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Mayor Rybak Proposes Economic Opportunity Agenda

Proposals create local jobs, by tapping global markets and new green economy

March 25, 2009 (MINNEAPOLIS) -- In his annual State of the City Address today, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak unveiled an aggressive economic plan to put more people to work, grow local businesses, tap global markets in China, and revitalize the city’s housing market. Beyond a plan for economic recovery, Mayor Rybak called for residents and businesses to reinvent themselves for a new economy.

“The past, whether we like it or not, is over,” Rybak said. “The old ways of doing business have literally run out of gas. Across Minneapolis and throughout this region, we need to not just recover, not just rebuild, we must reinvent. To keep growing, we must reinvent how we create economic opportunity, reinvent a new way of working, and reinvent the partnerships between citizens, businesses, schools and government.”

Mayor Rybak said that the City has been able to meet the demands of this tough economic reality because of the strong foundations in place to put people to work and build small businesses:

“In the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Depression, in the middle of a neighborhood hit hard by unemployment and foreclosure, I found hope in an unlikely place,” Mayor Rybak said. “At the Workforce Center at Chicago and Lake, where unemployed residents sought counseling, training and motivation to get back into the job market, I met people ready to reinvent themselves.”

Rybak’s Opportunity Agenda

Mayor Rybak used the bulk of his speech to lay out a series of initiatives to continue strengthening the Minneapolis regional economy using five overarching strategies: investing in people, home-growing local businesses, reaching globally, incubating innovation, and building stronger partnerships. New initiatives included:

A Shining Example of Economic Reinvention: Coloplast

Mayor Rybak delivered his State of the City Address at Coloplast, a Denmark-based medical device company that recently moved its North American headquarters onto the west bank of the Mississippi River in north Minneapolis. Coloplast’s beautiful new $35 million campus will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certified Silver, will include one of the company’s three global Innovation Centers and will house approximately 500 employees in sales, marketing, research and development, with specific goals to hire north Minneapolis residents.

“Coloplast is reinventing the Upper River and the surrounding neighborhoods of north Minneapolis,” Mayor Rybak said. “Coloplast is now a successful avenue for local residents to become employed at one of the most successful medical device companies in the world. In the process, we are showing once again that Minneapolis is a city of opportunity.”

“Anyone who doubts what a global economy can do for Minneapolis doesn’t have to look beyond this very building. Minneapolis’ business and city leaders have tried for decades to move a major employer into north Minneapolis and it finally happened because of a company from Denmark. Thank you, Coloplast, for showing us that the global economy is a world of opportunity.”