Everyone in Minneapolis will have this race on their ballot, and it’s a bit of a doozy in terms of “complicated history” and “lots of candidates,” so buckle up. I am posting this with my current choice of candidates, then come back and edit in late October, based on the vibes I’m getting at that point in the race.

There are three seats up, and eight people running. This is ranked-choice race and you get to rank three people. Exactly how this shakes out is complicated, and I strongly recommend watching this video that explains how a multi-seat instant runoff vote works:

The key detail here that I think people need to take into account: when it’s a one-person race, you get to rank three candidates, which means if there are three people you like you can list them in order of preference. With a three-person race, you also get to rank three candidates, which means “who among the candidates I like are the most likely to beat the candidates I don’t like” becomes a more important piece of the equation.

Here’s who’s running, and then I will put in a cut because this is going to get very, very long.

Matthew Dowgwillo
Meg Forney (Incumbent)
Amber A. Frederick (DFL-endorsed)
Mary McKelvey
Tom Olsen (DFL-endorsed, Incumbent)
Adam Schneider (Green and DSA-endorsed)
Averi M. Turner
Michael Wilson (DFL-endorsed)

tl;dr if I were voting today (September 30th) I would vote (1) Tom Olsen, (2) Michael Wilson, (3) Amber Frederick. I may revise that closer to the election, depending (as noted) in part on vibes. ETA 10/30: I’m happy with my rankings.

The results of the park board election in 2021 were centrist-dominated and included several people I really deeply dislike (although two of my least favorites, Becka Thompson and Elizabeth Shaffer, decided to run for council instead of Park Board this year.) The board did some things I liked, like passing the plan to reduce the size of the Hiawatha golf course (which had been delayed for years by golf-loving park board members despite the existing golf course really truly not being viable in the long term due to the amount of water on the site).

But they’ve also done stuff like prioritizing parking over parkland in very direct ways. Last spring, there was a vote on the Uptown Mall, which is a stretch of park-owned land between Hennepin and Lake of the Isles:

Here’s a zoomed-in segment with the overhead view so you can see what’s green and what’s paved (and where people are parking):

So: parkland, but currently really underutilized from a park perspective. There were five years of community engagement followed by a detailed plan for this space produced in 2021, which included a play area, a connection to the Greenway, a “shared woonerf” that could be used for stuff like farmer’s markets or art festivals, and a community garden. When this plan was originally created, it looked like it wouldn’t be implemented for years, because it would require money to be allocated to do it. However, this year, the Met Council announced they were going to do a sewer rebuild, which involved tearing out all the roads anyway, and offered to rebuild it however the Park Board wanted it rebuilt. It was an absolutely amazing opportunity for a free park, basically.

And the current Park Board turned it down, because the rebuild would sacrifice parking. Parking that can’t be legally used overnight, but never mind that. Supporting the rebuild were Tom Olsen, Becky Alper (not running for re-election), and Meg Forney. Everyone else on the Park Board voted against it. Their claim was that this was for fire safety reason because the Fire Department prefers a 20-foot road width. The park plan includes a “shared use woonerf/flexible market street” that’s the normal 12′ road width, the same width the road is now, minus the parking area. It’s the parking area (8′) that makes the current road as wide as the Fire Department considers ideal — but it’s used for parking! There are cars there! The board then voted against banning parking there, or even enforcing the on-the-books overnight parking ban, demonstrating conclusively that the claim this was about fire safety (rather than parking) was “pee on someone’s leg and claim it’s raining” levels of disingenuous. (Also, Minneapolis is full of streets that don’t provide that ideal 20′ road width and the Fire Department copes with this just fine.)

The current Park Board also oversaw a three-week strike, the first in the 141-year history of the Minneapolis Parks. Several weeks in, Commissioners Tom Olsen (at-large, running for re-election) and Becky Alper brought a resolution to the board that would have pushed the Superintendent to drop contract language that the union considered a dealbreaker and return to the language from the prior contract. Billy Menz voted with them to add it to the agenda; Rucker (then at-large, now running for District 2) was absent that day; and Meg Forney (at-large, running for-relection), Cathy Abene (District 6, running for re-election), Stephanie Musich (District 5, running for re-election), Elizabeth Shaffer (District 4, now running for City Council) and Becka Thompson (District 2, now running for City Council) all voted against even discussing this resolution, with Becka saying she didn’t know enough about the contract to comment on it. (!)

