Wedge LIVE!

John is joined by co-host Pine, a Senior Political Analyst who is currently managing the only citywide DFL endorsed campaign in Minneapolis. After some co-host banter, Nick Kor arrives for a conversation about his run for the Ward 7 seat on the Minneapolis City Council. We talk about the political geography of Ward 7 (East of Hennepin Ave vs. West of Hennepin Ave). How do you convince the apartment dwellers of Ward 7 the stakes are high enough that they should come out and vote in a city election? Among this episode's topics: public safety, housing, the Hennepin Avenue reconstruction, the single room occupancy debate, food carts, and Nick plays his guitar.

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Wedge LIVE theme song by Anthony Kasper x LaFontsee

John is joined by Jason Garcia and Taylor Dahlin to dole out conventional wisdom on everything that's happened through the first half of the 2021 election year in Minneapolis. Did Mayor Jacob Frey really win by losing, as traditional media personalities would have you believe? Will the city council swing conservative or progressive? We can help you interpret the meaning behind DFL endorsements and non-endorsements across the city. Later in the show we're joined by Jacob Garcia and Dr. Melody Hoffman for a dramatic reading of mean tweets about Mayor Frey.

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Wedge LIVE theme song by Anthony Kasper x LaFontsee

John is joined by guests Ash Narayanan and Elissa Schufman to talk about what's wrong with Minneapolis streets and how to fix them. Ash is educated as a civil and traffic engineer, but decided to use those powers for good, as the executive director of Our Streets Minneapolis. Our Streets is an organization that "works for a city where biking, walking, and rolling are easy and comfortable for everyone." Elissa (who is also a board member at Our Streets) has a day job in transportation advocacy. Among the topics: What's a 4-to-3 lane conversion and why is it better and safer? Why do we value moving tens of thousands of cars at high speed through very dense neighborhoods like the Wedge and Whittier, instead of creating livable streets for the tens of thousands of people who live there? What government entity (city vs. county) is in charge of our most dangerous streets and how do we know who to hassle (elected official or unelected public works official) to get them fixed? How do we get the City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County to stick to some of the truly impressive transportation/climate plans and policies they've adopted in recent years? Why is it important that Minneapolis hire a visionary public works director to fill the position currently occupied by an interim director? What do you say to a person who shouts angrily at a public meeting, "electric cars are coming online!" as an argument against a less car-centric transportation system? Also: John debunks the myth of the $900 million bike lane. Elissa introduces us to the concept of "human infrastructure" and talks about Minnesota's status as a nation leader in road miles per person (and by land area).

Episode recorded on May 28, 2021.

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Wedge LIVE theme song by Anthony Kasper x LaFontsee

John is secretly very tired of talking to candidates for Minneapolis Park Board, so he combined two of them into one episode, just to get this over with quicker. Becky Alper (beckyforparks.org) is running in district 3 and Tom Olsen (olsenforparks.org) running citywide at-large. We talk about parkways and how to use them. John maintains that not even the biggest automobile enthusiast goes to a park to experience the sights and sounds of car traffic. Tom talks about his ideas for reallocating space from underutilized baseball fields towards things like soccer, skateboarding and basketball. John accuses him of going to war against baseball. Becky wants to speed up the implementation of new ideas by using pilot projects rather than extended years long processes. We also talk about encampments, park police, boulevard trees, pesticides, legalizing alcohol in parks, and much more.

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Wedge LIVE theme song by Anthony Kasper x LaFontsee

John is joined by co-host Jason Garcia for a conversation about public safety and election year politics with guest Asma Mohammed Nizami. Topics for co-host banter include the conservative effort to quickly build out an array of new organization to match progressive political infrastructure in Minneapolis; an update to the Wedge LIVE endorsements venn diagram and voter guide; the Yellow Pages; John recalls the time he was named one of the 100 People to Know in 2020 by the prestigious Twin Cities Business magazine. Then, Asma joins the conversation. We talk about her work with RISE (revivingsisterhood.org); her assessment of the last year in Minneapolis; the momentum built for a new system of public safety; how to talk to people in the middle, who aren't sure what to think about shifting to that new system; her work on the successful Yes4Minneapolis campaign to put a public safety charter amendment question on the ballot. We talk about the strong mayor charter amendment and shake our heads in disappointment at the nakedly political actions of the unelected Minneapolis Charter Commission. All three of us agree that Mayor Frey has shown an incapacity for leadership, something that's been exposed during the crises of the last year. John closes the show with an uplifting message for this city election year, urging people to forget their hopes and vote their fears.

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Wedge LIVE theme song by Anthony Kasper x LaFontsee

John talks to Eric Moran, who's running to represent North Minneapolis (and a tiny part of the North Loop neighborhood) on the Minneapolis Park Board. Eric says he's running a campaign focused on both physical and digital access to the parks system and its government. With recent news of Minneapolis dropping in the ranking of best urban parks systems (based on the percentage of people who live within a 10 minute walk to a park), John asks what can be done to increase the number of people who can live near parks and how to narrow the racial disparities in park access. We also talk about encampments, park police, and Eric's desire to reopen a North Minneapolis ice arena that's fallen into disuse. John recounts 45 years of basketball NIMBYism in the Wedge neighborhood's Mueller Park -- and the racist trope of public basketball courts as magnets for crime and undesirable behavior. Eric comes out in support of full court basketball and introduces John to the concept of Pokemon NIMBYs. In response, John introduces listeners to the concept of Pokemon fanatic, and Uptown mainstay, Ryan Brown.

