Mayor Coleman delivers State of St. Paul message
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman invoked everyone from Rodney Dangerfield to hockey coach Herb Brooks in his unscripted State of the City address Wednesday.
He acknowledged a looming recession and the ongoing foreclosure crisis, but he said St. Paulites were overcoming obstacles in every corner of the city.
The mayor noted the creation of new refrigerated ice rinks, a planned light-rail train line between St. Paul and Minneapolis, and a number of after-school initiatives.
Coleman compared the state of the city to the underdog 1980 U.S. men's hockey team. He retold a scene from "Miracle," a movie about the team's Olympic journey under the coaching of St. Paul native Herb Brooks.
"And Herb went in there and he said, 'You were born to be hockey players. If we play 10 games against the Russians, you may lose nine, but you're not going to lose tonight. You were born to be here at this moment. This is your destiny, this is your opportunity, this is your destiny. Seize it,' " Coleman said.
Coleman didn't announce any major news, but he said his office and the City Council would soon unveil a new plan to stem St. Paul's vacant-housing problem.
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