Minneapolis City Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw: Rebuild Third Precinct at its old home

Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes a mix of national and local commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

This city is stuck. It has been more than three years since George Floyd was murdered and the Third Precinct was burned. Yet, we are no closer to a new Third Precinct building than we were the day after the fire was put out. The Third Precinct ruin still stands on the corner of Lake and Minnehaha, a monument to the city's trauma and failure.

The building is not in my ward. I represent the northernmost part of Minneapolis, which is located squarely in the Fourth Precinct — something that I am grateful for. I've tried to avoid this hot mess out of respect for my fellow council members. This summer I even voted with my colleagues who represent the Third Precinct to disallow rebuilding at the existing site. I did this because I had hope that this action would help us move forward with an actual decision.

Clearly, that was a mistake. I regret my vote. It is one of the very few votes I regret. I am fed up with this and I can no longer stay silent.

Every day someone who lives in the Third reaches out to me to ask me to please help. It is clear to me that this discussion has been hijacked by a small and vocal group of activists, and it is the residents of the Third Precinct who suffer. In my nearly two years in office, I've seen the same small group of (mostly white) activists come down to City Hall time and time again to oppose rebuilding the Third Precinct building at its current location. These activists claim that they are acting on behalf of those of us who are Black and brown — that it is, in fact, the Black and brown people who don't want to see the Third rebuilt.

I am Black. I know a lot of Black people who live here. In my experience, most regular Black folks in this city are confused about why we are even having this debate. They don't understand why we wouldn't just rebuild at the current location. They are not mad at the building. They want us to focus on reforming the culture of the Minneapolis Police Department instead of wasting time and money arguing about a building.

It feels like we've lost the plot. We are allowing a small group of activists (who are never going to be happy with any decision we make) to delay this process indefinitely and drive the project costs up. These activists simply don't like the police. It is that simple. They will do anything to derail and disable the police, and unfortunately, some of my colleagues on the council are assisting them in this mission.

I think we should rebuild the Third Precinct where it was. Building there would be the quickest way to get us a fully functional precinct. The Third Precinct officers are currently housed in an outdated and inadequate building downtown. They need a better space sooner rather than later. A crowded, dark and depressing workplace is not going to help our officers be better.

Rebuilding at the existing location is also the most fiscally responsible option. It is hard for me to justify spending more taxpayer dollars on a different location. It would cost substantially more to build a different location — at least 10 million additional dollars. Money doesn't grow on trees around here. The council should show more respect to the residents of this city who work hard to pay their property taxes.

Why on earth would we waste millions of dollars because a very loud minority is mad at a building? If we are OK just throwing millions around like this, let's spend those dollars elsewhere, like improving the Fourth Precinct building or building a Fourth Precinct substation further north. We cannot put the burden of our indecision on the taxpayers who elected us to make hard choices.

I am sick of all this political rhetoric. The people of Minneapolis deserve better. I know this is a tough decision. But we were elected to make tough decisions based on actual facts and figures — not based on what we hear from a few loud voices. There is no perfect answer here, and there never will be. So let's stop wasting time and money, and move forward with the best option: rebuilding the Third Precinct back where it was.

LaTrisha Vetaw represents the Fourth Ward on the Minneapolis City Council.