George Floyd Square, Uptown Intersection Reopen To Traffic

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Two intersections in Minneapolis that have been the center of protests and gatherings are back open to traffic Sunday.

Cars are now able to drive along East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue — the intersection where George Floyd was killed by now-former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020. It was closed for more than a year as a memorial to Floyd, but cars can now get through.

And the intersection of Lake Street at Girard Avenue is open again in Uptown. It was closed off and on as police and protesters had a tug of war over the area in the past several weeks after a federal fugitive task force shot and killed Winston Boogie Smith Jr. atop a parking ramp earlier this month.

George Floyd Square on June 20, 2021 (credit: CBS)

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who is up for re-election this fall, spoke with WCCO on Sunday morning about the reopening.

“Minneapolis is at the center of a 100-years-in-the-making reckoning around racial justice, and we should have peaceful protest. We support First Amendment expressions,” Frey said. “Simultaneously, we need to make sure that some of these major corridors in our city that rely on access, our residents have access, we need to make sure that they’re open.”

Neither Frey nor any other candidate got the votes needed to secure the city’s DFL endorsement in the race for mayor. Also running are Sheila Nezhad, who got a majority of DFL delegates in the endorsement vote, and former State Representative Kate Knuth.

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