davnie. We got some good news about the Bonding Bill which in its current form includes money for several of the key projects we have been working on. More on that as it evolves but thank your legislators for their hard work, especially Rep. Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, whose skill moving this through the committees and negotiating with both parties has been nothing short of remarkable.
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I've spent a lot of time in public housing in Minneapolis and really marvel at how well these buildings are doing, especially considering that there has been one cut after the other to these programs.
Yesterday afternoon we faced another series of challenges as we went over the impacts of the very severe cuts by the fedearal government to the Section 8 housing program. This program has been behind some of the best affordable housing projects underway in the city right now. I have been in Washington lobbying against these changes, and we will continue to work with our delegation on this. Tough as this one is, it was encouraging to look around the table and see how many smart folks we have working on housing now.....Cora McCorvey, the very talented director of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority and asst. director Tom Streitz; Elizabeth Ryan, the city's new housing director who worked on many of these issues at both the Metropolitan Council and Dakota County; Lee Sheehy, who leads the community planning and economic development department; planning director Barb Sporlein who used to work at the St. Paul Public Housing Authority, David Fey and Erik Takeshita on my staff.
Unfortunately there have been quite a few meetings like yesterday when we have had to find ways to steer through deep cuts from Washington or the State Capitol, but yesterday was also one of those times when I felt a lot better looking around the table as some very smart people who can help chart the course.
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Megan and I went last night to the Marcy Open School production of Greese which has an all star cast that includes Matthew Ostrow who sings, dances.... and moons the audience. (Kind of like his father at City Council meetings.) School Board member Lydia Lee was also in the audience. I really encourage people to go to the Marcy productions if you get a chance.. We saw Sgt. Pepper there last year. They usually have big casts...I thinkthere were 50 or so last night....a lot of energy with the intermission bonus of homemade cookies.
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Before going to bed I was messing around on my email when my friend Sheila Scott sent a message that someone on ks95 had just said something nice about me. So on a whim I called the station to say thanks and dialed by mistake AM1500. If you listen to the two stations you know there is a difference.
public housing

marcy Greese
ks95 am1500. There's a difference

Day in the Life: Feb. 17

2005-02-17T19:25:00.000-08:00

It was cold this morning but over breakfast we were thinking about this summer....making sure there are summer jobs for kids from Minneapolis schools. David Brand of Achieve!Minneapolis and I spoke to the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce about StepUp, which last year created 200 summer jobs and this summer we hope to create 300.
Last year's program was a success in part because we got great help from business leaders, like Richard Davis, president of US Bank, and Keith Moyer of Star Tribune. This morning Ben Taylor of the Star Tribune told a very moving story about a girl who had been a Step Up intern at the paper. One of the employees took this intern under her wing, helped her improve her office skills and at the end of the summer the girl came into Ben's office and said, very simply: "You changed my life." Frank asked the group: "How many ways can you change someone's life for $2,400?"
That's what it costs for a Step Up intern. We train them, screen them and help get them ready for work. You create the job or pay $2,400 to place an intern at another job. Surely a community as blessed as this one can create 300 opporunties for kids this summer. If you are interested, you can contact www.achieveminneapolis.org.
(While you are at that website, you can also find out about Impact Schools, a new web site that makes it possible for you to contribute directly to Minneapolis Schools. )
Hope you can find a way to help us with Step Up. Just remember, the person who you give that chance is the person who is going to be paying your Social Security.

Day in the Life: Feb. 15

2005-02-15T20:13:00.000-08:00

A couple events today that celebrate the great people who work for the city.

The first was this afternoon, a reception I held to celebrate my appointment of Gretchen Musicant to lead our Health Department.
Gretchen is a really rare public servant. She can see the big picture, but I've also observed that she is a very effective listener. We need both right now as we chart a course for our Health Department in a period of time when the state and federal governments are making drastic cutbacks for human service programs. She will have to help us as elected officials see ways to develop new partnerships to get the services to those most in need.....She will also have to hear very clearly what needs we have in the community. She and Ken Dahl and the rest of the staff won't have an easy job but I'm looking very forward to working with her, and them.

