Mpls Musings

If you’re in immigrant, queer, or progressive social circles in Minneapolis, you probably know people who have moved here for some kind of sanctuary. Sanctuary from war, discrimination, dangerous right-wing policies, or increasing natural disasters in their previous home. Maybe you, yourself, are one of these folks.

Minneapolis, and Minnesota in general, is seen by a lot of progressive and marginalized people as a blue haven in the sea of red that is the “flyover” states. Minneapolis is a cool, artsy, queer city that encompasses the best of both urban and small communities. And have you heard about our lakes and parks??

All of these things are true, and they influenced my decision to stick around after moving from central Illinois to St. Paul for college. Unfortunately, these positives have always come with a lot of caveats. Anyone who was paying attention to Minneapolis in 2020 knows that we have a dark history of racist and violent policing practices. Systemic racism and classism are also still thriving through the ongoing impacts of racial covenants and redlining, and the pollution and disenfranchisement of our most diverse neighborhoods.

All of this has led to a common saying here: Minneapolis is a beautiful, friendly, affordable place to live… if you’re white.

On top of all of that, as the United States descends into a textbook fascist, oligarchical country, Minneapolis is experiencing its own shift to the right. This might be surprising to many residents who haven’t been closely watching city politics for the past 5 years. The people working on this regressive project are good at hiding their unpopular goals under a veneer of polite centrism, or even so-called “pragmatic progressive” values. But, despite what certain people in power are projecting, the fights happening in this current election season are not standard progressive vs moderate Democrat policy debates. Republican landlords, business owners, and investors are intentionally sowing chaos and confusion to elect people who will maximize their profits. And this couldn’t be happening at a worse time.

I’m not writing this to trash my city or try to dissuade people from moving here. I actually have a lot of pride in, and hope for, my city. You can consider this a call-in post for all my fellow Minnesotans who love this place as much as I do. I genuinely believe our state and city has the potential to be a truly incredible place for everyone who wants to live here. But, we’re currently moving further away from that reality, not towards it. So, we have some serious work to do before our vision of a truly safe, thriving, diverse community can be realized. 

Don’t believe me? Let’s dig in to the facts.

The Mayor

“the opposite of Donald trump’s extremism is not the opposite extreme.The opposite of extremism is good, thoughtful governance” (sic)
—Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey

This quote is currently on the front page of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s campaign home page. I resisted my editorial impulses to correct it for capitalization, spacing, and punctuation, because the symbolism is just too good to pass up. On his website, it’s written in all caps, in a big bold font, so most people won’t notice the errors. But when you copy and paste it—or just look a little closer—you’ll see them. 

Jacob Frey seems to have fooled a lot of the country, and even plenty of folks in his own city, into thinking he’s the perfect picture of a young, clean-cut, progressive Mayor. The guy anyone would be lucky to have leading them through tough times, like we’ve had here in recent years. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Digging in to Mayor Frey’s whole record is much more than I can do in this one post. (Keep an eye on this space in the future…) But, here are some basics.

Jacob Frey was elected to the Mayor’s office in 2017 on a platform of transparency, healthy collaboration with the City Council, reigning in the Minneapolis Police Department’s (MPD’s) track record of violence and racism, and promoting affordable housing. Although he’ll jump on the chance to take credit for any progress that has been made in these areas by progressive city council members, state representatives, and community leaders, his individual actions have made most of these issues worse. 

Here are just a few examples:

• Lack of transparency: In 2022, at a press conference after Amir Locke was killed by MPD officers executing a no-knock warrant (which Frey claimed to have banned during his 2020 reelection campaign), Frey and the acting Police Chief walked out after receiving difficult questions from reporters. 
• Disdain for the City Council: When I got to the part of Frey’s 2017 campaign site that said “Nothing gets done without partnering with [the City Council], and I will make it a mission to be in constant collaboration,” I literally laughed out loud. I was recently at a caucus where one of the people supporting his mayoral reelection proudly announced that she wanted to “abolish the city council—get rid of them all!” And that’s a pretty common sentiment among Frey’s supporters. After watching dozens of city council meetings since 2020, it’s clear where they’re getting those bad vibes. Here’s just one example of Mayor Frey’s clear disdain for certain city council members on display. At a City Council meeting, progressive Council Member Wonsley questions Mayor Frey about the implementation of the “Strong Mayor” government structure changes approved by voters in 2021. In the course of the exchange, Mayor Frey responds with the flippant and disrespectful, “Asked and answered.” and “Are you asking me because you don’t know the answer to that question?” The entire exchange lasts about 10 minutes. But if you really want to know how our Mayor interacts with any elected representative who dares to disagree with him, it’s very illustrative. (If you listen to the end, you’ll also hear Frey-aligned Council Vice President Palmisano jump in to try to save him from himself.)
• Blocking reforms to MPD: While most of the City Council tried to deliver several of the changes residents demanded during the 2020 Uprising, they couldn’t do much without collaboration from the Mayor (who is the ultimate “boss” of the MPD). Mayor Frey opposed their proposed reforms and budget moves at every turn, and stoked public feuds with any council members who advocated for significant changes to policing.
• Lying about homelessness: During his 2017 campaign, then Council Member Jacob Frey made a truly incredible claim: “I pledge to end homelessness in Minneapolis within 5 years.” Reader, he did not end homelessness. But, he did recently lie and claim (multiple times) that there are currently only 27 unhoused people in our city. Hennepin County data says that number is closer to 240 people.

