If this charter amendment gets on the ballot I want the new department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention to have a division of Shutting Down Lyndale. Led by someone with #BanCars experience.
I've thought this for a long time. Every car is a potential getaway car. The only person in your life you can really trust is a pedestrian.
The last thing we need is someone from Andover coming into the city with a trunk full of space for who knows what. I hear it on the news all the time and I still don't know where Andover is.
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Old Man Jeremiah Ellison talking about the old days at city hall (again). Says current government structure is an obstacle to communication, keeps everyone from getting on the same page. As a result the city is less effective at addressing big problems like homeless encampments.
Ellison on how pre-2021 government helped create a common understanding of a problem: Council members wouldn't "just get a staff report, they'd maybe be in a meeting where it's dawning on you... we thought that was gonna work but it's not gonna work."
Ellison: If that discussion doesn't occur, we're constantly gonna have council members trying to solve this issue from the dais, Frey admin being a little bit obstructionist - and continue to have disagreements.
Dumbest news you'll hear all day: Longtime organizers of the Uptown Art Fair—a pedestrian fair—say they will no longer hold their event due to city pedestrianizing Hennepin Ave. audacy.com/wccoradio/news…
My impression has always been that the Uptown Association's whole reason for existing was the art fair. So we're lucky they didn't pack up in a huff, take Uptown with them, and define New Uptown as 2 blocks in any direction from the Bachman's parking lot.
I'm gonna need them to diagram how the new medians on Hennepin make it impossible to set up and sell art. More likely they wanted to bail on Uptown and needed a reason that felt politically satisfying.
There was extended debate over whether the fee should be left at $452 per ton or changed to TBD, pending staff analysis. Council left it at $452.
Even so, appears there is no disagreement that the fee amount will be amended by July 1, 2025.
Procedural objections may obscure what this is really about: the council forcing an issue where the mayor and his administration wanted to move slower. The result is carbon fees in 2025 instead of 2026.
Something I've been warning about all year has finally happened. Mayor Frey has hired his pal Lisa Goodman to fill a role that was created for her in last year's budget — voted on while she was still a council member.
Goodman starts work Monday as the city's Director of Strategic Initiatives in the Office of Public Service. You can imagine folks at CPED are breathing a sigh of relief she won't be housed in their department.
That's an email announcement from Brett Hjelle (rhymes with "jelly" not "hellyessy"), the city's deputy COO. If you believe the interview process was "rigorous and thorough" — hahaha, good one.
Minneapolis City Council's Budget Committee voted 9-4 to approve $1.5 million to prevent the permanent closure of Agate shelter downtown. City funding would be contingent on Agate securing an additional $1.5 million from another source by Dec 31. lims.minneapolismn.gov/File/2024-01049
Because it comes from the city's contingency funding, 10 votes would be needed to pass it at the next meeting of the full council. Palmisano, Rainville, Vetaw, and Jenkins voted no and would need to flip to yes. There's also the potential of finding another funding source.
CM Chavez: It would cost $30 million to build new units to replace what Agate currently offers: 42-bed shelter program and 95-bed board and lodge program at 510 S 8th St. Preventing permanent closure isn't just practical and cost saving, but it's the moral and right thing to do.