Celebrating Places of Belonging: Queermunity

I joined Bde Maka Ska neighbors at their community happy hour at Queermunity and came away inspired by the spirit of belonging this speical place has created. Queermunity is a social club, a resource center, a co-working space, and a member collaborative. I felt welcomed as an ally and look forward to many more community-building experiences there.

What I Would Do Differently:

Violence Intervention and the RFP Process

The role of a city council member is to collaborate and partner with city staff in order to create, update, and oversee policy programs and processes. What we saw last week from our current city council member during the full Council meeting to discuss the violence intervention funding process was unprofessional. Creating the unity for action among the various stakeholders needed to solve problems cannot occur when Council time is used to put staff on the hot seat in irrelevant ways.

To build long-lasting and impactful relationships requires respect, professionalism, and staying on task — even when we disagree.

As your Councilmember I will focus on the topic at hand, which in this case was to determine if the Council should move money from Minneapolis to Hennepin County in order to fund Group Violence Intervention and Youth Group Violence Intervention programming, for a six-month period. At the Feb 13th meeting, the vote on this proposal was delayed indefinitely. The current Ward 10 Councilmember indicated support for the proposal, however, I would not support moving $1.25 million of our taxpayer dollars to the county for a temporary fix.

First, we should only make these kinds of proposals when it is clear that the partner in question wants to take this role on. Second, if we don’t think the funding is immediately necessary– if it can be put on hold for six months or more — I would want to know if there is a better, more immediate place where we should be spending this money.

Third, the process for determining which groups to partner with (known as the RFP, or Request For Proposal) has recently been improved because there were problems, acknowledged by the Neighborhood Safety Department, that needed to be fixed. In order to determine if more changes should occur, we must give it time to see if the updated processes are sustainable.

Small Business Highlight

Christos Greek Restaurant: 2632 Nicollet Ave

This week the team and I were at Christos, an iconic restaurant that has been a staple of dining in Whittier for over 35 years. When you want to feel that warm, inviting spirit of Greece and the Mediterranean, this is the place to go.

The team enjoyed fresh tabouli, warm soups, and hearty mousaka.