 Happy PRIDE month! Today, at the full Minneapolis City Council committee meeting, every single council member shared in reading and approving a Resolution declaring June 2019 "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual Pride Month" in the City of Minneapolis. The full Resolution can be found here.
This week I was honored and humbled to speak at both the DNC’s 20th Annual LGBTQ Gala and Point Source Youth’s 3rd National Symposium On Solutions To End Youth Homelessness where I shared space with prolific LGBTQ leaders, dedicated organizers and young people representing the most marginalized among us – our homeless youth, who are disproportionately black and disproportionately transgender and gender non-conforming.
This week I was also featured in a CNN News article entitled “7 black LGBTQ leaders in honor of Juneteenth and Pride month.” Being held in the same esteem as such transformational and legendary icons as Audre Lorde, Marsha P. Johnson, Bayard Rustin and James Baldwin, whom inspired me to embody the change I wish to see in our society, is a true honor. I am still pinching myself! The article can be found here.
It is this intersection of Black and LGBTQ identity that both makes us vulnerable to systemic oppression and moves us to become leaders of liberation movements. In a society where violence and suppression of our identity is currently, increasingly being fostered at a national level, it is this intersection that fosters the empowerment of our people to lead and make the change we wish to see. This was most evident and inspiring at both conferences I attended this week.
This week we celebrated Juneteenth, specifically June 19th, 1865, a lesser known date in history that marks the last of enslaved Black people in Galveston, TX, to receive news of their freedom by Union soldiers – a freedom that was legally adopted 2 ½ years prior.
This year, 2019, is a significant year as it reflects the important intersection of identity for our Black LGBTQIA communities. 2019 marks the 400th year commemoration of the first Africans to arrive in Jamestown, VA, forced into slavery. 2019 also marks the 50th year commemoration of the Stonewall uprising in New York where LGBTQ people, on June 28-29, 1969, fought back against the violent police raid on their safe space venue and place of employment. It is not lost on me that this uprising was led by Black LGBTQ folks, some whose identities are not widely known and some, like Marsha P. Johnson, whom are now prominent figures in history.
Last week I had the honor of presenting at the Minneapolis Institute of Art for their “Stonewall at 50” feature. I shared a reading from a new anthology “Queer Voices: Poetry, Prose, and Pride” in which my writing is featured among several talented authors. This event featured the work of so many loved and celebrated LGBTQ artists, writers, activists and leaders. “It is not just a community that is depressed and chemically addicted. It’s a community that speaks of hope, love, beauty and joy.”
As we move into the Twin Cities PRIDE festival this weekend, I welcome you to join in the celebration and reflect on the significant history of gay liberation movements. The parade will be Sunday, June 23rd from 11am to 2 pm from 2nd Ave to 3rd St. to the Convention Center, then Grant into Loring Park. I look forward to participating in the parade and hope to see you there!
 Restriping on Park and Portland Avenues will begin next week!
Crews will be restriping Park Avenue and Portland Avenue starting June 24 to restore the street and lane alignment to its pre-I-35W project condition, including a buffer for the bicycle lane. To do the work, parking on Park Avenue from 29th to 18th Streets and on Portland Avenue from Franklin Avenue to 29th Street will be restricted while crews work.
Parking restrictions on Park and Portland Avenues:
- No parking on the east side of Park Avenue from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, June 24.
- No parking on the west side of Portland Avenue from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 25
- No parking on the west side of Park Avenue 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 26
- No parking on the east side of Portland Avenue 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 26
Motorists will see reduced lanes on both Park and Portland Avenues while work is being done but the streets will remain open. All work is weather permitting.
MnDOT and their consultant are distributing fliers on windshields today and the message went out to the project distribution list, the project webpage and on social media.
 The City of Minneapolis Regulatory Services Department is excited to announce a new resource – The Regulatory Services Violation Dashboard that was created to provide viewers with information on how the Regulatory Services Department works to make the city safer, healthier and more inviting for all. By openly sharing their work, it allows them to strengthen our community and build relationships by empowering residents, neighborhoods and businesses to:
- Look up information on a property to see if an issue has been reported or resolved
- Learn about the condition of a property, both past and present
- Understand the maintenance and compliance trends of property owners and managers
- Dig into nearly 30 years’ worth of enforcement information
- Search for enforcement history for specific wards
Providing up-to-date information that viewers can access on their own demonstrates the department’s commitment to transparency and accessibility.
