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Minneapolis moves forward with Community Safety Center
With the Third Precinct still abandoned, the city is asking for input on a new Community Safety Center that would house police and social services a few blocks away.
MINNEAPOLIS — The city of Minneapolis continues to advance a plan to replace the abandoned Third Precinct with a “Community Safety Center,” which would house both police and social services in a nearby building on Minnehaha Avenue.
On Wednesday evening, the city kicked off another round of community engagement with a meeting at the Powderhorn Recreation Center.
While the city has determined that police will work out of the Community Safety Center, Amanda Harrington with the Minneapolis Office of Community Safety said it’s not clear yet which social services would be housed there.
Presumably, the building could include groups offering mental health support, addiction treatment or violence prevention.
“We’ve said all along, we’re not going to decide what goes into the Community Safety Center. We really want the community to help us decide what they need and want in those spaces,” Harrington said. “Part of the beauty of us having a diverse community in Minneapolis is that we have diverse opinions about what people want. We are really trying to meet the needs of all our citizens.”
After years of debate about how to handle the Third Precinct, which was torched during the riots following George Floyd’s murder, the city agreed to purchase the new Community Safety Center site on Minnehaha Avenue last fall for a price of at least $10 million. After crews finish inspections and environmental testing this spring, the city plans to close on the property in June before opening the center in early 2025.
Since 2020, Third Precinct officers have been working out of a temporary building in downtown Minneapolis, miles away from the neighborhoods where they patrol.
“For the police officers not to have a permanent home, to be in a building that wasn’t created to be a precinct, to not have just the offices for roll calls and for staff,” Harrington said, “that’s absolutely been a challenge for them.”
Kevin Barnes, who has lived in parts of south Minneapolis for decades, said he likes the idea of a central hub including both police and community resources.
“I think it’s so important,” he said. “To free up police to do what’s needed for police to do.”
At the same time, other neighbors are much more lukewarm — or outright hostile — toward the idea.
Rachel Boeke, the executive director of the Longfellow Community Council, helped organize Wednesday’s meeting with the city. She said there’s a mix of opinions among her neighborhood.
“What I’m hearing from the community, is there’s some hesitancy from folks about placing police where other services are. That, some residents aren’t going to want to go into a police precinct to get those resources, and it would be better to have them in separate spaces,” Boeke said. “That’s why we’re hosting this tonight to hear from a larger perspective of people.”
The city has more community engagement sessions planned about the Community Safety Center, including an event in Little Earth on April 8 and the Minnehaha Senior Living facility on April 26.
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The newly elected board unanimously accepted it during a special board meeting Thursday night.
BURNSVILLE, Minn — STEP Academy officials said the school is taking steps to pay off its debt after letting go teachers, administrators, and people who worked in operations to balance their budget.
“We’re very sad we had to reduce our budget based on our enrollment but that was a necessary step so that we could stay financially secure,” said Paul Scanlon, STEP Academy’s chief operations officer.
Scanlon corrected a statement made by the St. Paul charter school’s finance director on Monday who said the school has an operating budget deficit of $2.1 million.
“It’s projected by the end of the year that it will roughly – 2.1% of our overall budget. It’s not 2.1 thousand or 2.1 million,” Scanlon said.
He said that’s roughly $275,000, which is how much debt the charter school will have by the end of the academic year.
“Through careful financing, we’ve been able to pay off some of our debt and get that number lower and lower,” he said.
Scanlon said under the Minnesota Department of Education, a school must be at least -2.5% to be considered in statutory operational debt.
The newly elected board started on Monday. Scanlon said there was some confusion about their appointment, but he said the plan was to seat them at their annual meeting on Oct. 21. He said all of the new board members were elected to their positions.
“Candidates nominated or being nominated for the positions to expand the expertise and size our of board took several weeks of getting the nominations and having ballots prepared,” he said.
The board unanimously voted to accept Superintendent Mustafa Ibrahim’s resignation. He said his last day will be Nov. 4. In his letter, he said “my time leading STEP Academy has been the most rewarding period of my career.”
Scanlon said they will not be looking for an immediate replacement.
“At this time based on our finances, based on the strength that we’re seeing from our two principals on both sites, we feel like we can cover many of those components and then we would look to post for the 25-26 school year,” he said.
The board also approved an Ad Hoc committee’s report on the job description of the superintendent of educational services for when they do hire someone for that role.
The board unanimously voted to postpone filling two school board vacancies until they have appointed a chair, vice chair, secretary, and treasurer. They’ll discuss it again at their next meeting, and possibly decide how they want to fill those seats.
“We’re 50 ahead of where we were, 50 deaths,” Mike Hanson said. “50 families who have lost a loved one more than we were at this time last year.”
MINNEAPOLIS — It’s a frustrating trend for Mike Hanson, director of the Office of Traffic Safety within the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
“Anytime I see an incident like the one that took place last night, I’m angry,” Hanson said. “It’s really hard to put into words, because this is exactly the type of thing that we work to prevent.”
Wednesday night, a 29-year-old man from St. Paul exited eastbound I-94 onto Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis. The crash report says that man was traveling at a “high rate of speed.” That man hit several cars, killing a 26-year-old Minneapolis woman and injuring several others.
“That is the one thing that makes every bad decision worse, because speed brings energy, and energy is what results in injury and death,” Hanson said.
Data provided by DPS shows that there have been nearly 150 accidents in and near the area where this happened since January 2021. Some don’t involve alcohol, some do. Hanson said it’s their goal to make sure alcohol is never a factor.
“There is literally no excuse today for somebody to wind up in the back seat of a squad car, an ambulance or heaven forbid a hearse, because of an impaired driving decision,” he said.
Unfortunately, data shows that fatal accidents are up in Minnesota so far this year.
“We’re 50 ahead of where we were, 50 deaths,” Hanson said. “50 families who have lost a loved one more than we were at this time last year.”
Hanson said they work with different agencies across the state to help assist with education and prevention before anyone gets behind the wheel impaired.
“Our basic message is impaired is impaired. It doesn’t matter what it is that you’re impaired by, if you feel different, you will drive different,” he said. “And if you’re sitting behind the wheel and you have to ask yourself should I drive? It’s already too late.”
Police said the suspect in an alleged armed burglary is described similarly to someone who was reportedly looking into windows in the city earlier the same day.
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — Police in Brooklyn Park are urging residents to make sure their windows and doors are locked after an alleged armed burglary in the city on Thursday.
According to police, residents on the 1700 block of 73rd Ave N. were coming home around 7:30 p.m. when they discovered a man in their home. The man pointed a gun at them and then fled, officials said.
The suspect is described by law enforcement as Black, 5’9 or 5’10, a skinny build, with a beard. He was reportedly wearing a black hoodie and pants.
Police said a man with a similar description was reportedly looking into windows and trying door handles around the 7500 block of Newton Ave N and Meadowwood Drive earlier on Thursday. In that case, the suspect was wearing a black hoodie with white lettering, a black coat with red sleeves, and light-colored pants, officials said.
“In light of these incidents, Brooklyn Park Police are urging residents in the area to ensure that all windows and doors are securely locked,” an alert from police said, adding if anyone notices “suspicious activity” they should call 911.
Brooklyn Center Police had similar sightings as well, according to law enforcement.
