Five months after the Minneapolis City Council voted to seek proposals to demolish the former Roof Depot building in East Phillips, residents from the neighborhood are continuing to fight to protect the site.

The council approved a contract to demolish the building in January despite pushback from residents concerned about the project’s environmental impacts. Following the vote, continued protests from activists and a court appeal in February have led the project to be temporarily paused.

The building sits on top of high levels of toxic arsenic after a former manufacturing plant leaked chemicals and contaminated East Phillips’ soil for decades. As a result of the neighborhood’s pollution, East Phillips residents suffer from health problems such as asthma, according to a 2021 City Council Analysis.

The site has become a battleground between the city, which aims to demolish the Roof Depot building to create a consolidated public works facility, and residents concerned the building’s demolition would release more arsenic and cause further environmental harm.

City Council votes for demolition

Protestors filled the council chambers on Jan. 26 with signs reading “CULTURAL GENOCIDE STOPS HERE,” “RACE EQUITY STARTS HERE” and “VOTE NO.”

As the council prepared to vote on whether to demolish the Roof Depot building, activists played drums and chanted, “Urban farm not toxic harm.”

Ward 9 Council Member Jason Chavez, who represents East Phillips and its surrounding neighborhoods, said he opposed demolition during the meeting because he is “protective” of East Phillips, which is one of Minneapolis’ most diverse neighborhoods.

“For decades, my East Phillips neighbors have been fighting pollution in our backyard,” Chavez said. “Community members knew that children could not tolerate more pollution moving into our neighborhood.”

In a 7-6 vote, the council approved a $1.6 million contract to demolish the building, as onlookers chanted “shame.”

Chavez helped co-author a plan to mitigate the project’s environmental impacts with measures including allocating three of the site’s 7.6 acres for community use, planting trees and prioritizing the use of electric vehicles near the site. The council unanimously passed the motion.

Other council members who supported the Roof Depot building’s demolition cited Chavez’s plan as an effective compromise to protect East Phillips residents.

Despite the city’s plan to reduce the project’s environmental harm, Ward 2 Council Member Robin Wonsley, who voted against demolition, said the council’s decision was “absolutely devastating.”

“You had hundreds of residents at City Hall with the simple demand of, ‘Don’t poison us,’” Wonsley said. “It was an emotionally wrecking meeting to just hear the community cry out one last time.”

Throughout Minneapolis, people have voiced concerns about the project’s environmental impact. The City Council missed an opportunity to listen to residents, according to Wonsley.

Wonsley said although the council has made “symbolic gestures” toward supporting climate justice and communities of color, it votes to undermine those gestures and instead sends “thoughts and prayers.”

“[A] segment of council members feel good they got a compromise plan, like we washed our hands on this,” Wonsley said. “It just shows how disconnected [the council] is from working-class people and their everyday realities.”

Aftermath and occupation

Nicole Perez worked in East Phillips studying air pollution and was no stranger to public speaking before a drug addiction made communicating challenging. Before the vote, the mother of five scolded the council for nearly three minutes to protect the family and community that helped her recover.

Since the meeting, Perez has become a leading activist in East Phillips, helping residents organize protests and confronting Mayor Jacob Frey on the city’s plans in a video spread on social media.

“I went to the City Council meeting, and that’s where I had that first outburst trying to get my story across to the council members,” Perez said. “I realized all of our kids are sick. Our elders are sick. It became something where I wouldn’t stop.”

After her granddaughter was diagnosed with asthma, Perez said she began to notice seemingly everyone in her community knew someone with asthma. According to Perez, more people began to organize as they learned their neighbors suffered health problems as a result of pollution.

Protests culminated in neighborhood activists trespassing the Roof Depot site with tents and ceremonial fires on Feb. 21, less than a week before the building was scheduled to be demolished.

Hours into the occupation, dozens of armed police officers began clearing the site, putting out fires and dumping medicines used in the ceremonies, Perez said. Perez was one of eight protestors arrested as a result of the occupation.

Before she was arrested, Perez said one officer pulled her aside and became emotional, saying police did not want to break up the protest but simply “had jobs to do.”

“The site is not safe for individuals to congregate at and anyone on the site was trespassing,” city spokesperson Sarah McKenzie wrote in a Feb. 27 statement to the Minnesota Daily addressing the occupation.

Demolition of the building is “non-negotiable” due to its deterioration from being left vacant, McKenzie said in the statement.

However, Perez compared the city’s plans to the U.S. government taking land from Indigenous tribes and expecting them to be content with reservations as a compromise.

“If we don’t take a stand to us being treated like this now, we’re always going to be treated like this,” Perez said. “It’s not fair — our people have been through so much.”

An ongoing fight

For roughly nine years, the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) has fought the city’s development plans and instead brought forward plans to convert the Roof Depot building into an indoor urban farm.

EPNI sued Minneapolis in 2020 to conduct further review of its demolition plans. The lawsuit claimed the city violated state law by producing insufficient assessments on the environmental impacts of the project and polluting East Phillips.

Joe Vital, EPNI organizer and former East Phillips resident, said the lawsuit’s results will determine how EPNI continues to fight to keep the Roof Depot building standing.

“EPNI right now is standing and observing the courts to see what happens there,” Vital said. “This has turned into a movement.”

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled on Feb. 6 that Minneapolis had thoroughly assessed the project’s environmental impacts after the city finalized demolition plans in August 2022, which were approved by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

Less than two weeks later, a Hennepin County judge rejected the EPNI’s request to delay demolition until the trial concludes, citing “insufficient evidence” that the project would pollute East Phillips. EPNI appealed the ruling and requested a temporary restraining order until the appeal concludes, which was approved on Feb. 24.

As a result, Minneapolis cannot move forward with demolition plans, and the Roof Depot building remains standing nearly a month after it was scheduled to be torn down.

Although it is unknown when the appellate court will make a decision on the case, Vital said the restraining order could protect the Roof Depot building for months.

