MINNEAPOLIS — A man who calls himself the mayor of Minneapolis after dark is looking to make his title official by becoming the next mayor of Minneapolis.
Nickolas Pilotta, who many in the Minneapolis nightlife circuit know as L.A. Nik, initially decided to run in the Ward 3 race for Minneapolis City Council to replace current councilman and mayoral candidate Jacob Frey.
At the eleventh hour of the mayoral race deadline, Nik decided to run for mayor of Minneapolis, a decision he said was made after a weekend of violence in the city.
“I realized after a weekend of violent crime downtown that I would have more of an impact as mayor than as city council person,” Nik told Alpha News. “In a weak mayoral city, the mayor controls the police department like here in Minneapolis. Without law and order, the city of Minneapolis will fail.”
As Alpha News reported, nine people were shot over a three-day weekend in Minneapolis, with no comment from the current mayor of Minneapolis Betsy Hodges.
Nik had a strong stance on Hodges job performance calling her, “an unproductive, uncooperative, and self serving mayor.” Nik went on to say, “I believe she is a political ladder climber within the Democratic party. She has an agenda to please the national Democratic party and not the city of Minneapolis. The same could be said for most city council members.”
As a musician turned small-business owner, Nik is focused on crime, spending, and helping people and business owners succeed in the Twin Cities.
Nik calls for integration in the city. “If we fix our integration problem it will help fix our drug, crime and homelessness problems,” Nik told Alpha News.
Citing a Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal article that named Minneapolis as one of the lowest cities in the country for integration, Nik wonders how the black community could succeed in the current environment.
“With our black community having an over fifty percent high school drop out rate and with 19 fortune 500 companies based in Minneapolis that require a college degrees in which to work, where is the black community supposed look to be employed?”
Lowering property taxes is also on if Nik’s agenda if he becomes mayor.
“Property taxes are going to go through the roof,” Nik said. “This will even impact people who don’t own property because the people they rent from have property taxes that will increase and that increase will be passed along to the renters.”
Nik talked about meeting an elderly woman at an estate sale who would not leave her home to her kids due to high property taxes. “This will continue as the city falls further into debt especially after the Super Bowl,” Nik told Alpha News. “Maybe spending millions on bike lanes would help.”
Violence at protests have grown in Minneapolis in recent months. Nik supports peaceful protests, but has a zero tolerance policy for violent protesters. “There is no excuse for violence in any situation,” Nik said. “I would have violence stopped at all costs even if it meant calling in the National Guard. There is zero excuse for bad behavior.”
Minneapolis voters will head to the polls to cast their ballot for the next mayor on November 7.
Preya Samsundar
Preya Samsundar was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities this Spring with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology, with a minor in Strategic Communications. Preya has previously worked on several State Campaign Races.
