💸 4 neighborhood earmarks in the 2025 city budget
The heavily amended budget provides specific funding for a few neighborhood projects in 2025.
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The city council finalized the city’s 2025 budget yesterday, capping several days of back-and-forth drama that included a historic amount of council amendments to the mayor’s budget, the first-ever mayoral veto of a council budget, and the first-ever council override of a mayoral budget veto.
Political intrigue aside, here are a few neighborhood projects specifically funded in the newly minted budget:
1: Safety programming at Lake and Minnehaha
Councilmember Jason Chavez added $150,000 for contracted, non-police safety services focused on the downtown Longfellow area. The money will go to the city’s Neighborhood Safety Department, which was established in 2022 when the city reorganized its police, fire, and violence intervention programs under a new “Office of Community Safety.”
The amendment doesn’t specify how the money will be spent, and instead directs the city's Neighborhood Safety Department to determine the best way to use the funds. The city already contracts for similar programs in other neighborhoods, such as Elliot Park and East Lake Street on the other side of Hiawatha, where nonprofit groups employ unarmed workers as a visible safety presence on the street, in the hopes of de-escalating conflicts and augmenting police presence.
Chavez, who lives in downtown Longfellow, recently established a monthly “Lake and Minnehaha Safety Coalition” with officials, business leaders, and residents in the area. He cited a rise in virtually every category of crime in that area as driving a need for extra eyes on the street.
2: Safety programming at 46th and Hiawatha
Councilmember Aurin Chowdhury pushed through a similar amendment, assigning $150,000 for additional safety personnel around the 46th and Hiawatha area. Like at Lake and Minnehaha, the amendment leaves the specifics to the Neighborhood Safety Department to determine.
Chowdhury, who lives near the intersection, noted the increase in crime livability issues near the intersection in recent years and the “severe need” for more safety presence. She has also formed a "46th and Hiawatha Coalition" to coordinate between officials, business leaders, and residents in the area. A tense meeting at Hiawatha Flats Apartments last month reflected growing frustration with crime in that area.
3: Needle cleanup around 46th and Hiawatha
Chowdhury also earmarked $10,000 to increase needle cleanup around the intersection, adding funding to an existing contract with the nonprofit “A Mother’s Love Initiative” for those services. The group currently responds to requests for needle pick-up that come through the city’s 311 system as well as organizes proactive cleanups.
The amendment will fund more hours of pickup in that area, which Chowdhury says has seen an uptick in open-air drug use and historically “hasn’t seen that type of support.”
4: Latino Center for Community Engagement
Chavez directed $300,000 to the nonprofit COPAL’s Latino Center for Community Engagement project planned at 29th and Lake, the site of the former O’Reilly Auto Parts.
The nonprofit purchased and tore down the long-vacant building in the spring, and plans to begin construction on the $12 million project this summer. As planned, the center would consolidate the nonprofit’s two nearby offices on Lake Street and feature a coffee shop, events center, greenhouse, and soccer field.
No go: Cooper Playground
Chowdhury proposed an amendment asking for $100,000 for the rebuilding of Cooper Playground, but withdrew it during the budget hearing, saying: "Despite exhausting all efforts, I was unfortunately unable to find the pathway forward that was conducive with our financial policies at this time."
The campaign to rebuild the playground has stalled since receiving a $100,000 grant from Hennepin County this summer over questions of who will build and be responsible for the play area at the vacant school. Chowdhury says she plans to continue to push Minneapolis Public School to own and maintain the new playground.
