Law and government of Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis (pronounced IPA| [ˌmɪniˈæpəlɪs] ) is the largest city in the state of Minnesota in the United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County.

Neighborhoods

The city is divided into communities, each containing neighborhoods. For example, the Near North community is composed of the Hawthorne, Jordan, Near North, Sumner-Glenwood and Willard-Hay neighborhoods. Neighborhoods coordinate activities under the Neighborhood Revitalization Program. In some cases two or more neighborhoods act together under one organization. Some areas are commonly known by nicknames of business associations like Dinkytown, Downtown, Midtown and Uptown.cite web
author= GIS Business Services, City of Minneapolis
title= City of Minneapolis. Neighborhoods & Communities
date= 2004, updated January 2006
url= http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/about/maps/neighborhoods.pdf
accessdate= 2007-02-10 and cite web
author= Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program
title= Neighborhood Organizations
date= 2001-2005
url= http://www.nrp.org/R2/Neighborhoods/Orgs/Organizations.html
accessdate= 2007-02-10 and cite web
author= Minneapolis Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) Department
title= City of Minneapolis Business Associations
date= November 17 2005
url= http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cped/business_association_directory.pdf
accessdate= 2007-02-10]

Mayor Rybak and the city have engaged five local "Great City Design Teams" for massive city-wide landscaping projects including parks, signage and streetcars. A Web site was registered in June 2007 to the City of Minneapolis for this purpose although it bears the name and insignia of the Minnesota chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The first six projects involve Washington, Nicollet, Penn, Lowry, Central and Lyndale Avenues, and 18th, 40th and 46th Streets. [cite web|title=The Washington Boulevard Great City Design Team|date=|author=|publisher=American Institute of Architects Minnesota (domain registrant: City of Minneapolis)|url=http://www.thenewwashingtonblvd.com/ and cite web|title=a vision study for the new WASHINGTON BOULEVARD|date=2007-06-12|author=Mayor R. T. Rybak's great city design teams: a collaboration with American Institute of Architects Minneapolis, Urban Land Institute and Minnesota Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects|publisher=American Institute of Architects Minnesota (domain registrant: City of Minneapolis)|url=http://www.aia-mn.org/chapters/pdf/Wash%20Blvd%20Pres%2006-12-07.pdf|format=PDF|accessdate=2007-07-14]

Government and politics

Minneapolis is a stronghold for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), an affiliate of the Democratic Party. The Minneapolis City Council holds the most power and represents the city's thirteen districts called wards. The council has twelve DFL members and one from the Green Party. R.T. Rybak also of the DFL is the current mayor of Minneapolis. The office of mayor is relatively weak but has some power to appoint individuals such as the chief of police. Parks, libraries, taxation, and public housing are semi-independent boards and levy their own taxes and fees subject to Board of Estimate and Taxation limits. [cite web| publisher= City of Minneapolis| title= City Council| date=| url= http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/ and cite web| publisher= E-Democracy (e-democracy.org)| title= Minneapolis City Council candidates| url= http://www.e-democracy.org/wiki/Minneapolis_City_Council_candidates| date= October 26 2005| accessdate= 2007-03-24 and cite journal| author= Anderson, G.R. Jr.| title= The Compulsiveness of the Long-Distance Runner| journal= City Pages|publisher=Village Voice Media |volume=23 | issue=1127| date= 2002-07-10| url= http://citypages.com/databank/23/1127/article10544.asp| accessdate= 2007-03-21 and cite web| publisher= City of Minneapolis| title= Board of Estimate and Taxation| date=| url= http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/boards-and-commissions/estimate-taxation.asp | accessdate= 2007-06-27]

Crime

The early years of the city were noted for crime. 150 brothels operated in hotels and candy stores earning the city $50,000 annually in 1900 dollars. Two historical figures are remembered in particular. Four-term mayor "Doc" Ames turned the Minneapolis Police Department into organized criminals who directed swindlers, pickpockets and burglaries. Ames earned income from prostitution, 45% of the profit from a stacked game of poker, and $15,000 a year from slot machines. During Prohibition, Kid Cann processed what some estimates say was 600 gallons of liquor per day and by 1933 had made himself a nationally known bookmaker. Shortly after this time, depleted forests and a drop in the price of iron ore in northern Minnesota, loss of the seat as milling capital of the country to Buffalo, New York, and cheap water transport combined into an economic downturn and drop in crime. Since 1950 the city lost 150,000 people and lost much of downtown to urban renewal and highway construction, resulting in a "moribund and peaceful" environment during the second half of the 20th century.cite web
author= Moskowitz, Dara
title= Minneapolis Confidential
publisher= "City Pages", Volume 16 - Issue 775
date= October 11 1995
url= http://citypages.com/databank/16/775/article2415.asp
accessdate= 2007-02-10]

