Afleveringen
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July 16
Thursdayâs city council meeting was difficult to predict. Ward 10 Council Member Aisha Chughtai was on medical leave, leaving the council with 12 members present. Her absence may have pressured Ward 6 Council Member Jamal Osman to reconsider his vote on the Skydio drone pilot measure he co-authored with Ward 4 Council Member Latrisha Vetaw. Between co-authoring and Thursdayâs vote, Osman decided Skydioâs client base was unacceptable. His vote against his own measure resulted in a 6-6 tie, which meant it did not pass.
Skydio
Vetaw introduced the pilot as an alternative policing method her Ward 4 constituents wanted. After 2.5 years of work, the pilot would cost nothing for 75 days while the city assessed dataâwith no clarity on pricing afterward. Two police-operated drones would respond to the most serious 911 calls (Tier 0 & 1). Of 33,000 Ward 4 calls in 2025, over 5,000 could have had drone first responders. For half the council, possible lives saved outweighed privacy and abuse risks. Jacob Frey made a rare chamber appearance to support the pilot, saying the âpeople of Minneapolis shouldnât be collateral damage for geopolitical concerns.â Rainville noted a drone might have saved Officer Mitchellâs life. Shaffer highlighted rapid Narcan delivery and faster response to lake distress calls. Voting yes: Vetaw, Warren, Whiting, Rainville, Shaffer, and Palmisano.
Opposition was passionate. Beyond surveillance concerns over peaceful protests, suspicion centered on Skydio itself. The company holds contracts with the Israeli Defense Force and ICE/DHS. Osman explained his reversal by referencing Palestinian children killed by the IDF. Another factor was distrust of the MPD. Chowdhury and Wonsley worried internal procedures would fail to prevent abuse and said the MPD has a poor track record of holding officers accountable (Facebook surveillance was cited as an example). Chavez referenced a lawsuit against Skydio in Chula Vista, CA. Voting no: Chavez, Wonsley, Payne, Stevenson, Chowdhury, and Osman.
Were it not for Skydioâs contracts with the IDF and DHS, this pilot likely passes. Other cities nationwide and in Minnesota use Skydio for first responder programs. The debate raised important questions: What data proves effectiveness? What would count as success? The discussion revealed the MPD already operates drones with a trained operator unit in place. If they have the equipment and expertise, why Skydio? Why now? The MPD might be able to proceed with its own first responder program.
Heritage Park Relocation
This topic received detailed coverage during Tuesdayâs Committee of the Whole. Few questions were asked, but controversy remained. Wonsley pushed for approval of a measure requiring a memo outlining ways to recoup the $2.5 million drawn from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund for relocating 686 residents. Warren opposed the memo, wanting focus on helping residents rather than parceling out blame. Yet Warren herself blamed Public Housing Authority Director Abdi Warsame. (The NAACP has called for his termination.)
The council approved both: funding and a memo on cost recovery. Emergency Management Director Rachel Sayre explained the relocation process. As of yesterday, the Heritage Park Coordination Group was established to coordinate efforts across departments and government levels. The relocation is being treated as an emergencyâthe first major test for Sayre since her June 26 confirmation. She told the council the effort exceeds one departmentâs capacity. The funding vote was 12-0.
Lyndale Avenue Reconstruction
On another day, this measure would have dominated. It passed 8-4, opposed by Warren, Shaffer, Rainville, and Vetaw. The county plan was adopted: bike lanes, reduced parking, removed trees. Amendments passed aimed to reduce construction impact, including extended work hours. Chowdhury advocated for âwhimsyâ like a âbeers with bulldozersâ program to keep the area vital during construction. She said construction neednât become the areaâs death knell. Business owners, represented by Shaffer, disagreed. No dedicated funding exists to help corridor businesses survive. Wonsley noted $900,000 allocated for Hennepin Avenue businesses went unspent.
The timeline proved decisive. Federal funds require a finalized plan by June 2027. Chavez and others flagged the risk to that funding. Warren raised operational concerns. She said emergency vehicles struggle when traffic backs up (the Annunciation shooting illustrates the problem). Others felt the design addresses these issues. Construction wonât begin until 2028, but business owners will likely seek exits starting today. Lyndale appears headed for Hennepinâs fate.
Final Thoughts
Council divisions continue to harden and seem to be a microcosm of larger Democratic Party friction. Those voting for the drone pilot likely support Representative Angie Craig for Senate; opponents favor Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan. Both candidates are spending millions on negative advertising ahead of August 11âs primary. Whether they can unite afterward remains unclear.
The council mirrors this dynamic: resentment and mistrust persist despite coaching and counseling. If this fracture scales to the state level, the party emerges weaker. Fortunately for Minnesota Democrats, the Republican Party is in even worse shape.
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Today, Wednesday July 15, I spoke with Enrique Velazquez, Minneapolis Director of Regulatory Services about the response to homelessness, encampments, open-air drug markets, and the cityâs evolving strategy for getting people into safer, more stable housing.
In this interview, we cover five big points.
First, the city says it is currently tracking 53 encampment-related sites, hotspots, and vehicle locations, with roughly 400 people observed across them â though officials stress that not everyone counted is necessarily unsheltered.
Second, we discuss how the cityâs homeless response team works with Hennepin County and service providers, especially under the mayorâs newer policy aimed at coordinating outreach with public safety efforts around open-air drug markets.
Third, we get into the controversy over fencing around public spaces, including areas near Cedar and Hiawatha. The city says fencing is not its preferred solution, but sometimes becomes a temporary tool when other approaches fail to restore safety, access, and livability.
Fourth, we look at harm reduction and public health, including the striking figure that roughly 11,000 doses of Narcan have been distributed through city vending machines â separate from what police, fire, and other responders carry.
Finally, we talk about what might come next: safe outdoor parking spaces, barriers to shelter use, the Heritage Park housing crisis, and whether Minneapolis can actually reduce unsheltered homelessness over time.
The message from the city is cautiously optimistic: homelessness is not unsolvable, but it will require sustained investment, better coordination, and a focus not only on moving people out of homelessness, but preventing them from becoming homeless in the first place.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Immediate Action
On July 16, the city council will vote on allocating $2.5 million from the Minneapolis Affordable Housing Trust Fund to relocate 212 households or approximately 685 residents.
The Instigator
Ward 5 Council Member Pearll Warren toured Heritage Park, documented the mold, collapsed roofs, and unsafe living conditions with her cell phone, and posted the video to social media. What followed was swift action, not out of responsibility, but out of embarrassment. The Minneapolis NAACP is now demanding the resignation or termination of Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) Executive Director Abdi Warsame. On July 16, the city council will decide whether to move $2.5 million from the Affordable Housing Trust fund to relocate approximately 212 households-685 residents in total. CPED allocated an additional $500,000 from their budget.
The Reckoning
Erik Hansen, Director of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED), presented a report on the situation while the entire city council fumed. Enrique Velazquez (Regulatory Services) and Angel Bogard (Inspection Services) testified to confirm what residents had long known: Heritage Park was unlivable.
The problem was structural. A partnership agreement with MPHA meant the city only inspected when residents complained. This situation was made worse by accusations that MPHA retaliated against complainants by revoking Section 8 vouchers.
Warrenâs critique was withering. She admonished CPED and Regulatory Services for their inspection lapses, demanding they âbe as tight as a frogâs bottomâ in future collaboration. She asked the simple, damning question: why did she have to inspect the property herself while the people paid to do so did not? She called McCormack Baron Salazar, the original developer, âa developer with a habitual practice of bad business,â adding she would take âa large glass of no thank youâ to working with them again.
Every council member thanked Warren for exposing what happened on her predecessorâs watch. Jeremiah Ellison served Ward 5 from 2018 to 2026 as conditions deteriorated. We wonder if he could have done more to assist residents in the ward.
The anger was rightfully directed at Regulatory Services, CPED, and MPHA. Hansen summed up the moment: âWe are in crisis mode,â he said. When asked about the scope of damage: âItâs bad, itâs bad.â The city doesnât yet know if Heritage Park is salvageable or requires complete rebuilding.
The Bitter Irony
Council Member Whiting pointed out the cruel symmetry: Heritage Park itself was born from the Hollman v. Cisneros consent decree of 1995, which promised North Minneapolis a new chapter after four public housing complexes were demolished due to deplorable conditions. The decree mandated deconcentrated, sustainable, mixed-income housing. Thirty years later, the cycle has repeated. As the Spokesman Recorder reported:
In April 1995, the Hollman v. Cisneros consent decree promised North Minneapolis a new chapter-deconcentrated, sustainable, mixed-income housing to replace four demolished public housing complexes. Twenty-five years in, that promise is being tested in a Hennepin County courtroom.
The Financial Trap
Rebuilding costs remain unknown, though Warren estimates theyâll exceed $100 million. Conversations about funding havenât even started. Council Member Soren Stevenson expressed what many felt: frustration that the city has become the financial backstop for decades of extracted developer profits. McCormack Baron Salazar profited for years before walking away.
Last year, Certus Financial LLC took over as property manager in receivership. MPHA retains underlying land ownership, but Certus now operates the rental property which is losing $200,000 per month. Thatâs why the city is raiding the MPHA fund. Certus has been transparent with the city; McCormack Baron Salazar was not, yet the city continued issuing them rental licenses. Director Bogardâs explanation of the inspection and licensing process left council members unconvinced.
Whatâs Next: July 16 and Beyond
The full council meets on July 16 and we anticipate it will be a long one. Three major items are on the agenda:
* Emergency funding to relocate Heritage Park residents
* Lyndale Avenue Reconstruction design (five years of debate; community resentment over proposed changes is deep)
* Drone pilot program for first responders (concerns over surveillance; objections to Skydioâs prior supply of drones to Israel)
Weâre sending a summary newsletter Friday morning. Later that day, we're interviewing Council Member Rainville about the Heritage Park vote, Lyndale Avenue, and the drone pilot. We'll also discuss the HERC closure report he requested. Weâll be traveling July 18-28, so our newsletter schedule during that period is uncertain.
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The left wing of the Democratic Party fell hard for first-time politician Graham Platner, the crusty, straight-talking oyster farmer from Maine. We heard it endlessly: he was an âauthenticâ working man, as though such creatures were difficult to locate without political consultants pointing them out to us.
What didnât fit the âfighter for the working classâ narrative got ignored or explained away. Point out that Platner attended elite prep school or that his father paid for his house? You clearly didnât understand the significance of his message. If Democrats had simply paused to ask why being an oyster farmer qualified anyone to be a U.S. Senator, it might have slowed the rush of endorsers, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Minnesotaâs Peggy Flanagan among them.
