Two new housing structures that will require rezoning have been proposed in Dinkytown amid neighbors’ concerns about the increase of rental prices and loss of the character of the area.

The townhomes will be marketed toward students at market-rate prices and they will have 24 bedrooms each, instead of up to five. Many Marcy-Holmes residents are upset with the rezoning of the area because it will increase the density of the area and the average rent.

Chris Lautenschlager, the executive director of the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association, said many neighbors are frustrated with the loss of naturally occurring affordable housing, which are units that are naturally priced lower than the market rate. Lautenschlager said Dinkytown has become more populated by students within the last few decades.

“Some of these houses that are a little bit older have generally been more affordable than these newer buildings that have taken their place,” Lautenschlager said. “There’s been such a large demographic shift on the east side of Marcy-Holmes over the last 30 years.”

The two planned townhomes will replace single-family houses at 715 13th Ave. SE and 716 12th Ave. SE and each development will have four units with six bedrooms. The first property was approved by the planning commission Oct. 18, and it will go to the full City Council on Nov. 19. The second property will go to the planning commission on Nov. 15.

Since the properties will be dramatically increasing in occupancy, they will require rezoning, or changing the purpose of the area.

Peter Crandall, the senior city planner on the project at 715 13th Ave. SE, said rezoning the site will allow for more units and up to three stories in the new house.

“The main thing that it does is it allows you to build a multifamily building,” Crandall said. “You can build a more dense project so you can accommodate more people on the site by building a building with more dwelling units and more bedrooms.”

Barbara Camm, one of the founders of Preserve Historic Dinkytown, said she was upset by the loss of character and naturally occurring affordable housing in the area.

“One of the misapprehensions is that rents will go down with more of these large scale buildings and have even more affordable housing,” Camm said. “But rents of these new buildings are at market rate.”

As the election approaches, students need to register in Minneapolis before casting their ballots. Here’s how:

For students, the first step in the process of registering to vote is determining their residency, said Aaron Grossman, the election administration supervisor for Minneapolis. For students, that can be where they live when at school or where they live when on break.

“The advantage is that if you are living in Minneapolis and you feel invested in the community and want to have your voice heard, in order to vote, you need to be registered to vote and add an address that is in Minneapolis,” Grossman said. “But it’s really a choice, because there’s certainly other elections that are going on in other cities, and you’re only going to be able to vote in one of them.”

Students from Minnesota who want to vote in the upcoming election will need to change their residency to Minneapolis if they have not already. If they want to pre-register, they can go to mnvotes.org. To pre-register for the Minneapolis election, voters need four things: their name, date of birth, a Minneapolis address and an identification number such as a driver’s license number or Social Security number.

After voters have completed the pre-registration process, the county will send a postcard to verify that they can receive mail at the listed address. Residents can also go to the Office of Elections & Voter Services in person and fill out a paper form with the same information.

If voters choose to register on Nov. 2 when they are casting a ballot, they will need to bring something that shows proof of residency in Minneapolis to register. This can be an ID with a current address, a photo ID and a document that shows proof of residence such as a bill or current lease, a notice of late registration sent by the county or a registered voter who can vouch that they live at the address they have listed.

For students who previously lived out of state, they first have to prove they have lived in Minnesota for at least 20 days. These voters are also able to pre-register or register on the same day, as long as they bring proof of their residency.

Students who move addresses year-to-year will need to update their registration each time they move in order to be eligible to vote in the elections.

When voters go to the polls, they will be able to cast their ballots to elect two members onto the Board of Estimate and Taxation. This board is often overlooked by voters, so what is the role of the board in the city?

The board sets the maximum levy, or maximum amount that can be spent by City Council within a year. The mayor proposes the city budget in the summer and can ask for the levy to be set at a certain amount.

This past summer, Mayor Jacob Frey asked for the levy to be increased by 5.45% and the board complied. In recent years, the levy has been set at whatever the mayor requested.

The Board of Estimate and Taxation has six members: two elected members, a City Council representative, the Council president, a Parks and Recreation representative and the mayor.

In the upcoming election, voters can cast a ballot for the two elected members, who do not hold any other positions of public office.

Steve Fletcher is the City Council representative who represents Ward three. Fletcher said if the Council wants to add programs or additional services to the levy after it has been set, they will have to cut something else from their budget.

“If you have a Board of Estimate and Taxation that wants to see the city investing in more programming, they might set [the levy] higher, so that the Council has more flexibility to raise taxes, if needed, in order to fund programs,” Fletcher said.

