u/bttr-mpls

I went to an event Tuesday night where our mayor and council president talked about police and crime in Minneapolis, and here's what I got from it: they both want the next police chief to listen to residents and push for reform, which is good, but nobody really talked about what we're going to do to reduce crime and get more cops on the force. Payne did some math showing as few as 270 to 450 officers are needed to handle 911 calls, but the city charter actually requires 731 officers, and most Minneapolis residents want more police anyway-they're tired of all the gangs and drugs on the streets right now. Just yesterday, June 30, federal agents arrested 11 people for drug trafficking and murder connected to gangs operating near Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue, which proves that we still have serious problems that need serious solutions. The bottom line is that we can't solve this with just math or just reforms-we need both police presence and better social services. That's why I'm traveling to Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco next month to learn from other cities and come back with real ideas for how Minneapolis can actually move forward. Read the full newsletter.

Chief O'Hara's resignation adds another layer to Minneapolis's public safety crisis, but the real issue isn't who leads the police department, it's whether we're actually measuring what works. I've been digging into the data on our alternatives to policing: violence interrupters, safety ambassadors, and the behavioral crisis response team. The numbers tell a story we need to hear. On a recent Tuesday, police got 310 calls while the BCR got 13. That's roughly 4% of calls going to non-police responders. Meanwhile, assaults are up, homicides and shots fired are flat. We're spending real money on these programs without asking if they're delivering results. So here's the question: does Minneapolis still need the Office of Community Safety, or is it time to redirect those resources somewhere else? The hard truth is that we also can't ignore the root causes of crime, poverty, substance abuse, lack of jobs and opportunity. But we have to stop choosing sides between police reform and public safety. We need both working, backed by data that tells us what's actually reducing violence in our neighborhoods. That's the conversation Minneapolis needs to have right now.

There was a community meeting Monday night at the VFW in Uptown, where residents argued over reconstruction plans for Lyndale Avenue. It was the usual car-versus-bike fight, business owners worried about parking and access, while advocates pushed for bike lanes and bus-friendly streets. The debate blew up on social media before people even got home. But here's the thing I keep coming back to: all of this anger is supposedly about climate change, and yet Minneapolis only produces about 0.05% of global CO2 emissions. Transportation is just 24% of that. So if every single person in the city stopped driving tomorrow, we'd reduce global emissions from roughly 0.05% to 0.038%, a difference of about 0.012%. That's essentially nothing. I'm not saying we should stop making good choices, biking, taking the bus, cutting back where we can all matter personally. But I think we need to be honest about the fact that road design in Minneapolis isn't going to save the planet. The real climate solutions have to come from a much bigger scale. In the meantime, let's stop treating our neighbors like villains over parking spots and bike lanes. We've got real problems to solve, and we'll get there faster if we stop fighting each other over things that barely move the needle.