Minneapolis City Council Votes to Protect George Floyd Square Community From Special Assessments and Reject People's Way Developer Selection
Contributing writer Ella Stern reports on three Minneapolis City Council votes on June 11 affecting George Floyd Square, including a unanimous vote to deny special assessments that would have billed some businesses over $40,000, a vote rejecting Agape Movement's exclusive development rights at People's Way and a legislative directive requesting a report on the 38th Street THRIVE Plan.
The Minneapolis City Council voted June 11 on three measures affecting George Floyd Square. The intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, renamed after police murdered George Floyd there six years ago, is undergoing construction and reimagining. Given its effect on an area of high emotional significance, the process has brought up a volley of debates.
The council first voted unanimously to deny the special assessment for the street reconstruction at the intersection. The change saves community members from paying steep sums.
Minneapolis city policy dictates that whenever streets are reconstructed, property owners adjacent to the work pay a tax known as a special assessment. This money, paid either at once or over 20 years, covers 4% of the project budget.
Some homeowners near George Floyd Square told Council Member Soren Stevenson that they had received a bill for around $6,500; some businesses were facing payments of over $40,000.
“This is not a small chunk of change for the homeowner,” Stevenson said. “And it was really not a small chunk of change for the small, Black-owned businesses on 38th and Chicago that have been struggling for years as is.
“This is a project that was billed as: ‘this is what the city is doing for the community to invest in a community after the murder of George Floyd,'” the council member continued. “It’s not right to say we’re going to do something for you and then make you pay for it.”
City staff have identified some areas of city funds to cover the sum that would have come from the special assessment, according to Stevenson.
The council’s second vote denied the city’s recommendation to give exclusive development rights of People’s Way to the Minnesota Agape Movement, an organization aiming to support the community at 38th and Chicago through investment and violence prevention.
Since George Floyd’s murder, community members have decorated People’s Way, a former Speedway station in George Floyd Square, with art and turned it into a memorial and mutual aid site. The city of Minneapolis, which currently owns People’s Way, has been searching for an organization to reimagine the site.
In winter 2025, 800 total residents of four neighborhoods near George Floyd Square filled out a survey, selecting the organization they believed should be in charge of reimagining People’s Way. Fifty-eight percent of respondents chose Rise and Remember, a community organization focused on racial justice that has worked closely with George Floyd Square. Rise and Remember received the majority of votes in three neighborhoods; Urban League Twin Cities, which has since dropped out of the race, won out in the other. Agape did not win in any neighborhood.
Agape has stewarded the intersection by showing up consistently, caring for the space and supporting families and community economic development since George Floyd was murdered, according to Bridgette Stewart, Agape’s director of communications and public relations.
“We decided to submit our proposal because we believe that those that are closest to the history and the community should have a role in shaping its future,” Stewart said.
Rise and Remember has been active at the intersection as well, preserving the offerings at the memorial, according to Stewart.
Agape’s proposal for People’s Way was a six-story building with a museum, a rooftop garden and a resource hub. The building would also include a “welcoming space and/or a souvenir style gift shop … because it’s a tourist attraction,” Stewart said. The proposal was not final; Stewart said Agape would have gotten community feedback on the project and worked to find common ground.
Rise and Remember’s proposal was to refurbish the building, remove the tanks and add art and a memorial garden, according to Stevenson.
“It was a minimally invasive thing, but that was going to really improve the site,” Stevenson said. “[It would] keep it much how it is, but clean it up, put more green space in there [and] have more intentional space for people to gather and reflect.”
In denying Agape the exclusive development rights, the council did not select another organization to take over the project, nor does it have a timeline for the People’s Way reimagining. Instead, the council has “freed ourselves up to be a little more responsive to community and find something that more folks can agree on,” Stevenson said.
The final council vote was a legislative directive asking city staff to report on the 38th Street THRIVE Plan. The plan calls for housing and commercial development and stabilization. It would reinvest in the 38th Street corridor, a historically Black residential, business and cultural district running along 38th Street from Cedar Avenue to Nicollet Avenue.
In December 2025, the city set aside $1.2 million to implement the plan. The council expected to hear back about the initiative but has not, according to Stevenson. The June 11 vote requests a report within the next couple of months.
Ella Stern is a contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.