In the crowded Abyssinia Event Center, a cultural center revitalized after the 2020 protest, city officials gathered to listen to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s State of the City Address.

In his address, Frey portrayed Minneapolis as proof that local Democratic governments can work to increase public safety and collaboration with communities.

This speech comes as Frey is running for reelection for his third term as mayor, going against four candidates in November 2025 —  Sen. Omar Fateh (DFL-St.Paul), Rev. DeWayne Davis, Jazz Hampton and Brenda Short, according to Ballotpedia.

Frey said his administration’s accomplishments showed the power of local government in a state, rejecting President Donald Trump’s administration’s claims about Minneapolis.

“Here in Minneapolis, it isn’t our job to sow chaos and create fear, it’s to deliver,” Frey said. “Our job is to get things done and by doing that, we prove that local governments can work.”

Trump criticized Minneapolis’s handling of the 2020 protest when he visited last year, Fox 9 reported. This year, Trump signed an executive order that would pull federal funding from cities like Minneapolis, CBS News reported. Vice President JD Vance said Minneapolis was overrun with crime last year.

Frey spoke about the recent lawsuit from the U.S. District Court judge in California blocking Trump from withholding federal funds to sanctuary states like Minnesota based on their immigration policies.

“The law is on our side, and we’re going to win and we stand with our immigrant neighbors and entrepreneurs,” Frey said.

The journey to a safer city

Contrasting Trump’s narrative about Minneapolis, Frey said the city has become safer through the administration’s efforts with the police, violence prevention services and 911 call responses.

Recruiting officers increased by 135% in 2024, with 76 new hires, according to the Minneapolis Police Department.

Frey spoke about the accomplishments of lowering crime in North Minneapolis. The neighborhood had the lowest gun-related crimes it has had in 10 years, CBS News reported.

“It’s time to retire that old narrative that the northside isn’t safe,” Frey said. “The northside is alive and it’s brimming with talent. The northside has been safer than it ever was in a decade.”

Frey also said the Minneapolis Police Department continued to improve accountability and reform through the federal consent decree.

“To those who’ve called for police reform, to those who protested, testified, organized and demanded better, thank you,” Frey said in the address. “Your advocacy is being translated into real action because we are partners in this work.”

Even with lowering crime rates across the city, Frey’s speech comes one week after a quadruple homicide near Cedar and Hiawatha, MPR reported. Frey said the shooting was tragic, and it showed that the city should continue to work on the collaboration between different departments for safety.

“Progress can be fragile. Weeks like this underscore the importance of strong partnerships both internally at the city enterprise and with other districts,” Frey said.

With all the strides in safety, Frey said he wants to use this year’s budget to increase police presence around the city.

Revitalization after pandemic and protests

Along with safety, Frey promised to revitalize infrastructure in several places in Minneapolis affected by COVID-19 or the 2020 riots.

In the speech, Frey said one of the major achievements of his administration was the increase in the downtown Minneapolis population. According to Twin Cities Business, downtown Minneapolis’ population passed 60,000 people this year.

Frey also promised to revitalize Uptown Minneapolis by increasing police presence, art grants and targeted business support like the Ownership and Opportunity Fund. Frey said 25 businesses in places like West Lake Street to start new businesses and expand ownership opportunities.

“You’ll start to see the buds of progress this summer, and when you see those new businesses, go to them regularly,” Frey said. “Uptown’s evolution won’t happen as quickly as any of us will like, but those bursts will each individually make us proud.”

One of the revitalized areas, West Lake Street, was a source of triumph for the mayor. Abe Demmaj, the owner of the Abyssinia Event Center, said Frey worked with him and the surrounding businesses to restore the building’s infrastructure.

Unclear progress with homelessness, encampments

Frey proclaimed that under his administration, homelessness in Minneapolis has decreased by about 33% since 2020 from the work of the Homeless Response Team and the administration’s investment in affordable housing.

“We know that safe, stable housing is the foundation for everything else– better health, stronger neighborhoods and stronger opportunity,” Frey, who initially campaigned in 2017 on ending homelessness in five years, said.

Although homelessness has decreased in Minneapolis, there was a slight increase of 10% from 2023 to 2024.

While homeless encampments have decreased due to closures, the city’s decision to close encampments when they pop up has been criticized by city council members and advocacy groups. Some city officials and other residents were happy with the progress of the Frey administration, but others said more work needs to be done to address homelessness.

