Back to the drawing board for George Floyd Square redevelopment

"The city absolutely fumbled this process from start to finish," said Councilmember Robin Wonsley. "And I have spent my entire time on city council doing thorough oversight over the Frey administration's procurement processes, but I have never seen a contract mishandled in the unique way that this one was."

Those thoughts were echoed by Councilmember Aurin Chowdhury.

"We need to do this right," she said. "This has to have the trust of the community because the city of Minneapolis cannot supplement that trust. The city of Minneapolis has been a part of breaking that trust."

A spokesperson for Mayor Jacob Frey's office provided WCCO with the following statement:

“Voting down Agape and returning to the drawing board is the Council’s prerogative. Mayor Frey’s goal is to move forward at George Floyd Square and stop delaying. The mayor is already coordinating with Council Members Chavez and Stevenson and City staff to determine a path forward.”

The Council and city development officials are requesting a meeting with Mayor Jacob Frey next week to figure out next steps.

But it all adds up to just one more delay in a project that has now taken years to come together. Councilmember LaTrisha Vetaw acknowledged the frustration surrounding the process.

"We have to stop fighting about it, we have to stop politicizing it," Vetaw explained. "We have to come together and say we're going to show the world, when they come to this area, we're going to show the world that something terrible happened. But look what we built out of it."

The area on 38th and Chicago Ave. south became a makeshift memorial after George Floyd was killed at the intersection after being pinned to the ground by former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin.

Chauvin has been in federal prison since 2021, after he was convicted of murdering Floyd six years ago. Cellphone video of Chauvin putting his knee on Floyd's neck for over 9 minutes despite Floyd's pleas of “I can't breathe" sparked the numerous racial reckoning protests that dominated the latter half of 2020.