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>> Representative Dehn thank you for joining us. >> it's a pleasure to be here.
>> can you describe your district and tell us what ways you and your district are similar?
>> my district is generally known as a it North Minneapolis district. It is much more
than just north Minneapolis and includes a majority of downtown Minneapolis from Highway
35 W on the east side to the river on the north northwest side and extends to Broadway
Avenue and follows Broadway roughly to the city limits around the Golden Valley and from
there it comes down and picks up a piece of Bryn Mawr and then goes back beyond the cathedral
and joins up with downtown as well as an pass a piece of Elliott Park which is nestled in
between Highway 94 and 35 W. >> how are you similar to your district?
>> very unusual district because I have downtown which has hundreds of thousands of people
who come in every day to work to do not live there. I live on the north side so I've lived
on the north side going on 14 years now and it's a very rich and diverse community. It
is really trying anyways to wrestle with what it is to be a very heterogeneous neighborhood
and culture and I've been playing a role in that for a long time. I'm connected to very
much at the grassroots in North Minneapolis and I'm educated as an architect so on a professional
so in many ways downtown I'm wearing that type of hat with folks.
>> why did you initially decide to run for office as? a as?
>> I think part of that came from being engaged in the grassroots level and the north side
of Minneapolis and seeing how things work and how things were able to impact change
and some of that was understanding that the grassroots part of it is really critical to
change. But there has to be individuals more in elected office and in elected positions
who are responding to those grassroots ideas and initiatives and I felt I had the personality
and the skill set to be able to be an elected office and still in many ways not lose my
grass-roots activism and activities and trying to allow transformation to take place.
>> what do you see as the biggest challenge the state will face in the next 10 years?
>> if I had to project in the future it would be something around the issues of the health
and well-being of not only are people in the state but our air quality as well as our water.
I think Minnesota we have such rich water resource that we tend to take that for granted
and it's not going to be around forever and it's not going to be at the quality that we
have if we will start addressing that in addressing it seriously. At the same time, I think one
of the biggest challenges is going to be addressing the issues of disparities between white Minnesotans
and communities of color. In the metro region we have one of the largest disparities for
out United States between the wealth and opportunity of folks who are white Minnesotans vs bills
of people of color and it doesn't just apply to the metro region there are other parts
of the state where you can see that very visibly as well.
>> what legislation have you worked on in the past that you are most proud of and?
>> the most think I was proud of his ban the box that was a huge bill to have passed and
to allow those individuals who had incidence of crime in the past two now have a real opportunity
of possibly getting to an interview wares in the past when they would look at the box
on the job application have you ever been convicted of a crime and would check that,
oftentimes that would've walked out feeling there it goes I would even have a chance at
the interview. Now what the law does it actually gives it a chance to be judged on their experiences
as well as their credentials and get the interview and have the opportunity to talk about what
happened 10 or 20 sometimes 30 years in the past another different people today than they
were when they did those types of activities. >> if you could go back and visit any time,
what time would you travel to and why? >> for me would probably be going back to
the time in the Yucatan peninsula with the minds at the end of their sort of rain and
their existence to find out what really happened to them and now their society and their culture
disappeared very quickly. There's a lot of speculation on what caused it, but to actually
be there and to see what it was when their culture and society began to crumble and changed
drastically that would be a very interesting place in time to go back and visit. . .