A lack of funding for mental health services in Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s 2025 proposed state budget disappoints Minnesota’s mental health advocacy organizations. 

Walz and Flanagan’s proposed state budget, released Jan. 16, cut state spending across the board with the budget totaling around $4.8 billion less than the 2024 budget, according to data from Minnesota Management and Budget. The 2025 budget proposal includes no funding increases for mental health services.

Sue Abderholden, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Minnesota Branch, said it was distressing to learn mental health services such as therapy and crisis intervention that work are not seeing increased funding in the proposed budget. 

“I like to say that our mental health system isn’t broken,” Abderholden said. “It was never built.”

Programs like School-Linked Behavioral Health Services, which places mental health care providers in Minnesota schools, will lose around $5 million in funding when the state’s fiscal year ends June 30, Shannah Mulvihill, executive director of Mental Health Minnesota, said. Mobile crisis intervention services face a significant reduction of about $8 million in funds at the end of the fiscal year. 

Audio-only telehealth services, which offer rural residents in Minnesota better access to medical care, were one of the only healthcare services receiving additional funding in Walz and Flanagan’s budget.

Mulvihill said it was disappointing, though unsurprising, that mental health programs like School-Linked and crisis intervention remain underfunded in Minnesota amid a national mental health crisis.

“That’s really concerning because all we’re going to do is set the system back instead of moving forward,” Mulvihill said.

The rate of U.S. adults 18 or older who experienced symptoms of anxiety and depression nearly tripled from 2019 to 2022, the two most common mental health conditions in adults, according to a 2024 report from the CDC. The report also found that young adults ages 18-29 experience symptoms of anxiety and depression the most frequently out of any adult age group.

Fourth-year student Whitney Le, former president of now-defunct student group Student Acknowledge Mental Illness, said she has noticed herself and her peers struggle with anxiety and depression more after the pandemic.

Mulvihill said Mental Health Minnesota and other mental health advocacy organizations plan to lobby for funding for School-Linked and crisis intervention services to be added to the budget before it takes effect on July 1. 

Le said ensuring therapy sessions and community building are easily accessible for all college students is important for promoting their mental well-being.

“I would hope for, in terms of how to support students, would be more resources towards those, I think, making it more accessible to students,” Le said.

Mulvihill said the non-emergency 988 number Mental Health Minnesota monitors is used by teenagers and young adults the most.

Medicaid insurance coverage rates for mental health services are low right now, Mulvihill said. When coverage rates are low, and without state funding for mental health programs and services, care providers close, mental health care professionals go underpaid and more pressure is put on an already strained system.

“It puts a lot of pressure on the system in general, because what happens when we have fewer providers and fewer services available sort of on the upstream end is it puts a lot more pressure on our inpatient and emergency department use because that’s where people land,” Mulvihill said.

If you are struggling with your mental health, you can call or text 988, a non-emergency phone number for help.

Former Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic (DFL-Minneapolis), who represented parts of the University community, died in Minneapolis on Friday after a years-long battle with ovarian cancer. She was 62.

Dziedzic, who served as Senate majority leader since 2022, announced her cancer diagnosis in early 2023 and later stepped down from her Senate leadership position in February 2024 after her ovarian cancer returned. 

Dziedzic took office in 2012, representing several Minneapolis neighborhoods including the University of Minnesota campus, and led the state senate through the historic 2023 legislative session which passed legislation on abortion rights, drivers licenses for all Minnesotans and a more than $1 billion investment in affordable housing.

Minneapolis will hold a special election to fill Dzidzic’s seat on Jan. 28, according to the City of Minneapolis website. Minnesota DFL expects to endorse a candidate for the state senate on Jan. 8.

Edison father and former chair of DFL Senate District 60 Doron Clark announced his candidacy for Dziedzic’s senate seat in a social media post Monday.

