Better Minneapolis Podcast

Impressions from the Mayor and City Council Speeches

Watching the press conference in which Council President Payne, Vice President Osman, and Ward 2 Council Member Wonsley responded to Mayor Frey’s 2026 State of the City address left me with several impressions and a few questions.

The mayor and city council have competing priorities, few shared ones, and little apparent interest in resolving their differences anytime soon. For Minneapolis, that likely means little meaningful progress, at least as we define it. Progress means a city where more people want to live: where there are good-paying jobs, safe streets, stable housing, and real opportunities to grow a family, a career, or a business. It means a thriving economy that allows people to support themselves, reducing, rather than deepening, the city's dependence on government intervention. Progress does not mean a city perpetually raising revenue to manage a growing population that is out of work, food insecure, reliant on rental assistance, or caught in substance use disorders that too often lead to homelessness and petty crime.

Many will be encouraged to hear that Mayor Frey, after eight and a half years in office, has grown less patient with open-air drug use and a depleted police force. His plan centers on increasing access to Brixadi, a long-acting addiction treatment, expanding affordable housing, and connecting more residents to county services. He noted that there are now only 239 unsheltered people in Hennepin County, all of whom have been connected with outreach teams. If accurate, that represents remarkable progress.

Mayor Frey hopes to have 800 officers on the force by the time he leaves office in roughly three and a half years. Reaching that goal will require council support, no small ask from a body that remains deeply skeptical of the department, both for its history and its current conduct. Frey can expect continued scrutiny over the police budget, the handling of domestic abuse cases and officer-involved shootings, off-duty conduct, the training center, and the long-delayed Southside Community Safety Center. The replacement for the 3rd Precinct was briefly mentioned as moving forward, but residents will believe it when the doors are open and they can walk in and speak with an officer. The facility is expected to include childcare, mental health support, and youth programming. Notably absent from the speech: any mention of Community Safety Commissioner Barnette, whose nomination remains unapproved by the council, or of Police Chief O’Hara and the question of his own confirmation.

The mayor spoke of a city government focused and disciplined about delivering on the basics. One example: the city fixed 700 streetlights, clearing the official backlog. Another: reducing permitting red tape for businesses and construction, including a bold claim that small-scale residential projects will have permits approved within one business day of application. There was an implied contrast with the council’s recent agenda items, legalizing bathhouses and drug paraphernalia among them, though the mayor was careful not to name names. While he spoke of the city’s responsibility to “set the table” for business, actual job creation received just one concrete mention: employment tied to the Upper Harbor Terminal amphitheater. One genuinely interesting idea was the mayor’s discussion of new potential uses for TIF, Tax Increment Financing, a public financing tool that uses future property tax revenue gains generated by a development to fund the project itself, to help large retail spaces downsize into smaller, more accessible storefronts.

One area of apparent agreement between the mayor and council is the need to help small businesses recover from Operation Metro Surge. Worth noting, however: the $7 million set aside for that purpose covers reduced fees and event permits. The city is not writing checks to small businesses, it is simply collecting less revenue from them.

How to Know if You’re Working Class

Council President Payne spoke about the council’s role “to bubble up the priorities of our community,” describing a working-class agenda built around dignity and affordability. “Back to basics to me means living in a house that you can afford and live with dignity,” he said. Vice President Osman expressed disappointment at the mayor’s veto of the rental notice extension. The council rebuked the mayor for not working more closely with them to “advance a working-class agenda that really put the people first,” emphasizing that government is a collective enterprise, “not an individual sport.”

Listening to the council’s rebuttal, I found myself wondering: who, exactly, is included in this working-class agenda? When they say “working people,” they appear to mean something more specific than people who work. I spend most of my time on this newsletter and seeking contract communications clients. I work out of a nontraditional space, without a salaried employer or benefits. Am I working class? Perhaps it’s the English degree that disqualifies me. Or perhaps it’s the absence of union membership, though plumbers, electricians, and carpenters earn significantly more than I do at the moment. Teachers, despite their advanced degrees, are generally considered working class. Nurses too. Doctors are not. Where does an artist who left Macalester to sell their work fall? Which council members are working class? Council President Payne, who moved to Minneapolis in 2000 to study mechanical engineering and later earned an MBA from the Carlson School of Management, earns $110,000 a year in his current role. Is he working class?

The point is not to ridicule anyone. It’s to suggest that “working class,” as used in local politics, has become too elastic to carry real meaning. It functions as a political signal, a way of saying we’re on the side of real people, while quietly coding for opposition to corporations, property owners above a certain threshold, and business owners who object to drug use on their block. If we use the DSA’s definition, working class is determined by one’s relationship to the means of production: if you sell your labor and don’t own the enterprise, you are among the roughly 80% of Americans who qualify. Under that definition, I was working class even when I was in corporate management. I doubt that’s what Council President Payne has in mind.

The Budget Battle to Come

While the definition of “working class” may seem academic, it will have real consequences in this year’s budget process. Mayor Frey warned that “getting serious will mean hard conversations about programs or investments that aren’t working.” Council Member Wonsley has said repeatedly that she wants economic development distributed across the city’s neighborhoods rather than concentrated downtown. A tool like TIF, which primarily benefits property development, may struggle to earn council support if it’s seen as favoring developers over working people. Our concern is straightforward: when businesses and investors perceive the city as hostile to their success, they go elsewhere, and the resulting downward cycle ends in stagnation. A working-class agenda only succeeds if it attracts employers, ones willing to hire people across a wide range of backgrounds, education levels, and skill sets.

