Welcome to 2012, Minneapolis, marking 145 years since the city was incorporated.
Ten years ago today, a former journalist named R.T. Rybak took office as the mayor of Minneapolis. Since then, Rybak's outside-the-box ideas and outsized personality have made him one of the most visible mayors in recent history, Eric Roper and Steve Brandt report. McKenna Ewen and Jenni Pinkley produced a video retrospective of Rybak's legacy as well. The mayor takes credit for stabilizing city finances, but property taxes have risen steadily under his tenure until they triggered a taxpayer revolt in 2010.
The mayor has also pointed to a drop in violent crime since it spiked in 2006, and gunfire injuries in the city reflect that drop, Matt McKinney reports. Yet last week's killing of three-year-old Terrell Mayes Jr. from a stray bullet makes all those statistics seem meaningless in the face of community sorrow and anger, expressed at a Saturday vigil covered by columnist Jon Tevlin.
Them nine remaining tenants of North Side landlord Ron Folger will get the winter and spring to find a new place to live, after the City Council stayed enforcement of its revocation of Folger's 16 rental licenses, Randy Furst reports.
Minneapolis architect James Dayton doesn't just do shoe stores - he designs shoes as well. That's why he's earned plaudits from the guy behind Allen Edmonds, whose Dayton-designed store in City Center has become a prototype for other stores from the shoe dealer, Patrick Kennedy reports.
Public safety: A Minneapolis firefighter has been put on leave after being charged in federal court with conspiring to sell cocaine, David Chanen reports. Brandon Granger has pleaded not guilty.
