Mayor Frey to use State of the City to pivot back to basics

What they're saying: "Anybody who tells you there's a single silver bullet to this work is daydreaming," the mayor told Axios in an interview previewing Tuesday's speech.

Yes, but: Frey also said City Hall has strayed from its core mission — including by pursuing programs he supported, like relief efforts funded by COVID-era relief money that has long since dried up.

• "We've done some good community-building work that is not necessarily our job," Frey said.

What we're hearing: Frey wants to use the speech to pivot "back to basics." A draft shared with Axios outlines three key prongs:

💉 Public drug use: Expect Frey to promise more active enforcement while continuing to connect users with housing and social service support.

• The city's response will still be compassionate, he said, "but compassion doesn't mean you can do anything you want."

🧰 Tax increment financing (TIF): TIF has already been instrumental to office-to-residential conversions, but Frey wants to signal he's open to using the subsidies on other projects as well.

• That could include retail conversions that would make, for example, Nicollet Mall more pedestrian-friendly, he told Axios.

🗂️ Red tape review: Ongoing permitting reform will reduce barriers to building new housing or starting a new business, Frey promised.

Friction point: Many of these initiatives are meant to address challenges that have lingered for years.

• Safety ambassadors to address drug use in Uptown may not be on the streets until November, two years after funding was allocated.
• Frey first floated the Nicollet Mall pedestrianization in 2023 and a downtown indoor playground in 2024. (On the playground, Frey said Monday the city is "working on the final logistics.")

Between the lines: Critics say Frey has focused more on blocking proposals he opposes from the City Council majority than advancing his own vision.

• "It often feels like Frey has become a goalie blocking far-left policy ideas," Star Tribune columnist Eric Roper opined this weekend, "while somehow escaping much accountability for conditions in the streets."

"We're playing the long game," Frey said when asked about this line of critique, saying projects require a confluence of funding, market conditions and political agreement.

• Development is "hard, deliberate work …. This is not some performance."

Zoom in: One immediate change Frey plans to announce is that the city will offer free parking in Uptown on Fridays to ease access to local businesses.

• In the speech, Frey also plans to announce that 239 people are working with homelessness outreach teams — a slight reduction from last year which Frey characterized as evidence that fewer people are living without shelter.

What we're watching: Last year's budget negotiations were grueling, and the speech suggests this year may be no easier — referring to "hard conversations" ahead.

• "Some stuff needs to get cut," the mayor confirmed in the interview, "because we don't want the taxes going through the roof."