In his final State of the City address Wednesday, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman noted that half of all immigrants to Minnesota settle in his city and surrounding Ramsey County.

While new arrivals create a statistical impact on poverty rates, Coleman noted that “our history as a nation of immigrants teaches us that trend won’t last.”

Speaking directly to immigrants, Coleman said, “Don’t let anyone tell you that you should ‘go home.’ You are home. You are welcome here.”

Coleman, who has held office since 2006, plans to run for governor in 2018.

In his address at the Steamfitters/Pipefitters Local 455 training center in the city’s North End, Coleman criticized federal leaders for inaction on climate change, veteran’s homelessness and “crumbling infrastructure.” He also had strong words for efforts at the state Legislature to roll back the earned sick leave mandate St. Paul approved last year.

The final months of his third term will include helping to bring a Major League Soccer stadium to the Midway area, moving along redevelopment of the former Ford auto plant in Highland Park, and overseeing ongoing renovation of the former downtown Macy’s department store into a retail and office hub.

Here are a few areas Coleman touched on:

CITYWIDE RECYCLING

Coleman acknowledged that a new alleyway recycling contract with Eureka Recycling skipped hundreds of pickups when it launched in January.

“In part due to the ambitious scale of the project, and in part due to icy alleys, we got off to a bumpy start,” he said. “But we are holding Eureka accountable and working with them to ensure collection continues smoothly. Complaints are down and reports show our collected tonnage up 15 percent from last year.”

ON COMMUNITY POLICING

The mayor said that “when it comes to community policing, St. Paul sets a national standard. … Under Chief (Todd) Axtell’s leadership, we have both supported officers who have demonstrated uncommon bravery and held those accountable who have tarnished their badge and let down their fellow officers. In both instances, we have had the difficult conversations so that we can all do better together.”

Over the past year, the city held more than a dozen “Safe Summer Nights” events across the city in which uniformed officers serve thousands of meals to kids and families, and a new Community Engagement Unit aims to do “proactive outreach to all communities in our city,” Coleman said.

A community ambassadors program recruits young people on the street for after-school programs and other activities, and the police department brought 20 new officers of color onto the force in the past year.

Over the past decade, the department has grown from 576 officers to a historic high of 620 officers, the mayor said.

EFFORTS TO ROLLBACK EARNED SICK LEAVE

An earned sick leave mandate approved by the city last year would be rolled back under Republican-led legislation at the state Capitol, Coleman said. And any number of similar legislative efforts would block cities from charting their own course.

“In the absence of leadership from Washington on the significant issues of the day — climate change, crumbling infrastructure, veterans homelessness and on and on — I am proud to say that St. Paul … (has) stepped up. … We are seeing, on a national and state level, tremendous interference with local governments and our ability to make decisions based on what is best for our community and to provide essential services for our residents … Instead of investing in local communities, state legislators this session have proposed dozens of bills intended to prevent local governments from effectively acting to serve our local communities.”

RIGHT TRACK

The mayor said that since the city’s Right Track summer internship program began in 2014, “more than 2,000 low-income St. Paul students have received good-paying internships with local businesses. These students have earned a total of nearly $2.5 million in wages. … I am calling on our St. Paul business community to partner with the city yet again, to hire a record number of Right Track interns in the coming year. To do so, we need employers to commit to hiring 230 interns this summer. We’ve already reached 191 internships, but we’re nearing the deadline.”

TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, JOBS

The mayor said the number of jobs in the city has caught up to pre-recession levels. Coleman said he expects further growth, particularly along transit corridors such as the Green Line. Related Articles Minneapolis and St. Paul to add 70 electric car charging stations

Neighborhood girl finds and returns chef Justin Sutherland’s stolen knife roll

Therapy dog-in training stolen in St. Paul found, reunited with owners

St. Stanislaus’ longtime priest the Rev. John Clay leaves legacy of love. He died Sunday at age 94

St. Paul man threatened another man with a sword, charges say

The city’s new Innovation Cabinet will release an action plan in July with specific recommendations about how to draw technology and innovation jobs in St. Paul.

With the help of the St. Paul Building Trades and the Construction Careers Foundation, the city secured $2 million in funding for a Construction Careers Pathway Initiative, aimed at helping young people — especially women, veterans and “historically underrepresented communities in the industry” — break into the trades.

The mayor said it was essential to prepare local residents for the jobs of the future, in part through targeted recruitment of a diverse workforce.

“Last year, I set the goal that by the end of 2017, 23 percent of city employees would be people of color. I am proud to tell you today that we have already exceeded that goal.”