Better Minneapolis Podcast

Minneapolis is at an inflection point. To resuscitate this city, residents, elected officials, and business leaders must reckon with what the numbers are telling us. The Jobs Report Job seekers and stock traders alike watch the federal jobs report. On Friday, April 3, the latest report was released and there are several items that should concern anyone invested in the Twin Cities. Axios reported t...

There is a trust deficit on the Minneapolis City Council. Relationships are strained or nonexistent, and this council has only been in place for a few months. These internal disputes are one obstacle. Communication gaps and differing priorities between the council and the mayor add another layer of complexity. Veto of Pre-Eviction Notice Sustained By a 7–6 vote at the March 26 City Council meeting...

Council members, to their credit, bring notable dedication and stamina to the role. The Committee of the Whole meeting on March 24 began at 9:30 a.m. and was still going when we left for our subscriber Happy Hour at 4 p.m. Thank you to everyone who joined us. It was a lively conversation, ranging from city policy to whether meat raffle prize limits should finally be tied to inflation. We’ll see wh...

It increasingly feels like, instead of working together on city priorities, our elected officials are creating Instagram content about their positions. The City Oscars Operation Metro Surge changed the city in many ways, few of them beneficial. City council members took to the streets as on-the-scene reporters, documenting ICE activity along with their reactions and commentary. At times, it felt l...

Uptown has long been one of Minneapolis’s most recognizable neighborhoods. For decades it was a destination for restaurants, music, shopping, and nightlife. But like much of the city, the area has struggled in recent years with vacant storefronts, declining foot traffic, and ongoing debates about public safety and street conditions. In this week’s interview, we spoke with Kevin Norman , founder of...

Solidarity Is Fragile At a rally marking International Women’s Day on Sunday, March 9, Minneapolis activist Nekima Levy Armstrong delivered a speech that highlighted a growing tension within Minnesota’s Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party. Her remarks reflect a broader debate in progressive politics: how movements balance calls for solidarity with strict expectations about identity and privilege. The ci...

Event: We’d like to have a Happy Hour with paid subscribers on March 19. Email terry@betterminneapolis.com if you are interested and able to attend. Trust in public institutions is built on results. When residents are asked to fund government programs through their taxes, they expect competent management and measurable outcomes. Too often in Minneapolis and across Minnesota, that confidence is wea...

Interview Overview In this wide-ranging interview, longtime prosecutor Diane Krenz outlines her bid for Hennepin County Attorney after more than four decades in the office. She argues the office has drifted from its core mission and calls for a renewed focus on prosecuting repeat offenders, strengthening relationships with law enforcement, and prioritizing victims’ rights. We discussed diversion p...

On Friday, Minnesota released updated budget projections , and at first glance, they looked surprisingly strong. For FY 2026–27, the state is projecting a $3.7 billion surplus, $1.3 billion more than estimated in November. That surplus provides breathing room. But it doesn’t erase the underlying concerns. Even with the short-term cushion, Minnesota still faces a structural imbalance, with spending...

We last interviewed Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette in August 2024. At that time, he was focused on improving coordination among Police, Fire, 911, Emergency Management, and Neighborhood Safety, while strengthening internal processes and building out the Neighborhood Safety Department. Recruitment for the Minneapolis Police Department and launching the Lake Street Community Safety Cent...

Competence rarely goes viral. It does not dominate headlines or trend online. But steady, smart governance is what allows cities and states to function, and voters tend to notice when it disappears. In Minnesota, Operation Metro Surge may carry long-term political consequences for Republicans. While the goal may have been short-term gains, the tactics used have likely deepened resistance in a stat...

The Minneapolis City Council suspended its regular committee meetings on January 26, citing “ongoing community needs” related to the presence of federal immigration agents in the city. Since then, the Committee of the Whole has wrestled with whether to withhold liquor license approvals for two downtown hotels — Canopy by Hilton and the Depot Minneapolis, a Renaissance hotel. At issue is whether th...

