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Phillips : Development News

15 Phillips Articles | Page:

A homeownership initiative to help the Little Earth community

Already, the Little Earth of United Tribes Homeownership Initiative is turning around part of Minneapolis’s East Phillips neighborhood.

As its name suggests, the initiative helps members of the Little Earth community get to the point of homeownership.

Only a handful of years ago, the American Indian-targeted affordable housing Little Earth was considered dangerous and undesirable, says City Council member Gary Schiff.

Today, Little Earth has a waiting list of 100 people. “It’s a significant sign of success for the organization,” he says.   

In some ways, this relates to the homeownership initiative, which got its start a few years ago, he says.

At the time, Little Earth began working with the city to reduce crime in the area.  

Little Earth took a zero-tolerance attitude towards crime, evicting problem tenants. Then it partnered with the city to buy up the nearby rental housing on what's referred to as the E.M. Stately blocks, where drug-dealing and gang activity were still an issue. That's where the homeownership initiative, which involves rehabbing or constructing seven new single-family homes, comes into play.

The housing is like an extension of Little Earth, while providing for the possibility of homeownership--the first initiative like this in the city to target American Indians. “It’s an economic development and anti-crime strategy,” he says, adding that crime is way down.  

The program, which includes everything from the new homes to job assistance, creates an economic ladder for those who want to live in the area, but who don’t qualify for low-income housing at Little Earth, he says.   

One of the homes is being rehabbed right now, while another four are under construction. The houses are planned to be ready by wintertime.  

“The number of residents paying market-rate rents is really fascinating,” he says, adding, “People want to live there and be a part of the Native American community.”

Schiff is finding that word is spreading. People at Little Earth are taking classes to become homeowners and establish a good credit record. “It’s gotten people excited at Little Earth to realize it’s building an economically diverse community,” he says.

The City of Lakes Community Land Trust (CLCLT), Minnesota Housing Partnership (MHP), Woodlands Bank, the city, and the Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation (GMHC) collaborated to acquire the lots.

“It’s one of several housing projects that reflect a renaissance for East Phillips and the American Indian community,” he says, adding that the community continues to grow for the second decade in a row.    

Source: Gary Schiff, Minneapolis City Council member
Writer: Anna Pratt

A communal garden by a coalition of neighborhood groups in the works for the diverse Phillips area

The 24th Street Urban Farm Coalition in Minneapolis’s Phillips neighborhood will have its first official workday in its “communal” garden on May 19.

Phillips resident Sammie Ardito Rivera, who is the outreach and education coordinator at Dream of Wild Health, a 10-acre native farm in Hugo, belongs to the volunteer-driven coalition.   

The coalition is a joint effort of a number of community organizations including the following: Ventura Village Neighborhood Association, Indigenous Peoples Taskforce, Women’s Environmental Institute, Waite House, Indian Health Board, and Native American Community Clinic, along with Dream of Wild Health.  

It’s an opportunity for these organizations to do a demonstration farm that will help community members, especially American Indians, learn how to grow food, she says. That education is needed in the native community, which has high rates of heart disease and diabetes, Rivera adds.   

People will work in the “communal” garden collectively. “It’s not a community garden in the plot sense,” she says. “It’s more of a teaching opportunity for people who aren’t ready to grow their own food but want access.”

Nearby, a couple of other "communal" gardens are also in the works (see The Line's story here).

Planning for the 24th Street garden began last year, involving some minimal plantings last growing season. “This summer we hope to expand and have a more solid presence there,” she says.

The undeveloped piece of land, which the Indian Health Board owns, will be farmed temporarily. The Indian organization may have plans for the lot further down the line, she explains.

At the same time, the gardeners are also hoping to expand the farm in the future into a nearby lot that the city owns.

Right now, the farm is still fleshing out the details, she says, adding that for now, it’s on the lookout for rain barrels.

Source: Sammie Ardito Rivera, member of the 24th Street Urban Farm Coalition
Writer: Anna Pratt

Phillips neighborhood group strives to make 'communal' gardens

Neighbors Connecting for Action in Phillips (NCAP), a new community group for Minneapolis’s Phillips neighborhood, is organizing a couple of “communal” gardens in the area.

Unlike the typical community garden structure where people sign up for a certain garden plot, participants will pool their efforts in the project, according to Jude Ortiz, an NCAP representative. “We’re coming together as neighbors to grow plants for each other,” he says, adding, “It’ll be collaborative, based on what people can do.”   