Dziedzic’s death means Minnesota’s senate seats will be evenly split between the DFL and GOP when the 2025 legislative session begins Jan. 14. District 60’s new senator will return the DFL 34-33 majority. Dziedzic held the same slim majority for the DFL ahead of the 2023 legislative session.

Until her death, Dziedzic continued preparing for the upcoming 2025 state legislative session from the assisted living facility where she was living.

Podcaster and children’s author Sheletta Brundidge said in a column about Dziedzic on Tuesday the senator was quietly steadfast in her political work.

“She always looked for ways to use her political power for good,” Brundige said in her column. “And you didn’t even have to ask her for help.”

Primary voting for Dzeidzic’s district will begin on Jan. 9 and run until Jan. 14. Minneapolis voters can cast their ballot early starting on Jan. 9.

Minneapolis City Council overturned Mayor Jacob Frey’s veto of the 2025 budget plan in a 9-4 vote on Thursday.

Frey vetoed the around $1.9 billion budget on Wednesday, the first Minneapolis mayor to do so. The council initially passed the budget in a 10-3 vote on Tuesday with a city record of more than 70 budget amendments passed in it.  

Every council member stuck with their initial vote except Council Member Andrea Jenkins (Ward 8).

City Council President Elliott Payne (Ward 1) said in an email statement that overriding Frey’s veto prevented a city government shutdown and ensured the city properly funded homelessness prevention, neighborhood safety and environmental justice.

“This budget is one of the most equitable and reflective of constituent needs Minneapolis has ever had,” Payne said in his statement. “This isn’t political theatre, these amendments have real impacts on people’s lives and that should never be forgotten.”

Frey said in his veto statement he recognized the significance of vetoing the city’s entire budget, but said the budget created an “untenable situation” by adding around $6.5 million in new spending and cutting $15.9 million from city departments.

“I wish vetoing this budget was a harder decision,” Frey said in his letter. “Truthfully, it wasn’t, but it was painful because it appears you have the votes to override and implement a budget that is exceedingly problematic.” 

The council’s budget approved a 6.8% property tax levy increase, a decrease from Frey’s proposed 2025 property tax levy of 8.1%. 

Frey said in an email statement the council’s budget is reckless during a time when the city needs to use its limited financial resources responsibly.

“It cuts essentials like unsheltered homelessness response and recruitment of police, then turns around and uses the money to fund pet projects,” Frey said in the statement.

Council Member Robin Wonsley (Ward 2) said in an email statement Wednesday the budget should be celebrated for lowering city taxes and investing in city priorities, and she criticized Frey’s veto as motivated more by politics than financials.

“The mayor’s veto was sent out as a press release before it was even possible as a legislative action, which suggests that the Mayor’s goals are political theater rather than anything related to governance or financial matters,” Wonsley said.

Frey’s veto comes as he is expected to officially announce his reelection campaign for Minneapolis mayor soon. The four other candidates seeking to unseat Frey unanimously criticized Frey’s budget veto.

The overturned veto officially passed the city’s 2025 budget which will be used after Jan. 1, 2025.

Minnesotans are getting more flu shots as public COVID-19 concerns wane ahead of the 2024 flu season, according to Minneapolis and University of Minnesota public health officials.

Elizabeth Govrik-McCoy, a public health specialist for the Minneapolis Health Department who helps run free vaccine clinics in the city, said the longstanding routine of getting a flu shot is not the same top-of-mind health concern for Minneapolitans the way four-year-old COVID-19 is heading into winter months’ peak flu season.

“And if we were having this conversation 10 years from now, it’s going to be ‘This is what you need to do,’ just like get your flu shot,” Govrik-McCoy said.

Just over 25% of Minnesotans are up to date on their flu vaccines while about 15% are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines, giving flu shots about a 10% lead over its pandemic counterpart as of Thursday, according to data from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). 

COVID-19 is a more unpredictable disease, according to Ingrid Johansen, the director of M Health Fairview’s free vaccination program Minnesota Immunization Networking Initiative (MINI), which works to reduce disparities in vaccine access such as language, health insurance and transportation barriers. 