The funding for the levy is comprised of different funding pools such as government aid, sales tax and property tax. Pine Salica is one of the candidates running for a position on the board. They said they want to bring back the public housing levy that Minneapolis had in the 90s.

“What the public housing levy would do is it would be a specific broken out line item on property tax bills through the city,” Salica said. “That would make sure that that money is set aside just for public housing.”

Steve Brandt is also running for a seat on the board and said he wants to get tax relief for rental properties. Brandt was a reporter for the Star Tribune and served on the city’s capital budgeting advisory committee.

“Right now, rental property is taxed at a 25% higher rate than homes like mine where I’m the homeowner,” Brandt said. “That seems to me a fundamental unfairness. Because many people rent because they have limited incomes … I think that to penalize them for being renters is unfair.”

The apartments at Malcolm Yards are set to break ground later this year with recent funding from Hennepin County in the next stage for the Prospect Park development.

The Market Station building will break ground in December and will be a seven-story building with 210 market-rate units. The Flats at Malcolm Yards is set to break ground in early 2022 and will be a six-story building with 143 workforce, or affordable housing, units. Both projects are set to finish in summer of 2023.

The apartment complexes are the next phase in the development after the food hall at Malcolm Yards opened.

At The Flats, all units will be offered for people who make 60% or less than the median income. The affordable housing program is under section 42, which means the developer gets tax credit for building affordable housing.

Wall Companies, the developers of the Malcolm Yards site, received a grant of $201,500 on Aug. 10 from Hennepin County for soil remediation. Jeff Ellerd, a developer at Wall Companies, said the grant would be used for cleanup and to address soil contamination from the past industrial usage of the land.

“The building has underground parking, so as part of the excavation for the building we will segregate and dispose of the contaminated soil that’s fallen as part of that exercise,” Ellerd said.

John Wall, president of Wall Companies, said when the site is completed, there will be a trail that will connect to a nearby park. He added that the trail will be a small piece of the missing link of the Grand Rounds, a system of trails and parks that loop around Minneapolis.

Chris Meyer, District 1 Park Board Commissioner, said he is envisioning parkland near the Malcolm Yards area and to fill in the missing link of the Grand Rounds.

“The current Grand Rounds has a G or C shape,” Meyer said. “[The plan is] to turn that G or C shape into an O shape, and this parcel is along that connection.”

Wall said Wall Companies has owned the land for over 10 years, and they originally bought the land to build a life sciences building for the University of Minnesota, but did not have enough interest in the project. However, he said that he had recently discussed with developers about possibly building a life science building on the land.

“[The area around Malcolm Yards] has really grown up,” Wall said. “There’s a whole social component to the place. It makes it seem a lot more vibrant so I think our life sciences buildings have a much better shot.”

COVID-19 infections in Minnesota have steadily risen since the emergence of the Delta variant and have increased by 35% in the past 14 days, causing many to worry about contracting the highly contagious virus when returning to campus.

The Delta variant is the predominant variant in the United States and is more than twice as contagious as other variants, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Many people on campus are worried about contracting the virus when returning to in-person learning.

There are two ends of the spectrum for safety on campus, said Dr. Jill Foster, a pediatric infectious diseases physician with the University of Minnesota Medical School and MHealth Fairview.

“At the good end of the spectrum, you would ideally have somebody who’s vaccinated wearing a mask and outdoors … at the other end is somebody who didn’t get their vaccine, who refuses to wear a mask and is in a crowded indoor place,” Foster said. “The more you can have activities and events that are closer to the vaccinated, masked outdoor circumstance, the safer you’re going to be.”

In July, cases of COVID-19 in Hennepin County declined to the lowest numbers since the beginning of the pandemic, reaching zero cases per day on multiple occasions. In the following months, the numbers have increased since the emergence of the Delta variant. Hennepin County reported a 7-day average of 343 cases per day on September 18.

Dr. Susan Arnold, an associate professor of environmental health sciences in the School of Public Health, said people should use higher quality masks and respirators, such as the N95 or KN95 respirators, social distance and spend time in areas with good ventilation.

“This virus is in the air and it lingers in the air for a long time,” Arnold said. “They will remain in an area, even after the person who exhaled the particles leaves the room.”

On Aug. 2, the University announced that they would reinstitute a mask mandate for all students on campus. The next day, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey issued masking guidance for indoor spaces.

