Wedge LIVE!

John has a conversation with Paul Ostrow, candidate for Hennepin County Attorney. Paul is a former Minneapolis City Council member and currently works as an Assistant Anoka County Attorney. Paul Ostrow's campaign website: https://ostrowforhennepin.com Watch this episode and view other clips: youtube.com/wedgelive Join the conversation: twitter.com/wedgelive Support the show: patreon.com/wedgelive...

John and Jason start by reviewing Mayor Jacob Frey's job performance in the wake of Minneapolis police killing Amir Locke in a no-knock raid. Then they move on to a conversation about the state of MPD, the latest on the Hennepin Avenue reconstruction, John's appearance in the faith-based animal magazine All Creatures, and more. Watch this episode and view other clips: youtube.com/wedgelive Join th...

John is joined by co-host Jason Garcia for a conversation about Amir Locke and police accountability with Minneapolis City Council member Aisha Chughtai. Watch this episode and view other clips: youtube.com/wedgelive Join the conversation: twitter.com/wedgelive Support the show: patreon.com/wedgelive Wedge LIVE theme song by Anthony Kasper x LaFontsee

John has a conversation with Adam Wysopal, a man with zoning concerns about a Burger King drive thru in his backyard (NBKIMBY). If you'd like to join Adam's zoning fight against Burger King, he's written an explainer document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W5u2vnvxVrsXOeGL4eoIbON-umwsDOlyxfLdjSU02nw Thumbnail photo credit: Andrew Hazzard. You can read his 2020 coverage of the drive-thru saga...

John has a conversation with Ryan Winkler, MN House Majority Leader and a candidate for Hennepin County Attorney. Ryan Winkler's campaign website: ryanwinkler.com Registration for the February 1 caucus is happening right now. For information on how to participate -- and to access contactless/non-attendee forms -- Hennepin County residents should visit caucus.dfl.org and Minneapolis residents shoul...

John has a conversation with Simon Trautmann, a member of the Richfield City Council and a candidate for Hennepin County Attorney. Simon Trautmann's campaign website: simonforcountyattorney.com Registration for the February 1 caucus is happening right now. For information on how to participate -- and to access contactless/non-attendee forms -- Hennepin County residents should visit caucus.dfl.org...

John is joined by Senate District 61 Vice Chair Deborah Copperud and Minneapolis DFL digital maestro Conrad Zbikowski for a conversation about the upcoming DFL caucuses (register today!). There's a number of local and state races on the ballot this year: Hennepin County's top prosecutor, sheriff, county commissioner, school board, state house and senate. This year, like last year, is easier than a...

John has a conversation with Mary Moriarty, former Chief Public Defender in Hennepin County, who is currently running for County Attorney. Mary Moriarty's campaign website: www.maryforhennepin.com Registration for the February 1 caucus is happening right now. For information on how to participate -- and to access contactless/non-attendee forms -- Hennepin County residents should visit caucus.dfl.o...

John has a conversation with Saraswati Singh, currently a Ramsey County prosecutor, who is running for Hennepin County Attorney. Saraswati Singh's campaign website: saraswatisingh.com Registration for the February 1 caucus is happening right now. For information on how to participate -- and to access contactless/non-attendee forms -- Hennepin County residents should visit caucus.dfl.org and Minnea...

John is joined by Melody Hoffman of the local news upstart Southwest Voices (SWV). We kick off the show with an ill-advised detour into parking statistics on Hennepin Avenue. We talk about the history of Wedge LIVE, Melody's deep and extremely well-placed admiration for John's contribution to the local news landscape--and how Melody might live up to that as a founding editor of SWV. How should we...

John is joined by PeggySue Imihy (city planner) and Jonathan Ahn (transit consultant) for a conversation about transit in the Twin Cities. First, we try to answer a philosophical question inspired by Linden Hills: Can trees and bus stations co-exist? We talk about the City of Minneapolis' plan to reallocate space for transit, pedestrians and bikes on Hennepin Avenue -- and the resulting uproar ove...

A special episode your host hopes you're too busy to listen to, intentionally scheduled for the week between Christmas and New Year's. John is joined by Jason Garcia and Taylor Dahlin for a rehash of the biggest story of 2021 that you didn't want to be reminded of: the bizarre rise and fall of Mickey Moore's campaign for Minneapolis City Council in Ward 9. Join the conversation: twitter.com/wedgel...