City Council President Elliott Payne (Ward 1) said he would like more collaboration between the mayor and the city council, especially on encampment closures.

“It was also good to see him striking a tone of collaboration,” Payne said. “What I do want to see going forward is translating that rhetoric of collaboration into truly collaborative action at City Hall, and I think there’s an opportunity to do that.”

Kyle Hanson, the executive director of Agate Housing, said he was glad the mayor was helping the community, but there should be more collaboration with nonprofits.

“The city has made great investments in affordable housing units while at the same time non-profits, across the board, are struggling to meet the continued needs of the unhoused in our community,” Hanson said in a statement. “Uncertain times in Washington mean we are going to need local partners more than ever before.”

Thousands of people gathered at the St. Paul State Capitol on a rainy Thursday for the Unity Rally protest to support immigrant workers.

The Unity Rally protest was part of a larger set of protests in the U.S. for International Workers Day. Protestors emphasized the importance of immigrant workers in Minnesota.

Pablo Tapia, the executive director of Asemblea de Derechos Civiles, a faith-based nonprofit and one of the organizers of the Unity Rally, said this May Day was significant because of what he calls an attack on immigrant workers from the federal government.

“The legal rights that we had, they have vanished,” Tapia said. “And we’re worried because our families are worried about their children. Some of us are grandparents.”

Dozens of speakers, ranging from student groups like the Young Democrat Society to worker groups like the Association of Flight Attendants, spoke at the rally.

All of the speakers criticized President Donald Trump’s administration, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and emphasized the importance of unity among worker unions and immigrant rights.

“Now is the time to resist, now is the time to fight, now is to say enough is enough,” said speaker Rachel Dionne-Thunder of Big Stone Cree Nation, who is also the operations and manager of the Indigenous Protector Movement.

Marcia Howard, the vice president of the teacher chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59, said the new immigration policies mean other people will have to take a side on this issue.

“We have drawn a line in the sand, and that line, no matter what the heck comes from out east, (Trump) ain’t passing that line and coming for our students,” Howard said. “Not our students, not our coworkers, not the members of our unions on H1B visas. It is time for you to pick a side.”

Trump emphasized a stricter policy on immigration compared to the previous administration. About 47,000 migrants have been detained this year, NBC reported.

Minnesota has a substantial workforce based on migrant labor. According to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, foreign-born workers accounted for 59% of the state’s labor and employment growth in 2023.

Associate Dean and University of Minnesota urban studies professor Ryan Allen said the recent increase in deportations could lead to critical immigrant workers in industries like construction, agriculture, restaurants and hospitality not being available.

“These industries can face some negative effects from these immigration enforcement policies because it’s going to make it harder to hire workers,” Allen said.

Protest speaker Beto Villanueva, a member of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, said the recent attacks on immigrants are an injustice.

“I’m here because I’ve been seeing what happens when we don’t speak up. And I’m done being silent. Immigrants are essential. We contribute to the economy. We help keep this country alive,” Villanueva said. “And we’ve been doing it while being targeted more, paid less, while being disrespected and undervalued.”

While International Workers Day is a celebration of all members of the working class, the immigrant worker population makes up a crucial aspect of the U.S holiday.

This collaboration between workers’ unions and immigrant workers is not new, according to Associate Director of Immigration History Research Michele Waslin.

“There are a lot of employers who want to hire undocumented workers and pay them under the table because they can pay them lower wages and poor working conditions,” Waslin said. “So some of the big unions have taken this big step to be supportive of legalizing undocumented workers, of reforming our immigration system because they want everybody to be on a level playing field.” 

Rodrigo Gutierrez, who immigrated from Mexico to Minnesota when he was 2 years old, said he came out not just for worker solidarity but to support immigrants in a place he calls home.   

“I’m a U.S. citizen and everything, but it took me a long time. Minnesota has been where I felt the closest link to beyond just the United States. I felt like a Minnesotan,” Gutierrez said. “And right now, what I’m seeing happening to this country, what I’m seeing through the hard workers, immigrants who helped build this country, who are being treated like shit. It’s just not right.”

Officials from the Minneapolis Department of Neighborhood Safety, Minneapolis Police Department and Minneapolis Fire Department gave a presentation outlining its summer safety plans for the summer at the April 23 City Council meeting. 

