Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced on Thursday that he would like to dedicate millions to support Black-owned businesses in the new city budget.
On Thursday, Frey was at ZaRah, a building on West Broadway, where he said he wants to dedicate $1 million in funding for an incubator for Black women-owned businesses.
He said that through his budget, he wants to make “sure that we’re not just getting back to the old normal, but we are blowing by that old normal to see true transformational change,” Frey said.
Kenya McKnight-Ahad is the owner of ZaRah and shared at the press conference that the funding is essential to help uplift Black women.
“It is imperative that we make sure that Black women have the essentials we need to thrive and survive and to live and to build good lives through our generations,” McKnight-Ahad said.
Frey wants to dedicate more than $17 million in the budget to black-owned businesses, which would be a part of his biennial budget proposal.
“Black women are creating businesses at a rate that is far superior than almost any other demographic out there,” Frey said. “So we need to make sure that they have the tools that they need in order to run with a big vision.”
The move comes in part from Frey’s workgroup on Inclusive Economic Recovery, which released a report outlining strategies for an inclusive recovery after two years of the pandemic and the civil unrest in 2020.
“The mayor’s proposed budget includes several of the workgroup’s recommendations, including funding to recreate the Black middle class, support workforce training and entrepreneurship, and provide opportunities for wealth creation,” a press release from Frey’s office said.
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