During the reception I spoke with a number of people who work at the community clinics we operate in city schools. They provide a very important service, and told wonderful stories about how these clinics are helping kids get through many challenges, including mental illness. I hear a really heart wrenching story about a girl who came into one of the clinics saying she was short of breath....when they checked her our it became clear she had Lupus. She had no insurance and, as in immigrant struggles with understanding the health care system. During a recent bout in the hospital she got a bill for $32,000....and was now terrified to go to the doctor. The clinic helped her, got her some financial and medical counseling and at least helped her stabilize the situation.. It really showed the need out there and gave me even more respect for the work of Sen. Linda Berglin of Minneapolis who has continued to fight for health care for people in situations like these.

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The second event to celebrate city employees was tonight at the Ukranian Center where there was the annual police awards ceremony. Some real heros doing great work were honored, and, as always at these events, I was really struck by how much support our police get from their families who send them out each day and then find a way to support them when they come home.

Day in the Life: Feb. 14

2005-02-14T19:14:00.000-08:00

Interesting lunch today: It was the third official meeting of the Metropolitan Mayors Assocaition, which is a group we have started with the Mayors of a group of cities around the metro area. We first started working together a couple years ago on the issue of affordable housing. After drafting that report we decided that we should expand our actions....knowing that the Legislature has had trouble getting across ideological divides to address issues like transportation, education, public safety, etc.
The chairs are Mayor Karen Anderson of Minnetonka and Mayor Elizabeth Kautz of Burnsville.....they are great regional partners and people who I can call to talk about any issues. The Mayors who have come to these meetings include from places like Anoka, North Branch, Chanhassen, Waconia. Randy Kelly was there today. So was Gene Winsted of Bloomington. Also joining the group is a great new Mayor, Jim Hovland of Edina...who is a real transportation expert.
During the lunch we talked about what issues we wanted to take on...a wide range...but agreed that in the next few months the key will be for us to move outfront on transportation. There will be all sorts of ideas coming around at the Legislature, but the key for our group is to articulate the inpatience of it all....Let's get something done and stop sitting in congestion...That's something that unites Mayors...be they from Minneapolis or anywhere else.
You will be hearing more about the group in coming months but it is really refreshing to know that in these times when the political debate seems so isolated there is a great forum like this that can cut across ideolgical and geographic divides.
Fun people, too.
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Short Valentine's commercial: Megan and I had dinner tonight at Bakery on Grand....at 38th and Grand Av. Growing up this was one of the great corner bakeries in town....now it's a wonderful neighborhood restaurant. I really want to encourage even more of these and, in fact, have actively encouraged it by signing a number of wine and beer licenses for places like the Birchwood in Seward, etc. and a new one in Longfellow. These corner restaurants just keep making this a cooler city.
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Tell Me What I need To Know

2005-02-09T21:13:00.000-08:00

This is a blog thread for people to post random thoughts they think I should hear.

Day in the Life: Feb 9

2005-02-09T20:35:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot about Mark Dayton today since he made his announcement that he wasn't going to run again. All the political speculation is interesting---whose going to run, who isn't, etc.---- but there is another part of this that I hope comes through as people assess his work.
Mark, in my mind, is one of the most sincere people I know in politics. What you see is pretty much what he is.....and I think he has an overwhelming desire to help people. I've also had the clear sense that one of the things that drives him is a desire to use his office to stand up especially for those who don't have a voice...He seems to get more energy when he's fighting for the little guy.
I first met him when he was running for the Senate and I was running a candidate forum for Residents Against Airport Racket(ROAR). At that time most politicans ran as far away from this issue as possible. He seemed to have no fear.....understood the issue and wasn't the least bit intimidated by the fact that getting involved with this could put him crosswise with some of the most power political and business interests in the state. He proved over the next six years that this wasn't just an act during election time....time and time again when we needed help on this issue he was there.....never once flinching in the face of serious challenges from very powerful people.
I saw this even more directly a few weeks back when I was in Washington getting him up to date on a few issues that face the city at a federal level, especially some of the budget cuts that have fallen hard on those most in need. The passion you see in his face when he talks about fighting for those who are getting forgotten these days is really moving.....it's clear this is about more than tactical politics to him; It's about creating fairness and equity for real people.
I also remember a breakfast he and I had shortly after Paul Wellstone died. It was clear this hit him extremely hard, and in a very personal way. He talked about how he needed to pick up some of the slack for Paul's work. It was a burden he seemed ready to carry, and he seemed energized that he could help complete some of Paul's work. Walking away from the breakfast, I remember thinking that as destroyed as I was about losing Paul, it was made just a little bit easier knowing that Mark would continue some of that fight.
I don't think Mark Dayton will go down as the slickest politican who ever graced the U.S. Senate. And on so many levels I find that refreshing.