One garden at 28th and Portland Avenue South will focus on perennial plants, including various native species.

NCAP has an agreement with the Sustainable Resources Center in Northeast Minneapolis to work the land, according to Ortiz. There were gardening efforts there in the past, but there's been nothing in recent years, he says.

A second garden at 26th Street and 13th Avenue South, which has a longer, more fruitful history, will grow produce.  

To get the gardens going, the group has been pulling together community members. It's planning  meetings at both places for April 15. Attendees will begin discussing the design of the gardens at these gatherings.

Because NCAP is working without much of a budget, they’re trying to get as many donations of supplies and plants as possible. Already, “There’s a lot of interest and creativity going into it,” Ortiz says.

NCAP sees the gardens as “important to restore the urban ecosystem” and to provide access to healthy, organic food. It’s also an educational opportunity, helping the community become more self-sufficient, he says.

Further, having this kind of green space “creates an oasis in the city for people and other species,” he says.

Source: Jude Ortiz, NCAP
Writer: Anna Pratt

TPT documentary sheds light on area's innovative affordable housing projects

“Homes for All,” a documentary from Twin Cities Public Television (TPT), showcases several Twin Cities affordable housing projects that go above and beyond.

The documentary, which was sponsored in part by the Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers, Minnesota Housing Partnership, and the Community Land Trust Coalition, will air on TPT on Feb. 19.  

It focuses on three different public- and private- sector developments that vary in size, including Hope Communities apartments in Minneapolis, Quarry View townhomes in Apple Valley, and Forest Ridge Townhomes in Forest Lake.  

Chip Halbach, executive director of the Minnesota Housing Partnership, explains that the documentary was put together to “give the general public a more in-depth understanding of what affordable housing is.”

The documentary profiles some residents of the developments behind the scenes, showing what their homes look like and how they fit into the community.

In each of these cases, the developments are “designed to contribute to the community,” he says.  

For example, Hope Communities, a 173-unit apartment complex at Franklin and Portland avenues in Minneapolis's Phillips neighborhood, has helped turn around a blighted area.

Besides stabilizing home life for its residents, the building, which was developed jointly by Minneapolis-based Hope Community and nearby Aeon, hosts various youth programs. “It goes beyond just making it safer,” Halbach says. “It’s a community-organizing vehicle” that has sparked revitalization elsewhere in the neighborhood as well.  

Although there's more work to be done in the neighborhood, “It all adds up to something that’s a real positive force in the Phillips neighborhood," he says.

In the documentary, a number of housing experts also “provide context for why the public should be interested in these affordable housing investments,” he adds.  

Source: Chip Halbach, executive director, Minnesota Housing Partnership
Writer: Anna Pratt

Waite House trying to raise $250,000 for new home

Waite House, a community gathering place in Minneapolis’s Phillips neighborhood, started construction at its new home this month. It’s about 80 percent of the way to its goal of raising $250,000 for the project, according to Waite House information.

The neighborhood organization is moving from its cramped quarters at 2529 13th Avenue South only blocks away into the larger Phillips Community Center at 2323 11th Avenue South.

By the spring, the organization will be sharing the building with a handful of other community-oriented organizations, including the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board, which has also revamped some parts of the complex.

Waite House director Francisco Segovia says that the new digs will allow for “collaboration with other organizations under the same roof."

Community members will be able to take advantage of the fitness center, eat healthy meals, and take classes. It also has a double gym, teen center, kitchen, dining room, offices, parking, and more.   

“This will enhance and provide services to a lot of kids in Phillips,” says Segovia.

The remodeling project mainly involves tearing down walls, installing new flooring, and upgrading systems, he says.  
 
Until now, the Waite House has had to juggle a community café and a gym in the same space.

In the new building, the functions will be separate. It’ll also have a computer lab, community-organizing-focused library, wireless Internet access, and meeting space.  

The food shelf is going to be bigger, he says. “We’ll be able to store more fresh food than we can at this point.”  

In the future, he hopes the organization will be able to open a coffee cart to have on hand for meetings.

“It’s a place in the neighborhood where community members of all nationalities and ages can come and network with people there,” he says.

Source: Francisco Segovia, director, Waite House
Writer: Anna Pratt

American Swedish Institute nears groundbreaking for $21.5 million campus expansion

To accommodate growing programs, the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis's Phillips neighborhood is embarking on a $21.5 million campus expansion.

