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 sewer/water pipes, manhole covers, water hydrants and trucks with heavy traffic-produced toxic air pollution. This site promises to be the largest urban yard site in the state, and it will be in the poorest area of our city.
City Denies Neighborhood Initiative, Disregards Laws and Guidelines, and Threatens Housing
By FORMER STATE REPRESENTATIVE KAREN CLARK
and STATE SENATOR PATRICIA TORRES RAY
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 sewer/water pipes, manhole covers, water hydrants and trucks with heavy traffic-produced toxic air pollution. This site promises to be the largest urban yard site in the state, and it will be in the poorest area of our city.
This would never happen in high-income neighborhoods in Minneapolis, but it is happening in East Phillips, and no one seems to care.… Read the rest “City Denies Neighborhood Initiative, Disregards Laws and Guidelines, and Threatens Housing”