MinneapolisCrime

During the 1990s the murder rate climbed. After 97 people died in 1995, people called the city "Murderapolis," a T-shirt slogan mentioned by The New York Times when reporting that Minneapolis had nearly 70% more murders per capita and had surpassed the annual number of homicides in New York City.cite web
author= Johnson, Dirk
title= Nice City's Nasty Distinction: Murders Soar in Minneapolis
publisher= The New York Times
date= June 30 1996
url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A07E7DB1E39F933A05755C0A960958260
accessdate= 2008-04-04] Under police chief Robert Olson, Minneapolis imported a computerized New York City system known as CODEFOR or "Computer Optimized Deployment Focused On Results" that sent officers to high crime areas despite accusations of racial profiling. By 1998 the overall rate of major crime dropped by 16 percent, the department's largest one year improvement in two decades, and continued to drop for seven more years until 2005.cite web
title=The political legacy of Sharon Sayles Belton
author=Olson, Dan
publisher=Minnesota Public Radio
date=November 7 2001
url=http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200111/07_olsond_ssbobit/
accessdate=2007-01-18 and cite web
title=Police Annual Report 1998 (PDF)
author=City of Minneapolis
date=1998
url=http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/police/crime-statistics/docs/1998policereport.pdf
accessdate=2007-01-18] The number of homicides increased three times during that period and rose to its highest in recent history in 2006. Politicians debate the causes and solutions, from improving on the lack of police officers caused by balancing the city's budget, to providing youths with alternatives to gangs and drugs, to helping families in poverty. For 2007, the city invested in public safety infrastructure, hired over forty new officers, and has a new police chief, Tim Dolan.cite web
author= Williams, Brandt
title= Homicide problem awaits Minneapolis' new police chief
publisher= Minneapolis Public Radio
date= January 9 2007
url= http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/01/09/dolan/
accessdate= 2007-02-10 and cite web
author= Scheck, Tom
title= Sparks fly at Minneapolis mayoral debate
publisher= Minneapolis Public Radio
date= August 25 2005
url= http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/08/25_scheckt_mplsdebate/
accessdate= 2007-02-10]

Minneapolis mayor R. T. Rybak is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition [cite web| url=http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/html/about/members.shtml| title=Mayors Against Illegal Guns: Coalition Members Retrieved on June 19, 2007] , an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.

List of foreign consulates in Minneapolis

The following list are countries that currently have Consulate offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota: [" [http://www.state.gov/s/cpr/rls/fco/fallwinter2/ Foreign Consular Offices in the United States] ." "United States Department of State." August 4, 2006. Retrieved on December 8, 2006.]

In the United States, the consular network (rank in descending order: Consul-General, Consul, Vice-Consul, Honorary Consul)

(Consul General) - A consul general heads a consulate general and is a consul of the highest rank serving at a principal location and usually responsible for other consular offices within a country.

(Consulate) - The office of a Consul is termed a Consulate, and is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in that foreign country, nowadays usually an Embassy or High Commission usually in the capital city of the host nation. In the capital, the consulate may be a part of the embassy itself.

(Vice Consul) - Vice consul is a subordinate officer, authorized to exercise consular functions in some particular part of a district controlled by a consulate.

(Honorary Consul) - Honorary consul may not be a citizen of the sending country, and may well combine the job with their own (often commercial) private activities, in which case they are usually given the title of honorary consul.

( Consul General ) * - Canada * - Mexico * - Norway

( Honorary Consul ) * - Austria * - Belgium * - Bolivia * - Costa Rica * - Czech Republic * - Denmark * - Ecuador * - Finland * - France * - Germany * - Guatemala * - Honduras * - Iceland * - Italy * - Japan * - Lithuania * - Malta * - Netherlands * - Romania * - Slovak Republic * - South Korea * - Spain * - Sweden * - Switzerland * - United Kingdom

Notes

External links

*cite web | author= Clancy, Frank | title= Murder by Numbers | publisher= "The Rake" | url= http://www.rakemag.com/stories/section_detail.aspx?itemID=26631&catID=146 | date= March 2007 | accessdate= 2007-04-05