What city program genuinely helps the working class if it doesn’t result in a job? You can’t be part of the working class if you aren’t working. Mayor Frey at least acknowledged the city’s responsibility to “set the table” for business, even if the details were thin. We want the council and the mayor to agree on an agenda that favors job creation broadly, corporations and construction workers, teachers and lawyers, investors and tiny media startups like this one. The city must welcome anyone willing to invest here. Narrow the definition of who deserves to be part of the revival too sharply, and you stop it before it gains momentum.

Thank you for reading and caring about Minneapolis.

Link to the 2026 State of the City by Mayor Frey.

Link to the Council President Payne Rebuttal with VP Osman and Council Member Wonsley.

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The Long and the Short of It

Sitting down with Commissioner Marion Greene, we covered a lot of ground and learned how much the county actually does. Hennepin County’s $3.15 billion budget is larger than Minneapolis’s and dedicates 26.8% to Human Services, 21.2% to Health, and 15% to Law, Safety and Justice. The county also runs HCMC, the region’s trauma 1 teaching hospital, which is currently fighting for its financial future at the state legislature. Clergy and supporters held a 24-hour prayer vigil to encourage the legislature to pass a proposed sales tax before the session ends.

We didn't get to everything — the closing of HERC, for example, was only briefly touched on. But we did discover that Greene shares our editor's facility with the two-letter words that make Scrabble players insufferable. Reflecting on all the governments and organizations the county must navigate, a bigger question kept nagging at us: is our election system filtering out exactly the kind of people we need most? To be clear, this isn't a critique of Commissioner Greene or any specific candidate — it's a broader observation about the traits our election system tends to reward. Greene, for her part, is seeking the DFL endorsement this August.

Winning office rewards extroverts — people who are sociable, competitive, and increasingly expected to produce a steady stream of social media videos, even if they're just telling voters what small business they supported for breakfast. But governing Minnesota's complex challenges, from income disparity to public safety to substance use, may require something different: people who listen more than they talk, who can digest a dense report, and who are willing to follow rather than lead when the moment calls for it. That's not a skill set that fits neatly on a campaign mailer. We may be biased by our own introverted tendencies, but the quiet collaborators rarely get the credit when things go right.

With the federal government now withholding another $91 million in Medicaid from Minnesota, and demand for SNAP, housing, and healthcare assistance at high levels, the stakes for getting this right are significant. There’s no quick fix, but options like proportional representation or open top-four primaries could help broaden who runs and who wins. In the meantime, voters can start by asking themselves: when was the last time I chose a candidate because they seemed like a good team player

?

Interview Summary

Marion Greene is the District 3 Hennepin County Commissioner, running for reelection after 12 years on the commission and two prior years as a state legislator. A foreign service kid raised across multiple countries, she came to Minnesota after being recruited by the Pillsbury Company, later moved into the medical device industry, and found her way into politics through a public policy role — with the encouragement of her then-VP, now Congresswoman Angie Craig.

Greene highlighted key accomplishments including Hennepin County’s climate action plan and zero waste plan, championed during the pandemic while she chaired the county board. She emphasized the county’s role as the primary local funder of affordable housing, while acknowledging that need continues to outpace resources. Other topics included Hennepin County Healthcare’s leadership transition and the shift toward decentralized county services that meet residents where they are.

On the Sheriff’s Office, Greene clarified remarks taken out of context — her point was never that the county shouldn’t support public safety, but that expanding the sheriff’s patrol role countywide would be fiscally irresponsible given the county’s roughly 100 deputies versus 1,500-plus city officers regionwide. She also flagged a $15 million budget overage worth scrutiny given looming federal Medicaid cuts.

On Lyndale Avenue, she explained that as a county road, city council approval is desired but not technically required, construction is pushed to 2028, and an unresolved question remains about whether Mayor Frey can now bypass council sign-off on road designs.

The Hennepin County Home School discussion weighed real tradeoffs. While the 145-acre Minnetonka facility gave many youth their first access to medical care, mental health services, and regular meals, Greene cited outdated buildings and the broader shift toward community-based care as reasons for closure. She pushed back on claims linking the closure to rising car thefts, noting only a handful of kids remained at the end. It’s an open question as to whether community alternatives deliver equivalent outcomes. Greene conceded no adequate regional solution yet exists for the most traumatized youth, pointing to the new Youth Stabilization Center at 1800 Chicago Avenue as a step toward modern best practices.

Greene closed by discussing the county-city collaboration on homelessness and making an appeal for listeners to sign up as election judges emphasizing civic participation as she heads into her reelection campaign.

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It’s been roughly six months since I last interviewed Eric Roper. He has been writing for the Star Tribune since 2009, and his columns fuel a significant amount of conversation in Minneapolis and the surrounding area.

For this interview, I wanted to hear more about his recent work. Links provided below. Over the past month, he has weighed in on some of the city’s most difficult topics. We agreed that the solutions aren’t easy and that real progress will require a genuine change in mindset from both the mayor and the city council.

To follow Eric’s work by email, sign up for his newsletter at startribune.com/roperalert.

Interview Summary

On Uptown, Roper is cautiously optimistic. He pointed to a new Urban Land Institute report outlining actionable improvements: creating a Business Improvement District modeled on the downtown example, better marketing of existing parking, developing a more walkable “Uptown Alley” behind Seven Points, and, his personal favorite, extending the Como-Harriet streetcar line along the Midtown Greenway to the Uptown Transit Center as a bold, tourist-friendly connector. He acknowledged that near-term steps like walking groups and increased police presence matter, but argued that real revival will require market intervention, possibly including the city purchasing key properties or using tax increment financing to retrofit outdated retail buildings.