The Neighborhood Safety Department will focus on large events like the Twin Cities Pride Festival, Saloon Block Party, International Gold Cup and Open Streets Minneapolis, a multi-neighborhood event throughout different parts of Minneapolis, Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette said.

“Minneapolis just saw its longest stretch without a homicide in nearly a decade. That’s not luck, that’s progress,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a press release. “As we head into summer, we’re doubling down on our work. Through strong partnerships with law enforcement and community leaders, we’re delivering safer streets, neighborhood by neighborhood.”

The Neighborhood Safety Department also plans to increase the visibility of community safety programs like the violence interrupters and the Community Safety Ambassador Program, Barnette said.

In terms of calls, the Minneapolis Department of Emergency Communications requested 311 calls be open during the 4th of July and the week of A Taste of Minnesota, according to Minneapolis 911 Director Joni Hodne.

The Minneapolis Fire Department will have mobile Emergency Medical Services (EMS) at events like Twin Cities Pride and a Taste of Minnesota, Chief Bryan Tyner said at the meeting.

He added that the fire department will also have boats on the Mississippi River in case people accidentally start a boat fire by shooting fireworks this summer, Tyner said.

Security planning for the summer is not limited to city officials. Neighborhood organizations and advocacy groups like the West Bank Association and Twin Cities Pride are working with police and the community to plan safety at the events. 

This year, Open Streets Minneapolis will be hosted in different parts of the city during August, including Cedar-Riverside.

West Bank Business Association President KJ Starr said the Association has had previous safety meetings with community members and met with city officials to prepare for Open Streets.

The violence interrupter group Metro Youth Diversion will be more visible during the summer, Starr said. In combination with planning from the city, Starr said large events like Open Streets Minneapolis will be the best places in the city this year and not just for safety. 

“It’s probably the safest day of the year because everybody’s out, and really exemplifies our orientation towards safety is that by having more people in the neighborhood, doing fun things together, you’re occupying the spaces, you’re making the streets as vibrant places,” Starr said. 

Along with violence interrupters, Starr said she believes another way to increase the sense of safety is through beautification efforts.

“With our major issues being just open drug use, that continues to be something that we work on in multiple different ways, including environmental design, beautification, activation of empty spaces, helping people redesign their entryways,” Starr said.

Twin Cities Pride Festival starting in late June also has its security details planned out, Andi Otto, the executive director for Twin Cities Pride, said. 

Otto said if anything were to happen, Twin Cities Pride has emergency contingency plans in case of dangerous situations. 

“We work with everybody like we sit down with every official from Park Police, MPD, Fire, EMS. We talk about what if this happens, what is the plan of action or how do we prevent that. We have designated shelters for severe weather, and then we do things that are probably not as noticeable,” Otto said. 

With the Twin Cities Pride Festival expecting around 650,000 visitors this year, Otto said he is thankful for the safety efforts in the city. 

“Safety is something that we have taken seriously our whole entire existence. This year is honestly no different. I think we are more aware and we pay attention to things that are going on around us.” Otto said. “We do monitor social media in case there’s any potential threats that come in. We are just really fortunate that we’ve had this plan for a long time and so we don’t have to change a whole lot to ensure the safety of our community at our festival.”

The number of homeless encampments in Minneapolis is falling, but activists criticize the city’s current methods of encampment clearings as an ineffective solution.

To clear encampments, the city has relied on the Homeless Response Team and the Minneapolis Police Department.

Last year, the city closed 17 encampments, according to Minneapolis director of regulatory services Enrique Velázquez.

The decline in encampments has coincided with a decline in 311 calls for people experiencing homelessness from 196 last year to 55 calls this year, according to city data.

In January, MPD Police Chief Brian O’Hara issued a special order that allows for Minneapolis Police to stop encampments from forming on city-owned property, vacant lots and public rights of way.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement the city’s efforts to decrease homelessness in Minneapolis have been a success.

“The City of Minneapolis has been working tirelessly with our government and community partners to move people out of encampments and into long-term housing — and our efforts are paying off,” Frey said.

While encampments are decreasing, some activists and politicians are critical of Frey’s homeless prevention methods and messaging.

Sen. Omar Fateh (DFL-Minneapolis), who is currently running for mayor, said on X on April 2 that the recent decrease is hiding Minneapolis’ homeless population.

