”˜This is our Rondo – we just don”™t know it yet”™

Historians collecting stories from people who lived in path of I-35W in South Minneapolis

TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN
Historians Denise Pike (far left) and Greg Donofrio (far right) of the University of Minnesota lead a walking tour of Interstate 35W, traveling on both sides of the freeway to talk about how the interstate cut through a neighborhood. They are working to collect stories of people displaced by the interstate construction. Email donofrio@umn.edu or pikex063@umn.edu. Public meeting on history set for Oct. 10 at Hope Community.

by Tesha M. Christensen

Does Minneapolis have its own Rondo?

Some believe that the more they dig into how Interstate 35W was planned and built through South Minneapolis that they will discover a missing neighborhood, similar to the one destroyed when Interstate 94 cut through St. Paul”™s Rondo neighborhood.

“This is our Rondo,” said Shawn Lewis who grew up in South Minneapolis. “We just don”™t know it yet.”

The questions come as Interstate 35 undergoes major construction once again in South Minneapolis. What it was like when the freeway was first built in the 1960s and how did it affect the lives of the people who lived in its path?

Thus far researchers with the University of Minnesota have delved into the historical record, scouring newspapers and Department of Transportation records at the Minnesota Historical Society.… Read the rest “”˜This is our Rondo – we just don”™t know it yet”™”