The Minneapolis Downtown Council has been serving the downtown community since 1955. Recently, the council has been criticized for the updates it has made to holiday season and summertime events that have been held for many years. Change, even necessary change, can be difficult; the negative reaction from some who've enjoyed what's been offered in the past is understandable.

Our organization is focused on creating an extraordinary downtown in which to live, work and play. As civic leaders, we take this role seriously, knowing that the vibrancy of downtown Minneapolis is intertwined with the health of the entire city, the metro region and the state of Minnesota.

We aren't leaving this important responsibility to chance. Our plan for the future, "Intersections: Downtown 2025 Plan," was published in 2011 and offers a framework for continued growth and vitality. With tremendous volunteer leadership drawn from across the Twin Cities, the council has been pursuing the 10 goals of that plan. Several of those goals — most notably the commitment to "create a consistently compelling downtown experience" — have guided us in crafting our approach to events in which we are involved.

With broad feedback and limited resources, we have made the tough decisions required to implement our plan. We can't simultaneously keep everything exactly the way it was and pursue a new strategy.

The most recent criticism is of the plan to shorten the Aquatennial and to prioritize events that occur downtown. For an organization with our name, this latter change probably isn't all that surprising. One letter to the editor asked how it is that the council became responsible for the Aquatennial anyway. The answer is that we were asked to save the festival from near bankruptcy in 2002, and we kept it going through a milestone 75th anniversary last summer.

But now, it's time for the event to evolve and stay relevant in a changing landscape. In this year's schedule, there will be a greater emphasis on bringing people to the Mississippi River, one of our greatest community assets, which the 2025 plan clearly identifies. And despite a shorter Aquatennial, the overall level of events and activities we and a host of private and public organizations are sponsoring throughout downtown and during all seasons is making our downtown more consistently inviting.

Changing traditions many people enjoyed wasn't taken lightly by the board and staff. We knew these changes would be unpopular with some. But looking forward, we continue to rely on the goals of the 2025 plan as a path to the future. We believe we are right on course for downtown Minneapolis.

Tom Hoch is board chair and Steve Cramer is president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council.