The Mayor Blog

Yesterday I was proud to break ground on an exciting housing project that is going to bring life and investment to downtown Minneapolis. A block from the banks of the Mississippi River, yesterday we helped launch construction on Mill District City apartments, a new $25 Million project at the corner of Washington & Portland avenues, in what was an empty and vacant lot right in heart of the Mill district. The project is being done by Village Green with persistent and full support from the city of Minneapolis in conjunction with a wide array of community partners who are actively contributing to the economic recovery of our city.

Projects like this are going to give a boost to our economy, hiring local workers and using Minnesota businesses. Once occupied, the building will provide hundreds of new customers for local businesses and provide $350,000 for the city of Minneapolis. Additionally, the building is also going to adhere to the National Green Building Standard. All of which is great news. A project like this one shows that even in these tough economic times, when financing and development is hard to come by, the city’s economy is growing and Minneapolis is open for business!

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Minneapolis has taken gigantic steps forward in preventing and stopping youth violence. It is one of the things that Mayor Rybak is most proud of. Yesterday the mayor was honored to receive an award from the Minnesota Youth Programs Intervention Association, who do incredible work promoting effective early intervention services for youth all year-long. The Mayor was given their “Legislative Leadership Award”, particularly in recognition for the implementation of Minneapolis’ “Blueprint to Prevent Youth Violence”.

Mayor Rybak launched the Blueprint to Prevent Youth Violence back in 2008 in conjunction with community leaders, law enforcement, and stakeholders with the intent of changing how we view the problem of youth violence in our city. We began to view the issue in terms of a public health strategy, focusing on preventing some of the core issues that cause violence and intervening to keep kids out of the criminal justice system.

Since the implementation of the program, Minneapolis has seen double digit drops in crime and the trend is continuing. I’m proud to say that Minneapolis is safer and we are catching youth before they fall through the cracks. Many thanks to the Minnesota Youth Programs Intervention Association for recognizing Mayor Rybak’s work on this, as we are going to continue to do everything we can to prevent youth violence in the city and keep our kids safe.

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