“Hiding homelessness doesn’t solve it. We can’t celebrate this data as a win in partnership with our unhoused neighbors,” Fateh said on X. “Sadly this reflects an uptick in MPD aggression that makes vulnerable people more invisible. We need a humane response — not “out of sight, out of mind.”

Frey pushed back against Fateh and said only 27 people were experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Minneapolis.

While data for 2025 is not published yet, the Supporting Unsheltered Homelessness Data Dashboard shows the city’s Homeless Response Team is currently engaged with 36 people who do not live in proper housing.

County-wide, 628 people were experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the last three months, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.

The current method

Currently, homeless encampments are cleared based on safety, public health, neighborhood impact and availability in shelters, according to Velázquez.

In addition to helping clear homeless encampments, the five-person Homeless Response Team also reaches out directly to the local homeless population and tries to help homeless people find shelters, Velázquez said. The team is expected to engage with homeless people five days a week.

In their first report to the city in March, the Homeless Response Team reported offering 169 individuals shelter or other housing, but only nine accepted their offers.

Velázquez attributes those numbers to the constant need for caseworkers to build relationships and the jarring transition from unsheltered living to housing.

“I celebrate the nine that took advantage of the opportunity and decided that they were ready to move into shelter,” Velázquez said. “It takes a lot of time to form relationships with individuals and I think it takes the repetition of being able to see people and continuously come back.”

Street outreach worker Soren Stevenson, who is also running for City Council for Ward 8, said Frey’s encampment policies are a band-aid to a larger problem.

“It’s effective at making encampments less visible. But it’s having no effect or even potentially a negative effect on people moving from the streets into homes,” Stevenson said.

Stevenson said that while encampments are a bad thing, the current method only makes it harder for homeless people to connect to case managers or to the Coordinated Entry, a database that matches people to housing depending on their needs.

“If people aren’t connected to some kind of outreach worker or some kind of case manager, they really struggle to go through what’s called the coordinated entry system,” Stevenson said. “And that’s the system that the county uses to get people from the streets into homes.”

Christin Crabtree, a Camp Nenookaasi organizer, said clearing encampments can be a traumatizing experience for homeless people.

“It’s really jarring for people and really scary. We see when there are evictions that take place, we oftentimes will see a spike in overdoses as well as residents that go missing,” Crabtree said. “When an encampment is evicted, that creates a lot of instability and vulnerability, And people are just looking for places to get safe, to be able to sit down.”

Crabtree said that after an encampment is cleared, caseworkers who had been working with specific homeless people will have to locate them.

Minneapolis’s homeless approach does not provide homeless people any safety or security, Crabtree said.

“People spend their day in Minneapolis in the community they live in and then spend the night in the suburbs or in St. Paul because they’re unable to lay down and sleep,” Crabtree said.

In response to arguments that the encampment closure is not helping, Velázquez said addressing the homeless is a complicated effort and encampment clearings are just one way the city combats it.

“There’s no one silver bullet that will take care of all of these societal ills. We need to take a collective, collaborative effort towards solving all these other pieces to contribute towards homelessness,” Velázquez said.

Crabtree and Stevenson said they believe greater collaboration between the city and outreach organizations is an alternative way to deal with encampments.

Stevenson said places like Camp Nenookaasi present a good alternative to encampment clearings as their centralized location provides the community safety and caseworkers an easy way to find homeless people. 

Crabtree said she would like to see the city move the responsibility of encampment clearings from the Homeless Response Team to the Minneapolis Health Department and more collaboration with homeless outreach groups. 

“Regulatory services is who you call for a property complaint for somebody not mowing their lawn. And that is saying that we are thinking of our neighbors who are unhoused as being a complaint, as being like garbage that needs to be cleaned up,” Crabtree said. 

While disagreeing on the approaches to homelessness, both homeless advocates and city officials agreed that time, combined efforts and empathy would be needed to truly address the causes behind homelessness.

“I can’t emphasize this enough, that it’s about the relationships and making sure that we are helping every single one of our unsheltered residents because even one person living unsheltered is one too many,” Velázquez said.

Minneapolis City Council members showed unanimous support for an effort to add height, weight, housing status and past criminal convictions to the city’s Civil Rights Ordinance. 

Minneapolis residents gave testimonies Wednesday in support of amending the Minneapolis Civil Rights Ordinance before a Minneapolis City Council committee meeting that ended with unanimous approval and a push to schedule the issue for a full city council vote next Thursday.