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Wedge LIVE theme song by Anthony Kasper x LaFontsee

A year after George Floyd's murder by four Minneapolis police officers, rising rates of violent crime (locally and across the country) have created a backlash to the backlash. Demands for a new system of public safety have been met with calls for more police from a reinvigorated law-and-order political coalition. John and co-host Jason Garcia speak with Logan Carroll about his story in the Minnesota Reformer, uncovering coordination between Mayor Frey, Chief Arradondo, and a newly formed pro-police political organization run by "PR pros" called Operation Safety Now (as distinct from the multi-jurisdictional law enforcement and military operation Operation Safety Net which put National Guard soldiers on street corners during the Derek Chauvin trial). Unlike the typical activist-politician relationship, Logan has obtained a giant stack of emails that show some of Operation Safety Now's talking points are flowing out of City Hall. John sees OSN as one piece of a constellation of new and existing conservative business and community groups working to affect the outcome of the 2021 election. But, as Council Member Lisa Goodman asks, is this really so different from activism happening on the other side? John is particularly troubled by the degree to which the police chief, an appointed city department head, has become a political actor in an election year. Logan's story shows Chief Arradondo collaborating on talking points and social media video content (a scripted fake interview) with an organization that is campaigning against progressive members of the city council in favor of a law-and-order slate of candidates. While council members complain about being ignored by the department, layers of MPD staff, including the chief, are turning around requests for information in rapid fashion for OSN. Jason asks about financial incentives for the chief's allies, and what explains Council Member Alondra Cano's rapidly evolving positions on policing. Logan has also uncovered that OSN founder Bill Rodriguez isn't actually a Minneapolis resident and has told two different versions of a home invasion story, neither of which appear to be true. We also talk about one detail left out of Logan's story: an idea to influence Ward 12 Council Member Andrew Johnson by holding a pro-police puppy parade.

Read Logan's story: https://minnesotareformer.com/2021/05/24/with-budget-on-the-line-minneapolis-police-chief-coordinated-with-political-operatives-to-lobby-the-city-council-emails-show/

Listen to Logan's podcast, Unbalanced.MN, which examines "America's burgeoning right wing."

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Wedge LIVE theme song by Anthony Kasper x LaFontsee

John is joined by guest co-host PeggySue Imihy. The guest is Kate Knuth, candidate for mayor of Minneapolis. We start the show by playing PeggySue's theme song. Then we poke fun at a rival podcast host. John expresses disappointment in PeggySue's late decision to become a city delegate and reveals he takes pleasure in the pain of Ward 10 candidate David Wheeler. Kate and PeggySue bond over their shared heritage in the suburbs of NE Minneapolis. John asks Kate if she thought she'd ever run for office again after three terms in the state legislature (2007-2013), the urgency she felt to run for mayor, and if she's ready for things to get mean. Kate disputes Mayor Frey's fear-based framing of this year's choices for mayor. We talk about what a potential Department of Public Safety would look like at the end of the next mayoral term, why Kate would succeed where all other mayors have failed, her resistance to making big promises she can't back up. PeggySue asks about the Roof Depot site, and pushes Kate to get specific about whether soldiers on street corners was the right approach for Operation Safety Net. As someone who's spent a career working on climate change, what does "Kate Knuth, Climate Mayor" mean for housing policy, transportation, street design, and energy policy? PeggySue demands more housing. I nominate PeggySue for the Planning Commission. John asks, what does rent stabilization accomplish? Does Kate support the strong mayor charter amendment? PeggySue bashes the Charter Commission. We close the show by pressuring (bullying?) Kate into revealing better "fun facts" than the ones on her website. PeggySue: "The fun facts on your website are bad." Here's what we unearthed: Did you know Kate Knuth used to rollerblade along the shore of Lake Michigan to her job sequencing moth DNA at the Field Museum in Chicago? Or that she has an irresistible urge to dance whenever she hears the song Timber by Ke$ha? And something else about a pet millipede named Milton. We hope you'll soon be able to check kateformpls.org for these updated fun facts.

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Wedge LIVE theme song by Anthony Kasper x LaFontsee

John is joined by guest co-host Jason Garcia, and they begin by chatting about the state of the race for mayor. Then, a conversation with Sheila Nezhad, candidate for mayor of Minneapolis. Sheila's a policy organizer with Reclaim the Block, who's spent the past few years pushing Minneapolis elected officials to divert funding away from police into alternative approaches to public safety. What does Sheila think of Mayor Frey's fear-based framing of the 2020 election? What would a potential department of public safety look like in four years? What do people misunderstand about her positions? What's the alternative to soldiers on street corners during times of civil unrest? We also talk about crowd control weapons, George Floyd Square, a vision for the city's public works department, housing, the strong mayor proposal, a newfound perspective on sexism that women experience running for office, Ruby the dog, and if Sheila was disappointed at losing the endorsement of the DFL Senior Caucus. Among this episode's gotcha moments: Sheila admits she is to blame for the great police horse budget debate of 2020 and that Jessica Simpson is an "inspiration."

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Wedge LIVE theme song by Anthony Kasper x LaFontsee

Minneapolis DFL caucus registration closed on April 30, so we're checking in with data wizard (and cat tour cinematographer) Conrad Zbikowski for an early look at the results. Over 10,000 people registered -- 3,000 of them in the final two days. 4,500 yet-to-be-confirmed caucus registrants have until midnight on May 7 to input the security code mailed to their home address. We don't know who has the most supporters or who the delegates are. The actual endorsement won't be decided until June. We don't know much of anything, so the most compelling part of this episode might be Conrad looking up John's private information in the DFL database.

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Wedge LIVE theme song by Anthony Kasper x LaFontsee