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2/7/2025
Dear Ward 6 neighbors,
Tomorrow, I will be at the 2025 Community Connections Conference from 10 AM to 2 PM, and I’d love for you to join me!
Let’s connect, share ideas, and explore opportunities to strengthen our community. This event is a great chance to learn about resources, attend interactive workshops, and discuss how we can collaborate to create positive change in Ward 6.
Come say hello, share your thoughts, and let’s plan for the future together!
CM Osman.
 All Minneapolis residents, neighbors and community members are invited to attend the 2025 Community Connections Conference this Saturday, Feb. 8.
The conference offers a day of connecting, sharing and learning about all the ways to be involved in the local community. You can also meet the people behind important City services, community groups and other institutions. The conference is free and open to everyone, and Metro Transit will also offer free rides.
Program highlights
The theme for the 12th annual conference is “Participation is Power: Speak, Act, Grow.” The City invites you to:
- Speak: Weigh in on important decisions.
- Act: Vote, join neighborhood groups or serve on City boards.
- Grow: Learn new things to improve your community, neighborhood and life.
This year's conference will have workshops, music and dance, activities for the whole family, an exhibit hall and afternoon community conversations about health and food systems in Minneapolis. Flu and COVID vaccines are also available for free at the pop-up clinic in the exhibit hall while supplies last.
Register ahead of time online or at the conference.
Read more on the City website.
The first semi-annual report is out from the independent evaluator on Minneapolis compliance with police reform. The Effective Law Enforcement for ALL (ELEFA) report documents the City’s advance toward compliance with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights settlement agreement and finds that the City is on track to meet nearly all of its year-one goals assessed during this period.
ELEFA’s report covers the period from March 18 to Sept. 30, 2024. It highlights progress made in policy revisions, trainings, misconduct complaint backlogs, and plans for equipment, technology, facilities, and data systems. These achievements are key to transforming the MPD’s approach to policing and building a strong foundation for the next phases of compliance.
The report is on ELEFA’s website. ELEFA will continue to host regular community engagement sessions. The next review period will cover work completed between Oct. 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025.
Read more on the City website
 The City of Minneapolis is seeking qualified applicants to serve on the Community Commission on Police Oversight. The independent body allows the public a forum to have meaningful engagement in police oversight and review. Members of the commission serve on the Police Conduct Review Panel as civilian panelists making recommendations about whether MPD policies and procedures have been violated and making recommendations about discipline.
Applications are open now for three current vacancies plus eight seats that will open in May. Applications are due by March 16.
Read more on the City website.
 Junauda Petrus is the city’s new poet laureate for 2025-2026. Petrus succeeds Heid E. Erdrich in this prominent literary role. A multidisciplinary artist, Petrus spans stage, screen and page in her work. She blends ancestral storytelling, speculative fiction and poetic verse around themes of Blackness, queerness and womanhood.
The administration of the Poet Laureate Award is overseen by The Loft Literary Center. The Loft is hosting a public celebration in honor of Petrus Feb. 13 at its headquarters in downtown Minneapolis.
Co-founder of the experimental artist collection Free Black Dirt, Petrus is known for creating innovative performances. Her acclaimed debut novel, The Stars and the Blackness Between Them, received the 2020 Coretta Scott King Honor Book Award. In 2023 she released her first children’s book, Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers? It is based on an abolitionist future and became a Minnesota Book Award finalist.
Deeply rooted in the cultural, social and historic fabric of Minneapolis, Petrus will use her visionary voice as poet laureate to celebrate the city’s beauty, struggle and magic through poetry.
Read more about the City of Minneapolis and The Loft Literary Center’s Poet Laureate Award on the City website.
 The applicants for community partners to redevelop the Peoples’ Way site at George Floyd Square will give community presentations on their plans Feb. 26. Come hear their presentations and share your feedback. The City is looking for community input before advancing one of the groups to the mayor and City Council for approval.
Redeveloping the Peoples’ Way site for community use is a part of the City’s effort to work with community on a new vision for George Floyd Square. Years of feedback from community members has informed a shared vision for the area.
Four applicants responded to the City’s request for a community partner to redevelop the Peoples’ Way site at 3744 Chicago Ave.:
- Minnesota Agape Movement
- P3 Foundation (David’s Place)
- Rise & Remember
- Urban League Twin Cities
Peoples’ Way applicant presentations 5-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 26 Sabathani Community Center, 310 E. 38th St.
Food and refreshments will be provided.
If you cannot come to the applicant presentations, you can choose from several events to meet with staff. Read more on the City website.
Join us Feb. 25 at the final open house for the New Nicollet Redevelopment. New Nicollet is a 10-acre parcel of land between the Midtown Greenway and Lake Street. It was home to Kmart for many years. The City is developing a plan to make it a walkable area that meets the needs of nearby neighborhoods. Community input is at the heart of that plan.
Community priorities
The New Nicollet team gathered community input in 2024. They did this through surveys, online meetings and in-person conversations. Residents, businesses and community members said what they hoped to see here. Top priorities include:
- Affordable housing with supportive services.
- Home ownership opportunities to prevent displacement and support wealth building.
- Well-connected public spaces for community connections and to promote public safety.
- A grocery store for access to healthy and affordable food.
The open house will showcase the ways extensive community input is shaping the project. Attendees can give feedback on the Development Framework and learn about next steps.
Final New Nicollet open house 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25 Whittier International Elementary School, 315 W. 26th St.
Language interpretation will be available for Spanish and Somali. Free food and kids’ activities will be provided.
Find the Development Framework starting Feb. 25 on the New Nicollet Redevelopment webpage.
Building on the tremendous success of the popular 2024 Open Streets program, the City of Minneapolis is now looking for four 2025 summer event organizers. New in 2025, the City is expanding the proposal process to allow organizers to select from several event dates and routes around the city.
Open Streets transforms major city streets into car-free places for one day. Open Streets shuts down car traffic during the event to allow people to walk, bike and roll down the street. Organizers plan programming and free activities for the day.
Since the City launched Open Streets in 2011, the events have brought nearly 700,000 people to different areas of town to enjoy all that the City of Minneapolis has to offer. In 2024, the City co-hosted three Open Streets events, partnering with the Uptown Association on Lyndale Avenue, with the West Broadway Business Coalition on West Broadway, and with the Lyndale Neighborhood Association on Nicollet Avenue.
Read more on the City website.
The City of Minneapolis works all year round to fight human trafficking and protect vulnerable people. We are raising awareness during Human Trafficking Awareness Month with a particular focus on sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of people who may show signs of a substance use disorder.
Signs of human trafficking
Human trafficking thrives in silence, and survivors are often hiding in plain sight. Signs of trafficking include:
- Physical abuse or neglect.
- Missing school or work regularly.
- Telling inconsistent or rehearsed stories.
- Dating someone much older.
- A history of running away or being homeless.
- Sexually inappropriate pictures on social media.
- Unexplained gifts, new possessions or tattoos that represent ownership.
Read more about how we can all help on the City website.
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