Incumbent Rep. Ilhan Omar rallied at Thomas Edison High School in northeast Minneapolis Saturday afternoon alongside U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.). 

Omar and Smith focused their speeches on canceling student debt and providing free school lunches as well as on Omar’s reelection campaign. Sanders honed in on defeating former President Donald Trump this November, recognizing climate change and reducing economic inequality across the U.S. 

Before the rally, Omar sat down with The Minnesota Daily to discuss campaign updates for the 5th Congressional District primary election before the Aug. 13 primary election. 

The Minnesota Daily: What is one aspect of your 2024 campaign that you are most proud of? 

Omar: “We are proud of just the level of grassroots organizing that we are doing. We’re seeing hundreds and hundreds of people sign up to volunteer, hundreds and hundreds of people that are donating to our campaign. It’s been really exciting.”

Daily: What has been a significant challenge you have overcome during the 2024 congressional campaign?

Omar: “The challenge is always trying to figure out how to run a campaign while we are still working in D.C. on behalf of our constituents. When you have an opponent that is home and can physically campaign much more than you can.”

Daily: You and your primary opponent have very different views on the Israel-Palestine conflict. For voters concerned about that conflict, why should they vote for you?

Omar: “I lead with humanity. I want a world in which the humanity of Palestinians and Israelis is equally recognized. Where we are pushing for peace and justice and the dignity of everyone in the world. And my opponent does not.”

Daily: With President Biden’s health concerns and recent drop out of the election, how would you describe your confidence for Democrats winning this election in November?

Omar: “There is really (a) surge in enthusiasm. I am really excited about the ways in which people are engaging with the Harris campaign. We are seeing (a) huge surge in people registering to vote, different groups enthusiastically organizing themselves. I’ve been on many of those Zoom calls that have been organized around the country. We are also seeing the benefits of that enthusiasm. Because there is also a renewed energy with so many people willing to get out to the doors and have conversations.” 

Daily: Your husband, Tim Mynett, business dealings have gained a lot of media attention these past few months, has this negatively affected your campaign? 

Omar: “The smears and the lies and this idea of hateful campaigning is something that I know that my constituents reject. I know that my opponents previously have tried to generate headlines so that they can use it in attack ads. But the reality is anybody in business has their challenges. I do not think that it is dignified. I don’t think it is a dignified thing for Don Samuels to be weaponizing it.”

Daily: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us? 

“I am running against someone who was in office in elected office for 12 years and has not made a single difference, who’s now running on making a difference when he failed to do that in a 13-body seat and to assume that he would be successful in the midst of 534 colleagues is absurd and everybody should see through that. I am really excited for the opportunity to continue to garner the support of the people that I represent.”

This interview has been edited for grammar, clarity and length.

As the Minnesota primaries loom, Don Samuels and incumbent Rep. Ilhan Omar return to the forefront of the congressional race for House District 5. 

Samuels and Omar ran against one another in the 2022 congressional election, with Omar beating Samuels by two percentage points. In this upcoming election on Aug. 13, Omar has raised around $1.8 million while Samuels has raised around $535,000, according to the Minnesota Reformer. 

Samuels sat down with the Minnesota Daily to discuss his campaign and address recent news about President Joe Biden and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Omar’s Spokesperson Jackie Rogers said Omar was unavailable for an interview during this time. 

The Minnesota Daily: What is one aspect of your 2024 campaign that you are most proud of? 

Samuels: “It’s the palpable, emotional enthusiasm for the campaign. That is, I believe, very connected to the fact that we lost by 2% and people are feeling responsible for the more that they could have done, the more that they could have given, that they could have participated in the campaign. That shows up in how we’re greeted at events, and we have 40 standby requests for holding meet and greets. People feel like they can connect their neighbors with this. Whereas we had 100 or so volunteers last campaign, we have over 800 this time, which is a phenomenal number.”

Daily: What has been a significant challenge that you have had to overcome during the 2024 congressional campaign?

Samuels: “One of the challenges is the same challenge we had the last time, which is that Congresswoman Omar raised 93% of her dollars or so outside of Minnesota, which I roughly figure is about $260,000. We raised about 75-80% of our dollars inside the state. We significantly out-raised her by maybe a million dollars inside the state to her $360,000. You can see that if this race was simply left to the voters and the residents of CD5 and the state, we would have just simply out-raised her by factors. The challenge for us is to turn this on our side into a national race also, which we kind of hate to do, but we have to get that outside support to compete with that incredible national reputation and profile.”

Daily: You and your primary opponent have very different views on the Israel-Palestine conflict. For voters concerned about that conflict, why should they vote for you?