A groundbreaking ceremony is planned for April 16, while construction will continue through June 2012, according to institute information.

The twofold project includes the renovation of the 1908 Turnblad Mansion, where the American Swedish Institute was founded 80 years ago, its website states. A new elevator and stairway tower will make it more accessible; original rooms will be preserved, and classroom and community meeting areas will be set up, along with space for research materials, according to the website.   

Bruce Karstadt, who is the president and CEO of the American Swedish Institute, explains that through the years, "The mansion has been called upon to serve as all kinds of things that it was never intended for."

The renovation will help bring back its original grandeur.

Secondly, a 34,000-square-foot Nelson Cultural Center, named for donors Carl and Leslie Nelson, will be built adjacent to the mansion, with a pedestrian walkway linking the two buildings, he says.

The center's contemporary design will complement the historic mansion, reflecting Scandinavian influences, he says.  

It'll feature a glass-enclosed reception lobby, art gallery, studio and crafts workshop, 325-seat event space, conference room, museum shop, and café. It'll also have storage space, commercial kitchens and offices for partner organizations, including Gustavus Adolphus College, according to project materials.

Given that the institute will offer the only full-service café in a multi-block area, "we hope people come for the coffee and stay for the story," says Karstadt.

There'll be a courtyard between the two buildings, with an outdoor dining and programming area, he says.

In the new cultural center, the institute will go for a high level of LEED certification, a national benchmark for sustainability; Karstadt says that it will be one of the first museum spaces in the area to do so.

The institute will achieve the standard by incorporating a green roof, native plants, sustainable building materials, low-emission interior finishes, water and energy conservation measures, and geothermal heating and cooling systems.

"We're really excited," he says. When all is said and done, "it'll be accessible and welcoming for the entire community."

Source: Bruce Karstadt, president and CEO of the American Swedish Institute
Writer: Anna Pratt


Minneapolis Project screens 24 shorts by 18 filmmakers about 22 neighborhoods

Five hundred people packed the Riverview Theater last week to see the "Minneapolis Project 2010" -- a one-night festival of 24 short films about 22 places in the city. Most of the shorts were narratives that one way or another evoked the character of the neighborhoods in which they were set, says organizer John Koch.

The project is akin to recent efforts such as "Paris, je t'aime" and "New York, I Love You," says Koch, who contends that "any city could do this." But it's no one-off for Koch's nonprofit, Cinema Revolution--the same name as his former art-house DVD-rental shop in Uptown. "The Minneapolis Project" is Cinema Revolution's fourth omnibus film screening, a continuation of events that began during the six years Koch owned the shop.

The city's neighborhoods supply both the films' subject matter and their audience. "Most films are made with the broadest audience in mind," says Koch. But the aim of the 18 filmmakers participating in the Minneapolis Project was different: "creating films specifically for a local audience, knowing that a local audience would find value in it."

A moment in which that concept crystalized came during the screening of the project's lone animated short, "Urban Agrarian Woman," a film about the Powderhorn Park neighborhood by John Akre. At one point the heroine rides a flying bicycle past the tower of the former Sears store, now Midtown Global Market, on Lake Street. The audience's recognition of the local landmark was audible. "From that point they were invested in the idea," Koch says. "It's so rewarding to hear an audience of that size (respond)."

That kind of reaction is part of the appeal for the participating filmmakers, particularly those just starting out, for whom the project is important simply as an opportunity for hundreds of people to see their work. They paid $20 per film to participate, the money going toward a $500 prize for a winning film selected by audience vote (still underway online). Koch fronted the money to book the theater, gambling that the box office would cover his cost. Cinema Revolution will hold another group-film screening in December, "Dance Project 2010," with either a second Minneapolis Project or a St. Paul edition next summer.

"There's so much to say" for filmmakers creating narratives about neighborhoods, says Koch. He contributed three shorts of his own, about Dinkytown, Uptown, and Minnehaha Falls.

"I could make 25 shorts just about Uptown," he says.

Source: John Koch, Cinema Revolution
Writer: Chris Steller

Here are the films from "Minneapolis Project 2010," with links to those now available online. (Filmmakers were prohibited from uploading their contributions to the Web until after last week's screening.)

