Mill City Hall: Minneapolis politics, slightly ground down

Did you know the city council basically cannot ensure that allocated money is spent on the thing for which it was allocated? The city council ended 2025 with a flurry of action, often revealing a power struggle between the lines. We start with the continued federal campaign of aggression against our immigrant neighbors and the now-rewritten immigration separation ordinance. The budget passed with last minute negoti...

With a Dec 18 town hall coming up, the Zero Burn Coalition is building momentum to close the HERC, a garbage burner that burns almost half of our trash and pollutes the air. Consensus is emerging to shutter this source of environmental injustice, but county staff have pushed back against real deadlines. Our own Cam Gordon is a member of the Coalition, and he and Robin Garwood worked on zero waste plans for the city...

How did Jacob Frey go from pledges to collaborate with the city council and end homelessness to seemingly endless trench warfare with the council majority and rinse-and-repeat encampent sweeps? In this second part of two, we continue to tell the story of Jacob Frey, starting with the crisis following the murder of George Floyd. Recorded 10/08/25.

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How did Jacob Frey go from pledges to collaborate with the city council and end homelessness to seemingly endless trench warfare with the council majority and rinse-and-repeat encampent sweeps? We attempt to tell the story of Jacob Frey, from running enthusiast to candidate to city councilmember to mayor to successful disaster. Recorded 10/08/25.

Read the show notes and find links for further readin...

Two less-visible boards are up for election in November, and there is a lot more change brewing than you might think. The Park Board could see a dramatic change in composition, with a lot of labor- and youth-fueled energy in a bunch of races. Meanwhile the Board of Estimate and Taxation has on the table an actual policy idea of substance and contention. We walk through the key races and candidates, and introduce wh...

Trump has marched an invasion of ICE and national guard into major cities, and his administration is promising that all so-called Democrat-run cities are on the target list. Minneapolis urgently needs to answer questions that only appeared on the horizon when we saw federal agents raid a business on Lake Street in June. What is the nature of this threat? How are politicians and regular people reacting in Los Angele...

This bonus episode is the full interview Jesse did with his old friend, Frank. They talked about his experiences of homelessness and mental illness, and his reactions to recent dehumanizing rhetoric from local and national politicians. We previously featured clips from this interview in our 8/27/25 episode. Recorded 8/23/25.

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In 2017, candidate Jacob Frey promised to end homelessness in five years. By 2023, he was instead crushing encampments and endorsing dehumanizing rhetoric about people experiencing homelessness and mental illness. In 2025, Donald Trump is marching the military into major cities and bragging about sweeping out unhoused people. How did we get here? We are joined by Flannery Clark, volunteer with the Sanctuary Supply ...

A minor obsession over political labels has broken out this year, with the Frey faction painting a picture of DSA extremists versus pragmatic progressive champions. But what do these labels really reveal, or hide? And what is conservativism, anyway? We dive in to explore this idea with inspiration from Corey Robin, author of The Reactionary Mind. Recorded 8/6/25.

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We break down the historic result from the DFL city convention last weekend: the endorsement of Sen. Omar Fateh for Mayor. What made this possible, when almost everybody (including us) was predicting an outcome of no endorsement? We were joined by angela olson, who participated as a delegate, to share a direct account of what it felt like on the floor. Stick around for the second half, when we dive into the questio...

With the DFL city convention right around the corner, what should we expect a mayor to champion? What challenges face the people of Minneapolis in 2025? How are these campaigns talking about public policy responses to those challenges, and what policies should WE be talking about? In this in-depth episode, we walk through a number of major policy areas: public safety, federal fascism, housing, climate change, trans...

On election night, will we see the progressive wing of the council increase to a majority of 8 members, or drop to a minority of 5? With three open seats and three incumbents in real contests, there is a lot at stake. We look at how policy divisions have played out under the current council to provide a sense of what could change if elections swing the balance. And we go race-by-race through the six wards where we ...

With unprecendented big money pouring into a full slate of city elections, we assess the Minneapolis political landscape, with special guest Robin Garwood. This episode features a deep dive on new phenomenon of political action committees acting as stealth political parties. In this context we ask the question: what could lead to the mayor getting re-elected or defeated?

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