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  • 7/30/2019 Don Samuels

    1/3

    B y M c l l B u c

    Fifth Ward City Council

    Member Don Samuels

    doesnt scare easily.

    When he arrived in

    North Minneapolis Jordan

    neighborhood in 1998, he

    said his street included

    two prostitution houses,

    three drug-sellers and lots

    of slum properties.

    To deal with one

    chaotic party house

    on the street, Samuels

    and 15 other neighbors

    knocked on the front

    door. To deal with a

    West Broadway business

    allegedly allowing drug

    activity, Samuels pick-

    eted the owners home in

    Medicine Lake, leaving

    fliers at neighboring

    doorsteps and picket

    signs on the lawn.

    In an October Star

    Tribune editorial,

    Samuels said he pulled

    over his car to chastise

    a young man urinating

    on West Broadway, only

    to be threatened and

    julServing Downtown & ortheast MinneapoisMa 20jne 2, 2012

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    2 0 1 3

    S SMulSP 14P h o t o b y S t b b

    City Council Member Don Samuels.

    B y S M c K z

    Gov. Mark Dayton signed

    the same-sex marriage bill

    into law on the south steps

    of the state Capitol on May

    14 one day after the

    Minnesota Senate voted to

    approve the measure.

    The legislation will go into

    effect Aug. 1.

    Minnesota is the 12th

    state in the nation to legalize

    gay marriage. The vote

    comes six months after

    Minnesota voters defeated

    a proposed amendment to

    the state Constitution that

    would have banned same-

    sex marriage. The debate

    over allowing gay and

    lesbian couples to marry has

    been a deeply emotional and

    divisive issue in the state.

    The Senate passed the

    same-sex marriage bill

    37-30 a few days after the

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  • 7/30/2019 Don Samuels

    2/3

    14 // My 20Jun 2, 2013 // junlmpls.cm

    // Mayoral candidate profile //c i t y e l e c t i o n2 0 1 3

    have his iPhone stolen.

    In response, Samuels

    worked with police toimmediately track down

    the suspect and gave him

    a lecture and a hug.

    My wife and I moved

    into North Minneapolis

    to make a difference. We

    could live in Linden Hills.

    It was a deliberate move,

    with an intent to be very

    deliberately intrusive,

    Samuels said. One thing

    that Ive learned over

    the course of my life, if

    youre willing to walk

    into the most dangerous,

    most unacceptable situ-

    ation, that you automati-cally become a powerful

    person. You can take

    the prerogative of your

    nations expectations and

    your expectations as a

    human being with you, and

    that is power. You have the

    right on your side.

    Top priorities

    If Samuels became

    mayor, he said his biggest

    priority would involve

    closing regional gaps in

    academics, income and

    employment.Being the council

    member I am from the

    area that I am, I would

    No. 1 be carrying those

    burdens in my heart,

    Samuels said. We have

    already made a lot of

    promises. One of the chal-lenges is how we stay the

    course on them.

    The theme of balancing

    inequality crops up in many

    of Samuels positions on

    city issues. On potential

    streetcar and light rail proj-

    ects, he wants equitablehiring and equal access

    to new infrastructure. On

    bike infrastructure, he said

    he wants every neighbor-

    hood to have a share in city

    amenities and receive extra

    eyes on the street. On the

    Vikings stadium, he wantedthe city to take an early

    seat at the table and dictate

    terms that the project

    should reach 32 percent

    minority participation.

    Large, dense develop-

    ment projects should be

    concentrated in the citystransit corridors, Samuels

    said, but the details should

    always be negotiated with

    the neighborhood.

    As for property taxes,

    Samuels said increases

    should naturally end as

    the economy improves.

    Property values will rise,

    he said, and a more city-

    friendly state government

    will end cuts to local

    government aid.

    I dont foresee any

    increase in taxes at

    all, Samuels said. And

    frankly, anybody thatbecomes mayor is going to

    benefit from R.T.s making

    very tough decisions and

    allowing us to have a free

    ride on that one.

    A mayoral priority

    for Samuels would be

    tracking Results Minne-

    apolis, which features

    data-driven progress

    reports and five-year

    business plans designed

    to meet city goals. He said

    he advocated for that kind

    of analysis during his first

    City Hall speech in 2003,

    endorsing BaltimoresCitiStat program.

    I was in business for

    myself for 15 years and

    I worked with corporate

    America for another 15,

    Samuels said. You have

    to get the job done, other-

    wise you dont have a job.I want to take that kind of

    approach to government.

    From smallbusiness owner toCity Council member

    Samuels immigrated to

    the U.S. from Jamaica

    in 1970 to study indus-

    trial design. He worked

    at Playskool as senior

    director of research &

    development, and left the

    company to start his own

    small business designing

    toys for major toy manu-facturers. He said his

    creative work experience

    aids him today at City

    Hall. He described a stan-

    dard example:

    There are 30 million

    Barbies in America, and

    youve got to come up with

    a new doll thats different.

    Every Barbie has been

    done. But they want a

    new one, he said. You

    sit there with your blank

    paper, and suddenly you

    have to go the bathroom.

    And then you come back

    from the bathroom, andsuddenly, youve got the

    munchies. ... There is this

    Samuelsf r oM Pa g e 1

    P h o t o b k r i t i e b b e

    Don Samuels is one of six mayoral candidates seeking the DFL endorsement.

