The N4MN Local Elections Task Force has successfully sent their City Council Questionnaire to all candidates running for city council!
This group’s work began by encouraging pro-housing folks to register as delegates and ask questions (linked here) to confirm candidates’ support for abundant homes.
Now they’ve partnered with three other organizations, Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia (IX), Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers (MCCD), and Wedge LIVE! and created a powerful questionnaire that asks about tenant rights, zoning policy, and equity, to better understand where each candidate stands on issues that are important to us all
Responses from the candidates are requested by August 25th, so stay tuned for their answers coming your way in September!
2023 City Council Candidate Questionaire Q’s:
- Your Vision: Given our history of redlining, exclusionary zoning, freeways, slum clearance, and urban renewal, what is your vision for an equitable and restorative way of building a better Minneapolis for all?
- Encampments: Encampments of unhoused people have become common on public land in Minneapolis in recent years. Will you oppose clearing of encampments? (What will you do (if anything) to protect the people who see encampments as their best housing option, to connect them to a safe and stable permanent home?)
- Commercial Uses: Currently, 89% of all parcels (58% by area) in the city do not allow commercial uses on them due to our zoning code. Historically, cities did not segregate commercial land-use from residential land-use so heavily. One way to create complete, walkable neighborhoods is to legalize local commercial uses within our neighborhoods. Would you support allowing low-impact small businesses (coffee shop, restaurant, corner store, yarn store) throughout more of our city?
- Transit-Oriented Development: Across the country, we are seeing more progressive zoning code reform as metropolitan areas seek to accommodate their growing populations in the urban core rather than the sprawling suburbs. One such policy exists in Washington (state), which recently legalized six-plexes near major transit stops (within a half-mile). Do you support increasing the allowed density near (i.e. 1/4 mile or 1/2 mile radius) major transit (LRT, BRT, and aBRT) stops in Minneapolis?
- Rent Stabilization: On June 28, 2023, the Minneapolis City Council voted 5-4 (1 abstaining, 3 absent) to block a rent stabilization policy from continuing to committee for further discussion, making it unlikely that residents will see any form of rent stabilization on the ballot in 2023. Do you support a rent stabilization policy?
- Tenant Opportunity to Purchase: On February 15th, 2022, the BIHZ committee directed staff to draft a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) policy. These policies gives renters the opportunity to buy their building if the building owner decides to sell, requiring that renters of a building have the ‘first right of refusal’ on the building they live in. Do you support a TOPA policy in Minneapolis?
- Affordable Housing Funding: It is estimated that, of the 80,000+ renter households in Minneapolis, more than 45% are housing cost-burdened or paying more than 30% of their income towards their housing. The Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) is a critical program that helps finance the production, preservation, and stabilization of deeply affordable rental housing in Minneapolis. Do you support increasing the funding for this program?