As COVID-19 cases declined earlier this year, the state lifted restrictions for capacity and social distancing, allowing many to return to bars and restaurants for social gatherings. Dr. Arnold said there are still continuous risk factors, like large indoor events, that increase the chances of contracting the virus.

Dr. Arnold said if someone goes to a bar or large indoor event, there are steps that can be taken to protect themselves and others.

“At least make sure you wear your mask as much as you can,” Arnold said. “If you know you’re going to be participating in these events, one thing that you can do is you can get tested before you go … and then also when you get back or the next morning, you can take a test.”

The CDC recommends vaccination but also said fully vaccinated people should wear masks in areas of high transmission, which includes Minneapolis, to stop the spread of the virus.

Dr. Arnold said vaccination is a game-changer, but vaccinated people should still be cautious of the virus.

“You want to behave as if you were as vulnerable as you were before you were vaccinated,” Arnold said. “If we are all doing what we can when we can to be adding those layers of protection and trying to avoid those situations where we’ve got a whole bunch of layers of risk, piled on top of one another, then we’re going to get this pandemic behind us.”

The Minnesota Daily sat down with Billy Menz, a teacher at Edison High School and the only candidate running for District One Park Board commissioner, to talk about what changes he wants to bring to the park board.

Why did you decide to run for District One Parks Commissioner?
“I decided to run because I want to depoliticize the park board and make sure that we’re working to build programming for youth. It’s really all about the kids for me. I have a lot of experience working with young people as a school teacher and also as a coach. I noticed that the park board plays a really big role in that, but [the park board] could do things a little differently to meet the needs of today’s youth.”

What changes do you want to make as the new District One Park Board commissioner?
“I think the politicization of the park board over the past four to six years has been very challenging … I know that we vote on our park board, so it is a political process to elect people to the park board. But, it’s also a process where there’s no party affiliation listed on the ballot … I want to create youth councils and I want to create systems where every kid gets to the Mississippi River in collaboration with the schools.”

On your website, you said that you are devoted to dismantling systemic racism within the parks. How do you plan to do that?
“I’m certainly not going to do it by myself … I can call on us to examine policies that may be unintentionally racist or intentionally racist, make sure that we are calling out and lifting up the voices of those who have been marginalized and make sure that their voices are heard, and if we’re not reaching those voices, that we make more efforts to do so … Every time I look at something or look at plans, I’m going to look at it from that lens as best I can, to make sure that we’re trying to create policies that allow for all voices to be heard.”

You’ve mentioned expanding creation spaces. What will that look like?
“In the park board, we have what’s called creation spaces, and those have really taken off over the past year … We need to make sure that the parks are a place where kids can explore … we need to create a space in our parks, where it’s a place of exploration or it’s a place for kids, young people and older people to make sure that we’re trying new things. We can have all kinds of opportunities in our parks. We just need to open it up, give it back to the people and make sure that we’re there with input, but we have the responsibility to do the programming and make sure that we’re opening those programs up to as many folks as possible.”

If you are elected, what are you looking forward to most?
“Serving my community. I’m very humbled by the fact that I don’t have an opponent. It’s not like people in the northeast and southeast part of Minneapolis are not active or engaged. So I’m very humbled by the fact that people believe in me and think that I will do a good job at this … I hope that I can bring leadership to the board that allows for our park board to become even better than it already is and that we can meet the challenge that the pandemic has created for young people’s engagement.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect a change in the date of the event due to the weather forecast. 

The Como Cookout, a neighborhood barbeque event, will return on Oct. 3 from 1 p.m to 4 p.m at Van Cleve Park for the first time since before the pandemic, inviting neighbors to enjoy free food, entertainment and activities.

The event will include mini-golf, an obstacle course and free food such as sambusas from Afro-Deli and Qdoba mini burrito bowls.

Jessica Focht-Perlberg, executive director of the Southeast Como Improvement Association (SECIA), said they wanted to branch out from the style of the event in past years.

“There usually has been a focus on bringing some different kinds of cultural influences,” Focht-Perlberg said. “We’re excited to have the sambusa option to offer a different cultural cuisine, and also something that represents a little bit broader dietary preferences as well.”

While many other activities will be offered, Focht-Perlberg said traditions such as face-painting and arm-wrestling contests will not be present in order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

SECIA partnered with the University of Minnesota Office of Off Campus Living for the cookout. Grace Sweeney is a neighborhood liaison for the Office of Off Campus Living and said she worked with SECIA to get a grant to set up mini-golf.

