Cedar - Riverside/West Bank : Development News

The City of Minneapolis is launching a free technical assistance program for budding co-op founders, starting with a two-hour presentation on April 20th.
 
Dubbed C-TAP (Cooperative Technical Assistance Program), the initiative is an outgrowth of the city’s successful B-TAP (Business Technical Assistance Program) for aspiring small and midsize business owners. Like B-TAP, C-TAP is an immersive program designed to support co-op founders and supporters from ideation through opening—and, in some cases, beyond.
 
According to the City of Minneapolis, C-TAP will unfold over three years, in three steps.
 
Step one, happening this year, focuses on “co-op readiness planning” for “groups that are thinking of forming a Co-op…to get a clear picture of the legal, operational and organizational requirements.” It’s basically a crash course in what it means to start a co-op.
 
Step two, set for next year, will focus on “board member and organizational design.” That means training prospective board members in the basics (and nuances) of co-op governance, as well as “one-on-one technical assistance” for select co-ops that require guidance designing their organizational structures. Step two is available to not-yet-open co-ops and existing co-ops that want or need outside assistance.
 
Step three, set for 2018, will revolve around “sustainability [and] profitability.” In other words, setting and keeping newly opened co-ops on the path to stable, long-term profitability and prosperity.
 
C-TAP’s kickoff event, a two-hour presentation dubbed “The State of Co-ops in Minneapolis,” is scheduled for April 20, 5:30-7:30 p.m., at Open Book in Downtown East. The presentation will discuss the city’s current “co-op inventory” and the industries supported by Minneapolis co-ops, introduce and explain C-TAP, and discuss next steps for co-op founders and principals interested in participating.
 
On May 11, Step one officially gets underway with an eight-week “co-op feasibility” course. Held at the City of Minneapolis Innovation Center in the Crown Roller Mill Building near City Hall, the course’s eight sessions will cover the basics of the co-op development process, co-op business plans, finances, cooperative governance, legalities and other topics. Registration is free and open to the public, but prospective co-op groups need to have at least two participants and have selected a product or service to offer prior to signing up.
 
The City of Minneapolis is no stranger to co-op support. According to city government, Minneapolis has plowed some $3.5 million into local co-ops through existing development and support initiatives, and has an additional $850,000 outstanding in loans to three in-development co-ops—including Wirth Cooperative Grocery, a first-of-its-kind grocery co-op in the city’s underserved Northside, slated to open later this year.
 

They’re known as granny flats, mother-in-law apartments, even Fonzie suites for those who remember the Fonz’s digs above the Cunninghams' garage in the tv show “Happy Days.” For years, accessory dwelling units (ADUs) have been popular throughout the U.S. for homeowners needing an additional, separate living space for a relative (or family friend) adjacent to main house—and as a flexible housing option in developed urban neighborhoods.
 
Now ADUs are legal in Minneapolis. On December 5, 2014, the Minneapolis City Council passed a zoning code text amendment allowing ADUs on lots with single or two-family homes. Shortly thereafter, architect Christopher Strom, who spent countless hours working with zoning administrators during discussions about the code change, launched his new initiative, Second Suite.
 
“I wanted to be the first to market my expertise with the zoning related to these small residential dwellings,” says Strom, who has a thriving business as a residential architect in Minneapolis, and has designed ADU-type cottages for clients in the suburbs and northern Minnesota.
 
He learned during informational meetings that “a lot of people didn’t want ADUs because they fear too many people would be added to the neighborhood, resulting in extra noise and traffic,” Strom says. “But the new law limits ADUs to a total of 1,000 square feet, including parking; they’re only feasible on certain lots, depending on the positioning of the primary house; and the primary house must be owner occupied. Only one accessory building is allowed per property, so most people will combine an ADU with a detached garage.”
 
As a result, Strom continues, “The majority of the new ADUs to be built in Minneapolis will be Fonzie suites. Remember how he lived above the Cunninhgams' garage? He had a cool bachelor pad totally separate from the main house, but was always at the Cunninghams'.”
 
ADUs are a viable option for creating more space, whether for additional storage, an art studio, home office or apartment for aging parents. With the new zoning, the units can also include a small kitchen and/or bath. “They’re wonderful for seniors, and a nice way to establish multi-generational living next to the primary house while giving the occupant an integral level of independence,” Strom explains.
 
