🗳️ Mid-November miscellanea: Neighborhood voting rundown

Longfellow voters turned out en masse for the 2026 general election last week.

Detailed turnout information won't be available until the results are certified later this month. But preliminary data shows a surge of voter participation across the neighborhood's precincts, in an election when Minnesota saw the second-highest turnout of any state.

We do know that Ward 12, which encompasses a majority of the neighborhood, led the city in early voting, with 8,859 ballots cast before Election Day. In Precinct 12-1, which has the same boundaries as the Cooper neighborhood, 46 percent of registered voters cast their ballots early, the highest rate of the city's 137 precincts. Both Ward 12 and Precinct 12-1 led the city in voter turnout during August's primary election.

The only city race was for a handful of seats on the Minneapolis Public Schools board. Becca Dryden won District 5, which covers Longfellow, with 65 percent of the vote. Dryden was an organizer with Minneapolis Families for Public Schools, a parent group aligned with the teachers union, and was an outspoken opponent of this year's proposed school closures. Her fellow slate member Christin Crabtree won one of the board's at-large seats, along with incumbent Collin Beachy.

In each contested race, neighborhood voters supported winning candidates to a greater extent than the general voting public.

The next major local election will take place in 2029, when all city council and park board seats will be on the ballot. The city's new early voting center is scheduled to open at Lake and Minnehaha in time for the 2028 presidential election.

🏗️ COPAL recently released a new promotional video and set of renderings for its proposed Latino Center for Community Engagement at 29th and Lake, on the site of the former O'Reilly Auto Parts. The nonprofit plans to build a new facility there that includes a public coffee shop and commercial kitchen, soccer field, classrooms, event space, and the organization's offices.

The new renderings show a slightly reconfigured concept from previous plans, with the soccer field moved to the east side of the lot and parts of the building made taller. The updated materials are part of a renewed fundraising push for the $20 million project, which was originally slated to be completed this year. It's now expected to open in 2028.

COPAL is both an advocacy group and service provider for Latin American immigrants, offering career coaching, job placement, and driver's education. The group was prominent during Operation Metro Surge, organizing mutual aid and operating a hotline for impacted families. It's currently headquartered in the Historic Coliseum Building.

• Read more: Latin American Center would replace vacant O'Reilly building (April 2024)

🎨 The nonprofit Memorialize the Movement has rebranded as the Black Liberation Archiving & Conservation Center (BLACC). The group formed in 2020 to preserve the murals that sprang up on plywood boards across the city following the murder of George Floyd. It stores more than 1,000 of the murals in a warehouse near 32nd and Hiawatha, in the same building that houses Du Nord Social Spirits and the Ethiopian food manufacturer Shega Foods.

The group says it's expanding beyond archiving just the 2020 artworks to include other protest art and cultural artifacts.

❄️ Longfellow Community Council is recruiting volunteers for its Shoveling Network program, which pairs willing shovelers with neighbors who need assistance. You can sign up to shovel here, or request shoveling services here.

📚 Hiawatha-Howe Elementary's PTO will host its annual book fair fundraiser at Moon Palace Books on Saturday, November 21, from noon-5. The event serves as both a fundraiser for the PTO and a chance to purchase books from teachers' wish lists. Teachers and staff will be reading throughout the day, and crafty Huskies will provide free gift-wrapping services.

🗞️ Roosevelt High School restarted its student newspaper, The Roosevelt Standard, last school year after a long hiatus. This fall's stories include a feature on the formerly-of-Longfellow Baker's Wife pastry shop, an homage to the lunchroom staff, and a meditation on the lingering effects of Operation Metro Surge on the student body. You can sign up to receive physical copies of the paper in the mail by donating any amount to the program.

At South High, students continue to publish The Southerner. Stories so far this year highlight the 30-year career of boys basketball coach Joe Hyser and age-old frustrations about where to park.

🚀 The team behind the Brackett Rocket lighting event in September released a mini-documentary about the event, which drew hundreds of people to Brackett Park for an art and light show centered on the rocket sculpture. The group behind the event, 36thART, is now fundraising to install permanent lighting on the rocket, which was installed as a sculpture in 2007 after it'd been deemed unsafe as a piece of playground equipment.