Day In The Life: Feb. 8

2005-02-09T06:06:00.000-08:00

The big issue in the first couple days of this week was the impact the President's propsed budget would have on the city of Minneapolis. ...but the story on this goes back a couple weeks:
I first started getting details when I went to the U.S. Conference of Mayors the day before the Innaugural. Others Mayors there and I talked about the rumor that the President was going to make dramatic cuts in Community Development Block Grants.(CDBG)....these are some of the last funds cities have to get people out of poverty and into the workforce.....They are the backbone of what we use for our affordable housing programs, job training, child care, domestic violence.....people like the Somali man who got training in computer skills at Migizi Communications through our summer employment program and is now moving up the career ladder.
Knowing what was about to hit us, the Mayor's I talked to agreed that we would go back to our state's and try to build broad coalitions that could help tell the personal stories of what these cuts would mean.
The first calls I made were to the groups who receive these funds. Then I called other other Mayors in Minnesota, including a couple who have been great partners....Mayor Bergson in Duluth and Mayor Ellenbecker in St. Cloud. Then I called some key leaders of the faith community...including Spencer Simeral, dean of St. Mark's Cathedral, Rabbi Marci Zimmerman of Temple Israel, Jim Gertmenian of Plymouth Congregational Church.
When the President announced his budget Monday and, in fact, Community Development Block Grant funds were cut drastically, we got the group back together and could tell the story to the media. Jim Gertmanian was especially strong in his statement that a budget is a document of values, and the values that leave out those most in need do not represent any faith tradition he knows of......This was so powerful because in the name of faith, faith leaders are being asked to pick up much of what government is not doing. Their help is wonderful but and as I said, you can't run a just society on bake sales and passing the plate.
Mayor Bergson also had a big gathering in Duluth...about 40 people telling these stories.
We will keep telling the story and hope all of you will call your congressional delegation....please make the point that these are the dollars that are not only spent on those in need but are also about SAVING government spending...Every person we put back to work, and get into housing saves far more in welfare, shelter, public health costs.....

It's been an interesting time to be Mayor...when both the state and the federal government do not seem to be standing up for those most in need.....but as we build these coalitions to stand up for these values, I at least know we are not alone.

Day in the Life:Feb. 5

2005-02-08T21:06:00.000-08:00

Feb 5: Just finished a quick polka on the dance floor at Jacob's 101 as part of the SNO Ball....the annual event for the Sheridan Neighborhood Association. Usually a great event but especially good today because it comes just after we approved plans for moving ahead with the Ritz Theater....which the Sheridan Neighborhood has worked so hard on for so long.....About a year from now we can see Ballet of the Dolls in their new home.Before that I was a few blocks away in the California Building for Paul Ostrow's campaign kickoff. He gave a great speech about visions for Northeast.Those two events came after a few hours in Uptown celebrating the City of Lakes Loppet...which, amazingly enough, is going to take place tomorrow morning in spite of all the weather. Really heroic efforts by a great team of amazing volunteers, led by John Munger, Piotr Bernardski, Kate Ellis, Corey, Claire...a bunch of folks who led team of people shoveling, putting packets together....Uptown was jammed today with all the skiers, and tonight it was so great to see Hennepin and 31st covered with snow that had been trucked in.....The elite Olympians skiied the course first, then came a great group of kids trying it for the first time. Tomorrw morning about 1,700 of us will take off on the course, heading toward the Lakes where...with luck, we won't be sliding through standing water...In fact, I should get to bed if I'm going to ski 30k.

