Minneapolis, MN
Mamdani’s housing plan is inspired by YIMBY darlings, like Austin and Minneapolis
New York City has gone YIMBY.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced his new housing plan on May 26, with an agenda to build 200,000 new affordable homes, convert existing hotels and office buildings into low-cost apartments, and support the city’s tenants against “bad landlords.” He has endeared himself to the pro-housing, “yes in my backyard” cohort.
The scale of the mayor’s affordable housing plans is ambitious, especially for a city as populous and expensive as New York. But City Hall has some tangible inspiration. As Mamdani repeated in a series of press conferences this week, NYC needs to be more like Austin and Minneapolis. Seattle, Vienna, and Auckland also got honorable mentions.
What these cities have in common is fewer zoning regulations and more housing investment from local governments. One of the biggest drivers of skyrocketing housing costs in New York and cities across the country is simple supply and demand: There isn’t enough housing for everyone who wants it, allowing home sellers and landlords to hike prices for scarce goods. Some cities that built big have seen rent and home price growth slow or even reverse. Mamdani and pro-building advocates hope that the same can happen in the Big Apple.
“Let the lessons other cities have learned guide our future,” the mayor said to a crowd in Astoria, Queens. “Let our size be our strength. Let us implement these policies at scale. Let the largest city in the nation deliver the largest housing transformation this country has ever seen.”
Other cities show that increased housing supply lowers cost
Other big cities — both in the US and internationally — have tried similar strategies to boost housing access. Mamdani has pointed to the success of Minneapolis’ “2040 plan,” which focused on growing housing supply with new, denser builds and increased options for low- and middle-income residents. A paper by researchers at Middlebury College estimated that rents and home prices in the Twin City were 17% to 34% lower than they would have been without the reforms.
Austin successfully lowered median rents by 18.2% between their 2022 peak and 2026 — a difference of $302 per month, a Realtor.com report found. The key reason was an increase in supply coupled with slowing demand: The city invested in building more homes, and migration to Austin dipped compared to COVID-era highs.
Seattle, meanwhile, made zoning reforms to encourage affordable housing and protect tenants. Vienna heavily subsidizes more than half of the city’s housing supply, keeping rents low. And Auckland passed legislation to make it easier to build homes and invest in urban infrastructure.
Nikolai Fedak, president and founder of the organization New York YIMBY, told Business Insider that Mamdani’s plan is “an excellent first step” to address the housing crisis, and he would like to see the mayor push more market-rate development in neighborhoods with easy access to train and bus lines.
“It is fantastic to see a Mayor begin to embrace the reality of supply and demand curves but we have much farther to go,” he said. “And the best and easiest step to make this happen would be razing and replacing neighborhoods of single-family mansions sitting on some of the most valuable and transit-accessible real estate in the entire country.”
Mamdani has committed billions of dollars to increase NYC’s housing supply, which may help meet demand and encourage more affordable rents. His plan to freeze the rent on the 44% of the city’s apartments that are stabilized, however, risks pushing up prices for unstabilized units. St. Paul tried something similar, and one study found that the policy largely cut costs more for higher-income renters, and the rent control was eventually walked back in favor of building new homes.
Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at the nonprofit Groundwork Collaborative, told Business Insider that Mamdani’s plan “centers around one goal: growth,” and the success of these housing projects depends on buy-in from the public and private sectors. Cutting outdated regulations is a good start, he said.
Realtor.com Senior Economist Jake Krimmel — a NYC resident himself — added that he appreciates Mamdani’s “yes, and” approach to housing, and said that the mayor has done a solid job with policies that both incentivize developers to build more affordably and appeal to the YIMBY contingent: “To thread that needle is difficult,” he said.
Building large-scale affordable housing is a heavy lift. There are funding hurdles at both the City Council and state level, alongside longstanding zoning restrictions that can prevent new construction or the conversion of existing commercial buildings. In NYC, where half of renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing, it’s also challenging to make that housing accessible.
The recent overturning of a longtime state cap on home construction in NYC will allow more homes to be built, City Hall has said, and the mayor is working with the state and federal government to ensure future funding for housing projects. The administration also plans to build dense housing on property the city already owns, reducing some cost and regulatory barriers.
“New York City will build,” Mamdani said. “And then New York City will build some more.”
The Minneapolis Aquatennial is back for its 87th year.
Organizers said the festival will run July 18-26 with free, family-friendly events across Minneapolis.
The event will kick off with a model sailboat pond at the fountains of the Government Plaza. For more information on all the events, click here.
Minneapolis, MN
Former Obama press aide accused of stealing cash, credit cards, from Minneapolis coworkers to buy kratom
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A former deputy press secretary for the Obama administration was fired from his Minneapolis city job last week after allegedly stealing cash and credit cards from city employees to purchase an herbal supplement used to treat opioid withdrawal symptoms.
Adam Fetcher, 42, who served as a communications officer for the city for a year before he was terminated, allegedly stole from his fellow city employees after returning from a work-approved, weeks-long rehabilitation program, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has received the case from authorities and is reviewing it, a spokesperson told Fox News Digital. Fox News Digital has also reached out to Fetcher’s attorney and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office for further comment.