Anyway, LiUNA and organized labor more broadly was pretty pissed off about this whole thing, and LiUNA issued a “don’t vote for the union busters” statement ahead of the DFL City Convention.

So that brings us to the convention. In the last hour of the convention, Jacob Frey’s supporters walked out in an attempt to break the quorum and force an end to the convention, and this failed. (Quick explanation of this for anyone who needs it: a quorum is the minimum number of people you have to have present for a meeting to do business. At a DFL convention it’s 50% of the people you started with. Sometimes if things are close, you and all your supporters can walk out and force the meeting to end because you’ve made there be a lack of a quorum, and it can also be a delay tactic because they have to count. However, if you walk out and fail to break the quorum, you’ve just handed over control to your opponent. I’ve been part of attempted walkouts that failed spectacularly. It’s rare that it works, and was a bad call on Frey’s part.) Anyway! The endorsement of Omar Fateh did not stick, but the convention also endorsed a bunch of people for Park Board, and those endorsements did stick.

This has not discouraged the centrist PACs from sidling up to the Park Board race (though it’s not their top priority) — on September 29th an e-mail went out advocating for an “apolitical Park Board” and signed by some of the most aggressively centrist, absolutely fucking political people in town. (Also. My friends. Park Board is a political office. People are campaigning. If you want an apolitical park board you cannot also elect park board commissioners.)

ETA 10/30: There was a LWV-sponsored forum of the Park Board At-Large candidates, which you can watch here.

On to the candidates!

Matthew Dowgwillo

Matthew Dowgwillo is one of the people that those Super Apolitical people want to see elected. His site says he’s the only person running who’s the parent of young kids. (This may be true, but I will note that the thing about having young kids is that it’s an inherently temporary state. I’m not sure what age his kids are, but if one is ten years old right now, that kid will be fourteen by the end of the current term.) He also says, “I believe real leadership and democracy means you set the priorities” and elsewhere reiterated, “I believe in Democracy. My mission on the Park Board will be to deliver what the majority wants.”

So here’s the thing about that. Part of why we elect representatives is that on many given issues, it can actually be genuinely hard to assess what the majority of your constituents want. What you’re going to know is what the majority of the people calling your office and showing up at meetings to yell at you want, you’ll know that for sure. If you’re planning projects, you’re hopefully doing a bunch of engagement and talking to people, but at the point you actually get to implementation you will hear from anyone who is inconvenienced (or imagines that they will be inconvenienced) and at that point they will furiously accuse you of not listening because you did not knock on their door and ask them, specifically, what they thought of your plan. Or if you did and they ignored you, they will be mad that you didn’t come back. “I want you to set the priorities; my mission is to deliver what the majority wants!” from someone running for local office is in so many cases to be a promise to cater to the most obnoxious NIMBY assholes in the city.

I e-mailed and asked how he planned to determine what the majority wants. He said his plan is (1) Talking to people, (2) Monitoring usage data, and (3) “Willingness to vote against myself” (I am not actually sure what he means by that, whether he means that if a majority of people wants to get rid of a ball field his kid likes he’d go along with it, or something else.) Monitoring usage data is a reasonable thing that I think the parks already do, although this gets rapidly more complicated when you start to ask questions like, “how do we measure usage of spaces like golf courses — do we count ‘number of visitors to this amenity’ or do we count ‘number of visitors per acreage of amenity?'”

His choices in meeting voters have been weird and annoying. (He went to a kids’ soccer game, interrupted conversations, and blocked people’s views of their kids; he showed up to make a speech in a class at the Y.) I would not rank him.

ETA 10/30: Hiawatha for All asked candidates if they would back the plan to transition the unsustainable 18-hole golf course to a 9-hole golf course. Dowgwillo gave a non-answer and I was told that at the Parks & Power forum for at-large candidates he said he opposed the plan (but that forum is not online so I can’t check it or link to it, unfortunately.) You can read all his responses to the Hiawatha for All questionnaire here.

Averi M. Turner

Averi Turner is a teacher who has worked at the KIPP charter school and a Roseville school; I’m not sure where she’s currently working. She is endorsed by incumbent Meg Forney and by my current least favorite City Council person LaTrisha Vetaw. Her campaign website isn’t very substantive; I went poking through her Facebook and Instagram and there’s a lot on there but not much related to parks.

