MINNEAPOLIS - As he entered his first day as mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey's first public statement was simple.
"It is time to get to work," Frey said.
After a private swearing-in ceremony, he said his first priority is working to increase access to affordable housing.
"I don't just mean concentrating all of the affordable housing, all the low income, all the section 8, in one area of the city," Frey said. "That's something that we've done for decades in our city. We want to push back on that. I believe in affordable housing in every neighborhood in the city."
To help facilitate that, and several other policy changes, he says he's also increasing access to his office for the city council, which hasn't been the case recently.
"All council staff, department heads have access to the mayor's office, so when we talk about an open door policy, we mean it quite literally,"
Mayor Frey says he also plans to work more closely with the new mayor of St. Paul, Melvin Carter, which is why Frey's first trip outside City Hall as mayor was to attend Carter's inauguration.
"He's been a good friend for quite some time and now I mean, it's kind of a dream come true that we get to represent the Twin Cities together," Frey said.
But it wasn't all pomp and circumstance, after the inauguration went back to Minneapolis to meet a Public Works crew that handles organics recycling. The mayor jumped on the back of the truck and helped load some recycling bins. He said he always wanted to ride on the back of a truck as a kid, but that the real purpose was to understand how services help the city operate.
"I want to know all about the city infrastructure on a very intimate level, so it all starts right now," he said.
Though he was sworn in today, Frey's public inauguration ceremony will be held on Jan. 8.