If both win their primaries (El-Sayed on August 4, Flanagan on August 11), it will be interpreted as proof that the Democratic Party has shifted solidly left, possibly too far left for the moderate electorate when they have to win entire states, not just party faithful. (Flanagan has since publicly withdrawn her support.)
The Electoral Calculation
The Cook Political Report still calls Maine a toss-up. We disagree. We believe the Platner debacle doesnât just hand Susan Collins her reelection, it makes it more likely that Arkansas, Michigan, and Ohio tip Republican. If our read is correct, Republicans will perform far better in November than anyone expected in February.
Why We Keep Falling for It
The Platner collapse has exposed, once again, how manufactured our candidates are. We want to believe in our leaders so badly that weâll overlook almost anything. We even listened to podcasters explain how Platnerâs flaws were advantages, they made him more approachable, the argument went. People donât want pristine leaders, they said; it makes them feel inadequate by comparison.
Itâs the same impulse that makes us believe Jeremy Allen White, who plays Carmen in The Bear, is a master chef in real life. More likely he has a personal chef and would burn a grilled cheese sandwich if left alone in a kitchen. His job is to act. If he does it well, we assume he is like his character, but thatâs rarely the case. Next role, he could play a welder. Both professions take years to master.
What Matters More Than the Story
More often than not, we want a politician whose personal story feels relatable. What the Platner saga teaches us is that their character and track record matter far more than the life narrative they ask us to believe.
Thereâs another caution embedded here. The identity characteristics candidates, or their handlers, choose to highlight are usually selected because focus groups liked them. Right now, Angie Craig touts that sheâs a lesbian. Peggy Flanagan highlights her Native American heritage. Neither quality indicates how well theyâll serve in the Senate. Theyâre signals designed to activate support, or at least support from certain constituencies. It must be that being an English major performs terribly in focus groups, because weâre still waiting for a candidate brave enough to lead with that.
The Devalued Endorsement
The DFL endorsement once signaled that a candidate had been vetted, that voters could trust them to represent Democratic values. That endorsementâs value has been muddied. Increasingly, people understand that the DFL contains the DSA. From an outsiderâs perspective, itâs unclear which group is responsible when someone gets endorsed. The distinction matters.
Like Mainers, Minnesotans tend to be reserved and slow to accept outsiders. It seems many of us share Maineâs frustration with the status quo and want a change in government. We understand the impulse. Watching the current administrationâs corruption and incompetence is infuriating. But we hope Minnesota doesnât let that hunger for change lead us to similar poor choices.
Before You Vote
If youâre planning to vote in the primary, we encourage readers to research the candidates, even meet them if possible. Avoiding the spin takes effort. Itâs worth it.
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On recent Mondays, when the weather is nice, I ride my bike to Turtle Bread at Chicago and 48th to meet David Therkelsen. Weâre planning a trip to Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco, July 18â28, where weâll meet with policymakers and residents to record their lessons on good governance and bring back recommendations for Minneapolis.
One topic on our list is drug addiction. These cities, and Minneapolis, are searching for ways to address the effects of the opioid epidemic and crystal meth. Each has navigated the hazards of encampments and the tangle of contributing factors: housing, mental illness, and the addictive power of fentanyl and other drugs. Cities and counties across the country are preparing budgets and deciding where to allocate funds along a continuum of options for addressing a disease that can reach into any family, pull out a member, and leave them on the street to fend for themselves.
From Turtle Bread, I walk across Chicago to the D-Line bus stop. This âExpressâ bus takes me downtown through Phillips, Ventura Village, and Elliot Park before my stop on 7th Street between 3rd and 4th avenues. The ride is filled with moral hazard. This week, I wasnât sure whether to call 311 or 911 because the only other person at my morning bus station was bent double, in a nod against the shelter. I called neither. The bus driver and the few other passengers, Iâm sure, did nothing as well.
Itâs unclear to me what the truly compassionate action is when encountering people along the route who are either in the deep grip of addiction or searching for their next fix. A young woman boards surrounded by three men with hungry eyes, disheveled, dirty, their clothes torn from nights sleeping in weeds along roadsides. I canât help but wonder if sheâs being trafficked. Identifying trafficking isnât something Iâve been trained to do. She got on with them; she left with them. Perhaps my sheltered existence warps my interpretation. I hope so. Like the woman who sometimes sleeps behind the electrical box at the top of the off-ramp near our house, I hope thereâs somewhere safe for her to go.
The Better Minneapolis editor sent me a story by Michael R. Hatch from Seattle, who lost his sister to a drug overdose. Iâve started following his newsletter. His compassion is rooted in genuine concern to find a solution to this crisis. In a follow-up story titled âThe Right Side of Right,â he quotes Sherman Alexie, the National Book Award-winning novelist, who has also struggled with addiction:
âHe drives past 12th and Jackson, he told me, and curses a city whose empathetic politics serve only as a placebo for the politicians themselves.â
Hatch then praises the method being tried in San Francisco by Daniel Lurie:
Daniel Lurie told his city the truth it had refused for a decade: the people dying on the sidewalk are not a housing statistic. They are sick, and a decent city gets them well.
Then he built what getting well takes. A stabilization center on Geary Street, open around the clock, where police can bring a person in crisis at any hour and a clinician is waiting. Shelter built around recovery. An end to handing out drug supplies to people with no path to treatment.
His approval sits near 74 percent, because people were never tired of compassion. They were tired of a failed ideology that left only suffering on the sidewalks.
California went further, and closer to home for me. This year the state began allowing conservatorships that hold a person in treatment for a year, renewable as long as the illness lasts: the power to keep someone safe and cared for until they are well, instead of releasing them the moment they can stand.
And:
Seattle has never once enacted the thing that actually saves a life: the conservatorship law, the treatment beds, the intervention Daniel Lurie built in San Francisco. It will not face the fact the whole crisis turns on: these are people who have lost the capacity to act for themselves.
He goes on:
We already intervene for people who cannot keep themselves alive. We do not leave the Alzheimerâs patient to wander into traffic. We do not let a child fend for herself in an alley. We would never call that freedom. The addict dying in the doorway has lost the same capacity to choose. We have simply decided, in his case alone, to look away and call it respect.
We know what is right. That is the unbearable part. San Francisco knows it. California knows it. Every grieving family knows it. The sick have to be rescued, especially the ones too sick to ask, and it takes a law that can hold them, a place that can heal them, and the plain nerve to build both and to stand up to the people who will call it cruelty.
Policy Changes
Hatch's writing, describing his desperation with Seattle, arrives as Mayor Frey announces changes to Minneapolis encampment policy. Police will issue citations and arrest people involved in public drug selling and use. Predictably, social activists called this cruelty and authoritarianism. They cannot grasp that the status quo consists of people unable to make sound decisions. Allowing them to remain is akin to letting someone with Alzheimer's wander into traffic. These are people whose free will has been usurped by a tyrant called addiction. Riding the bus, witnessing the stages of trafficking and addiction, it seems absurd to think intervention and possible conservatorship is anything other than compassionate.
Thursday I will interview Enrique Velazquez, Minneapolis Director of Regulatory Services, to ask what Mayor Frey's new policy means for the city and how the Safe Outdoor Spaces program might be implemented. The idea allows designated spots for the homeless to sleep in their cars or other vehicles. If readers doubt Minneapolis's urgent needs, ride the D-Line. A compassionate city acknowledges the addiction crisis and stands up for its neighbors. We want healing to have a chance, not because watching someone nod off next to us makes us uncomfortable, but because we know they are suffering and unable to choose a different path on their own. For their sake, we're willing to support any policy that brings about meaningful change.
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Tuesday night, the Theater of Public Policy, presented by Danger Boat Productions and City Cast Twin Cities, brought Mayor Jacob Frey and Council President Elliott Payne to the Granada Theater in Uptown for an evening of policy discussion and improv comedy. It managed to be both serious and entertaining. We respect that these city officials showed up.
The evening opened with a discussion about lessons learned from the hiring and firing of former MPD Chief Brian OâHara. Payne emphasized that the next chief must be an active participant in the reform process, though he qualified that reform is everyoneâs responsibility, not one personâs. He wants someone with humility who listens to residents like Michelle Gross, who has led police reform efforts for decades. Someone accountable to the broader community.
Frey largely agreed but offered a defense of OâHara, noting that crime and complaints had both decreased during his tenure.
What was absent from this discussion, beyond Freyâs brief mention of crime, was any serious treatment of what the next police chief would actually do to reduce crime and attract more officers. The next chief will certainly be tasked with extending reforms. But that is hardly all they need to do. If we have reforms and rampant crime, we will call that a failure.
When politicians talk about crime and policing, they retreat into the academic. They omit the victims. They omit the families recovering from a loved one shot or attacked. They try to reduce it to a math problem, one solved when a specific number of officers are on staff.
Payne offered this calculation:
I actually did a comprehensive study of five years of call data and put together a staffing model with outside consultants who used to be police chiefs, and they calculated that we could meet the calls for service with a police force anywhere between 270 to 450 officers exclusively for 911 calls. That doesnât cover investigations, that doesnât cover other administrative work. But that was just the 911 calls for service, especially as you start taking into account the problem nature codes, thatâs the wonky technical term for it. Is it a car accident or a bank robbery? There are certain ones we can peel off, like weâve done with the behavioral crisis response. All of those added up to that number. But thatâs actually not the debate.
I think the real math debate here is if itâs going to be thirty million dollars of overtime that we need to cover our basic services.
Weâd like to know more about his math. Minneapolis has a higher rate of 911 calls per capita than cities like Portland and Seattle. Year-to-date, the 911 dashboard shows 88,244 Priority 1 and 2 calls â the most serious. Behavioral Crisis Response calls account for 3,341, less than 4%. Right now, there are 638 sworn officers. If every one of them were responding to calls, that would mean each officer would respond to roughly 276 calls per year. Of course, that isnât how it works. At any given time, officers are out on paid leave for medical reasons or vacation. Others are in administrative roles, as Payne notes.
The math, to us, indicates that MPD officers remain busy responding to calls. But math isnât the only factor here. Two others demand consideration.
* The City Charter mandates 731 officers based on the Minneapolis population. Frey will likely be found in contempt of court next year because the MPD has failed to maintain this standard. If advocates for reform want to see a smaller force that more closely matches Payneâs math, they will need to change the city charter.
* A majority of residents want more police. Itâs one of the reasons Frey was reelected as mayor. They want them trained. They want them to apply the law fairly. But they want them. Wanting more police does not preclude wanting more support for those with mental health issues, drug addiction, or housing and food insecurity. It simply means residents have grown tired of the lawlessness that takes place when the police force is understaffed.