St. Paul, particularly the neighborhood of St. Anthony Park, is currently looking at its building codes, as well, by studying the feasibility of allowing ADUs on single-family lots.  
 
Strom adds that ADUs are “a great entry point for people to start working with an architect.” A well-considered design might result in an ADU that blends in with the architectural style of the existing residence, or be entirely different.
 
Moreover, Strom adds, “Second Suite represents a lifestyle that I want to be able to deliver to my clients. This lifestyle is about families pooling resources and enjoying more quality time together through care-giving that enables grandparents to help with childcare and adult children to help with aging parents.”
 
 

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) recently released “Greening the Green Line,” a comprehensive report on the state of green space, and plans to improve it, along the Central Corridor. “Greening the Green Line” outlines a vision for a “charm bracelet” of parks and green corridors within a half-mile of the Green Line, including fresh public parks and privately owned public space (POPS) near new housing and retail construction. Pockets of parkland and public space would be connected, where possible, by bikeways and parkways.
 
The report has been in the works since 2012, when the Central Corridor Funders’ Collaborative tapped TPL to “lead a collaborative project that would build a shared understanding of how to integrate green space and common public gathering space in the corridor as development occurs,” says Jenna Fletcher, program director, TPL.
 
“Both the public and private sectors have a role in greening the Green Line,” writes Fletcher on TPL’s website. “The public sector needs to ensure that additional public parks are developed to keep pace with the demand from new residents and new workers…[and] private developers should play their part by incorporating high quality POPS into their developments.” 
 
“Greening the Green Line” outlines several changes that would significantly improve Green Line residents’ access to parkland and public space.
 
First, “city and public agency leaders must take a leadership role in pursuing a connected parks system,” says the report. A program of outreach, education and demonstration projects may encourage developers to pursue POPS, especially if the connection between POPS and higher property values can be made clear.
 
“Greening the Green Line” also encourages city and agency leaders to work with developers to incentivize the creation of new public spaces, through “stacked function” stormwater management (which uses creative landscaping and planters to alleviate flooding during rainy periods) and “value capture” approaches that can extract revenue from parkland and public squares.
 
Fletcher stresses that the Green Line’s “charm bracelet” will fit the area’s character and scale. “POPS can serve as complements to public parks, offering open spaces in varying sizes and forms where it may be difficult to develop public parks,” she says. “Open spaces do not need to be large, publicly owned, or even "green" for them to be beneficial for residents, workers and transit riders.”
 
The Twin Cities has successfully experimented with POPS already; Fletcher cites the MoZaic Building and Art Park in Uptown, which has a half-acre space connected to the Midtown Greenway and Hennepin Avenue.
 
The first Central Corridor POPS since the Green Line’s opening aren’t far off. Fletcher is particularly excited about Hamline Station, a mixed-use development between Hamline and Syndicate that will feature street-level retail, 108 affordable housing units and a central, open-to-the-public “pocket park.”
 
Green Line residents and neighborhood associations can encourage changes in existing and planned developments, too. “Sometimes doing something temporary, like parklets or painting the pavement, can be helpful first steps that serve as a spark that can create momentum for community members to coalesce around bigger ideas,” says Fletcher. “This can set the table for later, bigger investments.”
 
Though “Greening the Green Line” lays out a vision for years to come, Fletcher stresses that there’s a real urgency around the issue of green space in the Central Corridor. About 15 percent of the total land area of Minneapolis and St. Paul is parkland, but the Green Line is less than 5 percent parkland and public space. If nothing is done now, she says, the problem could get worse as more people move into the area and convert its remaining public land to housing, retail and office space.
 

On September 14, 2,000 people will join artists and food activists at a half-mile long table down the center of Victoria Street in St. Paul as part of “CREATE: The Community Meal”—a public art project headed by artist Seitu Jones. Designed as a creative “food system intervention,” the project aims to lower barriers to healthy food access in some of city’s most densely populated and culturally diverse communities.
 
