News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Thursday December 18th 2025
Holmes asks: Will you make a phone call?
By Tesha M. Christensen
At 14, Trinidad Flores was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which an enlarged heart struggles to pump blood. His mom, Little Earth”™s Cassandra Holmes, watched him endure three surgeries and a failed heart transplant before he died in 2013 at age 16.
Now she”™s leading a charge to decrease the pollution in South Minneapolis.Â
She doesn”™t want to see any more neighborhood babies born in need of breathing tubes, or young people who”™ve succumbed to asthma and diabetes.Â
During a community meeting about the Roof Depot site off Hiawatha and 28th St. on June 17, 2019 at the East Phillips Recreation and Cultural Center, Holmes walked through the crowd holding up maps that show how many kids in the neighborhood have been treated for lead poisoning, how many have visited the emergency room because of asthma attacks, and how many have dealt with arsenic poisoning.
For every 10,000 people, over 200 are hospitalized because of asthma, blood lead and arsenic in this area.Â
Of the 7,000 children who live in Phillips, about 40% live in poverty and 80% fall into various ethnic groups.Â
Photo by TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN
Abah Mohamad (right) is baffled about why the city isn”™t supporting the urban farm plan.
OPINION & COMMENTARY
The following letters were written to city officials and submitted to The Alley.
“Right to be involved ”“ Public participation is based on the belief that those who are affably a decision have a right to be involved in the decision-making process.” (Passed by Minneapolis City Council in 2007 – updated in 2014).
 I am Shontal Lajuenesse. Why has public works and the city council REFUSED to allow the East Phillips Community to present our East Phillips indoor Urban farm plan at any of your meetings??? We DO NOT want your pollution and congestion. We have enough already. And Yes! We want clean water, but we also deserve to BREATHE. Where is the justice?Â
Shontal Lajuenesse
I am Amy Pass, and I have lived in the East Phillips neighborhood for the last 21 years. The residents of East Phillips already are exposed to high levels of pollution, and my daughter was tested and found to have high levels of arsenic when she was a preschooler. Our neighborhood is full of minority people and people of low socio economic status, and the city”™s plan to put a water maintenance yard at the former Roof Depot site is nothing short of environmental racism and elitism.… Read the rest “OPINION & COMMENTARY”
Your concerns are her concerns
Photo submitted
Commissioner Angela Conley, along with other leaders and community members, celebrate the completion of nearly two years of construction at Peavey Park on May 31, 2019.Hennepin County invested funding for a sidewalk at the park. Other improvements include new basketball courts, play areas, pavilion and more.
Commissioner Angela Conley wants constituents guiding decisions from the 24th floor
By Tesha M. Christensen
Editor”™s note: This is the second in a two-part series reprinted courtesy of the Longfellow Nokomis Messenger. The first part ran in the June 2019 edition of The Alley.
Addressing unsheltered homelessness is an issue Hennepin County District 4”™s new County Commissioner Angela Conley is passionate about, and one that local residents focused on when she was door-knocking during her campaign.
Many years ago, Conley had to leave where she was living for safety reasons and was technically homeless. “That experience taught me ways in which we can do better,” said Conley, who later spent 20 years working in social work at both the county and state level. “I know housing and having a place to sleep at night are basic human rights.”
Photo SUBMITTED
Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley (left); Ashani Price, Specialist, ARNG; and Colonel Lori Allert, AN, USAR, on Memorial Day 2019 at the Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery, the 1st integrated cemetery in the state.
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