Community members feel unheard in redevelopment of Minneapolis police’s Third Precinct

The Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct building in south Minneapolis has sat empty for half of the eight years Chris Mozena has worked next door.

The building was damaged and set on fire in May 2020 during protests over George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police. The building at Minnehaha Avenue and Lake Street hasn’t changed much in appearance since then — concrete barricades and razor wire encircle it. Community members call it an “eyesore” and a “blight.” Some say it’s a traumatic reminder of what happened.

“It’s a source of utter disappointment,” said Mozena, the executive director of Hook and Ladder, a music and arts venue nearby.

The city has been gathering feedback this summer on its proposal to turn the existing building into a democracy center, and will present findings to the City Council next month. But many who work and live in the neighborhood don’t agree with the plan, say the city has taken too long to redevelop the site and feel that the city hasn’t taken previous community feedback seriously.

Only one of seven attendees at an August 12 community meeting about the building explicitly said they supported the city’s vision for the site. Others questioned whether a democracy center, which would include an Elections and Voter Services office, would address the community’s trauma.

Residents called the site “distressing,” and “a constant reminder” of the unrest in 2020. Some became visibly upset when they were told that the razor wire would be the last item removed in the city’s cleanup of the site, which does not have a deadline for completion.

At an August 15 meeting for nearby business owners, all four attendees peppered city employees with questions about how community space in the proposed democracy center would work, and pleaded for the concrete barricades to be removed as soon as possible.

“We just want the city to work with us and not just be like, ‘Here’s what we’re doing,’” Jamie Schwesnedl, who owns Moon Palace Books, said at the meeting.

City employees said at the meetings that they appreciated the feedback, and recognized that the process has been long and frustrating for some. They also said they will work to clean up the site as quickly as they can.

Minneapolis City Council Member Jason Chavez, who represents Ward 9 where the Third Precinct is located, said he’s concerned that many residents in his ward won’t be able to use the proposed democracy center because they are not U.S. citizens and are ineligible to vote.

“When we’re talking about building a democracy center that does not include undocumented immigrants, that is just unfair, and it is unfair to the constituents I represent, whether they vote for me or not,” Chavez said. “They deserve to have a voice, and they’re not having a voice in this quote unquote, democracy center.”

Chavez said he would support the proposal if his constituents wanted a voting center. But that’s not the case, he said.

“The reality is that the city has done a lack of engagement to actually hear what people need in that corner,” Chavez said.

Democracy center plans

The Minneapolis City Council voted last year to relocate the Third Precint’s police officers to a new building nearby, which opened the doors for city staff’s proposal.

The city owns the Third Precinct building and does not need City Council approval to turn it into a democracy center, although the council may need to approve funding for the redevelopment.

Alexander Kado, the senior project manager with the city’s Office of Public Service who is overseeing the redevelopment, said involving the community and City Council is a top priority. The city is also gathering public input through an online survey.

“We’re really just focused on getting the engagement and doing it in a way where we’re not hedging things a certain way,” Kado said.

The proposed, three-story democracy center would include office space for Elections and Voter Services, an early voting center and a warehouse. The ground floor would dedicate 8,000 square feet for community use, which the city has said could include meeting space or social services.

Kado said that the city’s Elections and Voter Services department currently operates out of a leased space in northeast Minneapolis, which is expensive. The department oversees the city’s elections, and conducts voter outreach. The department has 16 full-time staff, 200 seasonal employees and 2,000 election judges.

“From a financial standpoint, leasing space is just not the best use of taxpayer dollars,” Kado said. “We have a city owned property, and so there’s just financial savings to that.”

Kado added that the Third Precinct site is more accessible by public transportation than the northeast location. The light rail train and multiple bus routes run by the Third Precinct, which is located near major retailers such as Target, Cub and Aldi.

The city held an open house about the redevelopment at the Minneapolis American Indian Center in June, and plans to hold another in September. Details have not been finalized for the September event. City staff plan to present the findings of their public engagement work, which included meetings in Spanish and Somali, to the City Council on September 30.

The new center could open in 2026, Kado said, adding that it’s unclear how much it would cost to update the building. The city began cleaning up the building’s interior this summer; total clean up is budgeted to cost up to $1.5 million.

Kado first presented plans for the democracy center to the City Council at an April meeting that grew tense as some council members and city staff became visibly emotional and frustrated. Council members urged the city to do more community engagement work before moving forward with the idea.

Some residents and nearby business owners say they don’t think their feedback will be taken into consideration. Some, like Schwesnedl, have been attending community engagement events for nearly four years, and say they haven’t seen much progress.

“It just feels like this way of acting out giving input or receiving input without giving the sense that the people who are ultimately in charge are ever listening,“ he said of the city’s efforts.

Community calls for proposals

One community group is asking the public to submit their own proposals for redeveloping the site. The group, Confluence: An East Lake Studio for Community Design, has been involved in community discussions about the Third Precinct for years.

“It doesn’t feel like [the city is] actually interested in input, in which case, then what can we be building outside of those structures? How can we be bringing things into fruition on our own?” said Anniessa Antar, who helps lead Confluence’s project.

Confluence is accepting proposals until September 15, and will present the ideas to the community this fall. Proposals can be submitted on Confluence’s website.

Antar isn’t optimistic that the city will change its course, but said it’s important that community members voice their opinions.

“I do think that it’s essential that we continue to have hope and be thinking about the most radical, most supportive, most liberatory version of what we want the neighborhood to look like,” she said.

Frederick Brathwaite wants to turn the building into a Black cultural center that would include a museum, memorial and restaurant. He presented his plan to community members who packed a room at the Hook and Ladder in late January. He and his wife own Mama Sheila’s House of Soul and lived near the Third Precinct when it was damaged during protests.

Brathwaite said he decided to look at other locations for the cultural center once it became clear that the city was pursuing the democracy center.

“It was disappointing,” Brathwaite said of the city’s plans.

He’s in the early stages of exploring options for the center, and said the city should do something with the redevelopment that recognizes the community’s pain and trauma.

“We had an opportunity to tear it down and build something beautiful,” he said, “and they missed that opportunity.”

The best thing to do is to completely tear down the old building, Mozena said.

“I don’t think we can fully heal as a community while that building stands, that building is symbolic,” he said. “I’d like to see the city acknowledge what happened formally, and part of that reconciliation can be the removal of the building.”

Schwesnedl and other community members say they’re tired. They’ve taken surveys, attended meetings and held their own engagement sessions.

“It feels a little bit like we’re in this waiting game where people want one thing and the city doesn’t want to do it,” he said. “So they’re just like, ‘Well, we’ll leave a vacant, ugly building that reminds you of this traumatic event here. Eventually you’ll just be happy for anything to be there.’”

Kado said that while he recognizes residents’ frustration, it’s important that the city gets it right.

“I’d rather us take longer and engage as many people to the best that we could have and live with that, than thrust a decision and then for the next 10, 20, 30 years, people are mad about that,” he said.

How to stay informed about the Third Precinct

• Find information about the city’s plans for the site here.

• Fill out a survey about the development here .

• The next community engagement session is an open house scheduled for September. The city has not announced a date, time or location.

• The Minneapolis City Council will discuss the redevelopment at a September 30 meeting at 1:30 p.m. in room 350 of the Public Service Center, 250 S. 4th Street, Minneapolis, 55415.

• Submit your ideas about redeveloping the site to Confluence here. This community-led effort is separate from the city’s efforts.

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