Kaela McConnon Diarra, the deputy director of the Civil Rights Department, said the amendment would give greater protections to people in education, employment and housing. 

If approved, the ordinance would allow residents who feel discriminated against in education or employment to file a complaint with the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights, McConnon Diarra said. 

The ordinance would ban discrimination against people with prior criminal records in jobs if the conviction is unrelated to the job. 

“If someone had a working DWI conviction from 10 years ago and is trying to work as a receptionist, the employer would have a tough time demonstrating to the department that the conviction relates to the job,” McConnon Diarra said. 

City Council Member Robin Wonsley (Ward 2) said the ordinance was made last year with the help of Council Member Jason Chavez (Ward 9), American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, Justice Impacted Individuals Voting Effectively and other advocacy organizations. 

Community members, inspired by similar legislation in Atlanta, pushed for Wonsley to introduce the policy for Minneapolis, Wonsley said in a statement. 

“We had a dialogue about the need for a policy like this in Minneapolis to help ensure that justice-impacted residents were not experiencing discrimination,” Wonsley said in a statement. “At the same time, Council Member Chavez and staff from the Civil Rights Department had identified other ways we could improve and strengthen our Civil Rights Ordinances.” 

American Civil Liberties Union organizer Paul Sullivan said protections like this ensure that people with a prior criminal record can successfully reintegrate into society. 

“Our big focus is on due process, on constitutional rights, and we believe that individuals who have been convicted through due process by a court of law in the state of Minnesota should only suffer the sanctions that were handed down to them by that process, not extracurricular sanctions that are imposed societally,” Sullivan said.

At Wednesday’s meeting, people with a prior criminal conviction spoke about the difficulties of trying to rebuild their lives after prison. 

Maurice Ward, CEO of Justice Impacted Individuals Voting Effectively, a nonprofit organization that helps protect the right to vote for people with prior convictions, said he faced job discrimination based on his criminal record.

“Being as old as I am, I have to explain to my wife that I can’t find employment, it makes me less of a provider for my family,” Ward said. 

Cheron Elliott, who is a mother of three children and has a previous criminal record, said this ordinance could help her support her family. She added that her previous criminal record has made her lose five jobs. 

“I’ve explained my background, received the job, started the job, then asked to clear my desk because upper management decided they didn’t want to go further,” Elliott said. “As a mother, I’d like to feed my children well and take care of them. We make bad decisions, but people grow from that, and to be smacked in the face with your bad decision 24 hours prior is not a good feeling and it’s not a good example for your children.”

After the public comment, City Council President Elliott Payne (Ward 1) praised the proposal and said it was a proactive way to secure people’s rights. 

“This is just extremely timely, we’re in an era when our federal government is moving to strip rights away and it’s our job at the local level to build those rights up,” Payne said. 

In the packed Shiloh International Church, Democratic U.S Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and nine other Democratic Minnesota representatives at the state and federal level held a town hall discussing their efforts to oppose President Donald Trump on Monday.

This town hall was part of a series of town halls throughout Minnesota that Democratic lawmakers are hosting to discuss the effects of the recent budget cuts in education and Medicare from the Trump administration, Rep. Jamie Long (DFL-St. Paul) said in an interview.

Sen. Doron Clark (DFL-Minneapolis) and Rep. Sydney Jordan (DFL-St. Paul) said the Trump administration’s cuts to education could hurt Minnesota education.

“Our home-grown businesses and nonprofits are built from the students who graduate,” Clark said. “We need strong schools from preschools to high school to college.”

The Trump administration cut around $4 billion in funding from research at universities nationwide, including the University of Minnesota.

Along with budget cuts, representatives discussed the Trump Administration’s recent increase in deportations using the Alien Enemies Act.

During the town hall, Omar accused Republicans in Congress of giving up their independence and legislative power to Trump.

“Republicans in Congress are abdicating their constitutional duties because they are too afraid to stand up to Trump,” Omar said. “It has put us on a dangerous trajectory. The fate of our nation hangs in the balance.”

Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura (DFL-St. Paul) said the recent deportations are an attack on personal freedom.

“I have to say, standing here as a Japanese American person whose grandparents were interned and imprisoned by the U.S. government using the same laws that we see the Trump administration using today, it is really important to say that we have been here before,” Sencer-Mura said. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported around 11,000 migrants in February and 12,300 in the first four weeks of March, NBC News reported.  

