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The Defenestrator had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with Minneapolis' top executive on the eve of announcing his reelection campaign for a wide-ranging chat focusing on the future of the city and what steps he's taking to help Minneapolis thrive despite economic times that could perhaps best be described as Winehousian. And, as he's wont to do, Mayor Rybak provided ample food for thought and an upbeat assessment of where Minneapolis, and even the state, will be going over the next few years.

Plus as a bonus to our loyal readers, in addition to being transcribed below, the interview is available in full-on, "dear god why do my pores look like the yawning gates of Hades" HD at MNstories.

Defenestrator: Obviously the biggest thing on everybody's mind is the state budget. Minneapolis already lost LGA [local government aid state funding] and I don't think anyone is under any illusions that we're going to get more in the coming years. So...how screwed are we?

Mayor Rybak: You know, there's no doubt about it, we're living in pretty extraordinary times. I don't think anybody can tell you exactly what the future is going to bring. But I'm completely convinced Minneapolis is going to come out of this strong. I can't say stronger because I think this is tough, and it's going to be really tough these next couple months as my job is really to figure out how to make some major budget cuts around here.

The good news is we're in dramatically better shape than we were in 2003. We went through this before. The state went through a budget crisis. A huge part of that was balanced on the back of Minneapolis. My job is to try to make that work. During that period of time we not only did that, but we also really reformed the way the city budgets. We paid down a tremendous amount of debt to put us in better shape. I say all that because this will not be easy. It will have consequences for everything we do. But it will easier than it was in 2003 because we're just in better shape.

Defenestrator: What's on the table? Last time, in 2003, public safety took a huge hit and it showed in 2005/2006 in the crime stats.

Mayor Rybak: Public safety took a huge hit in 2003, but what most people don't recognize is that public safety took less of a hit than every other part of the city. Between 2003 and now, significant additional part of the city's budget goes to public safety as opposed to other parts of the budget. The part of the budget that hurt the most was our public infrastructure. Repaving projects, road projects were put off or delayed in favor of public safety.  You want a shorthand, we made it safer to walk down the streets that had more potholes. That's why this last budget I delivered had what was called the infrastructure acceleration program. We have to go back and fix the basic infrastructure that we've been delaying. One of the things I'm going to try and balance is that we don't balance this on the back of our infrastructure. Public safety is our top goal and it's going to continue to be our top goal, and it's going to be in the budget. As hard as that was back then with public safety, frankly it was worse with our infrastructure and I don't want to do that again.

I can't fully tell you where we're going to be able to go wit this budget, because a lot of the relatively easy cuts were already made back then. But I do know that we've got a much much better climate to do this in right now. Just because the city has been reformed and the budget is in much much better shape.

Defenestrator: We have a situation where with all the foreclosures we're not developing the same sort of property tax base as we would normally. How does the picture look from that aspect?

Mayor Rybak: Well, actually 2008, as far as construction goes, was a stronger year than 2007. We stay on a fairly healthy economic economic track in the city. Our office vacancy is down around 12 percent. It's a good one to two percent below the rest of the metropolitan area. Companies are moving into the city. Coloplast just brought 600 jobs to the northside. We have a lot of work going on in our commercial corridors. I'm not saying it's going to be easy or that it's going to be a good economic time, but as far as values go in the city, our commercial values stay up.

Home values across the country are going down so we have our challenges too and foreclosure hit really hard here. But because we got on foreclosure early, a couple years ago, and laid out some really aggressive programs, we're starting to turn the corner on that. At the end of the year we had three straight months of declines in foreclosures which was a good thing in the city. Still is a huge problem though. But some of the things that have helped fight that back are starting to really pay off. We put out this experimental program called the Minneapolis Advantage which was a half million dollars of incentives for people to buy homes on blocks where there were foreclosures. And that went right away and because that was so successful we just last week announced we got 1.5 million for new incentives for homeowners in foreclosed areas. I think the programs we've had are working and paying off and that'll help others.