On downtown, Roper made the case that Minneapolis has spent roughly 25 years stepping back from the market interventions that once drove its revival, while St. Paul, having hit rock bottom, is now moving with urgency, committing county dollars to housing and riverfront development. He expressed frustration that neither the mayor nor the council is treating the erosion of the commercial tax base with the seriousness it demands. The revenue losses from deeply discounted building sales won’t fully appear in the tax rolls for another year or two, by which point the damage will be much harder to reverse.

On the drug paraphernalia decriminalization debate, Roper was characteristically nuanced. He acknowledged that since the current ordinance clearly isn’t solving the open drug use problem in Uptown and elsewhere, the case for decriminalization has some merit. But he said he was left uneasy by what he described as the “kid gloves” approach of harm reduction providers who deliberately avoid steering people toward treatment.

He also made the case for a regional summit bringing together law enforcement, social service agencies, counties, and nonprofits around a shared strategy. The fragmentation of the metro, 140-plus cities, seven counties, 35 police chiefs in Hennepin County alone, makes coordinated action extremely difficult, and no one appears to be pushing for it.

On city governance, Roper described the council as “must-see TV in a bad way.” He credited the more progressive bloc for having a clear and active policy agenda, but noted that the mayor and his allies are largely playing defense without offering a competing vision. He stopped short of predicting how things improve, and said he will be listening closely to the mayor’s upcoming State of the City address for any signal that a course correction is in the works.

Thank you for reading and caring about Minneapolis.

Links to the columns we discussed:

Five great ideas to improve Uptown, the Twin Cities’ most enduring commercial hub

March 27

The new season of Minneapolis City Council is must-see TV, in a bad way

April 11

Is now the right time for Minneapolis to loosen its drug laws?

April 14

Hunger strikers say the government is wrong about incinerator’s risks. I don’t buy it.

April 17

Only one of our Twin Cities appears serious about reviving its downtown

April 24

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Will the Real Leader of Minneapolis Please Stand Up?

Thursday, I spent half a day watching the Minneapolis City Council meeting and feel as though I’m still recovering. When my editor asked how it went, I struggled to find the right words.

“Well, if I were opening a business, the last place I would choose right now is Minneapolis.”

The reason is simple. The current city council has reached a mind-numbing state of dysfunction. Members are unpredictable and lack a shared set of priorities. As we’ve written before, the focus must be on attracting jobs, projecting stability to investors, and shoring up a tax base that is eroding rapidly as downtown continues to hollow out. Meaningful collaboration on those priorities does not appear possible at the moment.

One telling detail: City Clerk Casey Carl told the council he is struggling to find a date for a consultant-led leadership retreat because aligning the schedules of 13 council members and the mayor has proven nearly impossible. In a private business, the boss would simply require everyone to clear their calendars, because the situation is hurting the organization and it needs to be fixed. But in our city government, 14 people each believe their schedule and their opinions take precedence. The result is a cycle of frustration and ineffectiveness, and a city that is floundering while residents and businesses look for opportunities elsewhere.

Watch the latest council meeting and you will witness personal grudges, arguments over what cooperation even means, and revolts on multiple fronts: against the mayor, against the strong mayor system, minority against majority. It brings to mind the 1953 Marlon Brando film “The Wild One”, in which Brando plays Johnny Stabler, a brooding delinquent who leads a motorcycle gang terrorizing a small California town. When asked what he’s rebelling against, he sneers, “Whaddya got?”

There were moments in Thursday’s meeting we could have clipped and shared on social media to ridicule specific members, score points, or highlight their contradictions. That behavior, practiced constantly by others, only hardens the fault lines between members and between leaders and residents. It isn’t our style. We want to highlight solutions. More importantly, we want our city leaders to find solutions and actually implement them. When this newsletter becomes a boring weekly thank-you note to council members, you’ll know the city is on the right track.

The city needs a functional government. We need our 14 representatives to occasionally speak with one voice. The council and mayor were sworn in on January 5, 2026, to four-year terms. If the current dynamic holds, expect a steady stream of slim-majority ordinances, mayoral vetoes, and failed override attempts, a process that will grease the wheels of the city’s decline. The mayor will seek to consolidate power in his office and work around the council whenever possible. The council will grow increasingly frustrated and escalate its attempts to remain relevant. Neither path leads anywhere good.

First-Hand Accounts

We read several reports on Thursday’s meeting. The mainstream press tends to focus on specific votes and outcomes. What gets left out is the anger and bitterness that have surfaced after a mere 100 days in office. As one council member said, near tears: “I can’t go on this way. It must change.”

Unfortunately, it can go on this way. People can remain out of work. Buildings can continue to sell for pennies on the dollar. Potholes can get deeper. More cars can be stolen. More businesses can take a chance on this city and fail. What the council and mayor often overlook is that changing this trajectory is within their power. They could turn off their social media feeds, lock themselves in a room, and stay there until they find common ground. The fact that they don’t is a choice.

Minneapolis cares deeply for the historically marginalized. We do not want to see people evicted. We want people to get treatment for substance use disorders and mental illness. But to provide those services sustainably, the city must have the best infrastructure in the region, the best roads, the cleanest streets, high-performing schools, safe neighborhoods, and sensible regulations that allow businesses to thrive. Minneapolis competes on a national scale for conferences, investment, and talent. Overcoming the headwinds facing the city will require a less parochial mindset from its leaders.

