The city of Minneapolis announced the first awardees of its Vibrant Storefronts Initiative. The city’s pilot program subsidizes the rent of formerly vacant storefronts downtown for artists and arts organizations.

The awardees include Black Business Enterprises, Twin Cities Pride, Skntones creative agency, Blackbird Revolt design studio and Flavor World arts and entertainment company. The city’s Arts and Cultural Affairs department chose the awardees from 43 applicants.

“They selected the brightest and most talented people that we have in the city to fill these spaces with creativity,” said Mayor Jacob Frey in a press conference at one of the formerly vacant storefronts at 1128 Harmon Place.

“The whole idea is that it’s not just any creativity. It’s edgy. It puts you on the edge of your seat a little bit. It challenges our perspective. It requires us to all think outside the box, and it’s livening up an area.”

The five arts and culture organizations will occupy spaces within a few blocks of each other near Loring Park in the city’s effort to create a cultural hub. The city reports that the initiative will distribute $224,202 “to foster creativity, enhance vibrancy, and promote sustainability in Minneapolis.”

“This program was meant to not only address the the lack of vibrancy in the storefronts, but also address the affordable space crisis that are facing artists in our community, and so we’re trying to combine and solve both of those through this initiative,” said Ben Johnson, arts and cultural affairs director.

Blackbird Revolt owner and founder, University of Minnesota associate design professor Terresa Moses, said the initiative would help the studio fulfill its dreams and help revitalize downtown.

“What that includes is us working together to intersect design, animation, video, photography with black liberation, with abolition, with justice, with the things that we find are important, lifting up our voices and our narrative,” Moses told the crowd. Blackbird Revolt will occupy 1128 Harmon Place.

Twin Cities Pride executive director Andi Otti said it was an opportunity for the longstanding organization to deepen its roots. Otti announced the creation of the new Pride Cultural Arts Center (PCAC) at 1201 Harmon Place, just blocks away from where the Twin Cities Pride Festival takes place at Loring Park every June. 

“By creating a physical location and a cultural hub for the community connection and growth, the PCAC will serve as a dynamic platform for expression, education and support,” Otti said. “It will be a safe, welcoming and vibrant environment where community members and our allies can celebrate arts and culture.”

Nancy Korsah is the founder of Black Business Enterprises (BBE), a business-to-business service provider that provides guidance to entrepreneurs. The goal is to turn the BBE storefront at 1128 Harmon Place into an art activation hub. 

“We want to make sure that you understand that art is not dead,” Korsah said. “We are here to bring the neighborhood back alive, and we’re going to work together, all of us, to ensure that we can create spaces for artists to really express themselves and to showcase the incredible talent that is Minneapolis.”

The storefront leases will run for two years. Current awardees will have the option to renew. 

“These neighborhoods and these buildings have been vacant for a long time,” said Minneapolis Council member Katie Cashman. “So, I’m really happy that the city this year decided to invest in artists as a strategy to fill vibrant storefronts.”

The city’s Arts and Cultural Affairs department hopes to expand the program in 2025.

A major part of reforms for the Minneapolis Police Department may never come to be. 

That part is the federal consent decree — which the city is still negotiating with the Department of Justice — given President-Elect Donald Trump’s track record surrounding this kind of action. 

“When President Trump came in, he shut the whole thing down,” Emily Gunston, a former deputy chief with the DOJ about the pending consent decree with the city of Chicago she was working on when Trump began his first term. 

“I think folks should expect that that’s exactly what President Trump will do in a second term, with regard to Minneapolis,” Gunston added. 

In her more than twenty years working in the area of police practices, Gunston says she spent 9 years in the DOJ, mostly under President Barrack Obama’s administration, investigating and negotiating several consent decrees. 

Following the murder of George Floyd, DOJ investigators said the MPD and the City of Minneapolis engaged in a, “pattern or practice of conduct in violation of the U.S. Constitution and federal law.”

Now months in the making, the city has been negotiating with the DOJ to finalize a federal consent decree. 

“Because a court is not yet involved. President Trump, the Trump administration and new attorney general could just decide that this is not a case that they are pursuing,” Gunston added. 

In a statement, Minneapolis attorney Kristyn Anderson shared the following.

City leadership has and will continue to prioritize negotiations with the Department of Justice and work toward a federal consent decree. Our commitment to reforming policing in Minneapolis and building a more just approach will not change based on who is in the White House.

Through the Settlement Agreement with the Minnesota Human Rights Department – which is modeled on a federal consent decree – as well as new initiatives led by the Office of Community Safety and Minneapolis Police Department, the City is moving with urgency to strengthen community trust and community safety in Minneapolis.

As mentioned in Anderson’s statement, the city and police department are already in the process of reform through the court enforceable settlement agreement with the state’s Human Rights Department. 

Through its separate investigation, state investigators found, “race discrimination in violation of Minnesota Human Rights Act” — a spokesperson with the department sent the following. 

The state consent decree between the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the City of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Police Department is here to stay regardless of what happens at the federal level.

The agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights provides the framework for lawful, non-discriminatory policing, reduces unnecessary dangers for officers, and results in better public safety for Minneapolis.

Still, the federal findings go beyond that of the state, given the DOJ enforces federal law — their findings also highlight that MPD violated people’s First Amendment and discriminated against people with behavioral health disabilities when responding to calls for service. 

“The findings that the Department of Justice made, it could be that they had additional evidence on some areas of the law, that perhaps the state investigators weren’t able to acquire that evidence, or didn’t make those same findings,” Gunston said. 

She added that if the federal consent decree were not to take effect, the reform may not go as far. 

MPD Chief Brian O’Hara also shared a statement.

Regardless of what happens with the DOJ consent decree, we do have a consent decree in place in state court that addresses all of the major topics covered in previous federal consent decrees: use of force, stop search and arrest, implicit bias, supervision and training. 

We are making tremendous progress enhancing trust with our communities as we rebuild the MPD to be the standard for policing in America.

The city is set to spend more than $15 million to manage both the state and federal oversight, with another $13 million set for next year.