Some Minneapolis residents said they felt more secure after the town hall, but they still wanted more action from their respective representatives. 

Minneapolis resident Maxine Davis said she is thankful for her representative but is worried Trump is taking actions before politicians and the public have time to fight it.

“Trump is working so fast that he’s making people’s heads spin,” Davis said. 

Davis went to the Hands-Off protest on April 5 and said she is unsure of how the representatives could effectively oppose the president. 

“I would like to see more, but the trouble is I want to know how we legally fight, and it looks like the courts are the way we’re going to fight them, particularly illegal things,” Davis said. “But my huge concern is that Trump may be ignoring the courts and is breaking the Constitution.”

Local 75-year-old resident Richard Hendrickson said after hearing from the senators, he felt better about his worries after the town hall.

Hendrickson, who has been to one of the other town halls, said he went to this one because he believes that the Trump administration’s recent deportation actions were unconstitutional and he wanted to know how Democrats would fight back. 

Hendrickson said he wants to see the Democratic Party do more to oppose the Trump administration. 

“I want them to do whatever they can. I understand local governments can’t act nationally. All they can do is the equivalent of tiny steps,” Hendrickson said. “If you do enough tiny steps and you keep on keeping on, you’re going to build something significant.”

The Minneapolis City Council unanimously passed an ordinance Thursday making it easier for street vendors to work on Minneapolis’ streets.

The Sidewalk Street Car ordinance expands the area in which streetcar vendors can operate, from commercial corridors to goods and service corridors as well as in three locations, said Amy Lingo, the manager of business and licensing at the City of Minneapolis. 

Originally, licensed street vendors could only work in certain areas, but now vendors can sell on different roads like Nicollet Avenue with the correct permit, Lingo said. 

The ordinance was made in response to an increase in unlicensed sidewalk vendors in 2023, according to reporting from the Sahan Journal. 

City Council Member Jason Chavez (Ward 9) worked with City Council Member Aurin Chowdhury (Ward 12) to make an ordinance to streamline the street vendor licensing process after hearing concerns from Minneapolis residents, Chavez said.

“We wanted to make sure that we at least had an ordinance that was more accessible to more people and more expenses. So, this ordinance allows more vendors and entrepreneurs to apply for registration and basically it makes it easier to go through the process,” Chavez said.

From 2023 to 2024, the city issued 37 citations and around $16,000 in fines to unlicensed street car vendors, according to Lingo.

Chavez said this is one way the city can help business owners from all communities, and for him the ordinance is personal as an immigrant.

Allowing more street vendors will help spur economic growth in the city, especially among the city’s immigrant population, Chavez said.

“I think we are living in a time when our immigrant community is struggling to get by,” Chavez said. “I think it’s important that we do everything that we can at the local level to protect our immigrant community, to support the economic development of our city, to support employment opportunities for our residents, regardless of immigration status or if you’re an immigrant or not.”

Even though the ordinance passed, Chowdhury said work still needs to be done to clarify all of the regulations for the license.

Minneapolis resident Milton Gutierrez, who immigrated to Minneapolis from Ecuador a year ago, said the support for street vendors is an opportunity for him to expand his business. 

Gutierrez, who runs a food truck that sells fast food and marble figures for animals, said through a translator that he wants to use the ordinance to expand his business to Lake Street and possibly sell his food and art at different events. 

For Petra Blas Espinoza, the ordinance in place represents a new opportunity for her and her family. Espinoza, who has lived in Minneapolis for 30 years and originally immigrated from Mexico with her family, said

She wants to get a license for a food cart to sell chamoy candy, a sweet-savory candy from Mexico, and pastries like tres leches.

Past selling food for economic reasons, Espinoza said it is a way to achieve her happiness and support her family. 

“It’s for myself, for my family. We are migrants. This is getting really hard,” Espinoza said. “We are in a really tough position right now. But my goal is to actually get a cart, an awning and to be able to be close to my home.”

The Minneapolis City Council approved money for designing a democracy center on the old site of the burned-down Third Precinct building on Monday. 

Since burning down during the 2020 protests after the murder of George Floyd, the Third Precinct site has sat abandoned as its future remained in the hands of the Minneapolis City Council, which debated what to do with the site for over four years. 

Thanks to the over $800,000 contract to design the democracy center with LSE Architects, a local interior design firm, the vacant building will see new life again. The democracy center will house an election and voter services center as well as host community events and engagement.