COVID-19 does not have a designated infectious season like the flu, and according to Johansen, medical science has yet to solidify a guaranteed vaccine routine for maintaining healthy immune systems.

Johansen said she has seen COVID-19 vaccine “fatigue” but more interest in flu shots this year from visitors at MINI clinics, which offer both vaccines and already administered over 5,000 of 10,000 expected vaccinations.

“This sort of mentality of, ‘I’ve already gotten like five COVID vaccines, I don’t want another one,’ and so that’s been a message that we’ve really been trying to help communicate with folks on,” Johansen said. “I know we have gotten a lot, but it was a novel, very dangerous infectious disease, and this is what we have to do to keep ourselves and our communities most protected.”

Govrik-McCoy said the city’s free vaccine clinics try to be a reliable source of accurate information for those who are vaccine-hesitant.

As of November 2023, over 80% of U.S. adults received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose since the pandemic began, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just under half of U.S. adults got a flu shot during the 2023-24 flu season. 

University of Minnesota students are getting vaccinated, too, according to Boynton Health’s Director of Public Health Michelle Trumpy. More students are getting flu shots than COVID-19 vaccines, though the numbers from Boynton’s free vaccine drop-in clinics and appointments are close.

“We’ve known about flu season, we know about a flu vaccine, now we’re adding COVID into the mix and so we’re still working on getting that message out that this is an important vaccine to get every single season as well,” Trumpy said. “Even just how we talk about it, we used to talk about our flu clinics, well now they’re flu and COVID clinics and so that’s part of it.”

Over 62% of University students got a flu shot in the last 12 months while about 52% got a COVID-19 vaccine, according to results from the University’s 2024 College Student Health Survey.

Trumpy said it is important for students to get their flu and COVID-19 shots because their close-quarters living and social situations can put them at risk of getting sick.

“For a college student, getting the flu or COVID could mean missing class, it could mean being too sick to do homework, it could mean missing out on a job, which is important revenue for students, or important social activities,” Trumpy said. “We know that vaccination reduces your risk of getting sick and if you do get sick and you’ve been vaccinated, typically it’s more mild.”

Johansen said while vaccination numbers are steady, both flu and COVID-19 remain serious health concerns, and combating public distrust in vaccinations is the biggest challenge to public immunity health. 

“(Vaccines) can keep you in your life, like with having to miss work or school, so I think we’re really nervous about the landscape moving forward and this like continued erosion of trust in vaccines,” Johansen said. “People will die if we really start to lose ground in some of our herd immunity.”

Environmental activists and legislators are preparing how to ensure environmental protections ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s administration and a divided Minnesota Legislature. 

Less than two months away from the start of the next legislative session, increasing partisanship, divided state support and Trump’s administration are all threats to protecting the state’s public water resources and climate conservation, according to government relations manager for Friends of the Boundary Waters (FOTBW) Steve Schultz.

Aaron Klemz, chief strategy officer for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA), said with an incoming fossil fuel-friendly Trump administration, any environmental protection efforts will rely on state legislatures.

“One thing that’s definitely true is we cannot count on the federal government to lead, and if anything, we can count on the federal government to try to make it harder to achieve some of our clean water and climate objectives,” Klemz said. “So it’s important that states like Minnesota lead on this.”

MCEA successfully lobbied the state legislature in May to provide $16 million for testing and installing filters into wells throughout the state to secure clean, safe drinking water for Minnesotans.

Getting legislation passed will be difficult, Schultz said, because of the split in the state legislature between Democrats and Republicans and extreme partisanship at the federal level. 

“Realistically, it’s going to be difficult for us,” Schultz said. “That’s not to say we’re not going to keep on trying, we’re going to get our supporters involved, we’re going to get them over to the capital as much as we can to try to put pressure on them, but it’s definitely an uphill battle through mud in a snowstorm.”