Council Meeting Summary

The council passed the drug paraphernalia decriminalization ordinance, known as “Care Over Criminalization,” on a 7-6 vote. Supporters argued that decriminalizing possession, not use, aligns Minneapolis with existing state law, reduces barriers for harm reduction workers, and builds trust with people struggling with addiction. One council member, drawing on his background in street outreach, spoke about how distributing clean supplies opened doors to relationships that eventually helped people find housing and treatment. Opponents raised legitimate concerns: the city’s own deputy city attorney testified that Metro Transit Police actively use the paraphernalia ordinance to respond to drug use complaints at bus shelters and light rail stations, and that it has historically served as a negotiating tool to steer people toward treatment. An amendment to limit decriminalization to marijuana paraphernalia only, floated as a compromise to avoid a mayoral veto, failed 6-7, and the full ordinance passed.

The council also approved a 45-day pre-eviction notice extension, “Pause Eviction, Save Lives,” by a vote of 8-5. The measure was framed as a modest but meaningful response to the economic disruption left by Operation Metro Surge, which left many immigrant renters jobless and afraid to leave their homes. A pointed side debate emerged over whether the city’s rental assistance application portal was actually accessible to people who hadn’t yet received an eviction notice, a problem staff acknowledged and pledged to address. (Note: We were unable to independently verify the claim made by some council members that eviction filings are at near-record levels.)

A proposed moratorium on data centers became the meeting’s most contentious procedural fight. The ordinance, introduced without attached language, as a subject matter only, was postponed to the May 21st meeting pending the conclusion of the state legislative session. Critics warned the moratorium was already sending a chilling signal to investors, citing a downtown building that sold for $235 million after being assessed at $30 million just a year earlier. Supporters argued that large-scale data centers carry serious environmental and energy grid consequences that warrant study before any approvals move forward. A motion to kill the ordinance outright failed, and the broader question of whether subject matter introductions should routinely advance or can be voted down at introduction remains unresolved.

The Payne Letter

After the failed veto override on the Toddrick Barnette nomination, Council Member Palmisano objected to a memo Council President Payne had submitted to the city’s legislative record titled “The City Council’s Vision for Community Safety and Toddrick Barnette’s Failure to Meet That Vision.” Palmisano argued the memo implied a collective position the body never formally adopted, and moved to have it removed. The city clerk confirmed that the council president does not have the authority to speak for the body absent a formal vote, though he acknowledged it is a gray area council presidents frequently have to navigate.

The debate that followed was one of the meeting’s more revealing moments. Several members said they were never consulted and objected to being included, however implicitly, in a document they didn’t author or endorse. Others defended the memo as a reasonable response to the mayor’s public accusation that the council’s rejection of Barnette was politically motivated rather than substantive. The motion to remove the memo failed 6-7. A suggestion to formally adopt it as the council’s official position was declined, with one member cautioning that doing so would effectively create new procedural rules without a proper discussion of council governance. The letter remains in the file.

Positive Notes

A word of recognition for City Clerk Casey Carl, who may have the toughest job in city government. He must explain voting procedures and amendments in real time, keep meetings from unraveling, and address every council member with patience and diplomacy regardless of what’s unfolding around him. We sincerely hope he finds a date for that leadership retreat.

On a lighter note: we spent part of our Saturday morning with Leon Bridges and his song “Beyond.” Recommended listening.

Thank you for reading and caring about Minneapolis.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.betterminneapolis.com/subscribe

Introduction

This newsletter is dedicated to documenting the people, politics, and solutions working to improve Minneapolis. As a two-person operation, writer and editor, we pride ourselves on bringing you a unique perspective that no nonprofit think tank could replicate. We are genuinely grateful to every reader who chooses to support that mission with a paid subscription.

Occasionally, though, we venture beyond city limits. As much as we’d prefer to ignore Trump and focus on local solutions, it’s been impossible to ignore Operation Metro Surge or his administration’s decision to withhold Medicaid dollars that sustain our hospitals and the recipients who depend on them. Over 303,000 Hennepin County residents, about 22%, depend on Medicaid, and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services is withholding over $240 million. While the stated justification is fraud and program vulnerabilities, political motivations appear to be at play as well.

This raises a broader question: shouldn’t Minnesota have a State Auditor who is nonpartisan, or at least from outside the party in power? When a single party controls a state without meaningful checks and balances, accountability tends to slip. Consider Rep. Ilhan Omar’s recently amended financial disclosure. She and her husband Tim Mynett originally reported a net worth of between $6 million and $30 million. When faced with a threatened investigation, they amended that figure to between $18,000 and $95,000, a reduction of roughly 99.7%, attributing it to an accounting error.

To anyone who signs off on their taxes each year after reviewing them with a CPA, that explanation is hard to accept. A small business owner making an error of that magnitude would face serious consequences. Yet Omar retains the solid backing of her district and the DFL, which illustrates exactly the kind of tribal protection that entrenched parties provide. Some voters, however, are looking for alternatives.

We aren’t planning to interview every State Auditor candidate, but the hyper-partisanship and weak financial controls we’re currently experiencing give us reason to hear what the Forward Independence Party has to say. Ideally, we’d like to see proportional representation that gives smaller parties a real foothold in government. Until then, an independent voice in the Auditor’s office, one focused on modern data systems and transparent public dashboards rather than party loyalty, could be exactly what Minnesota needs.

