For nearly a decade, faithful readers of these Freedom Foundation updates have read about our pushback on the ridiculous and often silly focus of the Minneapolis city council. From banning polystyrene take-out food containers and plastic grocery bags as well as eliminating drive through lanes for restaurants – they have literally fiddled away time and precious resources while our city crumbled.
The Minneapolis mayor and the elected city council are the cumulative effects of the city enacting very bad election laws (ranked-choice voting) and extremely low caucus attendance. Long before the riots in Minneapolis attracted the attention of the entire world, Minneapolis has been electing non-serious elected officials who are frankly not up to the job of managing anything much less a major metropolitan city. The entire world has seen this up close when the governor was forced to call in the Minnesota National Guard to safeguard Minneapolis citizens and businesses. It will be decades before the world forgets the carnage that occurred under the mismanagement of the city by the Minneapolis city council and Mayor Jacob Frey.
Voting matters, folks, and who you elect really matters – in good times and especially during a crisis.
Minneapolitans learned in the aftermath of the tragic and senseless death of Mr. George Floyd: we are left leaderless in a city that is crying out in pain and suffering. Instead of a road map forward, many just seek a road map out of the carnage and out of the city. We’re starting to see that occur now. Some businesses destroyed during the riots can’t afford to rebuild in a city that provides them with no assurances that things will be better when the next riot occurs.
And the radicals in charge of the city? They’ve made our once great city a national laughing stock at a time when serious reform is desperately needed. And yet some Minneapolis elected officials are working to spread the city’s bad election laws to every city throughout Minnesota.
As a Minneapolis-based business, I could say much more but it really doesn’t matter to the Minneapolis city council. They appear incapable of changing their ways. Instead, I encourage all of you to look ahead – seriously look ahead – at who is asking for your vote and what they stand for.
Protecting private property and the rule of law should be front and center of their campaign platforms.
If you don’t think this could happen in your community, read this list and learn about 600 other Minnesota businesses who once upon a time believed the same thing.
