Marty Carlson is a regular contributor. He lives in Kenwood.
Unlike this paper, politics doesn’t take a month off in August for the kids’ issue. Although that might be something to consider, July and August were eventful months in our local politics.
July brought drama with the DFL City Convention. The first mayoral ballot failed, scrambling ensued, Jacob Frey delegates walked out, Omar Fateh was endorsed for mayor, and a slate of Park Board candidates was endorsed by the delegates who remained. Challenges were filed with the State DFL, and a lengthy hearing was held in mid-August. Shortly before this issue went to press, the Fateh endorsement was revoked, and the Park Board endorsements were allowed to stand.
The Minneapolis DFL is now on probation with the state party for the next two years and is prohibited from endorsing anyone for mayor in 2025.
The impact of all of this on the Park Board races has been profound.
Rather than the “no endorsements” predicted by many observers, the delegates who remained in the convention’s harried final hour endorsed candidates for eight of the nine Park Board commissioner positions (no endorsement in District 5, which covers Southeast Minneapolis).
In District 4 (the seat currently occupied by Elizabeth Shaffer that encompasses most Hill & Lake neighborhoods), the nod went to local activist Jason Garcia.
In District 6 (which includes CIDNA and West Bde Maka Ska), former Minneapolis School Board member Ira Jourdain was endorsed over incumbent Park Board President Cathy Abene.
Cue the dominoes. In short order, at least four candidates, most seen as “moderate,” withdrew from the race: incumbent Billy Menz (District 1), District 4 candidates Paula Chesley and Conrad Zbikowski, and at-large candidate Tim Peterson.
Meanwhile, in District 4, Paula Chesley’s departure prompted Kenwood resident and former Park Board candidate Jeanette Colby to throw her hat into the ring. In District 6, by contrast, Abene remains in the race and is actively campaigning in what is now a two-way contest with Jourdain.
This is a long way of saying that the races in the Hill & Lake area have been substantially reshuffled in the last two months. As the newcomer to the race, Jeanette Colby is profiled below.
Remaining District 4 candidates Jason Garcia and Andrew Gebo were profiled in the June issue. Gebo responded to a request for a follow-up interview; Garcia did not. In District 6, Cathy Abene (profiled in the March issue) spoke with us, while Ira Jourdain did not respond to an interview request.
Meet the Candidates for District 4 and District 6:
District 4 – Jeanette Colby
Although a late addition to the District 4 race, Jeanette Colby is well-known to many in the area. In addition to a number of community volunteer roles, Colby previously ran for the District 4 seat in 2017, withdrawing after Jono Cowgill received the DFL endorsement at the city convention.
The daughter of a minister, Colby moved to Minnesota as a toddler, living first in Austin, then moving to Minneapolis, where she graduated from the now-shuttered Marshall-University High School in Dinkytown.
Colby’s parents divorced when she was 11, and while she remembers many lean years growing up, she said that both her parents highly valued education. Colby worked a variety of waitressing jobs (including a stint at the Dinkytown Deli) during high school and college, and graduated with a B.A. from Georgetown University, majoring in government, with minors in French and theology.
After finishing college, Colby got a tutoring job in Nice, France. While it was a shoestring existence, being in Nice allowed her to pursue a certificate degree in European Studies. When her year of tutoring was up, she moved to Brussels, where she obtained a masters-equivalent degree from the University of Brussels, also in European Studies.
At the end of her European sojourn, Colby moved back to Minnesota. There, she met her now-husband, Dave (married 33 years), and began pursuing further graduate work in program evaluation at the University of Minnesota.
During this time, Colby worked a variety of jobs in that field, ranging from work at a small consulting firm on international trade exports to a position at the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI) at the University of Minnesota (where she worked for former Kenwood neighbor Kyla Wahlstrom).
Colby says that running for District 4 commissioner reflects a sustained interest in parks; she just wrapped up a seven-year career as an arts administrator for Edina Parks and Recreation, and she currently serves as a board member for the Kenwood Neighborhood Organization (which she previously chaired).
Colby has also served as co-chair of the community advisory committee for Southwest Light Rail and has been a board member for the Cedar Lake Park Association. For the past 17 years, she has been a guide at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and is a ceramicist in her free time.
From an issues standpoint, Colby says she hopes to continue the legacy of outgoing commissioner Elizabeth Shaffer, taking a pragmatic approach to the office that’s responsive to community concerns. Shaffer has endorsed Colby in this race.
Colby lists her top issues in this campaign as (1) adequately maintaining existing assets; (2)supporting community safety efforts, including creative programming; (3) protectingand promoting healthy lakes and waterways;and (4) being both realistic and innovative incrafting Park Board budgets.
