Better Minneapolis Podcast

Better Minneapolis doesn’t have an accounting degree and has never created a $1.9 billion city budget. However, we have managed multi-million-dollar budgets, and we’ve learned that you can’t afford everything you want. You may want to give excellent employees a 10% raise, but if the budget isn’t there, you settle for 5%. You may defer hiring or lower a job's pay grade to fit it into your budget. W...

After the Interview On Tuesday, after conducting the interview, Paul Walsh from the Star Tribune reported, “Homeless man charged with setting dumpster fires ‘for fun’ along Lake Street near Uptown.” Since updating their technology, the Star Tribune commenting feature has been unavailable. However, if we had to guess, many residents would be angry about what seems to be a porous justice system. The...

(The below is read as part of the podcast. The interview begins at 7:20. There is also a transcript available by selecting the transcript button.) Introduction This interview was important to us because we wanted to determine for ourselves whether Mr. Velazquez was as problematic as the vocal and belligerent defenders of homeless encampments have made him out to be. We’re at a point in city politi...

Interview Topics This podcast is my 45-minute interview with Mayor Jacob Frey. (Before quoting any sections of the interview, please email for permission.) Of the twenty original questions I’d hoped to ask, I narrowed the field down in the interest of time. Here are the issue we ended up covering: * Keeping perspective * George Floyd square * Social media and the political climate * The Future of...