Transcripts

SPEAKER 1: The city of Minneapolis owns 48 acres of riverfront property in lowest-income and-- in the lowest-income and most racially diverse part of town. Officials are planning a $200 million redevelopment of the site known as the Upper Harbor Terminal. But residents are challenging the approach as business as usual. After years of neglect, they are working to make sure the development benefits their communities. Reporter Melissa Townsend has the story.

DEVON NOLEN: There are so many things.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: DeVon Nolen grew up on the north side of Minneapolis. She still lives here with her husband and her four children.

DEVON NOLEN: My granddad used to say, don't go across that river. I mean, there were clear lines drawn where it was safe to be and where it wasn't safe to be.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: African American and Jewish residents concentrated their homes in North Minneapolis because redlining, racial covenants, and safety concerns made it nearly impossible to live elsewhere in the city. So there was a boundary put around this section of town, based on race and class. And inside that boundary was DeVon's home.

DEVON NOLEN: Our family members live within a 10-block radius. And then this one with the red trim is my grandma's house. She would be not happy with how that yard is looking, let me tell you.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: As she grew up, many of her family members moved away.

DEVON NOLEN: I'm in the suburbs, some in other states.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: She says the community, overall, has become less cohesive and less tight knit. This area is now one of the most racially diverse parts of the city, with Hmong, Latino, white, and African American residents. There are some thriving organizations here.

But industry along the Mississippi River pollutes the air, contributing to lead poisoning and high rates of asthma. And the foreclosure crisis in 2008 and a tornado that blew through here left many boarded-up buildings and vacant lots. And yet a shortage of housing in the metro is driving people to look at the north side, where housing prices are lower than in other areas. Wealthier outsiders are moving in.

DEVON NOLEN: I get offers to buy my house every day.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: Again, north side resident DeVon Nolen.

DEVON NOLEN: I'm never selling my home, never.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: So now, home values are increasing. Property taxes are getting higher. Rent is going up. And many longtime north side residents are feeling even more squeezed than before. Some also feel the culture of the place is threatened.

DEVON NOLEN: It's changed in ways that don't value the people that are already here. Because they're poor and they're Black, they don't count.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: Nolen and many others here do not want to see this continue. This site, the Upper Harbor Terminal, is 48 acres of possibility. It used to be a barge terminal on the Mississippi River that closed down in 2015. And now it has these old, rusting industrial structures and big piles of dirt and sand. But appearances can be deceiving. This is prime real estate, right on the Mississippi River, close to downtown Minneapolis and I-94.

BARB JOHNSON: Having this 48 acres that is publicly owned is a really big deal. You're not going to have to pay for the land. And so that kind of money then is available for development

MELISSA TOWNSEND: Barb Johnson was the city council representative for the Fourth Ward when planning for this project began back before 2015. Under Johnson, the idea was to make half of this area parkland and sell the other half to a private developer. Luxury housing and other amenities could generate millions for the city in land sales and tax revenue over the long term.

BARB JOHNSON: The ways city gets revenue is either to raise taxes or increase development.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: But that kind of upscale development would not be affordable or welcoming to longtime north siders. And it could drive up rents in the surrounding communities where they live. It could price them out. Many vocal north siders are pushing city officials and private developers to do it differently.

MARKELLA SMITH: There was a comment that has been made, and it has not left.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: Markella Smith lives in the Hawthorne neighborhood on the north side. She's the executive director of the McKinley Neighborhood Association.

MARKELLA SMITH: And the comment was, we are not just the help. We don't want to just be the minimum-wage workers at that place. We come there to work, and we leave.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: Smith and others want the real estate deal to generate real benefits for them, entrepreneurial opportunities, a beautiful park with access to the Mississippi River, and so much more. City officials say they heard that message loud and clear. According to city records between 2016 and 2019, city officials attended more than 80 events, like block club meetings, housing fairs, and street festivals. But that doesn't mean north siders felt heard. Markella Smith says she hadn't even heard of the project until last year.

MARKELLA SMITH: And that's a huge development that's happening. So how is it that me, who lives and breathes the north side, like my whole life is north side, how did I not know about that? So it makes me wonder, how is the information getting out?

MELISSA TOWNSEND: While the city was fanning out across the north side, Dayna Frank was eyeing up the Upper Harbor Terminal site for an outdoor music venue. Frank is CEO of the First Avenue Music Venues, based in the Twin Cities. You know.