“Fighting for community control of the site, that’s not going anywhere,” Vital said.

As opioid overdoses in Hennepin County continue to rise, Minneapolis is increasing funding to keep up with a worsening opioid epidemic.

Minneapolis started receiving nearly $11 million in settlement funds in July as part of the U.S. attorney general’s 2021 agreement with opioid manufacturers and distributors to pay for their contributions to the opioid epidemic. The funding supports community engagement on new treatment strategies, according to Suzanne Young, senior project manager for Minneapolis’ opioid response.

In addition to the settlement funds, Minneapolis accepted a $300,000 grant from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (MDHS) on Feb. 9. The grant, which must be used by September 2024, will focus on opioid response work, including increasing public naloxone availability and educating communities on how to use it.

Naloxone, otherwise known as Narcan, is an injectable or nasal treatment that blocks the effects of opioids to reverse the effects of an overdose. According to Young, the grant will allow Minneapolis to provide resources for people struggling with substance abuse and work with communities to develop strategies to combat an evolving crisis.

“The landscape has changed, so it’s more about a response to a fentanyl crisis,” Young said. “We’ve gone from prescription medications to people getting medications on the street, and then it’s pretty much in every drug.”

Despite the number of dispensed opioids in Minnesota decreasing by roughly 28% from 2017 to 2021, opioid-related overdose deaths have hit record highs at the same time, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. Additionally, opioid-related deaths in Hennepin County involving fentanyl increased by more than 370%.

Nationally, opioid-related overdoses continue to increase, with opioids being responsible for 136 deaths per day, according to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While fentanyl is prescribed to treat severe pain, illegal drugs are often cut with it to make them cheaper while producing more powerful highs.

From 2018 to 2021, law enforcement saw a nearly 50-fold increase in seized pills containing fentanyl, according to a report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Despite the increase, many people may be unaware drugs they use contain fentanyl.

Narcan becomes more widely available

Pharmacies including Walgreens and CVS sell Narcan without a prescription. Organizations like the Steve Rummler Hope Network purchase Narcan to distribute it to people at lower prices.

“There’s a lot of different resources out there, pharmacies and such, where you can get people Narcan, and that wasn’t something you would have seen five to 10 years ago,” Trullinger said. “It’s not a cure, but it does help save people.”

Many first responders have felt the impacts of rising overdoses in the state. According to Hennepin Emergency Medical Services (EMS) spokesperson Michael Trullinger, dispatchers are responding to roughly 230 overdose calls per month.

EMS workers carry and distribute Narcan kits to people in need when they respond to calls, Trullinger said. Dispatchers also help people administer Narcan over the phone until emergency responders arrive.

Trullinger said he understands calling 911 is a “big step” for people nervous about potential legal consequences of taking illegal opioids. However, EMS services are there to rescue overdose victims and help anyone battling addiction access medical services, Trullinger said.

A 2014 state law protects anyone who experiences an overdose, administers naloxone or calls 911 from prosecution for drug possession.

“As far as Narcan … we refer to it as a rescue medication because that’s basically what it does, gives us that time to stabilize people until they get more long-term care,” Trullinger said. “It’s kind of scary, so we’ve done a lot to try and educate people on what exactly Narcan does and does not do.”

Opioid awareness nonprofit says Narcan is not enough

Colleen Ronnei founded Change the Outcome (CTO), a nonprofit that works to raise awareness for the opioid epidemic and substance abuse disorder, in 2017 after losing her son Luke to an overdose a year earlier.

According to Ronnei, increasing Narcan availability and teaching its administration works to destigmatize helping someone who is overdosing and can potentially save lives.

“If [Narcan] is accessible because it’s been funded, that helps,” Ronnei said. “There are a lot of people who don’t even recognize that they should have it. They have people in their lives who are struggling, and they don’t even know it.”

Luke’s fatal overdose in 2016 came two years into his battle with addiction after an opioid prescription turned into a heroin addiction.

After trying to understand her son’s use and relapse, Luke told her withdrawal felt like being held underwater, with drugs as the only way to come up for air.

“It rewires the brain and [using] becomes a survival mechanism,” Ronnei said. “They’re not getting high anymore — they’re just trying to survive. That’s what their brain is telling them they need to do.”

Luke compared addiction to cancer — it can be easy to overlook someone’s battle until the disease progresses.

In the six years since CTO began, Ronnei said there has been significant progress in recognizing people who overdose or battle addiction, rather than hide the problem that continues to affect more people.

However, solely providing Narcan will never be enough to fight the epidemic, Ronnei said. Instead, increased public education and awareness will help people know the risks of opioid use and prevent future addiction or misuse.

“We can revive people until the end of time — that is not going to solve the problem,” Ronnei said. “I think we can do a much better job of addressing [opioids] from a holistic standpoint.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, substance use assessments and consultations are available on Boynton Health’s website.

After state officials destroyed two homeless encampments in Cedar-Riverside in January, Minneapolis legislators have grown frustrated by what they see as the city’s lack of support for unhoused residents.

The push to clear the encampments came after a shooting on Jan. 12 that left one dead in Minneapolis’ largest homeless encampment, located near 15th Avenue South and Samatar Crossing.

In response to the shooting, Ward 6 Council Member Jamal Osman, who represents Cedar-Riverside, called for the city to close the encampment.

“My staff and I have been begging for action at this encampment for months,” Osman said in a statement. “The Governor, MnDOT, and everyone else involved have avoided responsibility, passed off blame, and used accounting to ignore a homeless encampment in the middle of Cedar-Riverside.”

State patrols from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) showed up with bulldozers six days after the shooting, destroying the homes of more than 100 residents, according to KJ Starr, executive director of the West Bank Business Association (WBBA).

The patrols destroyed another encampment nearby on Cedar Avenue and South 7th Street, which was established about eight months ago, Starr said.

The encampments sat near an interchange between Interstates 35W and 94. State and county officials cleared the encampment because they oversee areas near interstates.