Samuels: “I’ve always been challenged by people who have the tendency to jump into very complex situations with very simple answers. That becomes especially troubling when the problem is complex, generational, ancient, and many efforts have been made to solve them. Congresswoman Omar is simplifying this thing to concepts like their pro-genocide and anti-genocide students and is unable to understand the complex forces involved in this and the need for discipline and a balanced response that does not alienate any side of the debate. That has been disappointing, but consistent with her ‘either/or’ approach to problems.”

Daily: With President Biden’s health concerns and recent drop out of the election, how would you describe your confidence for Democrats winning this election in November?

Samuels: “The deterioration of President Biden’s support was very painful to watch and especially given his incredible history as the most productive President in recent memory. Now that he’s handed it off to Kamala Harris, and the support for her has surged both financially and affirmationally, it is pleasant to see the great relief as a Democrat to see this happen, and to see a prosecutor take on a felon. The other thing, too, is that she is the perfect anti-Trump. She is a female who is highly sophisticated and skilled and certainly qualified. She is a (child of) immigrants in a debate in a context where immigrants have become the vilified uniter of fearful Americans, manipulated by the President and others. She is a former senator, and so she has that kind of scope of leadership. She is part Indian, part African, and Jamaican. I thought it was pretty poetic that India has had a female prime minister and Jamaica has had a female prime minister. Both countries being former, more recent colonies of the British Empire, which also had its first female prime minister already.  She kind of carries in her DNA the calling of female leadership and to finally blow the ceiling off the constraints for women’s ascendancy.”

Daily: During an interview with Esme Murphy on WCCO, she asked about a podcast interview where you said Ilhan Omar is not “cute enough” and does not “dress well” enough for her role as a congresswoman. What did you mean by that?

Samuels: “Esme said that I said she was not cute or well dressed. I think that was a thing. And just left it there. So there are a few things missing. I did not say Ilhan was (or) was not. I was talking about Ilhan, and then I segued into the concept or premise of poor constituent service and then kind of somewhat strident appeal to that kind of celebrity leadership. Then that’s when I said ‘You’re not’ in that kind of global way. But needless to say, Congresswoman Omar took it as an affront to her identity as a woman. She’s taken an affront to her identity as Muslim in other points in the campaign, an affront to her identity as an immigrant in other parts of her comments about me. She’s basically trying to paint me into a corner where I can say nothing or that I’m so careful that I’ve become ineffective in my rhetoric. I’ve decided I’m not going to play that game. I am going to continue and let the people who know my long years of open biography and know me well make a decision as to what’s really in my heart.”

This interview has been edited for clarity, length and grammar.

Since the 2020 murder of George Floyd, the Minneapolis Police Department has struggled to retain and recruit staff. Now, city leaders are trying to improve other avenues to support the police department. 

The Minneapolis City Council Public Health and Safety Committee met on July 24 to discuss the Center for Justice Research and Innovation recommendations to the MPD, especially concerning staffing and non-police response implementations. 

The committee’s recommendations cover multiple aspects of MPD including staffing and police operations. The staffing recommendations include implementing non-police response operations and reconsidering officer time spent responding to calls.

As of July 2024, the MPD has 568 staff officers but is budgeted for 713 staff officers, according to data provided by MPD Spokesperson Garrett Parten. 

MPD recruits at college career fairs in and out of Minnesota, Community Service Officer program events, local high schools and diversity-focused events, according to Parten. Recently, the department has used social media advertising and QR codes on police cars to increase recruitment exposure. 

Council Member Robin Wonsley (Ward 2) said in a statement that her office is dedicated to identifying what changes were successfully made to the MPD, especially in areas of misconduct, discipline and coaching. Wonsley authored a legislative directive earlier this year asking for updates about recommendations from the committee’s study to the MPD. 

During the committee’s meeting in July, Wonsley spearheaded questions regarding MPD’s work with the Behavioral Crisis Response (BCR) team in the face of a short-staffed department. 

Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the Department needs the BCR’s support, but they need more resources so officers are not responding to mental health crisis calls. 

“It’s very much needed. It’s very helpful,” O’Hara said in the meeting. “I do know there are still times when there is not a BCR unit available and police duty answer calls because they’re busy with other calls and that type of thing.”

Director of 911 Joni Hodne said the BCR is spread thin and needs more people to respond to calls. Hodne added the BCR and police sometimes respond to calls together in instances where the situation is expected to be violent or involve weapons. 

“We do have calls that the police will go out there,” Hodne said. “They’ll get the safety situation under control. Then, they can call a BCR to come in and handle any type of behavioral crisis that anybody is having unseen, and that does happen frequently. They do work together.”

Council President Elliot Payne (Ward 1) said in the meeting that the city and MPD need to consider the context of BCR social worker interventions, which are not necessarily a policing concern but a mental health concern when reporting data to the public. 

University of Minnesota Sociology Professor Michelle Phelps said it is unsurprising that MPD has not filled their vacant spots because the department is not retaining officers like usual. Phelps said the consent decrees by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and by the U.S. Justice Department created a tense environment for MPD to hire. 

