Mayor Frey's state of the city: Minneapolis 'is coming back’
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey struck an optimistic tone in his state of the city address which he delivered in person Thursday for the first time since 2019.
Frey highlighted public and private efforts to revitalize underdeveloped corridors of the city, to increase the supply of affordable housing and he touted dropping violent crime as evidence that Minneapolis is rebounding.
“This is an optimistic speech,” said Frey. “The city is coming back.”
The mayor delivered the speech in the city’s Bryn Mawr neighborhood near a new development by Wellington Management that will include 187 new homes.
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Frey ticked through a number of projects in the works which are part of what he says is the city’s ‘historic’ investment in affordable housing since he took office in 2018.
Minneapolis was hit hard in 2020 by the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unrest which followed the murder of George Floyd by a police officer. City officials say around 1,300 businesses were damaged in nighttime rioting and looting which often followed peaceful protests during daylight hours.
The city also faced spikes in violent crime in 2020 and in 2021 — when the homicide rate nearly reached the record set in the mid 1990s. The city’s police force dwindled as well, shrinking by several hundred.
The number of officers has not rebounded to pre-2020 levels but crime in the city has been on a downward trend. According to the latest figures from the city, between Jan. 1 and May 1 of this year the number of homicides, robberies, carjackings, gunshot victims and shootings are down significantly compared to the same period last year.
Frey attributed some of the drop to the city’s “data driven” and “multi-jurisdictional” approach to combating violence. The city has been cooperating with state, county and federal law enforcement agencies under a program called “Operation Endeavor.”
Frey also said that while the city’s downtown corridor is coming back to life, many people who work in that part of the city haven’t returned.
“It doesn’t look like 100 percent of people going to an office five days a week,” he said. “With remote or hybrid work, for many, that’s a thing of the past.”
Frey pitched the idea that workers make an effort to come into the office Tuesday through Thursday in order to take advantage of the entertainment options available downtown.
“By the way, there is no better place in the world than downtown Minneapolis on a Thursday afternoon and evening in the summer,” said Frey.