VEGAS LITTLE LEAGUE PRESIDENT ACCUSED OF SPENDING LEAGUE MONEY ON STRIP CLUBS AND ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION MEDS
Adam Fetcher, 42, who once served as a press secretary in the Obama administration, was fired from his communications job for the city of Minneapolis after he allegedly stole cash and charge cards from city employees to purchase kratom, an herbal drug used to treat opioid withdrawal. (City of Minneapolis Instagram; Getty Images)
Fetcher was captured on surveillance cameras at a Minneapolis smoke shop purchasing kratom, which is used to treat opioid withdrawal symptoms but carries its own risk of addiction.
He allegedly stole a charge card from a city employee’s purse and made a $481 purchase at the Minneapolis Tobacco & Vapor shop, less than a mile from his home, the newspaper reported. Store manager Hamza Zamara said staff helped investigators identify Fetcher as the man who allegedly used fraudulent cards to make the purchase.
Authorities zeroed in on the shop after a woman called the store claiming that someone had made a purchase using her card without permission. When Fetcher visited the shop again, employees took pictures of him and followed him outside, the news report states. They later gave investigators Fetcher’s vehicle’s license plate number.
OHIO BROTHERS WHO POSED AS MIDDLE EASTERN ROYALTY RECEIVE LENGTHY SENTENCE FOR $21M FRAUD SCHEME
Former U.S. President Barack Obama smiles at the official opening of the Obama Presidential Center on June 19, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais-Pool/Getty Images)
“We told him, ‘Hey, we know what you’re doing,’” Zamara said.
Fetcher, who earned $186,000 annually, was fired on July 1.
“Under Adam’s leadership, the Communications team has reorganized, is fully staffed, and is well positioned to manage the City’s Communications needs,” City Operations Officer Margaret Anderson Kelliher wrote in an email to staff announcing the termination.
The email did not explain the circumstances of Fetcher’s departure. However, Kelliher wrote in a separate memo that several city employees had reported missing cash, debit, or credit cards, as well as unauthorized charges, noting the incidents happened between mid-May and June.
A kratom leaf and a vape store sign. (Getty Images)
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“I know this information may be concerning and troubling, and I want to assure you that the City takes this sort of report seriously and has acted accordingly,” she wrote, according to the email obtained by the Star Tribune. “Although we cannot provide additional details, we have no reason at this time to believe there is any ongoing risk of theft.”
In addition to serving as deputy national press secretary for the Obama administration, Fetcher went on to hold senior communications roles for Patagonia, Rivian, and Lyft.
Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis police highlight missing person found by drone as city weighs aerial tech program
Minneapolis police officers and a K-9 had been looking for a man for about three-and-a-half hours. A drone found him nine minutes after it launched.
That’s according to a police report documenting the search for 82-year-old Bob Stewart, a Marine veteran who had gone missing after he went for a walk on the city’s north side. His wife began to get worried when he didn’t return home back in May.
“It was frightening, though. I remember just thinking, ‘This can’t be how this ends. This just can’t be,’” Linda Stewart said.
Bob said that he had fallen into Shingle Creek in Webber Park in north Minneapolis.
“[I] slipped right in the mud, and gravel, and water and everything, slid right in. Lay there for about, on and off, five hours,” Bob Stewart said.
The drone operator for the Minneapolis Police Department wrote in his report that he spotted Bob Stewart after noticing an “anomaly” through the vegetation in a densely wooded area of the park. It was Bob Stewart, trying to climb out. With the drone operator keeping an eye on him from above, officers on the ground got to him.
“We’re both very faithful people and believe that everything happens for a reason, so I was praying, Bob was praying,” Linda Stewart said.
The couple is overjoyed that everyone got home safe, saying they have no interest in the politics involved in police using drones.
Minneapolis police are citing the May incident as a positive example of how the technology can be used to keep the public safe. This week, MPD presented information to the City Council about trying out a drones-as-first-responders program. The key difference is that, at the moment, police can launch a drone at the scene from a vehicle once they’ve already arrived at an emergency. If adopted, the first responder program would send a drone in response to an emergency call ahead of officers, allowing them to start documenting the scene far faster.
Officials say it would be a free 75-day trial period in the 4th Precinct with the company Skydio, Inc., and the drones would have police markings and flash red and blue lights. They say the goal is to see if drones can improve emergency response times, make both the public and the first responders safer and help clear calls when police aren’t needed.
Several other Minnesota agencies already use the drones, including in St. Paul and Minnetonka, but Minneapolis residents pushed back Wednesday, expressing concerns about surveillance and the company the city could potentially contract with.
Councilmember LaTrisha Vetaw, who represents the part of Minneapolis where the pilot program would be launched, said she supports the measure. She says that she has been talking to constituents about this for at least a few years.
“I went to a demo and I was like, ‘Wow, let’s try this,’” Vetaw said. “This footage is going to be deleted after seven days if it’s not used in an investigation. This is stored with MPD. This is not Skydio’s footage. This is MPD’s footage.”
The council is set to take a vote on the pilot program on Thursday.
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