Both encampments were gone by noon after residents had been removed and their belongings scooped into dumpsters. Minneapolis received more than three inches of snow the next day, leaving many who had just lost their belongings in the cold.

“We always had camps in our neighborhood”

Despite his calls for the encampment’s closure, Osman partnered with local nonprofits to place hygienic supplies such as toilets in the Samatar encampment before they were bulldozed.

The WBBA was one of several groups that partnered with Osman’s office. According to Starr, government inaction stalled the installation of the toilets for weeks.

“The city was telling us that it was a state problem, and the state was telling us the city should deal with it,” Starr said. “It was mind blowing, this total failure of government to provide basic human services to people living there and ignoring the impact of that on everyone else living in the neighborhood.”

MnDOT did not respond to the Minnesota Daily’s requests for comment.

The WBBA, along with several other organizations, sent a letter on Jan. 19, the day after Samatar was destroyed, calling the government’s response “incredibly frustrating.” The letter called for a standardized encampment policy across all levels of government to determine when to clear encampments and provide resources to existing ones.

Although encampments exist throughout the city, Cedar-Riverside and its surrounding neighborhoods have a history of housing large encampments. In 2018, the Wall of Forgotten Natives along Franklin Avenue in the Phillips neighborhood became one of the city’s largest encampments.

West Bank was home to one of the city’s first major encampments, The Pines near the Franklin light rail station, which was established around 2016. Like many others, the site now sits vacant and fenced off, Starr said.

Starr said she has fought to ensure unhoused residents in the neighborhood are treated humanely after seeing encampments enclosed by fence and concrete barriers and workers power washing the underside of overpasses drip water on residents and their belongings.

“We have staked a role to play in encampment policy because we always had camps in our neighborhood,” Starr said. “We need humane and consistent policies that are transparent to the public.”

“It’s just a death bell”

Once officials stake out a site to clear, an encampment is surrounded by either police tape or officers. The officers, under helmets and bulletproof vests, openly carry rifles or machine guns and are equipped with megaphones to tell residents to “Get out.”

Encampment residents grab what they can carry and scatter to make room for the bulldozers. Tents rip. Wood cracks. Bicycles scream as metal warps. In a matter of moments, a community turns into an empty dirt lot.

“Part of the reason they are going through to kick everybody out isn’t just to physically remove the people because they shouldn’t be there, but because they’re going to bulldoze it instantly,” said Andy, who grew up experiencing homelessness and currently works to distribute supplies to unhoused residents.

Andy, who did not share his last name for privacy concerns, said he has watched along with encampment residents as officials destroyed and sometimes burned their homes. Some residents leave, some stay to watch and some are too numb from the trauma to verbally react, he said.

Deaths such as the one in the Samatar encampment are typically a “death bell” signaling an encampment’s impending destruction, Andy said. Residents often leave immediately to avoid city and state officials.

Although he was disappointed in Osman’s support of encampment clearings, Andy said Osman was working within a political system that would have destroyed the encampments regardless of his advocacy.

“Maybe [Osman] wants to do it, to support camps more, but he knows from a political standpoint that the people who have the power right now are not interested in that,” Andy said. “Does he want to spend his time and political power on a fight that a lot of people see as just ongoing and never ending?”

The Minneapolis City Council voted on Oct. 20 against pausing homeless encampment clearings after city officials evicted multiple encampments throughout the month. Osman was one of eight council members to vote against the pause.

A Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) report from 2017-2021 found death rates among people experiencing homelessness in the state to be three times higher than the general population, according to the Star Tribune.

The report found 20-year-olds experiencing homelessness had the same mortality rate as a 50-year-olds in the general population.

The report also found people experiencing homelessness have higher death rates among all racial and ethnic groups and experience 10 times higher death rates from substance use compared to the rest of Minnesota’s population.

The hardships of experiencing homelessness combined with the trauma of continuous encampment destructions have left many unhoused residents in a kind of “survival mode,” Andy said.

“They just have to take care of themselves because no one else is going to,” Andy said. “It’s really unfortunate because when these communities have the safety and support to keep each other safe and to flourish, they can, and it’s amazing.”

“It’s basically a free-for-all”

Taking care of unhoused residents was one of Mayor Jacob Frey’s campaign promises in 2017, in which he vowed to end homelessness within five years by implementing inclusive housing policies, according to reporting from MPR.

During his reelection campaign four years later, Frey prioritized addressing the root causes of homelessness and proactively managing encampments.

“Mayor Frey is committed to ensuring public health and safety within and surrounding homeless encampments. He is partnering with neighboring jurisdictions like Hennepin County and St. Paul to do so in a manner that respects the dignity of residents,” Frey’s campaign website states.

Ward 2 Council Member Robin Wonsley countered Frey’s method of using “hundreds of officers” to evict residents with nowhere to go.

“There’s definitely widespread and justifiable concern about having police actively kick people off the streets,” Wonsley said. “Having an over-militarized response to people who have very little to nothing and saying they are a public safety threat … that’s a sad image.”

Frey’s office did not respond to the Minnesota Daily’s requests for comment.

Since 2019, the city has increased its number of affordable housing units by roughly 200 per year and invested more than $200 million into improving its homelessness response system, according to city spokesperson Sarah McKenzie.

The MDH’s homelessness report, which measured the first four years of Frey’s five-year plan, recommended additional investments into health and housing programs with input from people with lived homelessness experience.

In 2022, the final year of Frey’s plan, Hennepin County reported nearly 2,700 unhoused residents in a single night, according to the state’s Homeless Management Information System.

Wonsley said the city’s current policy arbitrarily treats encampments like “Whack-A-Mole” by randomly and inconsistently clearing encampments without consideration for where people living there will go or if they are in the process of obtaining more permanent housing.

“It’s basically a free-for-all — everyone is deflecting to one another,” Wonsley said. “It’s [the government’s] collective responsibility to deal with this, to find better solutions to this, but we need a standardized process that we all understand and that we all uphold.”