While a lot of work is being done in cities to address issues surrounding healthy food access, CREATE is taking a new approach. “We’re making this an artistic experience from the minute 2,000 people walk through the gate,” says Christine Podas-Larson, president of Public Art Saint Paul, which is orchestrating the project.
 
Everything will have an artistic touch, from the movements of the servers and hosts, which will be choreographed by Ananya Dance Theatre, to the blessing by poet G.E Patterson, right down to the 2,000 placemats handcrafted by paper artist Mary Hark using only bio-matter collected from the yards, alleyways and parks of the Frogtown neighborhood.
 
Spoken word artists including TouSaiko Lee, Deeq Abdi, Laureine Chang, Nimo Farah and Rodrigo Sanchez will perform original pieces with youth from Frogtown and Cedar-Riverside. Their work will investigate food traditions of the various cultures that make up the community.
 
Artists Emily Stover and Asa Hoyt are fabricating several Mobile ArtKitchens to demonstrate healthy food preparation around the city. They will be hosted by youth from the Kitty Andersen Science Center at the Science Museum of Minnesota and Youth Farm.
 
Chef James Baker, of Elite Catering Company and the Sunny Side Café—regularly voted best soul food restaurant in the Twin Cities —will prepare the meal with local ingredients grown specifically for the event by area farmers.
 
Guests will be presented with a healthy, locally sourced spread that includes 500 free-range chickens from a farm in Northfield, several vegetable dishes like collard greens and salad, an Ethiopian Bean dish from Flamingo Ethiopian Restaurant’s menu, corn bread and more.
 
Many of the growers, including those from Minneapolis-based Stones Throw Urban Farm and the Hmong American Farmers Association, are based in the Frogtown and Summit-University neighborhoods. The Minnesota Food Association is overseeing all the food production and sourcing.
 
“This is an opportunity for folks to meet their farmers,” Jones says. “Most of the funds are going into the pockets of farmers and artists. So this is an effort also to really pay attention to the local economy.”
 
Jones was inspired to put on this massive community meal while sitting in his storefront studio in Frogtown. He noticed an endless parade of people walking to the local convenience store and returning with bags of groceries. “Many times those bags would be filled not with fruits or vegetable, but with pre-packaged food,” he says.
 
Along with a group of local food activists, he received a grant from the USDA to do a food assessment of Districts 4, 5, 7 and 8 in St. Paul. He expected many of the obstacles the group found preventing residents from making healthy food choices, such as cost and convenience. One finding came as a surprise though.
 
“People don’t know how to make a healthy meal,” Jones says. “While we intuitively know what a healthy meal is, there are some folks that have lost the ability to prepare [one]…it wasn’t passed on.”
 
Jones began hosting small healthy community meals in residents’ homes, backyards and driveways more than a year ago, collecting “food stories” along the way. One story, told by Va-Megn Thoj, of the Asian Economic Development Association, chronicles his family’s journey across the Mekong River while fleeing oppression in Laos.
 
On arriving at a refugee camp in Thailand, he encountered a bright red fruit he had never seen before at a vendor’s stand. The vendor cut him off a chunk to try. The tart sweetness of every apple he has eaten since brings him back to that day, he says.
 
“We all have these food stories, and these stories are written in fats, carbohydrates and nutrients,” Jones says. “These stories go back for generations.”
 
Podas-Larson says Public Art St. Paul is also helping create community meal kits to help communities around the country host their own healthy meal events. Visit the CREATE website to donate, learn more, read more food stories and sign up to host your own table at the community meal.
 
“Food is so universal. Food is something that we all share, and most importantly…food defines us,” Jones says. “In many cultures, the way it’s prepared can be this act of love, and that’s what the community meal is. It is an act of love.”
 

The Green Line light-rail line opens doors to a number of emerging cultural districts along University Avenue in the Central Corridor. Throughout the rest of the summer and into the fall, C4ward: Arts and Culture Along the Green Line is inviting Twin Cities’ residents to explore six of these districts through a series of free arts-centered events occurring every other Saturday. The next event is Saturday August 9 in the Rondo and Victoria neighborhoods off the Victoria Station.

The series of events kicked off July 26 in the Little Mekong District during one of the five Southeast Asian Night Markets planned this summer. Other districts on the C4ward docket, in addition to Rondo/Frogtown, are Little Africa, Creative Enterprise Zone, Prospect Park and West Bank.

