 One topic that has come up consistently in my conversations with people throughout this campaign is the future of Uptown. As a cornerstone of vibrancy in our district, the health of Uptown is important to me, too. I’ve lived in the district for over a decade, and as a former Board President of the Lowry Hill East Neighborhood Association, I know that Uptown’s success is linked to adjacent neighborhoods. As a resident of the Wedge, I shop and visit friends along Hennepin weekly. Being able to walk to a restaurant for dinner, to get last-minute groceries, to buy a birthday gift for a friend, or attend a show is what I love most about where I live.
The neighborhood is going through a difficult time of recovery post-pandemic and post-civil unrest with a two-year road reconstruction underway. It has impacted the neighborhood in many ways, including stifling the small independent businesses that make this part of our district appealing to so many. Road construction is a challenge for communities. As a longtime member of the City’s Capital Long-Range Improvement Committee, I learned in great detail about the 6 year planning horizons that the City of Minneapolis works on, how projects are prioritized, how the budget comes together, and the massive amount of coordination needed to bring these projects to fruition. The average roadway lasts between 30 and 50 years. Hennepin Ave was last re-done 70 years ago and it shows—the potholes were deep enough that we could see the long buried trolley tracks below. As a City-owned and managed asset, the city of Minneapolis led the normal 6 year planning process, with some added in scrutiny and outreach due to the pandemic and the importance of the road, and the City voted on a plan to move the project forward. This long overdue deferred maintenance is hitting our community hard. It is disruptive for residents, travelers, and especially for businesses. Now, we are in the hard part of the construction itself. Rep. Hornstein and Sen. Dibble have championed great short term solutions for this disruption, like an expansion of the recently passed MN Promise Act and expanding the applicability of Lake Street recovery funds to include Hennepin and Uptown. At our DFL convention in March, I gave a speech that included ways I will advocate for Uptown. In my remarks, I shared my policy idea I would draft on day one, if elected, that would establish a statewide grant program that is incorporated directly into road reconstruction for commercial roads like Hennepin Avenue. I’ve thought about this issue a lot, and we should take lessons from the Green Line Light Rail Transit project which used state grant funding to successfully help independent businesses on University Ave survive their construction period. My proposal would bake this grant into road projects with a dedicated small percentage of each budget going towards affected small, independent and minority-owned businesses as small business grants. By building it into the road budgets this way it would be a durable solution embedded into our system and would benefit our district right now as well as other cities across the state. These small walkable establishments like the ones along Hennepin, Lake, and Lyndale are valuable to our communities, and they should not suffer because of basic infrastructure maintenance. My decision to run is and always has been to do the most good for our neighborhoods, and we all want Uptown to thrive. Our state can play a role in supporting our local economy with the right vision and understanding of the challenges faced, and I promise to keep Uptown a priority as your representative. In a moment when lobbying efforts at the Capitol have outsized influence, sending a champion deeply rooted in our district is more important than ever.
0 Comments
 It is an honor to share with you my latest endorsement from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison: "Katie Jones leads with justice and compassion. She's a proven leader fighting for what's right for communities in Minneapolis, and for the rights of Minnesotans. I'm thrilled to support her campaign for Minnesota House in 61A." As the People's Lawyer, Keith Ellison has been a tireless fighter for our rights. After the Dobbs decision in 2022, he used his position to protect people coming to our state for abortion care. He is a reproductive freedom champion through his work informing the public of Crisis Pregancy Centers' health care misinformation and his ceaseless defense of trans lives. He has a strong track record of protecting consumers, like his push for medical debt reform, taking on fraud, and holding bad actors accountable including corporations whose practices harm our communities. And Ellison's leadership in the prosecution of Derek Chauvin following the murder of George Floyd brought justice for Floyd's family—an important step towards helping our city and state heal. This barely covers all the ways Ellison shows up for Minnesotans. I first met Keith at a Get Out the Vote rally ahead of the 2022 general election, and his organizing legacy in our district is one I hope to carry if elected to the Minnesota House. If elected, I will be a partner with Keith in the continued fight for consumer rights and protections. I will also work to hold polluters accountable, push for fair marketplace by advancing anti-trust and anti-monopoly policies, expand workers rights, and maintain our state's legacy of protecting LGBTQ+ rights and the full range of reproductive health care. These people-centered policies are how we build a more just, resilient, and thriving Minnesota, together. Onward, Katie Jones Last year, Minnesota passed major transportation and land use legislation that will help fight climate change in our state and make our communities more livable and equitable by doing so. It is significant in a state where our transportation policy historically did the opposite. When the Twin Cities built our federal highway decades ago, it encouraged sprawl and directly harmed Black communities and cultural centers in North Minneapolis and Rondo through displacement and physical segregation while polluting the corridors people lived near for generations. Equity and justice are becoming more central to transportation policy decisions and conversations and we're seeing signs of progress because of it. I had the honor of working on 2023's landmark policies with our state legislators. And today, these laws have gained attention from across the country. Minnesota is now viewed as a leader on this front, and we must continue to be one for lasting impact. Last Monday, I traveled to Washington D.C. where I was invited to meet with the Future of Transportation Caucus, members of Congress committed to creating a transporation system that emphasizes equity, access, and sustainability. I was joined by the Rocky Mountain Institute, Transportation for America and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, and we discussed the challenges with transportation funding overprioritizing highways and how Minnesota is approaching that problem. We also covered the ways Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding may worsen climate change efforts by fueling highway expansion. While everyone wants safe infrastructure in good repair, adding "just one more lane" to our roads encourages traffic demand, doesn't alleviate congestion, and only exacerbates our climate crisis.  Speaking with Congressional staff about Minnesota's approach to reducing greenhouse gases Our partners in Congress need to know how infrastructure funding is being spent in ways that work against our shared goals for a sustainable and just future. It is critical to control highway expansion in Minnesota and create better transportation options for people that don't create negative impacts on our communities or our planet. Expanded highways are investments in longer commutes, meaning less time we can spend with our families and friends and doing the things we care about. It also leads to urban sprawl, which isn't fiscally sustainable and eats up our agricultural and natural land. Being thoughtful with our resources is a Minnesotan value.
As part of my visit, I spoke with staff from Senator Ed Markey’s office. They are working on the GREEN Streets Act, federal legislation to establish national goals on greenhouse gas emissions that follows progress made by Minnesota and Colorado. I also met with a Senator Tina Smith’s team, who was interested in the transportation and land use law and excited about working on ways we can reduce greehouse gases at every level of government. I was also thrilled to learn she’s working on a national energy efficiency standard, an effort she championed before the pandemic. Working with our federal partners by sharing on-the-ground impact in our district is key to mitigating the harm of climate change and taking the bold action this moment requires. We know that transportation and land use in Minnesota impacts our local community's health and well-being in addition to global climate efforts. It's as important as ever for our state to lead because our progress can inspire the rest of our country—it already has. This is work I am excited to lead into the future, continuing our district’s legacy improving the daily lives of Minnesotans. Onward, Katie Jones |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
RSS Feed