However, any attempts at the council passing comprehensive policy regarding homelessness has either been blocked by council members or vetoed by Frey under the city’s government restructure, Wonsley said.

The restructure increased the mayor’s administrative power over city departments and relegated the City Council as a legislative entity.

As a result, Frey has played an “obstructionist role” in having meaningful policy move forward relating to encampments, Wonsley said.

Wonsley said any policymaking will have to come in spite of city leaders who refuse to pursue a comprehensive encampment response.

“While we can’t do anything about the failure of the executive side to do meaningful work around this, we can on the legislative side do whatever we need to do to make change happen,” Wonsley said.

Democratic lawmakers have aimed to use Minnesota’s trifecta to push previously stalled bills into law since the session began in January.

The 2022 midterm election results gave the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party control of all three branches of state government for the first time in nearly a decade, allowing Democratic policies to move forward without support from Republicans. Gov. Tim Walz said the DFL-led Legislature would focus on issues such as public safety, climate change and “defending the rights of individuals” in his acceptance speech for the 2022 election.

Although the DFL holds slim majorities in both the House and Senate, Democrats have seen early successes in advancing bills less than halfway into this year’s session.

The PRO Act codifies abortion access

The first bill introduced into the state Legislature was the Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act on Jan. 4, which Walz signed into law on Jan. 31.

The PRO Act guarantees reproductive rights such as health care privacy, access to contraceptives and access to abortions for all Minnesotans.

The bill protects reproductive health care as many states have begun to limit access to abortion, according to Emily Bisek, vice president of strategic communications for Planned Parenthood North Central States.

“To see legislators listen and take action so quickly, was just really inspiring and hopeful,” Bisek said. “With our rights, having a second layer of protection, we can let out a sigh of relief for the first time since Roe was overturned.”

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, repealing federal protections for abortions and turning its accessibility into a state decision. Abortion is protected in Minnesota by the 1995 state Supreme Court decision Doe v. Gomez, but future judges could have overturned the ruling and repealed the state’s protections.

“No matter who sits on the Minnesota Supreme Court, this legislation will ensure Minnesotans have access to reproductive health care for generations to come,” Walz said in a press release. “Here in Minnesota, your access to reproductive health care and your freedom to make your own health care decisions are preserved and protected.”

Since the overturning of Roe, Planned Parenthood North Central States has seen a 40% increase in second trimester abortions, Bisek said.

Bisek said more people are seeking abortions later in pregnancy due to increasingly limited abortion accessibility and outside pressure for patients to continue their pregnancy.

Minnesota has become a sanctuary state for abortion health care, with patients coming to receive care from surrounding states that have banned or restricted abortion access like North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Minnesota moves toward marijuana

A bill to legalize recreational marijuana use stalled under the state’s divided government in 2021. State Democrats are advancing a new bill to legalize recreational marijuana use in Minnesota.

The bill, introduced on Jan. 4, would allow anyone age 21 or older to recreationally use cannabis and possess up to two ounces of cannabis in public, five ounces in private and edibles with up to 800 milligrams of THC, a chemical found in cannabis.

Minnesota legalized medical marijuana in 2014 and legalized products containing small amounts of hemp-derived THC in 2022.

Zean Abdallah owns Campus Market & Tobacco in Dinkytown, which sells CBD and newly legalized hemp products. According to Abdallah, the bill would provide businesses an opportunity to begin selling new products.

“I would love to be able to give my customers some higher percentage, higher potency edibles,” Abdallah said. “I have a lot of stressed out college students and a lot of older people that work around the city. If I’m able to give my customers something a little better…that’s what excites me.”

Despite its progress, the bill still needs to pass through several legislative committees before it can be signed into law.

The required committee hearings are a result of the bill aiming to create new cannabis licenses for businesses, fund programs to fight cannabis addiction, create an 8% retail sales tax, eliminate criminal penalties for cannabis possession and expunge low-level cannabis criminal records.

Although marijuana may be legalized this year, Abdallah said customers will have to be patient because the process to apply and be approved for THC and tobacco licenses can take months.

“Especially when you’re doing something where products are prohibited under 21, the licensing is going to take a little more time, qualifications are going to take more time,” Abdallah said. “That’s just how it goes.”

Legislature hopes for ‘record-breaking productivity’

Walz signed several bills into law throughout January and February. The new laws include the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act, a bill officially marking Juneteenth as a state holiday, a bill to establish a carbon-free standard and require 100% clean energy in Minnesota by 2040 and a bill to provide funding for the Attorney General’s office to hire seven more prosecutors.

Other bills are still moving through the state Legislature, including the Driver’s License for All bill, which would allow undocumented residents to obtain a driver’s license. The bill passed through the House on Jan. 30 and through the Senate on Wednesday; the bill will head back to the House with slight changes made in the Senate for final approval before being sent to Walz.

Lawmakers are looking to create “record-breaking productivity” before the session ends in May, according to Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park).

Social policies are easier to advance earlier in sessions because they often do not require significant funding, Hortman said. Once budget forecasts are released near the beginning of March for Minnesota’s record $17.6 billion surplus, lawmakers’ focus will shift to projects that need funding, such as education and health care.

“Our highest priorities on the budget side are kind of in the background right now because we’re not in budget season,” Hortman said. “They’re about to move into the foreground.”

Metro Transit is moving forward with plans to upgrade and replace large parts of one of its most popular routes with a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line that will run from downtown Minneapolis to Blaine.

The F line will replace parts of Metro Transit’s Route 10, which runs along Central Avenue near Marcy-Holmes Northeast, and will stop at University Avenue, First Avenue and St. Anthony intersections. The project, when finished, will be the sixth line in Metro Transit’s plan to construct a network of eight BRT lines by 2030.

The F line aims to provide faster, more reliable service for riders on what is currently one of the slowest bus routes. The route is scheduled to begin service in 2026.

