Council Member's Messag

At the last Council meeting of April, I was very pleased to vote in favor of a 20 year spending plan that will ensure the future of our City’s roads and parks. This legislation, which passed unanimously, sets a new standard for our City by making a generational investment in our core municipal responsibilities.

Minneapolis’s parks are one of the elements that set our city apart and we need to treasure the fact that we have a system that ensures every citizen has at least one park within walking distance. Here in Ward One, we treasure our local parks and we’re very aware of the ways in which they serve as a locus for youth development and community-building. However, as we have been hearing for several months, many of our parks and recreation facilities are in varying states of disrepair. Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board (MPRB) leaders were weighing a voter referendum that would have resulted in a significant property tax increase over an extended period of time. Instead, the plan crafted by the City Council and MPRB will provide increased funding for needed maintenance, operations and capital improvements with a far less significant impact on taxpayer resources.

This plan also offers an opportunity to tackle one of the City’s most pressing needs: the upgrade and maintenance of our streets. This past March the Council received a thorough report about the current condition of our City streets, as well as upcoming maintenance and reconstruction needs. It was clear that action needed to be taken and I am pleased that this plan will keep our streets functioning at a higher level of condition well into the future.

I hope you will join District #1 Park Commissioner and MPRB President Liz Wielinski and me for a public Town Hall meeting on Monday, May 9, 7 p.m. at Columbia Manor to discuss this plan and its ramifications in more detail.