‘East Phillips Improvement Coalition’ Archives
East Phillips Urban Farm & Housing vs City of Minneapolis
By EAST PHILLIPS NEIGHBORHOOD INSTITUTE Neighbors Made a Plan:Neighbors of East Phillips made a plan to buy and use 7.5 acres of land with a building between Longfellow Ave. and the Midtown Greenway and 27th St. and 28th St. when it became for sale in 2014. Led by Little Earth of United Tribes, Somali Chemical Awareness, the Urban Farm Project, the Women”™s Environmental Institute, and the East Phillips Improvement Coalition (EPIC), they planned an Indoor Urban Farm for green jobs, second-chance job opportunities and job training, a community commercial kitchen, an all nations World café, Market run by local youth, bike repair facility, and 28 affordable 2 bedroom housing units with start-up funding by DEED grant from the state of Minnesota. Neighbors Plan Meets City Green Zone Goals & HIA Recommendations :The Plan”™s goals exemplify the Mpls. City Council”™s Green Zone resolution; “Be it further resolved that Green Zone efforts [...]
Common Sense for the Common Good
Commentary on EPNI Urban Farm By HARVEY WINJE Before Covid-19, many cities across the U.S.”“including Mpls.”“were responding to climate change and racial discrimination by changing guidelines, revenue recipients, zoning, and goals. Housing, food, and jobs near public transportation””walking paths, bike trails, bus, and light rai””were common goals for the common good that was common sense. During Covid-19, increased awareness of inequities of healthcare, housing, food, and jobs demands more common sense for the common good of everyone. Nonetheless, the Mpls. City Council and Staff are continuing to flaunt their power against our neighbors”™ Urban Farm, Affordable Housing, and Jobs Center Initiative in the highly diverse and low-income East Phillips area near public transportation. The City is going up against laws, and against their own environmental Green Zone Guidelines as they continue to seize control of the seven acres of land and a [...]
City Denies Neighborhood Initiative, Disregards Laws and Guidelines, and Threatens Housing
By FORMER STATE REPRESENTATIVE KAREN CLARK and STATE SENATOR PATRICIA TORRES RAY Neighbors demonstrate their work and support of the EPNI Initiative recently at the corner of 28th Street and Longfellow Ave.PHOTO ELIZABETH CAMPBELL East Phillips Neighborhood, the lowest-income neighborhood in Minneapolis, where the majority of residents are indigenous and people of color, ironically designated by the city of Minneapolis as a “Green Opportunity Zone” ”” was declared a federal “residential arsenic superfund site” in 2000. Industrial arsenic pesticide contamination was found in more than 500 homes in the area. To compound the situation, the city threatened to use “eminent domain” to take control of a large, prime development site, known as the “Roof Depot,” with the intention of turning it into a storage yard ”” a place to relocate the entire Department of Public Works Water Yards. The site will be used to store [...]