Day In The Life: Feb. 3

2005-02-03T20:49:00.000-08:00

Feb. 3: I started and ended my day with winners of silent auctions....I do a fair amount of this...help raise money for groups by giving away either a breakfast or lunch or even a bus tour. This morning I had a breakfast in my office with two people whose bid raised money for Barton School. And tonight I went on a bus tour (they actually rented a limo) of nightlife to benefit the Human Rights Campaign Fund. These raise a lot of money and I get to meet some great folks.

One of the interesting things that happened in the middle of the day was I went to the weekly Code 4 meeting. These are the meetings the police department has every week to go over crime trends and what is being done about it. These used to be in private but Chief McManus and I believe this is the kind of information that can help citizens and police work together to make the city safer. So now they are on television live, and repeated....and we really want to invite anyone interested to come down to City Hall at 12:30 on Thursdays....among the people in the crowd this week were great citizen volunteers who have done so much to make the block watches in the Loring neighborhood so successful.

After tonight's bus tour I did a live shont on the 10 p.m. news with John Munger, the race director of the City of Lakes Loppet....the ski race that is supposed to go from Wirth Park to Calhoun Square....the warm weather is messing with that but tonight we made the decision that the race is on....Saturday night the pros and kids will ski down the streets of Uptown which will be lined with snow. From 8-9 anyone can ski, so take advantage of that rare chance to ski down the street.

Sunday the race will be one....with some changes...We are going to start and end at Calhoun Square.....how far we go and where we go depends on the weather. Not as long a ski as we thought but the spectating should be great with this weather.

Day In The Life: Feb. 2

2005-02-02T19:27:00.000-08:00

Feb 2: Some of my days are spent totally in City Hall, but today was mostly outside.
First thing I had a meeting with what's called the Itasca Group, it's a collection of CEOs of big companies, trying to get them to develop an agenda that they can help promote. They've been helpful because they have been willing to take on transportation, which is really important because they can use their contacts to break the deadlock at the State Capital that has made it hard for the state to do what needs to be done to address congestion. I am also on a subcomittee that will address racial and economic disparties.....so stay tuned.
The afternoon included a couple events with students in Minneapolis, both involving physical fitness. The first was at Waite Park in Northeast....General Mills, which has been such a great partner on so many things, gave 50,000 to the schools to help with fitness and nutrition. Part of the event included having kids jump rope and then have Council President Paul Ostrow and I try to keep up....We looked pretty stupid but it was fun.
(Leaving the school, coming down Johnson Street, we stopped quickly at two great corner businesses I highly recommend...Mary Jane's, a GREAT bakery which has the best hamburger buns around, and Marino's, where I had one of their patened Submarino Sandwhiches, which was first invented by Mrs. Marino, who I think is about 90 and still going strong)
The second event was on Cedar Lake....the city cross country ski championship. About 100 kids from four schools.....Washburn, Henry, South and Southwest. This is a sport where city schools are competing very well, and getting better.....The course was a little wet but still good...it will be part of the course we are going to use for the City of Lakes Ski Loppet this Sunday.

Welcome to the Blog

2005-01-31T16:54:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, it's R.T.
Thanks to all of you who came to my kickoff event yesterday
and who sent me emails. I put a copy of my speech up on the site http://www.rtrybak.com/ and would like your take.

I like campaigning because I can lay out my thoughts for the next term. But the campaign is also a good time to talk over new issues. Anything you think I should talking about?

To join in, follow these steps:
1) Click "Comments" below, then "Post a Comment".
2) Click sign up here on the right hand side. Fill in all the info, then click on the arrow on the bottom right.
3) Click on the left-hand arrow in your browser. The go back to rtrybakformayor.blogspot.com.
4) Go ahead and post.

Welcome to R.T.'s Blog!

2005-01-20T14:34:00.000-08:00

Thanks for coming by, I'm really excited to dialogue with you about the future of our great City of Minneapolis and my campaign for a second term!

This blog is a powerful way for my supporters to organize, share ideas and news, and stay in touch with my day-to-day campaign activities. Often, I will post myself, but you will also be hearing from my staff and other supporters like yourself.

Let's win the DFL convention this spring and the general election this fall. We can get so much done together with another four years.

Your Mayor,

R.T. Rybak