IN BRIEF JANUARY 2022

Comment on METRO Blue Line Extention plan
The METRO Blue Line Extension project has released the Draft Route Modification Report. This report describes the overall process, public input, and technical evaluation that will inform the recommendation of a community supported route. The Draft Route Modification Report is available for public review at www.BlueLineExt.org. Comments on the report will be accepted through Jan. 25, 2022 and will inform the final evaluation and route recommendation in spring 2022.
• Submit a comment form through the project website
• Fill out and mail the comment form included in the report document
• Email your input to Sophia.Ginis@metrotransit.org

WILD hires LaLinda Xiong
Twin Cities Diversity in Practice recently added LaLinda Xiong as the program manager to lead its new anti-racism initiative, Wanton Injustice Legal Detail (WILD). The initiative will focus on freeing the Twin Cities of all forms of racism, in particular, anti-Black racism. Xiong will work directly with partner organizations to develop volunteer engagements to further WILD’s important work of eliminating racism in policing, expanding voting rights, addressing racial inequities in education, increasing access to wealth and more.
Xiong previously worked at the Lake Street Council as the Creative Placemaking Coordinator and was a program manager for the city of Minneapolis in the Division of Race and Equity. Being raised in an intergenerational, multi-lingual home with Hmong refugee parents, Xiong brings firsthand knowledge of this community to her new role.
WILD has already launched several initiatives, including a six-month equity challenge course on understanding and deconstructing racism in Minnesota and small group listening sessions to process the ongoing trauma following police brutality. WILD has also supported the community by publishing educational information about voting rights, providing support for the Page Amendment, conducting outreach for the MNDHR investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department and more.

Recount in Ward 2
A recount has been completed in the Ward 2 election. The recount was requested by second-place candidate Yusra Arab, who challenged 12 of the nearly 10,000 ballots cast. Winning candidate Robin Wonsley Worlobah challenged 10 of the ballots.
The total number of ballots challenged exceeds the 19-vote margin of victory so the results were reconsidered by the city’s Canvasing Board, which is the city council, on Dec.1, where each contested ballot was evaluated and voted on by the board.
The certified results resulted in Worlobah winning by 13 votes. The final totals are 4,055 for Worlobah, 4,042 for Arab and 1,702 for neither of those candidates.