“We were looking for different ways to create an interactive activity that all ages will enjoy, so we landed on mini-golf and I’m excited about that,” Sweeney said.

The cookout will also feature live music and dance performances.

Zehra Hassan is a singer and pre-law student at the University. Hassan said she is looking forward to performing at the cookout because she invested a lot of time into her songs.

“It’s the first time that I’ve really gotten to showcase my original music for what it is,” Hassan said. “I’m really excited to do that.”

Phillip Saint John is a hip-hop artist who will be performing at the cookout. Saint John has lived in the area since November 2020 and decided to perform after seeing a flyer for the event.

“I just wanted to connect and figure out a way to get more involved with the community and just spread some positivity, light and truth from my own perspective and journey,” Saint John said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how the community interacts and how we can come together.”

Outside the University Baptist Church, a group of singers performed as local pastor Doug Donley explained how the church’s new rain gardens would work. Donley said the gardens were an “oasis” in Marcy-Holmes.

On Sept. 19, Donley and other church members dedicated four new rain gardens, which are intended to block pollutants from flowing into the Mississippi River.

Stormwater will run off the church’s roof into gutters and through channel drains to be naturally filtered and absorbed in the gardens, rather than running into the street where it could be polluted with oil and other sediments. The polluted water from the street often ends up in the Mississippi River. The rain gardens are expected to filter 133,000 gallons of water and keep 179 pounds of sediment out of the river within the next year.

“So much of Dinkytown has been paved over and green spaces are few and far between,” Donley said. “We’ve long prided ourselves on the beautiful gardens that we have and the way we use our outdoor space … and we just think that rain gardens enhance that.”

Helping Hand Companies, an environmental stewardship company, installed the rain gardens. Founder Jared Hanks said the company works with young adults to connect them with jobs in the gardening and landscaping industry.

Angee Ohmah Siegel works at Helping Hand and led the crew that installed the gardens at the church.

“[The gardens] are providing food for the different insects, birds and aquatic animals, where their habitats are basically disappearing as urban environments continue to grow,” Siegel said. “Our primary goal is to work on projects that are supportive to the native ecosystems and also supportive to community education.”

The church received two grants from the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization to design the gardens and then install them in August.

Alicia Beattie is the capital projects and stewardship specialist at the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization. She said their mission is to improve water quality for the urban Mississippi watershed, which is the land that drains rainfall into the Mississippi River.

“This project really stood out both for its environmental benefits, as well as the church’s strong partnerships and commitment to educating and engaging the folks that are interested in replicating this across the landscape,” Beattie said.

The church is partnering with other organizations, such as the GAIA Democratic school and the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association to provide education about rain gardens and the watershed.

Beattie said Mississippi Watershed Management would continue to work with University Baptist Church for one year. Pastor Donley said there would be educational signs throughout the gardens that will show how they filter the water and tours for those who are interested.

“They are going to be doing various educational initiatives,” Beattie said. “Education around chloride reductions, stormwater runoff, some storm drain cleanups and enrollment in the Adopt-A-Drain Program and also some youth water education activities.”

Marcy-Holmes residents are voicing concerns as violent crimes have nearly doubled in comparison to 2020. The University of Minnesota responded to the elevated rates by implementing more public safety measures in Dinkytown.

In May 2021, the number of crimes reached a peak of 129 total property and violent crimes in Marcy-Holmes, with the majority as property crimes. Since then, the total of property and violent crimes in the neighborhood have decreased by 49 in August.

In June, the University announced that more police officers would be present and more security cameras in Marcy-Holmes would be installed in response to a shooting in Dinkytown.

After extra security measures were taken, the number of crimes decreased to 80 total violent and property crimes in August. In comparison to past years, property and violent crimes increased from May to August in 2019 and 2020.

Minneapolis Police Department Public Information Officer Garrett Parten said extra security cameras can help to decrease crime in the neighborhood.

“A camera never blinks and it’s recording whatever it’s pointing at,” Parten said. “So even if a crime does occur, it does greatly enable us to solve crime because suspect, description, suspect activity is all caught on camera.”

The University also announced longer term changes for the area, including installing more blue light kiosks which alert emergency services when used. The University has 30 blue light kiosks and 4,600 security cameras throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses.