The value of property in the city of Minneapolis has gone up pretty dramatically over the past five six seven years. This'll be a period of time where it absolutely levels off. But remember the two big drivers of the economy in the city of Minneapolis are healthcare/life science and education - meds and eds. Those are the two pieces of the economy that are counter-cyclical right now. They're the strongest pieces of the overall country's economy. The tallest building, right over my shoulder, is now named after Capella University, which I don't think existed in 2002, is now a fast-growing education business which has its name on the biggest building in town. It's one example of the fact that we have a disproportionately strong economy and we'll keep it there. We have disproportionately strong neighborhoods and we'll keep them there. There are some enormous problems with foreclosure, and I mean enormous problems. But because we've been on that quite a bit, I think we're turning the corner.

Defenestrator: The Northside has been a problem area for the city for a long time, and there's been a great deal of talk about revitalizing the Northside, but many people don't see a conhesive effort on the city's part. What plans are in place?

Mayor Rybak: Actually there's been a really coordinated effort in North Minneapolis - Northforce. Right after I got reelected I had my state of the city at the Capri Theater and I said we're going to be judged by how we do in North Minneapolis. I went back to City Hall and called together my department heads. I said look, we're going to require every one of you to have a strategy for North Minneapolis and I'm going to have on my desk every two weeks the Northforce report, which is public and online. That's all about what we're doing in North Minneapolis.

There has been commercial work. Bringing the Cub to Broadway has been followed with trying to rebuild the YWCA across the street from that, the Capri Theater, the commercial redevelopment at Penn and Lowry that brought the Aldi's to North Minneapolis and redid North End Hardware. That kind of commercial work we'll continue with.

In housing, we've really focused on housing clusters. There are a couple key areas where you can see that work. Right at the bend in Broadway, if you go back one block is Cottage Park, one of those clusters. That's where we've put a significant amount of money to redevelop houses right around that park so we can continue to have a strong housing area. The second area is called the Hawthorne eco clusters. If you go just a couple blocks north of Farview Park, you'll see an area that was completely devastated by crime and foreclosures and we're now rebuilding that as our second housing cluster. We've also focused an enormous amount on public safety. Violent crime is down more than 20 percent across the city, and it's being led by the decreases in North Minneapolis, and that's being led by the decreases in juvenile crime in North Minneapolis. That's not an accident. That's because we put a disproportionate amount of public safety resources in North.

And then also we recognize there need to be some big projects. Bringing the 600 jobs at Coloplast was part of that. But also just some community work. The greenway at 26^th, trying to make sure somehow eventually that can be a place where kids can ride a bike up and down the street. Working on our schools. I've partnered with our school board on restarting a couple schools. Lucy Laney and Nelly Stone Johnson are really, I believe, beginning to turn the corner.

North Minneapolis is where I spend a disproportionate amount of time and where we spend a disproportionate amount of our city's tax dollars. We do have some great nonprofit partners in there, and we're absolutely partnering with them. But anyone who walks into my office knows that job one in North Minneapolis and we'll stay on it.

Defenestrator: What do you think of Patrick Henry High being chosen as one of the top schools in the U.S. recently?

Mayor Rybak: That was so great. I was just out at Patrick Henry. I speak to every 9^th grade class. I talk to them about our career centers and step up jobs and free college. I was just out at Henry a couple days ago. They were all jazzed about it too. I've known how good that school is. I was out at the Cum Laude Society dinner there a year ago and you look at these amazing kids, some of them whose parents weren't born in this country, maybe not even speaking English. Those parents and those kids were just doing amazing things at Henry. I've gone to Henry a fair amount, and a few years ago there was a horrible shooting at the Best Steak House. I just sat in couple English classes, a guy named John Strand is an English teacher I know there. I just sat in class after class asking kids what they really saw and what that meant. They were so insightful and smart and they knew all the things going on in the neighborhood. That's really what helped launch the Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. When I heard those kids I recognized we had a huge amount of work to do, but we could win. I think we should all be incredibly proud of that school.

Defenestrator: One of the things the city has been dinged for is being too quick to demolish foreclosed homes. Has there been much to change that complaint?