Colby says she’s excited about new projects such as Upper Harbor Terminal and North Commons, but also wants to anticipate challenges, such as a changing environment and likely budget constraints.
Asked about The Mall and parkway closures, Colby said she supports the East Isles Neighborhood Association’s position and the Park Board’s ruling requiring the Met Council to restore roadways after subsurface work in the area concludes. She believes the current master plan has flaws, including inadequate emergency access to south-side apartments and legal issues with roadway abandonments. When funding becomes available, she said that the community should be reengaged to decide what’s best.
On parkway closures, Colby supports occasionalevent-related closures but opposes permanent ones, arguing they reduce accessibility and inclusivity, especially around the Chain of Lakes.
More information on Colby can be found at: colbyforparks.org.
District 4 – Andrew Gebo
Unlike former candidates Chesley and Zbikowski, Andrew Gebo says he was never in doubt about staying in the race until November. He says that voter choice is a good thing, and he’s actively campaigning.
Asked about the convention, Gebo says it was his first, so it was hard to put into broader context, but he didn’t feel good about the process at the end of the day, even though he believed the results would stand. Unlike Chesley and Zbikowski, Gebo did not file a challenge with the State DFL: He said there appeared to be a quorum for his vote, and that Jason Garcia won a clear majority of the delegates for District 4.
That being said, Gebo is plowing forward, and says his positions haven’t changed. He was glad to be asked about two high-profile issues, The Mall and parkway closures.
As regards the Park Board’s recent vote to keep The Mall’s existing roadway configuration (Hill & Lake Press, May 2025), Gebo says he regards that as a missed opportunity: Removing portions of roadway was a part of the Southwest Area Master Plan, and the parts at issue could have been removed at no cost to the Park Board.
As for parkway closures, Gebo says that while he enjoyed the closures during the pandemic, he’s opposed to making them permanent. Doing so would impair access, in his view, particularly for the elderly and disabled. Gebo says he would support some temporary weekend closures, particularly if they are event-related and could generate revenue for the Park Board.
When he’s not campaigning on his own behalf, Gebo says he has been an active volunteer for Jazz Hampton’s mayoral campaign and for Ward 7 incumbent Katie Cashman’s reelection bid.
More information on Andrew Gebo can be found at: gebo4parkboard.com.
District 4 - Jason Garcia
Jason Garcia did not respond to our request for a follow-up interview. You can read their full interview in the June issue or visit jasongarcia.org.
District 6 – Cathy Abene
In District 6, incumbent commissioner and board president Cathy Abene is also staying in the race, despite losing her bid for the DFL endorsement. Abene, a professional engineer in her day job, says that she wants to continue doing substantive work on the Park Board (the multi-jurisdictional effort to improve water quality in the Chain of Lakes is of particular interest).
She says that when she talks to constituents, they are much more interested in parks-related issues than DFL politics. Abene says that in her experience many in District 6 agree on the issues of the day and don’t want them politicized.
One of the positives to come out of the convention, according to Abene, is that voters are more aware of the substantive differences among candidates, and she is predicting good voter turnout in November based on her early engagement.
Asked about her position on The Mall and parkway closures, Abene says she stands by her vote to require the Met Council to restore the roadways to the current condition after the Council’s subsurface work is done.
Abene says that the existing master plan appears to suffer from fatal flaws, among them not accounting for adequate emergency access, particularly to the apartment buildings on the south side, as well as legal issues pertaining to roadway abandonments.
Abene says that when money comes in to implement this portion of the master plan, the community will be reengaged, and further discussions will ensue. As to parkway closures, Abene’s position is similar to Gebo’s: she supports occasional events-related closures, which already happen regularly, but opposes permanent closures, in part because they would make parks less accessible and inclusive for all, particularly around the Chain of Lakes.
More information on Abene’s campaign can be found at: cathyabene.com.
District 6 – Ira Jourdain
Although he did not respond to an interview request, the campaign website for Ira Jourdain (not previously profiled in this paper) says that he has lived with his family in Kingfield for the past 10 years and served two terms on the Minneapolis Board of Education, representing District 6.
While Jourdain endorsed incumbent Cathy Abene in her initial run for Park Board in 2021, he’s challenging her now and has the endorsement of the city DFL.
Top issues are: (1) providing recreation and opportunities for youth and seniors; (2) navigating the challenges of Trumpism; (3) environmental stewardship and tree canopy; and (4) respect for park workers and their unions.
More information can be found at: iraforparks.org.