“For several years, the situation in Minneapolis has been really complicated and tense,” Phelps said. “It is a city in which there is conflicted and ambivalent support for the police, and there’s a lot of trauma about the police officers’ actions, including the murder of George Floyd.” 

Phelps said rather than solely focusing on MPD’s staffing struggles, she hopes city leaders continue to consider other avenues for public safety, such as violence interruption personnel or the BCR. 

“Police don’t always equate with public safety,” Phelps said. “We can see that both in the sense of police sometimes create danger and create a public safety risk. We can also see that in that there are lots of other ways to be safe that don’t involve calling the police.”

Wonsley said in the statement that, despite the City Council’s allocation of $7 million for hard-to-fill positions, MPD struggles to recruit and retain workers because they failed to show that misconduct is not tolerated. 

“Potential new officers do not have any reason to believe that they will not be training under another Derek Chauvin,” Wonsley said in the statement. “This is why neighboring police forces such as those in St. Paul and surrounding suburbs are not struggling with recruitment and retention, although they pay less than MPD.”

Phelps said recruitment is struggling because many are not seeing the promised transformative changes to MPD. Phelps added the lack of transparency about police misconduct and discipline might make it more difficult to hold officers accountable. 

“The new contract, it actually codifies the sort of rules around coaching, not being a discipline,” Phelps said. “It arguably makes it harder for the people who are calling for those coaching records to be publicly available and scrutinized.”

Phelps said with the latest police contract, new provisions aim to create some flexibility with staffing, and hiring civilian investigators could help recruitment in the future. Though the 21.7% pay raise over the next three years is the big ticket item to help staffing, she questions if the staffing trouble is money-related. 

O’Hara said as the officer’s time demands change due to settlement agreements, at least one-third of the officer’s time should be dedicated to community engagement such as attending neighborhood meetings. This time dedication may become more difficult as training requirements for officers change. 

“I want the goal to be specifically, in addition to training, everything else we’re doing, we are requiring people to do committee engagement as part of their regular duties,” O’Hara said in the meeting.

Corrections: A previous version of this article misquoted Michelle Phelps in reference to the city of Minneapolis’ support of police. She called it ambivalent, not abhorrent.

South Minneapolis is renewing efforts to solidify a bike and pedestrian greenway corridor throughout the various communities and neighborhoods. 

The proposed Southside Greenway stretches around 6.5 miles, starting near West River Parkway and ending around Portland Avenue. The corridor would connect 12 parks and four schools throughout nine neighborhoods in South Minneapolis. 

South Minneapolis residents Marilea Browne and Julia Eagles presented why the city should renew efforts of the Southside Greenway bike and pedestrian corridor goals July 11 to the Minneapolis City Council Climate and Infrastructure Committee. 

Efforts to create a greenway from north to south in South Minneapolis started in the early 2000s, Eagles said in the presentation. However, efforts slowed around 2015 due to the prioritization of the Northside Greenway on Queen Avenue in North Minneapolis. 

“I think what’s really exciting about this project is that it really has been resident-led,” Eagles said. 

Eagles and Browne asked the committee for funding to help improve the corridor’s design by adding safety elements like traffic slowing or protected bike lanes.

Executive Director of Our Streets José Antonio Zayas Cabán said the organization is excited about the Southside Greenway project’s return and to collaborate with the project in the future. Zayas Cabán said some next steps could be organizing with the community and gathering data about who will benefit from the corridor. 

“We would be excited if it went all the way to having a completely car-free greenway boulevard in the future,” Zayas Cabán said. “But this is a good next step for the city,” 

Browne said though the southside route is already ingrained in the city’s plans, creating the proper infrastructure and safety measures would likely help incentivize residents to comfortably use the trail more. 

“The route includes busy downtown streets and quiet residential streets and everything in between,” Browne said in the presentation. “So a one-size-fits-all design approach wouldn’t work for the greenway.”

President of the Pedestrian Advisory Committee Peter Vader said the goal is to need fewer cars to get around and make the greenway more attractive with benches, water fountains and more. 

“Let’s see atmospheric ambiance that’s going to make it inviting and profitable for people to get out of the cars,” Vader said. 

Eagles said the Southside Greenway project engaged with the community in the past few years through tabling at People’s Pride and Open Streets and holding bike ride-alongs throughout the route. 

Browne presented two preliminary designs for the greenway: a half versus a full greenway. A half greenway would be the trail for bicyclists and pedestrians but still have vehicle traffic separated by a curb. A full greenway would only allow for emergency vehicle access, making the space only for residential activities. 

Vader said limiting driver speeds is key when considering the greenway’s future designs and safety precautions. With safety measures such as lane narrowing and intersection visibility for cars and pedestrians, coexisting with cars is possible, Vader said. 

Browne said a greenway could help the city’s climate and transportation goals. The available green space would allow native plants to grow and more opportunities for stormwater infrastructure. 

