Residents of south Minneapolis' Ninth Ward can tick off the challenges for the diverse, low-income area bisected by East Lake Street — nuisance crime, a lull in real estate development, trepidation among Latino businesses after the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration.
They're concerns neighbors and business owners plan to air amid a City Council race that's already shaping up to be among the most-watched contests in a busy city election year.
The incumbent, Alondra Cano, is an outspoken progressive with an activist's instincts. Her challengers in the Ninth Ward, former Council Member Gary Schiff and nonprofit founder Mohamed Farah, are running on platforms stressing the need for development and public safety.
"I don't see a need for a lot of new initiatives, we've all got our sleeves rolled up," said Julie Ingebretsen, an owner of Ingebretsen's Scandinavian Gifts on E. Lake Street. "Certainly public safety is a big one for us."
Caucuses are April 4 and the election is in November. Whether one of the challengers can pry the seat away from Cano will in part depend on whether voters value her high-profile activism or buy her opponents' narrative that she doesn't pay close enough attention to the ward.
Cano says her office is already helping residents tackle crime. Her top priorities, however, are removing industrial polluters from the ward, a higher minimum wage and sick leave, and "business development through a culturally relevant lens." Her efforts to oppose the Dakota Access pipeline and get the city to divest from Wells Fargo align her with the sensibility of residents around Powderhorn Park, and in a 28 percent Latino ward, having elected the first Latina council member is a point of pride.
"It is a diverse, radical, LGBTQ, Latino ward," Cano said. "Being bilingual, being bicultural, that matters, being the daughter of undocumented immigrants, that matters, being a mother matters. Being a wannabe artist matters."
Schiff says the ward needs a nuts-and-bolts council member and touts himself as a policy expert who knows how to pass laws and pull the levers of government.