The Wedge Times-Picayune

Are we voting our fears again this year? Last week in Ward 10, I received a mailer from a crime-themed PAC slicing the city’s crime stats in a way to show me crime is actually up, despite all those news stories telling me crime is down. But I’m clever, so I recognized this as an attempt to get me to vote for Minneapolis City Council candidate Bruce Dachis, who is alarmingly ignorant and whose policies are extremely against my interests.

Dachis appeared on a local right wing talk radio show on yesterday. The host falsely accused Council Member Aisha Chughtai of supporting Hamas. And at another point they sat there listening to a Vietnam-era country song bashing anti-war protesters. Election 2023 is weird and gross in ways I had not expected.

Last week, candidates for the Ward 7 seat on the Minneapolis City Council were asked to tell voters why they were running. Scott Graham used the introductory question to scare voters by raising the specter of “socialism” and “abolish the police.” He wasn’t quite claiming that his opponent Katie Cashman supports those ideas, just sort of throwing the idea out there that she probably does, because she’s several degrees removed from people who’ve said some things.

If you want my thoughts on the stakes for public safety, rent stabilization, and other big issues — please read this. It applies broadly to every candidate I’m endorsing in 2023.

Do I want to put my spotless reputation on the line for the bad acts and opinions of others? Not at all. I have grown to hate endorsements. But any good editorial board knows the public has a short memory for bad calls and really needs to be told how to think. So here we go. If you don’t see your ward listed, you are either in a part of the city that’s beyond help or you’re fine and you don’t need any help.

This is intended as a preamble to my forthcoming Minneapolis City Council endorsements, and to give readers a better sense of how I see some of the issues at stake in this election. My endorsements in key races will follow in this post.

It’s a city council election year in Minneapolis. Early voting is underway. 13 seats are up for grabs, I’d say only 5 are competitive. The mayor is not up for reelection until 2025. If you haven’t been tuned into Minneapolis politics for the last several years, here’s a recap, along with my thoughts on the big issues.

I was on location for the blessing of a newly installed bike rack at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church on Sunday morning. Churchgoers are excited to have a place for their bikes after spending years locking up to random street fixtures like railings or signposts — or carrying their bike up three flights of stairs. The rack was installed thanks to the efforts of the church’s Creation Care team, with 50% of the cost covered by the transportation non-profit Move Minnesota through their bike parking cost share program. It’s a story you’ll only see on Wedge LIVE.

Interested St. Paul businesses or organizations can contact Move Minnesota.

The Star Tribune’s 2023 Minneapolis City Council candidate questionnaire asks a question that divides our city and inflames the culture war: “If you’re faced with the choice of spending $1 on a road for vehicles or $1 for a bike lane, which do you choose and why?” The existence of this question gives you hope that maybe crime resentment is dead and good old-fashioned, “Nazi lane” style bike hate might return (the photo above is from the 2017 election).

At a Ward 12 candidate forum in the Longfellow neighborhood last Wednesday, candidates answered questions on public safety, climate, rent stabilization, homelessness, sidewalk shoveling, and more (livestream here* / live tweets here).

Have you ever pondered a fun thought experiment like “What would happen if everyone in my city flushed their toilets at the same time — never before has a comprehensive plan specifically authorized this many theoretical toilets operating in sync.” That’s pretty close to the premise of the never-ending legal crusade to stop the Minneapolis 2040 Plan.

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that back in 2018, some very wealthy pretend environmentalists created an entity called Smart Growth Minneapolis for the sole purpose of suing the city over triplexes. Now in 2023 — after ping ponging between district court, appeals court, and the state supreme court — this group has convinced a district court judge to take seriously the idea that every plot of land in the city is about to be built up to the fullest extent of the law, damaging the environment. So the judge has halted the 2040 Plan temporarily, as we wait for an environmental analysis (likely to be followed by yet more legal action contesting the validity of that analysis).

One of the things I DO FOR YOU is listen to landlord zoom calls. If you’re not familiar, Kari Lundin (the “Duplex Chick”), a realtor and mentor to the local landlord community, hosts Q&A sessions where Minneapolis candidates give revealing answers, but only after being reassured that a wider audience will never see it. Past guests include LaTrisha Vetaw, who embarrassed herself so thoroughly on a landlord zoom call in 2021 that voters in Ward 4 elected her to the City Council.