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  • 7/30/2019 Don Samuels

    3/3

    journalmpls.com // May 20June 2, 2013 // 15

    // Mayoral candidate profile // c i t y e l e c t i o n2 0 1 3

    At A Anc: Dn SAuS

    Age: 64

    neighborhood: Jordan

    Family: Wife Sondra, one adult son and two daughters.

    Resme sapsho: Former senior director of research

    and development at Playskool, former small business

    owner of toy design rm, Minneapolis City Council

    member since 2003.

    daio: Masters of divinity from Luther Seminary, 2001

    F fa: Samuels immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica in

    1970 to study industrial design.

    twier: @Don_Samuels

    Faebook: facebook.com/DonSamuelsForMayor

    DtRS nt

    The Journals will be

    proling the self-declared

    candidates for mayor for

    the next several issues

    leading up to the DFL City

    Convention on June 15.

    This is the third prole

    in our series. We have

    proled Mark Andrew and

    Jackie Cherryhomes and

    will be publishing stories

    in coming weeks on Gary

    Schiff, Betsy Hodges,

    Jim Thomas and Cam

    Winton, an Independentcandidate not seeking

    the DFL endorsement.

    healthy panic that strikes

    you, tha ts also stimulating

    your crea tive juices. You

    have to double down and

    do it, because they gave

    you a week to ge t backsome rough drawings.

    Samuels said he carries

    the same attitude to City

    Hall.

    A blank page is not

    acceptable, he said. We

    cant say there is nothing

    to do; we tried everything.

    And we have to say that

    what is going on now is

    totally unacceptable, that

    it has to stop now. ... When

    you have that attitude, life

    gets pretty simple.

    He supported city regu-

    lations that repeatedly

    doubled fines for viola-tions by property owners.

    A fine that might s tart at

    $30 could rise over $1,000,

    he said, quickly bringing

    viola tors into compliance.

    He thinks the same sort

    of strategy works with

    behavior-related crimes.

    Twenty-five percent of

    the crime downtown is

    committed by people from

    55411. If you create an

    environment where crime

    is normalized, then people

    go somewhere else and

    act that way, he said.

    Its one city. We canthave one kind of behavior

    in one part, and not in

    other the part. Otherwise

    downtown is in dange r,

    and once downtown is in

    danger, then people start

    to look for residence all

    over the suburbs.

    Despite his convic-tion, Samuels strategies

    havent won uniform

    praise on the North side .

    Pastor Jerry McAfee of

    New Salem Missionary

    Baptist Church said he

    thinks the state of North

    Minneapolis has grown

    worse during Samuels

    tenure.

    He has failed at pulling

    everybody to the table for

    a solution in North Minne-

    apolis, McAfee said. The

    only person he cares much

    about is the mayor.

    Samuels disagreed andpointed to his efforts to

    close the Wafana Food

    Market, which generated

    1,200 911 calls in its final

    year and is located a block

    from McAfees church.

    To say the [North side]

    is no better off than it

    was back then is insultingto all of the hard work

    my neighbors and I have

    done, Samuels said.

    McAfee also criticized

    Samuels decision to

    gut the Civilian Review

    Authority, saying that

    police brutality incidents

    continue to be a problem.

    In 2012, Samuels

    supported an overhaul

    that created a new agency

    with both civilian and

    sworn investigators to

    field allegations of police

    misconduct. He said the

    CRA had become dysfunc-tional and unproductive.

    Samuels is no stranger

    to conversations about

    racism. He co-founded

    the Institute for Authentic

    Dialogue with Jon Odell,

    the author of books

    including The View fromDelphi, which covers

    the struggle for equality

    in Odells home state of

    Mississippi.

    Odell said he and

    Samuels stunned dinner

    parties with their candid

    conversations about race.

    They founded the Insti-

    tute to teach others how

    to discuss race, providing

    seminars at companies

    like General Mills.

    You can stumble, make

    mistakes and forgive

    each other, and not fall

    into political correct-ness, Odell said. I still

    hear from people who

    said [the Institute] began

    their ability to talk across

    race. They didnt have the

    language to do it.

    VJ Smi th of MAD DADS

    said he and Samuels

    spent many conversa-

    tions strategizing how

    to build community and

    improve outreach before

    Samuels cofounded the

    PEACE Foundation in

    2003. Today, under the

    leadership of Samuels

    wife Sondra, the renamedNorthside Achieve-

    ment Zone works to end

    poverty in North Minne -

    apolis by supporting chil-

    dren and preparing them

    for college.

    Smith said he and

    Samuels went on to partnerin response to homicides,

    planning vigils and working

    to bring peace to the

    impacted families.

    I think he sees a vision,

    and I think he knows the

    pain that we suffer in our

    community, Smith said.

    I think that he would give

    it his all.

    When Samuels and 15

    neighbors approached

    the scary people on

    their block to improve

    safety, he felt security in

    numbers the partiers

    would have needed to

    slash 15 tires, he said,

    or beat up 15 people. He

    thinks the city should

    take that mentality.

    We have a hugely domi-

    nant number of good-will

    people in our c ity. But

    we have subordinated

    ourselves to one slum

    lord who owns 18 proper-

    ties, or a gang that has 50

    kids, Samuels said. This

    is amazing to me. A gang

    with 50 teenagers? I have

    two in my house and they

    cant even control the

    bathroom, let alone the

    whole neighborhood. This

    is what Im talking about.

    I want to bring a new

    kind of understanding

    to the order of society.To sanity, to fairness, to

    justice . Its very simple,

    once you think about it.

    Were putting up with a lot

    of stuff and being intimi-

    dated by people who are

    much weaker than we are.

    We just have to walk into

    the situation and face it.

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