Minneapolis Project 2010 (trailer)

"We Major" by Brian Murnion - Downtown skyways

"The Lovers" by Brian Murnion - Gateway District

"Dischord" by Tyler Jensen and Jaime Carrera - Bottineau neighborhood and Boom Island

"Passing" by Tyler Jensen and Jaime Carrera - Loring Park

"Parade" by Tyler Jensen and Jaime Carrera - Powderhorn neighborhood

"Yesterday" by John Koch - Dinkytown

"Today" by John Koch - Minnehaha Falls

"Tomorrow" by John Koch - Uptown

"You. Me. Here." (trailer) by Corey Lawson - Nicollet Island

"Firmament Collapse" (trailer) by Allen Keating-Moore (Phillips neighborhood)

"Urban Agrarian Woman" (trailer) by John Akre - Powderhorn Park neighborhood

"Raw Honey" by Abdi Hassan and Gabriel Cheifetz (long version) - Cedar-Riverside neighborhood

"Claudia" by Stephen Gurewitz - Northeast

"Loon Lake Dance" by Dave Deal - Lake Calhoun

"Shudder 13" by Dave Deal- I-35W Bridge/Bohemian Flats

"The Gallery" by Todd Wardrope - Whittier neighborhood

"Transfer" by Todd Wardrope - Route 5 Metro Transit bus stop

"Free Puppies" by Dan Dockery - underground

"Band Box Diner" by Amy Mattila - Elliot Park neighborhood

"Wedge Walk" by Sam Thompson - Wedge/Lowry Hill East neighborhoods

"The Rescue" by Yoko Okumura and Elizabeth Mims - Kenwood neighborhood

"Air Conditioner" by Gabriel Cheifetz - Midtown Greenway

"shut(ter)" by Nathan Gilbert - Phillips neighborhood

"Lakewood" by Sam Hoolihan - Lakewood Cemetery


Second artist-designed drinking fountain starts flowing

The place-names Minnesota and Minneapolis share a common source: mni, from the Dakota language, meaning water.

But leaders of the City of Lakes and the Land of Sky-blue Waters have butted heads over a Minneapolis public-art project intended to celebrate that common water heritage--demonstrating that water can divide as well as unite.

It began in 2007 when the Minneapolis City Council budgeted a half-million dollars to commission 10 drinking fountains designed by local artists to be installed in public places around Minneapolis.

The expenditure of $50,000 per fountain drew criticism, most notably from Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Although bonds, not state aid, were to pay for the fountains, the project got caught up in the raging debate over state cuts to funding for local governments.

It's an argument recently revived by Tom Emmer, GOP candidate for governor, who criticized St. Paul's privately funded sidewalk poetry program as a waste of government money.

Early this year, the Minneapolis City Council scaled back the number of fountains to four. Now, after a dedication ceremony last Saturday, water is flowing at the first two fountains. "3 Forms," a fountain by Gita Ghei, Sara Hanson, and JanLouise Kusske (with help from South High School students) draws inspiration from geology formations and fossils in a classical fountain design.  

Last fall, the first fountain, "Water of the Doodem Spirits" by St. Paul sculptor Peter Morales, was installed to less fanfare on Franklin Avenue. Morales says he enjoys watching people drink under the gaze of Raven, who is perched above Turtle and Fish in a sculptural treatment drawing on Ojibwe origin stories. There is no sign to explain the fountain's meaning, but stopping for a drink can sometimes elicit interpretations from other passers-by.

"There's a wide swath of society that goes by there," Morales says. "People took to it right away."

Source: Peter Morales, Balam Studios
Writer: Chris Steller


Reuse rampant as Minneapolis builds public-works facility to LEED standards

In the midst of last week's wave of heat and humidity, all 58,000 square feet of space inside the City of Minneapolis' new Hiawatha Public Works Facility were comfortably chilled--but not with conventional air conditioning. Instead it was thanks to a geothermal system that brings the Earth's coolness (or warmth, in winter) up from underground.

That's only one of the features making the $9.5 million facility the city's greenest yet--and likely the fifth building in Minnesota to achieve LEED platinum status for environmental sustainability. (With LEED gold status already in hand, the city has an application for platinum status pending for the facility.)

The Hiawatha site in south Minneapolis has been home to the city's Public Works Department for more than a century. The 18 buildings once scattered across almost 10 acres are now consolidated into a single facility that houses department offices and the city's construction-vehicle maintenance shop. Indeed, the new building incorporates a brick structure that originally served as an infirmary for horses that pulled fire trucks and construction equipment, according to Senior Project Manager Paul Miller.

Miller takes most pride in the fact that even the 17 buildings that the city demolished got re-used, to the extent that the project actually gained LEED points during construction. Most projects lose points as waste material is hauled off, but "virtually 100 percent of what was there never left the site," he says. "That's the coolest thing."

