‘Environment’ Archives
Hazardous Air Pollution Allowed to Continue in East Phillips
By KAREN CLARK, Former MN State Rep. and H. LYNN ADELSMAN November 10th, 2023: Our neighborhood demands answers from Smith Foundry! PHOTO: Peter Molenaar November 10th, the night after celebrating the victory of raising $3.7 million (which the City demanded East Phillips Neighborhood pay in order to sign the purchase agreement for the Roof Depot site) neighbors and allies rallied, temporarily closing E. 28th St. to demand that Smith Foundry be shut down. Smith Foundry is located across 28th Street from the former Roof Depot site.The Neighborhood learned that a surprise U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigation found flagrant air pollution safety violations at Smith Foundry which endangers both workers and residents’ health. That inspection happened in May, but residents just found out about the findings in November.The MN Pollution Control Agency did not inform residents even though the federal EPA report called for penalties – including possible civil or [...]
Cooking Up a Storm with Edible Boulevards
By MICHELLE SHAW Minneapolis Edible Boulevards partnered with participants in both Green Zones to create some amazing new boulevard gardens in 2023. One of them was at the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association office, which is already an amazing space as it is. Kieran Morris was the instructor for our Southside participants this year, and Lucy Jarman was the Southside youth intern. We’re so appreciative of them and all the participants who continue to sign up to create a “shared fruit” garden space for neighbors and passersby for a minimum of 3 years. Family and friends plant side-by-side with Minneapolis Edible Boulevards instructor Kieran Morris and 2023 Southside intern Lucy Jarman. PHOTO: Edible Boulevards Our cooking classes for the rest of the year will be on Zoom only, where we invite you to cook along with the instructor in your own kitchen. Registration can be found in the description of each event on our Minneapolis Edible Boulevards Facebook page. Coming [...]
The Final Installment: Air Quality and Cumulative Impacts
Part III of a III Part Series By H. LYNN ADELSMAN and ROB HENDRICKSON It’s hard to know exactly which toxins are in our air and how much we inhale. What we do know is some of our neighbors have trouble breathing at certain times of day. We know too many children with asthma and heart problems; elders with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and other lung issues. We know the smells of certain buildings; the heavy air in our parks; the sounds and feelings of our streets.As we look at this article’s map, we can see it isn’t just one thing giving rise to these experiences when you live in the Phillips community. A map highlighting pollution sources in Phillips. This includes an experimental traffic exposure layer based on 2022 Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) from MnDOT with values displayed as percentages of the highest value found in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. Dispersion was modeled using vehicle counts from all roadways and convolution with a [...]
