Economic growth in Minneapolis is key to the city's health because every new job and every new resident contributes to growing the tax base and relieves the property-tax pressure on current residents and homeowners, Mayor R.T. Rybak said Tuesday in his State of the City address.

Rybak noted that the city's unemployment rate of 6.5 percent is lower than the state level and that of surrounding suburbs and that the city enjoys a diversity of industries that have weathered the recession, low crime rate and high quality of life.

And he said — in the midst of the debate about public employees being waged in Wisconsin and around the country — that  public employees deserve thanks for their hard work in helping to create thousands of private-sector jobs in Minneapolis.

The mayor noted three areas that are the focus of job growth in the city:

Transit-oriented development corridors

• The West Bank, where Riverside Plaza revitalization and Central Corridor light rail will open up 12 new development sites;
• Lake and Nicollet, with new freeway access and a planned bus rapid transit station, along with potential transit on the Midtown Greenway;
• The Market District, where a new light-rail station and Hennepin County’s interchange project near Target Field will create new pedestrian and economic opportunities in a burgeoning residential neighborhood;
• The Hiawatha light-rail corridor.

 Entrepreneurship

• A partnership, facilitated by the city, between CoCo, a local company that provides co-working space for entrepreneurs, and Project Skyway, Minnesota’s first accelerator for start-up software companies. Together, they will launch their inaugural class for software start-ups this summer.
• Expansion by the Small Business Administration of its E200 mini-MBA program for emerging entrepreneurs to Minneapolis, which makes the metro region firmly part of the President’s Startup America entrepreneurship initiative.
• With St. Paul and regional business leaders, the city is working on the launch of Accelerate MSP, an initiative focused on creating more opportunities for start-ups and entrepreneurship in the region.

 Exports

• U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Rybak and hundreds of local businesses met last month to promote export opportunities for small and mid-size businesses, which was part of President Obama’s recently announced goal of doubling American exports in five years.
• Rybak travels to Sweden next month with a group of local business leaders to promote export opportunities there.