“As we go into a hot weekend with temps in the 90s, I’m certainly going to be thinking about how we can make our neighborhoods more climate resilient,” Browne said in the presentation. 

In addition to the climate benefits, Zayas Cabán said the greenway could provide transportation opportunities for those who cannot afford a car or cannot drive. 

Zayas Cabán said it is important to prioritize bicyclists and pedestrians when considering the safety of greenways near vehicle traffic. Zayas Cabán added that prioritizing pedestrians and bicyclists will help draw people into using the greenway. 

“When you design a greenway that allows people to move quickly through it that (is) just as efficient, then those behavioral changes start to happen,” Zayas Cabán said. 

Vader said creating a mood change is possible, especially considering local events like the Minnesota State Fair which gathers large and dense crowds with little priority toward vehicles at all. Vader added if people’s comfort is the priority, they will easily be attracted to the greenway. 

“The atmosphere, the ambiance, the human needs (are what) we need to meet to make people, to encourage people to prefer moving outside of a car,” Vader said.

As rates of fentanyl overdoses increase across the country, local addiction recovery providers find ways to start and succeed in substance recovery. 

Opioid-involved drug overdoses increased by 3% in 2022 since 2021, according to the Minnesota Department of Health dashboard. 

The number of admissions for opioid use treatment in Minnesota increased by about 26% from 2020 to 2022, according to the Minnesota Department of Health dashboard. Around seven out of 10 patients completed their addiction recovery treatment in 2021. 

On-Campus Help 

One of Boynton Health’s alcohol and drug counselors, ThanhVan Vu, said Boynton does not provide substance use disorder treatment, but clinicians can make recommendations for the next steps and refer patients to other treatment providers. 

After substance use assessments and referrals, counselors at Boynton will follow up with patients to ensure they get the help they need, Vu said. 

The next steps after the assessment could look different for everyone, Vu said, including other treatments such as mental health therapy. 

“In some instances where it’s clear in the assessment that students don’t need the clinical criteria for addiction or substance use disorder, it doesn’t make sense to connect them to an addiction treatment,” Vu said. “It might make more sense to connect them for therapy, but a therapist that might have more background with substance use or substance misuse.”

Vu said seeing family members experience addiction recovery inspired her to join the addiction field and help others. With the stigma surrounding addiction, some people can feel isolated from society, including their family, Vu added. 

“Witnessing the individual in my family really be ostracized and isolated, which further entrenched their addiction, right?” Vu said. “That’s the worst human state to be in, which is to be isolated and like flailing on your own.”

Boynton Health takes drop-in patients through their urgent counseling services and also offers Let’s Talk, a space to talk about addiction and recovery with others experiencing similar struggles. Boynton’s health promotion offers one-on-one appointments with a counselor for students to discuss concerns and their relationship with substances. 

Vu said she always tries to approach her work at Boynton through a “developmental lens,” meaning students are developmentally transitioning their lives and experimenting with different substances and experiences. 

“I don’t think it’s ever helpful to prescribe what students should do for themselves and their relationship with substances because it is an evolving thing,” Vu said.

Vu said Boynton Health approaches addiction recovery with the client’s physical, social, emotional, spiritual and personal accountability in mind to ensure every aspect of their life is supported. 

Some people may not meet the clinical “DSM 5 TR” qualifications of substance misuse similar to how some may not meet specific criteria for mental health disorders — nevertheless, Vu said, like mental health, people can treat and overcome substance misuse. 

It is important to continually talk and learn about addiction recovery in a college environment because of how many different ways students are introduced to substances, Vu said. She added it is a disservice to students to not discuss this topic. 

“Being a part of our collective community discussion is going to help support and evolve someone’s understanding of substances as they traverse their college career,” Vu said. 

Vu added if more people talk about substance recovery, then there will be more people capable of helping when something goes wrong. 

Help near campus

Debbie Gray, regional director of Behavioral Health Group (BHG), formally called Valhalla Place, said BHG confronts addiction with medicines known as methadone and suboxone as well as counseling. 

Gray said these two medications act similarly to insulin, meaning once a person is on them, they must remain on them for the rest of their life. 

Methadone and suboxone are narcotics used to treat opioid dependence and are highly controlled and regulated medications because of federal and state guidelines. 

Gray said because BHG is a methadone and suboxone provider, they have to thoroughly regulate treatment for patients. Gray added many patients stay on BHG’s programs for years as their treatment changes and grows with them. 

“I don’t think people who are new to substance use understand how much regulation there is,” Gray said. “We kind of pick people’s brains. We have to.”

Gray said whether someone joins the field due to experience with addiction or because of a calling, they have to have a real drive for the work. 

BHG Regional Outreach Manager Kristin Dostal said treating addictions mandates treating the whole person and all their struggles. People in recovery may be struggling to find a job or lack educational resources, Dostal added.

