Forgive Columbia Heights residents if they strut a little as they go by. The city is having a bit of a banner year.

First its school district was named AP (Advanced Placement) School District of the year by the College Board, beating out hundreds of districts in the U.S. and Canada for the performance of high school students taking rigorous classes that offer college credit. Then the city beat out Woodbury in a contest to become an All-America City, an annual award given by the National Civic League to just 10 communities nationwide. The award is given to the city that is best able to bring its citizens together to tackle communitywide challenges and achieve significant results.

The Columbia Heights-Woodbury faceoff was particularly noteworthy because of its sheer lopsidedness. Woodbury, a prosperous and mostly homogenous east-metro suburb with good schools, rising property values, and active, committed residents, raised more than $800,000 to build and install an accessible local playground, among other accomplishments.

The city emerged as a national finalist against its neighbor to the northwest: scrappy, working-class Columbia Heights, a small, postwar suburb with a growing immigrant population, about half the average income of Woodbury and a poverty rate five times higher.

But with its limited resources, Columbia Heights has built a city-school collaboration that has lowered youth crime and improved relations between police and the community. Officers and city staff take part in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. The city has a new library going up and is planning a badly needed community center in the heart of its immigrant population. In applying for the award, Columbia Heights officials asked and answered a key question: "Why would the poor community of Columbia Heights give such a resounding yes to the extra financial burden? Opportunity. Pride. Connectedness."

And at a time when so many schools struggle with how to close the achievement gap, Columbia Heights deserves special commendation for its efforts to get kids into the very toughest classes and help them succeed. Between 2013 and 2015, the district increased its student AP involvement by 26 percent each of the three years. By last year, nearly half of its AP students scored a 3 or higher on the AP exam, the mark at which students begin to get college credit. That is a remarkable achievement in a district where 67 percent of AP students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and nearly half come from traditionally underrepresented minority groups.

Police Chief Scott Nadeau, whose department has worked especially hard on building relations with the community's growing African immigrant population, said of his city, "We're not an affluent community. We're very diverse … and yet the people in this community have made the conscious decision that we're going to continue to try and do better for our kids because they are the future of our community."

That's the attitude all Minnesota cities should emulate as they grapple with challenges posed by shifting populations and economic fortunes.