Mayor Backs Off of Budget Idea That Would Hit Restaurants

Extra fee would have paid for more health inspectors.

According to the Southwest Journal's Nick Halter, Minneapolis Mayor RT Rbyak has pulled back from a budget proposal that would have charged local restaurants several hundred dollars per year. The money, Halter said, would have gone to pay for six new health inspectors. Instead, a sunnier budget forecast suggested the new positions could be paid for through existing taxes. The mayor's full budget is posted online on the city's website, and the Minneapolis City Council will take citizen input at a pair of hearings later this year. Read the rest here.

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Planning Commission Under Fire Over Ethics Issues

Mayor has called for investigation.

If you believe its worst critics, Minneapolis' City Planning Commission is full of cronyism. In a report in Monday morning's Star-Tribune, Commission members Dan Cohen and Councilmember Gary Schiff (Ward 9) attack the body for what they say are conflicts of interest among many of its members. The commission is made up of a mix of representatives from the Minneapolis School Board, Hennepin County, the Minneapolis City Council, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, and a majority of mayoral and City Council appointees, and reviews redevelopment plans, zoning changes, and other aspects of new construction. Cohen represents Hennepin County on the commission, and Schiff represents the City Council It's those appointees, though, that has …

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Rybak Earns Praise For DNC Speech

Bette Midler, Amy Klobuchar among others lauding mayor's words.

Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak was one of the many big-name Democrats to open up the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC Tuesday night. His speech made waves among Minnesota and Minneapolis pols and voters. What did you think of it?

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Linden Hills Says Good By To "Unofficial Mayor"

Bayers Hardware closing Saturday Sept. 1.

With the closing of Bayers Do It Best Hardware on Saturday, Linden Hills will lose its "unofficial mayor." Sure, Bob Bayers will still live in the neighborhood and will still be seen around town, but by his own admission, he'll be absorbed in finding a new line of work to support himself into retirement and deciding the fate of his soon-to-be-former store's building. He and his ex-wife own the building together. Starting in the mid-1970's, as he took on more roles at what was then his father's store, Bayers took on bigger roles in the neighborhood. It started small—lending his voice to the Linden Hills Neighborhood Council's yearly auction in pre-silent auction days—but soon expanded. The neighborhood connection led to his serving on the …

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POLL: What Should Rybak Tell the Democratic National Convention?

Last Minneapolis mayor to address DNC became a famous senator.

According to the Star-Tribune, Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak is slated to address the 2012 Democratic National Convention next month in Charlotte, NC.  The last Minneapolis mayor to address the DNC was Hubert H. Humphrey, in 1948. While the 2012 election is arguably less fraught with tension than that one—Democrats were debating whether or not to support civil rights, and worried sick that a progressive step would alienate white Southern voters—Humphrey's speech catapulted him to national fame, possibly helping HHH win a Senate seat later that year. While Rybak tossed cold water on that idea when Strib reporter Eric Roper brought it up ("To me, this will be the easiest job in the world, because the president's done so much and the contrast is…

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Rybak Pitches Property Tax Hike

Larger hike could come the following year.

Speaking before a standing room-only crowd at Minneapolis City Hall, Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak pitched a 1.7 percent increase in the city's property tax rate for 2013.  While many Minneapolitans have been feeling the pinch of—and complaining about—high property taxes for several years, Rybak called the increase "modest." "(A)t least 70 percent of Minneapolis homeowners should feel no increase—or will even feel a decrease—in the City portion of their property taxes next year," read a statement sent out by a Rybak spokesperson following the mayor's speech. "We'll have to see what this feels like" to homeowners, Councilmember Elizabeth Glidden (Ward 8) told Patch, referring to the Truth in Taxation notices that are mailed to residents before…

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Anna Schier

1:19 am on Friday, August 17, 2012

What's your opinion on the proposed tax increase? Do you feel such an increase is warranted or an unnecessary cost to the taxpayer?   more ›

Want a Pothole Fixed? There's an Official App for That

Minneapolis partners with tech startup SeeClickFix to help improve 311 response times.

Getting potholes and neighborhood problems in Minneapolis fixed just got a lot faster if you've got a smartphone, thanks to the city's new partnership with civic-minded tech company SeeClickFix. Today, Mayor RT Rybak and City Councilmembers Robert Lilligren and Gary Schiff will announce the launch of a new, free iPhone app for the city's popular 311 service. Blackberry and Android users will be able to access the same service through SeeClickFix's website.  SeeClickFix started in 2008 as a way to bridge the gap between citizens and local governments that 311-type telephone services and cities' traditional ways of monitoring problems never really bridged. Leveraging a host of technologies like editable Google maps, the company aimed to give…

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Want Company When Biking To Work?

Thursday, the Twin Cities celebrate Bike to Work Day.

Thursday is supposed to Bike to Work Day in Southwest Minneapolis and across the Twin Cities. However, with temperatures climbing into the low 80s, and a chance of rain in the forecast you'd be forgiven for not wanting to be the only soul showing up to your job damp from either. Good thing there are some celebrations that day, where you'll get to hang out with other virtuous souls. Tell that to your car-borne coworkers who raise an eyebrow when you plunk a helmet down tomorrow morning—it's your ticket to a party, all part of Bike Walk Week 2012. Do you normally bike to work? Why or why not?

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Minneapolis Could Charge Sales Tax on Vikings Tix

Provision is part of stadium deal that City Council votes on next week.

REPLAY: Mayor Rybak Before MN Senate Finance Panel

The Senate Finance Committee is considering the Vikings Stadium.

Update 12:50 p.m.— This hearing is now over. We'll be posting video of Rybak's testimony as soon as it becomes available. Watch livestream video here of the Minnesota Senate Finance Committee as they wrestle with the contentious bill to publicly fund a new Minnesota Vikings The hearing Wednesday morning could be the bill's last stop before a vote on the floor of the Senate—although a hearing at the Senate Taxes Committee is a possibility. Video is courtesy of The UpTake and the Minnesota Senate.

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