Omar’s Vision for a City that Works for Everyone

With Donald Trump back in the Oval Office, the progress towards equity and justice that our communities have worked so hard to create is in jeopardy. Mayor Frey has said that our approach to fighting Trump is extreme — he’s wrong. The only way to stand up to Trump and his posse of unelected billionaires is to create a city that is radically inclusive and stands up for those who are the most at risk. I am running for mayor so we can do that work together.

Vision for Minneapolis

• The City must act as the last line of defense, hand-in-hand with the County and State, as the Federal government wages war on oppressed and vulnerable people.

• Work with immigrant rights organizations and support initiatives aimed at achieving full equality for immigrant residents, including right to legal counsel, support for undocumented students and families in public schools, and establishing clear consequences for Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) officers who violate the city’s separation ordinance. 

• Ensure that events like the Trans Equity Summit are fully funded and prioritized, The current Mayor has underfunded and mismanaged this event, resulting in the cancellation of the 2024 summit.

• Increase funding to services that support housing, safety, and economic justice as LGBTQ+ and BIPOC people are some of the highest at risk for losing their housing, being over-criminalized by MPD, and being harassed by their employer.

• Enact a public-health centered approach to unsheltered homelessness that prioritizes the humanity of those who have the least. This approach is in opposition to the policy shared by the Frey Administration’s and the Trump appointed Supreme Court.

• Work to ensure that Minneapolis remains a safe-haven for people seeking abortions and gender-affirming healthcare. Essential healthcare services like these are under attack from the Federal government.

Housing is a human right, but our City isn’t doing nearly enough to provide safe and affordable housing for all its residents. Every family deserves to have a stable place to call home. Implementing the Minneapolis 2040 Plan, one of the boldest Comprehensive Plans in the country, is essential to creating a more accessible, prosperous, and livable Minneapolis. But we also need to explore new and creative ways of securing adequate housing for all. As Mayor, I will explore every avenue to ensure Minneapolis can be home for everyone who wishes to build their life here. 

Vision for Minneapolis

• Build and maintain public housing at the federally allowed maximum level, and support a dedicated levy to maintain this commitment.

• Enact a rent stabilization policy to ensure that renters can call Minneapolis home for generations to come.

• Establish a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act to ensure that renters have an additional tool to access homeownership.

• Support the Affordable Housing Right of First Refusal ordinance to preserve affordable housing and keep it locally owned, rather than letting it be hoarded by venture capitalists and wealthy developers.

• Increase the supply of affordable housing through direct investment and incentives for new affordable development, by growing investments in programs like the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the 4D program.

• Explore publicly-owned social housing for residents at a variety of income levels.

• Support new housing development to ensure a regularly increasing supply.

I will embrace an approach to homelessness that increases funding for shelters and adopts a compassionate approach to encampments, centering public health and human dignity rather than Mayor Frey’s expensive practice of criminalization. Our City is more than capable of accommodating everyone who wants to call it home; combining strong housing policy with dignity for unsheltered residents is the way we do that. We must embrace a Housing First approach — housing ends homelessness; whenever possible, people should be connected directly to housing.

Vision for Minneapolis

• Prevent rental evictions — the largest contributor to homelessness — by establishing a Just Cause eviction policy.

• Work with the City Council to pass and implement Safe Parking and Safe Outdoor Spaces ordinances grounded in consent and evidence-based practices in which service and health needs are addressed.

• Pivot from the practice of evicting encampments when there is nowhere for residents to go and instead work with other jurisdictions to ensure immediate access to safe alternative locations with increased access to essential services.

• Support a housing-first model to approach homelessness, as has been successful in other jurisdictions like Salt Lake City, in partnership with the County and State.

• Take a public health approach to encampments and ensure that residents have access to life-saving infrastructure like hand-washing stations, portable bathrooms, running water, safe needle disposal programs, and storage for personal belongings.

• Work closely with Hennepin County and the State of Minnesota to build and operate shelters that homeless residents want to live in while we work to get them into housing, investing in successful low-barrier models like Avivo Villages and the Stable Homes Stable Schools program.

• Establish a South Minneapolis tiny homes village.

• Work to establish accessible navigation hubs to connect residents experiencing homelessness with the services they need.

• Establish low-barrier job opportunities for people experiencing homelessness.

Minneapolis residents want a Mayor whose bold and transformative approaches to public safety will end the cycle of the Minneapolis Police Department’s (MPD) violence and brutality that has held our city captive for so many years — I am that Mayor. Once elected, I will implement the numerous existing reforms that our current Mayor has refused to attempt, including the actions outlined in both consent decrees as well as funding for public safety solutions that supplement traditional policing. 

