from the series Peace House Community Journal…
By MARTI MALTBY
On July 2, the City of Minneapolis announced a new effort to deal with the open-air drug markets that plague the city, especially the neighborhoods served by the alley. By the time you read this, the announcement will be a month old, and we will hopefully have some idea of how the effort is going. My prediction is that current problem areas will get safer, but currently safer areas will become more dangerous.
I can’t pretend that I could solve the problems that drugs cause in Minneapolis, even if I was given an unlimited budget and power, but I can anticipate some of the hurdles that will trip up this effort. Some are inevitable, such as the addictive nature of drugs. There is no way to remove the attraction of drugs, especially among those who already use them. There’s also no way to remove the profit motive from dealing drugs. No matter what the City does, there will always be buyers and sellers.
However, there are hurdles that can be overcome, but only through thoughtful planning and diligent execution. One of the biggest of these is the need for decision makers to face what is not working, and to admit that the decisions they have made in the past have contributed to the current situation. So far, this doesn’t seem to be happening.
The City’s announcement of the new initiative included the following quotation from Council Vice President Jamal Osman: “People struggling with addiction need help. Drug dealers and traffickers who profit from addiction need accountability. Neighborhoods need safety. Government needs to act.” I was tracking with Osman until the “Government needs to act” line. Osman’s own update from the same day included the lines, “Native leaders and community organizations have been telling the truth about what their families, students, elders, workers, and neighbors are experiencing. They deserve to be heard. They deserve to be supported. And they deserve partners in government who are willing to act.” This from a man who has been on the city council since 2020. He should have been hearing the concerns of the Native community and all other residents for six years. Many people have repeatedly brought these concerns to him since his first election, but there isn’t a lot of evidence that he has been listening.
Mayor Frey didn’t come off any better. During the press conference to announce the new initiative, he commented that “People deserve to feel safe where they live, and we’re working hand in hand with law enforcement, jurisdictional partners, and our Native community to deliver on that promise.” We’ve seen what happens when the City relies on law enforcement to solve problems like this. A year or two ago, Mayor Frey announced that the City had ended street homelessness in Minneapolis through a police crackdown on encampments. Readers of the alley know how truthful that comment was.
While I agreed with Osman and Frey that legal consequences must be part of the solution, I am worried that this will be the City’s only response. The mention of partnership with the Native community is encouraging. Sadly, the City has made such statements in the past without dedicating the appropriate resources to that side of the equation. There are many community and social service organizations, along with individual citizens, who want to be part of the solution, but the City needs to show that it will include them in its response. More likely, the City will rely on policing and hope that everyone else finds resources to do their part.
Frey and Osman are not the only ones who deserve scrutiny. There are plenty of others that are part of the current drug ecosystem, but space doesn’t allow more than a quick comment on what’s happening.
As I said, this is nothing more than my prediction. I would be incredibly happy if I had to write an abject apology to the Mayor and Council Vice President Osman in the future for misjudging their commitment to this effort. If my bruised ego was the worst outcome to this situation, it would be a day to celebrate. But I don’t think that will happen. I think there will be fanfare at the start, the drug dealers will continue to operate, destabilizing new areas of the neighborhoods, and the City will claim success anyway.