The F line will have 32 stations along the 13-mile route, each of which will be upgraded with heated shelters, real-time arrival information, lighting, security cameras and textured platform edges.

The planned BRT line will have stops near Nicollet Mall, St. Anthony and Northtown Mall in Blaine. Jake Knight, senior planner of Metro Transit’s BRT program, said he hopes the F line will be among many BRT lines offering improved services.

“We know that folks who are riding Route 10 are using it for a variety of different reasons, not just commuting to work or commuting to school,” Knight said. “We’re trying to create a holistic network that folks can rely on every day, where the service is frequent and reliable.”

Metro Transit prioritized Route 10 as part of its BRT program to promote equity and reduce racial disparities in public transportation accessibility, Knight said.

More than half of Route 10’s riders are people of color. According to Knight, one-fifth of riders identify as having a disability and 80% identify as having less than $60,000 in annual income.

Metro Transit is currently reviewing public comments and will release an updated plan for the F line in the spring, after which they will seek additional public comment. The Metropolitan Council will vote to approve a final plan in the summer.

One major change riders will experience on the F line is about double the distance between stops, Knight said. Metro Transit planned the F line stops about a half mile apart from each other to lessen vehicle congestion and decrease transit time for riders.

“We have this balancing act of providing a stop every block … and on the other side is the desire for faster service that gets you from point A to point B more quickly,” Knight said. “Maybe your two-minute walk turns into a five-minute walk; that’s certainly a trade-off.”

Bus stop accessibility is something many riders are unwilling to compromise on.

Barbara Camm, co-founder of Preserve Historic Dinkytown, a local nonprofit working to maintain the neighborhood’s cultural history, said she fears plans for stations placed further apart will make the route inaccessible for those with mobility issues.

“I know [Metro Transit] has accommodations for people who are handicapped,” Camm said. “But still, if you have to do a lot of walking in between stops, that’s going to be a problem.”

The 60-foot BRT buses will come equipped with low floors and accessibility ramps and should run every 10 minutes during the day and most of the evening, according to Knight. However, Metro Transit’s current operator shortage has raised concerns about whether Metro Transit will have enough bus operators to maintain a 10-minute pace.

Chris Lautenschlager, executive director of the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association, said in the past, he’s had to wait for Metro Transit buses that arrived 45 minutes late with no way of knowing when a bus would arrive.

“People in our community tend to be coming to and fro quite often at any time of day, and we want them to be able to use reliable buses,” Lautenschlager said. “It just promotes confidence in the entire system.”

Lautenschlager said he hopes the F line’s improvements to Route 10 will encourage more people to consider public transportation. If so, he said fewer cars will make roads safer for pedestrians as well.

“That was always the goal, we don’t need to park because there is a high-frequency bus,” Lautenschlager said. “Anything that we can do to get rid of cars to promote biking and walking and doing it safely is incredibly important to us. It’s our number one priority.”

After decades of chipping away at affirmative action in higher education, the Supreme Court heard two cases in October to consider whether race-conscious admissions programs violate the Constitution or federal law.

The two cases challenge affirmative action at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). The group suing both universities, Students for Fair Admissions, argued both schools’ programs discriminated against white and Asian applicants. The group argued colleges can use race-neutral methods of creating a diverse student population.

A 1978 Court decision ruled that using race as one of many factors in college admissions did not discriminate against non-minority applicants and held that the Civil Rights Act protected race-conscious programs.

Race-conscious admission programs consider applicants’ race as one of many factors in the enrollment process to promote diversity and equitable access to higher education for marginalized communities. The Court has ruled on affirmative action twice since its original ruling, despite questions from justices and critics over whether the programs are necessary.

The Court’s six conservative justices questioned the value of the universities’ continued use of affirmative action programs during the hearings in October.

“I’ve heard the word ‘diversity’ quite a few times, and I don’t have a clue what it means,” Justice Clarence Thomas said during oral arguments. “It seems to mean everything for everyone … Give us a clear idea of exactly what the educational benefits of diversity at the University of North Carolina would be.”

Justice Samuel Alito questioned if race-conscious admission programs created government-enforced segregation on university campuses.

The Court’s three liberal justices defended race-conscious programs during arguments, claiming affirmative action does not discriminate against students and is effective in promoting diversity in higher education.

“When you give your race, you’re not getting any special points; it’s being treated just on par with other factors in the [enrollment] system,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said. “No one’s automatically getting in because race is being used.”

Timothy Johnson, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota who specializes in the Supreme Court said affirmative action is likely to be overturned in the coming months when the justices hand down their opinions.

“The Dobbs decision was the first time that the Court had ever overturned precedent in its history to take away rights, in that case, the rights of women to obtain abortions,” Johnson said. “This case will be the second time in history where the Court is overturning a precedent that’s protecting a class of people in the United States.”

If the Court overturns affirmative action, universities including Harvard and UNC would be required to change their enrollment procedures to remove affirmative action policies immediately, Johnson said.

Although universities would still be allowed to promote diversity, student bodies on campuses could be impacted by the decision as soon as 2024, Johnson said.

“Colleges and universities are going to protect their ability to let in whoever they want to let in,” Johnson said. “That will be especially true of private schools like Harvard, but it will be more difficult for UNC and the University of Minnesota. I think they will find ways around such a decision to keep their student bodies diverse.”

Advocating for affirmative action at UMN
Diversity on campus came into question after Regent and former board vice chair Steve Sviggum asked during an October Board of Regents meeting, “Is it possible that at Morris we’ve become too diverse?”

Sviggum’s comments were in response to declining enrollment numbers at Morris and raised criticism from many students, faculty and staff. Sviggum resigned as vice chair less than two weeks after the meeting and announced he will not seek another term.

According to the University’s Institutional Data and Research, BIPOC students made up about 40% of Morris’ student body compared to about 27% on the Twin Cities campus during the fall 2022 semester. However, the class of 2026 is the most diverse in the Twin Cities campus’s history.

