News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Tuesday December 23rd 2025
Neighbors Rally for Environmental Justice in East Phillips
By STEVE SANDBERG AND KAREN CLARK, EAST PHILLIPS NEIGHBORHOOD INSTITUTE BOARD MEMBERS
On Sunday March 7, supporters of the East Phillips Indoor Urban Farm Project gathered atop the Greenway bike path”˜s Martin Olav Sabo Bridge in East Phillips Neighborhood. Organized with the help of the local chapter of Global Shapers, an estimated 200+ socially distanced supporters rallied at 1PM to display protest banners over Hwy 55 and to hear speakers. On this unseasonably warm 58 degree Sunday afternoon, the bridge was filled with many neighbors — from babies to elders; East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) organizers; Little Earth of United Tribes drummers and singers; American Indian Movement carriers of the AIM Flag; numerous racial and environmental justice organizational allies; four candidates for Minneapolis”™ 9th Ward City Council”™s 2021 election race; all welcomed by the rousing sound of local sousaphone-powered band–the Brass Messengers.
The rally was called 1) to urgently protest and stop the City of Minneapolis”™ dangerous proposal to consolidate their city-wide Public Works storage and distribution plants into East Phillip Neighborhood and 2) to instead strongly promote our community-led alternative to save the huge former Roof Depot warehouse from city demolition and to convert it into an indoor urban farm with affordable housing, good jobs and small business opportunities, BY and FOR the neighborhood.… Read the rest “Neighbors Rally for Environmental Justice in East Phillips”
Tips from a COVID-19 Case Investigator: I”™m Vaccinated. Now What?
By LINDSEY FENNER
As more neighbors and loved ones are getting vaccinated, we”™re entering a hopeful yet complicated time of the pandemic. If you”™re like me, only some people in your household or social group are fully vaccinated (I”™ll probably be last on the list!). This means while there are some things fully vaccinated people can do with other fully vaccinated people, they should be careful when they”™re around folks who haven”™t been vaccinated yet.
First a definition: “Fully vaccinated” means someone who has completed their full vaccine series (2 shots for a 2-dose series like Moderna/Pfizer, and 1 shot for the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine) and it has been at least 2 weeks since they had their final dose. Had one shot of a two-dose vaccine? Nope, not fully vaccinated. Had your last shot yesterday? Still not fully vaccinated.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) came out with new guidelines for people who are fully vaccinated last month. This guidance attempts to balance our need for social connection with what we still don”™t know about how the vaccines reduce transmission of COVID-19.
The COVID vaccines approved in the US have shown a really remarkable ability to prevent death or serious illness from COVID-19.… Read the rest “Tips from a COVID-19 Case Investigator: I”™m Vaccinated. Now What?”
Living Near Major Roadways
How Phillips and surrounding South Minneapolis communities continue to be burdened with traffic-related air pollution
By H. LYNN ADELSMAN
Many statements and studies exist to promote that East Phillips deserves to be a “Green Zone” and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) confirms there are multiple negative health effects from air pollution worse in the central city. Yet for over 5 years the city continues to push for an expanded public works department storage and maintenance facility with over 100 diesel vehicles to replace the Roof Depot site in East Phillips. Why is there no effort directed to place this facility in the western or southern most neighborhoods of Minneapolis? This will increase traffic in Phillips and the surrounding communities to further add to existing high emission levels harmful to residents.
The concentration of high traffic related air pollution (TRAP) in communities where there is less private property ownership and low equity in housing / wealth has a history in Minneapolis. In 1956, the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act created plans for 35W”™s Southside path with no community input but from white homeowners. In the 1950s, as 3Ww plans were laid out, with Lyndale Avenue being the most logical route, Lyndale residents resisted and 35W was rerouted through the redlined south-central African American community.… Read the rest “Living Near Major Roadways”
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