Minneapolis politics, slightly ground down

A Minneapolis politics podcast hosted by four-term Ward 2 city council veterans Cam Gordon and Robin Garwood, with longtime activist Jesse Mortenson

3rd Precinct Redux, with Jamie Schwesnedl and Sam Gould

August 17, 2026

After six painful years, the city has stamped an approval on redeveloping the former 3rd Police Precinct building that was ground zero for the 2020 uprising. Big chunks of East Lake Street remain vacant or simply absent. We sat down with co-owner of Moon Palace bookstore, Jamie Schwesnedl, to talk about how city action and inaction have impacted the immediate neighborhood on Minnehaha Ave. The second half of the episode is an interview with Sam Gould of the Confluence community design studio, also located in north Longfellow. Gould reflects on his documentation and community-building projects around the history of policing at the 3rd precinct, and exactly how far short this redevelopment falls.

Recorded 8/5/26 and 8/10/26.

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City Docs on 3rd Precinct Redevelopment and Democracy Center

Media Coverage

  • 9/25: Clint Combs
  • 4/25: Susan Du
    • allow the city to move Elections and Voter Services out of its current home at 980 E. Hennepin Av., a location that costs $372,000 a year to rent, according to City Clerk Casey Carl, into a city-owned facility
    • The office has 16 full-time positions, but hundreds more seasonal ones open up every election year from February to November.
    • There is also the hope that moving the Early Voting Center into the more centrally located Ward 9 would boost voter turnout there. While the citywide registered voter turnout was 68.5% in the 2022 general election, voting precincts near the former police station had lower turnout rates of about 40% to 50%.
    • Third Precinct police officers have been based out of the City of Lakes building at 309 2nd Av. S. in downtown Minneapolis for three years
  • 8/24: Sahan Journal
    • “It’s a source of utter disappointment,” said Mozena, the executive director of Hook and Ladder, a music and arts venue nearby.
    • Only one of seven attendees at an August 12 community meeting about the building explicitly said they supported the city’s vision for the site.
    • At an August 15 meeting for nearby business owners, all four attendees peppered city employees with questions about how community space in the proposed democracy center would work, and pleaded for the concrete barricades to be removed as soon as possible.
    • “We just want the city to work with us and not just be like, ‘Here’s what we’re doing,’” Jamie Schwesnedl, who owns Moon Palace Books, said at the meeting.
    • “It feels a little bit like we’re in this waiting game where people want one thing and the city doesn’t want to do it,” [Schwesnedl] said. “So they’re just like, ‘Well, we’ll leave a vacant, ugly building that reminds you of this traumatic event here. Eventually you’ll just be happy for anything to be there.’”
    • One community group is asking the public to submit their own proposals for redeveloping the site. The group, Confluence: An East Lake Studio for Community Design, has been involved in community discussions about the Third Precinct for years.
      • “It doesn’t feel like [the city is] actually interested in input, in which case, then what can we be building outside of those structures? How can we be bringing things into fruition on our own?” said Anniessa Antar, who helps lead Confluence’s project.
  • 9/24: Sahan: 3000 Minnehaha Coalition calls for community control of site
    • Unenra said he is optimistic the 3000 Minnehaha Coalition will be able to partner with the city and meet its goals, and that the group has received support from some City Council members. The council criticized the city’s plan when it was first presented to them in April.
    • “We have an opportunity to win this struggle, because the mayor has butchered this process,” Unenra said.

City Redevelopment Timeline

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