Mayor Rybak: That's pretty current and we wrestle with that a lot. When I came into office I believed the city was holding too much housing inventory. So there was a big push among a number of us to not move as quickly on demolition. I think it was the right move. North Minneapolis has disproportionately strong housing stock. It was built with really strong neighborhoods and the housing stock is stronger than in a lot of other parts of town. Demolishing a lot of the housing there really demolishes the infrastructure. Now, the problem is that there are some houses that aren't up that quality, and some that may have started with that quality, but have deteriorated and aren't anymore. So it's a really fine art to determine when you renovate and when you don't.

One of the programs that we fund that has been a real success is that we work with the Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation to directly compete with the people, the speculative landlords who buy up property and put problem renters in there, so we go out and compete with them. But part of the work we do on that is to determine whether those properties can be saved or not, and it's tough work. I'll go in to a lot of these homes and we'll be putting tens of thousands of dollars into them, hoping that that pays off. But we can't just hope. That has to be proven in the marketplace. So, it's a long way of saying there's no fine line on where that is. We've had to do some demolitions over the past few years and I could say I think we've got the right value on it, but we're always trying to keep that balance. I'm always asking that question. There's no right answer - it's an art, not a science.

I know people who live on blocks that have properties that are deteriorating. Maybe copper has been stripped out and there's a danger of them becoming a magnet for crime and they want us to act, so we've had to.

Defenestrator: Pres. Elect Obama is talking about a nearly $1 trillion stimulus package. The state has a wish list - does Minneapolis?

Mayor Rybak: Absolutely. I've been fortunate to be involved in a couple small meetings with members of the Obama transition team. I think that's helped elevate the goals that we have here, both for our infrastructure but also for how the stimulus package can help us. About a month ago I was in Chicago with a group of mayors - about 10 of us meeting with Valerie Jaret, one of the top domestic advisors to the Pres. Elect. We made the case that, they want to invest in infrastructure, which is one of the big big pieces of my whole vision for what we need in the city, but we, and I especially, made the case that every piece of infrastructure they build be green. We built the bridge fast, but we insisted it have transit capacity, and you should insist that every piece of infrastructure has those green values. For instance, if they provide funding for infrastructure that I want to see done, is for that to include some of the mitigation work we need for the Central Corridor like the ring road we need around the University. Or looking out further, infrastructure we could have for the Southwest corridor light rail line, or Bottineau Blvd. to the north. If we can do that kind of work, we're not only building a piece of infrastructure but we're also retooling the economy to get off foreign oil.

Now the second piece of this is whether the stimulus will provide us with resources to help us in this tough financial time. Last week I got to go to the Obama economic speech. We met with some of the economic team before and after. The good news is they're talking about providing direct incentives to communities for, they specifically mentioned police and teachers, which are two pretty high priorities of mine. There's going to be something in the package about that. The point I was making to their team is that we need those resource to flow directly to the communities as opposed to going to the state and being filtered through. So that's part of the pitch I'm making. So these two things that could happen out of the stimulus are perhaps money for infrastructure, which is really needed, perhaps public safety, and to the school district to teachers. It's going to be really complicated how this comes together.

The good news is that I've been invited to be part of some of these key meetings where they have key mayors and I'll keep carrying the case for Minneapolis.

Defenestrator: Are there any specific projects you're targeting?

Mayor Rybak: Both the Pres. Elect and Nancy Pelosi have said there aren't going to be earmarks in the bill, but at some point it's going to come down, so what's our goal? I mentioned that issue of the Central Corridor as one example of that. About how we can take some of these predevelopment costs and get them done right now. For example that ring road around the University that will allow the light rail to get right through the center of the U and get cars out of the middle of campus is one part of it. But I also think this issue of Bottineau Blvd light rail to the north could have some real positive implications for north Minneapolis if we can figure out how to get that infrastructure tied together, so those will be the type of projects I'll be especially going after.

Defenestrator: What do you think of the debacle that the Star Tribune has become?

