Affordable Housing : Featured Stories

North Minneapolis--NoMi--has had its share of hard times, crime, and social dislocation over the years. But neighborhood advocate Joel Breeggemann is sick of one-sided portrayals of the neighborhood. He and other Northsiders know it as a friendly, green, increasingly trendy "small town in the city" where neighbors are joining together to make things better--and word has been getting out. Scores of first-time homeowners have been drawn into the neighborhood by Breeggemann's Get to NoMi Home Buyers Tours, which celebrate the North Side while showcasing some amazingly affordable houses.

There's art happening in Saint Paul's oldest neighborhood, the solidly blue-collar West Seventh, and it's revitalizing the area without gentrifying it. Creative types love the big houses and exhibition spaces that are available, and they're determined to remain good neighbors to the immigrants and old-line St. Paulites among whom they live.