New plans to repurpose former 3rd Precinct put on hold
There’s a new plan for the burned-out 3rd Police Precinct in Minneapolis — but this one comes from the city.
Minneapolis City Operations Officer Margaret Anderson Kelliher told the City Council Committee of the Whole on Monday the city is planning on cleaning up the old building and using it for voter and election services and a community space.
“And what you are going to see is 8,000 square feet on the main floor on the first level that would be activated by the community,” Anderson Kelliher said.
The committee voted 8-3 to delay action on the proposal for two weeks.
City Council President Elliott Payne supported that decision.
“We should be excited that we are cleaning this place up and making it be a presentable part of the city because it has been a totem to a really horrific period in our time,” Elliott said.
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Andrea Tritschler, with the Longfellow Community Council, agreed and said the neighborhood group wanted more community engagement, especially from racial minorities.
“And, that is why we want more community engagement. We want those communities to be engaged,” Tritschler said.
City Council Member Andrea Jenkins disagreed and said there had been enough talk and it was time to fix the old 3rd Precinct building because it’s been four years since it was torched during the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd.
“It deeply breaks my heart because I started this process four years ago, and every single person who was hired to do that quit, and it is deeply disappointing to me,” Jenkins said. “And we continue to call ourselves progressives, and yet we don’t progress and it’s very disheartening.”
City Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw also wanted a vote to move the plan forward.
“We’re tasked with moving forward. Not staying stuck,” she said.
If the City Council approves the plan in two weeks, more community engagement would start in the spring, and clean up of the old 3d Precinct building would start this summer.