🗳️ Mid-November miscellanea: Election breakdown

Voters in all seven Longfellow precincts turned out at even higher rates than the city average for last week's election, even as Minneapolis itself set a record for voter turnout in a municipal election. Ward 12 had the second-highest turnout rate of registered voters in the city, at 66 percent.

Both city council incumbents cruised to victory. In Ward 9, Jason Chavez won a third term with 77 percent of the vote, in a rematch against opponent Dan Orban that ended with similar vote counts. In Ward 12, Aurin Chowdhury won a second term with 63 percent of the vote. She performed about 9 percentage points better this year against Becka Thompson than she did in 2023 against Luther Ranheim.

Here's how the winning councilmembers fared by precinct (Chavez's Ward 9 precincts are in blue and Chowdhury's Ward 12 precincts are in green):

Mayoral incumbent Jacob Frey also won a third term, and garnered the most first-choice votes in six of the neighborhood's seven precincts. (Precinct 9-8, which encompasses downtown Longfellow, went in favor of runner-up Omar Fateh.)

In the newly-redistricted Park Board race, 24-year-old Kay Carvajal-Moran beat three-term incumbent Stephanie Musich in District 5, which now encompasses the entire neighborhood. A Roosevelt grad who lives in Bancroft, Carvajal-Moran describes herself as "a progressive, proud daughter of immigrants, first-generation Mexican American, and a community advocate that is passionate about building a park system that works for everyone."

If the past five years have felt like an almost unbroken cycle of city elections, that's not a misperception. Due to some legal technicalities after redistricting, the usual four-year terms were split into a pair of two-year terms in 2021. Now, it'll be four years until the next city election, barring any special circumstances.

🥫 Food donation options in the neighborhood

Though it will soon resume, the precarious funding situation for the federal SNAP program has had many wondering recently where they can find, or donate, foodstuffs to fill the gap. Three options in the neighborhood:

Arya Cafe is accepting donations at their shop for the Minnehaha Food Shelf, in partnership with Asian Duck Cafe and Councilmember Aurin Chowdhury. They're looking for non-perishable food and hygiene items.

Kelly Wilson, a neighborhood resident known to many for her efforts to organize free weddings for queer couples earlier this year, has been collecting cans of beans from neighbors and driving them around to food shelves. Now, Kelly's "bean box" has a permanent home at the Longfellow Community Council's office at 3101 Minnehaha Ave. You can drop off cans of food (not just beans) there Monday-Thursdays from 10-4.

Soup For You! Cafe doles out grocery items in addition to its free daily gourmet lunches. You can drop off food donations weekdays between 8:30-2.

🪧 Edmund Boulevard street signs replaced

Edmund Boulevard was legally renamed Lena Smith Boulevard in October. Now, the city has replaced the street signs along the winding boulevard.

More than 100 people showed up to a ceremonial unveiling on November 1, which featured an outsized number of dignitaries that included Councilmember Aurin Chowdhury, Mayor Jacob Frey, County Commissioner Angela Conley, and former Mayor Sharon Sayles-Belton, who has lived on the boulevard for 30 years.

The group of neighbors known as Reclaiming Edmund has been pushing for the change for five years, citing the central role that the street's namesake, Edmund Walton, played in restricting the rights of non-white residents to buy property in Minneapolis. The street's new namesake, Lena Olive Smith, was a prominent civil rights lawyer and the first female president of the Minneapolis NAACP.

• Read more: Push to rename Edmund Boulevard gaining momentum (March 2025)

🗞️ Confluence Studio publication distributed throughout the neighborhood

Volunteers with the group Confluence: An East Lake Studio for Community Design delivered 10,000 copies of its latest publication to households throughout the Third Precinct earlier this month. The group, which describes itself as an "anarcho-collaborative," formed in 2020 and has been a leading voice against the city's plans to replace the former Third Precinct building with a voting center.

The 16-page newspaper, Landscape #4: In Our Hands, makes the case for alternative reuses of the space. It features interviews with a number of neighborhood figures, including Moon Palace Books' Jamie Schwesnedl, Curiosity Studio's Lauren Callis, and former Longfellow Community Council head Rachel Boeke.

Speaking of the city's plans for 3000 Minnehaha: They recently released more detailed renderings of their planned Democracy Center, which would house their election staff, equipment, and early voting center, along with a yet-unannounced community tenant. They say they plan to begin construction next year.

• Read more: Choosing the community tenant for 3000 Minnehaha (Sept. 2025)

🚗 Electra Tune purchased, renamed Longfellow Automotive