Recent Events
On June 30, the DOJ, along with the FBI, DEA, MPD, and Hennepin County Sheriffâs office, announced charges against 11 people connected to drug trafficking and murder. The indictment included members of the âG Blockâ gang, who operate in the area of 19th Street and Nicollet Avenue selling fentanyl and cocaine, and members of the âFamily Mob,â which operates along Lake Street.
We agreed with Sheriff Dawanna Wittâs comments about the arrest:
Drug trafficking is not just about illegal narcotics. It fuels violence. It exploits people struggling with addiction. It puts the entire community at risk. As outlined in this indictment, these crimes are also connected to serious acts of violence, including murder. No single agency can tackle criminal organizations like these alone. That is why these collaborations matter.
We raise this arrest not to spark sensationalism, but to remind the loud and repetitive voices in Minneapolis that seem to believe we can function without police that the stakes are real. Ride a bike through Lake and Blaisdell and it becomes immediately apparent that significant problems must be addressed to move beyond the current crisis. Speak with the residents on these blocks and the issues become far less academic.
There may be a time in the distant future when the gangs, drugs, and guns currently on our streets are no longer an issue. But that day is not here. And we have not yet seen a roadmap that gets us there.
Minneapolis needs new ideas for moving forward in a realistic and achievable way. Itâs one of the reasons that David Therkelsen and I are traveling to Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco starting July 18. Many of the people engaged in debates around policing, housing, and drug addiction seem to have grown rigid in their thinking. Weâre hoping to return with fresh perspectives that will broaden the conversation.
If youâd like to contribute to this effort, you can donate at our website or email [email protected].
Better Minneapolis is taking this Fourth of July weekend off. Enjoy the holiday.
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Early Voting Has Begun
Voting for the August 11 primary has begun. If youâve chosen your candidate, we encourage you to vote early. You can do so in person Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 4:30 PM at Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services, 980 E Hennepin Ave, through July 24. Hours vary from Monday, July 27 through Monday, August 10, so check the website before you go. The office is closed Friday, July 3 for the holiday. If you prefer to vote by mail, visit the cityâs Vote by Mail website to apply for a ballot. Notably, the site includes a feature that lets you track your ballot the way you would a UPS package.
Sample Ballot
Steve Simon, the incumbent Secretary of State, is the only DFL candidate for that office. His Republican challengers are Wendy Phillips and Tad Jude. Simonâs office maintains an excellent website for voting information.
We recommend reviewing a sample ballot before you vote. When we looked at ours, we discovered an At Large School Board position on the ballot. We know little about the candidates, other than that Michael Baskins ran for Ward 2 City Council last year. We also learned that the Hennepin County Attorneyâs race is technically nonpartisan â something we hadnât realized, given that most of the candidates sought the DFL endorsement.
We recognize this doesnât fit with the hyper-partisan nature of todayâs politics, but weâd prefer there be no party endorsements in nonpartisan races. What it means to be DFL isnât entirely clear to us. We donât know what it means to be Republican either. From what we can tell, much of the local DFL now aligns more closely with the DSA, while the state DFL more closely resembles what most people think of as the traditional Democratic platform. Those are two quite different things. The Minneapolis Times has been running an informative series of articles examining the DSA platform, which we recommend.
Who defines the party seems to depend on who shows up at endorsement conventions, and those showing up appear to be DSA-aligned. There are some DSA platform positions we support. For example, we believe the U.S. healthcare system is overdue for an overhaul. How that would be paid for and what it would cover is a debate worth having, and one where the two wings of the DFL could likely find common ground. Agreement on something like healthcare would expand the partyâs reach and demonstrate to non-political-junkies that the DFL can be productive without tearing itself apart.
When it comes to candidate endorsements, however, weâd like to know which version of the party is doing the endorsing. In the case of Cedrick Frazierâs Hennepin County DFL endorsement, it appears the DSA-aligned wing carried the day. We didnât discuss this during our interview with him, but weâd welcome him back to explore whether his endorsement makes him the DSA candidate or the DFL candidate. Until the party sorts out its identity, we wonât be placing much weight on endorsement conventions. In fact, weâd prefer more candidates skip the expense and pageantry of these events altogether â the way Angie Craig did.
What Does the Hennepin County Attorney Do?
The Hennepin County Attorney is the chief prosecutor for approximately 1.3 million residents spread across Minneapolis, 44 cities, and surrounding rural communities. The office has more than 500 staff and a $92 million budget. While prosecution of criminal cases could be seen as nonpartisan that isnât entirely true in practice. What makes the job inherently political is the setting of policies and priorities that guide prosecuting attorneys: when to charge, when to plea-bargain, when to refer someone to a diversion program. The County Attorney sets the tone for those decisions, and those decisions affect the lives of people being prosecuted, crime victims, and the broader community.
Beyond the Criminal Division, the office includes a Civil Division, which provides legal representation to Hennepin County government; Children & Families, which handles youth prosecution, child protection, and child support; and Community Affairs, which oversees victim services and community engagement. It is an important role â one we want filled by the right person. The term is four years, and the bar for recall is intentionally high: at least 25% of registered voters who participated in the previous election must sign a recall petition.
The August primary will narrow the field to the top two candidates, who will then appear on the November ballot. Whoever ultimately wins, we predict there will be controversy. This office has been a lightning rod for it for decades. Under Mike Freeman (2007â2023), the office faced backlash over its decision not to press charges in the Jamar Clark case and its slow response to the George Floyd murder. Under Mary Moriarty (2023âpresent), controversy has followed a plea deal involving Zaria McKeever, the decision to prosecute a Minnesota State Trooper for murder in the shooting of Ricky Cobb II, and an ongoing standoff with the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice over evidence related to the actions of federal agents â an issue that may well land in the next County Attorneyâs lap.
We canât predict what controversy the next term will bring, but weâre confident there will be one. Thatâs why, when we vote, weâll be focused on qualifications and on which candidate we believe can act with fairness and composure even when the world around them seems to be spinning out of control.
Hennepin County Attorney Candidate Forum â Voter Guide Summaries
Prepared from the League of Women Voters candidate forum, June 25, 2026. All summaries are nonpartisan and based solely on candidatesâ own statements. Candidates are listed in alphabetical order. We encourage readers to watch the forum to learn which of these candidates best represents the values they believe are important. Better Minneapolis interviewed each of the candidates. Links to those candidate interviews are embedded in the candidate names.
Anders Folk
Anders Folk is a lifelong Minnesotan and University of Minnesota graduate who served as a Marine Corps lawyer before becoming a federal prosecutor. He later served as Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, in which capacity he signed the indictment charging Derek Chauvin with civil rights violations, and subsequently worked under the U.S. Deputy Attorney General in Washington, D.C. Folk frames his candidacy around âcompassion and consequence,â arguing that effective prosecution requires experience navigating the full criminal justice spectrum. On key issues, he supports proactive community education on gun violence alongside vigorous enforcement, advocates for diversion and restorative justice programs to reduce racial disparities, and proposes establishing a federal prosecution task force to pursue state-law violations by federal agents. He emphasizes transparent and consistently applied plea policies, a victim-centered approach he plans to codify in a âVictimsâ Bill of Rights,â and regular public office hours as county attorney. Folk points to his leadership experience at the U.S. Attorneyâs Office and in the Marine Corps as preparation for managing the 500-person office.
Cedrick Frazier
Cedrick Frazier is the DFL-endorsed candidate in this race, having received over 61% of the vote at the party convention. He came to Minnesota to attend college on a football scholarship. He grew up in a high-poverty, high-violence neighborhood on Chicago's South Side and was the first in his family to earn a college degree. He went on to gain his law degree. His professional background spans public defense, legal counsel for Minneapolis Public Schools, labor law with Education Minnesota, service on the New Hope City Council, and three terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives, where he was vice chair of the Public Safety Committee and co-chaired the Ways and Means Committee. Frazier authored Minnesota's Extreme Risk Protection Order (red flag) law and championed additional resources for investigating non-fatal shootings. He emphasizes a broad, systemic view of public safety â stressing accountability alongside prevention and rehabilitation â and plans to address racial disparities through school partnerships, diversion programs, and juvenile justice reform. He commits to transparent public dashboards, clear charging policies developed collaboratively with office staff, and has the endorsements of Attorney General Keith Ellison, U.S. Senator Tina Smith, and the union representing county attorney office staff.
Diane M. Krenz
Diane Krenz is the only candidate in the race with direct prosecutorial experience inside the Hennepin County Attorneyâs Office, having worked there for over 40 years â from a law clerkship in 1983 through April 2025, most recently leading the fraud unit and serving in union leadership. She argues the office has become politicized under current leadership and pledges that, if elected, partisan considerations in prosecution decisions would end the day she takes office. Krenz emphasizes following sentencing guidelines, reinstating clear and consistently applied charging policies, and rebuilding relationships with law enforcement across all Hennepin County departments. She supports prosecuting felons in illegal possession of firearms to the statutory maximum (60 months) and charging gun cases arising from traffic stops that she says are currently being declined. On racial disparities, she advocates a race-neutral application of the law while acknowledging that most victims of the crimes she prosecuted were people of color. She also pledges to restore victim communication practices she says have deteriorated, reinstate website publication of case results, and reinstate community victim impact statements.
Hao Nguyen
Hao Nguyen came to the United States as a refugee, was raised by a single mother, and learned English as a second language. He worked as a correctional officer and police officer to put himself through college, then became a career prosecutor. He currently serves as Division Director of the Ramsey County Attorneyâs Office â the second-largest prosecution unit in the state â where he oversees more than 40 attorneys. Nguyen highlights concrete results from his current role: raising the clearance rate for non-fatal shootings from 33% to 67% through a collaborative law enforcement program; co-filing a lawsuit against Glock over illegal machine-gun conversions; developing a traffic stop policy with law enforcement that reduced racial disparities in stops and searches by more than half; and launching a âReimagining Youth Justiceâ program that reduced racial disparities in youth recidivism by over 53%. He is endorsed by Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt and describes himself as the only candidate already actively prosecuting cases arising from Operation Metro Surge. Nguyen also points to personal lived experience â a brother who faced deportation proceedings, an LGBTQ transgender child, and a decade of leadership at a domestic violence shelter â as informing his commitment to balancing public safety with fairness.
Matt Pelikan
Matt Pelikan has spent nearly 15 years as a civil litigator, including extensive pro bono work representing victims of harassment and domestic abuse in obtaining protective orders. He describes himself as the only candidate running from outside the political and prosecutorial establishment, arguing that restoring public trust requires new leadership and fresh perspectives. Pelikan resigned from his law firm in January over its representation of a federal agent involved in the Operation Metro Surge shootings, and has since advised municipalities nationally on accountability for gun industry actors and federal agents. He frames his campaign around the dual pillars of safety and justice, arguing neither is achievable without the other. He is critical of what he views as inconsistent charging decisions and a lack of written policies under the current administration. He cited the contrast between how a Tesla-keying incident and a first-time offense by a young Black woman were handled in the same week. Pelikan supports data-driven diversion programs â noting the current office has nearly halved youth recidivism rates through such approaches â while pledging to reclaim public spaces from untreated addiction and mental illness. He proposes a dedicated task force to pursue prosecutions of federal agents who violated state law during Operation Metro Surge, and emphasizes that these cases will require experienced, independent legal judgment.
