Jeanette Colby Brings Leadership and Vision to Park Board
As a former Ward 7 Minneapolis City Council member, I am proud to support Jeanette Colby for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, District 4.
Jeanette has shown through her career and community work that she is committed to protecting and enhancing the park system that makes Minneapolis such a special place to live. She understands that parks are more than green spaces — they are gathering places that nurture families, connect neighbors and support health and well-being.
Her vision emphasizes equity, listening to the voices of residents, and ensuring that every neighborhood has access to safe, well-maintained parks. Jeanette brings both professional experience in arts and parks administration and a personal passion rooted in her own childhood experiences in Minneapolis parks. That combination of expertise and lived connection makes her uniquely qualified to serve.
I know Jeanette will do the hard work of policy and oversight while keeping her focus on what matters most: preserving our parks for the enjoyment and benefit of all. She is a thoughtful leader who listens, collaborates, and builds solutions.
District 4 and the entire city would be fortunate to have Jeanette Colby on the Park Board. I encourage my fellow residents to join me in supporting her candidacy.
Lee Munich
Former Ward 7 Minneapolis City Council Member
Why I’m Supporting Elizabeth Shaffer for City Council
As a super proud Bryn Mawr neighbor, I’m supporting Elizabeth Shaffer for City Council in Ward 7.
Elizabeth has already shown us what calm, steady and responsible leadership looks like in her role on the Park Board. She listens, she brings people together, and she gets things done — the kind of leadership Minneapolis needs right now.
Her priorities — safe public spaces, support for workers and small business owners, fiscal responsibility, environmental stewardship and stronger connections across wards — reflect what matters most to our community.
At a time when politics feels so polarized, Elizabeth offers practical, solution-focused leadership. I trust her to put residents first and help build a healthier, more prosperous Minneapolis for all.
Amber Senn
Bryn Mawr
Cashman Is a Climate Leader
The unseasonably warm weather in the middle of September was a reminder that climate change is still here, making life harder and more dangerous for people across Minneapolis. From smoky air to more dangerous heat and storms, no one can escape the consequences of a changing climate. It’s on all of us to do everything we can to stop climate change from getting worse and to help people adapt to changing conditions.
Climate change is one of the reasons I’m supporting Katie Cashman in Ward 7 for City Council this fall. Our local elected officials have a lot of power when it comes to making choices around climate and local environmental health that affect our everyday lives. Councilwoman Cashman has been a strong leader on climate and environmental issues in her two years on the council. She helped to develop a Memorandum of Understanding with Xcel and CenterPoint Energy to significantly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. This will ensure energy companies bring clean, low-cost solutions to lower-income households.
Cashman helped pass an ordinance allowing climate-responsive boulevard gardens instead of input-heavy turf grass, increasing green space across the city. And she has plans to provide additional climate-responsive services, ordinances to reduce salt pollution in our waters, investments in the circular economy and expanded recycling options to move toward a zero-waste city.
We have many challenges ahead, with climate continuing to be an overarching concern. I am voting for Katie because she is a steadfast champion for climate, and I know she will use her position to work with others toward solutions across the city.
Christy Marsden
East Isles
Parkway Debate Should Focus on Safety, Not Bans
I was glad to see the parks candidate questionnaire include a question about parkway closures, as it’s an issue close to my heart (“Meet the Candidates for District 4 and District 6,” September 2025 issue). I love our parks, but too often the volume of through-traffic and speeding makes them stressful to enjoy. My neighbor has clocked cars going over 40 mph on Cedar Lake Parkway, and I’ve personally been passed while driving 25 mph — well above the posted 20 mph limit.
That’s why I was disappointed in the framing of the question and the candidates’ responses. The issue is not about banning cars. The real conversation in our community is about calming traffic, so parkways are safe and accessible for everyone. A neighborhood survey this summer drew more than 40 responses asking for slower speeds and traffic-calming measures.
Concerns about accessibility are valid. But accessibility is already harmed when cars speed through at unsafe levels. Calmer traffic benefits everyone — especially children, seniors and people with disabilities — by making it safer to cross the street, bike, drive or simply enjoy our parkland.
This should not be an “us versus them” issue. Parkway closures are just one idea. The bigger picture is creating streets that balance access with safety, comfort and enjoyment for all. That, I hope, is a goal we all share.
Benjamin Lester
Bryn Mawr
Why I Support Omar Fateh for Mayor
As a longtime Minneapolis resident, I believe Omar Fateh offers the visionary leadership our city needs.
Critics call Omar “too radical,” but Minnesota history shows what that really means. Paul Wellstone faced the same dismissal when he championed working families, yet he inspired a movement that still shapes our politics. Every transformative Minnesota leader has been labeled “radical” by those desperate to preserve the status quo.
Omar’s record speaks for itself: 54 bills authored with bipartisan support, including the North Star Promise, which has already sent more than 16,700 students to college tuition-free. His plan to end unsheltered homelessness by 2027 adapts proven “housing first” strategies from Houston and Dallas.
Mayor Jacob Frey says he wants to turn Minneapolis into a playground—just another way of Disney-fying our obvious decline. Who is Minneapolis for—tourists, suburbanites or the people who live here?
The city has always been a tale of two Minneapolises. Even as some neighborhoods prospered, Black, brown, Indigenous and immigrant communities faced systemic disinvestment and over-policing. These disparities have only deepened under current leadership.
Meanwhile, Frey spent $330,000 in 2024 clearing 17 homeless camps, only to watch them reappear. Corporate chains replace local businesses while developers prosper and working families get priced out. This isn’t recovery. It’s managed decline.
We need a leader who lifts people up, not one who preserves the systems that cause suffering.
Don’t fear someone they call “too radical.” Fear more of the same failed approaches. As Wellstone taught us: We all do better when we all do better.
Christin Crabtree
Kingfield
Jacob Frey Is the Steady Leadership Minneapolis Needs
Voters who want the best for Minneapolis must re-elect Mayor Jacob Frey. His goals are to pursue thoughtful, real solutions to the difficult challenges facing the city. His principal opponent, Omar Fateh, and Fateh’s Democratic Socialist allies on the City Council support policies that would worsen these challenges and cause serious harm.
Violence at homeless encampments: Frey has worked to close dangerous and unhealthy encampments, connect people to treatment and expand real housing opportunities. Fateh’s proposals? He wants to make the encampments bigger by providing portable toilets and ending regulatory enforcement.
Public safety: Minneapolis has among the lowest police staffing per capita in the country. What would Fateh do? Cut the recruitment budget and divert the money to unaccountable nonprofits. Frey has pushed for more police staffing while also overseeing important and successful police reforms.
A shrinking tax base: Fateh and his City Council allies support rent control similar to St. Paul’s, which has cratered that city’s rental market and increased rents. Study after study has shown that rent control dries up investment, slows construction and worsens affordability.
Integrity and leadership: Fateh is tied to fraud, lies and corruption. Frey has always operated with integrity. His strong, compassionate leadership was evident most recently in connection with the tragic Annunciation shooting.
The stakes for Minneapolis are high. Frey has shown steady leadership in crisis and a commitment to building a safer, stronger city where renters, homeowners, businesses and civic life can thrive.
Lee Mitau
Lowry Hill
Coloring Outside the Lines
Ruby Zimmerman, a Manhattan native with a passion for nature, has turned a lifetime of experiences into art. From introducing modern dance to Japan in the 1950s to painting landscapes of the Southwest, Hawaii and Vermont, she now inspires neighbors through the Art and Design program at Kenwood Isles Condominiums — always coloring outside the lines.
Her artwork is currently on display at Kenwood Isles through November. (Images: Jill Zimmerman)