Regent Darrin Rosha countered Sviggum’s comments and said diverse campus communities are foundations the University should build upon.

“In light of Regent Sviggum, the statement that he made at the meeting, I would want students, both majority students and students from communities of color, to know that the University is committed to all students,” Rosha said. “It’s one of the advantages of the University of Minnesota, and to suggest that somehow it’s problematic, I’m not in agreement with that.”

At the University, protections against discrimination like affirmative action affect students after being enrolled through academic decisions and grading policies, Carter Yost, Undergraduate Student Government (USG) director of government and legislative affairs, said.

“Policies that help promote, ensure and expand diversity in any way are net positives for the student body,” Yost said. “Affirmative action has been helpful and really a central tool to promoting and expanding representation and diversity on campus.”

Regardless of affirmative action’s potential overturn, USG is working to advocate for student diversity with the University as well as state legislators as part of an “ongoing process,” Yost said.

Part of the ongoing process is balancing students’ needs with resources available to the University, Rosha said.

“The world is rarely static, those conversations will have to continue to occur,” Rosha said. “Do we get it perfect? Rarely, but we continue to try to do a better job to make sure we’re serving the community the best that we possibly can as an institution.”

The Minneapolis City Council voted 7-6 on Thursday to approve a contract to demolish the Roof Depot building in the East Phillips neighborhood, despite protests from residents and activists concerned about the project’s potential environmental impacts.

Demolition is tentatively scheduled to start next month, according to reporting from the Sahan Journal. Environmental and neighborhood activists have previously called for the site to be made into an urban farm and community hub. 

The Council approved a $1.6 million contract to demolish the vacant building and turn the 7.6-acre site into a consolidated public works facility. Minneapolis has had plans to develop the site for more than 20 years, but high levels of toxic arsenic and further development on the site have left many residents fearful the site’s demolition could cause further environmental harm to the neighborhood.

The site previously housed a manufacturing plant that leaked arsenic into the surrounding soil and groundwater for decades, contaminating East Phillips and causing residents to suffer health problems such as asthma, according to a 2021 City Council analysis

Ward 9 Council Member Jason Chavez, who represents East Phillips and its surrounding neighborhoods, voted against the contract. He said his family grew up in East Phillips, where it was known that the soil contaminated vegetables residents ate, and could not support the project due to the potential health problems residents would suffer due to the project’s pollution.

“I was born and raised in East Phillips, which is why I’m very protective of this community,” Chavez said. 

Chavez, along with Ward 12 Council Member Andrew Johnson, co-authored a compromise motion to reduce the project’s environmental impacts, which the Council unanimously approved. The compromise designates three acres of the site for community use, along with providing workforce training, prioritizing electric vehicles and planting trees at the site. 

The East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) must approve the compromise before it is adopted. EPNI has advocated to make the space an indoor urban farm in the neighborhood for nearly a decade.

“I hope that the community will be able to support this,” Council President Andrea Jenkins (Ward 8) said. “I recognize that some people don’t like compromise; however, that’s how the world works.”

With 10 years of experience representing Minneapolis in the state Senate, Kari Dziedzic now leads the Democratic Farmer Labor (DFL) Party in the chamber after the 2022 midterms gave Democrats control of all three branches of Minnesota’s government for the first time in nearly a decade.

Since being elected to Minnesota’s Senate in 2016, Mark Johnson has served as deputy majority leader and interim majority leader. Now, Johnson leads a Republican Party moving forward after losing Senate control in the 2022 midterms.

The new Minnesota Senate majority and minority leaders sat down with the Minnesota Daily for a Q&A about their upcoming terms in their new leadership positions.

What were your general reactions to this year’s midterm results and Democrats gaining a trifecta at least for the next two years?
Dziedzic: “We were super excited. We said all along on the campaign trail that [Democrats] had a narrow path, but we had multiple pathways. … We had great candidates, they were out talking to people in their neighborhoods, running local races.”

Johnson: “It’s not like it was an overwhelming mandate. If you look at the electoral results, it’s pretty interesting to see that we lost one seat on the Senate side here, which could have been decided by I think, was like 170 voters. If they would have swung a different way in a district like Senate District 41, we would have been in majority … It’s not the place that we were looking for. But at the same time, if we have to be in the minority, this is the strongest minority position that we can possibly be in right now.”

With the new trifecta, how do you see your party using these next two years to bring policy forward, get legislation through and see changes for Minnesotans in the next two years?
D: “Some of the issues that we heard a lot about were kids’ mental health and education. Choice was obviously a big issue. Climate action was a big issue, doing something to help save the planet was a big issue. Economic security is a big issue. Those are some of the issues that I think we’ll be working on as we go forward in this legislature.
The Senate Republicans last year passed that K-12 education bill, which was about $30 million, while we had a $9 billion surplus at that time. We didn’t think that fit the moment. [Democrats] heard from a lot of parents, even prior to the campaign trail, that kids’ mental health was a key issue, and kids needed more support services in school … We’re gonna listen to parents and listen to the kids and do what we think is best for kids and parents to help everybody across Minnesota.”

J: “I think a lot of it is giving Minnesotans a contrast, here’s what the Democrats are proposing and want to hear, and here’s what we have … I know there’s a number of controversial issues that are out there and some ideas, but we want to make sure that people say, ‘Republicans came to the table, willing to work, they have ideas that are worthwhile to hear and actually, probably more effective in many ways than what we’re seeing now coming out of the Democratic caucus.”

What would you say to voters or politicians concerned with a decrease in bipartisanship with this trifecta? How will you work to build relationships with your colleagues across the aisle to ensure both parties have a voice at the legislative table?
D: “I’ve been in the legislature for about 10 years now. I came in after a special election and started in January 2012. A lot of the bills that have been passed in those 10 years have been bipartisan … Lots of times, they’re 67-0, 66-0 votes. They’re not the sexy ones that make the TV. We do work together.”