For years, University Avenue existed mainly as a thoroughfare—a place to be traveled through on the way to someplace else. The array of new cultural districts popping up is evidence that that area’s identity is already changing, says Kathy Mouacheupao, Cultural Corridor coordinator with the Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), which is organizing C4ward in partnership with leaders from each of the cultural districts.

“When you’re driving down University, people usually have their destination planned already—you really miss a lot of the richness, a lot of the cultural identities, the really cool things that are happening along the corridor,” she says.

Whether it’s the abundant entrepreneurs, artists and unique shopping in the Creative Enterprise Zone near the Raymond Ave. Station, or the string of African-owned businesses a short jaunt off the Snelling Ave. stop, C4ward is looking to draw new visitors to burgeoning points of cultural and artistic vibrancy that might have been previously overlooked.

“We’re trying to groove new patterns,” Mouacheupao says. “One of the nice things about the Green Line light rail is that people are starting to notice things they didn’t notice before when they were driving.”

The rich arts and creative communities that quietly thrive along the Central Corridor will be on full display at the C4ward events. From do-it-yourself letterpress printing to illuminated mask making, Mouacheupao says the artists involved are dedicated to engaging and building community. “We all live and breathe art,” she says. Art is one way in which “we communicate with each other.”

 

Hidden in the urban jungle of concrete and steel is a whole natural world waiting to be rediscovered and explored, says local artist and botanist Sarah Nassif. The new Green Line light-rail stations, she adds, are a great place to start.

Nassif’s new project, The Other Green Line, supported by Irrigate Arts, asks participants to start thinking of Green Line stations as not only jumping off points to previously unexplored businesses and restaurants, but also as trailheads leading to underappreciated natural beauty and history.

“The more you look, the more you see, and it happens really fast,” Nassif says of taking time to notice the natural world along the Central Corridor.

The Other Green Line is a field guide for amateur urban naturalists. Nassif organized the book into eight, themed nature “forays” along the Green Line.

One follows the path of a wayward black bear that took itself on a walk through the Frogtown neighborhood in 2012. Another explores the Kasota Wetlands near the Raymond Station, which are a remnant of a 1,000-acre backwater once fed by the free-flowing Mississippi.

The forays take participants through several different biomes—less identifiable today than they were 100 years ago. Lowertown was once dense forest, for instance. The area around the Victoria Station used to be prairie.

Tower Hill in Prospect Park is one of many glacial hills that once dotted the Minneapolis landscape before most were mined for gravel. Tower Hill still stands because neighbors bought the site and turned it into a park to keep it from being mined.

Tower Hill, Nassif says, “speaks volumes [about] how much the landscape changes because we’re here, and how people coming together and being aware together about nature can have a powerful effect on what’s here for future generations.”

In addition to the eight self-guided forays in the book, Nassif is leading a series of three tours. The first began at Bedlam Theater last Saturday and explored the white sandstone cliffs along the Mississippi River once used as natural refrigeration for kegs of beer, as well as pirate safe keeps and hideouts. Tour goers also noticed stones mined from area quarries and used in the Endicott Building at 141 E. 4th Street.

“It’s just interesting to stand there and realize you’re standing on what used be an ocean, that’s why the sandstone exists—it used to be the bottom of a sea,” Nassif says.

Also in the field guide are lists of area businesses for excursion supplies, and suggestions for where to cozy up to a beer and a meal when you’re finished. “There are tons of new places to explore both in the landscape and in the humanscape,” Nassif says.

Nassif’s field guide contains blank pages to draw and record what you find. You can also share your findings, sketches and stories on The Other Green Line website, where there is a list of area businesses carrying the book and information on upcoming guided tours.

 

The $45 million Currie Park Lofts will turn around a vacant, blighted property in Minneapolis’s Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.

It’ll also bring much-needed affordable housing to the area, according to developer Bianca Fine, who leads Fine Associates.

The six-story development will have 260 mixed-income apartments between floors two through six--with room to accommodate large families--while a cultural center, adult and child daycare, and a neighborhood grocer will share the first-floor retail space.