Vision for Minneapolis

• Implement the reforms outlined in the State and Federal Consent Decrees without hesitation.

• Invest in upstream solutions to reduce crime that results from poverty, and lacking access to mental healthcare, housing, and public spaces.

• Implement the Safe and Thriving Communities Plan, an existing, actionable City policy that Mayor Frey has yet to implement. 

• Prioritize more effective MPD recruitment strategies rather than costly and inflated recruitment bonuses.

• Invest in programs that ensure the appropriate responders come when we call 911. Over 47% of calls to MPD can be diverted to non-police responders. 

• Invest in a well-functioning Civil Rights Department and independent oversight of MPD. Our residents should trust that we are doing everything we can to build a lawful and trustworthy police force.

• Work with every level of government to reduce recidivism rates, particularly among young people, by investing in youth programming and targeted diversion programs for the most at-risk youth.

• Expand the Behavioral Crisis Response (BCR) program which has successfully provided alternative responses to armed officers.

• Increase investment in other departments under the Office of Community Safety like the Fire Department, 911, Neighborhood Safety Department, and Emergency Management.

• Address the systemic mismanagement within the Neighborhood Safety Department which has undermined unarmed public safety response.

• Work to eliminate the backlog of unsolved police investigations. In our city, every victim and survivor deserves to get answers.

• Increase interdepartmental communication to ensure a more efficient public safety response.

• Expand the City’s Community Safety Ambassador Program to the City’s seven Cultural Districts.

I am passionately pro-labor and pro-union. Every Minneapolis worker deserves a fulfilling job and to be treated with respect. For too long, our city’s wealthy corporations and big business owners have enriched themselves on the backs of hard-working employees who often aren’t compensated fairly or treated humanely. I will champion any efforts to balance the uneven power dynamic between employers and employees.

Vision for Minneapolis

• Support the Labor Standards Board, a popular initiative the City Council approved that was vetoed by the Mayor.

• Work with the City Council to pass fair scheduling policies.

• Fund further co-enforcement to hold employers accountable for workplace abuse, wage theft, earned sick and safe time violations, and other illegal labor practices. 

• Support efforts to increase the Minneapolis minimum wage. 

Vision for City of Minneapolis Employees

• Institute a ratio for the highest to lowest paid employees in the City of Minneapolis, ending the current practice of exorbitant salaries for management while the frontline employees continue to fall behind.

• Work collaboratively with the unions representing City employees to ensure workers get fair contracts.

• Establish a labor-relations framework that prioritizes treating all City employees with fairness and dignity, especially throughout the bargaining process.

• Overhaul the Human Resources Department so that every City employee can trust that their complaints and concerns are taken seriously and addressed quickly. It is unacceptable that the rate of HR complaints has increased significantly under Mayor Frey’s tenure — this is not something to be proud of.

• Appropriately fund employee resource groups to recruit, retain, and support a diverse workforce.

Every Minneapolis resident has the right to breathe clean air, use sustainable transportation, and enjoy our natural resources regardless of their race, income, age, or ability. Fighting climate change is a global problem that we must tackle locally. Our most marginalized residents face the worst impacts of climate change. As Mayor, I’ll make sure our efforts to build climate resilience prioritize those who’ve been left behind, first.

Vision for Minneapolis

• Implement the carbon fees passed by the City Council.

• Increase investment in the City’s Climate Legacy Initiative to make desperately needed investments in building a climate resilient city.

• Invest in zero-waste initiatives to reduce the city’s waste stream and support the responsible closure of the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC) incinerator.

• Invest in the weatherization of all homes in Minneapolis, prioritizing aging rental housing first.

• Work in partnership with the County and State to create permanent indoor space for public use during extreme weather events, like extreme heat, extreme cold, and poor air quality.

• Center historically marginalized communities, like the Northside and Southside Green Zones, in the City’s climate resiliency decision-making.

• Support large-scale environmental-justice initiatives that will restore city cohesion and empower minority communities like the Twin Cities Boulevard project and Bring Back 6th.

• Invest in programs that prioritize the transition of the City’s vehicle fleet to electric vehicles.

We need to invest in a city that includes everyone and connects us to each other. We should all be able to move through the city safely and affordably whether walking, biking, rolling, using transit, or by car. As Mayor, I will invest in physical and social infrastructure to heal harmed communities, meet our ambitious climate goals, and foster a sense of security.

Vision for Minneapolis

• Work to implement nation-leading, visionary policies like the City’s Transportation Action Plan, and Complete Streets and Vision Zero policies across the entire city.

• Address the backlog of neighborhood traffic calming requests, and improve safety by implementing calming measures along transit stops, schools, parks, and shopping centers.

