There’s a brief excerpt circulating on social media, a minute and 24 seconds of a 44-minute video carried recently on KARE-11 TV.
Moderated by a KARE-11 journalist, it’s a discussion of the competing plans for George Floyd Square, with Mayor Jacob Frey and 9th Ward Council Member Jason Chavez squaring off.
The excerpt is being circulated by supporters of Mayor Frey, and, full-disclosure, I am one. Even so, it was a bit too selectively edited for my tastes; it shows Frey patiently explaining why the City Council majority’s preferred plan for a pedestrian mall can’t be done legally, with Chavez seeming to be nodding in agreement though he is anything but. But that’s what happens in election years.
Before making my main point, here is some explanation about why closing off Chicago Avenue between 37th and 38th streets would be illegal, in the view of the Mayor and many others. A major change in the use of a street, under state law, cannot be implemented if 50% or more of the affected property owners object. Through an extensive community engagement process, 10 of the 15 affected property owners have already expressed their opposition. The other 5 have not said anything for the record. But already the project is virtually guaranteed to have more than 50% of the property owners objecting.
I decided to watch the entire 44-minute video and you can too:
Through CM Chavez, I came to realize why the City Council majority so glibly argues that the project won’t be illegal. They have found a sleight-of-hand way to deal out the affected property owners.
Their idea is to limit the actual mall to the last 150 feet or so at the 38th Street end of Chicago Avenue. That leaves one affected property owner: the former Speedway gas station. Guess who owns it? The city. The effect is to gerrymander – jasonmander? – out the 15 property owners who will be affected by this action, but whose property is no longer adjacent to the pedestrian mall.
The effect on these property owners is the same, of course. The street is closed to normal traffic. It’s just as closed if only the last 150 feet is a plaza, as it would be if the entire block was a plaza.
I try always to resist cynicism. Pretty hard to in this case. Looks like the City Council majority is on a path to steal from 15 business owners their legislatively-guaranteed right to object to a street closing right in front of their buildings. CM Chavez as much as admits this.
But, as we’ve seen many times since the election of 2017, the attitude is, who needs businesses, anyway?
One last thing. It’s not just these 15 affected property owners. Extensive community outreach, 17,000 hours’ worth according to the Mayor, at a cost of $2.2 million, established that the large majority of thousands of residents who were consulted do not want Chicago Avenue to be closed.
David Therkelsen has been a homeowner in Minneapolis for 50 years, and attentive to city and school affairs for all of that time. Professionally, he headed two American Red Cross field units, and at one time was co-chief of staff to the President of American Red Cross. Later he was executive director of Crisis Connection, a state-wide mental health counseling agency. Dave held faculty appointments at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and recently co-authored a book about the history of transfusion medicine and blood banking.
I am sick to death of the Lefty DSA’ers on the City Council chasing their pet projects at the expense of tax payers! A fine example is the never-ending Floyd Square debacle. It is clear the unnecessary fancy mall would be illegal according to state law – and, even more importantly – the majority of residents and businesses do NOT want it. The council members were elected to serve their Ward constituents, so why are Chavez and cohorts stuck in the rearview mirror and dragging it out? The Chauvin/Floyd event was terrible for our City and state, but it’s time to move past it! This snafu is all the more reason for the Minneapolis Voters to vote in Common Sense moderate CM’s in the next election – who like Rainville, Palmisano, and Vetaw – have the best interests of our City as their goals!
You and I are probably two of a dozen people who saw the same clip and thought, gee, I want to watch the entire 40+ minute discussion — and did!
I agree that the clip was “selectively edited” but what really struck me was the glib obstinacy of CCM Chavez in the face of facts, and the mayor’s commendable patience. The mayor repeats, by law we cannot close that street. Chavez never directly says how they can, only that they will. His insistence seems based in obdurate ideology more than admirable advocacy for his constituents.