She does have some civic experience; she’s on the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice. I had no idea there were people on that board who weren’t medical practitioners themselves. I e-mailed her to ask where she stood on the “parking vs. park land” question and whether she sought labor endorsements, and have not yet heard back. (Emailed her on October 1st; it’s now the 6th. I will try to update if I hear from her.) In an article in the Southwest Connector she emphasized ADA accessibility but that’s not highlighted on her website.

ETA 10/30: I never got a response to her on my questions and she did not respond to Hiawatha For All’s questionnaire. At the LWV forum she responded to question about landback by talking about discussing the Lake Hiawatha Golf Course project with Harry Davis, Jr. (one of the people who’s been advocating for maintaining the unsustainable 18-hole golf course) so I think she would try to undo the current plan.

I would not rank her.

Mary McKelvey

Mary McKelvey ran last time and seemed non-horrible but didn’t really distinguish herself. She sounds like she’s profoundly uncomfortable with campaigning. (To be fair: this would ABSOLUTELY BE ME if I tried to run for office. “Maybe if I stand here with a sign people will come talk to me and I won’t have to approach them?” I think a lot of people find this relatable tbh.) She is endorsed by the group that sent out the Super Apolitical e-mail, and when Tim Peterson (who’s awful) (seriously, so awful) dropped out of the Park Board At-Large race, he endorsed Mary (and Meg).

Mary has served on some citizen advisory committees (her website mentions the Parks for All committee, the Minnehaha Creek Watershed committee, and the Pedestrian Advisory Committee). She’s also a teacher. I e-mailed her to ask where she stood on the “parking vs. park land” question and whether she sought labor endorsements. She responded with a spirited response defending the need for parking in that area:

The Southwest Service Area Master Plan (SWSAMP) had more meetings than any other, and Brian Nalezny, who is a friend, deserves more recognition for chairing all of them. I don’t want the Board to relitigate Long Range Plans after they are made. This should only happen if there is an unforeseen change, or missing information presents itself before implementation. […] That said, I feel like there were important pieces of city information that were not considered by the CAC on the Mall portion of the SWSAMP. The Mall was the only place in SW where a large amount of parking would be removed next to a place of high-density living, with no other options within a safe distance at night. The Mall has unfortunately been a less safe area in the last few years. 

There is a process of determining the percentage of parking spaces used over a 24 hour period on a street. This percentage is necessary information before removing the parking (or private vehicle storage) for safe bike or pedestrian infrastructure. Because the Mall proposal involved parkland that required removing a street, this city process should have been part of the planning, and I don’t see it in the staff planning feedback notes. [Note from Naomi: pretty sure it’s here.] I am aware that overnight parking is not allowed on parkways, but a) the Mall is not a through-street like other parkways and b) petty parking violations are the bane of everyday peoples’ lives. Government should try to help, not punish people for basic needs, and cars are a basic need for most. Removing parking won’t change that reality, and it won’t stop people from driving or reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT).

I have personal lived experience with the Mall: I lived at 2845 Irving Ave South in my 20s. My best friend lived on Irving between Lagoon and the Mall and had an even harder time parking. We both worked outside of a transit zone – I taught middle school in Golden Valley, and my friend worked in Mendota Heights. I am an avid biker, too, but…winter, darkness, and stacks of papers to grade. The reality was that we needed a private vehicle to work, and nighttime parking was scarce even then.

Some have made the case that homeowners (Mike Erlandson specifically) are upset about having people parking in front of their houses; the reality is that people already do that today, and removing the Mall spots would just make renters’ lives harder, and maybe make some women feel less safe having to walk extra blocks at all hours in an area that isn’t the safest or the most well-lit. If you watch the open time testimony at the MPRB meetings about the Mall, it was telling to see a flood of first-time testifiers (not people who regularly interact with government), and actual Mall residents, showing up to speak their minds in favor of keeping the current design.

It seems like those voices most impacted were ignored in the planning process, or not asked to begin with.

So (me again, sorry, that was a long excerpt but she’d sent me a thoughtful enough response I wanted to include most of it). Here’s the parking study. I will give Mary credit for being honest that this was about parking and not fire safety and just saying straight up she thinks the area needs the parking.

Regarding labor endorsements, she said she entered the race too late to get them, but has supported labor as a member (when she was a teacher) and politically, and she stands by workers.

I would not rank her but if you’re a moderate I think she’s a better candidate than Dowgwillo or Turner.