Mayor Rybak: I was a reporter for the Star Tribune for about 6 years. This morning when I picked up the front section, which was also the Metro section...my wife and I used to negotiate - you take the front section and I'll take the metro section. Now we're fighting over this one really thin section. I'm nervous about it. It matters to have an important daily newspaper.  But I also spend a lot of time on the internet and that's how I consume a lot of my information right now.

The good news about what's happened is there are many more voices, yours being one of them, and there are many more ways for people to get their information. So I think there is a historic connection we have to daily newspapers, and personally it's where I worked, and I love a morning newspaper. But, I'm much better informed than I used to be because I have access to much more information. I think one of the things all of us should do is people in Minnesota and Minneapolis who care about quality information is continue to use outlets like you. It's important for political people like me who are making news to spend time here. It's also important for all of us to tell our friends about this. Because things are changing really rapidly, and we should be ok with that. I worry about newspapers, a lot. But I'm also incredibly excited about having all these other ways to get information. So, who knows where we're going in the future. But I think we're on the cusp of something very different and generally I'm pretty happy about it.

Defenestrator: What do you make of the freak show that has been the recount?

Mayor Rybak: Well, you know there are a few things that come out of the recount. Here's one that I think we should be more focused on. We require our citizens and election officials, many of whom are volunteers, to do a pretty remarkable thing in one day. I think it's ridiculous for us to have this arbitrary Tuesday in November as the one election day and then try to ask all the citizens and all the election judges who are volunteers to jam it all into that period of time.

We came out, all things considered, fairly well. But there were clearly mistakes within all of that. Why don't we learn from that? Why don't we have a two week voting period in which people can come in, we don't have to rush everyone through, we don't have to have lines...I mean, to wait in line to vote, that's almost anti-democratic. We should take a two week window, have people take their time, let them absentee vote and take some pressure off of that. That wouldn't help if a race is close, but it would help the accuracy of that. Because every vote matters. This idea that we hame people into the voting booth in one day just invites trouble.

As far as the outcome, it looks like Franken came out ahead. It looks like Coleman is going to sue. It looks like this will go on for a little while. It's really unfortunate. The only thing more unfortunate would be is if we rushed to judgement and didn't count all the votes.

I do have to tell one sort of odd moment of it all. I sit on the Hennepin County Canvassing board. Don't worry, I didn't know until about two weeks ago that I was a member of this body. I'm sitting on the board and there are all these names of people whose votes we were going to count that hadn't been counted and I had to raise my hand and say I had a conflict of interest here. One of the names was my high school German teacher who gave me a D and I was highly incented to not let him vote. I really think we need to change the way we vote. But we need to stop and thank the people who help us put this together. Our election judges came through this pretty darn well. This did not prove to be Florida, and that matters.

Defenestrator: What about instant runoff voting?

Mayor Rybak: I support it. I supported it on the ballot and voted for it, and now we're implementing it. The citizens have spoken, they want it. Our job is to get it done as quickly as possible. There are a few wrinkles, including a legal wrinkle, about getting it on the ballot this November, but I'm going to try very hard to do it because when the voters tell us to do something we need to follow through on that as quickly as possible as long as we don't make errors on it.

I think instant runoff voting is going to be an improvement. I think we need to look more at our election system and not consider it to be set in stone when we could do things better. Like I mentioned, we should have two week voting, we should get rid of the electoral college, I could go on with a bunch of other things. Instant runoff voting is one of a series of reforms aimed at making democracy better.

Defenestrator: Michele Bachmann - bat shit crazy?

Mayor Rybak: I don't think she's the least bit crazy. I think she's really smart. I don't agree with her, but I think people undersell her all the time. I think it's important to realize when you're talking about someone like Bachmann or Palin that they speak for a lot of people. They get through to a lot of people and a lot of people agree with them. I happen to disagree, especially with the parts of their philosophies that are about dividing us - saying this person is better than that. Or that somehow God is giving them direct messages on a topic. I happen to be a person of faith too and I don't think you should use your religion that way. So I think we make a mistake in underestimating the intelligence and effectiveness of someone who's won a couple of elections now. I'd prefer to have someone else in that congressional seat, but I think we'll have to work pretty darn hard to do it.