In 2017, Andrea Jenkins’ victory in a Minneapolis City Council race made her the first Black transgender woman to win public office. Last year, she became the nation’s first openly-trans council president — which earned Jenkins more national attention.
“I am experienced, I build bridges and I get things done,” Jenkins said Saturday at the Ward 8 DFL endorsing convention.
But the pioneering politician’s skepticism about rent control and her stances on tent-encampment evictions and public safety issues have put her on weak footing with the left wing of Minneapolis’ already-left-of-center electorate — and on Saturday, Jenkins lost out on the DFL party’s endorsement for her re-election bid.
More than two-thirds of delegates at the Ward 8 convention voted to endorse Jenkins’ challenger, Soren Stevenson, who has also secured the endorsement of the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter. Stevenson has declared his support for a strict rent control ordinance and a new approach to policing and public safety.
“The kinder, safer city that meets our basic needs is one that is possible,” Stevenson said during the convention, “if we have new leadership who is committed to getting us there.”
[raw]
Thanks to all of my supporters who worked tirelessly to participate in our democracy. Although today’s results are not what we’d hoped for, I will continue to fight for equity, dignity and respect for the people of ward 8 and be your champion and voice for a better Minneapolis.
— Andrea jenkins (@Andrea4Ward8) May 20, 2023
[/raw]
The resounding result at Ward 8’s virtual convention came despite not only the power of Jenkins’ incumbency, but also technical problems and confusion around the online voting process that party volunteers scrambled to resolve.
(Sidenote: the DFL postponed another convention in Ward 6 when the hired Somali language interpreter didn’t show up. In Ward 8, Spanish translation was unavailable in the videoconference for much of the convention.)
[raw]
@sorenmpls started giving a victory speech to the war room — before being invited to speak to the convention pic.twitter.com/BdpUuozio7
— Kyle Stokes (@kystokes) May 20, 2023
[/raw]
The Ward 8 convention’s question-and-answer session with the candidates offered a glimpse at the candidates’ views on several major issues. Here are a few of Jenkins’ and Stevenson’s answers:
Clearing tent encampments for unhoused people
Stevenson called the city’s current policy on encampment evictions “cruel” and “ineffective.”
“We are wasting our money. We are wasting our time,” Stevenson said, urging an approach that recognizes homeless individuals’ “humanity, and gets people places to live rather than pushing them from place to place and pretending that that’s going to ever deal with the issue.”
“This is a very challenging problem that is impacting cities all across the country,” Jenkins said, saying the city leans on its shelters and surrounding supports “that can help people find housing if they take those opportunities.”
“We do need to improve how we communicate about these closures,” Jenkins said, and added later: “We need support services for people dealing with mental health and chemical dependency issues.”
Rent control & tenant supports
Though Minneapolis voters approved a measure that would give the City Council the power to propose a rent control policy, Mayor Jacob Frey has threatened to veto it — and the council currently lacks the votes to override that veto.
Stevenson supports “strong” rent stabilization. He didn’t specify whether he supported a specific proposal — favored by more hard-line rent control proponents — for a firm 3% cap on annual rent increases.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Kyle Stokes[/image_credit][image_caption]Robin Wonsley, left, the current Ward 2 representative on the Minneapolis City Council, expressing her joy at news of the DFL party's endorsement of Ward 8 candidate Soren Stevenson, right.[/image_caption]
“If we have a strict rent control policy,” Jenkins said Saturday, “that will limit how we can address this problem. It can be a part of the solution, but it can not be the only solution.”
Stevenson also said he supported giving tenants the opportunity to purchase multi-family property that goes up for sale before it’s made available to outside buyers. He also supported limiting landlords’ ability to evict tenants without just cause.
Housing affordability
The city moved to end single-family-only zoning in the city and clear the way for up to three units of housing on every residential property as part of the 2040 comprehensive plan. Jenkins said this change will pave the way for more housing supply and drive down the cost of housing.
Jenkins also said she supported inclusionary zoning, which means that “whenever a development goes up, it means that [developers] have to [build] 20% affordable units or put money into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which is growing by leaps and bounds.”
“We must continue to fight to ensure that we can build more dense communities and neighborhoods,” Jenkins said.
“The 2040 plan was a great step forward,” Stevenson responded — but said that the city can go even further to remove barriers to putting denser housing developments in place.
“We cannot rely on the free market alone to give everyone housing,” Stevenson added. “That will never work.”