John is joined by Elissa Schufman and Jason Garcia for a special holiday episode. Elissa takes us through some end of year reflections. Jason gives their naughty and nice list. We name our "persons of the year," make resolutions for 2022, offer book and movie recommendations, and consider the meaning of Chief Arradondo's exit. And much, much more. Join the conversation: twitter.com/wedgelive Suppo...

John is joined by redistricting enthusiast Josh Martin for a conversation about redrawing political boundaries in Minneapolis. It's a process that happens every ten years, and it's already underway for City Council and Park Board. Based on data from the 2020 census, the ideal City Council ward should have a population of 33,073.38. The city's most populous ward -- Ward 3 -- currently has a populat...

With two weeks to gather his thoughts and recover from a November 2 gut punch, John is joined by Jason Garcia for a wide ranging conversation about the state of Minneapolis politics heading into 2022. John feels bad. Jason feels less bad. It's unclear if this makes things better or worse: we're less than a year from people ramping up city council campaigns for the 2023 election. 2022 gives us a ch...

John has a conversation with David Wheeler, who's running for Minneapolis Council in Ward 10. What's David's closing argument in the final days of the election? How does electing David Wheeler help fix our city's problems? What role does he see for himself on the city council with regard to public safety? David is against Question 2 on the ballot (the public safety charter amendment), so John asks...

John has a conversation with Andrea Larson, former deputy city coordinator with the city of Minneapolis. Andrea spent six years in the city coordinator's office, and has overseen teams working to develop alternatives to traditional police response. This is work that began at City Council direction in the years prior to George Floyd's murder. The planning work is well underway, and includes the 911...

John is joined by co-host Elissa Schufman for a conversation with Naomi Kritzer, noted local election profiler and award-winning author. We talk about why Naomi got into writing about elections, her most and least favorite candidates over the years, if she has any candidate endorsement regrets, how scam candidate Mickey Moore actually got much weirder than the last time he ran for office. Somehow...

John is joined by Lisa Bender, President of the Minneapolis City Council, as she enters the twilight of her Council career. We talk about how she feels going into the final week of the city election, public safety, the strong mayor charter amendment, what's next for housing and transportation policy, what it's been like to push department staff to develop a new policy, her hopes and fears for the...

John is joined by co-host Josh Martin. We begin the show with breaking news (as of last Friday when this was recorded) of the Star Tribune editorial board withdrawing their Mickey Moore endorsement. Then a conversation about Question 1 (aka mayoral control or "strong mayor") with former Minneapolis City Council President Paul Ostrow. Paul is somewhat unusual among question 1 supporters in that he...

John's guest is David Fey from Faith in Minnesota. David served as Deputy Mayor during RT Rybak's first term beginning in 2002. Speaking from his experience in Minneapolis City Hall, David explains why he's telling people to vote no on ballot question 1, which would shift control over the city's non-police departments to the mayor. John expresses his ongoing confusion over why the Charter Commissi...

John and co-host Elissa Schufman (@schufman) have a conversation with ranked choice voting enthusiast Todd Schuman. Is there ever a good reason to not rank every slot on your ballot? Why do we only get three choices for the three Park Board at-large seats (as opposed to three for each seat)? What is a spoiled ballot? How does ranked choice voting work? Why does Todd's last name have an "f" while E...

John begins by scolding co-host Jason Garcia for failing to prevent audio disaster in the previous epside. Then we have an extended conversation with Robin Wonsley Worlobah, who is running for Minneapolis City Council in Ward 2. We talk about public safety, the "strong mayor" proposal, and answer the question: how long is too long for a podcast episode? What is Robin learning in her conversations...

This episode took a lot of work to salvage. John screwed up his audio and had to re-record. So you'll be hearing John's voice, as it was recorded on the day of this conversation, as well as some re-recorded voiceover from a week and a half later. Please don't be confused. I apologize to Jono Cowgill, President of the Minneapolis Park Board. You should absolutely vote for Jono, even if you can't en...

John's guest is Cam Gordon, who represents Ward 2 on the Minneapolis City Council. First, we get Cam's reaction to the recent legal back and forth over the public safety charter amendment (this episode was recorded before the Minnesota Supreme Court's decision to allow voters to decide Question 2). John asks how Cam assesses the quality of the advice the City Council receives from the City Attorne...