July Stone Arch: Representative Jamie Long
July 13, 8:30-10:00 AM
Wilde Roast Cafe, 65 SE Main St, Minneapolis

Rep. Jamie Long, author of the 100% clean energy bill (among others) has been invited to join us for the July Stone Arch discussion.

As usual, invite anyone interested--free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can't bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

Providing Stable Housing for those in Need and on the Margins

Saturday, April 13th              8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Wilde Roast Cafe, 65 SE Main St, Minneapolis, MN 55414

Make plans to join us at Stone Arch April 13th with Minneapolis Public Housing Authority CEO Greg Russ. We'll talk about the mix of housing available, MPHA's capabilities and how we can work together.

Greg most recently served as the Executive Director of Public Housing in Cambridge, Mass., and includes leadership roles in programs in Chicago and Philadelphia. His agency recently announced plans to transfer over 6,000 properties to a nonprofit subsidiary to access federal tax credits for renovations. He'll discuss his role managing Minneapolis' public housing and how public housing affects living stability for kids.


If you missed this forum, you can find Greg Russ's ideas for expanding affordable housing in Minneapolis in the transcript of his interview by the Civic Caucus.

Dear Stone Arch Members, Saturday morning presents us with the possibility of a foot of snow, freezing rain and generally dangerous and inconvenient travel conditions. We're going to reschedule our Speaker for a future date. Please be careful Saturday. Slipping, sliding and shoveling heart attack snow is fraught with peril. So stay at home and start dialing for someone with a snow blower to dig you out.

With Josh Downham - Minneapolis Public Schools
Director of Government Relations

Saturday, February 9            8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Wilde Roast Cafe, 65 SE Main St, Minneapolis, MN 55414

Following the November election, Josh Downham told the Minneapolis School Board that he thinks the state’s new political leaders could be more receptive to the district’s priorities. He commented that he is expecting a more robust discussion with less focus on tax cuts and more focus on investments in K–12.

Statewide, special education costs are expected to outpace special education revenues by $707 million in 2018. Minneapolis has the state’s largest special education funding gap: $55.3 million, or about $1,400 for every student in the district. A Star Tribune article states that soaring special education costs are squeezing the budgets of Minnesota schools, making special education the top priority at the State Capitol.

In November, Downham noted that Minnesota schools also lost $615 in per-pupil funding between 2003 and 2018 due to inflation. The district is asking for a 3 percent a year increase in funding for K-12 school for the next two years and after that indexing per pupil funding to inflation.

Josh Downham will discuss the responses of legislators to these and other Minneapolis Public Schools’ requests at our February Stone Arch meeting.

As usual, invite anyone interested--free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can't bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

With Minnpost's Peter Callaghan

Saturday, December 8            8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Wilde Roast Cafe, 65 SE Main St, Minneapolis, MN 55414

He’s deep into the policies, from paid family leave to addressing opioid addiction, but also the process of the legislature. Last week, Mr Callaghan ramped up the readership of his legislative coverage with a story entitled "You know you want to read this sexy story about legislative process reform."

Join us for a conversation with Minnpost’s Peter Callaghan for this month’s Stone Arch. In the meantime, catch his writing at Minnpost or his Twitter posts

As usual, invite anyone interested--free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can't bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

With State Senator Kari Dziedzic

Saturday, November 10               8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Wilde Roast Cafe, 65 SE Main St, Minneapolis, MN 55414

Did Democrats take the U.S. House? Did the Blue Wave lead to control of the Senate or did the map favor Republican incumbents? What happened in the 8th Congressional District? The First? Who controls the Minnesota Legislature?

At this month’s Stone Arch, State Senator Kari Dziedzic takes us through what changed on November 6.

Kari's District 60 in which Stone Arch meets is a very diverse area.  It includes the birthplace of Minneapolis – where the mill industry first boomed along the riverfront.  It includes all of the neighborhoods in NE Minneapolis and SE Minneapolis, the Cedar Riverside area of Minneapolis, and the northern part of the Seward neighborhood in Minneapolis.   This area has always been home to immigrant populations, and includes many recent immigrants.

As usual, invite anyone interested--free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can't bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

Creating a City Full of Opportunity and Choice

Saturday, October 13               8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Wilde Roast Cafe, 65 SE Main St, Minneapolis, MN 55414

Janne Flisrand is one of the co-founders of Neighbors for More Neighbors. She's worked on affordable housing issues for 20 years, after seeing the impact housing instability and limited transit choices had on the kids she served at a Wilder Foundation drop-in after school program she ran. Janne led the statewide Minnesota Green Communities collaboration for a decade. It resulted in energy and healthy housing policy changes that have benefitted tens of thousands of low-income Minnesotans. She is a co-founder of Our Streets Minneapolis. Her policy insight and writing prompted an invitation to join the streets.mn board. She served as director of a North Minneapolis neighborhood association. She's passionate about sound city budgets, eliminating racial disparities, and creating a city full of opportunity and choice for each person who lives here.

