Every Lowry Hill News story tagged City Hall.

The Lowry Hill Neighborhood Association board meets the first Tuesday of each month, 7 to 9 p.m., at the Searle Mansion, 1915 Logan Ave. S., where parks requests, traffic concerns and land-use notices get aired.

The native plants lining much of Lake of the Isles are at full height this month, the result of a Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board approach that treats native vegetation, rather than mown lawn, as the default along the Chain of Lakes shoreline.

The Lowry Hill East Neighborhood Association is one of 70 nonprofit neighborhood organizations the City of Minneapolis recognizes to give residents a formal role in how the city governs itself.

Road salt spread on streets and sidewalks in winter washes into the Chain of Lakes and stays there, because chloride does not break down once it dissolves.

The Walker Art Center's cinema keeps a year-round film calendar a short walk from Lowry Hill, with current screenings ranging from Julie Dash's "Daughters of the Dust" to Charles Burnett's "Killer of Sheep."

Council Member Elizabeth Shaffer, sworn in to the Ward 7 seat on Jan. 5, 2026, now runs the office that handles constituent casework for Lowry Hill, the Wedge, East Isles, Cedar-Isles-Dean, Bryn Mawr, Kenwood and part of downtown.

Elizabeth Shaffer reached the Ward 7 City Council seat after serving as a Minneapolis park commissioner, a move between two separately elected governments that share the same neighborhoods.

Elizabeth Shaffer, a former Park Board commissioner, was sworn in as Ward 7 council member on Jan. 5 after unseating one-term incumbent Katie Cashman in the city's most expensive council race.

Minneapolis voters approved a $20 million-a-year increase to the school district's technology levy in November 2024, replacing an expiring authorization.

The Minneapolis school board approved a $279 million property tax levy for 2025, a 12.6% increase that includes the voter-approved technology levy.

Two separate levies — the City of Minneapolis budget and the Park Board's 6.11% increase — land on the same 2026 Hennepin County property-tax statement.

Mayor Jacob Frey asked for a 7.8% levy increase in August; the City Council adopted 8% in December.

The Minneapolis City Council adopted a roughly $2 billion 2026 budget on Dec. 9, 2025, on an 11-0-0-2 vote.

The Minneapolis Park Board adopted a $160 million 2026 budget on Dec. 9, 2025, after two public hearings that let residents weigh in on the plan and its tax levy.

The Park Board treats stormwater running off streets and rooftops as the main threat to Lake of the Isles and the Chain of Lakes.

The Park Board adopted its 2026 budget in December, built on a property-tax levy of $95,524,537 and focused on caring for aging park assets.

The City Council amended Mayor Jacob Frey's 2026 budget before adopting it, and rejected his proposed cuts to the mayor's own office.

Mayor Jacob Frey moved to end "double-time" police overtime in 2026, a change the city says will save about $3.64 million a year and help hold down the property-tax levy.

A wine business called Small Lot operates at 2110 Lyndale Ave. S. on the Wedge's eastern edge, though its current retail concept could not be independently confirmed.

Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai and Mayor Jacob Frey jointly announced the 2026 budget agreement that held the city's property-tax levy flat.

The independently elected Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board levies property taxes separately from the city, so homeowners pay toward two budgets on one statement.

An ordinance amends the binding Minneapolis Code of Ordinances; a resolution only states the council's position or directs city business.

A Minneapolis council item moves from a subject-matter committee, where the public can testify, to a Thursday vote of the full council.

Four new members joined the Minneapolis City Council in January 2026, and the progressive bloc lost its veto-proof majority.

Elizabeth Shaffer won the Ward 7 council seat outright in the first round, taking 52 percent of first-choice votes.

Crews kept working on Hennepin Avenue South after its late-October reopening, finishing punch-list items and underground utility work that outlast the ribbon-cutting.

Grit chambers and treatment wetlands strip sediment and pollutants from stormwater before it reaches Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles.

The Ward 7 contest between Katie Cashman and Elizabeth Shaffer was the most expensive single City Council race in Minneapolis this cycle, drawing outside money into Lowry Hill and the lakes neighborhoods.

The rebuilt Hennepin Avenue South divides its fixed width among buses, bikes, cars and pedestrians, and no constituency got everything it wanted.

Four newcomers joined the Minneapolis City Council in January 2026, costing the progressive bloc the nine votes it needed to override Mayor Jacob Frey.

Katie Cashman lost Ward 7 to Elizabeth Shaffer by about 800 votes after a single term, even as turnout climbed in the ward's renter-heavy precincts.

Jacob Frey won a third term as Minneapolis mayor by 50.03% after ranked-choice tabulation, even as the council that checks him lost its veto-proof majority.

The Hennepin Avenue South rebuild ran in two phases over two construction seasons, from Lake Street to 26th in 2024 and from 26th to Douglas in 2025.

The rebuilt Hennepin Avenue was designed around the METRO E Line, which opened Dec. 6 and largely replaced Route 6.

Public Works first recommended full-time bus lanes for Hennepin Avenue, but after a council fight and a mayoral veto the project settled on part-time lanes.

The rebuilt Hennepin Avenue reallocates about 1.4 miles of pavement among part-time bus lanes, a two-way protected bikeway, raised medians and wider sidewalks.

Hennepin Avenue South reopened Oct. 31 between Lake Street and Douglas Avenue after an 18-month, roughly $36 million reconstruction.

The cleanup of the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes, carried out over decades by a multi-agency partnership, has been described as the nation's largest urban lake restoration.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board owns about 180 park properties and nearly 7,000 acres, and it also maintains roughly 200,000 boulevard trees on the residential streets outside many residents' doors.

The Lowry Hill Neighborhood Association voted in May 2025 to move $15,000 in Neighborhood Revitalization Program income from housing to a Kenwood School outdoor classroom.
Free. No paywall. Pick the topics you want — we send what’s happening this week.