‘East Phillips Improvement Coalition’ Archives
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 [...]
Clyde Bellecourt, “Keith Ellison, crisis in Phillips! Join us in mutual pursuit of justice!”
Nee Gonn Way Wee Dun ”˜Thunder Before the Storm”™ A.K.A Clyde Bellecourt, Co-Founder of American Indian Movement March 9, 2020 Dear Attorney General Keith Ellison, Thank you for your attention to this crisis in our Community. East Phillips, as you know, is the most diverse neighborhood in all of Minneapolis. It is also the poorest on the South Side and the most overburdened with pollution from arsenic, lead, and airborne pollution from freeways, cars, and trucks as well as industrial pollution from a foundry and an asphalt plant. All of this is well documented, and results in more emergency room visits from asthma, more cases of children with lead poisoning, and more incidences of other ailments such as heart disease that are also linked to pollutants in the air. When the 230,000 square foot Sears Warehouse occupied by Roof Depot Co. came up for sale, the Neighborhood; led by Little Earth of United Tribes, Tamales y Bicycletas, Somali Chemical [...]
