by Nearly four years after George Floyd’s murder and the burning of the third police precinct, the city wants to rebuild the space for an elections and voter services center.
The council agreed last November that 3000 Minnehaha Avenue will no longer be a police station. The new one will be relocated 3 blocks north as a community safety center.
City operations officers presented a draft plan and the next steps for repurposing the building.
The proposed total space would be 34,000 square feet. Almost a quarter of that would be for community use.
The current location of the voter services center is on East Hennepin Avenue and 10th Street in northeast Minneapolis, and the city says the new location will be more centralized and near transportation.
The city doesn’t actually need approval of the council to continue with the plan, but is asking for a vote to show city leadership is unified in moving forward.
Some council members wanted the site dedicated solely to community use including council member Jason Chavez who represents the ward where the building is located.
“The future of this site will need a lot of community space, and taking away a majority of that space away from them today would only erode more distrust in south Minneapolis,” said Chavez.
Other council members including LaTrisha Vetaw say that a voter services center is community use and it is time to fix the building.
“This is one of the services that we can have in this site, so let’s do it. Let’s get rid of this eyesore in the community,” said Vetaw.
Rachel Boeke is the executive director of the Longfellow Community Council, which is located in the neighborhood of 3000 Minnehaha. They held an outreach session to determine what Longfellow community members wanted for the space.
Through their outreach, the community council found that 94 percent of people in the Longfellow community want it put to a community-determined use.
“Only three percent of respondents said they did want it to be a voter services center,” said Boeke.
A main complaint from many council members and Boeke is that the city did not reach out to Longfellow community members prior to their decision to make the site a voter services center.
“The most important factor is what’s been overlooked time and time again, and that’s community engagement. It needs to be real. It needs to be genuine. Needs to be intentional,” said Boeke.
Elly Carpenter lives in Longfellow and wants the city to prioritize cleaning up the outside of the building. She said that as long as they put something in the space that is a positive environment she would be all for a voter services venter.
After asking Carpenter if she was contacted by the city about future plans for the space, she said there was no effort made by the city to start that conversation.
“I would like to know more about it because in the past I haven’t been as involved with things that would maybe impact our neighborhood and my life,” said Carpenter.
The city council delayed approval of the plan to their meeting on Tuesday, April 23 which will also be available to watch online.
The next steps for 3000 Minnehaha Avenue include a community information session this spring and then a much-needed cleanup of the site this summer.