Interview Summary

Jay Reeves, a candidate for Minnesota State Auditor running under the Forward Independence Party, brings an unconventional background to the race. Born and raised on the east side of St. Paul to teenage parents, Reeves worked in trucking before joining the Army at age 31, where he rose from enlisted soldier to commissioned officer over 17 years of service. Through the military he earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s in health informatics with a concentration in data analytics from the University of Minnesota. After being diagnosed with stage four cancer in 2022 and retiring as a major in 2023, he found civilian work unsatisfying and decided to channel his skills into public service by running for state auditor.

Reeves’ central pitch is that the State Auditor’s Office needs a data-driven overhaul. He argues that the office has historically relied on a reactive, after-the-fact auditing approach, and that a proactive data analytics mindset — identifying patterns and anomalies before problems escalate — would make government spending far more transparent and accountable. He points to outdated technology, siloed data systems, and the lack of basic data-validation tools as concrete problems he wants to fix and envisions public-facing interactive dashboards that would let any Minnesotan easily track how their city or county is spending money.

On the question of why he’s running as an independent, Reeves is direct: he believes the State Auditor role should be nonpartisan, and that the hyper-partisan environment at the legislature has made it harder — not easier — to seriously address issues like fraud and financial mismanagement. He argues that Minnesotans have allowed political ideology to become personal identity and encourages voters to research individual candidates rather than voting straight-party. His campaign is also a vehicle to grow the Forward Independence Party, which formed last July from a merger of the Independence and Alliance parties, and which Reeves sees as a home for the many Minnesotans who feel left out by the two-party system.

Thank you for reading and caring about Minneapolis.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.betterminneapolis.com/subscribe

Introduction

The major news out of the Hennepin County Attorney’s office this week was the filing of charges against Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., 34, a federal ICE agent. Morgan faces two counts of second-degree assault for pulling his weapon, a Glock 19 equipped with a laser light, on two people in another vehicle while driving on the shoulder of the Highway 62 and Interstate 35W interchange on February 5. A nationwide warrant has been issued, meaning Morgan would need to be extradited to Hennepin County to face charges.

What makes this case notable is how prosecutors built it: entirely through State Patrol investigation using traffic camera footage and license plate readers. Morgan has admitted to being the driver. Prosecutors don’t need the federal government to hand over evidence because they already have what they need. That’s a significant contrast to the shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good during Operation Metro Surge, where investigators have been stalled waiting on federal cooperation that has yet to materialize.

Each candidate we’ve interviewed in the Hennepin County Attorney’s race has expressed a commitment to holding the federal agents involved in those shootings accountable. But with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche showing no signs of being more cooperative — or more willing to investigate internally — than his predecessor, the realistic timeline for charges in those cases could stretch years, if charges ever come at all.

That gap between what justice demands and what the federal government is willing to provide is discussed in my conversation with Matt Pelikan, who joins the podcast fresh from the DFL Senior Caucus debate. Several debate attendees told us they were struck by the depth of the candidate field. Better Minneapolis has interviewed each candidate in the race, and we’ll be reporting on the June 13 Hennepin County convention. Matt sees a through line in his career of holding the powerful to account, and says that drive is a core reason he’s running.

Summary

Matt Pelikan is a lifelong Minnesotan and 14-year litigator who clerked on the Minnesota Supreme Court and has a background in progressive politics, having worked for campaigns including Paul Wellstone, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. He decided to run for Hennepin County Attorney because he believes the office needs a leader who can thread the needle between criminal justice reform and real public safety — rejecting what he calls “trench warfare” between the pro-reform and tough-on-crime camps. He supported current Attorney Mary Moriarty four years ago but feels her tenure has stumbled, particularly in how she has managed relationships with law enforcement and rolled out policy changes without adequate stakeholder buy-in.

On the major issues, Pelikan takes a pragmatic approach. He believes race should play no role in charging or sentencing decisions, that clearance rates (particularly the roughly 1% rate for car thefts) represent a serious failure, and that youth diversion programs have merit but must be balanced against accountability for repeat or violent offenders. On Operation Metro Surge and the ICE raids, he argued that charges should have been brought more quickly, citing the lesson from the Biden/Garland era that delayed accountability carries a real political and community cost. He also expressed frustration that the constitutional challenges ahead shouldn’t be used as an excuse for inaction. According to Pelikan:

And I personally refuse to believe that with the hundreds of eyewitnesses, hundreds or thousands of hours of footage, there isn’t a single use of force case ready to charge.

And I think that if we have one lesson from the past five years with Joe Biden and Merrick Garland, that there’s a real cost to waiting for accountability.

And this idea that we’re just going to drag things out for years at a time and make sure we do it right, actually is a bad idea.

Pelikan’s overarching message is that progressive cities must be safe, livable places or they risk undermining the broader project of progressive governance. He emphasized that rebuilding trust with the county’s 34 police departments starts with basic respect and communication — something he believes Moriarty failed to do — while still holding officers accountable when they break the law. He frames his candidacy as a common-sense alternative to the pendulum swings that have defined recent criminal justice debates and is seeking the DFL endorsement at the June 13th convention.

Thank you for reading and caring about Minneapolis.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.betterminneapolis.com/subscribe

Introduction

This interview with David Fhima comes at a critical time for Minneapolis restaurants and businesses. Restaurants in particular are feeling the pressure of rising wages, food costs, and property taxes. Add to those challenges a shift in lifestyle, less drinking, more nights at home, and it’s easy to understand why a concerted effort from the city is needed to rehabilitate Minneapolis’s reputation. We need people from outside the city, both from our suburbs and from across the country, to see Minneapolis as safe, vibrant, and worth a visit.

