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She Turned a 10,000-Pound Gorilla Into a $5 Billion Partner!
New York, NY — May 26, 2026
The Good Government Show sits down with Rochester Mayor Kim Norton — 26 years of public service, one famous neighbor, and a legacy that’s still being built.
There are mayors who manage their cities. And then there are mayors who reshape them. Kim Norton — eight-year mayor of Rochester, Minnesota, former ten-year state legislator, former school board member, and 26-year veteran of public service — falls firmly in the second category. In her final months in office, Norton joined host Dave Martin on The Good Government Show for a conversation that doubled as a masterclass in long-game governance. The centerpiece: a $585 million infrastructure bill she championed in the state legislature, then came home to spend as mayor — leveraging it into a commitment from the Mayo Clinic to invest $5 billion of their own money in Rochester’s future. Not bad for a city of 127,000 people in the middle of the Midwest.
Rochester is home to one of the most famous medical institutions in the world, and Norton has spent eight years turning that proximity into a strategic advantage rather than a governance headache. When Dave Martin called the Mayo Clinic a “10,000-pound gorilla,” Norton was quick to correct him: “It’s a good gorilla.” The numbers back her up. Mayo employs 73,000 people, draws 1.5 million patients a year from around the world, and anchors an economy that Norton has spent two terms carefully building around. She navigated the city through the pandemic with Mayo’s needs front of mind — making tough early calls to protect incoming patients before the community was fully on board. She pushed construction forward during shutdowns so businesses wouldn’t be disrupted twice. And she secured an $85 million grant for a free bus rapid transit system — underwritten by Mayo Clinic — that will connect employees, patients, and residents across downtown without ever stepping outside in a Minnesota winter. It opens in 2027, right after she leaves office. That seems to be a theme, she admitted with a laugh.
Norton’s definition of good government is as grounded as her record. “The people that serve in government are your neighbors,” she told Martin. “We want a wonderful city just like you do. That’s why we ran for office.” She has spent her tenure pushing to hear from the people who don’t typically show up to city council meetings — launching co-design processes that bring disenfranchised voices to the table and partnering with the National Civic League to make those meetings actually matter. She vetoed a sales tax measure that would have funded a sports complex nobody asked for, got overridden, and responded by commissioning a citywide visioning exercise to prove the point — and is now working toward a performing arts center that the community actually wants instead. “You forgot to ask the people,” she said. “And listen to what the people wanted.” After 26 years in public service, she still sounds like she means it.
As Norton prepares to hand off a city mid-construction — a new bridge, a new transit line, $5 billion in private investment underway, and a statue of Rochester’s first-ever elected woman newly installed in Central Park — her closing message is one worth carrying into any conversation about what government is actually for. “Good government involves the voice of the people. It looks holistically at what the city needs and makes decisions based on the strategic goals we set as a community.” She paused, then added: “This is government by the people, for the people.” After eight years, a free bus line, and a billion-dollar partnership with one of the world’s great medical institutions, she’s earned the right to say it. The Good Government Show is produced by the Good Government Institute. New episodes are available wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more at goodgovinstitute.org.
PULL QUOTES
“We are America’s City for Health.”
“The people that serve in government are your neighbors. We want a wonderful city just like you do. That’s why we ran for office.”
“Good government involves the voice of the people.”
“We have to make it easy for them. Or why would you come to the middle of the Midwest in the winter for health care?”
“You forgot to ask the people — and listen to what the people wanted.”