Sulfide mining is FOTBW’s biggest concern as they look to pass the “Prove It First” bill. The bill would require new sulfide mines to prove that a similar sulfide mine has operated for 10 years in the U.S. without polluting and one mine that has not polluted the natural area 10 years after closing, according to FOTBW spokesperson Pete Marshall. This bill would protect the Boundary Waters, Lake Superior and the Mississippi River, according to Schultz.

According to Marshall, one of FOTBW’s recent policy victories was instituting a 20-year ban on copper and nickel mining in the Superior National Forest near the Boundary Waters — a ban Trump pledged to lift during his presidency.

Minnesota state Sen. Jennifer McEwen (DFL-Duluth), the vice chair for the state senate’s Environment, Climate and Legacy Committee, said she wants Minnesotans to understand the immense influence oil, mineral and natural gas extraction companies have over legislators.

“(Their power) stretches everywhere from which bills are even possible for us to consider to which bills pass out of committee, which bills are heard at all, which bills will advance,” McEwen said. “They run the show in many ways. We have to actively be fighting them in order to get things done that they don’t approve of.”

FOTBW worked with President Joe Biden’s administration to re-cancel Minnesota mining company Twin Metals’ lease to mine near the Boundary Waters in 2022, according to Marshall. Trump reversed the initial cancellation of the mining lease during his first presidency and could reverse it again in his upcoming term.

Klemz said the typical federal agencies that protect against pollution and climate change like the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Forest Service face potentially major budget cuts.

In 2017, three U.S. governors formed the Climate Alliance to limit greenhouse gas emissions and now the alliance includes governors from 24 U.S. states and territories.

McEwen’s biggest concern heading into the 2025 session is safeguarding Minnesota’s public waters. She said none of her Republican colleagues are willing to work on water and environmental protection legislation and some Democrats are hesitant to block corporate power.

“I fear that we do not have the votes, either in the Senate or the House, to count on to protect our environment at this time,” McEwen said. “This is why I believe what it will take is massive organizing on the part of the public to make it crystal clear to elected representatives, both in the DFL Party and in the Republican Party, that this is a deal breaker, that they must protect our waters from corporate exploitation and our people from corporate exploitation, or they will lose their next election.”

Marshall said as Minnesota heads into the 2025 legislative session and a second Trump administration, he wants Minnesotans to not take the state’s immense clean water resources for granted. 

“I think now there’s an opportunity to really put that to test and strengthen the clean water protections we have, add to them and ensure that the water we have the natural places we have continued to, nurture people who live here, who visit here and continue to do so for future generations,” Marshall said. “Not just for 20 years of profit to foreign investors and foreign mining companies.”

Minneapolis City Council members want to designate some parking lots and outdoor spaces as places homeless people can stay without fear of eviction.

Council members Jason Chavez (Ward 9), Aurin Chowdhury (Ward 12) and Aisha Chughtai (Ward 10) will introduce the Safe Outdoor Spaces and Safe Parking Spaces ordinances as three separate ordinances all with the intended goal of providing a place where homeless people can stay overnight.

Safe outdoor spaces could include temporary and mobile shelters like outdoor tents and trailers and parking lots where homeless residents can legally park their vehicles overnight, according to a July 23 presentation from the city auditor’s office.

Minneapolis declared unsheltered homelessness a public health emergency in December 2023, according to Chavez’s Nov. 1 newsletter. Less than two months later, the city evicted several homeless encampments part of Camp Nenookaasi earlier this year, including three encampments in February and three in July, for concerns about violence and the spread of illnesses.

Sanctuary Supply Depot, an organization that provides basic living supplies to homeless residents, reported three encampment evictions in south Minneapolis on Tuesday in an Instagram post.

Christin Crabtree, an organizer for Camp Nenookaasi, said the evictions made it harder for homeless residents to connect with support services because they lost the centered, physical space of the encampment. She added that the Camp Nenookaasi organization, which supports homeless residents, adapted the way they do outreach to account for the fractured nature of the homeless community.