J: “We’ve had a fairly good working relationship with [Democrats]. There’s some changes that we can do probably internally to better follow those relationships efforts. [With the COVID-19 pandemic] when everybody’s in their computers sitting on their keyboard, and they’re in their living room, it’s easy to get that hostility … you don’t have to worry about anybody confronting you in person … the temperature has really risen in politics, so how do we lower that temperature, and work closely with our counterparts in the Minnesota Senate, and also the House? … For those who were elected in 2020, [they have] hardly spent any time at the Capitol. We don’t know them. We haven’t built relationships with them. It’s time that we get together, following the tensions that are going on.

There are principles that individual Republicans and Republicans as a caucus … believe in very strongly that we will not compromise [on] … we are able [to compromise on things] that maybe are less controversial, maybe things that just benefit Minnesotans in general.”

What is your outlook on the future going into the next two years?
D: “I think getting our work done and improving and showing people that we are going to listen to them … We want to be collaborative with Minnesotans across the state, including the students across the state … So I think that is one [thing] that we’re going to do is continuing to reach out to people or candidates. We’re out there door knocking and talking to people, and they’re going to continue to have those conversations so that they know where people stand and people know where they’re coming from, and they can share with different people in their communities what the issues are … I think having that collaborative working relationship with our communities will help us succeed and help Minnesota succeed.”

J: “The reality is, this is a great opportunity to make adjustments from a party standpoint, for Republicans in general. It’s just what are we going to change in our structure within our rhetoric with our message going out. I think, for me, personally, [the election] was a big disappointment but at the same time, it’s a huge opportunity. I know there’s a handful of people that see it the way that I do, but I am super encouraged by the things that are going on right now for Republicans in the state of Minnesota.

This is not a blue state. Maybe some people are thinking [that] after the last election. So there is hope for Republicans in the state. I think Democrats may have got the messaging better. So I think we just have to adapt, figure out what we’re doing wrong on the process side, so that we can … be able to compete when it comes to election time to get our message out to give our sales pitch to Minnesotans.”

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

As a barrage of rain poured on them, hundreds of Democrats poured into the lobby of the InterContinental St. Paul Riverfront hotel Tuesday night to see whether Minnesota’s incumbent Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidates could withstand a projected red wave.

Minnesota DFL legislators would ultimately end up with control of both the state House and Senate, holding a 70-64 House majority and taking the Senate 34-33. A Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate was called Saturday, but the House remains unclear.

The hotel lobby exuded confidence. Blue lights illuminated the high paneled ceiling next to two signs covering an entire wall reading: MINNESOTA DFL in bright white lights. Balloons sat in opposite corners of the space next to TVs showing live election coverage on CNN and MSNBC.

Despite its appearance, not all partygoers matched the event’s confidence. Many people huddled around the TVs and nervously discussed the potential outcomes of races, especially in Minnesota.

Jennifer Bloom and Randy Peterson were one of the multiple couples sitting and watching CNN’s election coverage and said they attended the party to support their daughter who works as a DFL staffer. Bloom, a civics teacher of 35 years, said she could not handle the anxiety of not knowing Minnesota’s election outcomes.

“I’ve never been so disappointed and scared for democracy,” Bloom said.

Republican candidates nationwide ran campaigns touting false claims of election fraud. In Minnesota, Republican candidate for secretary of state Kim Crockett said the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” during her campaign and advocated for repressive voting laws in Minnesota.

Peterson is a former state senator and served as a Court of Appeals judge for nearly 30 years. He said he was voting for the DFL to restore a shared sense of reality in Minnesota.

“The threat to democracy issue, I don’t think that’s overblown,” Peterson said. “I think that it’s a very serious thing where people start questioning the validity of elections. That just undercuts our entire system.”

As election results from other states began pouring in, speakers including DFL Chair Ken Martin, Sen. Tina Smith and Sen. Amy Klobuchar shared a similar message: “We’re going to win.”

At about 10:30 p.m., earlier than most attendees had anticipated, that message became a reality. The Associated Press projected Tim Walz to win the gubernatorial election and serve as Minnesota’s governor for another four-year term.

The party’s reaction was nothing spectacular because the fuse that was supposed to burn all night long instead appeared to be blown out early. There was no collective cheer from the crowd, merely scattered shouts from the partygoers.

Craig Bell is a painter and union member who said he voted for Walz to help improve union workers’ rights and pay. Bell, like many others in attendance, did not initially realize the gubernatorial race had been called.

“[I] feel good about that,” Bell said. “I did a lot of door knocking to help make that happen.”

The news of Walz’ victory quickly spread throughout the crowd. Despite concerns over other closely contested races, the DFL party had something to celebrate: their candidate was staying in the governor’s mansion.

As Lizzo’s “Good as Hell” played over speakers, attendees flooded the ballroom to hear newly reelected Walz give an acceptance speech. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan introduced a teary-eyed Walz to a screaming crowd chanting “Four more years!”

“Well Minnesota, democracy is alive and well in this state,” Walz said during his nearly 10-minute speech. “Minnesotans made a conscious decision tonight to choose a positive future, one where better days lie ahead.”

Although many attendees left the party following Walz’s speech, hundreds remained to witness the results of other key midterm races.

Democrats nationwide were putting up a better fight than expected against Republicans’ red wave.

Melissa Tallman, a criminal justice student, said she was hoping to see midterm results across the country be “mostly blue” in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June, turning abortion access into a state decision.

In Minnesota, Rep. Ilhan Omar quickly won reelection and DFL-supported Mary Moriarty was elected Hennepin County attorney. However, DFL incumbents such as Angie Craig and Keith Ellison remained locked in tight contests for most of the night.

As the night continued, the hits kept coming for Democrats. Angie Craig defeated GOP candidate Tyler Kistner for Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, incumbent Steve Simon won reelection as secretary of state and incumbent Julie Blaha won state auditor reelection by about one percentage point.