Gray said BHG strongly believes in counseling alongside using medications to help addiction treatment. 

“The medicine doesn’t teach you coping skills,” Gray said. “That medicine doesn’t teach you how to deal with emotional problems or whatever, so we really kind of believe in that holistic perspective.”

BHG takes walk-ins for people who are and are not using drugs and anyone else who needs support, according to Gray. BHG’s goal is to help people get to a place where they believe recovery is possible for them. 

BHG has around 117 locations across the country. There are locations in Minneapolis, Woodbury, Brooklyn Park and Brainerd. Gray said BHG hopes to expand further north in Minnesota to help native communities who are hit hard by addiction. 

Native American Minnesotans are 10 times as likely to die from overdose than white Minnesotans, according to 2021 reports from the Minnesota Department of Health dashboard. Black Minnesotans were three times as likely to die due to overdose compared to white Minnesotans in 2021. 

Gray said because of the strong potency of drugs recently, people need to be more open-minded. 

“The addiction field and society have to look at things in a different way,” Gray said. “We can’t shame people in the treatment. It’s not working and then people are dying.” 

Similar to the mental health field, the addiction field has become more talked about in the last six to seven years, according to Dostal. Like mental health, Dostal hopes more people will become comfortable talking about their recovery and spread awareness. 

“I hope that people aren’t ashamed when they come and walk through our doors,” Dostal said. “I hope we can get to a point where people say that, ‘Yeah, I take methadone because the drug is so powerful.’”

Off-Campus Help 

Kate Harris, director of the Alliance Wellness Clinic Treatment in Bloomington said Alliance is a medication-assisted treatment program that, like BHG, uses the medicinal use of methadone and suboxone to treat patients. 

Harris said methadone is usually more successful in treating substances with certain amounts of fentanyl, but it always depends on the person. 

Many substances can be mixed with fentanyl to increase the substance’s potency, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Nearly 75,000 deaths due to fentanyl were reported by the U.S. Center for Disease Control in 2023, an increase of about 2% from the previous year. 

Harris said she joined the addiction treatment field because she is a helper at heart and knows there is always a need for addiction counselors. Even though the job is tough, Harris said seeing people successfully complete treatment will always inspire her to keep going in the field. 

“They’re sober. They’ve got their life in order. They’re doing good, and they start to want to taper down off their medication and get off the program,” Harris said. “When they do that successfully, I tell them, ‘I am so happy for you and I hope I never see you again.’”

Harris said one of the biggest struggles people face in addiction recovery is making that initial decision to reach out for help. Harris said Alliance tries to help people get through all their struggles such as financial need and help being more social during their recovery process. 

“Some people have a lot of felonies or legal problems because of use,” Harris said. “There’s just a lot. There’s really a lot that goes into it. We try to help them unpack that.”

Harris said that, alongside medication, Alliance makes referrals to other programs and groups to help people go back to school, get a job or find more friends. Another challenge for people misusing drugs is expanding their community outside of people who are also misusing drugs, Harris added.

“We have to be very open-minded, non-judgmental,” Harris said. “It’s person-centered care. We have to meet them where they’re at. Maybe someday they’ll stop using all together and maybe they won’t. That’s their decision.” 

Harris said she received a lot of support from their coworkers and others in the field when the job hits too close to home and becomes stressful. She added she usually compartmentalizes her emotions to ensure she can help patients properly. 

“This is their story,” Harris said. “It’s not my story.”

Council Member Robin Wonsley (Ward 2) aims to decrease residential and commercial vacancy with a new program that would charge property owners for unused buildings. 

Wonsley recently proposed a program that would charge landlord fees for vacant buildings left for six months or more. Minneapolis’s vacancy rate was 13.6% in 2023, according to Office Finder statistics. 

Wonsley hopes the program will be implemented in 2025. The fee rate would recoup about 90% of staffing costs for the program and inspections. 

Under this program, the program charges landlords based on property size, time of vacancy, level of nuisance, and the number of units or properties the landlord owns. There are three levels of nuisance: vacant, vacant with code violations and vacant and hazardous. 

Wonsley said these property problems can create public safety issues and public health concerns if not addressed.

Some of the fees would connect landlords with organizations to find tenants or provide technical help with filling out leases, Wonsley said in a statement to the Minnesota Daily. 

“We are hopeful that this can reach property owners and help them activate their vacant properties, which translates to homes for families and students, spaces for small business, and more vibrant communities,” Wonsley said in the statement. 

President of the Minnesota Multi Housing Association Cecil Smith said in an email statement that they will be watching for more developments in Wonsley’s program but are worried the policy could negatively impact rental properties. 

“We are concerned with the potential policy direction that the City could further punish rental properties, which in some submarkets are struggling with vacancy through no fault of their own,” Smith said in the statement. 

Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association Spokesperson Chris Lautenschlager said in an email statement that the association does not have official numbers for vacant properties in the neighborhood but the board is always interested in filling vacant businesses. 

“We don’t believe that having empty commercial spaces does anything positive for our neighborhood or any neighborhood for that matter,” Lautenschlager said in the statement. “We would like our sidewalks as active as possible, without our residents and guests passing by commercial spaces that are empty and/or underutilized.”

Wonsley said work on the program began following complaints about vacant buildings from Como and Prospect Park residents. 

“These residents were disturbed to see homes and apartments sitting empty while also seeing residents sleeping in tents and knowing that thousands of residents are struggling with rent burden,” Wonsley said in the statement.

Minneapolis was named the 18th happiest city in the world, the only U.S. city ranked “Gold” by the Institute for Quality of Life. 

The ranking considers a city’s governance, environment, economy, citizens and mobility. Minneapolis’ environment and mobility ratings were the lowest out of the five. 

The environment rating considers the city’s management of natural resources, green spaces and sewer and waste management. The mobility rating considers accessible and safe public transportation. 

Metro Transit’s General Manager Lesley Kandaras said the organization wants to expand its transit network around and outside Minneapolis, such as the current construction of the E line rapid bus route in Dinkytown and F Line from Minneapolis to Blaine. 

“We’re also looking at where we can improve service on existing routes, such as adding more trips or serving a longer portion of the day,” Kandaras said. “There’s a lot of work underway to prioritize additional improvements here in Minneapolis.” 

Clean City Coordinator Michelle Howard said that the city’s volunteer programs such as “adopt-a-highway” or “adopt-a-block” are a huge environmental plus for Minneapolis. Howard added it also takes requests for cleaning supply deliveries, including helping the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board with Earth Day clean-up events. 

Recycling Coordinator Kellie Kish said community engagement via social media, emails and in-person events is what makes the city’s recycling and clean-up services efficient. Kish added the in-person events are valuable because they help educate residents on how to keep the environment clean. 

“One thing that really is unique to Minneapolis is how organized the neighborhood and community groups are,” Kish said. “We take advantage of them as an extension of providing information on city services.”

Kandaras said many of Metro Transit’s services are improved through engagement with its riders, such as the new Network Now program which is underway to gain feedback from riders and improve future rides and services. 

“We hear a lot of positive feedback around our bus rapid transit network expansion,” Kandaras said. “In general, people want a service that is clean, safe, reliable; it meets their needs.”

Kandaras said a major development over the last year is increasing Metro Transit’s safety measures through police and security officers at transit stations. Kandaras added Metro Transit aims to hire more Transit Rider Investment Program agents who ride trains and buses to provide immediate assistance to customers. 

Metro Transit is also working to improve its transit system beyond the city through its transit planners, according to Kandaras.

“The idea is to create a strong network where people can get where they need to go,” Kandaras said.

Howard said besides volunteer programs, the city also offers graffiti removal help on homes and businesses and storm drain stenciling, which reduces litter going into bodies of water. Howard and Kish said a huge part of their work is raising awareness and educating people on the proper ways to help clean the city. 

The recycling cross-contamination rate, where non-recyclable material is recycled in Minneapolis, is 10% while the rates in other metro cities are usually 25-40%, Kish said. She added Minneapolis’ organic compost contamination rate is at 1%, which is almost unheard of for a residential program. 

“I think just our want to be engaged not only with the programs available to us, but our local community is really why there’s that greater sense of happiness in the area,” Kish said.

Alongside the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), local organizations Our Streets and ReConnect Rondo aim to create new alternatives to Interstate 94 that benefit the residents of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

MnDOT’s Rethinking I-94 project aims to re-envision the current 7.5-mile stretch of freeway between Minneapolis and St. Paul. Two of the project’s alternatives received backlash from St. Paul and Hennepin county leaders last summer. 

Rethinking I-94 Spokesperson Ricardo Lopez said last July MnDOT published eight alternative projects to replace the current I-94. Alternatives include a boulevard, expanding the freeway, reducing the freeway or removing the freeway completely. 

Lopez said Rethinking I-94 created an evaluation criterion to determine the possible impacts and harm based on environment, social, economic, mobility, walkability and safety. MnDOT also considered the historical impacts of I-94 and aims to not repeat them, according to Lopez. 

Executive Director of Our Streets Jose Antonio Zayas Cabán said over the past year, Our Streets partnered with Toole Design and Visible City to put together a 100-page report to present to the Minneapolis City Council. Cabán added that MNDot accepted Our Streets’ list of recommendations for the future of the highway and the possibility of it becoming a boulevard. 

Our Streets reimagined I-94 into a boulevard based on how the interstate has caused environmental, economic and health harm to surrounding communities such as Cedar-Riverside, St. Anthony Park, Rondo and Frogtown. 