One of Mayor Frey’s current lines on the campaign trail is that he’s now running for his final term so he can “finish the job.” With a record like his, that seems more like a threat to marginalized residents than a promise to complete some noble mission.

Jacob Frey is not a progressive. But is he a Republican? Honestly, I don’t know. He lies and changes his positions so much that he’s impossible to pin down. But, if the company you keep is a reflection of your character, his doesn’t reflect well.

The Landlords

If you haven’t already seen campaign ads, or people at community events wearing shirts, from a group called “We Love Mpls” (aka, We ♥️ Mpls, or WLM), you will soon. They’ve had a booth at every DFL endorsing convention held so far this year. (DFL stands for the Democratic, Farmer, Labor party, which is the Minnesota branch of the Democratic party.) And they’ve been conducting phone surveys with elected DFL delegates, where they conveniently only ask about your preferences for the candidates they have chosen to support.

If you go to WLM’s website, they claim, “We’re a grassroots project focused on building a brighter future together.” In actuality, they’re a Political Action Committee (PAC) funded by landlords, investors, and law firms with the privately-stated mission of improving conditions for “businesses, property values, and the overall investment climate in Minneapolis.”

We know this due to amazing independent journalism by Minneapolis resident Taylor Dahlin. As Taylor explains, WLM is led by owner of Mint Properties, Jim Rubin, and Andrea Corbin, a local business owner, 2024 MN Republican Party donor, and public opponent to the City Council’s recent effort to establish a Labor Standards Board. 

The campaign strategist for WLM? The campaign manager for Jacob Frey’s 2017 and 2021 mayoral races, Joe Radinovich.

Despite being led and funded by Republican donors, WLM seems pretty interested in who gets to participate in our local Democratic party processes. At the Ward 2 convention this year, they led an organized effort to remove more than 50 DFL delegates (largely college students) from their own party convention for stating support for Council Member Robin Wonsley (who runs as an Independent, is endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, and was not seeking DFL endorsement). For some background, a legitimate use of the DFL endorsing convention is for the delegates to vote for there to be no DFL endorsement in their Ward, which was the ultimate result even after those 50-some delegates were removed. Ward 2, which contains a high percentage of voters who are students at the University of Minnesota, has a long history of using the process this way. Before Robin Wonsley was elected in 2021, Green Party Council Member Cam Gordon had represented the ward since 2005.

In my own Ward 7 DFL endorsing convention, WLM supported both Paula Chesley and Elizabeth Shaffer against progressive, labor-endorsed incumbent Council Member Katie Cashman (who, for disclosure, I was there to support). Elizabeth Shaffer secured the 60% of votes required for endorsement by a margin of 4 votes. This is despite Shaffer recently attempting to re-criminalize marijuana use in parks, engaging in union-busting tactics, suggesting at the convention that the right to an abortion is a “state issue,” and having her own sketchy history of donating thousands to her brother’s Republican state senate campaign and to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s more conservative opponent in 2020. Here’s the full audio of the Q&A session from this convention, so you can judge for yourself who seems to best support DFL values.

Minneapolis city politics have been increasingly toxic since 2020, largely due to the creation of right-wing PACs and lobbying groups like WLM and their 2021 predecessors, Operation Safety Now and All of Mpls. But, why? Why do these people care so much about keeping Mayor Frey in office and unseating progressive council members?

The City Council

Despite some periods of gridlock, particularly in one two-year term where the moderate/conservative wing of the Council had a majority, the Minneapolis City Council been really effective. Since 2020, the City Council has:

• Funded a pilot, and later full launch, of the Behavioral Crisis Response team, a mobile unit of mental health workers dispatched through 911 to assist with behavioral health crises. While initially controversial, the program is now (rightfully) hailed as a national success story.
• Approved more than $5 million in grants and city funds for Avivo Village, an indoor village of tiny homes for previously unsheltered people.
• Facilitated and funded a deal between the city and the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) for EPNI to buy the former Roof Depot building and build a first-in-the-nation indoor urban farm, which will also include affordable housing and small businesses to serve one of the city’s most diverse and historically marginalized neighborhoods
• Executed new contracts with Xcel Energy and CenterPoint that require them to assist with the city’s clean energy goals
• Legalized street food vendors to operate in commercial corridors
• Extended the pre-eviction notice period for renters from 14 to 30 days
• Voted to establish a new Labor Standards Board to enforce worker protections (unfortunately, Mayor Frey vetoed it)
• Funded many miles of new protected bike lanes, wider sidewalks, traffic calming measures, and new public transit infrastructure to help people get around the city safely 

And that’s the short list.

