Website: www. jackiecherryhomesformayor.com

Party: DFL

Occupation: Founder of Cherryhomes-Tyler Inc., a consulting and lobbying company that represents nonprofit and corporate clients, including those with business before the city. Served on the City Council from 1990 through 2001, eight of those years as council president.

Education:

  • Cherryhomes plans to have a member of her office serve as a liaison to the school district and has said she wants to use the mayor's "bully pulpit" to improve education and close the achievement gap.

Development:

  • Cherryhomes spearheaded significant development downtown during her years as City Council president in the 1990s and has since gone on to serve as a consultant and lobbyist for developers doing business in Minneapolis. Developers are also a major source of her campaign funding.
  • She says that she would develop a jobs and economic development revolving loan fund, create incentives for companies that create and retain jobs for Minneapolis workers, and use those programs to recruit companies to under-employed areas. She wants to use more incentives to bring in companies to film locally, and would develop the surface parking lots downtown.
  • Cherryhomes also wants to create a fast track for small business permits and streamline permitting.
  • Additionally, Cherryhomes has championed urban food gardens and said that her father's biggest frustration working with communities on community gardens was that they could not get ahold of vacant lots for permanent gardens. She said that when her father died eight years ago, she promised him that if she did nothing else, "I would figure out how to get those lots free."

Transit:

  • She'd like to create more bike routes and enhance pedestrian safety. Cherryhomes has acknowledged that she drives more than she'd like to and wants to invest in public transportation so that people don't need their cars so much.
  • Cherryhomes proposes creating a street fund with a 1 cent sales tax per gallon of gasoline sold in the city to repair road surfaces at least every 20 years.

Public Safety:

  • Cherryhomes would bring back the Civilian Police Review Board and place more police cameras in higher-crime areas. She would create a zero tolerance program in downtown entertainment areas and overhaul the licensing fees for businesses and landlords to give discounts to those with fewer incidents and licensing violations and higher charges to those with frequent problems.
  • She'd like to enhance the Community Crime Prevention/SAFE Program at the neighborhood level, and increase email and text outreach of criminal activity alerts.

Taxes:

  • She has said that the city must keep property taxes down, and that increasing taxes has a "major impact" on seniors, young families, and those living on fixed incomes.

Other:

  • Cherryhomes narrowly lost her bid for reelection in 2001 and went on to found her own lobbying and consulting business. She has said that the experience humbled her, that in the years since she has developed "a more patient and open heart." She believes her years representing clients before City Hall have given her a better understanding of how the city can better work with the business community.