Outside of the eventual winning idea of the democracy center, rebuilding the police precinct, creating a museum or a community cultural center were other options considered.

The design team will finish the designs in August and construction will start in 2026 if approved by the city council, according to Mohammed Lawal, CEO of LSE Architecture and principal architect of the project. 

Last year, the city council approved turning the building into a democracy center despite reservations from city council members and residents. 

At Monday’s meeting, City Council Member Jeremiah Ellison (Ward 5) said the process is in a better place than last year. 

“We’ve had a lot of discussion about this site and what’s going on here. I think that we’re at a point where I’ve got a lot of faith that we will be able to move forward here,” Ellison said at the meeting. 

Mayor Jacob Frey echoed Ellison’s sentiment in a statement and said the city council’s approval of the money is a step in the right direction. 

“Minneapolis has some of the highest voter turnout rates in the nation, and that doesn’t happen by accident. Our voter services team does exceptional work, and this project will help even more of our neighbors access the ballot box, while also providing a space for the community to gather and heal,” Frey said in a statement. “I’m proud to see this vision moving forward.”

Rebecca Thoman, the board president of the League of Women Voters in Minneapolis, supported the democracy center, and said its location at 3000 Minnehaha Ave allows accessibility to a wider range of people than the similar but smaller Elections and Voter Services building in 980 E Hennepin County Ave in Minneapolis.

The building would also be a way for the community to heal from the 2020 protest that destroyed the old Third Precinct, Thoman said.

“They wanted something different there. So a democracy center we think is really valuable because it comes into the community that’s been so disrupted and says, your voice matters,” Thoman said. “This is where you can come to make your voice heard.”

While Thoman believes the election service center is a step in the right direction, concerns from other activists remain.

One of the main points of contention for the democracy center is that the warehouse section of the building will turn people away from the neighborhood.

The Longfellow Council, a nonprofit organization representing south Minneapolis, voiced those concerns in an open letter to the city council. In the letter, the Longfellow Council said the warehouse section near Hiawatha-Lake Street and Lake Street light rail will look unappealing to people visiting the neighborhood.

Sam Gould, a Minneapolis resident who lives near the Third Precinct area, said the warehouse section will make it less likely for people in the community to congregate because the windowless warehouse will not encourage people to come to the building.

“I think everybody can coalesce on the idea that a windowless warehouse at a prime spot in a neighborhood that is attempting to rebuild after the uprising and rebuild towards a place where people will congregate, a place where people will support small businesses in the area is a bizarre step to take,” Gould said.

Gould has lived in the area since the George Floyd protests and after. For him, the building’s old appearance is a constant reminder of the protest.

Gould said he hopes the design firm will take input from the community when designing the center. 

“They’re still in the design phase and there’s still an opportunity to account for past harm within that design phase that is genuine and authentic and transformative,” Gould said. “I hope that the architecture firm who has been contracted for that work recognizes that in a substantive way.”

Created in 2021 by Black Mamas Matter, Black Maternal Health Week addresses systemic health issues facing Black mothers.

Over 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable, but Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related death compared to white women, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control.

To bring awareness to these disparities, the Wilder Foundation is holding the Black Maternal Health Week Celebration at the Wilder Center on Monday. This is the second year of the Wilder Foundation’s celebrations for Black Maternal Health Week. 

The event is sponsored by the Minnesota Health Department and is a collaboration with the Wilder Foundation Coalition of Black Babies, Planned Parenthood and Healthy Black Mothers.

Wilder Foundation spokesperson Angela Moore Smith said events like this celebration highlight the systematic issues hurting Black women. 

“I’m excited for our panel and excited for us to have conversations and also educate, but also empower and celebrate the good things that are going on with people who are committed to the cause and doing the work that needs to be done,” Moore Smith said.

Long-standing systemic biases in the healthcare industry cause these disparities, Dr. Asha Hassan, a University of Minnesota professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, said. 

“We understand a lot of this stems from our history in this country and contemporary problems of structural racism,” Hassan said. “That can, in turn, play a role in negative outcomes such as preterm birth or some other adverse issues related to outcomes around birth.”

Black mothers’ previous experiences of stress from racism can also be passed down through generations and negatively impact the baby, Hassan said.  

“Stress that a Black mother experiences during pregnancy, such as the stress from living in a racist world, can be passed down to her child. This happens through epigenetics, where the stress can alter how genes are expressed,” Hassan said. 