With Former City Council Member
Lisa McDonald





Saturday, September 8               8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.
 
Wilde Roast Cafe, 65 SE Main St, Minneapolis, MN 55414

Will the proposed comprehensive plan bulldoze your neighbor’s house? Will it create affordable housing? Will it make developers rich? Lisa McDonald formerly represented the city’s 10th Ward and now works with Minneapolis 4 Everyone, an advocacy group opposing the city’s new comprehensive plan that includes up-zoning most residential areas to allow for multi-plexus as well as increasing density allowances for transit corridors.
 
Read Lisa’s Star Tribune commentary: http://strib.mn/2LH7Bzt
 
Read other opinions and news about the Minneapolis 2040 Plan:


Minnpost explains the report, and offers a Q&A with the city’s long-range planning director: http://bit.ly/2wBrxiD

“Minneapolis 2040: A plan was required, but plans have consequences” (Tim Keane, real estate lawyer): http://strib.mn/2NyChof

“No, the bulldozers aren’t coming for your house” (Steve Brandt): http://bit.ly/2LI6Eaa

Streets.mn explainer, based on the goals the Council gave to planners: http://bit.ly/2N2rxkT

MPR story explains some of the racial history behind many Minneapolis neighborhoods being zoned only for single-family homes: http://bit.ly/2N6glDQ

Neighbors for more Neighbors, an advocacy group supporting the Comprehensive Plan, explains its principles: http://bit.ly/2N5vIwn 

 
As usual, invite anyone interested--free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can't bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.
 

Farewell to a Dear Friend, Arvonne Fraser

If you didn't know already, we say farewell to a dear friend, inspiring leader, and founder of the nonprofit on which Think Again MN and our Stone Arch discussion group is based, Arvonne Fraser.  

Arvonne has left us. The meeting has ended. The coffee is exhausted. We're packing up our coats and notes, excited for the mission which she's inspired us to take on. I hope she understands her role in all of our lives, and that for her efforts women are empowered to run for office, lead companies, try cases, and raise children, and that men welcome and encourage and expect women in these roles. Arvonne is our hero, even in passing a source of inspiration and kindness and welcome. We will all miss you, but we will all carry a part of you in memory with us.  Please join us to celebrate her life:


Thursday, August 30               5:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Nicollet Island Pavilion, 40 Powers Street, Minneapolis


 

She's no lady, as she famously titled her book, but she had a knack for starting good conversation.  The Star Tribune reports that Senator Amy Klobuchar, who was a neighbor to the Frasers, said in a statement that Arvonne Fraser “blazed a trail for woman” and added that she “pushed so many women to go into the fray and do good.”    Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement Tuesday night that the city “has lost a legend and I have lost a friend.” 



During the Carter administration, Arvonne Fraser served as director of the Office of Women at the U.S. Agency for International Development and as a member of the U.S. delegations to the first two U.N. World Conferences on Women.  Among her many accomplishments, Arvonne was a founder of the Center on Women, Gender and Public Policy at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs. The Advocates for Human Rights wrote, "The human rights world has lost a giant. Arvonne Fraser inspired women's human rights activists across the globe. She helped develop international standards for the protection of women and was a tireless advocate herself."

If you haven't been a visitor to our monthly Stone Arch Saturday discussions, consider joining us in her honor. Read about Arvonne's extensive contribution to human rights in the Advocates foe Human Rignts tribute to her and in her Star Tribune obituary.  If you would like to honor Arvonne Fraser, you can do so by donating to the University of Minnesota Foundation - Humphrey School Arvonne Fraser Fund, P.O. Box 860266, Mpls, MN 55486, or Emily's List, 1800 M St NW, Ste 375N, Washington, DC 20036.


Associate General Counsel for the MN Department of Human Rights to Speak on Age Discrimination in the Workplace

Saturday, August 11             8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Wilde Roast Cafe, 65 SE Main St, Minneapolis, MN 55414

Paul serves as Associate General Counsel and assists the Department in overseeing discrimination investigations, drafting appeal decisions, and providing legal advice to the Commissioner and Department employees. He’ll talk with us about age discrimination in the workplace.

  Paul serves as Associate General Counsel for the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. He assists the Department in overseeing discrimination investigations, drafting appeal decisions, and providing legal advice to the Commissioner and Department employees.

Prior to joining MDHR, he practiced as a housing attorney at Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, the local legal aid office in Saint Paul. In addition to representing clients in housing court, Paul worked under a grant that allowed him to do community impact work in the Frogtown and Rondo neighborhoods of Saint Paul. Paul clerked for the Honorable Kathryn Quaintance in Hennepin County District Court immediately after law school. A former AmeriCorps volunteer, Paul graduated from the University of St. Thomas, and has been licensed to practice law in Minnesota since 2012.