“That is not a sign of the individual’s failing as much as it’s a sign of, I would say, strategic disinvestment in certain spaces,” Crabtree said. “There’s been roadblocks for us, and we’ve been able to move around them because nothing is going to stop us from caring about our neighbors and caring about each other.”

Chavez said in a statement to the Minnesota Daily that he is committed to exploring all policies and actions that address unsheltered homelessness. However, he said the Minneapolis Mayor’s office’s encampment removal strategies are inhumane and ineffective.

Crabtree said these ordinances are steps in the right direction for supporting homeless Minneapolitans because they would provide some stability in their daily lives. But it is not the solution. 

“Having a place to be and knowing that you’re allowed to be there just allows a person to be able to sleep at night,” Crabtree said. “Some of these guys they can’t, like you can’t go all the way to sleep if you’re constantly worried about what’s happening around you, right?”

In the future, Crabtree said she wants to see Minneapolis create affordable housing priced for residents earning 30% or less of Minneapolis’ area median income to accommodate the financial situations of all homeless residents. 

Hennepin County’s housing stability director David Hewitt said in a statement to the Minnesota Daily that the county is committed to increasing housing opportunities with minimal entry requirements such as verifiable income and background checks.

Chavez said he is confident his city council colleagues will support the ordinances.

“Homelessness is a complex problem with even more complex solutions, so the city alone cannot adequately address this crisis,” Chavez said in the statement. “My colleagues and I will continue working with our partners at the federal, state, and county levels to obtain the funding and expertise needed to help our unhoused neighbors.”

Crabtree said moving forward she wants Minneapolis to think about its homeless residents as members of the community and consider the dangers they face instead of framing them as safety threats themselves.

“It is a unique, special kind of racism to blame our unhoused residents who are primarily Black, Indigenous, immigrant populations, it’s a special kind of racism to blame them and want to talk about safety and housing and frame things in a way that villainizes, rather than brings forward meaningful services and solutions,” Crabtree said.

Future and current Minnesota educators are worried about President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to potentially end tenure for K-12 teachers. 

Trump’s Republican Party platform for his upcoming term, known as “Agenda47,” will support schools that end teacher tenure and adopt merit pay, which rewards teachers based on their performance evaluations. 

“Republicans will support schools that focus on Excellence and Parental Rights,” Trump’s agenda said. “We will support ending Teacher Tenure, adopting Merit pay, and allowing various publicly supported Educational models.” 

Jehanne Beaton, coordinator for the University of Minnesota’s undergraduate DirecTrack to Teaching program, said tenure allows teachers the security to innovate and improve their curriculum without fear of reprisal from administrators, parents or colleagues — especially important for new teachers beginning their careers.

“We have historical precedent that says without tenure, teachers have much less academic freedom and that’s across the board,” Beaton said. “I would also say that getting rid of tenure is worse than making sure a teacher who’s not doing their job gets due process.”

What is tenure? What does it do for teachers?

K-12 teachers in public schools receive tenure during their fourth year working at a school, according to Beaton, essentially making it more difficult to fire a teacher by requiring reasonable cause in firing a tenured teacher. Before tenure was widely established in U.S. states, teachers could be fired for being gay, pregnant or supposedly communist, according to Beaton. 

Beaton said there are negatives to the system of tenure. She’s seen teachers “phone it in” once they’ve received tenure and stop doing their jobs properly, which ultimately hurts students’ learning experiences.

Ryan Chock, a fourth-year University student in the DirecTrack to Teaching program, said he worries ending tenure would repel people from entering the profession and detract from students’ education.

“Having teachers be, I guess, at the beck and call and job security on a whim, they might be afraid to, I mean, educate, do their job,” Chock said. 

Moms for Liberty, a political organization that advocates against curriculum mentioning LGBTQ+ rights, homophobia, racism and critical race theory, has chapters in six Minnesota counties. The Southern Poverty Law Center designated the organization as an extremist group in 2023.