‘Why should I trust a white man?’
The question that had most delegates buzzing hearkened back to Jenkins’ place as a pioneering Black and trans politician — and what it meant for Stevenson to get the party’s backing over her.
During Stevenson’s opening statement at the convention, he noted that he lost an eye after Minneapolis Police fired a less-lethal projectile at him during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020: “I’ve had to understand what it means to be a white man shot and the struggle for black liberation.”
Delegate Roxanne Anderson asked Stevenson about that comment: “Can you tell me why I should trust that over the ongoing lived experience of a black trans woman?”
Stevenson answered: “My neighbors have said loud and clear that we are not headed in the right direction for a kinder, safer city … We do not have institutions that treat Black people, Brown people, Indigenous people with dignity and respect.”
Jenkins responded: “I have a lifetime of experience in trying to overcome racism. I have to state that I agree with some of the aspects that my opponent has mentioned: racism exists in every single institution … I have been working for decades to try and eliminate that from this city … and I am not sure how a white guy is going to solve that problem.”
Jenkins’ answer drew a reaction in Stevenson’s campaign headquarters that participants on the Zoom call could hear, with a mingle of groans and laughs audible.
“Racism is a white problem,” Stevenson said in an interview afterward. “It was created to benefit the white race. We need to have everyone in this fight working against racism. And if a white man can’t be a part of working against racism, then we’re really in a sad place.”
Jenkins was in no way a moderate or even conservative. Now the push left is so hard any sense of reason is thrown out the window.
How do you mean that? In what way?
Actually some of her votes were moderate. Some of Stevenson’s comments are the usual vague statement that tell you nothing. We do have programs for housing, etc.. We have a cycle of politicians who know little about what we already have and spend more time and money on reinventing the wheel. I hope Jenkins runs anyway.
Well the ultra lefties are getting more ultra left, way out of my zone.
Racism is a white problem? There’s enough racism to go around for all communities. Just look at the black assaults on Asians in NY for one of MANY examples.
There you have it “how is a white guy going to end racism”…. Lefties are so divided now that folks inside of their party are taking shots at each other. Show me the institutional racism embedded in our society and in our laws then everyone can get on board to change it. Claiming racism for terrible policies put in by the City Council falls on deaf ears after a decade or two. So now putting the homeless in new homes is the answer. The vast majority of homeless are drug addicts and have mental health issues, good luck with that !!
I hope Stevenson spends his “free” time riding the light rail, assuring the people assaulted to have patience, a “kinder, safer” city is imminent.
His comments on safely riding Metro Transit were well taken.
Somewhere, Dutch Reagan is smiling. Ever since he said, privately, “Mommy, I’m bored with this do-gooder federal financing of hospitalization for the deranged; let’s set ’em all free and save some tax dollars,” there’s been hell to pay. Now you’re dealing with third-generation homeless, and they’re as hungry, angry and cranky as ever. Try offering one of them a job sometime, see what kind of answer you get.
As usual, if it’s making your life miserable, it can be traced to Republicans.
There you have it, all problems are due to a president out of office for nearly 35 years. In a city run by Dems forever and a state run for 15 years. An admission that the left is incapable of seeing their own policy failures, and too feeble and incompetent to improve, just blame the other side for everything.
So you’re saying that the mentally ill should be institutionalized.
The ill should receive proper medical care, regardless of ability to pay. Because we don’t offer universal health care, emergency rooms become the only source of medical care for people without the ability to pay. Emergency rooms are often overcrowded and understaffed, leaving people with non-life-threatening issues low on the queue. In other words, this is a terrible way to treat mental illness. Instead, the mentally ill often end up on the streets, where police often get involved. Police aren’t mental health professionals, they’re trained to deal with criminals. So the next stop for our mentally ill friend is jail, which is also not a great environment for treating illness.
So, yeah, dismantling state structures to house people with mental illness – and not replacing it with anything – is a component in all the arguments we see in the MN Post comment section. We can’t pin all the blame on Reagan. But we also shouldn’t paper over his legacy.
So let’s go back to choice. On another post, Joe talked about the choices made by the addicts and criminals. While we’re at it, we need to own up to the choices we’ve made as a society. This is our collective fault as much as it’s any individual’s.
Yes, they should. At least till we figure out a better solution.
Until then, the general public will be the imprisoned, and the inmates will be running the assylum.