• Implement 24-hour bus lanes on Hennepin Avenue South — a major step forward for sustainable transportation passed by City Council but vetoed by the Mayor.

• Support the community’s vision for George Floyd Square, ensuring the option of a pedestrian mall, while supporting the needs of surrounding residents and businesses.

• Work in partnership with Metro Transit to build more and better bus shelters that are maintained for all seasons.

• Utilize the City’s authority on signal prioritization to benefit public transportation options like bus and light rail.

• Invest in public spaces including public seating, public bathrooms, and indoor spaces.

• Explore expanding public ownership of housing and commercial space.

• Support the municipal sidewalk shoveling efforts being led by the City Council, starting with the pedestrian priority network.

• Remove unnecessary fencing blocking residents from public spaces and walkways.

• Study options for reducing freeway and roadway mileage within city limits.

• Improve street lighting in commercial corridors and on neighborhood streets, while prioritizing reducing light pollution.

• Establish a Transit Safety Coordinator that will work with my Administration, the City Council, and Metro Transit to increase the safety of our transit network.

So much of our city’s joy, character, and economic opportunities are created by our beloved small businesses. To restore the promise of self-employment, rejuvenate our local economy, and increase upward mobility, Minneapolis needs to become a leader in cultivating and supporting homegrown businesses. Unfortunately, too many politicians believe the only way to support business owners is to reward those that have already succeeded. I will work tirelessly to extend stability and new opportunities to all. My plan for flourishing commercial corridors seeks to make the City an active partner in building a vibrant local economy.

Vision for Minneapolis

• Establish a City Office of Small Business Success, which will act as a clearinghouse for small business services, feedback, linguistic support, and issue resolution — a place where business owners can turn when they need support navigating City bureaucracy, or if they are seeking help in hard times.

• Explore and implement a commercial vacancy tax to address vacant storefronts.

• Build on initiatives like the Vibrant Storefronts initiative and expand the City’s role as a facilitator of new business formation by partnering with owners of neglected or under-utilized commercial spaces in key districts such as Uptown and Downtown. 

• Establish dedicated loans and grants for businesses facing hardship during construction projects to prevent the displacement of existing local entrepreneurs, as piloted by the City Council.

• Lead in accordance with the reality that the best business climate is one in which all city residents have their basic needs met.

• Invest ongoing resources to successful programs that stimulate local entrepreneurship. This includes programs like the City’s Ownership and Opportunity Fund, which allows local business owners to purchase their storefronts; zero- and low-interest loans — often known as ‘halal loans’; and technical assistance grants.

It is imperative that we grow Minneapolis’ tax base to reduce the burden the property tax levy has on working families. Our residents deserve excellent City services and we have to ensure the City has the revenue needed to deliver on our shared vision. We need to look at creative solutions that prioritize the sustainable growth of our city.

Vision for Minneapolis

• Lobby the State of Minnesota to allow the City of Minneapolis to institute a local option income tax to ensure the wealthy pay their fair share.

• Work with the Minnesota Department of Revenue and Hennepin County to ensure residents are educated on existing property tax relief programs.

• Explore opportunities for public development and ownership that could increase the tax base while ensuring a broadly beneficial use of space.

• Explore creative solutions like a commercial vacancy tax to address vacant storefronts and a land value tax to incentivize development of underutilized parcels. 

• Incentivize converting vacant commercial buildings into residential housing with City support for development that prioritizes affordable housing and public benefit.

• Take a direct hand in stewarding the revitalization of downtown by leveraging public spaces, including considering the purchase of distressed properties.

• Protect taxpayer dollars by avoiding unaffordable subsidies for private, for-profit facilities, like stadiums, arenas, and convention centers.

While education is one of the most important issues to residents of Minneapolis, it is important to note that the Mayor and City have no direct control over this issue. I believe that equitable and affordable access to public education is a human right and I will use the power of the City to work closely with Minneapolis Public Schools and the State of Minnesota to improve resources and outcomes for our students.

Vision for Minneapolis

• Expand the Stable Homes Stable Schools program even further than the City Council already has to ensure that no child goes without a home.

• Use the power of the City to lobby for increased funding for Minneapolis Public Schools.

• Work with the City Council to pass a moratorium on new Charter Schools in Minneapolis.

• Work with partners at Minneapolis Public Schools and the State of Minnesota to invest in daycare and early childhood education to start our children on a path to success. When all of us have universal access to public education, we can uplift our community and support learning as a lifelong pursuit.

• Increase funding for free city leisure services and work with the Minneapolis Park Board to expand youth programming at every age.

• Expand the School Based Clinics program that provides integrated and holistic health services to high school students.