Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's Calls for Back to the Basics in 2026 State of the City Address

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In this year's state of the city address, and budget process kick-off, the Mayor is calling to get back to basics and focusing on a city that "works." 

The focuses on public safety and police spending, housing development and providing financial assistance to developers and support for business. 

In this podcast Jesse and I talk about the speech and wonder how the speech relates to the community response to the federal metro surge, that clearly went beyond the basics, who Frey actually wants th city to work for? Once again race, equity, justice and the environment are largely ignored.

 We also recap the victory at the Charter Commission, which voted to table indefinitely its proposal to further diminish city council authority, along with a bevy of language changes (that ultimately pissed off organized Labor).


May 26, 2026 

 Mayor Frey instructed us to basically get serious in his annual State of the City address. Or to seriously get back to the basics? 

Whatever the case, it was a somewhat jarring call for goverment to do less after Minneapolis communities went above and beyond to push out ICE. 

Cam and Jesse talk through the speech, and ask what a parallel address by a more visionary mayor might have sounded like, in this historic moment. 




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