For Immediate Release: 29 June, 2023
Media Contact: Noble Frank, noble@mnfreedomfund.org, (952) 353-6930
MINNEAPOLIS — Yesterday the Minneapolis City Council took an unusual vote to block consideration of a rent control ballot amendment explicitly approved by local voters. Worse, they did so on the Muslim holiday of Eid when three council members — who would have created a majority in favor of considering the ballot amendment — were absent in observation of the religious holiday.
In times of change and uncertainty, people need to be able to trust their local leaders and have faith in the process of representative democracy. But this faith is impossible when council members exclude their Muslim colleagues and ignore their constituencies.
Yesterday’s shameful episode is just one more instance of city leadership bowing to powerful interests at the expense of our city’s most economically and socially vulnerable people. We see this pattern everywhere in the organized abandonment of our communities — in housing, in employment, in policing, in safety and well-being. Too many leaders are running over us to leave us behind.
Minneapolis residents know what we want, and we (and our representatives) must be ready to fight these powerful interests and their agents in local politics — at the ballot box and at City Hall — to make our vision reality.
###