It’s our reputation that needs burnishing. As Fhima puts it, “charity begins at home. Take care of home.” That sentiment is widely shared, and it’s why so many residents have expressed frustration over recent efforts to bring back bathhouses, decriminalize drug paraphernalia, and pass resolutions about Cuba and foreign banks. People want their city government laser-focused on repairing the damage done during Operation Metro Surge. But even before the surge, residents were feeling the effects of high taxes, rising costs, and a general sense of disorder.

Many restaurants along Lake Street have closed or are operating in survival mode. In addition, several restaurants considered cornerstones of their neighborhoods have closed recently, including the Lowry, Pajarito, D’Amico & Sons, and Sunstreet Bread. As we write this, we’re learning that 801 Chophouse on Nicollet has filed for bankruptcy protection. These weren’t pop-up restaurants taking a chance; these were established businesses with loyal patrons and a proven product. As Fhima notes, restaurants rarely close for a single reason, it’s usually a confluence of factors. But for those of us who frequented these places, their closings have created a creeping sense of dread about the city’s future. Our elected officials often seem oblivious to the perceived decline and appear to have priorities out of step with the majority of residents.

Recent actions by the city council feel transactional. Rather than focusing on the health of the city as a whole, they appear focused on serving specific subsets of constituents without considering how those choices color perceptions more broadly. These groups represent votes and campaign support, which in our current system can be enough to win a council seat with fewer than 4,000 total votes. It's reminiscent of the U.S. Senate, where a senator from North Dakota represents 780,000 constituents while a senator from California represents over 39 million, a structural imbalance that rewards catering to a narrow base rather than governing for everyone. Minneapolis might be best served by abandoning this model in favor of proportional representation.

Most restaurants and businesses cannot survive on their immediate neighborhood alone, they need people coming into the city or traveling across it to achieve the volume required to stay open. That reality demands a city government oriented toward more than narrow constituencies. We need elected leaders aligned around a common goal: improving Minneapolis’s reputation throughout the state and the country. Building a marketing campaign around the vague concept of “neighboring” isn’t going to do it. Neither will a listing in the Michelin Guide. What’s required is a change of attitude, fewer rigid definitions of who’s “in” and who’s “out,” and far more signs of open-armed welcoming.

We must come together as a city committed to seeing more “just opened” signs than “sorry to say, after many years, we’re closing.” The entire city loses if we don’t recognize the urgency.

Interview Summary

David Fhima has seen a lot in his 30-plus years in the Twin Cities restaurant business, the 2008 financial crash, COVID, the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. But he says the current moment feels different, and more fragile. Born in Casablanca to a French-Moroccan-Spanish mother and a Sicilian father, Fhima came to the U.S. speaking little English, knocked on a French restaurant door, and never looked back. Today he runs a portfolio of Minneapolis institutions including Maison Margaux, Motherdough, and Vagabondo in Excelsior. It’s that last one that tells a telling story: doing business in Excelsior, he says, costs 30 to 40 percent less than in Minneapolis. The political climate there is simply more encouraging for business, and he’s not afraid to say so.

On the economics of running a restaurant in the city, Fhima is direct without being bitter. Restaurants operate on thin margins, and when regulations designed for corporations get applied to a tipped-wage industry, those margins disappear. He’s not opposed to fair wages or worker protections, he wants them, but he wants city and state policymakers to actually understand the industry before writing rules for it. For example, the fees that restaurants charged to cover employee health insurance are no longer permitted with little acknowledgment of what they accomplished. Alcohol sales are down 40 to 60 percent. Inflation has made it impossible to raise menu prices fast enough to keep pace with rising costs. Any one of these things is manageable, he says. Together, they create a perfect storm.

But Fhima’s deepest concern isn’t regulatory, it’s cultural. He describes a growing trend of customers choosing restaurants based on perceived political affiliation, leaving fake reviews as acts of protest, and staying out of Minneapolis entirely because they feel unwelcome. Suburban diners who might once have come downtown aren’t coming. Downtown residents who might drive out to the lake aren’t going. The polarization that has fractured civic life, he argues, has now crossed the threshold into the dining room, and most chefs he knows see it but are too afraid of a boycott to say so. His ask is simple: remember that restaurants are where division ends, not where it starts. People of every background, belief, and politics have always come together over a meal, and if Minneapolis wants to recover, economically and culturally, that’s a good place to begin.

Thank you for reading and caring about Minneapolis.

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In preparation for our interview with Ward 8 City Council Member Soren Stevenson, we put together a long list of questions. We appreciated his patience and willingness to engage on all of them, even the more controversial ones, including the rejection of Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette’s nomination, the effort to decriminalize drug paraphernalia, and overturning the ban on adult bathhouses.

Council Member Stevenson was endorsed by the DSA and is unabashedly pro-union and pro-environment. He wants more compassion and services for people experiencing homelessness, believes more can be done on police reform, and wants to see new revenue streams for the city. Whether or not readers agree with his positions, you’ll find that he is sincere in his beliefs, and for those willing to approach him with openness, he’ll offer the same respect in return.

If you’re watching hoping for confrontation, you’ll be disappointed. That’s not our style. There are already plenty of voices out there drawing viewers with sarcasm, emotional triggers, and outrage. We are of the mindset that Minneapolis is facing serious issues, and finding workable solutions requires setting aside our own beliefs, or those of our tribe, long enough to genuinely listen. There has to be room for negotiation. We should expect our leaders to be making trade-offs: agreeing to move forward on drug paraphernalia decriminalization while tabling the bathhouse ordinance, for example, or funding road repairs in exchange for a two-year pause on the Community Safety Training and Wellness Center. These are illustrations, not recommendations, but they represent the kind of honest prioritization we’d like to see more of from the mayor and council members alike.