A Minnetonka middle school teacher was suspended in 2021 after receiving backlash from parents for highlighting transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson in a “Person of the Day” class activity. The teacher ultimately left the district.

Beaton said she fears ending tenure would mean fewer LGBTQ+ individuals and people of color would become teachers, a problem Minnesota already faces in its teaching population.

Around 6% of Minnesota teachers are people of color or Indigenous, according to a 2023 report from the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board.

Lilian Saunders, a third-year University student pursuing a degree in English and a career in teaching, said supporting teachers with tenure is especially important in a profession where burnout and turnover rates are already high.

What about the Department of Education?

Current and future Minnesota educators are also concerned with possible goals to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education which funds special education and English language learning programs and regulates financial aid programs like the FAFSA and Pell Grants.

“One thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and sending all education and education work it needs back to the states,” Trump said in a 2023 video.  

Chock, who’s pursuing teaching as a second career, said the potential threat to tenure and the end of the Department of Education gave him doubts about his future career.

“I’m thoroughly invested, at this point, in my education, but I would be lying if I didn’t say it gave me pause to just think and reflect about what does that look like for me,” Chock said. “How is that going to affect my career?”

Chock added that in his current job as a bartender, he’s trained multiple former teachers who left the profession during the pandemic, a strange experience for him as he plans to become a teacher.

Saunders, whose parents are both teachers, said she still wants to be a teacher but is thinking about how her career could change under a new presidential administration.

“The culture around teaching has changed so much, especially due to COVID, like the way teachers are treated and, as someone entering the profession with this administration, it is nerve-wracking because I just feel like the respect that teachers get is so different now, and I can see that continuously going down with this administration,” Saunders said. “But also, I am a firm believer that the people within schools can impact changes, and so if you get into a good school with good support, you’re still going to be able to do a great deal of good.”

Beaton said she’s worried the potential end of tenure and the Department of Education will repel even more people from becoming teachers in the future.

“We’ve seen a huge drop in people interested in teaching for a decade, and we were just beginning to see an incline. We’re just beginning to see that turn because we’ve had four years of a president that actually supports public education and so, do I worry for the profession?” Beaton said. “Yeah, yeah I do.”

Minneapolis’ Neighborhood Safety Department (NSD) gave 12 city organizations over $1.1 million to implement trauma-response programming despite questions raised by the City Council regarding their effectiveness.

City Council member Robin Wonsley (Ward 2) questioned whether two of the selected organizations — the Black Business Enterprises fund (BBE) and the Let’s Learn Collectively On Our Life’s Journey — were relevant to trauma response and de-escalation services at an Oct. 21 city council subcommittee meeting, according to Wonsley’s Oct. 25 newsletter.

Trauma-response programming includes emergency intervention services like medical treatment or housing, support resources to remove individuals from violent situations like domestic abuse, help them heal from their experiences and prevent a repeat of those situations, according to the city’s financial report on the funding. Communities of color and low-income individuals are disproportionately at risk of cyclical trauma. 

The funds come from money received from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, which provided U.S. cities with money for post-pandemic recovery.

Of the $1.1 million, the BBE fund received about $125,000, and Let’s Learn received $100,000.

BBE Executive Director Nancy Korsah said that despite ultimately receiving the funds, waiting for the allocation to be finalized was stressful. She added that the organization has faced judgment based on the organization’s name. 

Korsah said the organization helps beyond working with women of color by intervening when they leave abusive homes, by providing shelter, medical care and resources to learn financial literacy to develop their independence.

“Our number one goal is to get them fully financially free so that they don’t have to depend on anyone,” Korsah said. “I live for this, like it’s so exciting to see someone be able to be free and be able to pay their own rent and not have to go back to their abuser just because they absolutely have to.”

Wonsley said in an email statement to the Minnesota Daily that the two organizations seem like they do great work, but she was unsure of their connection to trauma-response programming and the geographical equity of the selected organizations. She added that NSD failed to provide further information to her and other city council members about why these organizations are effective choices to receive the funding.