Meg Forney (Incumbent)

Meg has been on the Park Board for quite a long time now and although I am not a huge fan of her politics (or her actions around the Park Board worker strike), I will give her credit for the fact that she voted with Tom Olsen and Becky Alper on the “should we turn this park land into an actual park, or is parking more important?” thing. She is, frankly, currently my favorite of the moderates, and if you’re one of the moderates consulting my guide to see who you should vote against, let me just put in a plug for ranking her first on your ballot. She brings a wealth of institutional knowledge and my impression of her is that she manages to be both resolute and cheerful, which on the chronic high-drama Park Board is a combination of characteristics worth valuing. (I will admit that she won me over a bit on a personal level in 2021; I gave her a very snarky writeup that included some factual errors, and she sent me an e-mail with corrections that managed to be so pleasant and cheerful I felt guilty for being mean to her.) Anyway, I still would not rank her! But of the moderates, she’s the one I’d be happiest about keeping.

So that brings us to the four people I’d be excited to rank.

Tom Olsen (DFL-endorsed, Incumbent)

Tom is the easy one: I would rank Tom first. He’s been a consistent voice on the Park Board for green space over parking, pedestrian access to parks over car access to parks, and other things I like. He was also one of the Park Board members who tried to settle the strike. Just a solid Park Board rep all around (and even if you’re one of the moderates reading this who loves Meg Forney, I think you should also rank Tom and then feel that warm “I’m so apolitical!” glow, or whatever.)

Michael Wilson (DFL-endorsed)

Michael Wilson has been a parks worker, working as a lifeguard and later overseeing the Aquatics/Swim Education program for the Minneapolis Parks. (He’s also a grant writer, which seems like a useful skill set to add to the park board.)

Not surprisingly, his platform has some stuff about swimming: he would like all kids in Minneapolis to get affordable swimming lessons. (I’m totally for this. Water is so central to so much in Minnesota, everyone who grows up here should be comfortable enough in the water that if they fall out of a boat, they can get themselves up to the surface and tread water for a minute or two while their friends figure out how to get them back in the boat.) I e-mailed him and got a bunch more details about the swimming plan:

The way it would work is essentially a partnership between MPRB and MPS. Around 3rd grade is roughly the best window in youth development for most kids to really pick up on swim skills (I’m painting with a wide brush here). Work between MPRB and MPS is underway now to develop the structure of the program, exactly what the costs and funding sources are, and the plan is for there to be a phased implementation in 2026. There are a lot of MPS schools with pools in them, including Dowling, Northeast, Olson, Southwest, and Franklin. […] This is a necessary program, and I have great intergovernmental relationships as well as the background in exactly this kind of work to be a commissioner to see this through. I get so excited thinking about it!

He is endorsed by Labor as well as the DFL, and brings a good combination of “commitment to stuff I care about” and “significant knowledge and background specifically related to the Minneapolis Parks” to the table. I would rank him second.

That brings me to Amber A. Frederick (DFL and Labor-endorsed) and Adam Schneider (Green-endorsed and endorsed by many people I respect, including Katie Cashman and Taylor Dahlin).

Amber A. Frederick (DFL-endorsed)

Amber works for YMCA of the North as a youth services specialist (mainly working in housing). Earlier this year she was a candidate in the race for Ward 5 City Council, but shifted gears after the ward convention, where she was dropped from consideration after the first ballot. On her website, she talks about how her work with young people in crisis has shown her that parks can give “a sense of normalcy and belonging to kids experiencing trauma.” Her own experiences in the parks are largely personal (“my love of parks comes from the mentorship and inspiration I received from volunteer coaches in youth sports like soccer growing up”) — she does not mention serving on any of the planning committees, commissions, etc.

Her endorsements list made me squint my eyes and make a face. It’s not the standard set of awful centrists, to be clear — it’s got a bunch of people who are awful for other reasons. Her endorsements include former Park Board commissioners Brad Bourn, AK Hassan, and Kale Severson. Brad Bourn was notoriously unpleasant to work with; AK Hassan was shockingly disengaged; Kale Severson ran as a Green and then went to the mat to protect the unsustainable Hiawatha Golf Course. (Correction from the comments: while he ran as a Green in his 2013 Ward 5 city council race, he ran as a DFLer when he ran for Park Board in 2017.) She’s also got some school board members, two State Reps, and Hennepin County Commissioner Marion Greene (who I like). I think part of the issue she ran into with endorsements was that she entered the race late and Adam Schneider, who got in last December, scooped up a whole lot of local Democrats, but the particular combination of former Park Board commissioners made me worry she wanted to resurrect the issue of that golf course. I e-mailed her to ask and she replied to say that she wanted to look forward, not backward, and did not intend to rehash the golf course issue.

