I’d like to extend a big thank you the residents of 63A in South Minneapolis
for entrusting me to lift our community’s voices and continue to fight for our
values in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Hennepin County’s voter
turnout was at 90%- a record-breaking blue explosion for which we have much to
be grateful. In a time where our democratic processes and norms are under
attack, we can be proud of that.
As final vote counts continue, considering a few DFL seat losses, and pending
anticipated re-counts for close races, it’s still apparent that DFLers in the
Minnesota House will retain the majority. The Minnesota Senate likely will stay
in GOP hands. Minnesota will continue to be the only divided state legislature
in the country for another two years.
On Monday, November 16, 7:00-8:30 p.m. Senator Patricia Torres Ray,
Representative Wagenius, and I will host a virtual town hall meeting welcoming
our new colleague and Team 63 State Representative, Emma Greenman. The focus
will be an election debrief, discussing final federal and state election
results and the implications. You can join at
https://www.facebook.com/RepJimDavnieMN. You do not need a Facebook account to
join us. Feel free to email any of us with questions you might have.
Minnesota Passes Largest Bonding Bill in State History
After over a year of work, several rounds of negotiations, and persistence
despite ultimatum threats from Republicans tied to the Governor’s peacetime
emergency powers, we prevailed in delivering a robust jobs and local projects
bill in October. Bonding bills must originate in the House, so this was truly a
hard-fought effort led by the House DFL Majority.
Here’s a breakdown of how Minneapolis fared, with funding allocated to make
improvements or repairs to the following projects:
• Minneapolis Parks – 26th Ave N Mississippi River trail connection
• South Minneapolis CareerForce Center
• Upper Harbor Terminal outdoor music venue
• Avivo, a mental health and addiction treatment provider
• Minneapolis Central City Storm Tunnel
• The Minneapolis Emergency Training Center
Support for Metro Regional Parks will support:
• the Above the Falls Regional Park - Hall’s Island and Graco Park
Implementation –
• Mississippi Gorge Regional Park
• Nokomis – Hiawatha Regional Park
Also included were several projects focused on a more equitable Minnesota,
supporting BIPOC lead smaller non-profit organizations. These include:
• The American Indian Center
• The Indigenous Peoples Task Force
• The 38th Street Cultural Wellness Center
• The Native American Community Clinic
Additionally, we kept to our responsibility to support and maintain higher
education opportunities including:
• U of M-Twin Cities campus child development building and the Chemistry
Undergrad Teaching Lab
• Minneapolis College, Management Education Center
One project that will have a significant impact on our South Minneapolis
community is the $55 million in funding that we secured to complete the Bus
Rapid Transit D Line (Chicago-Fremont) and B Line (Lake/Marshall). The two BRT
lines were a top priority for the Minneapolis delegation as an equity issue,
building public transportation assets in two corridors with high percentages of
communities of color and high percentages of transit users.
Rebuilding efforts from the Civil Unrest
While the Minneapolis legislative delegation has worked hard with our
leadership to secure support for rebuilding efforts GOP political decisions
have continued to stymie progress. There have been some positive steps,
however.
Last week, Governor Walz released $12 million from the state Disaster Relief
Fund to Hennepin County to support rebuilding efforts.
Working with Hennepin County I was able to get included in the bonding bill a
provision that changes state law to allow for demolition/removal of destroyed
buildings, even if annual property taxes haven’t been fully paid. This allows
the city to issue permits so that properties can be cleared. It will also speed
up the rebuilding process for small business owners hit by both the pandemic
economic downturn and the civil unrest.
The DuNord Riot Recovery Fund, a nonprofit created by Chris and Shanelle
Montana, owners of Du Nord Craft Spirits, has raised over $700,000 specifically
to support BIPOC owned businesses in the Lake Street corridor area. They have
granted out over $500,000. Looking at community needs, they are working on
reestablishing a community food pantry and looking to develop a BIPOC small
business incubator. Du Nord is the country’s first Black owned distillery.
The Lake Street Council has established a Healthy Lake Street fund, supporting
access to physical, mental, and behavioral health services in the corridor. It
does this by
providing grants to health-related small business in the corridor. An example
is supporting the reopening of Seward Pharmacy, an African immigrant owned
independent pharmacy that was looted and heavily damaged in June. United Health
Care has provided $5 million for the Healthy Lake Street fund.
The Lake Street Target is moving towards opening later this month. The Aldi on
27th Avenue north of Lake has reopened. The Walgreens at 46th Street and
Hiawatha recently reopened.
Special Session Anticipated
I am anticipating Governor Walz calling us back for another special session
later this week related to his continuing emergency powers for the Covid-19
pandemic. Given the significant increases in cases in the state, positive tests
results, and growing hospital burden, I think it is important we continue to
act. While the concerns in Minnesota are real, we are far better off than our
surrounding neighbor states that have taken less action to protect community
health.
Stay in Touch
Thank you for the honor of continuing to serve as your state representative.
Please reach out anytime with questions, ideas, or input at
<email obscured>. I appreciate hearing from you! Feel free to share this
newsletter and the link for neighbors to subscribe to future updates here.
Sincerely,
Jim Davnie
State Representative