“The City Council does not have direct oversight over the contract process through which vendors are selected,” Wonsley said in her statement. “The process is run by the city’s procurement department. This is why I had questions about the procurement process that led to the selection of the listed organizations. So far I have not received an answer as to why these organizations were selected.”

NSD selected the 12 organizations based on geographical areas with high crime rates, which populations each organization serves, and the diversity of the organizations, according to an email statement to the Minnesota Daily from Office of Community Safety spokesperson Brian Feintech. 

Korsah said BBE already spent the money they were told they would receive before receiving it. If the council does not approve sending BBE the money, Korsah said she is worried BBE will have to take the $125,000 financial loss.

Wonsley said in her statement she would like to see organizations with strong, quality backgrounds in emergency trauma response be selected for city funding.

Korsah said she hopes the city council will look beyond BBE’s name in the future and see their work helping communities of color gain financial independence to intervene and prevent cyclical abuse trauma.

“Unfortunately, people don’t realize that we are not able to help our own people because sometimes they shy away from a lot of resources and help because they don’t believe that they belong,” Korsah said. “It was purposeful for us to put ‘Black Business’ so the people of color would stop running away from the help that they actually need and be comfortable coming to us.”

Minneapolis-based housing developer Artspace broke ground on its largest affordable housing project yet for Northeast Minneapolis artists on Oct. 24.

The project intends to accomodate both creative passions and family living needs, according to Project Coordinator for the Minneapolis Community Planning and Economic Development Department Jamie Radel.

The city helped Artspace garner $50 million in funding from bonds, loans and tax credits, according to Radel.

The project aims to prevent the constant displacement of artists from living spaces by providing permanent housing to around 350 artists who were already a part of the Northrup King Building’s commercial studios as well as expanding access to others with affordable pricing, Artspace’s Vice President for Property Development Becky Carlson St. Clair said.

“It’s really just kind of more of a stabilizing place for artists in which they can go,” Carlson St. Clair said. “It’s helpful for other artists to be connected to one another, kind of learn from each other, they can also kind of help develop together.”

Construction of residential spaces inside the commercial studios is expected to be completed by March 2026.

Carlson St. Clair said Artspace received enthusiastic support from the city and Northeast residents at the groundbreaking for a project rare for its size.

“Having a 13-acre site in the city of Minneapolis to develop at this time is not very common,” Carlson St. Clair said. “There’s not that sort of volume, and so I really think that it’s going to be a hugely transformational project.”

Artspace purchased the 106-year-old Northrup King Building in 2019 from a commercial developer who would only sell the historic property if it was guaranteed to be preserved.

Radel said the development process for Artspace’s project was not simple and took more time than most affordable housing projects because of the complicated process of finding funding. As a steward of the property, Artspace needed to figure out how much money was needed to develop a plan of how the building would work and how it would be renovated.

“(Artspace) took ownership, and it wasn’t like the next day they thought they were going to start their housing,” Radel said. “They needed to figure out what they were going to do with this 13-building complex that they had just acquired.”

Artists often do not make a reliable income, do not receive insurance and struggle financially, according to Ben Johnson, the director of Minneapolis’ Arts and Cultural Affairs Department.

Johnson, who grew up in Minnesota viewing Minneapolis as an epicenter for arts and culture, said building affordable housing for artists is a direct investment in the cultural identity of the city.

“If we want artists, one of the two biggest things that affect them is being able to live affordably and then having a space to create art,” Johnson said. “If we can help mitigate that or support those things to allow them to be creative, then that’s great.”

Artists often work multiple jobs and rarely profit from their art, Carlson St. Clair said. Artspace’s new affordable housing aims to lower the financial burdens artists face.

“These artists are like anybody else in any other building in which they’re working in a couple of jobs or whatever,” Carlson St. Clair said. “Having this housing might allow them to maybe not have as many jobs to fill that in and have time to pursue their art.”

