New St. Paul mayor takes office
Pioneer Press
At noon today, former City Council Member Chris Coleman formally took office as St. Paul's 45th mayor, calling for a new era of change based on "cooperation, responsibility and respect."
In inaugural ceremonies at Landmark Center, Coleman, 44, said: "We as a country are immersed in a climate of fear — fear of the future, fear of the unknown, fear of people different from ourselves. This fear is the enemy of our natural cooperative spirit because it drains away hope, saps energy and builds suspicion and distrust.
" . . . As we seek to move St. Paul forward to create opportunity for all citizens, and to replace fear with cooperation, the fulcrum upon which we initiate change must be built of three core values: cooperation, responsibility and respect."
The official swearing-in ceremony kicked off a full day of inaugural activities, which include an open house at City Hall from 2 to 5 p.m., a reception at the College of St. Catherine from 6:30 to 8 p.m. and a reception at the Minnesota Humanities Center from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Inaugural events continue through Friday.
Here is the full text of Coleman's remarks:
I want to begin by thanking my wife, Connie, and our children, Molly and Aidan, and each and every one of you who have been a part of bringing us to this day.
It is my special honor to have been sworn in by Doris Huspeni, for whom I clerked on the Court of Appeals.
I want to thank my friends and mentors, George and Nancy Latimer.
And, on behalf of all of us, I extend a heartfelt thank you to Mayor Randy Kelly for his many years of dedicated service to the citizens of St. Paul.
Many years ago, perhaps in this very building, Hannah Kennedy, a young Irish immigrant, raised her right hand and swore allegiance to her new country. Today, as her grandson, I raise my right hand for a different purpose, to swear allegiance to this city, to its people and to the responsibilities of this office. For generations, St. Paul has been the city my family has called home.
I am proud. I am humbled. I am very grateful.
There are many ways to describe this city:
A city of neighborhoods. A historic city. A city of hills.
From those hills, we can see many things: fireworks at Taste of Minnesota; Aztec dancers during Cinco de Mayo; the carousel at Como Park; our many colleges and universities.
We see the great and growing cultural diversity of our city. We can also see our history. From Cap Wigington's water tower in Highland Park to this beautiful building, we are reminded of the wonders of St. Paul's past and mindful of how it shapes our future.
And from those hills, we see that a river runs through it.
But the great Mississippi is not merely a body of water. As it carved its way through St. Paul, the landscape it left behind literally shaped what St. Paul was to become and how we define ourselves as a community.
The stories of the men and women that lived on the Flats, the levee or in Swede Hollow are the stories of the creation of this city. They are colorful. They are powerful. And they are still present.
I have a drawing, given to me by my brother Nick, of the first bridge across the Mississippi, connecting downtown to the West Side. Bridges are a frequent and strong metaphor. But they do more than connect one side of the river to the other. They connect us to each other.
They connect us to the future.
They connect us to our hopes . . . our potential . . . and our power.
There is no greater bridge than the bridge of opportunity. An opportunity is the bridge between where you are and where you want to go. While many of us already have walked across this bridge, there are too many of us who cannot yet even dream of crossing it. If we are to be the city that we all want St. Paul to be, this is the bridge we must begin building today.
Ours is a city built on opportunities seized . . . promises realized . . . and dreams turned into reality.
But now, we as a country are immersed in a climate of fear — fear of the future, fear of the unknown, fear of people different from ourselves. This fear is the enemy of our natural cooperative spirit because it drains away hope, saps energy and builds suspicion and distrust.
Long ago, Archimedes, the inventor of the lever, said this: "Give me a place to stand and I will move the world." As we seek to move St. Paul forward to create opportunity for all citizens, and to replace fear with cooperation, the fulcrum upon which we initiate change must be built of three core values:
Cooperation, Responsibility and Respect.
Cooperation is necessary to create and sustain opportunity.
In St. Paul's past, we have seen many instances of cooperation across cultural and economic lines. In the Thirties, when Minneapolis faced great labor unrest, there was an understanding between business owner and worker that cooperation between employer and employee was the St. Paul way.
While in other cities, people were denied membership in clubs and organizations based on race or religion, St. Paul was a more inclusive city.
In our own past, we can see that cooperation beats fear.
After World War II, John Nasseff, the son of poor Lebanese immigrants who lived on the West Side Flats, got a job on the loading docks at West Publishing. He developed an idea to improve shipping procedures and boldly marched into the CEO's office and told him about it. The CEO liked it and worked with John to implement it. That collaboration was good for West Publishing and good for John Nassef, who eventually rose into the ranks of St. Paul's most prominent citizens.
More recently, a local company called WTC (Water Treatment Co.) struggled to stay open. The company began producing filtration equipment to go into refrigerators and landed contracts with Maytag, Amana and, eventually, General Electric. Their contract with GE called for higher standards of precision, quality and expertise.
The task of meeting these standards fell to a group of Hmong employees — many of whom spoke little English. Their work had to be both fast and perfect. It was, and the orders rolled in. As the company's success grew, more Hmong workers were hired.
But the leaders of the company did not want an all-white front office and an all-Asian work force, so they began to promote Hmong workers into positions of management. With this new partnership, the company flourished and eventually became a part of 3M.
Being inclusive, cooperating across cultural and economic divides, is no longer optional. We must practice inclusion not simply because it is morally right, but because it is good business. It is a practice deeply rooted in St. Paul's history.
While cooperation is central to our future, we cannot move our community forward unless we all acknowledge the responsibility that we share. As mayor, I will lead our efforts, but I cannot move this city forward unless all of you are prepared to stand with me in this effort.
Whether it is reversing the growing disparity in graduation rates between white kids and kids of color, haves and have-nots, or getting to work on the extensive planning that must occur to make the Central Corridor a success, or tackling important issues like global climate change, we must all examine the roles that we will play.
The importance of education cannot be overstated. The greatest gift we can give to the young people of St. Paul is the ability to see a successful future, a future unburdened by apathy and despair, but rich in opportunity and hope.
And yet far too many children are not getting the education they need to reach their full potential. Our schools and teachers struggle to meet this challenge.
We must step up and play our part as a community.
That is why, on December 10th, over 300 people gathered with me at John A. Johnson School to participate in the Second Shift Summit.
And that is also why I look forward to the upcoming announcement of a program called "The Power of You" — a collaborative initiative between our community colleges and the Minnesota Business Partnership — that aims to increase high-school graduation rates for students of color and allow students to attend the first two years of college, free of charge.
Together, we have accepted responsibility and we will make a difference.
The late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan remarked that "the stakes are too high now for government to be a spectator sport." That is clearly true today more than ever. The city that I lead and the thousands of dedicated public employees will work tirelessly to make sure that opportunity is created for all in this community. But government cannot do it alone.
All of us have a role to play.
Whether it be for a small business to grow larger, a working family to buy a home, or a young child to reach her potential.