I also asked for her thoughts on the parks vs. parking spaces question more broadly. Her response: “On the broader issue of bike, pedestrian, and multi-modal access to the parks, “I want to make sure parkways and malls owned by the Park Board play a role for everyone to access parks. In many areas, I think the Park Board could go further in providing pedestrian opportunities for parkway use. I know Commissioners Meyer, Cowgill, and Alper Olsen have often championed this with resistance, and I’d be supportive of continuing that work. I also think we should explore more fully what is necessary for Metro Transit/bus use on parkways. All that said, I do think that there are important accessibility needs for some families that are still best met by car. Many park users need specialized mobility equipment like power chairs, walkers, and scooters, and I do not want well-intentioned policy to inadvertently make our parks less accessible to folks that already have accessibility challenges.”

Adam Schneider (Green-endorsed)

Adam is endorsed by the Green party and the DSA, as well as a bunch of current and former City Council members, some school board members, and various others. He is the “Greening Coordinator” for Stevens Square and has been involved in the Roof Depot redevelopment fight. He says he’s running to advance climate and environmental justice; his platform leads with expanding solar on park buildings and goes on to talk about expanding bike paths, supporting workers and local businesses, improving Rec Plus (the after-school day care run through the parks that provides care for a huge number of Minneapolis school kids) and focusing on neighborhood parks.

I asked him about his experiences with park governance and he e-mailed back to say that he started following the Park Board while working in Little Earth for AmeriCorps, looking for programs and services that he could help the community access, and has been attending meetings since launching his campaign (though as things have picked up he’s switched to watching the livestream.)

Adam’s endorsements include several Labor organizers (and he would clearly, clearly be on the side of the workers in a fight) but none of the unions. He did screen for union endorsement, and I think he didn’t get it because the unions concluded that backing endorsed DFLers gave them a better shot at getting three supporters elected.

As a side note: Greens on the Park Board have a really mixed history. Kale Severson ran as a Green and became a golf course ride-or-die. (Correction from the comments: he ran as a Green for his City Council run in 2013 — he ran for the Park Board as a DFLer.) LaTrisha Vetaw ran as a Green and went on to become one of the most conservative DFLers in Minneapolis. However, Annie Young was also a Green, and stayed radical and badass right up to the day she died. Adam wrote about Annie Young this week and also has the DSA endorsement, so I think he’s less likely to follow the “I joined the Greens because I felt vaguely disaffected” pipeline to centrism.

SO OKAY. Having thought about this: I would rank Amber #3 for a couple of reasons. First, I really do like her background working in youth services. Second, you can only pick three candidates, and I do think that the DFL endorsement gives people a significant edge. However, that third ranking is the one I am least certain about and I may revisit it before the election. ETA 10/30: I’m comfortable with my choice here.

AND A NOTE FOR THE CENTRISTS (I know tons of you read my blog). Do not vote for Dowgwillo or Turner, seriously. They’re both genuinely unqualified in important ways (go read Dowgwillo’s responses to the Hiawatha for All questionnaire, because you should see his written communication skills. Go watch them both flounder at the LWV forum.)

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I have a new book coming out next June! This one is not YA; it’s a near-future thriller about an obstetrician who gets kidnapped by a cult because they want someone on site to deliver babies. You can pre-order it right now if you want.

I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi but instead encourage people who want to reward all my hard work to donate to fundraisers. This year I’m fundraising for YouthLink. YouthLink is a Minneapolis nonprofit that helps youth (ages 16-24) who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. (Here’s their website.) I have seen some of the work they do and been really impressed. (An early donor to the fundraiser added a comment: “YouthLink was incredible instrumental in my assistance of a friend to escape a bad family situation in Florida with little more than a computer and a state ID. Thanks to YouthLink and their knowledge of resources my friend was able to get a mailing address (which was essential in getting a debit card and formal identification documents), healthcare, hot meals, an internship at a local company, and even furniture for their new apartment.” — That is exactly the sort of thing I’m talking about!)