By THE EAST PHILLIPS NEIGHBORHOOD INSTITUTE
Negotiations with the city of Minneapolis have failed, and now the city is proceeding with its planned demolition of the historic Roof Depot building at 1860 East 28th Street after walking out of negotiations with East Phillips residents. Now our families, our community and our environment face 888 diesel trucks and toxic arsenic that will further pollute our already overburdened neighborhood. East Phillips is being treated as an industrial wasteland, and it’s making our community members sick! The City Council was scheduled to take a vote on demolishing the Roof Depot building in late September. We can stop this if the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) can raise $200,000 to post bond for a legal injunction.
The old Roof Depot site in the East Phillips neighborhood sits atop an arsenic plume where arsenic-based pesticides were produced and stored by a company that once occupied it. The building’s continued presence helps keep the arsenic in the ground. This arsenic previously caused the Environmental Protection Agency to designate the area a “Superfund Site,” prompting immediate soil removal from over 600 homes.
The city of Minneapolis bought the site to expand its public works yard, a project strongly opposed by East Phillips, one of the city’s poorest and most polluted neighborhoods, with one of the highest concentrations of BIPOC residents. The neighborhood already has too much pollution; kids here have higher rates of asthma. The city’s plan would add even more pollution from vehicle exhaust and threatens to stir up old arsenic pollution.
EPNI has pressed the city for information on its arsenic mitigation plans. The city offered EPNI a September 16th meeting with its environmental consultants, a meaningless concession that was canceled at the last minute. The city needs to come to East Phillips and tell residents how it plans to handle the arsenic, then answer their questions and give them time to assess and agree to any plan. It is something that would be done for a white, affluent neighborhood.
East Phillips has a better plan for the site, one that would add amenities. A majority of City Council members support it. Mayor Jacob Frey does not, and City Council lacks the votes to overcome a mayoral veto.
The city’s plan makes a farce of its racial justice commitments. It contradicts the city’s mission statement: To act “to dismantle institutional injustice and close disparities in health, housing … and economic opportunities.” The city has always made general commitments to environmental justice but ignored the main concerns put forward by the East Phillips community. Issues such as: increasing toxic air pollution from vehicle emissions and releasing the arsenic underneath the Roof Depot building. What residents have said time and time again is that they want clean air, plus autonomy over what their neighborhood looks and feels like.
To donate and find out how to help, visit https://www.eastphillipsneighborhoodinstitute.org/