DAYNA FRANK: It's Minnesota. When the weather is beautiful, everyone wants to be outside. And that includes the artists.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: In 2016, Frank teamed up with United Properties, a large Minnesota-based development firm; and Thor Construction, the largest owned African American firm in the state at the time. In 2017, they presented a draft concept plan for development on the site. Thor Construction later suffered serious financial trouble and dropped out of the project.

The plan for the Upper Harbor Terminal includes a park, parking, a hotel, office and retail space, housing, and a music venue for up to 10,000 people. Some folks love the idea of an amphitheater and a park. But others felt the development was not going to benefit north siders at all. North side Resident and Community Leader Roxxanne O'Brien was at first open to the plan. But then she realized it had some real problems.

ROXXANNE O'BRIEN: We're basically signing on to a development that might push people out. And I'm like, yo, I live here too. I'm like, I live down the street. I don't want to be a part of something that, in the end, pushes people out.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: She and others wanted city officials to really hammer out the things that were not spelled out in the plan, like affordable housing, environmental cleanup, and business opportunities for north siders. O'Brien and others began to organize neighbors against the plan.

SPEAKER 2: Minneapolis is also making national headlines--

MELISSA TOWNSEND: And in the middle of all of this--

SPEAKER 2: Phillipe Cunningham defeated Council President Barb Johnson to represent North Minneapolis's Fourth Ward. Johnson was a 20-year incumbent--

MELISSA TOWNSEND: And so new Fourth Ward City Council Member Phillipe Cunningham inherits the Upper Harbor Terminal project. And he takes a very different approach.

PHILLIPE CUNNINGHAM: When I was elected and I stepped into office, I said, racial equity needs to be at the core of this, building community wealth for the current north side community, addressing anti-displacement, the values that I was elected on, which really fundamentally go back to building community wealth.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: In 2019, five years after the process started, the Minneapolis City Council is scheduled to vote on the Upper Harbor Terminal plan. And Cunningham works out a deal. He puts the concept plan that includes the park, hotel, amphitheater, and the private development in front of the city council.

But he also puts in place a new citizen advisory committee. It's called the Collaborative Planning Committee, or CPC. It has 17 members. He says the concept plan is the bones, and the CPC gets to put the meat on them. North side resident Roxxanne O'Brien is now hopeful about this development.

ROXXANNE O'BRIEN: We did put a halt to business as usual and got the city to pause and rewind a little bit. Not that much and not that far, but we got them to rewind a little bit.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: You can hear her hesitating to call this a real victory. How much power does the Collaborative Planning Committee really have?

CARISSA SLOTTERBACK: I think tokenism can be a critique of things, like advisory committees.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: Carissa Slotterback is a University of Minnesota planning professor.

CARISSA SLOTTERBACK: We need to find ways earlier in the process to engage representative groups in advisory positions that have more power, that have ongoing influence, that aren't just about reacting to something.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: As a matter of fact, after six months on the committee, two members resigned, saying the process was deeply flawed. Is it too late to start this process over? Some north side residents are now organizing to do just that. They want to start from the beginning, with a more community-driven process.

But Fourth Ward Council Member Phillipe Cunningham says, at this point, that's not going to happen. He says committee members have good ideas and the development team is listening. Again, Dayna Frank, the CEO of First Avenue, who is planning the big amphitheater on the site.

DAYNA FRANK: Well, I just feel like everything that came to us as community needs, we've addressed. We want ownership. We want jobs. We want free shows, sustainability. We want a connection to the river. I feel like that's addressed.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: And Markella Smith, the north sider who said her community doesn't want to be the help, now co-chairs the Collaborative Planning Committee.

MARKELLA SMITH: I really feel like the city is trying.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: Smith and others on the CPC say the key is figuring out how to make sure developers make good on their promises.

MARKELLA SMITH: There needs to be concrete ways to hold people accountable. And we have to be clear about that.

MELISSA TOWNSEND: Smith says, right now, there's no clear way to hold anyone accountable for the things the community wants. So they may need to create a whole new community organization that would steer development and hold private interests accountable. If they're going to do that, they need to act fast. According to Council Member Cunningham, the Collaborative Planning Committee must have a plan to present to the Minneapolis City Council by the end of March. For MPR News, I'm Melissa Townsend, Minneapolis.