In our final interview with Toya López, the Green Party 61A House of Representatives candidate, we spoke in person at Tao Natural Foods on Oct. 22. I asked her about what she realistically can do at the State-level, based on her priorities and what 61A residents are talking with her about.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Southwest Voices: At this point in the campaign you've done forums, you've done all these interviews, and you talk to people at the doors. And there are some things that you hear from folks and talk about that you can do as a State representative and there are some things you can't. What work are you able to accomplish as a member of the House of Representatives?

Toya López: So I'd say as very concrete things one of which I actually find most important is bonding, especially as we've seen with the East Phillips Urban Farm.

SWV: Can you explain what bonding is?

TL: Yeah, so it's an amount of money that the State has granted or allocated for a certain project, whether it be a building or for services or maintenance. This is the same method that Agate used to apply for funding to prepare their building that then went through the City. For the urban farm they had been promised, more or less, by the State, that that would be one of their priorities and be part of the Bonding Bill, and it didn't go through and they didn't get that funding.

So that's a very tangible, material way–that tool that we have to give funding directly to community, instead of bolstering our own services. Another thing would be lifting the ban on rent control. That would be something that's very much in our court, because we've literally not allowed any of the other municipalities to do that themselves. And so that would be something that I would be really interested in also.

SWV: You would lift the ban statewide.

TL: Yeah. To which municipalities can determine what their controls are, based on what they see the needs are. And so if they still wanted to put a ban on rent control in their own jurisdiction, for some reason, technically they could. But it would no longer be a statewide ban. What I would like to see as a ban is for having it so landlords can't reject someone from using a Section 8 voucher.  

Another instance of lifting a ban would be if a non-profit wanted to do a divestment from Israel, or if they wanted to boycott, that's currently a State ban. They aren't allowed to do that. Right now, you see all the divestment efforts and a lot of the excuses have been the State doesn't allow them to do that. A lot of the other rhetoric is if these larger organizations, like the U, put enough of a stink up about it, maybe it'll incentivize legislators or the State to lift that ban.

SWV: What are things that people may be talking to you about that you can't address?

TL: I don't want to tell people that it's not my jurisdiction. I think I have my own personal beef with what I can't do. So what I literally can't do as a State representative would be specifics in how the City is using its Fentanyl substance abuse money or like force them to disclose stuff. Those routes seem a bit trickier. Construction–I can't directly control that. Can I be influential? Can I use my soft power? Probably.

SWV: Can you explain what soft power means?

TL: Part of acknowledging community power is knowing that electoral politics and legislature isn't the only way that we can enact change. So even being a public figure and being someone who is maybe even elected into a supposedly more powerful place, I can use my own standing or advocacy to encourage or influence people to also go down that route or lift up different alternatives. I can use this platform as a way to start widely communicating. Then we can organize as a community to try to make that happen through other means.

When we're talking about mutual aid networks, when we're talking about even public safety as it relates to interpersonal relationships and community building, that's all done in the soft power space. There's a certain limit to what rules and regulations come through law and policy and what comes through the literal trust building that happens in community. So it's pretty powerful.

SWV: What concerns have you been hearing from voters that you can address as an elected member of the House?

TL:  I have been talking to people a lot about public safety, mental health calls. When I mentioned bonding, I want to support transformative justice and community oriented solutions. That would be in giving funding directly to people who are doing that work, like harm reduction. Whether it be funding specifically for safe use sites, or neighborhood groups that have come together to do different programming for their neighbors. Also mandating mental health treatment in prisons so that people can receive the same meds that they were on while they were out of prison.

When it comes to assisted living and group homes, I'd be very interested in seeing what I can do to tighten up the limitations on out-of-state, large corporations coming in and buying those places. The one in my neighborhood got sold and they didn't have to disclose it to anybody until after the purchase was already done. And when it comes to other affordable housing, they can be purchased by people who aren't nonprofits or who've only done market-rate before, so that has led to some issues.

SWV: You have talked about cooperatives being a solution to revitalizing places like Uptown downtown. What is your pitch to people on cooperatives being the solution?

TL: I start with what people recognize. So you have a grocery store cooperative, or a utility cooperative, if you live in greater Minnesota. If we are all getting our electricity together, we're all incentivized to want to have good transmission lines. We want to be able to not pay so much for electricity, and we want to make sure that all of our neighbors are taken care of, because we're all co-owners. That gives you much more incentive to have that be a public good than if it is privately owned, like with Xcel right now.

When it comes to a worker cooperative, we all have many different skills, right? You have the chef who has their skill, a manager has their skill, a waiter has their skill, the person who does cleaning has their skills, and all of these are valuable in making a restaurant run. If all of us were co-owners together, that makes sense, because we're all needed to make this restaurant run.

When people talk about, ‘I've seen cooperatives and they've fallen apart.’ I've also seen businesses fall apart. Ownership is not a magical experience.

SWV: What would your approach be to fully funding Minneapolis Public Schools?

TL: People have a very positive feeling about fully funding schools and I think that's important to note because a lot of this is relationship-based. Also, vote yes on the tech levy.

One solution that's been brought to me by some school board members is diversification of funding. For instance, playgrounds–can any of that be taken on by the Parks? Are there other aspects of building maintenance or other things that don't need to be funded by the school budget, but can now be freed up for the purposes of special education? Making sure that we have enough dual language available is a route that I would like to take. Other than that, more practical steps are just always being in support. Because I feel like a lot of what we do is always for the kids. That's really where everything starts. It’s just immensely important that as much as there are all these other things going on, I feel like I need to be really coming to bat for kids a lot more.

SWV: Is there anything else you want to share?

TL:  I'm very much into urban agriculture. I could go into so much more with that, but nobody ever asked me about it. And so I just wanted to mention that. We need greater Minnesota more than Greater Minnesota needs us when it comes to even our basic needs. A lot of my neighbors who are immigrants, myself, we come from farming and cultivating backgrounds. I do feel like it's a disservice to not be able to have food sovereignty and urban farming, especially as we're remediating and looking at environmental justice with the East Phillips Urban Farm. As we make ourselves a healthier space to be, we can also start cultivating food here and help decrease our emissions that way as well.

SWV: Why should people vote for you?

‍TL: I think people should vote for me, if they want to see a change happen. If you believe in having someone who has been embedded in community, who will be on the front lines, who is committing to staying grounded right and real with people. If you, like me, know that the status quo is killing you then I would recommend that you vote for me. I do believe that my goal is to uplift everyone else. I don't really see myself having this as a career. I'm not interested in that. My goal is to jam my foot in the door for all of the other leaders that I see in my community who should be in positions of leadership because they're really intelligent. We can make a change together. So if people believe that, believe in their neighbor and believe in themselves, I want to dedicate myself to making that happen.

Toya López participated in the 61A candidate forum in September, moderated by the League of Women Voters where she spoke on numerous policy issues. The forum is available to watch on YouTube.

Check this map to see if you are a 61A resident. The election is Nov. 5.