Justice Spriggs is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Minnesota.
Why are you running for city council?
I really got involved in watching both state and local government during the pandemic, as I had [just] moved into Columbia Heights. And being in the medical field, in medical school, I really started seeing how these different policies were affecting my patients. Affordable housing, transportation, access to good medical care, schools, everything like that was affecting them. I think I bring a fresh, unique perspective with my medical background and being someone young running for office.
Of all your previous experiences, which best prepares you for serving as a council member?
In medicine, one of the things that we’re required to do is be good listeners. We’ll listen to what our patients have for questions, concerns and needs, and that’s the same thing that a council member needs to do. They need to be active in the community, not only by doing things, but also reaching out, listening to the wants and the needs of the community. It’s also communicating back to those people, acknowledging their questions and concerns, and taking that and trying to communicate either with other council members, elected officials, other parties to try to make those changes and communicate those requests. With my medical background, I have a very good understanding of how all of these different things that government can do really affect people on an individual basis. But when we let them go out, and then their rent continues to increase, and they don’t have access to a good paying job, the only way they can get to the current job is through the transportation system that’s not adequately set up. It’s really stressful on them. That’s something we can change as a government body.
Please list the top three issues you think need to be addressed in Columbia Heights.
One, public infrastructure; two, affordable housing; three, accessibility inclusivity, transparency and equity.
I think of public infrastructure as investing in things to make sure our communities are safe and people can navigate them. I live on the east side of Columbia Heights, and there’s not a ton of sidewalks, and that’s a big thing for me, to increase the number of sidewalks. We have to ensure that not only our kids and families can walk around safely, but to ensure our disabled community can also navigate our streets as needed. I also think about investing in our park system, because not only is it a good thing for our kids and our families who live here, but also there are other communities around us who are really investing in their parks. And they’re becoming major attractions for their city, which are bringing people in, to not only come to this park and to have family time there, but they’ve also been staying to do business in the area. It’s kind of an economic investment as well.
What are the community’s strengths, and as a council member, how would you leverage those?
We have a very involved community. People know what’s going on and and want to see good change in the city. When we bring different proposals up, there are a lot of people who are willing to step in and get involved to make the change. Leveraging those relationships that I’ve built since moving to Columbia Heights and with other people and surrounding communities, it’s really important to make those changes. We can have great ideas, but it takes a lot of work to make that into a reality.
How do you plan on engaging members of the community, especially those who do not speak English?
Columbia Heights is the fifth most diverse city in the entire state, at least last time I checked. We need to be really intentional about not only providing info to them that is in their native language, but also engaging with them. I’ve met lots of people who speak multiple languages. In terms of our city website, and info that is sent out by the city, we need to see if we are adequately distributing that in the languages that are spoken by our residents. We need to make sure our residents know what’s going on.
Do you think the 2023 city budget takes sufficient account of inflation costs for the next year?
That’s a tough question. Obviously, the city budget did increase a little bit. I would have liked to see further investments in our parks and our sidewalks. Previous councils have not adequately invested in our infrastructure. For example, our Public Works building, is going to be up for either major repairs or a completely new building in the next few years. Also looking at the city budget, other things that have not been adequately taken care of up to this point are, like Murzyn Hall, right across from the current City Hall. There’s a debate on whether we should do some temporary fixes for a lower cost or completely renovate the building for a larger cost, [which] long term, I believe would be a better investment in our community and actually save us money.
How might the city assist in the creation of more affordable housing?
We need to go out of our way to try to recruit different affordable housing projects, but be intentional and careful about what we are doing with that. For example, the Legends was initially created as a 55-plus affordable housing measure, but they’ve continuously seen price increases in their monthly rent to where people are being priced out of their homes. When that large complex came in, they were given TIF funding and allowed to use that as part of a larger development, but now, what was deemed affordable housing is not actually affordable. I would really like improve our relations and communications with our renters, whether that’s normal apartments or senior living facilities. and the entire subject of affordable housing.
More housing units into Columbia Heights not only expands our tax base, but also provides more consumers for our local businesses. So it is something that we should be looking at doing to increase our economic base.
Does the city have resources to assist residents who might have to relocate because of double-digit rent increases?
I’m not sure of the legality of what the city itself can provide. Some cities do provide rental assistance to their communities, usually larger cities that have a bigger tax base and larger fund. Them, and other higher up elected officials. There are limits on what the city council itself can do, but there’s never a limit on what we can do from an advocacy standpoint in terms of getting other people involved.
What needs to be done to reduce traffic related deaths and injuries along Central Avenue?
MnDOT is taking the lead on the redesign and redevelopment of Central Avenue. We need to create a Main Street for Columbia Heights, not a passage from Minneapolis to the northern suburbs. Recent construction on some of the sewer lines on Central Avenue, reduced the number of lanes going in each direction. That slowed down traffic but it also was kind of a study on what would that look like if we did reduce some of the lanes on Central Avenue. We need to be conscious of how our businesses are going to be affected by the redesign, and make it friendly to them. We should be looking at different crosswalks looking at light timing, possibly reducing the size of the lanes to slow down traffic a little bit. And we should be looking at things that surrounding communities have done with electric speedometers where the speed of cars will be flashed up. They’re not a perfect solution to solve all the speed issues but at least they’ll create some consciousness around the speed people are traveling and I believe overall slow down the speed.
What are your thoughts about managing green spaces in Columbia Heights, including trees, parks and public gardens?
We really need to be conscious about having enough money to invest in those to not only keep them up to date, but to make new investments when needed. The current way that [parks are] updated is on rotation. I would like to revisit that and see if there are approaches that need more immediate upgrades or fixes as opposed to just having a rigid structure where they all rotate. I would like our parks to have an ADA accessible playground in our community. Investing in our parks and our playgrounds is not only great for our community, but will also bring in other people from other communities also brings more customers for our businesses, so it’s also an economic investment.
What would be the best use for the former Fairview Columbia Heights clinic building at 4000 Central Avenue?
The loss of that clinic was a big loss for our community and surrounding communities. Especially with it sitting on two major roads, there were buses were constantly traveling on Central and 40th Avenue. I would like to try to advocate to bring a clinic back to Columbia Heights, as I’ve heard from a lot of residents that that was their main clinic and now they are facing struggles to try to get to a clinic because they need to find transportation.
What should be done about redeveloping the empty strip mall on 37th and Stinson?
I would like to try to either demolish that and try to bring in some small local businesses maybe with some unique selling points, or see if we can redevelop into a multiple story, mixed-use development where maybe there are a couple of restaurants, a couple stores, maybe some space that could be rented out for certain events. As it’s sitting now, it’s not really doing much for the community just sitting as an empty lot.
Coverage for all Columbia Heights City Council candidates can be found at these respective links: Rachel James, John Murzyn, Nick Novitsky, and Justice Spriggs.
Below: Justice Spriggs. (Provided photo)
