Thanks to everyone for reaching out about how important it is to them for Pilllar to stay open. I’m happy to report that we’ve found a path forward for them to open back up their venue side tomorrow!! The massive show of community support all across the city for Pilllar was so heartening to see.

Our beloved neighborhood cafe & music venue Pillar Forum has been shut down by the City for fire code violations. They were working on the problem but the City decided they can’t host music anymore. Pillar was there for us every day during the Surge. Chip in a couple bucks so they can pay staff.

Today I voted against contracting with the drone company Skydio and I was proud the City Council voted down working with a company that contracts with ICE. Metro Surge was a test of our constitutional rights. Opening up the door to further erosions of our civil liberties would be a massive mistake.

The argument is being made that we need to have mass surveillance drones that work with ICE because every City will be going this direction & not having drones will cause Minneapolis residents to be “collateral damage” Maintaining civil liberties while other cities get rid of them is a good thing!

My office is hosting a town hall on Wednesday July 15th at 6 PM at Audubon Park with County Attorney Mary Moriarty on Red Flag laws. Come join us!

The drone company Skydio also contracts with ICE, which for any reasonable person would be a non-starter after Operation Metro Surge. It makes no sense to risk handing over surveillance footage of Minneapolis residents to ICE after they’ve spent the year murdering & kidnapping Minneapolis residents.

This is what I can’t get over: he is actually smart enough to know what he’s doing. The cruelty is the point, and he wants to get to higher office playing with people’s lives.

Minneapolis Police didn’t intervene in any ICE murders or kidnappings during Operation Metro Surge. And now Mayor Frey announced he’s ordering Minneapolis Police to intervene and arrest people who are homeless or using drugs, giving ICE another pretext to kidnap them under the Laken Riley Act.

jason chavez acknowledged brian coyle, the first out gay member of the minneapolis city council, who voted to ban bathhouses in 1988 while living with HIV in the AIDS crisis, believing with what modern medicine we have now, coyle would be supporting him so he wouldn’t have to make the vote alone

BREAKING: The adult bathhouse and sex venues ban in Minneapolis has been repealed. Members voted 9-2 in favor, with one member abstaining and one being absent. “Today is the first step and it will not be the last,” said Council member Jason Chavez.

Wild to look at these Star Tribune poll numbers on data centers knowing half of the Minneapolis City Council supports them. Such a unifying issue across every single demographic and yet some politicians are so captured by corporate interests they still want to shove them down people’s throats.

On Thursday, the Minneapolis City Council will vote on the Welcoming and Gender Affirming Minneapolis Ordinance 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈, authored by myself, CM @aishaforward10.com, CM @aurinmpls.bsky.social, and CP @elliottpayne.org. 1/

On June 19th, 1865, the last enslaved people of African descent still held in human bondage received news of their freedom in Galveston Texas—a full two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. That delay was a deliberate choice by the white enslavers in their desperate attempt to hold onto power.

The council chamber was full with supporters wearing buttons reading “end the ban” as over 30 residents spoke. The overflow room was also at capacity, with others in the hallway. Dozens spoke in favor of repealing the ban and touched on issues such as public health, tourism and city history.

Today at our Public Health Safety & Equity committee at 1:30 PM we have a public hearing on our bathhouse regulations ordinance. These ordinance changes are technical amendments that will end legalized homophobia that was codified when the ban was passed into law.

Today’s committee vote on a technical amendment regarding bathhouses did not go the way I hoped, but it will still have a final vote next week. That being said, on Wed., June 17, the PHSE Committee will be considering a suite of policies that support our 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Come and testify! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Today during the BHZ committee, CMs Rainville, Shaffer, and Warren voted twice to kill these amendments. Despite research presented that bans *increase* HIV transmission. Despite history showing this ban was made out of homophobia.These same CMs will be at Pride while voting against our communities.

Observing ICE activity is not a crime. This is another attempt from Trump’s authoritarian regime to try and suppress free speech and dissent. But we will never stop exercising our constitutional right to legally observe the federal government’s illegal activities.

ALERT 🚨 Federal agents are being seen across our community as they arrest observers. Let me be clear, alerting our neighbors about ICE activity is not a crime, observing is not a crime, and loving your immigrant neighbors is not a crime. 1/

It’s time to repeal the Minneapolis bathhouse ban and end legalized homophobia regarding bathhouses. This ordinance would remove language to modernize and eliminate barriers to develop licenses for adult bathhouses in the future. 1/ www.startribune.com/mpls-bathous...

Happy pride!! This morning was the first ever drag show hosted in City Hall. It was a powerful message to our 2SLGBTQIA+ community that you will always be protected and celebrated here Minneapolis. www.startribune.com/minneapolis-...

The Minneapolis City Council is excited to announce additional special guests for our Pride Celebration at Minneapolis City Hall this Thursday. Vogue Down, a Black Queer artist collective, will also be a part of the celebration. 1/

The Minneapolis City Council, in collaboration with the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity Employee Resource Group (SOGI) and Neighborhood Community Relations Department (NCR) are excited to invite the community, friends and family to celebrate Pride Month 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️with us! 1/

The Minneapolis City Council is hosting a Pride Month Ceremony, Breakfast, and Drag Show (likely the first one ever) on June 11, 2026 at Minneapolis City Hall (8:00AM). We hope to see you there! More details will come.

