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News from Minneapolis Mayor R.T. RybakApril 22, 2004 IN THIS UPDATE: 1. Tree Planting Celebration I am pleased to announce that the City is on track to more than exceed its goal of planting 5,000 new trees in 2004 through a public-private partnership, more than doubling the usual number of trees planted. To celebrate and kick-off the tree-planting season, my office and the Park Board are hosting an event this Sunday, April 25th. This will include a major contribution from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, who will be on hand to announce their grant to the City. We will be planting the first 6 disease-resistant historic Elm trees in the City and will be talking about CITYTREES, the campaign to plant and care for these 5,000 new trees this year. Minneapolis Firefighters and a Fire Truck will be there to water the new trees and talk about the Fire Department's commitment to watering trees. Park Board mascot, Elmer, the Elm Tree will entertain kids. When: 1:00 p.m., Sunday, April 25 Where: 1900 block of Park Ave. S. (Park Ave. will be blocked off) Who: The public is invited to join Mayor Rybak; Park Board Commissioners and City Council Members Paul Ostrow and Dean Zimmerman. Other partners to announce tree-planting and care efforts include: Doubletree Guest Suites General Manager Dan Little, to announce the hotel's program to plant trees at Minneapolis schools Interim Minneapolis Fire Chief Bonnie Bleskachek Free Colorado Blue Spruce from Doubletree Guest Suites for first 50 people Sunday. 2. Midtown Exchange I'm pleased to announce the City and Ryan Companies, the developers of Midtown Exchange at the former Sears store on Lake Street, have reached an agreement on agressive goals for hiring minority and woman construction workers. Ryan Companies is committed to filling their construction workforce on this site with 15% skilled minority tradespeople, 20% unskilled minority laborers, and 5% women construction workers. All three goals are substantial increases over previous City projects - an 87.5% increase for skilled minority workers alone. Ryan deserves praise for agressively pursuing a diverse workforce on this project. At the same time, Ryan and the City have created a "pipeline" for people to get hired and start work as soon as possible. Ryan Companies will draw unemployed union workers and apprectices from the surrounding neighborhood first. In turn, community members can join pre-apprenticeship training programs, such as Goodwill/Easter Seals' program, and then start an apprenticeship program on the Midtown Exchange site. The link below will have job and project updates. http://midtowncommunityworks.org/exchange I'm working to bring this project to reality and bring jobs to the community. 3. Affordable Housing Last Thursday the Family Housing Fund and Housing Link released their first annual report called "Housing Counts". This is an independent, third party counting of all the affordable housing being supported by the Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Here is the link: http://www.fhfund.org/_dnld/reports/housing_counts.pdf As you can see, it has been a good two years for the City of Minneapolis. We have closed on more than 754 new affordable units (the City's definition of "affordable" is only those units affordable to a family making less than 50% of the Metropolitan Median Income (MMI) or $38,350 for a family of four) and provided funding to help renovate and keep affordable another 1,188 units. That's nearly 2,000 affordable units that have been built or maintained as long-term affordable housing in just the past two years. I am particularly proud of the fact that the majority of these units, 512 of the new units and 1,066 of the renovated ones, are affordable to those families and individuals making less that 30% of the MMI or $23,010 for a family of four. 4. State of the City Address Just a reminder, my 2004 State of the City Address will be next Thursday, April 29th, at 4:00 p.m. in the rotunda of City Hall. Minneapolis middle-school student Cameron Hughes will sing preceding the address and refreshments will follow. City Hall is fully accessible and my speech will be signed in sign language for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. This event will be simulcast on cable TV channels 14 and 79 and on the City's website at www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us |