Johnson said providing Minneapolis artists with an affordable housing safety net creates room for their creativity and enhances the city’s quality of life through their art.

“It’s a cultural asset for me to know that we are anchoring, supporting and ensuring that we are carving out that place for art and culture is essential to the quality of life,” Johnson said.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) won the national gold medal award for excellence in park and recreation management for the first time in 35 years on Oct. 9.

The MPRB earned the award, given by the National Recreation and Park Association, by submitting an application that highlighted the organization’s efforts to improve equity and accessibility, according to MPRB’s award application. Projects like Spark’d Studios, JD Rivers’ Children’s Garden and Indigenous land reclamation and restoration are among the efforts MPRB is proudest of, according to its finalist video.

The award comes after about 40% of union Minneapolis park workers went on strike for roughly three weeks in July and August to increase wages and change contract language, according to the MPRB website.

Until this year, MPRB saw a string of years as a finalist for the Excellence Award after winning it for the first time in 1989, according to a statement on the MPRB website.

Meg Forney, the president of MPRB, said connecting impoverished communities to Minneapolis’ natural amenities has been a focus of the organization’s work for the past 20 years.

“It’s happening in my lifetime,” Forney said while choking up. “We are patching together these seamless trails along the edges of the river and then also trails into those communities so they have access and everything.”

In Minneapolis, about 98% of residents live within a 10-minute walking distance from a park, according to MPRB’s award application. Forney said the goal is to increase that number to 100%.

Forney said while the board of commissioners guides MPRB’s work, this award is the product of hard-working and passionate employees.

“They’re the ones who are making it a reality, and I am so, so proud of them,” Forney said. “I’ve worked with our park system for over 40 years and what has always delighted me is our park professionals are passionate.”

Raechel Bosch, the manager of Spark’d Studios youth centers, is one of those passionate employees dedicated to improving the park system.

Spark’d Studios is a youth-focused branch of MPRB rec centers where young people can hang out, do homework and develop creative and technical skills that interest them with the guidance of Spark’d Studios staff, according to Bosch.

Spark’d Studios currently has three locations, the first of which opened in 2021, with plans to open six locations by the end of 2025, according to Bosch.

Bosch said Spark’d Studios contributed to this award because the recreation project demonstrates how they can effectively serve their communities instead of being outdated public spaces.

“It just shows a new model of how we can really infuse these spaces with more opportunities, more experiences and more people to help guide and offer different types of programs,” Bosch said. “Truly what public recreational spaces can be and can offer to a city.”

MPRB also partnered with Owámniyomni Okhódayapi on The Falls Initiative, which aims to reclaim and return federally-owned land of the Upper Lock in St. Anthony Falls to the Dakota people and the public, according to the Owámniyomni Okhódayapi website.

Shelley Buck, the president of Owámniyomni Okhódayapi, said in an email statement to the Minnesota Daily that the organization congratulates the MPRB for their accomplishment and looks forward to continuing their partnership.

“The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board has been a wonderful partner to Owámniyomni Okhódayapi and has been open to doing things in different and better ways as we work toward land reclamation at Owámniyomni,” Buck said in the statement.

Kjersti Duval, project advisor for Owámniyomni Okhódayapi, said a primary challenge of the project is navigating conversations about land ownership, but MPRB has been uniquely supportive of Owámniyomni Okhódayapi’s work.

“When you’re in a conversation like that, it’s number one, sensitive, even talking about ownership and negotiated outcomes when there’s underlying questions of sovereignty and inherent rights is challenging,” Duval said. “So an agency taking that on, becoming vulnerable, having those questions and having leadership engage is really, really nice to see.”

Forney said while the award is a reinvigorating achievement for the MPRB, the accolade should push the organization to continue striving for increased equity and accessibility to parks and recreation services.

“Is it a validation that you know ‘Hey, we’re on the right track of the things we’re doing and so we should keep the status quo?’” Forney said. “No, I think it’s exactly the opposite, obviously by us pushing the envelope that’s the way to go.”