This gives us a small glimpse of what Minneapolis could be. And remember, these things have been done with Mayor Frey in office, often working against them. Just imagine what we could accomplish if we had both a progressive council majority and a Mayor who actually had “a mission to be in constant collaboration” with that council? That future, which I and many residents I know dream of, is exactly what We ♥️ Mpls is afraid of.

The People

Let’s return briefly to Mayor Frey’s statement about Donald Trump’s extremism.

It’s clearly carefully phrased to make it hard for anyone to disagree with it. Everyone wants “good, thoughtful governance,” right? Unfortunately, the truth is, 1. Mayor Frey’s tenure has been everything but “good” or “thoughtful,” and 2. What he’s really saying here is “the federal government is so chaotic right now, this isn’t the time to do anything interesting or different—vote for me to keep things exactly the same!”

As I think I’ve established, the status quo in Minneapolis isn’t something we should want to preserve. The status quo is good for white, wealthy folks like Mayor Frey, Elizabeth Shaffer, and the landlords and investors who fund We ♥️ Mpls. 

Unfortunately for the rest of us, Trump’s new fascist government can’t be defeated by this status quo, or even actual “good, thoughtful governance.” The majority of our national Democratic leaders have been trying that approach, and it hasn’t stopped him from doing anything. 

I’m no expert on defeating fascist regimes, but I know that it takes action. People who care deeply about others—not just themselves and their profits. It takes outside-of-the-box thinking and doing. Prioritizing the safety and rights of the most defenseless and voiceless among us.

More than once lately, I’ve found myself thinking, “In the grand scheme of things, Minneapolis is fine. There are more important things to focus on right now.” The ongoing destruction of our (already awful) healthcare and scientific research infrastructure, the ramped up attacks on trans Americans, and the even broader license given to ICE and other law enforcement to abuse the rights of immigrants… I should be focusing on those things. Not whatever is happening to the few hundred thousand people in this city, right?

Of course those national actions are important. If you have been politically activated by these things and have gotten engaged in the fight against them, I encourage you to stay the course. Please keep doing what you’re doing. But, I’ve realized that local vs national is a false binary. Everything happening nationally either already has or soon will affect us locally. And for those of us without any national platform or organizational ties, our individual effectiveness to fight these actions is severely limited. 

When we start locally, each of us has a lot of power. Remember when I said that the Ward 7 DFL endorsement this year was won by 4 votes? Did you know that the Ward 8 City Council re-election of Andrea Jenkins in 2021 was decided by only 38 votes? The vision for the East Phillips Urban Farm project started in the imagination of a small group of neighbors. And, of course, the global uprising after George Floyd’s murder started with a few bystanders who witnessed and filmed an event both so traumatic and commonplace that it resonated with people around the world.

When we join with our neighbors locally, big things can happen. And there are more renters and union workers in Minneapolis than landlords and big business owners. If we work together as a community, can we drown out their influence? Can we make Minneapolis into the place we want to live? A place where anyone who wants to call this place home, can thrive? I think so.

Don’t know where to start? Here are my suggestions:

• Vote! I’m not under any illusions that voting is the only (or even the best) way to make change. But it is a necessary one.
  • There are 3 people running against Jacob Frey for Mayor this year that deserve your consideration more than he does. Research Sen. Omar Fateh, Rev. Dr. DeWayne Davis, and Jazz Hampton. We have ranked choice voting for city elections, so if you like them all better than Jacob Frey, you can rank them all in your preferred order. Just, whatever you do, Don’t Rank Frey in any position on your ballot.
  • Look up your city ward and research the candidates running for City Council. (Remember: unless you, too, are a Republican—don’t take suggestions from the Republican-led We ♥️ ️Mpls).
• Donate! Along with the 3 mayoral campaigns mentioned above, your dollar will go furthest by supporting these 4 city council campaigns, which will likely determine whether we enter 2026 with a progressive council majority.
  • Ward 5: Ethrophic Burnett
  • Ward 7: Katie Cashman 
  • Ward 8: Soren Stevenson
  • Ward 10: Aisha Chughtai
• Talk to people! Send this article, these campaign websites, or some of the many resources linked in it, to your friends and family. Talk to them about what you learn. And, as November approaches, make sure they plan to vote and that they know what they’re voting for.
• Volunteer! Volunteer to make calls or knock doors for the candidates mentioned above. Or, find another organization dedicated to making Minneapolis a better place and get involved. Here’s an excellent list of local community orgs from Racket.
• Make things! If you make art of any kind, use it to help us spread the word to #DontRankFrey, don’t trust We ♥️ Mpls, or to just make our city an even more beautiful place.

It can be hard to have hope in times like these. Organizer Mariame Kaba says “hope is a discipline,” and I’ve found that to be true for myself. Sometimes, the only way to get hope is to work for it. I hope you’ll join me.

Cover photo by Taylor Dahlin, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.