What’s at stake is real. We’ve seen in our own neighborhood not only how people leave the city to shop, visit the doctor, and commute to work, but how they’re choosing to move their families to the suburbs for better schools, lower crime rates, and more housing options. Constant factional battles risk accelerating that flight.

Safe Outdoor Spaces

One topic we didn’t get to in the interview was the Safe Outdoor Spaces ordinance, and we were reminded of it while driving on 4th Avenue near the Electric Fetus. About six trucks and RVs are parked along the street that appear to be people’s homes. Seeing them made us wonder whether it wouldn’t be better to have a designated place in the city where people in that situation could park, somewhere with shared facilities, water, and trash service. There are legitimate questions about such a policy: where would it go, and what happens if it becomes an open-air drug market? But those obstacles are worth working through, because the alternative is letting six beat-up RVs become twelve, until someone is shot, a fire breaks out, or there’s a drug overdose. And there’s a building nearby currently for sale that seems unlikely to attract a buyer as long as there’s a homeless encampment across the street.

Before Safe Outdoor Spaces gets dismissed as unrealistic, it would be worth holding a community forum, similar to what was done for George Floyd Square. Other cities have had success with these programs, though they may require tougher enforcement for those who don’t utilize the spaces and services provided. Council Members Chavez, Chughtai, and Chowdhury have introduced this proposal, and they have an open invitation to join us on the show. We agree with Council Member Stevenson that homelessness must be near the top of the city’s priorities, and no solution should be dismissed without sincere engagement. It’s too complicated, and the stakes are too high, to assume any one person, think tank, or nonprofit has the silver bullet.

Interview Summary

Ward 8 Council Member Soren Stevenson is three months into what he describes as a difficult but rewarding start. Beginning his term the day before Renee Good was killed on the border of his ward, Stevenson has been thrown into some of the city’s most pressing issues from day one. On the question of low-level crimes like car break-ins and auto theft, a top concern for many residents, he says the problem often involves minors, and that while police have developed more effective tactics to track perpetrators, the longer-term solution requires investment in youth programming and community supports. He draws a direct line from the collapse of those supports during COVID to the crime wave that followed, and argues the city needs to step up even where the issue technically falls under county jurisdiction.

Two major votes dominated our conversation. On the denial of Commissioner Barnette’s re-nomination, Stevenson was direct: the city’s highest-paid employee oversaw a $20 million police budget overrun and a $7 million fire department overrun, and didn’t know it was happening until the end of the year. Combined with a damning AFSCME letter citing workplace culture concerns, Stevenson said his bar for a $300,000-a-year position is simply higher. On the proposed drug paraphernalia decriminalization ordinance, which was tabled for further discussion, he pushed back on the idea that it signals tolerance for drug use. The city, he noted, is already paying organizations to do harm reduction work while simultaneously treating that work as illegal. “Which is it going to be?” he asked.

On the bigger picture of Minneapolis’s financial health and identity, Stevenson was candid about the challenges ahead. The city over-relies on property taxes compared to peer cities, revenue is shrinking while spending grows, and too many storefronts sit vacant while property owners wait for top dollar. He’s interested in tools like a land value tax and streamlining the business permitting process to make Minneapolis more attractive to entrepreneurs. On the proposed Community Safety Training and Wellness Center, he’s not opposed to the concept but clear that $40 million is the wrong spend at the wrong time when homelessness, housing, and public safety demand priority. And on Operation Metro Surge, he’s proud of the $3.8 million in rental assistance and $7 million in small business support the city has provided, but says flatly that it isn’t enough given the scale of the need.

Thank you for reading and caring about Minneapolis.

Next in our interview series: chef and restaurateur David Fhima joins us, along with three candidates on the November ballot — Matt Pelikan running for Hennepin County Attorney, Jay Reeves of the Forward Independence Party running for State Auditor, and Marion Greene seeking re-election to the District 3 County Commission.

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Social media has become a significant distraction in daily life. People under 30 spend three to five hours a day on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. If you’re 30-49, that drops to two to three hours. Over 50? You’re more likely on Facebook, spending an hour and a half scrolling through baby photos and political news. Over 65, it’s less than that. The numbers vary, but the through line doesn’t: we invest enormous amounts of time and mental energy in these platforms, and a good deal of what we’re doing is expressing outrage or consuming someone else’s.

That dynamic has found a comfortable home in politics. Since the flood of content creators arrived during Operation Metro Surge, we’ve noticed a sharp uptick in politicians taking to Instagram and other platforms to get their message out, unfiltered, unedited, and directly to voters. The results can be impressive. AOC has 9.6 million Instagram followers. New York City’s newly elected Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary and general election on the strength of smart, funny, and genuinely compelling social media videos, has her beat with 11.4 million. He set a standard that will be difficult to match.

But here in Minneapolis, we find ourselves asking a different question: does the rush to go viral and dunk on opponents actually serve democracy? Shannon Watson, executive director of Majority in the Middle, has been watching this dynamic play out up close at the Minnesota Capitol, and she wrote about it in her MinnPost column, “Middle Aisle: Social Media is Polluting the Minnesota Legislature.” Her argument is pointed: when legislators spend more energy performing for their feeds than negotiating in good faith, passing bills and balancing budgets becomes harder for everyone. We sat down with Watson to find out what it’s actually costing the Capitol.