Summary
In addition to interviewing each of these candidates, we have seen them speak at two separate forums. Each time, different aspects of their platforms have stood out to us. Hennepin County residents may find this a difficult race to call.
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On a recent trip to Chicago, we found ourselves contradicting ourselves as we explained to friends that Minneapolis is safe. We live in South Minneapolis, and we have never referred to it as âunsafe.â We still wouldnât. But it was difficult to explain how, in the past year alone, our house was broken into and a man with a knife fled through the front window. Then a dozen neighborhood vehicles had their windows smashed in a single night. A man was chased through our yard at 7:15 AM by an extremely large and agitated man claiming the chased man had broken into his car. Days later, the catalytic converter of our car was stolen. We added to the litany: we were blocked from using Nicollet recently because of an active shooter, one that drew armored vehicles and multiple snipers to the area of Alex Prettiâs murder.
We hadnât intended to be shocking. Our friends, visiting from Brooklyn via Chicago, laughed when we defended our city as safe. Nothing similar had happened to them on the streets of New York.
The Stubborn Statistics
Weâd like to see our local politicians as preoccupied with crime as they are with bath houses and whether our city codes have the correct gender-inclusive language. They may not have noticed, but unlike the rest of the country, nearly every crime category in Minneapolis is trending at or above where it was this time last year. If July 4th marks the heart of summer, there might be much more to come.
There have been a few disturbing examples lately that received little attention. On Sunday, one person was shot and killed and another wounded near the Wedge Coop. Police said one group fired on another. Then on Monday, three people were shot near University Avenue Northeast, one with life-threatening gunshot wounds. Multiple rounds of gunfire erupted, and several people were seen running from the area. Hereâs what we typically learn about these shootings: âNo arrests have been made and MPD forensic scientists processed the scene and collected evidence.â
The lack of concern from elected officials occupying City Hall is disappointing. They seem to have plenty of time to chatter on social media about causes they personally care about, but when it comes to families and victims impacted by shootings and other serious crimes in this city, they are quiet. One gets the sense they believe that if they simply ignore what is happening, it will go away. We recognize the city has initiated its coordinated Operation Safe Summer, but recent events give us reason to think its effectiveness will be marginal.
Violence interrupters, Community Safety Ambassadors, and other programs continue to show few results, but they are liked in theory and so they continue without question. If anyone claims these programs are effective, theyâre implying the level of violence in the city would be even worse than current levels without them.
Preventing crime is complex. We understand there are many factors that lead to gun violence. One of them: gangs fueled by money earned from selling destructive drugs like crystal meth and fentanyl on our streets. They have turf to protect. Grievances are settled with guns. These crimes donât fit neatly into calls for harm reduction and voluntary treatment.
There must be a more holistic approach, one that spans multiple agencies and treats the sale and use of these highly addictive and dangerous drugs as having consequences beyond the individual user. Before that user bought their packets, a string of laws was broken and lives were ruined to get it to them.
A friend of mine showed me live video from outside his apartment building a few weeks ago. Within fifteen minutes, at least half a dozen drug deals took place. Multiple calls to police were met with resistance. He was told that if they donât allow the drug dealing, dealers will simply move somewhere else. Neighbors feel held hostage, unable to walk safely on their street.
These problems extend beyond the user. There must be a mix of incentives that encourage treatment, education, healthcare, housing, and job placement that can slow down shootings and drug use in this city. However, we wonât get there without sustained attention from elected officials, and that is currently absent.
The Citizen Responsibility
To be clear: highlighting these issues is more than a call for more police. As we see time and again, they are picking up shell casings after the shootings take place. They rarely prevent crimes, and the rate at which they solve them is terrible. More police could act as a deterrent, but that is but one factor. More police could also contribute to higher clearance rates. Crime victims deserve greater accountability from the system.
Family. Economic development. Jobs. Education and the opportunity for improving an individualâs life, these would seem as great, or greater, determinants of crime involvement than the current anti-violence programs being funded by the city and county.
Residents and politicians who stoke the flames of righteousness will need to stop turning their backs on the problem for progress to be made. At the recent DFL endorsing conventions, some delegates literally turned their backs on Sheriff Witt. This act of performative virtue signaling accomplished nothing other than showing that the DFL is bereft of ideas for how to address the daily harm victims of crime are experiencing.
Itâs easy to oppose the police with a poster or a post on social media. Itâs incredibly difficult to give someone a reason to stay in school, work hard, and start a family. Those actions take time. Theyâre difficult. And the sense of pride they elicit contains more private joy than flash.
The violence taking place in our streets. The dismissive attitude about it. The families forced to care for the wounded and maimed. These are causes worth our attention. Until we can change the current trajectory in a meaningful way, Minneapolis will continue to tread in the murky waters of stagnation.
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His name was Kenneth White. He was 19 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941. According to my father, Ken ran naked from his barracks in search of cover. It wasnât until he found the safety of a bunker that he realized the bottom of his feet were cut and bleeding. As many military men do, he moved his family all over the world, Puerto Rico (my grandmother loved it), North Carolina, Germany, Kansas, and others. He was married four times. My grandmother was his third wife. Three divorced him; one died before she could.
After retiring from the military, Ken lived in San Diego and then moved to the Villages in Florida, where he died at 94. He enjoyed tending his roses, driving a Dodge Charger extremely fast, reading cheap Old West novels, and long-distance running. When he visited my father in Kansas City, heâd sit on a kitchen stool most of the day, telling stories. He smelled of Old Spice aftershave and talcum powder. Around 3 p.m., heâd start drinking Budweiser and wouldnât stop until he stumbled to bed around 11. By dinner, he was pretty well sloshed, spending the night talking about how the country was going to s**t. The reasons varied, but mostly they had to do with Black people, Hispanics, gays, women, and Jews. There was no use trying to change his mind. He believed his travels and experience qualified him as an expert. Short of throwing him out on the lawn, we were forced to endure him.
Keep in mind that Fox News launched in 1996. Ken was his own version of it, and if youâd heard him speak, the success of Fox News would come as no surprise. I am the only one in my immediate family who went to college instead of joining the military. My father and brother were in the Navy. My uncles were both in the Army. Even my aunt spent her life doing logistical planning for the Special Forces. Luckily, my father didnât stay in. I donât think he wanted that life for his family. Instead, he started his own company as a salesman. It meant traveling most weeks, but at least his family could stay in one place. His choice brought about a generational shift.
Modern Parenting
Fatherhood has changed significantly in the last few decades. More men are involved in their childrenâs lives, attending sporting events and dance recitals, knowing their kidsâ teachers, helping find activities, visiting schools to ensure theyâre a good fit. We spend our paychecks on baseball bats, skates, piano lessons, and gymnastics. Many fathers, certainly not all, have chosen to be more accountable, more involved, and more caring than the fathers they knew. Thereâs an emphasis on being good people. While racism is still woven into the American fabric, the parts of the country where you can speak like my grandfather and not be knocked off your chair are fewer.
Fatherâs Day is Sunday. While men continue to show their faults, itâs worth taking a moment to recognize that generational change is occurring, too slowly for many, but it is occurring. Many men are making an effort to be more emotionally intelligent, less selfish, more open, more flexible. There are role models of men who lead with integrity, for whom violence is the last and worst solution to problems.
These ideas feel particularly sharp right now because we recently heard the Obamas speak at the opening of their Presidential Library in Chicago. If you havenât had a chance, itâs worth listening. The contrast to our current government is stark, shocking, even. It was a reminder that we were hopeful once, that we did believe positive change was possible, and that people of different origins, races, and religions could work together in big, audacious ways to accomplish what previously seemed impossible.
Itâs easy to forget that America has had leaders who inspired us. Leaders who spoke with eloquence and thoughtfulness. Leaders who sought to bring out the best in each of us rather than turn us against one another. Michelle Obamaâs words keep circling through my thoughts:
Because hope is the essential spark that lights the fire of change. But hope is a choice. Whether or not we use our voices to speak up is a choice. Voting is a choice. Being a decent human being is a choice. Believing that we still hold the power to build a country that reflects us all is a choice.
Being a decent father is a choice. Whether you are a biological father, a stepfather, a coach, a teacher, or any man in a position responsible for another human being, you make a choice to treat them with dignity. Men choose whether to emulate the Kenneths of this world or to open their hearts to those who are different from them. They choose whether to be curious about a stranger or to react with fear and hatred. Most of us have had examples of both. Weâre grateful that more and more men are choosing to pass on their finest qualities instead of lazily accepting their worst selves.
Weâre also grateful there are fathers in the world like Barack Obama, men who can appreciate and care for a woman as confident and successful as Michelle Obama, and who set an example to other men of what a husband and father can be. A man who earned the praise Michelle gave him:
And you did it all with such grace and class and cool that you made the hardest job in the world look like a walk in this beautiful park.
Happy Fatherâs Day to all the men striving to be a positive force in the lives of their families and children. The world needs you. Keep going.
Thank you for reading.
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The Obama Precedent
Itâs ancient history, but Barack Obama was the first candidate to forgo public campaign financing and spending limits for his presidential campaign. On June 19, 2008, he sent a video message to supporters explaining that small-dollar donations would easily surpass the money heâd gain from public matching funds and those same donations would allow him to avoid spending limits. Obama broke the system with his popularity. No presidential candidate since has accepted limits.
In his campaign for Mayor of New York City, Mamdani made a video asking people to volunteer instead of sending money. He had raised too much. He agreed to a $7.9 million expenditure cap and had to announce in both the primary and general election that he was halting his fundraising. Itâs a rare politician indeed who finds themselves in such an awkward position.
We mention these examples because the latest round of Minnesota campaign contributions were just released. We understand that money is the lifeblood of a political campaign, but that doesnât mean we like it. Without donations, campaigns are unable to hire staff, make commercials, or mail flyers and print yard signs. The fact is that modern society is awash in distractions. TV was only the beginning. Now there are multiple streaming services, social media platforms, newsletters, radio, and podcasts. For a candidate to break into the consciousness of the average voter, it takes significant effort and funding. However, we can recognize the reality of modern campaigning and still be uncomfortable with it. There are simply too many examples of how donors curry favor and influence over our political arena.
