Roper: Stakes are too high for City Council’s performative politics over hotel liquor licenses

Sign up here to follow this column by email.

Leave it to the Minneapolis City Council’s progressive majority to turn a federal invasion of the city into a cudgel against businesses that didn’t join the resistance.

Responding to activist pressure, the council’s left wing is scrutinizing the liquor license renewals of two hotels that allegedly housed ICE agents during the immigration surge. The council plans to take a final vote Thursday.

This isn’t just about some hotel bars. One of the licenses is for the Depot in downtown Minneapolis, a massive event venue that draws a steady stream of visitors to the city’s core. Yanking its license would be an extraordinary own goal for a city that’s already in an economic crisis.

It could take years to recover from ICE’s devastating intrusion into the city. City leaders have been begging people around the country to visit and help revive the economy.

Yet, progressives on the council, in an ironic bit of performative politics, seem keen on kneecapping the very places those visitors would stay.

I actually suspect the full council is going to renew the licenses, because there is scant evidence to justify otherwise. But the episode has revealed a worrisome willingness among some elected leaders to effectively hold hotels in contempt for their guests’ employers.

Hotels have found themselves in a tough spot during the immigration surge, with protesters holding nighttime demonstrations at businesses suspected of housing ICE agents. Protesters targeted the Renaissance and Canopy hotels in January, resulting in vandalism at the Depot — and 30 arrests.

This “no sleep for ICE” effort then spawned a “no drinks for ICE” rallying cry, in which activists beckoned people to deluge City Hall with demands to withhold the liquor licenses.

The council voted in early February to delay the two renewals — which staff had recommended approving — and receive public comment. On Tuesday, several union representatives with Unite Here Local 17 union testified about hotel workers’ concerns with ICE staying in their facilities.

Hotel workers are understandably anxious and fearful about ICE agents being stationed in their workplace. But as a city licensing staffer explained during a lengthy council discussion, she hadn’t seen anything that would warrant denying liquor licenses.

This being a performance, however, the progressives insisted that the show must go on. They wanted city staff (who are quite busy these days) to spend more time investigating the matter and report back in early March. Surely, they’d find something to bludgeon these businesses with.

Council Member Aisha Chughtai couldn’t fathom how keeping these businesses under a microscope longer would be a problem for them. She dismissed claims from another council member that the hotels were losing business because of this effort.

“I’m not hearing what the negative impact of affording someone due process is,” Chughtai said after a testy exchange with a city attorney, who advised the city could face legal risk for putting a “cloud” on the license.

Council Member Latrisha Vetaw said there were consequences to drawing out the process.

“We’re having a very public conversation about two businesses,” Vetaw said. “What we say up here on this dais, what we say in the media, what we say on our social media pages, definitely affects businesses.”

Thankfully, the attempt to keep this “due process” going for another two weeks failed by one vote.

But optics matter a lot these days when the city is going to a divided Legislature, hat in hand, seeking recovery help. Our leaders need to hold it together and not bend to the whims of every activist campaign that lands on their doorstep.