“One of the main questions that came up during that time was, well, if not the highway, what could take its place?” Cában said. “It’s very difficult to get people to visualize and imagine what can replace the highway. The Twin Cities Boulevard project emerged as a response to that organizing to expand community imagination about what’s possible.” 

ReConnect Rondo spokesperson Tim Hunt said Reconnect Rondo’s Land Bridge project is more than having mobility for residents, it is also about creating economic and cultural opportunities that once thrived in Rondo. 

“It was an economic engine, it was a culture and arts place,” Hunt said. “It was a place that had housing. It was all these things. It was a thriving, vibrant, middle class before it was devastated by the highway. Our intention is to really bring all that back through this process.”

ReConnect Rondo imagines a land bridge in Rondo as a part of re-envisioning I-94. The land bridge could look similar to the Lowry Hill tunnel on I-94 in Minneapolis but with buildings on top and no additional streets. 

The initial construction of I-94 and I-35 W isolated the Cedar-Riverside community. According to Our Streets, Cedar-Riverside’s population shrank from 5,019 in 1950 to 2,783 in 1960. The community’s schools, parks, green space, businesses and more suffered losses due to the highway.  

“We’re trying to make the argument that this project can help reconnect not just one neighborhood, it can help reconnect tons of neighborhoods,” Cában said. 

Hunt said ReConnect Rondo puts the community first as planners and developers in these projects because of a lack of prioritization by leaders in the past for this and other communities in the Twin Cities. 

“There were no barriers put in place for Rondo before the highway came through,” Hunt said. “They need to own their story, and they need to own their future. That’s a huge part of what this project means to the community, and quite frankly what it means to me to get that power back to the community.”

Of St. Paul’s African American community, 80% lived in Rondo. When I-94 came through the neighborhood in 1956-1968, around 700 homes and 300 businesses were destroyed, according to ReConnect Rondo. 

Cában said Our Streets’ visualization of highway removal is compatible with Reconnect Rondo’s potential land bridge project. Cában added that removing the highway would decrease carbon emissions that are leading to higher temperatures, increased health issues and economic depression in the area. 

Throughout the past year, Hunt said ReConnect Rondo has finalized their Restorative Development Framework, which addresses what the community needs to be successful, and multiple studies to measure the feasibility of a land bridge in the future. 

Besides working inside the Rondo community, Hunt said ReConnect Rondo meets with communities in the state and across the country to learn about other possibilities and ideas to uplift overlooked communities. 

Lopez said Rethinking I-94’s different alternatives does not limit the possibilities outside organizations like Reconnect Rondo’s land bridge or Our Streets’ Twin Cities boulevard. 

According to Lopez, Rethinking I-94 is still in the preliminary stages of development and deciding what the exact future of the freeway will look like. 

Currently, MnDOT is working with the National Environmental Protection Act to evaluate the alternative plans and use their guidance alongside the various communities to come to a final decision, which could take years. 

Cában said it is necessary to talk about the quality of life enjoyed by white Minnesotans when talking about equity during conversations about highway removal. Cában added many white Minnesotans never had to live under or next to a highway and did not experience the harm it has caused. 

“If we consider that quality of life as the minimum benchmark for how people whose lives were impacted by the highway, then the choice is clear: highway removal is the bare minimum,” Cában said.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently lifted a federal ban on bump stocks, a type of gun attachment allowing rifles and other semi-automatic weapons to rapid-fire rounds of ammunition. 

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) enacted the ban during former President Donald Trump’s administration after a gunman used a bump stock to kill 60 people and injure 400 in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, according to NPR. 

A bump stock replaces a rifle’s standard stock, allowing the weapon to slide back and forth rapidly. Bump stocks are commonly used on AR- and AK-style rifles and allow up to 800 shots per minute, which is on pace with machine guns that fire up to 500 to 1,000 shots per minute. 

The gunman in the Las Vegas shooting shot over 1,000 bullets in 11 minutes, the Associated Press reported. 

Executive Director of Protect Minnesota Maggiy Emery said the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the federal bump stock ban will make communities across the country more vulnerable to mass gun violence. 

“It will make our communities so much less safe,” Emery said. “We’ve seen the damage that these bump stocks can do. We saw that at Las Vegas. We should not be allowing these kinds of deadly, deadly implements into our neighborhoods and communities.”

Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs at Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus Rob Doar said the Supreme Court ruling was appropriate because of ATF rules stating bump stocks are different from traditional automatic weapons. 

“ATF had spent nearly a decade telling manufacturers and individuals that they weren’t machine guns and that they were illegal to have an abrupt change in the status without any act of legislation was problematic,” Doar said. “So I think as far as that goes, the decision was appropriate.”

Though the ruling did not make bump stocks legal in Minnesota, where the tool is already outlawed, Emery said out-of-state lawmakers and leaders should consider Minnesota’s precedent when making decisions about gun laws to help reduce the use of deadly weapons. 