Note: We are featuring photos of New Mexico in this issue. Frank Spring is based there, and we lived in the state for five years after college. Los Alamos is the birthplace of the atomic bomb. The New York Times recently published an article about New Mexico’s fight with the U.S. Department of Energy over cleaning up radioactive waste that still sits in massive pools dating back to the 1940s. It’s...

It would have been fitting if the monks who walked from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., to promote peace had been able to stop in Minneapolis along the way. Governor Tim Walz has said he believes ICE agents will be leaving the state within days. If that proves true, the Minnesota left behind after Operation Metro Surge will be markedly different from the one federal immigration agents firs...

The tragedy unfolding in Minnesota as a result of overzealous immigration enforcement has, for now, strengthened the Democratic Party. Moderate and more left-leaning factions have united in opposition to government overreach and illegal ICE tactics. However, turning this unity into electoral success will require vigilance around a familiar vulnerability: fraud. Republicans will use it aggressively...

The Minneapolis small business community, particularly its restaurants, is feeling the effects of Operation Metro Surge. While immigrant-owned businesses along Lake Street appear to be facing the sharpest downturn, with the Lake Street Council estimating that 50% of the 1,652 businesses have closed in the last two months, restaurants and small businesses across the city are also being impacted. Th...

Spectacle of Spectacles Super Bowl LX, between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots on Sunday, will likely generate debate about the presence and tactics of ICE in Minnesota. The National Football League typically tries to keep politics separate from its enormously profitable game, but that became unavoidable when it chose Bad Bunny as its halftime performer. On Sunday, February 1, th...

Staying Put Despite ICE A friend texted me last week to say he could see Mark Zuckerberg’s 387-foot yacht, Launchpad , from his hotel room in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Part of me wished I were there, too, far away from the arbitrary searches and the violence that have become familiar sights on the streets of Minneapolis. But he was writing to ask what was happening here in Minneapolis. And that qu...

Trump Reacts to Unflattering Polls Despite the recent departure of Commander Bovino, Minnesota continues to contend with an oversized contingent of ICE agents moving through our streets and confronting residents. Community watch groups and mutual aid efforts have not slowed, and it remains unclear how long Minnesotans will be forced to live in this state of heightened vigilance. Democrats must ens...

Optimism Is Hard to Come By January 25, 2026 · 4:36 p.m. It feels important to note the exact day and time of this writing. Life in Minneapolis has been a whirlwind. As recently as Friday, many of us were feeling hopeful. The day began with more than 100 clergy members from across the country being arrested at the airport. They had gathered to protest deportation flights and the detention of airpo...

Introduction The first question Cedric asked when we met was, “How are you doing with everything that’s going on?” I told him I felt scattered, and, like many people, I was having difficulty concentrating. Neither of us knew when we recorded this interview that, two days later, 37-year-old Alex Pretti would be shot and killed by ICE agents just a block from the Speak MPLS studio where we were sitt...

Democrats, both nationally and here in Minnesota, have a long-standing tendency to divide and conquer themselves. That dynamic is once again on display in the debate over immigration enforcement, where slogans like “Abolish ICE” are embraced by some and viewed by others as politically damaging, especially with midterms approaching. This tension surfaced locally on Tuesday, when Brooklyn Park Polic...

Some online commentators have mocked Gov. Tim Walz for calling Minnesota an “island of decency” and urging people to “protect each other.” Many on the left believe Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey should be doing more to confront the federal government, arguing that strong statements and aggressive tweets are not enough. Social media has been filled with videos demanding that Frey and Walz “g...

Introduction As we were preparing this interview, several U.S. attorneys in Minnesota’s federal prosecutor’s office unexpectedly resigned, including First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, the lead prosecutor in the high-profile human services fraud cases. Their departures came amid internal disputes over how the office should handle the federal investigation into the killing of Minneapolis re...

Francis Shen Interview Summary In this wide-ranging interview, Francis Shen introduces himself as a nontraditional candidate for Hennepin County Attorney, grounded less in courtroom litigation and more in systems thinking, neuroscience, and innovation. Raised in a Catholic family with roots in both Chinese and Irish heritage, Shen traces his path from Jesuit education to the University of Chicago...