Post in State of the City

Mar 18 21:42 UTC

On Mar 18, 2008, at 4:18 PM, Jonathan Barrentine wrote:
> Mayor Coleman: Thank you very much for giving people this
> opportunity to respond to the State of the City.  Hopefully we will
> get to see some interesting questions, and some interesting answers.

I finally attended my first State of the City address this year.
(whoops, don't tell.)

I was pleasantly surprised by the number and diversity of folks in
attendance. Lots of city staff (including police and fire department
officials), neighborhood leaders, media, and a few community
activists. There were a few folks in the back with signs about the
closing of the Ford Plant.

There were a number of forum members in attendance, mostly forum
members who also wear hats as public officials or staff at community
organizations. I wondered how many people in attendance were aware of
SPIF - or have participated in the past. Certainly, being there made
it apparent to me how big the circle of folks are, that are involved
in planning the future of our city, and of the many groups that we've
(St. Paul E-Democracy) not yet tapped into.

If someone has a link to the text of the speech, it would be great if
you could share it in the forum. I know that many people have
technical troubles hooking up with the video version, I just failed
myself (I think I need to download another plug-in).

Again - a link to the video can be found at:

   http://www.stpaul.gov/

Who else attended the speech?
What did you think?

Best wishes,