With the mayor’s office and all 13 City Council seats on the ballot this year, city politics have largely dominated discussions of the upcoming 2025 election, but the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is on the ballot this year as well. All nine park board seats (six districts, three at large) are in play.
As of now, two commissioners, Elizabeth Shaffer and Becka Thompson, are giving up their seats to run for City Council, and newly-appointed at-large commissioner Charles Rucker (who replaced Alicia Crudup mid-term) is mounting a run for Thompson’s District 2 seat, opening up his current at-large position.
That’s a long way of saying there could be significant change in the composition of the next park board, and voters are well-advised to pay attention to these important races as well.
One commissioner who wants to keep her current job is Park Board President Cathy Abene, who represents District 6, covering all of southwest Minneapolis.
Abene (pronounced “ah-BEN-ne”) became known to many in the Hill and Lakes area after she took an active interest in the planning process for the Cedar-Isles Master Plan in 2022-23. Even though the specific park area was outside her district, Abene became a fixture at community meetings, and played an active role in formulating and revising the final plan document. Now, because of redistricting, the boundaries of District 6 are shifting to include both Cedar-Isles-Dean and East Bde Maka Ska, bringing Abene squarely into the circulation area of the Hill & Lake Press beyond West Maka Ska.
So who is Cathy Abene?
In addition to her current role as park board president, she’s a professional engineer with a long history of public service, an outdoor enthusiast who is deeply committed to her family.
Abene was born into a large Irish-Catholic family in Chicago, but her Minnesota roots run deep. Her grandmother was in one of the first classes at Washburn High School before the Great Depression forced a move to Chicago. Abene’s family moved back to the Twin Cities when she was in elementary school, and she grew up in Wayzata, graduated from Benilde-St. Margaret’s, then picked up a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at the University of Minnesota.
Abene began her professional engineering career in the private sector, but quickly shifted to public work in the 1990s. She worked first for Hennepin County transportation, followed by a brief stint with Seattle’s Department of Transportation, then moving back to the Twin Cities to work for the University of Minnesota, where she has remained for the past 17 years. Abene currently serves as the University’s principal civil engineer for water resources throughout the state, and she says this focus on natural systems and the need to work cooperatively with many branches of government helped her hit the ground running on the Park Board.
Abene currently lives in Lynnhurst. She and her wife, Maren, have been together for over 30 years. They have three kids, twin daughters Harriet (named after the lake!) and Antonia, and a son, Moritz, all in their 20’s. Running for park board was Abene’s first foray into electoral politics, and she says her urge to serve sprang from watching the city struggle during the early days of the pandemic and the George Floyd murder and riots. Always an engineer, Abene has a passion for systems and says she ran for park board to ensure its public systems lived up to their promises and delivered results for all.
That systems focus is evident in her work on the board, and Abene speaks with evident pride in the board’s recent accomplishments, particularly its agreement with the City of Minneapolis to increase by millions the maintenance budget for deteriorating parkways, along with the board’s leadership role in managing stormwater runoff, and its recent decision to establish an endowment — something Abene believes could be transformative in future years.
Abene says this is all reflective of the board’s renewed focus on protecting natural areas and systems, and the need to re-prioritize the maintenance of its existing built structures, many of which have deteriorated badly over the years. These areas of renewed focus dovetail neatly with citizen concerns as well: Water quality, natural areas conservation and deferred maintenance all feature prominently in constituent feedback, and they mesh neatly with Abene’s own professional background. Sports fields are also getting attention.
Overall, Abene says the current board has learned to work well together, acting cooperatively on points of common interest, while keeping a respectful tone in areas of disagreement. Upcoming challenges include ensuring the system’s continued financial stability in an era of shrinking tax base and rising property taxes, and working to maintain a stable, trusted relationship with the City Council.
Abene is clearly excited for the future, but — with open seats and all positions on the ballot — she says she’s taking nothing for granted. At present, she is not aware of any challenger for her specific seat, but the filing period for this ranked-choice election doesn’t officially open until late July.