Doar said it is difficult to determine if lifting the bump stock ban will increase the likelihood of mass shootings across the country because there are other mechanisms, including illegal modifications, which can have similar results as bump stocks. 

“(Bump stocks) have been in existence for over a decade, so anything would be pure speculation as far as whether or not there would be an increase in incidences,” Doar said. 

Besides bump stocks, Minnesota also outlawed binary triggers in May, which deploy an additional bullet when the gun’s trigger is released.

Gov. Tim Walz posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, calling the bump stock ruling “reckless” since they were used in one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history. 

“Bans on bump stocks are common sense, and this reversal only brings us backwards in making our streets and communities safer,” Walz wrote. 

Doar said because AR weapons offer so many different variations and customizations, the “sky is the limit” for add-ons and additional mechanisms. 

“That’s part of the attractiveness of a platform, like the AR platform, it is customizable,” Doar said.

Doar added during Trump’s era, there were multiple bills in Congress banning bump stocks through legislation instead of a rule reinterpretation. Doar said that would have been a more constitutionally appropriate way of banning bump stocks. 

Emery said that although Minnesota has outlawed mechanisms like bump stocks and dual switches, that does not mean they do not exist here. However, Emery added the decision by the Supreme Court will not help make communities safer. 

“We all should work really hard to make sure that our communities in Minnesota and communities over in Minneapolis, wherever you are, are doing the work to make their community safer because we can’t count on the Supreme Court,” Emery said.

At 4 a.m., a student from Hamline received a knock at the door and an email from his stalker asking to spend time with him. 

He would receive emails from his stalker asking when he would be at his dorm and to open the door, all while lurking in the hallway, but Robert he is not the only student who has experienced stalking. 

The University of Minnesota had 39 cases of stalking on and around campus reported since fall 2023, according to the University’s daily crime log. Hamline University reported 11 incidents of stalking on campus since fall 2023, according to Hamline’s daily crime log.

Robert, a Hamline student who will only be referred to by his first name out of respect for his privacy, said in an email interview he would receive around five to 10 emails a day from his stalker asking where he was and when he would be back. Robert and his stalker shared a class and dorm building.

“I looked through the peephole and saw it was the girl who lived a few doors down from me in my hall,” Robert wrote in the email. “She continued lurking around the hallway, going in and out of the boys’ bathroom (which my dorm was right next to) and knocking on my door, telling me to let her in.” 

In Minnesota, around 33% of women and 25% of men report stalking, sexual violence or physical violence by a partner in their life, according to 2020 data from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. 

Robert said the emails began two weeks before the start of the 2024 spring semester and lasted until he contacted Hamline’s Public Safety Department a few weeks later.

Director of Public Safety at Hamline University Illiana Cantu Delgado said because stalking is so outside of the norm for many students, reporting it is usually the hardest. Cantu Delgado said although every case is different, she always creates a timeline with students of when and how the harassment started. 

“It’s hard to even talk about it because it seems almost normal not to talk about it, but that’s the exact opposite,” Cantu Delgado said. “You need to talk about it.”

After meeting with Cantu Delgado, Robert said two public safety officers helped him move to a different dorm building. He added he never responded to the emails and distanced himself from the student. 

“The only thing I could remember her from is that she was in one of my classes, but she only showed up twice to that class during the entire semester so I never even really saw her there,” Robert said. “It was all just out of the blue.”

At the University, students are encouraged to report stalking to the Aurora Center, University Spokesperson Katie Ousley said in an email. 

The Aurora Center shows students what steps to take next. Students have the right to an advisor or support person during their formal investigation and can file a police report to the University police. 

Ousley said other resources for students include the RAVE Guardian app and 624-WALK service when out walking alone. 911 is another option if they feel in danger.

Cantu Delgado said students have multiple options for how to approach their safety. Whether it is having someone to walk with to their car or dorm, filing a restraining order, or going to court, the department will support the students the entire time. 

“We will support them the whole way,” Cantu Delgado said. “If they decide that they don’t want to go through with it because it’s a lot, that’s okay. You don’t have to. You have to do what’s right for you.”

Robert said as he received more help and support from Cantu Delgado and St. Paul Police, he felt more comfortable getting a restraining order. Robert said Cantu Delgado texted him every day to check in until the student was evicted and the restraining order was finalized in February. 

Ousley said the University also has mental health services at Boynton Health and Student Counseling Services. Boynton Health offers emergency walk-in services through its crisis hotline and other services such as group or individual therapy. 

Cantu Delgado said even if a non-student needs help, the Hamline Public Safety Department is there for them too. She added if someone is experiencing harassment or witnessing it, the most important thing is to tell someone right away. 

 “If I had a big message to give to anybody, it would be that you see something, you see something,” Cantu Delgado said. “You can tell for somebody else, say something to somebody.”