The re-use wasn't limited to crushed gravel made from demolished structures. Miller says Knutson Construction and RSP Architects kept finding new uses for old building materials from the site--or even from off-site. The facilty's perimeter fencing served, in its past life, as the the steel-grid decking on the Lowry Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River, which is now being rebuilt.

Source: Paul Miller, City of Minneapolis
Writer: Chris Steller



Reviving a sense of place is goal of American Indian Cultural Corridor

"I believe if you have a sense of place, you have a better sense of direction," says Lemoine LaPointe, who directs the Healthy Nations Program at the Minneapolis American Indian Center. "A sense of place was already created here hundreds of years ago."

Reinvigorating that sense of place for Indian people on Minneapolis' Franklin Avenue is the purpose of an effort called the American Indian Cultural Corridor, started last year by the Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI).

LaPointe made his comments for a video NACDI produced to promote the cultural corridor concept, a vision of economic vitality and Native identity along a street that has been, for going on a century, a major focal point of American Indian urban life.

NACDI has taken that vision high-tech via an animated video that swoops down Franklin, starting at Cedar Avenue, current site of the American Indian OIC (AIOIC).

But the organization has taken a very concrete step as well, purchasing a headquarters building at the eastern end of the corridor, at Bloomington and Franklin avenues, with the AIOIC. Meanwhile, New Native Theatre has formed, offering reading series and planning a full production in 2011.

In some ways the vision is a throwback to what Franklin Avenue was like in the early decades following the federal government's relocation of Indian people to cities, when a full spectrum of goods and services was available to serve the immediate community. Now NACDI wants to see that richness return, this time fueled by Indian ownership and entrepreneurship.

Source: Lemoine LaPointe
Writer: Chris Steller

Wanted: Flat-topped building to host Midwest's first commercial rooftop farm

Actually operating the Midwest's largest commercial rooftop farm may yet prove to be the biggest challenge for Sky High Harvest, LLC. But in the meantime, founder Dayna Burtness has discovered that finding the right location is a challenge in itself.

"It's not like there's a directory of flat roofs," Burtness says.

Burtness is seeking to turn her four years of organic gardening experience into a for-profit business, raising high-end, interesting vegetables such as heirloom tomatoes, kale, greens and root crops.

But instead of growing food in the country, as she did while a student at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Burtness wants to grow it in the city, close to the market where it will be consumed. And since Minneapolis lacks expanses of available vacant land for farming, she's looking up for a building that could support a farm. Prerequisites include an EPDM surface, at least 10,000 square feet of virgin roof surface, and two access routes up.

That last one is a toughie -- but necessary to meet the fire code if farmers are to be toiling and tilling on top of a building. So Burtness has been scanning Google Earth's aerial images of Minneapolis, looking for the telltale shadows from twin pilot houses indicating two sets of stairs, on a nice, flat roof at least a half-acre in size.

Burtness is in consultation with rooftop farmers in New York City and Chicago and says she feels it's now or never for commercial rooftop farming to take hold here, in part because of the city's current "Homegrown Minneapolis" program.

Source: Dayna Burtness, Sky High Harvest
Writer: Chris Steller

American Swedish Institute to add on to newspaperman's castle

In the news business' current economic climate, it's hard to imagine a newspaperman with enough cash to put up a castle.

But the castle-like mansion that Swan Turnblad built in Minneapolis a century ago stands as proof that it once was possible. And as if to repeat the stunt, the mansion's current owner, the American Swedish Institute, has announced mid-recession plans for an addition to the Park Avenue icon.

It's an effort that, as with other cultural institutions' recent expansion plans, has seen a course correction. But it wasn't a scaling-back due to donations drying up. Instead, a neighbor, Ebenezer, offered for sale its seven-story nursing facility next door.  ASI bought the property and its plans for a bulky addition with parking structure sidling up close to the historic mansion went by the wayside.

Instead, the Institute re-evaluated its needs and asked HGA Architects to design an addition that while still connected to the mansion would itself be less imposing, giving the Turnblad's landmark what Scandinavians might consider a more appropriate amount of personal space.

"A slightly smaller building," says Bruce Karstadt, ASI's president and CEO, "that doesn't need to be nestled up" quite so close to the old castle. It will house an event space, offices, and a crafts studio, among other things.

