 In light of news reports of planned immigration enforcement raids in ten cities in late June, Mayor Frey, City Council President Lisa Bender, and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo issued a joint statement affirming that Minneapolis was not named as one of the ten targeted cities and that the City and its Police Department do not collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"Minneapolis Police have not and will not cooperate with, nor participate in, any such ICE activity. Minneapolis officials are prohibited from taking any action to detect or apprehend people based solely on their immigration status." You can read the full statement here.
The City of Minneapolis celebrated its first World Refugee Day on June 20. Approximately 230 community members gathered in City Hall to recognize the strength, resilience and perseverance of immigrants who were forced from their homes because of war and persecution. The World Refugee Day celebration at City Hall included remarks by refugees and a panel of seven experts on refugee issues. You can watch the opening remarks and hear refugees share their powerful stories here.
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The panel included Sunny Chanthanouvong of the Lao Assistance Center of Minnesota, Hue Pham of Vietnamese Social Services, Alfreda Daniels of the Black Immigrant Collective, Fartun Weli of Isuroon, Ben Whalen from the Minnesota Council of Churches, Gelek Namgyal of the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota and Betsy Fisher of the International Refugee Assistance Project.
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A special thank-you to Mayor Jacob Frey, Council Members Phillipe Cunningham and Abdi Warsame, Dr. Xailong Yang of the Hmong Minneapolis Leadership Council, Khadija Ali, entrepreneur and CEO of Global Language and Staffing, Gerardo Cajamarca of SEIU, the Hmong Qeej rhythm group Nuj Si Loob, and spoken word artist Ifrah Mansour.
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OIRA exists to ensure that community members can find information, resources, legal advice and understand their rights under the law. OIRA does this by supporting nonprofit law organizations, free immigration clinics, an immigration information hotline, and by educating the public and policymakers on immigration issues. OIRA also provides suggestions on how you can help keep Minneapolis welcoming to all people, from attending community meetings and submitting public comments, to getting involved with local nonprofits. You can sign up for OIRA's immigration newsletter here...
Read more...
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 Are you ready to go hands-free? It will be against the law to hold a phone while driving starting August 1, 2019. What can and can’t you do with your phone? Read the answers frequently asked questions here.
Under the new law:
- You cannot hold a phone in your hand unless calling 911 in an emergency.
- Using voice commands or single touch activation can allow you to still make calls, text, listen to music or podcasts and get directions without holding the phone.
- Not using your phone at all is still the safest option.
- For a first offense, the ticket is $50 plus court fees and $275 plus court fees for each additional offense.
Want to spread the word?
Learn more at HandsFreeMN.org and download outreach materials.
The recent Advance Notice of Sale ordinance builds on a growing body of work City leaders have advanced to address the challenges facing renters.
The ordinance, which went into effect on April 1, 2019, requires owners who intend to sell an affordable housing building to notify the City of Minneapolis and to conspicuously post a notice of potential sale in the common area of the building. Read more...
 On July 6 and 7, the weekend after the 4th of July, Hmong families will celebrate independence at McMurray fields in Como Regional Park. This annual event celebrates Hmong culture, food and athletics, bringing in around 100,000 attendees over the two days. Read more about the 2019 event...
On June 5, 2019, around 130 people gathered at Sabathani Community Center to learn about long term care planning, brain health, fraud and scam prevention and many other topics of interest to seniors. The City of Minneapolis participated, bringing many departments to provide information about programs and services like the Homeowner Navigation Program, 311, recycling, the 2020 census We Count campaign and Elections and Voter Services.
The South Minneapolis Healthy Aging Forum was organized through a collaboration between AARP Minnesota, Hennepin County Public Health, the City of Minneapolis, the Sabathani Community Center, the Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging and the AARP Sabathani Chapter with special guests Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley and Minneapolis City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins.
The Healthy Aging Forum is a great example of partnerships that fulfill the commitments presented in the Minneapolis For a Lifetime: Age Friendly Community Action Plan, the City of Minneapolis' plan to establish policies and support services that promote independent living, meaningful engagement and provide resources and information to older residents so they can remain part of the fabric of this community. Read the action plan...
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 A new resource allows people to look up information on Regulatory Services inspections to see how the department works to help protect residents and improve the livability of Minneapolis.
Regulatory Services inspectors enforce fire and housing regulations of the Minneapolis code of ordinances and State fire code. Violations range from nuisance violations, such as unkept grass, to safety violations, like missing fire alarms.
Explore the Regulatory Services Violations Dashboard here.
In the dashboard, you can:
- 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 for your own analysis.
- Search for enforcement history for a specific neighborhood or ward to understand how Regulatory Services serves your community.
The information updates daily. Information on follow-up actions for the violations, such as citations, are not included in the dashboard, nor are violations that are issued by other City departments like Business Licensing.
 On July 1, the minimum wage in Minneapolis went up to $11 for small employers (less than 100 employees) and $12.25 for large employers (over 100 employees). Tips and gratuities do not count toward payment of a minimum wage. Workers are encouraged to report violations online.
For more information, visit minimumwage.minneapolismn.gov, call 311 or email minwage@minneapolismn.gov.
Are you involved in a community garden, urban farm or market garden?
Homegrown Minneapolis invites members or leaders of community gardens, urban farms and market gardens in Minneapolis to complete a brief Urban Agriculture Survey by July 12, 2019. This survey will allow Homegrown Minneapolis and the community to better understand emerging trends of urban agriculture in Minneapolis.
Complete the Minneapolis Urban Agriculture Survey in English | Spanish
Please only submit one response per garden or farm site. All survey participants will be entered into a drawing to win a gift card to a garden supply store!
Questions? Learn more at www.minneapolismn.gov/UrbanAgSurvey
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This June, the City developed a scope of services used to contract with a consultant or consulting team to continue conversations with neighborhoods and the community on program guidelines and metrics for the Neighborhoods 2020 framework, as instructed in the May 17 staff directive. Staff were also instructed to ensure that racial equity continues to remain at the core of the work during this process.
The City notified the Neighborhoods 2020 mailing list and neighborhood organizations through email when the scope of services was published and accepted applications through eSupplier until July 1.
Now, the City will review the applications, and once a qualified contractor has been selected, an updated project timeline will be posted on our website and shared publicly. We will continue to send out updates and update the Neighborhoods 2020 webpage as we move through this process.
A 45-day comment period, ending July 25, is currently in effect on a proposed change to the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) neighborhood plan modification approval process. The redlined NRP policy document found here shows the proposed change.
Currently, the NCR Department Director has sole discretion to approve or deny these requests from neighborhood organizations to modify plans. The proposed policy change would:
- Require plan modifications over $100,000 to have the approval of the NRP Policy Board;
- Allow plan modifications $100,000 and under to be administratively approved by the NCR Department Director;
- Authorize programmatic documents to reflect these changes.
To submit comments on these proposed changes please email ncr@minneapolismn.gov or call Steven Gallagher at 612-673-2905. Read more about NRP here...
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