When Too Much Is Too Much
Influence isnât always bad. There are certainly people aligned with our values who donate to candidates. But it works both ways. Elon Musk is now a trillionaire. His values are often opposed to our own, and yet his wealth gives him tremendous sway over elections. We would argue that democracy is damaged when he, or others like him, threaten to primary an elected official if that official doesnât do their bidding. This type of influence goes far beyond buying ads or yard signs to promote a candidate.
We may be in the minority, but we would like to see more elections where candidates qualify for public funding and adhere to spending limits. Weâve watched as vast amounts of money have been spent on unsuccessful campaigns. In his 104-day campaign for President, Michael Bloomberg spent approximately $1.1 billion. On his campaign for governor of California, Tom Steyer, another billionaire, spent $216 million. Michelle Cottle sums up our feeling about this spending in her New York Times opinion piece: âHe Spent $558 Million. What a Waste.â
Itâs nearly impossible not to think about the good in society that could be accomplished if these campaign funds were funneled into more human-centered projects. How many homeless could have been housed? How many lives could have been saved from drug overdoses? The list of worthy pursuits is long. Thereâs also no guarantee that the candidate who raises and spends the most will be the best leader. They may have charisma and connections, but the nuts and bolts of political office are more mundane. Often the âcandidateâ may not be a talented âpolitician,â or someone who can work the levers of compromise in order to achieve the best outcomes for their constituents. The skills involved frequently do not align.
If you review the figures that candidates have raised in their quest to be Minnesotaâs next Governor, Senator, or Attorney General, you may be tempted to decide who will win based on who has raised the most money. But itâs worth pausing to consider who you like best, regardless of their purse size. Reforms to our campaign financing are needed, but they wonât be enacted anytime soon. Until then, itâs up to us to sort through the distractions and spin and elect the best person for the job.
Thank you for reading.
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The Counter Argument
For todayâs interview, I sought out someone with real-world experience in property ownership around Uptown. I wanted to test the claims made in Christian Hellerâs May 26 Star Tribune Commentary, âStop scapegoating homeless people for Uptownâs problemsâ, particularly his explanations for the areaâs vacant storefronts.
Heller argued, first, that landlords are using spaces for passive speculation and that store size is part of the problem. Bruce counters that major tenants like the Kitchen Window, Urban Outfitters, and Apple were successful for years. Many attribute the subsequent vacancies to the upheaval following George Floydâs murder, which drove away both shoppers and businesses. The mayorâs proposed âmore doorsâ approach, subdividing larger spaces for smaller, independent retailers, sounds logical but, as Bruce explains, isnât the solution many hope it is.
But what struck me most was Hellerâs claim about affordable housing: âThe property owners who hold vacant space hostage would rather use it as a tax write-off than provide stable homes for the community.â Iâve heard this refrain in progressive circles often enough, but Bruce, who has firsthand market experience, calls it unfounded. As he points out, any tax benefit a landlord receives falls far short of the losses from vacancy. Itâs like spending a dollar to get back 60 cents. Yes, you could lose the entire dollar, but 40-cent losses on every dollar will still destroy your business.
The real issue, then, isnât economics, itâs credibility. If Heller had two decades as a landlord under his belt and could explain how to profit from vacant buildings, his argument might land. Instead, the piece follows a familiar pattern: people without business experience telling those who operate in it what they should do. It mirrors a city government stocked with policy experts and nonprofit leaders who have high confidence in their ability to shape business operations, despite limited exposure to how markets actually work. Thatâs not an argument for excluding nonbusiness voices from government, but thereâs a strong case that Minneapolis would be stronger if our leaders solicited more input from the business community and genuinely grappled with the real-world costs of the policies they pass.
Wanting to Be Positive
Tuesday morning started poorly. My wifeâs urgent texts arrived during a meeting: someone had stolen our muffler overnight. She discovered it when she tried to leave for work, the noise had even woken neighbors down the block.
Later, heading to record with Bruce, I was rerouted off 28th Street. A dozen squad cars, armored vehicles, a helicopter, and what became Interim Police Chief Bill Petersonâs first crisis was unfolding. A man released from prison, a wanted fugitive, had fired on police. The lockdown lasted hours. During our interview, sirens continued and cell phone alerts went out. After we finished, the entire block where Alex Pretti was murdered remained swarmed with police. According to Star Tribune reports, the area âhas been stressed for months by immigration enforcement, drug use and the rising cost of living.â
Some days in Minneapolis, staying positive takes real effort. But Bruce and I did find a few reasons for optimism. We closed discussing the bright spots Uptown has lately, less visible drug use, returning businesses, the Art Fair coming back August 7â9, and a new movie club started by Uptown United. There are wins to celebrate. On days like Tuesday, though, you have to work harder to see them clearly.
Thank you for reading.
For paid subscribers, weâre planning a special happy hour on July 9. Save the date, more details to follow.
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The Humphrey Mondale dinner Firday night drew a sold-out crowd to the Minneapolis Convention Center. For DFL leaders and donors, it was an opportunity to network and discuss the partyâs path forward. Past keynote speakers have included Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary and Bill Clinton, and Elizabeth Warren. This yearâs speaker was Andy Beshear, Governor of Kentucky, a choice that carried a message.
Beshearâs record speaks for itself. According to the DFL website: âThe Beshear administration has secured more than $35 billion in private sector investment, the most of any governor in state history, driving over 60,000 new full-time jobs and supporting over 1,100 new and expanded business projects. Under his leadership, Kentucky has achieved record budget surpluses and experienced historically low unemployment rates.â
Thatâs a resume most governors envy. It also gives weight to his central message: Democrats need to stop using jargon like âjustice-involved individualsâ and start speaking ânormal language,â as Paula Chesley, who attended the event, shared with us. Beshear understands the reputational damage Democrats have inflicted by importing language from sociology seminars into everyday conversation. Surveys confirm it: people dislike Trump, but they dislike Democrats even more.
The polling points to two areas where the DFL could gain traction with voters, if they develop a coherent plan: the economy and immigration.
The Economy
Ditching classroom scrubbed language for plain speech is necessary. But itâs not enough. The DFL must demonstrate that it can improve peopleâs economic lives, that working people can earn wages to raise families and afford healthcare. While Republicans have lost credibility on the economy, that hasnât automatically benefited Democrats. Minnesota needs a comprehensive state economic plan.
Agriculture accounts for roughly 15% of the stateâs total economic output and supports over 320,000 jobs. Tariffs and climate volatility have made farming increasingly precarious, an opportunity for the DFL to build a stability plan. Meanwhile, Minnesotaâs urban centers are scrambling. Minneapolis pins hope on the 2028 NFL Draft, but one-off events are short-term boosts; most of that revenue flows to downtown hotels and restaurants, not throughout the regional economy. We need something with real reach.
Rochester offers one model: a strategic focus on healthcare and life sciences, advanced manufacturing, technology and software, and education. We donât need to copy it, but we do need a regional plan that actively encourages businesses to locate here. Right now, a company considering Minneapolis faces a wall of regulations and taxes first, amenities like parks, schools, and community come second, if at all.
Outsiders see instability and chaos. There are real differences between the state DFLâs message and Minneapolisâs more DSA-aligned wing. But unless youâre deeply embedded in local politics, you wonât grasp those distinctions. What you see instead is a city divided, one that seems hostile to the conditions that attract jobs and investment. The math is simple: we cannot shrink the tax base by driving out employers while expanding government employment.
Immigration
Minneapolis residents earned the recognition they received for their response to ICE enforcement. At great personal risk, many stepped between federal agents and their immigrant neighbors. We showed the world what people-powered resistance looks like when facing government overreach.
But whatâs next? Opposing Trump is part of the answer, though without Senate control, Democrats will be reduced to Instagram complaints. The harder work begins with sanctuaries that actually function.
Minneapolis welcomed a large influx of Ecuadorians fleeing gang violence and economic collapse. That was the right call. But it requires a real plan. When these families enter our schools, we need Spanish-language teachers to support them. Without that preparation, something dangerous happens: residents who initially supported sanctuary policies watch their schools and neighborhoods struggle under the strain and grow resentful. Itâs not racist to demand that politicians who pass sanctuary policies fund the services those policies require. When they donât, it reads as precisely the kind of poor governance that pushes people away from the DFL, and into the arms of alternatives.
Republicans understand this vulnerability well. Theyâve bused migrants to blue cities, then deployed a media apparatus of cable news and content creators to document the resulting chaos. A strong DFL immigration policy must be both enforceable and affordable. Without it, the party will remain a target.
Reckoning
Both party conventions, DFL and Republican, offered ample evidence that it might be time to rethink the endorsement process altogether. The Los Angeles mayoral race provides an instructive contrast: their jungle-primary system advances the top two vote-getters regardless of party backing. Right now the race for second is a toss-up between the reality-TV figure Spencer Pratt and Councilwoman Nithya Raman, with incumbent Karen Bass holding a lead.
Many Minnesota candidates are ignoring party endorsements. It raises an obvious question: whatâs the point of all that energy and money?
Ken Martin, the DNC chair, was forced to release the partyâs after-action report from the last presidential election. One of the less discussed points: the party spends too much time talking to itself and not enough time in the communities it claims to represent. Most voters donât care about internal party machinery. They want results. They want jobs, schools, healthcare. Theyâll support any candidate who credibly promises to deliver those things.
If the DFL wants to expand its base, the answer is clear: listen harder to the obstacles people face, then build policies that address them. Explaining those policies in normal language only works if the DFL has actually done the work to produce results. Words come second. Delivery comes first.
Thank you for reading.
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Lyndale Avenue Reconstruction
On Monday evening, business owners along Lyndale Avenue invited Mayor Frey to the Uptown VFW for a listening session. He may have thought he was walking into a respectful gathering. Instead, he found himself in a standing-room-only rally, business owners and their supporters on one side, biking advocates seeking to preserve the latest design on the other, and a large contingent of Minneapolis press documenting every word. Everyone came ready for a fight.
Hennepin County controls this project. Lyndale Avenue is County Road 22, so the county manages the budget and leads the design process. However, because the road runs through city limits, the city council and mayor must approve the design. If the two parties disagree, state law provides a dispute resolution process. The county has a website with detailed project information for those who want to dig deeper.
Business owners fear the current plan will hollow out the corridor, just as it has along Hennepin Avenue. When they pleaded for a slower timeline or design changes, bike supporters responded with boos and dismissive remarks. The message was unmistakable: we donât care if your business survives.
Several concerns raised during the meeting validate their worries. First, the newly opened Hennepin Avenue shows whatâs at stake. A concrete median down the middle narrows the road and stalls traffic whenever someone parallel parks. Emergency vehicle access becomes a nightmare if an accident occurs, and accidents will happen. Just weeks ago, a car flipped onto the sidewalk in front of the C.C. Club. Now imagine that scenario on Lyndale Avenue when traffic has nowhere to go.
