from the series Phillips Imaginary…
By ERIC ORTIZ
A decade of food, jobs, and community wealth has made East Phillips a global model of resilience, justice, and health.
Disclaimer: This is a visionary, fictional article imagining what could happen if the City of Minneapolis strikes a fair deal with East Phillips for the Roof Depot site.
The East Phillips Urban Farm turned 10 this year.
What began as a bold vision for a polluted industrial site in south Minneapolis is now a living testament to what happens when communities choose justice, health, and resilience over neglect.
“We stopped asking for change,” said a longtime East Phillips resident. “We became the change, and the city followed our lead.”
Ten years ago, in 2025, East Phillips faced generations of disinvestment and environmental harm. Per capita income was under $19,000. Nearly 30 percent of residents lived in poverty. Asthma and diabetes rates were far above city averages. And only 3.2 percent of residents worked in the neighborhood.
In 2035, the neighborhood tells a different story. Per capita income has nearly doubled, poverty has fallen, health outcomes have improved across the board, and more than a third of residents work locally.
The East Phillips Urban Farm has driven this transformation.
“Instead of a ‘Gray Zone’ of pollution and neglect, we built a ‘Green Zone’ of health, jobs, and hope,” said Sonny Stor, an Urban Farm director. “The idea of health-focused development for neighborhoods burdened by pollution had been discussed for years, but it took hard work to make it real.”
After years of grassroots organizing, the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI), with support from local groups, negotiated a landmark deal to purchase the seven-acre Roof Depot site. It was a turning point that opened the way for restorative, community-led development.
“With great fortune, we finalized the purchase of the Roof Depot,” said Angela Soto, an EPNI leader. “This allowed us to narrowly meet the deadline for federal solar tax credits that ended in 2025.”
EPNI launched a four-and-a-half-acre, member-owned solar garden. Partnering with Cooperative Energy Futures, they provided electric bill savings to 350 East Phillips households and the Roof Depot project. Over the past eight years, solar and geothermal capacity expanded fourfold, generating $9.4 million in energy savings and making East Phillips a national leader in cooperatively owned residential renewable energy.
From those seeds and sun, a thriving ecosystem grew. Thousands of pounds of fresh food grown each year. Hundreds of jobs and youth apprenticeships. A hub for new and established small businesses. And affordable housing that anchors residents instead of displacing them.
“We’re seeing what’s possible when communities take control of their future,” said local artist Violet Hue. “An economy with local wealth circulating, rather than siphoned off.”
These ripple effects spread citywide, transforming perceptions and winning over former skeptics as green infrastructure investments surged. Local community voices now collaborate with developers to plan public and underused lands.
“We replaced shame with opportunity, and despair with dignity,” said public health official Sarah Tonin, looking out over a patchwork of planted rows, raised beds, and climbing vine structures.
The East Phillips Urban Farm continues to grow, with shared kitchens, art activities, and, most recently, a young inventors club.
Murals and sculptures reflect the neighborhood’s diverse cultures.
“Given all this diversity, community leaders describe the farm as a kind of reparation and landback initiative, a pivot away from a history of harmful policies,” said South High School teacher Ed Jukate.
While the community imagined food abundance and gathering spaces, city planners came to see other potential benefits. The Urban Farm offered convention planners and workforce recruiters a positive image of resilience and innovation. Minneapolis overcame its national reputation for police brutality and racial disparities, and positive media coverage made the farm something of a tourist attraction, which boosted the retail businesses based there.
The old Roof Depot, once a symbol of contamination and a source of division, now represents connection with people, land, and shared opportunity.
“We didn’t wait for someone else to fix it,” wrote Debwewin, an Indigenous youth journalist for Little Earth News, a community newspaper at the East Phillips Urban Farm. “We grew our own solution.”
East Phillips didn’t just rejuvenate a neglected neighborhood. It became a blueprint for communities everywhere ready to grow their own future.
Eric Ortiz is a journalist who lives in Minneapolis. He is executive director of the Strong Mind Strong Body Foundation, founder of the Youth Community Journalism Institute, and associate director of research for The Pivot Fund.
Note from community members supporting Roof Depot: If you are moved by this vision, we encourage you to find a way to help the City and East Phillips persevere in coming to an agreement before time runs out on this project. A toolkit is available at
http://www.tinyurl.com/community4roofdepot