While the disparity exists, health experts say steps are being taken to remedy it in Minnesota and across the country. 

Public health specialist Elizabeth Govrik-McCoy, who is also the spokesperson for the Maternal Child Adolescent Health Division in Minneapolis, said she is trying to implement more culturally informed solutions in healthcare education. 

Govrik-McCoy, who is the mother of three children, said healthcare disparities hit close to home for her. She also works at CityMatch as a doula, a nonmedical professional who gives support and advice to pregnant women. 

Govrik-McCoy’s division gives information about maternal vaccines to people and said the information can help Black mothers and build trust. 

“There are misconceptions sometimes because of the historic trauma and mistrust in higher systems,” Govrik-McCoy said. “It’s our job to make those provider referrals or being able to share this is safe for you right now during pregnancy, because there are vaccines that pregnant women should be getting.”

One way Govrik-McCoy is trying to improve healthcare for Black women is by implementing doulas in more spaces and informing women on important vaccinations. 

Moore Smith also said she hopes the week allows people to learn more about the problem beyond the statistics. 

“When talking about just the gaps, you’re talking about lack of resources in education, and for prenatal care and the hospitals, you’re not seeing people that look like you,” Govrik-McCoy said. 

Both Moore Smith and Govrik-McCoy said they want the government to give more funding and legislation to programs regarding Black maternal health. 

“We need dollars. We need funding. Because Black mothers, they deserve better. Babies deserve better,” Moore Smith said. “We definitely need more collaboration, more partnership and more people willing to listen and roll up their sleeves.”

The Minneapolis City Council voted to ban rent algorithms in Minneapolis on Thursday, making it the fourth U.S. city to ban them.

Minneapolis City Council members held a press conference Thursday after successfully banning rent algorithms like the ones used at RealPage.

Rent algorithms are algorithms using different landlord pricing information like the characteristics of the building and tenants’ personal information to make the rent rates for the apartment or complex, according to Urban and Regional Planning professor Edward Goetz.

Twin Cities renters pay an average of $312 more because of these algorithms, according to a White House study.

The main user of rent algorithms is RealPage, an American property management software company that helps landlords and property owners.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued RealPage and five other landlord companies for unlawfully using rental algorithms and sharing sensitive information about rental prices to keep rent prices high.

At the press conference, Council Member Robin Wonsley (Ward 2) said banning rental algorithms at the city level would keep the city affordable.

“We can prevent some of our most contagious, destructive practices that landlords like Raystar use, that essentially create housing instability for so many of our residents,” Wonsley said. “Rent algorithm software and have no place in a city that champions having an equitable and affordable housing market, especially for our renters.”

City Council Member Jeremiah Ellison (Ward 5) said the rental ban is to make sure that consumers and renters feel protected from unfair landlord practices.

“I think that landlords should be figuring out what they need in terms of rent from their renters in order to provide dignified, adequate service. That’s what should be happening,” Ellison said in the press conference. “They shouldn’t be using high-tech collusion to gut every single dime they can after out of a renter, which is what these algorithms calculate.”

Siya Shelar, the director of local affairs for the University of Minnesota undergraduate student government, said University students face a unique challenge with rental algorithms.

“The biggest impact is that we are geographically limited,” Shelar said. “We have to live in these certain areas. And when even one apartment complex near the U uses rent algorithms, every other apartment complex is going to be like, ‘Cool, we’re going to use it too,’ and it inflates the market excessively.”

About 75% of University of Minnesota students live off campus, according to data from U.S. News. Shelar said the ordinance will ensure that student voices are heard.

“Let’s be real, especially for students, our voices are not heard. It’s often like you’re (a) temporary resident of the city of Minneapolis. But like, even if I graduate, these policies will apply and stay here,” Shelar said.

Wonsley said anyone who thinks their landlord is using rent algorithms to increase rent prices should call 311 and ask for assistance.

Ellison said he believes that the issue of rent algorithms will not stop just at Minneapolis.

“We’re seeing Providence, Rhode Island, Oregon, Berkeley, California, all hearing testimony this week to pass ordinances just like this one. It’s not something that Minneapolis did first. It’s not something that we’re doing alone,” Ellison said. “And it is going to be something that I believe, at least with time, we’re going to start happening statewide across the country because people deserve to have to participate in a fair marketplace.”