Then thereâs winter. Snow removal in Uptown is already a mess; many people avoid the neighborhood between November and March because parking and navigation become nearly impossible. With the street, bike lanes, and walkway all needing snow removal, where to put it becomes a challenge. The city could haul snow away in trucks, but thatâs expensive and time-consuming. Biking is nearly non-existent during this time period. Add two years of construction, narrowed roads, and fewer parking spots, and youâve guaranteed a winter parking catastrophe that extends well beyond the project timeline.
The third issue: business survival during construction. Two years of disruption will empty the corridor. According to Mayor Frey, thereâs no money to help. Thatâs unacceptable. The county and city need to either shrink the timeline to one year, even if it means three construction shifts daily, or provide direct financial support to affected businesses. Itâs inexcusable. Carol Becker reported in the Minneapolis Times in December that the city budgeted $150,000 for a consultant to lead the Prince Sing-Along. If I owned a business on Lyndale and the city told me thereâs no reconstruction assistance available, Iâd stop believing anything they say about priorities.
Mayor Frey spoke for about ten minutes at the end. He didnât commit to any specific actions if the city council approves the design this month. But he stayed after the event, talking to people who were openly hostile. That matters. Most politicians leave quickly when crowds turn cold. He didnât. His willingness to engage, even with critics, stands out.
The Peopleâs Way Is a Long Way from Completion
The Business, Housing & Zoning Committee voted to deny the cityâs recommendation of the Agape Movement for redevelopment of the Peoplesâ Way. Ward 9 Council Member Jason Chavez brought the motion, supported by Jamal Osman, Aurin Chowdhury, and Aisha Chughtai. They chose denial, rather than sending the decision back to staff, specifically to preclude Agape Movement from future consideration.
It was the right call. Agape Movement wasnât ready. As Chavez and Ward 8 Council Member Soren Stevenson pointed out in their press conference, the group lacked âthe right experience and supportâ for the project. Council Member Shaffer questioned the groupâs finances. Agape operates both an LLC and a nonprofit; the city has a contract with the LLC, but city representatives couldnât explain what was in it or how much had been spent.
The city stipulated that development must be conducted by a nonprofit. That restriction may be shrinking the pool of qualified applicants. The project is back to square one if the full council votes to uphold the committee vote. The city may want to drop the requirement that the process be led by a nonprofit. Let for-profit developers bid. Add a stipulation that they partner with a nonprofit, the final design and city sign-off will protect community interests regardless. Thereâs no reason to disqualify capable developers just because theyâre in business to make money.
Division Comes with a Cost
Driving through Theodore Wirth Park on Tuesday afternoon, Minneapolis felt like a great place to live. People were biking, running, golfing in the sunshine, from a distance, they looked like they didnât have a worry in the world. Walk into any Minneapolis meeting about biking, transportation, public safety, or economic development, and the mood shifts completely. You feel the weight of every ideological division the city carries.
Listening to the protesters on Monday, I was struck by their entitlement, arrogance, and ableism. They were young with few physical limitations. They were also 99% white. Few BIPOC voices were present, let alone leading the charge against small business owners. Their sense of injustice runs far deeper than bike lanes.
As one speaker pointed out, the protesters arenât fighting Elon Musk or Walmart. Theyâre fighting yoga studio owners, dry cleaners, and restaurant operators. Most of these business exist on very small profit margins. They are people who almost certainly vote progressive. The protestors acted as though the jobs and tax revenue these businesses provide have no bearing on the communityâs success.
The protesters are a vocal, organized minority who donât recognize how many depend on vehicles not by choice, but out of necessity. They remind one of MAGA supporters, loud, angry, convinced theyâre not being heard (despite prioritizing their voices in the design process), and utterly indifferent to anyone who disagrees. Drive down Hennepin, Blaisdell, or Bryant and you can see exactly who was heard.
The Minneapolis City Council and Hennepin County Commission listen to these activists because theyâre organized and visible. But that minority view doesnât represent most residents. Most people drive. Most business owners are trying to rebuild after six devastating years. The city is driving out the families and entrepreneurs invested in seeing Minneapolis recover by prioritizing ideology over neighborhoodsâ economic survival.
If you want to be heard, listen first. Show respect before you demand it.
Thank you for reading.
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The Reform Agenda
Minneapolis must ask itself what it wants from the police and how weâre going to prioritize our public safety dollars. Chief OâHara resigned on the heels of the 6th Anniversary of George Floydâs murder, an occasion that saw community gatherings of remembrance and panels devoted to pushing for greater change within the Minneapolis Police Department. Social media has been abuzz with denunciations of Mayor Frey and Chief OâHara since the resignation. Despite his shortcomings, many believe that Minneapolis is unlikely to find another chief of OâHaraâs caliber anytime soon. However, others have piled on the recrimination and are making the case his performance was unfit from the start.
Weâd like to point out that on Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., two people were shot downtown at Ninth Street South and Nicollet. Itâs our opinion that while the factions within the city battle over the philosophy of policing, crime continues to impact the daily lives of residents. The daylight shooting near Targetâs corporate headquarters sends a message that Minneapolis is out of control. While Minneapolis may be improving in some areas, itâs worth examining whether we are spending too much time analyzing the police and not enough trying to combat the root causes of crime. One of the victims shot downtown was a 44-year-old bystander waiting for a bus. This story, like so many, gets buried in the onslaught of other news, but the victims remember. They wonât forget. On Saturday, the city honored the memory of Police Officer Jamal Mitchell by renaming a stretch of Blaisdell Avenue South after him. He was killed while responding to a shooting in 2024. His family will feel his absence for the rest of their lives.
Hot summers historically correlate with higher crime rates. We expect to see more shootings, shots fired, stolen vehicles and assaults. Hopefully, it is clear to people that the heat is only one factor in crime rates, just as the number of police is one factor. Unfortunately, because of a depleted number of officers, historical abuses, cost overruns, and continued trouble within the department, we, as a city, seem to place most of our focus on the MPD to either save the city or drag it down. The causes of crime, however, are numerous and we would like to see the city reach a plateau where it can accept that both the police and other social support are needed. The causes of crime often cited include:
* Poverty and Economic Inequality
* Social Environment and Peer Influence
* Family Dysfunction and Childhood Trauma
* Substance Abuse
* Lack of Education and Employment
In this newsletter we often advocate for elected officials to focus more on creating the economic environment necessary for job creation. The reason we do so is because jobs address poverty. When people are working, it can lead to less substance abuse, more family cohesion, and more tax dollars to fund the social safety net needed to assist people with housing and education.
We arenât advocating for jobs because weâre eager to see capital pool at the top of the economic food chain. Rather, itâs because without them desperation creeps into a city, people go hungry, and they turn on one another. There are many problems with capitalism, and the Democratic Party would be well-served to consider how to ameliorate the worst of these, but at the same time, the jobs created when businesses grow and thrive build community and reduce inequality.
Let the Data Lead
My recent newsletter about the fate of Commissioner Barnette of the Office of Community Safety elicited a number of comments questioning the need for this department. When it comes to safety, itâs worth asking whether the Office of Community Safety reduced crime.
Weâd like to see more emphasis on the statistics and less on the ideology driving these programs. For example, to illustrate the importance of data, letâs consider an issue that isnât a topic of focus right now. Does distributing condoms at high schools reduce teen pregnancy? Without looking up any data, our first reaction would be yes, absolutely it does. We would advocate for the county to distribute them everywhere possible to reduce unwanted pregnancies that can lead to reduced education and economic opportunities, especially for women. However, looking up the data, we find a more nuanced picture.
Without counseling and education support, distribution can actually increase unintended pregnancies.
Knowing the data, if we were to design a program to reduce teen pregnancy, we would pair it with counseling and education, otherwise we would have a program, funded by the government, that wasnât resulting in the desired outcome. Hereâs another example, the city raised the price of cigarettes to a minimum of $15. If the goal was to reduce smoking, we would want to see the data. It might be that it has resulted in less cigarette smoking (good) but more use of nicotine packets and vaping (bad). This trade-off might be acceptable, but we want to have the data to inform the path forward.
This same approach would be useful when it comes to the Office of Community Safety. Has it reduced the need for police officers or reduced crime? As for police hours, the amount of overtime being paid would indicate that non-police alternatives such as violence interrupters, safety ambassadors and the behavioral crisis response (BCR) have had very little combined impact. The BCR in particular has been cited frequently to show how police hours have been reduced because calls are routed to community organizations rather than to police. Itâs a small sample size and we would like a more robust data set, but Tuesday, 5/26, from 8 a.m to 3 p.m. there were 310 calls directed to the police and 13 directed to BCR, of those, 8 were for a BCR welfare check. If these statistics were emblematic, it would mean roughly 4% of calls that might once have been directed to the police are now directed at non-police alternatives. This analysis is crude, but it would be the basis for determining whether the money being spent on the BCR is being well spent or if the program needs to be changed or eliminated. Weâre not advocating either way except to say letâs put more emphasis on data.
Setting aside the specific candidate for Commissioner of the Office of Community Safety, now might be an appropriate time to revisit the goals of this program and the make-up. What data shows whether violence interrupters and other non-police alternatives work?
One metric is to examine homicides and shots fired. These appear to be roughly the same in 2026 as they were in 2025. Year to date Assault offenses are at 4,285, last year there were 4,056. For homicides, there have been 18 so far, last year there were 20 at this point. For shots fired, last year there were 1,769 versus 1,650 so far this year.
Itâs worth asking whether the funding allocated to the Office of Community Safety and the host of alternatives to policing are achieving the desired outcome. We often hear about people wanting to see police officers in their communities, walking patrols, rather than only showing up once shots have been fired. More interaction between the police and the community before a crime is committed could reduce crime and improve trust. A trained officer wearing a uniform is a presence that represents order for many people.
The goal in reviewing these services is to support what is working and discard what isnât instead of assuming that national data used to inform their creation is relevant to our local situation. One of the main reasons the city council has put Commissioner Barnette in administrative purgatory is his handling of the budget. They want answers as to why the police have exceeded theirs for overtime and other categories. Thatâs a fair question; it is part of their fiscal responsibility. Weâre suggesting the review be broader.
The statistics indicate the city has not seen a significant reduction in violence from violence interrupters, nor are patrols of unarmed safety ambassadors leading to less open drug use, robberies, assaults, car thefts, and vandalism. So maybe it's time to look at alternatives to the alternatives. Having data on what is working will benefit the next chief, whomever that person turns out to be.
