Kingfield Neighborhood Association

Update and Actions to Take Regarding the MLK Park Encampment

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Thank you for your patience and care as our city and nation experience a housing crisis compounded by the recent COVID-19 global pandemic. The population of unhoused neighbors living in MLK Park encampments has grown 3x since June.

How can I help my unhoused neighbors? The best way you can help right now is to use your time and energy to advocate for dignified short, medium and long-term housing solutions in our city. We do not recommend individual citizens attempt direct engagement work with encampments. Those experiencing homelessness deserve social service solutions delivered by trained and trauma-informed providers. Please respect the autonomy of all encampments, including prioritizing your personal safety and boundaries. Consider a financial donation to trusted organizations serving our community: ZACAH, Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, The Link, and Park Avenue Center.

Housed neighbors stand in solidarity with unhoused neighbors prioritizing humanitarian aid, while acknowledging systems, events and health issues that can lead to short-term and chronic homelessness. Informal mutual aid efforts provide food and minimal ice to as many parks across the city as possible, this is not a sustainable solution. We demand our elected officials immediately address the current humanitarian housing crisis in Minneapolis. Please contact your elected officials, today! And then copy that email to Mayor Jacob Frey and Governor Tim Walz.

More information to be communicated through KFNA in the near future, stay tuned.

MLK Park Housing Advocates 

Kingfield Neighborhood Association Supports a Vote on the Minneapolis Charter: But What does that mean with another Public Hearing Today on Yet Another Charter Amendment?

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Passed by the KFNA Board 7/19/2020

Whereas, the Kingfield Neighborhood Association (KFNA) sees an urgent need for transformational change to community safety and policing in the City of Minneapolis.

Whereas, the current Minneapolis City Charter does not allow for that change and accountability. 

Whereas, the community of Minneapolis should be given the opportunity to voice their opinion on this change and directly engage with the question of policing and safety. 

Whereas, the need and responsibility to take bold action now is essential.  

KFNA calls on the City of Minneapolis Charter Commission to fulfill their duty and let the people of Minneapolis vote on a meaningful City Charter amendment. 

But what does this mean and what will the Charter Language Be? That Remains to be Determined.

Background:

In June, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously initiated a process to allow voters to decide whether to adopt a proposed charter amendment whether to create a new Department of Community Safety & Violence Prevention. The Charter is essentially the City’s constitution, and this change (if approved by a majority of voters) would allow much more flexibility in how public safety is ensured or everyone in our City. The charter amendment would not eliminate law enforcement. Instead, this measure is needed so that we can incorporate strategies in addition to traditional policing. The language that was to be voted on as an ammednment is “Shall the Minneapolis City Charter be amended to provide for the establishment of a new Community Safety & Violence Prevention Department and to remove the Police Department.”

However in July the Minneapolis Charter Commission has proposed another possible change to the City Charter, our City’s constitution, and will also seek public input on this proposal. This new proposal removes minimum funding requirements for the Police Department without eliminating Police as a required department. The language for this ammednment is ““Shall the Minneapolis City Charter be amended to remove the minimum funding requirements of the Police Force.”

The Charter Commission’s new proposal is separate from the Minneapolis City Council’s existing proposal to eliminate Police as a required department in the City Charter and instead require the creation of a Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention, which may include a police division. PLEASE NOTE: If both proposals are approved by the deadline, they could both appear as ballot questions this November.

The public hearing for this newer proposed Charter amendment is set for:

  • Monday, July 27 at 5 p.m. online.

How to participate and submit comments

Background information

Minneapolis Public Schools Extends Free Meals to Children through August 21

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Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) announced it will continue serving free meals to all children 18 and under through Friday, August 21. Since schools closed on March 17, MPS Culinary & Wellness Services (CWS) has served more than 2 million free meals — Monday-Friday, rain or shine — to youth across Minneapolis through weekly food boxes.

Each food box stays true to the MPS CWS mission — to nurture all children with access to quality food and active living. The free food boxes include items for seven breakfasts and seven lunches and are filled with fresh produce and true food ingredients that meet the district’s high bar for nutrition.

MPS CWS’s “True Food” philosophy means food is made with fresh, whole ingredients that support the wellbeing of students, the community, and the environment. It means nutrient-rich food free from high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, artificial colors and flavors.

Though the way MPS CWS prepares food quickly shifted in the pandemic, the commitment to True Food remains steadfast. Some recent offerings from the free food boxes for children include tamales, Ferndale turkey burgers, whole grain french toast bread, melon, sugar snap peas, and cherry tomatoes.

Families can pick-up food boxes at 50 schools and parks across Minneapolis Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. To keep families and staff safe, sites offer contact-free pick-up. All youth are invited to participate in this program and do not need to be enrolled in MPS to receive food boxes. Youth, parents, or siblings can pick up one box for each child in their family, per week.

More information can be found at cws.mpls.k12.mn.us/covid19.

Let’s Get Uncomfortable; a Space to Talk About Race and Being Anti-Racist | June 28 at 1 PM in MLK Park

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Sunday June 28, 1 PM, MLK Park (outdoors, north side of building)

Registration Required (limited to 25 participants)

Led by Danger Boat Productions, co-hosted by KFNA

More info and registration here.

Looking for a place to start? Join us on June 23 (SOLD OUT) and June 25 via Zoom at 7pm Central Time and June 28 at MLK Park (with COVID-19 precautions taken) in Minneapolis at 1pm CT for a welcoming space to talk about race and what it means to put being anti-racist into practice.

Racism is everybody’s problem. For too long, the responsibility to understand and dismantle racism has fallen on communities of color. As white people, we may have recognized the world is stacked unfairly against our BIPOC friends, but then we asked them to do all the education, footwork and problem solving on it.

That ends now. It’s well past time for white people to do more of their own learning, growing, and dismantling. We want to help. Let’s do our part. [Read more…]

What is one thing you are going to do to create the more equitable and just city that we all desire?

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“My commitment to a more equitable and just city is to call out casual racism in my everyday life. I am usually reluctant to respond to microaggressions, particularly when they come from people I don’t know. I’m learning that we can’t afford to let this harmful “othering” to exist in our community. I refuse to let people speak hatefully about “those people”. “
 
–Chris Hong, KFNA Board Member
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This week, KFNA Staff and Board of Directors have made commitments to one another to how we will, both as individuals and as an organization, create a more just Minneapolis.
 
We are calling on community members, to do the same and submit an audio recording of their commitments to action, over the following week, in response to the question above.
 
There are four ways for you to share your commitments:
1) Call and leave a message @ 612-234-1867
2) Record a “Voice Memo” on your phone and email it to messages@kingfield.org
3) Submit a written comment of (which will be read and recorded by a KFNA board member) to messages@kingfield.org
4) Send a written or voice message via the mobile Facebook messenger app to The Kingfield Neighborhood Association
 
Submission Length: Please keep your answers to 60 seconds or 200 words (if written)
Submission Deadline: Friday June 19th @ 9pm

Kingfield Restaurants

currently open for take-out
(more info available here)

  • Tap Society
  • Sunstreet Breads
  • Royal Grounds
  • Rincon 38
  • Revival
  • Patisserie 46
  • Nighthawks
  • The Lowbrow
  • Hola Arepa
  • Grand Cafe
  • Good Times Pizza
  • Five Watt Coffee
  • Young Man
  • Dave The Pie Guy
  • Curran's
  • Cocina Latina
  • Cafe Ena
  • Butter Bakery Cafe
  • Boludo Empanadas
  • Apoy