Karstadt says the ASI expects to break ground next year on the $21.5 million project, which now includes more restoration of the house (now museum) that typesetter-turned-publisher Turnblad built from his labors on the Swedish-language, Minneapolis-based newspaper Svenska Amerikanska Posten.

Source: Bruce Karstadt, American Swedish Institute
Writer: Chris Steller


Minneapolis makes 100 wi-fi hot spots free

With installation of its citywide wi-fi system now complete, Minneapolis last week turned on more than 100 free outdoor wi-fi hot spots.

The idea is for city government to provide "good internet access to as many people as possible," says Mayor R.T. Rybak. "Some can't afford it." Many of the free hot spots are located in areas where people have fewer resources. (See a map of locations here.)

A credit card is required to use the free hot spots, a requirement insisted upon by local law enforcement agencies, who wanted to be able to track down lawbreakers using the system.

The free hot spots are part of the city's 10-year contract with USI Wireless--an arrangement that Rybak, who has a background with internet-based business, credits with helping Minneapolis lead the way nationally on internet access for its citizens.

"In a lot of cities, [wi-fi systems] are either totally city or totally private. We thought the best way would be a hybrid, requiring the private sector to deliver community benefit."

Other community benefits are a digital inclusion fund and the Civic Garden--free access to Minneapolis government and other public-service websites throughout the city's public wi-fi system.

Rybak says this isn't the end to the innovations for wireless users in Minneapolis. "I love the image of a city where in the new information age, people can move seamlessly from office to home," he says. Rybak vows that Minneapolis will "continue pushing the envelope," testing out concepts at the cutting edge of technology.

Source: Mayor R.T. Rybak, City of Minneapolis
Writer: Chris Steller


MPR’s Public Insight Network aims to map murals

Sanden Totten looks at the Twin Cities from his home in Minneapolis' Phillips neighborhood and his workplace in downtown St. Paul and sees infrastructure needs. Not the usual infrastructure tasks like filling last winter's crop of potholes or repairing bridges.

Totten is seeking ways to connect people with the cities' sizable inventory of murals, using technology and public input. He envisions something like bike routes criss-crossing the urban landscape that take riders from one mural to the next, via "place casting"--place-based podcasts that tell the stories behind the Cities' painted walls.  

Totten, a producer at Minnesota Public Radio's Public Insight Network, is bringing that organization's resources to bear on the challenge of mapping urban murals, first in Minneapolis, with St. Paul in the wings. He is currently soliciting ideas and mural recommendations at MPR's website and says the project will launch in July. The form it takes is still up in the air and will be determined in part by the contributions from the public.

The urge to map local murals isn't completely new or limited to Totten. Several years ago Kevin D. Hendricks set up a searchable catalog of nearly 150 Twin Cities murals, among other forms of public art, at his Start Seeing Art website. And Minneapolis City Council Member Gary Schiff has taken to posting on Facebook photos of delightful garage-door murals he encounters on his morning graffiti patrols of alleys in his South Minneapolis ward.

Source: Sanden Totten, Public Insight Network, Minnesota Public Radio
Writer: Chris Steller


Minneapolis offers 20 vacant lots for community gardens

This will be remembered as the year the City of Minneapolis got serious about community gardening.
 
In previous years, City Hall had an ad hoc system for entertaining occasional requests from groups who wanted to start gardens on city-owned property. Now an initiative called Homegrown Minneapolis is taking that to the streets, with a pilot program soliciting groups to lease space at 20 sites around the city.
 
These aren't just any 20 pieces of unused urban property. In a kind of "American Idol" for local vacant lots, city staff winnowed down a list of about 60 potential garden spots, ranking each on factors such as sun, safety, and access to water. An initial list of 22 properties included two that soil tests showed weren't safe for growing food. Of the remaining 20, two are spoken for: 1213 Spring St. NE, in the Beltrami neighborhood, and 3427 15th Ave. S. in Powderhorn.
 
One of the most critical criteria was whether the properties would tempt developers as the economy turns around. It wouldn't be fair to seek groups committed to gardening for sites likely to sell soon, says Karin Berkholtz, community planning manager. The city will take applications through the summer, with one-year leases for those new to gardening and multi-year leases for experienced groups.
 
Community gardens have gone in and out of fashion over the decades, appearing in city plans as far back as 1917. But this time, Berkholtz asks, "Is it a fashion or is it a paradigm shift?"
 
Source: Karin Berkholtz, City of Minneapolis
Writer: Chris Steller
 
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