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It is 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday and we are pulling an earlier version of the newsletter to report that Chief O'Hara has resigned. An investigation into his conduct contained "concerning substantiated findings," though no details have been officially provided. Until they are, we will treat rumors with circumspection.
Beyond the investigation, a range of concerns about OâHaraâs performance had been raised in recent weeks by both DSA-aligned council members and some of the more moderate members. Budget overruns generated significant frustration, as did what some viewed as mishandling of the Davis Moturi shooting and the investigation into Allison Lussierâs death. Some wanted the MPD to play a more active role during Operation Metro Surge. The most frequently cited complaint, however, is what critics considered too slow a pace of reforms within the department. Others in the community viewed OâHara as a steady presence who made genuine efforts to communicate with the public.
The Chief had been scheduled for a public hearing on June 3. We assume that is no longer on the councilâs agenda. This story is developing, and readers can expect more coverage as facts become available.
More Upheaval in an Already Unsettled Moment
OâHaraâs resignation lands on top of an already unsettled moment for public safety in Minneapolis. The failure to confirm a Commissioner for the Office of Community Safety, and now the sudden departure of the Police Chief, leaves a broad field on which to rethink the path forward, if the city has the will to do so.
Two Sides of the Same Frustration
As the searches for a new chief and commissioner begin, weâd like to see a community conversation around what exactly is meant when people speak of reform, and whether that standard can be met. Minneapolis has been through a great deal. This change is yet more upheaval as the city tries to steady itself and regain the upper hand on public safety.
Rate of change is difficult to gauge. For those who have suffered directly from police abuse, reform cannot come fast enough. For those frustrated by crime and lawlessness on their streets, change is also too slow, the difference is that they still believe police are an integral part of the solution. Weâre hopeful the current upheaval can be resolved in a way that leaves all residents feeling the MPD is genuinely serving them.
Define Success Before Filling the Seats
As that process unfolds, the central question deserves to be asked plainly: what does success look like, and how will we measure it? The city has an opportunity, amid this reset, to define those outcomes clearly before filling either seat, rather than after.
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Memorial Day is here and with it the unofficial beginning of summer. You can now wear white. For some, the start of summer is the solstice, which this year falls on Sunday, June 21. But donât let the sunshine fool you. When it comes to cooperation and progress at City Hall, there isnât the joy of sunshine and festivals that come with the season. Minneapolis City Hall continues to be where dark clouds of disagreement and stagnation hover, a perpetual storm waiting to break.
As with our national politics, the upside for cooperation is limited. Donors and votes follow the uncompromising members of government. Minneapolis residents eager for progress on public safety and improved economic conditions are advised to lower their expectations. It will be a long 3œ years if you place your hopes on significant strides occurring in what appears to be a council and mayor who live in different cities.
The back and forth between the mayor and city council over the nomination of Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette is an appropriate symbol for the current situation. The city council voted 7-6 for a second time not to approve his nomination, but instead of sending the motion back to Frey for a potential third veto, it was moved into administrative hibernation. At this point, itâs unclear how long Barnette will retain his job. In an odd twist, Wonsley initiated a motion to begin a new nationwide replacement search, but because Ward 8 council member Soren Stevenson abstained from voting, the motion failed with a 6-6 vote. Weâre interested to hear why he chose to abstain and will report on his position when we learn more.Letâs pretend for a moment that he had voted with Wonsley to begin a search. Who do they think is going to step up and apply? Yes, the $374,000 salary is the highest in the city, but the gauntlet of criticism and second-guessing that anyone in this role must endure is substantial. The same uncertainty extends to the police chief. Chief Brian OâHaraâs renomination has been assigned to the Public Health, Safety, & Equity Committee with no set schedule for when a public hearing and vote will take place. However, if the questioning from Ward 10 council member Aisha Chughtai is any indicator, the odds of a smooth approval are low. He was repeatedly asked about exceeding his budget, including on food and beverage, parking, advertising, and overtime. Chughtai isnât the only council member unsupportive of him. Itâs quite possible the city will end up searching for both a new Police Chief and Commissioner of Community Safety. The disruption to progress on reform and safety will be substantial, and the search costly.
The motion to spend $6 million for the purpose of purchasing land in the Windom neighborhood of South Minneapolis for a new Community Safety Wellness & Training Center was also voted down in a 7-6 vote.
AI Debate Heats Up the Room
A development award, a decade-old building dispute, and a city council moratorium on data centers may seem unrelated, but all three reveal the same underlying problem: Minneapolis has no coherent plan for ensuring that public investment, whether in nonprofits or private industry, delivers sustainable results.Start with the nonprofits. None of the three major civic development projects currently underway has a credible path to self-sufficiency. Agape Movement will be awarded development rights for the Peoplesâ Way if approved by the city council, where they will be tasked with assembling a team to raise funds, design, and build. Their proposal is available online. Our fundamental outlook for their success improved slightly after meeting Thursday with Miles Mercer of CPED and Alex Kado from the Office of Public Service to learn more about the Request for Qualifications process, but many questions remain about what will ultimately become of the Peoplesâ Way. They will rely on public grants and private donations.To many, the requirement that the developer be a nonprofit will make sense. For others, it raises concerns about accountability, concerns the Roof Depot situation in East Phillips does little to allay. After ten years of carrying the costs of a vacant building, the city has reached an agreement with the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI): the nonprofit will spend $6 million in state-granted funds to buy half the building, while the city retains the other half with no current plans for it. The agreement will allow EPNI to pursue their long-held goal of creating an urban farm on the site. Then there is the Rise Up Center, slated for the former YWCA on Hennepin Avenue. All three projects share the same vulnerability: continued dependence on public grants and the goodwill of politicians. The current track record of Minnesota politicians providing adequate oversight of nonprofit finances and operations is poor, which makes it difficult for us to have confidence in these endeavors.Thatâs the nonprofit sector. What about private industry? At Thursdayâs city council meeting, the first several hours were consumed with a debate over data centers and the creeping role that AI plays in our lives. We fully understand the skepticism, we are as tired as anyone of every program asking whether we want AI assistance. The council stepped back from a full one-year moratorium and adopted a six-month moratorium on data centers over 350,000 square feet, with a public hearing scheduled for mid-June. This debate reflects a national concern about how AI is reshaping the job market. The conversation about how Minneapolis and Minnesota prepare for this technological shift has only just begun.The moratorium on its own is unlikely to keep investors away from Minneapolis. The same could be said of the concrete median running down Hennepin Avenue, it alone didn't cause Red Cow to close. What concerns us is the cumulative effect of decisions and policies that appear to discount the importance of private investment and business to the city's health. High taxes, heavy regulation, and persistent public discord between the mayor and city council are deterrents. These and other debates about non-core issues feed an impression of instability and unpredictability that compounds over time. When someone is weighing where to relocate a business or a family, they are increasingly passing on Minneapolis.The city we moved to 20 years ago looks different from the one that exists today. The schools are struggling. Downtown buildings are no longer generating the taxes they once did. Unemployment runs higher than the national average. City governance appears to be in disarray. For our meeting downtown we rode the bus. Afterwards, we went to write in the library. It required navigating past multiple unhoused individuals asleep in the library, others screaming into cell phones about court dates, and on the way home, a woman nodding off in the bus aisle. Minneapolis needs to take its reputation seriously.The city needs a coherent plan for improving its reputation and attracting the kind of businesses that create jobs. Watching City Hall, weâre confident the plan wonât originate there. What might be more effective is a private group of civic leaders empowered to draft a plan without concern for pleasing the interest groups on which politicians depend. Given the pace of change, particularly with AI, that plan must take shape within the next few years. The choice Minneapolis must make is whether to be known for its foresight or remembered for its infighting.
Thank you for listening and caring about Minneapolis.
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Monday night at the VFW in Uptown, a familiar argument played out. Residents gathered to review reconstruction plans for Lyndale Avenue, and the room quickly divided along predictable lines. Business owners raised concerns about extended construction timelines, reduced parking, and a concrete median that would make their already-struggling storefronts harder to reach. On the other side, advocates pushed for road designs that promote alternatives to driving, such as buses, bikes, and foot traffic, arguing that changing infrastructure is how you change behavior. The debate spilled onto social media before the night was over, bringing with it the usual taunts and high-minded proclamations.
Itâs worth stepping back and asking what, exactly, is driving all of this anxiety. At its core, the car-versus-bike debate is a proxy for a larger concern: that we are contributing to climate catastrophe and have a moral obligation to stop it. The logic is straightforward, if human activity is warming the planet, then humans must do everything in their power to reverse course. The problem is that, from where Minneapolis sits, there isnât much we can actually do. Our cityâs emissions account for roughly 0.05% of global output annually. That means if every resident stopped driving tomorrow, no cars, no Amazon deliveries, bikes and boots only, it would make essentially no measurable difference to the planetâs trajectory.
The numbers bear this out. According to an Associated Press report from 2018, admittedly a few years old, but the order of magnitude holds, global CO2 emissions run between 37 and 40 billion metric tons per year. Minnesotaâs share is approximately 117 million metric tons, or about 0.29% of the total. Minneapolis, as a portion of the state, accounts for roughly 0.05% of that global figure. And transportation makes up only about 24% of the cityâs emissions, the majority comes from heating and powering our homes and businesses. Do the math: if we eliminated every car in the city entirely, Minneapolisâs contribution to global CO2 would drop from approximately 0.05% to about 0.038%.
Turn down the heat
None of this is an argument for giving up. There are real, meaningful reasons to make lifestyle changes, riding the bus, biking to the store, eating less meat, buying used, combining errands, switching to solar. Small choices can add up, and thereâs nothing wrong with wanting to feel less complicit in a problem that genuinely worries you. Do what fits your life.
But when those choices become a cudgel, when people who need to drive to work or want their business accessible by car are treated as the enemy, itâs worth asking whether the anger is proportionate to the impact. Someone who bikes their kid to school but flies the whole family to Florida every December may well be generating more carbon than a neighbor who drives daily but never boards a plane. Weâre all making trade-offs, and most of us are doing the best we can.
The point is this: even if every person in Minneapolis made every right choice, it would not meaningfully alter the planetâs future. The fury that urban planning decisions tend to generate is wildly disproportionate to the actual environmental stakes. Letâs keep making good choices where we can, and letâs stop treating road design like a moral referendum. The city has real problems to solve. Weâll solve them faster if weâre pulling in the same direction.
Thank you for listening and caring about Minneapolis.
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On Thursday, May 14, Mayor Frey announced that Agape Movement was his choice to be the cityâs development partner for the Peoplesâ Way. Our research has found no evidence that the group has the ârelevant experienceâ or âfinancial qualificationsâ necessary for managing a multi-million-dollar project of this scope. Response to the choice has been criticized by several council and community members, and based on what weâve found, we understand why.