The only remaining uncertainty was Keith Ellison. Although the race was still undecided, Ellison declared himself reelected as attorney general at 1:30 Wednesday morning.

“We have been counting these numbers all night and I want to tell you this: they’re almost all counted and we’re going to win,” Ellison said.

The party drew to a close around 2:00 a.m. as the last of the partygoers walked into the crisp fall air. Although Democrats still do not know how much power they will retain nationally in Congress, Minnesotans woke up on Wednesday to a DFL-controlled state Legislature for the first time since 2014, a blue lighthouse after the red wave failed to make landfall.

As workers from different unions around the University of Minnesota continue negotiations for new contracts, the possibility of strikes has impacted thousands of union workers.

Multiple unions, including nurses and teachers, planned strikes this year to fight for better wages and working conditions while working through a pandemic. While some unions reached new contract agreements, others remain uncertain about future contract negotiations.

Timeline of union strikes

In March, the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Educational Support Professionals went on strike for nearly three weeks to fight for wage increases, smaller class sizes and mental health support before voting to approve a contract resolution with Minneapolis Public Schools.

AFSCME Local 3800, which represents around 2,000 clerical, technical and healthcare workers at the University, held a one-day strike in May and are currently engaged in talks for a new contract with the University that includes wage increases and establishes workplace harassment protocols.

Roughly 15,000 members of the Minnesota Nurses Association took to the picket line for three days in September for better wages and work-life balance but have yet to reach a deal with hospital officials.

More than 300 M Health Fairview mental health workers from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa reached an agreement for a new contract with the University on Oct. 4, less than two days before the workers were scheduled to go on strike with mental health workers from Allina Health.

Teamsters 320, which represents roughly 1,500 food service workers at the University, reached a three-year deal with the University on Oct. 24. The agreement prevented a strike that Teamsters members had voted to commence with if they did not reach a deal.

Negotiations

“We want all of our union employees to feel valued and to earn market-rate pay for their work, while we make sound financial decisions on behalf of the University,” said University Vice President for Human Resources Ken Horstman in an Oct. 7 campus-wide email.

Two weeks before reaching an agreement with Teamsters, the University offered workers a deal that included an averaged 5% wage increase with the potential to be more than 7%, according to Horstman’s email. The proposed deal was the highest wage increase the University has offered Teamsters in 26 years.

Despite the proposed increase, the Consumer Price Index, which measures average product price increase over time, measured an 8.2% inflation rate nationwide through September.

In addition to wage increases, contract negotiations are an opportunity for unions to codify new rules and protections for workers. The negotiating team for AFSCME is fighting to make Juneteenth a paid holiday and allow paid leave for workers to vote in tribal elections.

Former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson said the reason for workers’ frustrations near the University is the growing disparity between workers fighting for a $20 per hour minimum wage and President Joan Gabel, who signed a contract in 2021 for more than one million dollars.

“The more we squeeze people out of the middle class and lower their standard of living, the more upset they’re going to be,” Carlson said. “What you really don’t have here is the meeting of the minds because there’s a lack of commonality.”

Members behind the union

“I think it’s impossible not to notice that other workers are at their breaking points,” said Eric Immler, a worker for M Health’s Riverside mental health clinic.

Although there was interest among mental health workers to unionize prior to the pandemic, COVID-19 accelerated the movement to unionize in 2021, according to Immler.

Throughout the pandemic, mental health workers were not provided personal protective equipment, did not have clear protocols to protect workers and were required to work after being exposed to COVID-19, Immler said. The pandemic also brought an increased demand for mental health services, giving workers more responsibilities without additional support from the University.

In 2021, the demand for depressive disorder treatment in the United States increased 12% compared to the previous year, according to a survey from the American Psychological Association. Despite many union members’ fear of losing their jobs, Immler said SEIU decided the most effective way to receive support from the University was to strike.

“It’s a lot of work and it’s very scary for workers to think about striking. I think that’s something that’s maybe not talked about as much,” Immler said. “It doesn’t feel like I get to go have a day off and go be with my friends. You’re going to be on the picket line.”

Hours before their planned strike, SEIU reached a tentative agreement with the University on a new contract that included increased paid time off and wage increases. Although Immler said he was “extremely proud” of SEIU’s new deal, he said the University must be “willing to be proactive [and] not just reactive on issues” to prevent potential union strikes in the future.

Workers with AFSCME have not had as successful negotiations with the University.

After months of negotiations, AFSCME signed a one-year deal with the University in January that allowed union members to work from home and gave protections to transgender workers’ rights. The union began bargaining sessions with the University in May for a new contract focused on “raises and respect,” said AFSCME Vice President for Organizing Max Vast.

“Inflation is upwards of 8% right now, and we’ve seen the cost of everything go up,” Vast said. “The University is offering 3.85% wage increases, which for us isn’t enough, and it’s not going to keep up with that at all.”

Mahva Jones is a treasurer and steward for AFSCME’s local chapter. According to Jones, many clerical, technical and healthcare workers also face problems such as microaggressions and bullying.

“The University is not a great place to work overall because of all of the issues,” Jones said. “I happen to work in a department that generally appreciates me and respects me as a human being. That is not a widespread experience for other clerical and tech workers, and especially healthcare workers across the University system.”

Other AFSCME members shared concerns about their current working conditions. Lindsay Knoll said staffing shortages in the University’s Research Animal Resources caused veterinarians to go to work sick. Kim Thomas said a co-worker left her position after being denied a $2 per hour raise. Claudia Velasco said they have not been additionally paid for acting as a translator for their orthodontic patients.

Contract negotiations are ongoing between AFSCME and the University. Although it is a possibility that has been discussed among members, Vast said workers want to come to an agreement with the University and avoid striking.

“Solidarity wins things,” Jones said. “If there’s something that any wise employer should have learned through the pandemic, it’s that people are no longer willing to accept what we lived with before. More people have been waking up to that truth.”