Contrasting Styles in City Hall
Others foresaw a purgatorial rush hour when 65,000 sports fans battle 90,000 regular commuters. Some St. Paulites felt that Minneapolis was stealing the ball game. A suit to halt construction went all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court. But last winter work on the Hubert H. Humphrey Stadium began. Years ago, to help steer the cities and suburbs through such controversies�and to draft regional plans�the Apartments Amsterdam Area Metropolitan Council was formed. “Minnesotans have historically demanded good government,” said Charles Weaver, present council chairman. “It’s no accident that a high percentage of our politicians graduated to the national scene�Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Eugene McCarthy, Chief Justice Warren Burger.” A lawyer, Mr. Weaver had served eight years in the Minnesota Legislature. We talked one morning in his office on St. Paul’s Metro Square. “As you can imagine, it is an awesome task to frame the needs and aspirations of this 3,000-square-mile patchwork quilt, which includes two major cities, seven counties, 189 municipalities, and 49 school districts. But we know growth is inevitable. Best we all grow together,” he added. The council had just vetoed location of a new 12-million-dollar hospital complex in suburban Burnsville, recommending instead the enlargement of existing facilities in downtown Minneapolis. “Some suburban politicians complain the cities get more than their share,” Mr. Weaver said. “But most will concede the importance of recycling the inner city. They realize that as the core goes, so goes the apple.” Calling on the Twin Cities’ mayors, I found them dedicated and experienced�and as different as their constituencies. In the red-granite Minneapolis City Hall, Donald M. Fraser struck me as a quiet, orderly man of liberal politics and conservative tailoring. He brings his considerable experience, 16 years as a U. S. Representative, to an already well-ordered city. Business booms, optimism pervades. The flagging downtown districts I remember from the ’50s, and the mile-long Washington Avenue skid row, once famous throughout the upper Midwest, have long been plowed under. “I admit many of the problems plaguing other United States mayors have been solved here by my predecessors,” Mayor Fraser said. “We’re just putting on finishing touches. We have 600 million dollars’ worth of private construction going up�corporate headquarters for Pillsbury, another for Lutheran Brotherhood Insurance, and the City Center office and shopping complex. While many cities look to federal funding, Minneapolis counts its corporate blessings. “If I were to sum up the key to our success in three words, they would have to be: ‘the private sector.’ “Of course no city emerges problem free. We still have work to do with our sizable Native American minority. And housing: Two-thirds of the houses in Minneapolis are pre World War II or older. We have more than a dozen programs to promote neighborhood restoration. “And it’s paying off,” Mayor Fraser said. “In the early 1970s Minneapolis was losing 10,000 people a year to the suburbs. Now we have stemmed the tide. For the eighties we predict a stable population.”
