Remarks by Anika Bowie
34 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 14:42
“Thank you, Council President. First, I want to just say thank you for all my colleagues. I want to first just clarify to you all that there's two items that's on this agenda that's related, but they're separate actions taken today. The first one, I'm asking for us to restore St. Paul's historic practice of honorary street codenaming. And the following item is to adopt the resolution to actually establish an honorary street for Elder Mahmoud Okadi. Just giving some background around why we're doing this. So in 2017, the former council discontinued codenaming, and they put in their resolution…”
City Council · Sep 9, 2026
- Play at 19:44
“Well, that's a good question. So the standard of operations would be something that we will adopt. So working with the Department of Public Works, I also see this Living and Heritage Preservation, which is in PED, because they do some of that work with the street renaming. I know with the work for the Rondo renaming, we had to work through the Heritage Preservation Commission. So it still would be by way of resolution to actually adopt it, but what we're putting in place, or will be putting in place, is what is those benchmarks, what are those criteria that we want to agree to, that someone…”
City Council · Sep 9, 2026
- Play at 21:08
“Oh, the policy's already drafted. I mean, I would have loved to adopt a policy today, but I think just with our norms, we want to make sure that it goes through policy committee for us to have discussions on it. I'm totally willing to have internal conversations. If we feel like we're in a good place, we can bring it forth via resolution. But those conversations are kind of happening offline in terms of when we can get that scheduled and where we can get to a consensus with the council.”
City Council · Sep 9, 2026
- Play at 22:17
“Yeah, so the exception is related to agenda item 35, which is adopting the honorary street. Just consulting with the family members, they did not feel comfortable having a contingency on their father's name related to this. This was something, you know, that was kind of time sensitive. And we wanted to ensure that if we are repealing this practice, that this is an exception just for Elder Makhmud Okadi. but we are committed to creating a process moving forward. Also, I would just say, for someone who's leading on the designing of that criteria and working with the department on providing…”
City Council · Sep 9, 2026
- Play at 23:46
“The recommendation was to put a pause on implementation until a procedure was brought forth. So that was a recommendation. I had took that recommendation because there was concerns from colleagues. And we had made that amendment to ensure that we can have a full consensus of this vote moving forward.”
City Council · Sep 9, 2026
- Play at 24:16
“No, the version two to ensure that there's a commitment for standards of procedures was the recommendation. The exception was led by my office, but also to ensure that there is no stagnation in terms of, or any discrepancies in terms of the following vote. We want to make sure it's a clean vote and that we have a clear pathway to make sure that we can have an honorary street name sign for Elder McMillan County.”
City Council · Sep 9, 2026
- Play at 28:12
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 9, 2026
- Play at 29:56
“Thank you. So I would, unless there's more discussion about it. I think I'll just...”
City Council · Sep 9, 2026
- Play at 34:17
“Yeah, I appreciate just the lively discussion about it. And I think it's really important to put forth what expectations are. I think it's also equally important and very genuine to ensure that where consent is actually built. and where also the spirit of collaboration can be misinterpreted as causing confusion. It's really important. I was going to bring forth this resolution, the first version, where I already had the support for it. The confusion was there was council members who I thought it was important to have their consents. I brought forth a recommendation that I can be comfortable…”
City Council · Sep 9, 2026
- Play at 37:56
“Like I said, I want to withdraw that, because it seems like that is causing a lot of confusion. I want to withdraw version 2. I want us to vote on version 1.”
City Council · Sep 9, 2026
- Play at 38:27
“No, we did not. We never took a vote. We've been having discussion. I want to withdraw version two and vote on version one, please.”
City Council · Sep 9, 2026
- Play at 41:25
“Is there? Yes. Motion for approval for the agenda. Do you want me to read it? Are we on the next? Oh, I'm sorry. I thought we were on the next one. I think we're done with three. Yeah, we just finished that already.”
City Council · Sep 9, 2026
- Play at 41:50
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 9, 2026
- Play at 1:36:19
“We have the Selby Avenue Jazz Fest this year, or this Saturday, and it's going to start between 11 and it goes to 8 p.m. The announcement, the official announcement for the Honorary Street will be at the Jazz Fest. We still are looking at a time in terms of making that announcement. Mahmoud Okadi's son is Stokely, who is the former mint condition artist, will be the headliner there. Day two of the festival will be Sunday, September 13th at 3 PM at the Walker West Music Academy. It's going to be a free master class with Stokely at the Harmony Hall. And this year marks the 25th year anniversary…”
City Council · Sep 9, 2026
- Play at 6:13
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 17:42
“Thank you, Council President. I also want to share that I'm in support of this resolution, and thank you for bringing this up swiftly. I appreciate just even using what's been kind of like a reoccurring theme in discussion today from the Public Safety Committee to even now around what's the city's and the council's levers. And I think this lever... We're pulling in terms of calling on the mayor and Ramsey County to take action. It seems really appropriate and timely. I appreciate the concern around public trust and the erosion of it. I think one of the levers that we have as a city,…”
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 1:04:03
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Aug 26, 2026
- Play at 28:23
“I do and I am in favor of people having their public comments heard and then using their voice everything that we do here is related to the budget everything that we do here is related to public safety so I do see that we can have an avenue in which that people can provide their public comment just not on these items I would like to motion and that's why I didn't want to close this and have this conversation on another item but I would like to motion to for us to suspend the rules and to provide a public comment for the people who are here just so they can have their public record because…”
City Council · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 29:55
“Is there, thank you so much for that, Attorney Stanley, is there, we do a motion to put a, I guess, a public input, which is not a public hearing, but for people to provide public comment on a, say, a resolution of a staff report, particularly around our safety investments.”
City Council · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 30:41
“OK, I think that's fair. I just want to just conclude with I think it's really important for us to have these conversations. As elected officials, we're all available to take people's comments and concerns. We have heard this through the emails. This has been a widely known and discussed topic that as a public safety chair and also the vice chair of public safety here to my right, this is an issue that we anticipate on reviewing and also hearing from community. I just wanted to say for everyone here, there are people here to do business and have hearing items. And there's certain votes on…”
City Council · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 49:55
“Thank you. Vice President Yang, I have just a question out of just clarity, because I, again, I just wanted to say out loud that I plan to support the recommendation from the council member, Johnson, which this represents. But this is the first time as a council member I've heard of a motley abatement or a monthly, I don't know how to call it, like assessment on it. give some context particularly? I'm familiar with just like our vacancy building fee for $5,000 each year that they have to post, right? But can you just give some context around why on the monthly and if that monthly fee is what…”
City Council · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 1:14:47
“Council Member Bowie? I just want to have a comment. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you, Council Member Kim, for just making that motion. I really also appreciate you being vulnerable and being courageous to share that story for someone who definitely has been impacted by some of these orders and have had my constituents and live in a neighborhood with really old homes and old furnaces and have seen some of my own relatives navigate this. I just want to just amend that. I also just wanted to share, as well, there are resources. And like Councilmember Kim had mentioned, You know,…”
City Council · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 1:16:59
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 1:17:34
“Yes. A staff report. And just my question, I just wanted to confirm, it has referred to September 15th in a recommendation if it has met those conditions.”
City Council · Aug 19, 2026
- Play at 1:20:16
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Aug 19, 2026