There is a new candidate for the Ward 7 City Council seat: Corey Ryan Vest, who lives near The Mall in East Isles in Uptown. Originally from the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, he has been a Minneapolis resident for 20 years and works as a database consultant.
Vest had a unique upbringing that included attending the prestigious Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, Illinois. He considers his world perspective an asset in the race.
Vest is an active member of the DFL, serving as director of State Senate District 61 and Congressional District 5. He is also a member of the state central committee and the DFL party affairs committee.
Why are you running to be the next Council member representing Ward 7?
If I had to pick one thing that started me on the journey, it would be the Uptown transit station in spring of 2023. It gave me the sense that things were going sideways. Specifically, folks were hot boxing at 10 o’clock in the morning. And for folks who don't know what that term is, hot boxing is sharing secondhand smoke in an enclosed space. It was a group of regular un housed folks, homeless folks that were living in Uptown that would use the bus stop to smoke fentanyl. Seeing that daily I began to wonder after two or three weeks, why isn't anyone doing anything about this? I think it's a bit corrosive to the soul to walk by that every day and get a sense of no one is doing anything about it.
It's the sense that there's slow urban decay that's taking hold in the city. It's homelessness, it's mental illness, it's drug addiction. It's litter on the ground. It's a sense that nobody's paying attention to the details. For me, the Uptown transit station was emblematic of that.
What do you believe are the top priorities of Ward 7 voters?
I kind of go back to the slow urban decay. You can say it's public safety. You can say it's affordable housing. You can say it's adequate public services. I think it all tends to come under the same umbrella. Just a sense that the city is no longer doing things as efficiently, as predictably and dependably as they used to.
What differentiates you from the other candidates seeking the DFL endorsement?
I would say that I just have lived a very unusual life. And basically, I feel that gives me a perspective that maybe the others don't, who I think followed a more traditional path.
I just feel like I want to walk into the middle of all this and shout, what are we even doing here? We get locked into this vote for or against something without ever considering that maybe we can look at the issues from a different perspective. I think I come from that more skeptical background. I find myself more curious about class equity these days than racial equity.
Uptown has seen a lot of businesses leave and vacant buildings. What is your plan to revitalize the area? Is there more the city could be doing to keep and attract business to the area?
This is one of those issues that I feel everybody has a very short term vision and lack a solution for. Uptown is not going to be fixed in a year or two, or an election or two. This is a long-term project. It fell apart slowly. It's going to require just as much time to build it back up. This didn't just happen with Covid.
I don't think we can just magically go find somebody else to solve Uptown problems with $100,000 a year, or a quarter of a million there. I love art and culture as much as the next person. I'm very bohemian at heart. The great streets programs and these artistic funding grants are wonderful ideas that, in the end, may not actually fix the problem. They're one arrow in the quiver, but they're not going to win the war. I think we need more good old fashioned business development work. I think city councilors have a role in being a cheerleader for their neighborhoods.
The Minneapolis charter requires that there be 1.7 police officers for every 1,000 people. That is approximately 730 officers. In January 2025, there were 579 sworn officers. Do you sup port increasing the number of officers to be in compliance with the charter? How does Minneapolis get there?
We need to keep pushing to recruit more police officers. There's a lot of people who are paying attention and know this. We're facing a wave of retirements — between 100 and 150 officers in the next three to five years. I certainly do think we need more officers.
But there's also a sense of if you are a young person who's thinking about getting into law enforcement, is Minneapolis really the city where you want to do that? Do you see people on the City Council who are thankful that you are willing to give your life in public service? It does not feel like that.
As concerns the Neighborhood Safety Department, those City Council meetings were focused on invoicing. There were concerns about the finances and invoices not being paid, or that these groups weren't providing the necessary paperwork, things of that sort. One of those details was that they were paying some groups through phone apps. I always imagined that if you were on a city contract, you had to have a registered business account and checks and purchase orders and invoices. I don't understand why they wouldn't have done it that way from the beginning.
My bigger concern, though, is that if some of these groups are having that much difficulty with invoicing, then where are the operational walls? Where are the incident reports? Because without that you have no metrics, you have no way of doing operational oversight, which I think is the real issue. The police have to provide these things in their work. Are the non-police violence interruption groups held to the same standard?
Do you feel Mayor Frey deserves a third term as mayor? Is there common ground you believe you can work with him on?
I tend to think third terms in American politics are notoriously difficult. There's a reason that we don't like to give people third terms. There's a calcification of the bureaucracy, if you will, if you've been mayor for eight years. You've essentially appointed most people in city ranks, or at least a majority of them. So, there's loyalty issues and monoculture issues.
I think residents could expect me to be a genuine swing voter on most issues and that, above all else, I am a practical operations guy. I'm not going to be an ideologue who gravitates to one side or the other. I think that Ward 7 in some ways is a perfect place for that. I consider myself a free agent on the mayor's race.
Mayor Frey is the number one cheerleader for the city. He is the man with a bullhorn out there trying to drum up business and tour ism and give us all faith that tomorrow is going to be a better day. I think any councilor ought to work sincerely and honestly with any mayor on that front. I think some folks want to stand on the sidelines and root for maybe not failure but a lack of overwhelming success. I would never do that.
What do you like to do in the summer when you have free time? Are there any other facts about you that you’d like to share that will help voters understand who you are as a person?
I get around on an electric scooter. I haven't owned a car in 20 years. You'll see me with sunglasses and my hoodie and hair blowing in the wind. Beyond that, I'm trying to get out and see as many little indie plays as possible. For having lived in the city for 20 years, I have not really taken in as much of the local art scene as I would have hoped.
Just getting out and seeing different neighborhoods. It's a wonder fully small city in some ways, and it changes from block to block.
For more information about Vest's campaign, coreyformpls.org