Agape Movement was formed in 2021 to clear protesters from George Floyd Square. The group lost its nonprofit status in 2023, had it reinstated in 2024, and has yet to file any financial reports or register with the Attorney Generalâs office. Their website offers little clarity: the About Us section describes the organization this way:
The Agape Movement functions as an umbrella organization providing training opportunities for young adults. We address systematic inequities and offer ideas to reform the criminal justice system. We work at preventing further violence by creating job and training opportunities through personal interaction and boots-on-the-ground interaction.
While we support Agapeâs stated aspirations of training youth and providing opportunities that direct them away from violence, there is no mention of property development experience anywhere in their public-facing materials. Susan Du of the Star Tribune has reported on the groupâs history in detail, and our elected officials appear to have far more confidence in this organization than the public record warrants.
The concerns go deeper than an incomplete website. In 2024, federal prosecutors alleged that Agapeâs ties to the Bloods street gang were more extensive than the organization had acknowledged. From an article in 2024:
Assistant U.S. Attorney Esther Soria Mignanelli wrote in a filing that a âcooperating defendantâ would testify that âmembers, associates, and leadersâ of the Bloods helped form the Agape Movement Co., citing âbank and check records,â Mignanelli added that Agape paid âtens of thousands of dollarsâ to multiple members of the Minneapolis Bloods, money drawn from a City of Minneapolis contract for violence interruption and community outreach work.
In other words, city funds were flowing to known gang members.
That context matters when evaluating the mayorâs decision to select this group to manage a multi-million-dollar development project, especially given that a community survey conducted at significant public expense appeared to point toward a different vision for the site. What, exactly, is the shared vision the mayor is describing? And does it reflect what residents actually said they wanted?
We recently had our own experience with the cost of misplaced trust. I hired someone off Nextdoor to build an enclosure for our air conditioning unit, a simple job, no resume required, just someone who needed the work. They asked for half the contract up front for materials. We expected it done in a day. It took five, broken up by long gaps, uncomfortable negotiations, and a final cost double what weâd budgeted. By the end, I was ready to pay him to stop and find someone qualified, someone with a website, a portfolio, and actual experience. The final product was serviceable, but flawed.
The parallel to this situation is not subtle. There comes a point in every project where you have to decide whether the odds of a successful outcome justify the friction and cost ahead. The city and state have a documented pattern of struggling to hold contracted nonprofits accountable once a project is underway. Thatâs why weâd recommend that any contract with Agape, or any group selected through this process, include a clear termination clause.
Conclusion
Weâve contacted Mayor Freyâs office to learn more about Agapeâs relevant experience. They offered to connect us with the Request for Proposal managers. If that meeting happens, weâll be asking about the groupâs background, their incomplete website, their lack of financial disclosure, and why, despite a community survey that appeared to reflect a different direction, this selection was made. We also want to know why a development process that has already made the neighborhood wait five years is now projected to take two more. What is the budget? Does the contract include a termination clause?
Weâre fairly confident the city council will reject the mayorâs choice, and the project will continue to stall. In this case, unless the RFP managers have compelling non-public information about Agape Movement, we would support that rejection. The Peoplesâ Way is not a backyard project, itâs a multi-million-dollar development that will shape the square and the surrounding neighborhood for decades. It deserves professional, qualified management.
The Business Committee takes up the issue on June 2. The full council decides on June 11. Road construction on the intersection, long overdue, begins June 8.
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Thank you for reading and caring about Minneapolis.
We spent Saturday afternoon taking in the art and atmosphere of Art-a-Whirl. Sunday, May 17, is the last day. We recommend stopping by Andrea Canterâs studio 218 in the Casket Arts Building. There was a speakeasy in the basement. She was one of several artists whose work we enjoyed. If you can, taking public transit to the event is recommended.
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Introduction
Josh Bassais wants Hennepin County to do its job, on public safety, housing, transit, and county services, and he has a plan to get there. Central to his pitch is better collaboration across levels of government, particularly with the state, at a moment when the legislature holds the fate of HCMC in its hands.
District 3 is shaping up to be one of the more competitive Hennepin County Commissioner races this cycle. Bassais is challenging 12-year incumbent Marion Greene, whom I interviewed last week. Two other candidates, Kevin Chavis and Abdihakim Ibrahim, have also announced.
For Bassais, HCMC isnât an abstraction, itâs personal. His mother was a young single mom who depended on Hennepin County Health Services, and as a child he benefited directly from those county resources. His father, a severe diabetic on disability in his 30s who suffered two strokes, received long-term care at HCMC. âI remember sitting in dialysis with him at HCMC,â Bassais says, âand it extended some years onto his life.â His father died at 37. That history shapes how Bassais talks about the hospitalâs uncertain future: potential closure, he says, âwould be an absolute tragedy, not just for folks who live in the county, but the entire state.â He points to HCMCâs Level 1 trauma designation as a resource the region cannot afford to lose. On the funding question, heâs skeptical of the stateâs current approach: âWhatâs proposed at the state is very much a band-aidâ that may only hold for a year. He also faults county leadership for not seeing this coming, arguing that after the 2024 election, administrators should have been planning immediately, not scrambling at the last minute before session ends.
Interview Summary
Josh Bassais, a lifelong Minneapolis resident and District 3 candidate for Hennepin County Commissioner, explains why heâs challenging a 12-year incumbent. A product of Minneapolis public schools and Ward 8 resident for nearly five decades, Bassais frames his candidacy around a single, urgent argument: Hennepin County has substituted political theater for actual governance, and the consequences, visible in encampments near his home, stalled transit projects, and an HCMC funding crisis, have fallen hardest on the people the county is supposed to serve. His core pitch is collaboration over gamesmanship, bringing private-sector discipline in budget management and stakeholder alignment to a board he believes has drifted from its basic responsibilities.
On housing and homelessness, Bassais argues for individualized wraparound services that treat the crisis as the public health emergency it is, rather than accepting outdoor encampments as a viable long-term strategy. He criticizes the countyâs $200 million investment in the Fort Snelling housing project, roughly $1 million per unit, as a misallocation when affordable units could have been built closer to where people actually live and work. On transit, he uses the Green Line extension as a case study in poor planning and lack of stakeholder engagement, pointing to the communityâs tunnel demand as a foreseeable cost driver that should never have blindsided administrators.
Bassais also weighs in on HCMCâs funding uncertainty, the Lyndale Avenue reconstructionâs effect on small businesses, the Sheriffâs office controversy, and youth corrections, consistently returning to the theme that better outcomes require cross-agency collaboration, data-driven accountability, and leadership willing to listen before acting. He closes with a pointed contrast to his opponent: after 12 years, many District 3 constituents donât know who their commissioner is. Bassais says heâs not in this for the salary, he left corporate America to try to make a difference, and that visibility, empathy, and transparency will define how he serves if elected. The DFL endorsement convention is June 13th.
Thank you for reading and caring about Minneapolis â and Hennepin County.
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This essay is for all the mothers with cracked hands, scarred bellies and breasts, and fantasies of what life might have been like without children.
Brunch and Flowers
A typical image of Motherâs Day is brunch and flowers and a day off from the regular Sunday routine. Those things are well-deserved, and if youâre a mother who has such a day, we hope you enjoy it. Youâve earned the recognition.
However, that image of mothers is incomplete. Itâs a Hallmark card that has photoshopped out the brutality, heartache, and tedium of motherhood. It doesnât do justice to what is asked of women who become mothers, sometimes not by choice. It seems that television, Facebook, and Instagram have homogenized and sanitized motherhood. A mother at home in the kitchen baking, balancing the checkbook, and seamlessly keeping the family schedule up to date is so far off from the experience of many as to be laughable. While many mothers certainly do these things, the picture leaves out the battles and tears and loneliness that deserve to be in the frame as well.
For example, twenty years ago I worked at U.S. News & World Report with a woman called Denise who was a Creative Marketing Director. In my eyes, she was the epitome of New York cool, a great job, respected by her staff and colleagues, and dressed superbly. Regardless of what deadline or strife consumed the day, Denise handled it with grace and a sense of humor. It took months before I learned that she was stepmother to a teenage daughter who was in and out of drug rehab. That the bills for the rehab meant their family was essentially broke, and that she showed up in a panic every day, worried about being laid off or fired for being too strident, or not strident enough.
The expectations we place on mothers are impossible. If they work too much, they are seen as neglecting their children. If they stay home to raise those children, they are seen as not living fully actualized lives. Stand in the kitchen of a mother whose child has special needs, and youâll learn about how the schools come up short. Youâll hear about the sleepless nights and the inner doubts that grip them at 4 a.m., and how the cause of it all gets laid at her feet, by the people around her, and by herself. Yes, fathers are thought to play a role, but the doubts and expectations are always placed on the mother.
Witness to the Surge
As we witnessed during the resistance to Operation Metro Surge, when federal immigration enforcement swept through our neighborhoods, it was often mothers who served as the fiercest fighters. They stood in subzero temperatures to guard the schools. They showed up in church basements to pack food. Mothers were prepared to swallow the addresses of those to whom they were delivering packages. Despite all the progress America has made in increasing the opportunities for women, our expectations of mothers donât seem to have changed all that much. They are still treated as lacking if they fall short of performing as the backbone of the family. Itâs mothers who make the doctor appointments, know school deadlines, volunteer, and put food on the table. Itâs mothers who most acutely feel the loss of children sent to war, or jail, or picked up randomly by ICE agents. Even if those bodies didnât come from inside their bodies, they feel it. Mothers are intimate with loss, the rewards of motherhood not always equal to the sacrifices they've made.
For these reasons and more, when I think of mothers it isnât a fluffy Hallmark card with flowers and hearts and anodyne statements of âYouâre the best.â A more accurate picture is of a mother standing in the middle of a smoking battlefield. She is holding a pitchfork and tied to it is an improvised flag made from a torn bed sheet stained with blood and urine and vomit. Between her legs is a dirty and dented car seat with an infant, one that may not be hers. Her hair is wild, her nails broken, her face smeared with sweat and grease. Her eyes are full of the boldness and compassion of someone who has watched others die, of panicked car rides to the hospital with children who have broken bones, of holding the hand of someone who has been raped, or beaten, or imprisoned. These are people who know that life can be very f*****g hard to survive, even though your neighbor or sister or friend is posting pictures of their recent trip to Portugal or their stable, athletic, drug-free childâs graduation before they head off to Harvard.
Mothers deserve their day. They deserve our love and respect. They bear the scars of war, of hunger, of dreams deferred, of holding ground when burdened with unattainable expectations. They are the warriors on which we depend. We just donât hand out medals when they come home wounded.
Thank you for reading and caring.
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