Interview Summary

Shannon Watson explains that the problem isn’t abstract, it’s personal. When colleagues post attacks on each other, or when party caucus accounts amplify those attacks under an official banner, it becomes nearly impossible for legislators to negotiate in good faith. She describes a culture where the incentive to perform for social media has begun to outweigh the incentive to actually legislate, particularly in an election year where all 201 legislative seats are on the ballot and the endorsement caucus process rewards ideological purity over compromise.

Watson introduced two key concepts from her article. The first is the idea that “we are all trackers now”, a reference to the campaign operatives once hired to follow opponents with cameras. Today, every legislator operates knowing that any hallway remark or floor speech can be clipped and weaponized by anyone with a smartphone. The second is “moral framing,” the tendency to present policy debates as having an absolute right and wrong answer, which performs well on social media but makes compromise nearly impossible. She argues that when legislators stake out moral positions publicly, they box themselves in and make it harder to do the negotiating that governing actually requires.

On solutions, Watson is clear-eyed but not pessimistic. She points to legislators like Senator Julia Coleman (R-Waconia) and former Senator Matt Little (DFL-Lakeville) as examples of people willing to publicly reject negativity, though she acknowledges Little lost his race after doing so, which doesn’t exactly encourage others to follow suit. Her core argument is that what gets rewarded is what will continue, meaning citizens have more power than they realize. A simple thank-you email to a legislator who chose collaboration over combat can send a signal that civility has an audience. She also stresses the importance of consuming news from diverse, editorially accountable sources rather than relying on social media feeds that are algorithmically designed to reinforce what you already believe.

Thank you for reading and caring about Minneapolis.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.betterminneapolis.com/subscribe

Minneapolis is at an inflection point. To resuscitate this city, residents, elected officials, and business leaders must reckon with what the numbers are telling us.

The Jobs Report

Job seekers and stock traders alike watch the federal jobs report. On Friday, April 3, the latest report was released and there are several items that should concern anyone invested in the Twin Cities. Axios reported that we lost 2,000 jobs in January, expected, given the immigration tactics of the federal government. The Sahan Journal reported that 1,700 of the approximately 4,000 arrested during Operation Metro Surge have been deported. Unless there is a new influx of people to the area, these jobs will either disappear or remain unfilled.

For the first time since May 2007, Minnesota’s unemployment rate is now higher than the national average, 4.4% compared to the national figure of 4.3%. The local picture is even more concerning. In January, the public sector added 1,000 jobs while the private sector lost 900. In other words, the jobs paid with tax dollars increased while the jobs that generate tax revenue decreased. This trend is compounded by a sobering finding reported by David Schultz in the Minneapolis Times:

Between 2016 and 2026, the commercial and industrial estimated market value of property in Minneapolis, the assessed value of office buildings, retail centers, hotels, and industrial facilities that anchors a large share of the city’s tax base, fell in inflation-adjusted terms from $13.1 billion to an estimated $9.4 billion. That is a real-dollar decline of roughly 28 percent over a decade.

The taxes needed to support city services are quietly shifting from commercial real estate to homeowners. Both the rotation from private to public sector jobs and the erosion of commercial tax revenue are significant warning signs that the financial house is far from in order.

Shoring Up the Foundation

When we say math is nonpartisan, we mean it, neither party’s track record on fiscal discipline is clean. Government spending more than it collects in taxes generates debt. That is true whether budgets are passed by Republicans or Democrats.

In Minnesota and Minneapolis, we have DFL representation. If government grows while the tax base shrinks, the result is deficit spending. There are two ways to avoid this: reduce what government spends, or increase tax revenue. Combining both would have a multiplier effect. New revenue tools, like the proposed social media tax from Gov. Walz, could play a role. But new revenue alone cannot carry the load if the private sector continues to contract.

Residents want rental assistance, homeless services, education, disability care, transportation, parks, public safety, and a solvent Hennepin Healthcare. These are not unreasonable asks, but they require a tax base capable of supporting them. That tax base depends on a thriving private sector, and right now that sector is shrinking.

To build confidence in Minneapolis, leaders must at least acknowledge the importance of the economy, but it seems a distant priority. Any organization or politician that speaks up for businesses in the city risks being labeled a Republican, their reputation attacked in a toxic wasteland of social media. That chilling effect is itself an economic problem.

For Minneapolis to thrive again, we need all stakeholders focused on jobs, jobs, and more jobs. Those come when the math works in Minneapolis's favor, when businesses can look at this city and conclude, without hesitation, that the opportunity here outweighs the risk. As tempting as it may be to engage in international affairs, we must remain focused on our own backyard and rebuilding the foundational elements that help everyone.

Rebuilding Together

Operation Metro Surge unleashed urban warfare in our streets. The bravery, caring, and mutual aid networks residents demonstrated to assist those in need have inspired many around the world. We recognize that while enforcement has slowed, many remain in jeopardy and relief efforts are ongoing. But we must begin to rebuild. We will have to prioritize and work together on complicated budgets even when we disagree. Our health care, education, and safety net programs are strained to the point of breaking.

Having to move your family because you cannot find a job is a trauma that hurts families and weakens the social fabric. Over and over again, we must be asking: How do we attract businesses here? What incentives can we create to bring high-paying private sector jobs back to Minneapolis?

We cannot keep adding public sector jobs while losing private sector ones. The math doesn’t add up. It never has. Saying yes to Minneapolis is itself an act of confidence. And right now, that confidence is exactly what this city needs most.

Thank you for reading, and for caring about this city.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.betterminneapolis.com/subscribe