|
R. T. Rybak
Mayor, Minneapolis
Earlier this year, the Phillips Partnership welcomed Mayor
R. T. Rybak to its ranks. The Mayor joined the Partnership
after taking office in January 2002, but his interest in the
Phillips neighborhood long predates the recent mayoral election.
His connection to Phillips has its roots in his childhood,
when his parents owned a drug store in the neighborhood. As
Mayor Rybak recalls, “I spent many evenings and weekends
at the store, eating dinner at the Chef Café and delivering
prescriptions. The neighborhood shared a real sense of integration
and community-building in that era. Unfortunately, that dynamic
began to erode following the freeway construction in the 1960s,
which has challenged the community’s sense of connectedness
and vitality.”
In the years prior to assuming public office, Mayor Rybak
gained significant experience in business development while
still devoting substantial energy to community activism. At
the time he was elected, he was a business consultant with
a variety of clients. In the late 1980s, he served as the
first director of development for the Down-town Council, where
he raised private funds to bring new companies to the city,
worked to retain small businesses and artists displaced by
development, and helped bring the Farmer’s Market to
Nicollet Mall. Mayor Rybak also spent much of his career in
journalism, serving as the publisher of the Twin Cities Reader
and working as a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune in the
late ’70s and ’80s. The Mayor has a long and varied
history of community service, which has run the gamut from
service on the boards of non-profits to coaching Little League
and leading a Cub Scout troop.
Mayor Rybak has long been a champion of comprehensive, far-sighted
urban planning that -incorporates environmental stew-ard-ship,
transit solutions that promote independence from the automobile,
and affordable housing. Indeed, the Mayor has made affordable
housing one of his top priorities, and he finds this aspect
of the Phillips Partnership’s work particularly compelling.
As he puts it, “The Partnership’s housing initiatives
in Phillips present an excellent means of achieving some of
the goals I have set for my administration.”
The Mayor’s business experience and public service make
him keenly aware of the potential for innovation and success
inherent to the public-private partnership model. “I
have witnessed firsthand the effectiveness of a dynamic, entrepreneurial
business approach to solving problems,” says Rybak.
“The Phillips Partnership is a prime example of how
we should move energetically, across the sectors, to strengthen
our neighborhoods. It offers a remarkable formula for progress,
and a great opportunity to work on the issues that matter
to the City.” The Phillips Partnership’s ability
to leverage public and private investment is especially attractive,
given the City’s current budget challenges. “My
job as Mayor is to find ways to do more with less,”
he says, “and partnerships between government and the
private sector are critical to achieving that.”
Mayor Rybak has deep personal roots in the Phillips neighborhood.
His role as the leader of the City, his personal ties to the
community, and his experience in business development all
combine to make him a welcome addition to the Phillips Partnership.
As he puts it, “Despite its current challenges, the
Phillips community, with its rich history and wealth of diversity,
is a great asset to the City, and I embrace the chance to
join the Partnership’s efforts to foster the neighborhood’s
revitalization.”
|