So Stevenson supports “strong” rent stabilization, even after Saint Paul’s disastrous experience. When multi-family housing development tanks, as it did in Saint Paul, will he have the fortitude to admit that it didn’t work? Or is he relying on Frey’s veto to make sure it doesn’t happen, which would keep the issue alive for him?
“We must continue to fight to ensure that we can build more dense communities and neighborhoods,” Jenkins said.
Back in the 60s they called those neighborhoods ghettos and insisted that dense communities were the problem, not the solution. What’s changed?
The realization that dense communities were probably a better idea all along.
Yeah, that’s why we see rich people packed into high-rises, eh? High density is preferred by democrat city governments who like to collect as much property tax from as many tax payers as possible, so to them it is a “better idea.”
Have you seen what it costs to live in a luxury high-rise?
Haven’t you often waxed poetic about the old days in your multi-ethnic urban neighborhood? What would that “neighborhood” have been like if you had all been living in snout-houses situated on 1/4 acre plots?
Actually, we were. There were very few apartment buildings down in Rondo. Most people lived in single-family homes. With two parents. Contrary to popular myth, Rondo wasn’t a ghetto.
Single-family homes, packed fairly closely together (like my old economically and socially – if not ethnically – diverse neighborhood in south Minneapolis). I’ll hazard a guess there were sidewalks on which you and your friends walked to school, or walked to a corner grocery store.
That, my good man, is density.
Do you think city governments are building condo towers where 2br units go for over a million? Do you think they can cost that much because there isn’t any demand for them? Why do you think a 1200 SF house in Highland is worth over $400k while that money in Woodbury will get you twice as much space?
White supremacy became slightly less fashionable. That is until Trump and his supporters started taking it on a revival tour.
If this is the end 9f her I will cheer loudly
Rather than parse comments above pro or con, let me just say this: The result of Saturday’s convention for Ward 8’s Endorsement was a resounding statement against the status quo in our City Council. Council person Ellison began the meeting with a statement of support for Soren. The process got pretty ugly quickly, but a temporary chair was named and we were able to conclude business. I was there as a delegate. At the age of 71, I was seriously considering running for Council, but I came to understand Soren and what he proposes for our City’s residents. He’s young, fresh, smart, and dedicated to solutions for all. Councilwoman Jenkins has gone “light” time after time and the end result is poor service and progress for our City’s residents. We expect more from our City’s body of governance. We’ll get more when we elect Soren in November. Lastly, English-as-a-second-language constituents have dual-language speakers in their living rooms. The DFL should not be required to provide Spanish to English translation efforts in 2023.
Minneapolis isn’t going to get better anytime soon with either candidate.
Wow, Stevenson gets high marks for his performance as a white savior.
“I’ve had to understand what it means to be a white man shot and the struggle for black liberation.”
I wonder how many times he rehearsed that line? It’s simply another person who is very good at sounding poignant, serious and insightful when they are really just reading from a carefully contrived script.
Minneapolis is spending $92mm to create 43 low income apartments when they could have built 43 multi-million dollar mansions for that price. Maybe before rent control someone could look at all the ways the city is throwing away money without anything meaningful to show for it.
The tent evictions are a big deal. I’d much rather have homeless people be left alone or given housing. The current system is a huge waste of public money that ends up foisting the problem onto Metro Transit.
People wonder why there are so many homeless people on the light rail; it’s because LRT stops / cars are the only place they can stay at that they know the city won’t bulldoze! Solve the homeless issue and the transit safety issue will diminish in tandem.
Jenkins entire worldview was as a “black trans woman”. I never felt as a white, senior male that she was other than for promotion of her own personal agenda. When confronted by constituents she ran from the Council Chamber or refusing to get out of her car, instead referring to the young protesters as “MF’s”. Her mantra in such situations was “I don’t have to put up with this” seemed quite elitist. As a public servant one does have to put up with things like that, and leadership entails turning those moments into a positive. Jenkins did neither.
Use the 92 million build all the barracks you can at Arden Hills, move the homeless there. There is no reason in the world persons should be allowed to sleep in the streets or tent camps in the city. Provide a heated structure, let non profits figure out the rest. Portland is a war zone, Minnesota does not need to go there. Build another at Fort Snelling or alternate south locale.
So your proposal is to um, concentrate the homeless in one location with the only amenity being heated buildings to house them, a camp if you will… Do you also want to erect a gate at the entrance with an inspirational slogan on it? Something about work and freedom perhaps?
Can’t make this stuff up.