At this point, it seems like there are only a handful of politicians across the country, regardless of party affiliation, who want data centers. In a wild twist, most of them serve on the Minneapolis City Council.

Minneapolis still has an outdated health code provision banning bathhouses and other safer sex spaces, a policy created during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis based on fear and stigma, not science. Fill this form out to ask your CM to support this: win.newmode.net/alivenesspro...

In this article Frey dismisses criticism of his nomination O’Hara as coming from the same people who always criticize him only for a couple paragraphs down Cedric Alexander and CM Vetaw to say they both brought concerns to him about O’Hara and he refused to act. www.startribune.com/minneapolis-...

It was a massive error in judgment for Mayor Frey to nominate Chief O’Hara while there were active investigations into very serious accusations that had been rumored for months. This is what happens when you prioritize optics and political expediency over governance and accountability.

The rare diagnosis of Uptown's issues that doesn't mention the medians. www.startribune.com/twin-cities-...

Like many others, I ran for City Council because the City of Minneapolis & Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. I will never forget the sadness and the outrage I felt when I saw the video Darnella Frazier bravely recorded, revealing the truth—that this was a public lynching, not a medical incident.

this graphic is brilliant messaging. the iconography of the minneapolis skyline in general is mostly only used by the mayor so progressive council members using it, esp with the mississippi river featured when the moratorium is an environmental win for the entire city is just so good, love to see it

Don’t forget data centers

Any short term job created by the building of a data center will result in thousands more lost in the long run by the advancement of AI and automation. It’s very short-sighted to think that the expansion of data centers and unregulated AI helps workers as their jobs & environment will be destroyed.

Reporting here confirming that Anoka and Scott County are actively working with ICE handing people over. That may seem far away because we’re Hennepin county, but you have to remember Anoka county directly borders Minneapolis with Columbia Heights. sahanjournal.com/immigration/...

With permission from one of my habeas clients, I can share that the Bloomington Police Department is proactively cooperating with ICE to detain our neighbors. This is a screenshot of official ICE records which show that a BPD officer reached out to ICE to drop a dime on someone in local custody.

This is a much needed step. Accountability has to be central to recovery from Operation Metro Surge. Every single person in the chain of command—from the agents who shot and murdered Minneapolis residents, to the President—need to be prosecuted, and then we need to abolish DHS.

My office has our monthly office hours tonight from 5-7 PM at 56 Brewing. Come join us!

“Research shows evictions drive poverty and homelessness, smudge renters’ records and limit future housing opportunities. Evictions during pregnancy are associated with adverse birth outcomes.”

The offices of myself & @jchavezmpls.bsky.social are hosting a community engagement meeting on our ordinance to match commercial pre-eviction notice requirements with the residential requirement of 30 days. Come join us on Monday May 11th from 5:30-7:00 PM at Windom Park Rec Center to learn more.

And yes, I have love and appreciation for this so called ‘pet project’ that was vetoed via the budget in 2024 by Mayor Frey. The city’s funding would never have been possible if we had not overturned that veto.

The progressives on the Minneapolis City Council led the $7 million small business resiliency fund, $1 million immigrant legal assistance, $3.8 in rental assistance and met with a donor who matched $3 million, strengthened our separation ordinance. If being pro-human is FAR LEFT then count me in.

While Mayor Frey travels the country accepting awards on the backs of immigrants, he’s back in Minneapolis vetoing the very policies meant to protect them. 1/ www.startribune.com/frey-again-v...

Our city was illegally occupied for months by the federal government who proceeded to kill multiple residents. The occupation has left so many people struggling to pay rent or struggling with addiction after such a traumatic time. The Mayor’s message to those people today: get fucked.

It was said behind the scenes that a temporary 45 day eviction notice (15 more than we have now) was a compromise the Mayor was willing to support. Just more broken promises and lies like always.

City streets should not be designed in a way that allows for the kind of speed necessary to inflict this kind of damage.

That these five council members stood up for data centers on the dais on the same day this article came out is kind of funny but ultimately moot because these findings are irrelevant in the CMs' analysis. arstechnica.com/ai/2026/04/g...

Council Members Shaffer, Rainville, Vetaw, Palmisano, and Warren just voted to try and stop the City Council from even considering a moratorium on data centers in Minneapolis. Apparently some supposed DFLers are so captured by corporate interests they’re pro data centers now. Appalling.

Making daily videos during an occupation leads to some bloopers.

Last term, Council President Payne led the most productive council in recent history. We aren’t stopping this term either. Progressives are delivering. I don’t want to hear about a lack of “priorities” when progressives are the only ones bringing policy and solutions forward. 2/

This is all just a set up. Most productive council in history, most diverse, and people who just work really hard for our neighbors. We get made to be punching bag to tee up for the charter amendment on the ballot to strip council power and in turn constituent power. Don’t fall for it.