The Minneapolis mayor talks to Star Tribune reporter Liz Navratil about his second year in office, President Donald Trump, and what's next for the city. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: You're wrapping your second year. How have things changed? How have you changed as a mayor?
A: The professional responsibility as a mayor you largely anticipate. But there are certain things that happen in the job that there is no playbook for. There's no playbook for getting phone calls at 3:30 in the morning that someone has been shot and killed or a building full of low-income residents is on fire. There is no playbook for the emotional toll that running a city takes not just on a professional life but also on your personal life. As mayor, you experience acutely both the joys and the trauma of a city. And that's tough. And so over the last couple years, having those experiences has made me a better mayor, has made me a better person. And going to the next two years, I feel we're stacked full of momentum.
Q: So going into 2020, what do you want to do with that momentum? What will your biggest priorities be?
A: I'm proud to say that the things that I promised when I was campaigning for office are happening. We promised heavy investment in affordable housing. We promised record production of deeply affordable and low-income housing units. We've done that. We've got a new program that is innovative and groundbreaking in Stable Homes, Stable Schools, in which just in the first six months or so, we have 600 people that are being helped by the program and 457 people that either were homeless or were on the verge of experiencing homelessness now have stability both at their home and in the classroom. We promised to push for beautifully diverse neighborhoods in every sense of the word and passed a groundbreaking comprehensive plan, a first in the nation. That's just the area of housing. We promised progress in the areas of economic inclusion, and we've got a commercial property development fund that is allowing communities of color to reap the benefits of economic development when it comes to their neighborhoods that they've made wonderful to begin with. We set up cultural districts that highlight that which sets these wonderful communities apart. In the area of police-community relations, we promised both accountability and transparency, and just to give you one example here, we saw body camera usage go from 55% approximately when I took office to around 95% now.
Q: On affordable housing, that's obviously an issue we keep hearing about. And the city, as you mentioned, is doing more investment in affordable housing, but the city also just passed one of its largest property tax increases in a decade. Is there a contradiction there, and what will you do as mayor to ensure that homeowners can stay in their homes?
A: Property taxes are a regressive tax. They have a disproportionate impact on people of lower incomes and seniors. And we've seen that for years, in fact for decades, the federal government has not put the necessary funding into affordable and public housing … That has caused an undue strain and burden on cities. It's not unique to Minneapolis. We're seeing it all throughout the country. A lot of these more difficult, controversial and at times costly issues get passed to cities, are getting pushed under the rug, and who ends up being the rug? Well, cities. I'm proud, though, that at the same time cities around the country, and particularly Minneapolis, has stepped up to the challenge. We've become a laboratory of democracy, where new and innovative approaches can take place and we've become a city that is willing to grapple with tough and controversial policies and issues when others look the other way. And so these issues of affordable housing and economic inclusion, police-community relations for that matter, these are tough issues, and if you look through the history of our city and our country, you could spend 20 years on these issues and not see a 100% conclusion. But, the data speaks for itself, and we are making clear progress. We have seen over 1,000 units of new, low-income housing in production this year, which is a record.
Q: Some people are wondering, OK, we're investing in affordable housing, but property taxes are also going up for homeowners. So how do you balance that?