Four new blue light kiosks were installed on the perimeter of the East Bank campus and more will be installed in off-campus areas. If someone uses a kiosk on campus, UMPD receives the alert, but if someone uses a kiosk off campus, then MPD will receive the alert.

Kent Kramp, the vice president of the Dinkytown Business Association and owner of Raising Cane’s in Dinkytown, said the additional patrols in Dinkytown are important, but additional lighting would be helpful for the area.

“There’s certain things that neighborhoods need for security, and proper lighting is a big one and something I’ve felt that Dinkytown specifically has lacked through to the last couple years,” Kramp said. “But otherwise, just the increased presence, increased patrols, that’s the most helpful thing that they can do.”

Since June, the University has continued to implement policies improving safety for students in Dinkytown, such as offering public safety classes for students and Rave, a virtual walking app that students can use to contact UMPD.

Myron Frans, senior vice president of Finance and Operations at the University, said safety training for those on campus is another important part of safety.

“I think we want people to be aware of their surroundings, you have to sort of be aware of your surroundings and make sure that you make smart choices,” Frans said.

In an effort to address events that do not need police presence, such as domestic conflicts or mental health crises, the University also hired a social worker and a community liaison.

Frans said the University hired them to address needs for people who live on and off campus.

“What we really want is to make sure that our surrounding communities and people who live and work in these communities … we want to make sure that we understand their needs for public safety and other issues,” Frans said.

The University of Minnesota released its COVID-19 attestation form, but students and staff worry that a self-reporting model will not protect against the virus.

The University announced that it would be requiring the COVID-19 vaccination for students on Aug. 23 following the FDA approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Students are required to confirm their vaccination status through a self-submitted attestation form. COVID-19 vaccinations are not required for staff and faculty, but the University is asking them to confirm that they have received the vaccine or will conduct regular testing.

Many have concerns about returning to campus, including if it is possible for students to falsify the form and lie about their vaccination status. Students who falsify this information are in violation of the student conduct code and are subject to disciplinary action depending on each case.

David Golden, director of public health and communications at Boynton Health, was in charge of leading the effort for the vaccination form. Golden said they mirrored immunization requirements for other mandatory vaccines, such as the MMR vaccine, that allow self-reporting.

“Generally when we’ve done this, we find that people are pretty accurate about giving us information,” Golden said. “We wanted to make it as barrier-free as possible. Some people don’t have their cards, and we did want to make it so they could look up in their schedule and see when they were vaccinated and by who.”

Golden said the University is relying on people’s integrity and honesty, but it also has access to state databases that track immunizations to perform spot checks if necessary.

Students are required to attest by Oct. 8 that they have received a COVID-19 vaccination and list the dates that they received the vaccine. Faculty and staff are required to confirm that they received the vaccine, but don’t have to include the dates. If they testify that they are not vaccinated, they are required to take the COVID-19 test every week as long as they are working at the University.

Staff and faculty who do not agree to one of these options by Sept. 17 are subject to employment discipline, which University leadership has not further specified.

Cherrene Horazuk, executive officer and administrative specialist at the Humphrey School and president of AFSCME Local 3800, a union, said the vaccine attestation form is inadequate.

“​​If the point of this is to encourage vaccination and encourage a higher vaccination rate and ensure safety and health for everybody who’s on campus there has to be teeth to this,” Horazuk said.

Horazuk is one of over 600 University members who signed a letter to President Joan Gabel asking for a stronger vaccine mandate, stronger mitigation measures and other increased COVID-19 protection measures. The letter also petitioned for more sick leave protections, clearer guidance on mask enforcement and adequate ventilation.

Dr. Rebecca Wurtz, an associate professor in the School of Public Health, said people who spend time on campus can take certain steps to protect themselves from exposure to the virus.

“If you’re particularly concerned about [exposure] wear an N95 mask and spend your exposure time being in class, not socializing,” Wurtz said. “The less that you’re in group situations the less exposure you have.”

Students who do not submit the form will have a pause placed on their student account and will be prohibited from registering for classes for spring semester. Since this does not prohibit students from registering for or attending fall semester classes, Horazuk is concerned about COVID-19 spread.

“That’s a whole semester of folks potentially coming onto campus who have not been vaccinated, which is a high risk,” Horazuk said. “Our number one concern is how to ensure that people who are studying and working and teaching on campus are doing so in the safest possible environment. That’s the obligation that the University has to provide for everybody.”