Minneapolis Mayoral Candidates Meet on Minnesota Public Radio

Minnesota Public Radio hosted an on-air Minneapolis mayoral candidate debate Tuesday—the candidates' final forum before the Minneapolis DFL Party holds its city convention on Saturday. 

Listen to the full debate at minnesota.publicradio.org. 

Here are a few excerpts from the MPR debate. 

Betsy Hodges named several things that make Minneapolis great—art car parades, miles of trails and bald eagles—then added: "But we do need to continue to build the city that people want to come to."

Gary Schiff: "I don't believe it's the city's role to help big business expand. … Help small businesses grow by rewriting regulatory code."

Jackie Cherryhomes: "We have to have a strong downtown business community. Downtown is the economic engine for the state of Minnesota."

Don Samuels: "We will not allow a small group of misbehaving business owners and young people [to bring down the city]."

Mark Andrew: "It is not excusable that we've had so many [police] lawsuits and that the payouts on these lawsuits has been so high."

Jim Thomas: "As a teacher in Minneapolis I am uniquely qualified to deal with problems in the Minneapolis Public Schools."