The information provided in this dashboard automatically updates daily to include violation data from the previous day. The violation information provided in this tool goes back to 1989, so there can be a slight delay in the time it takes to load, your computer and internet speed can impact performance too. If you experience significant issues with the tool loading, please contact 311.
 The U.S. Census Bureau is currently recruiting people across Minnesota to work temporary part-time positions to help with the 2020 census count. The temporary positions feature flexible hours, which makes them a perfect fit for people who already have other commitments but are open to earning a little extra money.
Counting every person in Minnesota is necessary to fully benefit from political representation and valuable funding over the next 10 years.
For more information visit 2020census.gov/en/jobs.
Recycling has been in the news a lot lately because of shifts in markets and international policy changes. This has left many Minnesotans wondering what is happening to the recycling placed in their carts and what they can do now to support recycling.
First, know that your recycling is getting recycled. Most recycling collected in Minnesota is processed through local and regional markets, and overall Minnesotans are good recyclers with relatively low amounts of nonrecyclables put in the recycling.
Keep plastic bags out of your recycling cart
Plastic bags and wrap get tangled in the equipment at recycling facilities, and workers spend hours each day removing them. You can recycle plastic bags and wrap by bringing them to drop-off locations including grocery stores, food co-ops, retail stores and Hennepin County drop-off facilities.
Know what’s OK to put in your recycling cart.
A director for Minneapolis’ new Office of Violence Prevention within the Health Department has been appointed. Sasha Cotton will lead the City of Minneapolis in efforts across departments to prevent violence citywide.
Sasha Cotton has been the youth violence prevention coordinator for the City since 2014. During that time, she has created connections with community organizations and community members. She has fostered work across the City enterprise and other government agencies that has led to decreases in youth violence and the creation of several new initiatives. Before working for the City, Cotton was the national resource director for the University of Minnesota School of Social Work’s Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community and was the prevention program manager for the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women.
Recognizing the intersection between various forms of violence and its impacts on youths, families and communities, the City of Minneapolis established a new Office of Violence Prevention within the Health Department in December. Building on the City’s 13 years of youth violence prevention services and programming, the new Office of Violence Prevention will allow the Health Department to address various forms of violence and better coordinate throughout the City enterprise. The office has established a steering committee, which will meet starting this month, and contracted with community organizations for violence prevention projects citywide.
 |
Homegrown Minneapolis invites community members to participate in upcoming meetings or comment online to help develop a food policy action plan. City staff intend for the plan to guide the City toward a more equitable, climate resilient, just and sustainable local food system and local food economy. Access to healthy and local food is important for the health of people who eat it, for the local communities it helps support and for protecting the climate.
These Food Council meetings will focus on specific Minneapolis food action plan topics. Anyone who can’t attend a meeting can still weigh in online.
2019
- Topic 1: Food justice and equity Online comments taken now.
- Topic 2: Diets and community demand 5-7:30 p.m. July 24 Minneapolis location to be determined
- Topic 3: Agricultural food production 5-7:30 p.m. Sept. 11 Minneapolis location to be determined
- Topic 4: Retail, wholesale, processing and distribution 5-7:30 p.m. Nov. 13 Minneapolis location to be determined
2020
- Topic 5: Food waste generation and management 5-7:30 p.m. Jan. 8 Minneapolis location to be determined
- Topic 6: All topics together with governance, finance and implementation 5-7:30 p.m. March 11 Minneapolis location to be determined
The Minneapolis Food Action Plan will serve as an appendix to the City’s Climate Action Plan and a stand-alone framework with food systems data and recommended goals, strategies, tactics and measurable indicators for City of Minneapolis policy and investment and Food Council action. The planning process will include opportunities to engage and contribute ideas throughout. The plan will be developed with community input in partnership with University of Minnesota researchers and the Homegrown Minneapolis Food Council.
Background
In 2013, the City of Minneapolis adopted the Minneapolis Climate Action Plan, which is the City’s roadmap to reducing Citywide greenhouse gas emissions. In 2017, the City of Minneapolis signed on to the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact. Most recently, the City of Minneapolis adopted Minneapolis 2040, the City’s comprehensive plan. The Climate Action Plan defers to Homegrown Minneapolis for proposed climate change-related food systems actions, which this effort intends to advance through the framework of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact with research partnership from the University of Minnesota.
Find the full meeting calendar and more information about the topics here.
| 