Right now, besides some limited parking, there’s a single-family home on the site that has an interesting history as a brewpub, and which the company is looking into the possibility of moving, she says.

One of the biggest advantages of the project's location is its proximity to the light rail transit lines, bus stops, and bicycle amenities. It’s also within walking distance of several large institutions, including the University of Minnesota, and downtown’s business district.

As such, “It’s a true transit-oriented development,” which helps fulfill city and neighborhood goals for the area.

Visually, Currie Park Lofts will blend into the neighborhood with a brick, glass and metal exterior, along with a pedestrian-scale design and landscaping. “Many different colors and finishes and textures will make it look like several different small buildings,” Fine explains.

Further, the design incorporates a number of balconies, which means “a lot of eyes on the street," and there'll also be green spaces and recreational areas.

Fine Associates has been working on the project since 2005, and that has “given us a lot of time to figure out how to do it best,” Fine says. “The more we got to know the neighborhood, the more we got to understand its needs,” and respond to them, which, she adds is key for its long-term success.  

In the next 20 years, projections show the need for housing in the neighborhood is likely to increase dramatically, according to Fine. “The neighborhood needs an engine of economic improvement,” she says, adding that the project will be “strongly integrated.”

Construction of the lofts could begin as early as this fall.

Source: Bianca Fine, Fine Associates
Writer: Anna Pratt

On Sept. 12, a new youth-sized synthetic-turf soccer field opened at Currie Park in Minneapolis's Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.

It replaced a nondescript grass and dirt field that buckled up in some places, according to Park Board commissioner Scott Vreeland.

The soccer field is a part of a larger, ongoing effort to improve the park’s facilities, including expanding the existing Brian Coyle Community Center. “Folks at Brian Coyle had been advocating for more resources,” he says.

To make the soccer field a go in the short term, Hennepin County provided a $295,000 grant from its youth sports program, which is funded by the Target Field ballpark tax, while the Park Board contributed $20,000, according to park board information.

Other collaborators included the Pillsbury United Communities, West Bank Community Coalition, and Cedar Riverside Youth Council.

More informally, the community’s elders helped figure out how to install the field to best serve the children. They also got the community behind it. “It’s a thing people wanted. It wasn’t particularly controversial. Everyone saw it as a win-win,” he says.  

In a diverse area where reaching a consensus can often be difficult, the soccer field is a visible community-building place where people “can go and meet people and kick the ball around,” he says. “It inspires me when I go by.”

He hopes the field gets used a lot. “It gives the opportunity for people to put aside their differences and get together in one space.”

Stewart Park has already gotten similar improvements while East Phillips Park is next.


Source: Scott Vreeland, commissioner, Minneapolis Park Board
Writer: Anna Pratt

The state's largest affordable-housing complex will soon undergo a considerable rehab.

Funding for a project to revamp Riverside Plaza in Minneapolis's Cedar-Riverside neighborhood closed on Jan. 5 while construction could begin next month.  

The modernist 11-building campus, which renowned architect Ralph Rapson designed in the 1970s, has 4,440 residents, plus a charter school, grocery store, and tenant resource center, according to city information.

Matt Goldstein, who works in the city's housing division, says that getting the finances lined up is a huge accomplishment on its own. 

A complicated $132 million deal restructures the property's debt and finances a $62 million renovation that includes $7 million for site and common-area improvements, according to city information.

Notably, 88 percent of the project's funding comes from private sources, he says.   

Goldstein explains that the rehab comes out of necessity. The heating and cooling system had started to go, which could leave a whole building without heat. As such, "The vast majority of work is being done behind the walls," he says.  

Otherwise, the building could become uninhabitable and would "create an amazing burden on shelters and other available housing stock," he says, adding that there is no money to acquire the property and tear down the building.   
 
For the city, the bottom line is about extending the building's lifespan and "enhancing the quality of life for these residents," he says. "The comprehensive nature of the renovation does that."  

Other goals of the project are to increase safety on the campus, improve energy efficiency, and better provide for pedestrians and bicycles. The city also pushed for a workforce plan that creates 200 construction jobs, with 90 spots reserved for neighborhood residents.

Goldstein is hopeful about the project's potential impact on the area.

The renovation is aligned with several other projects, Goldstein explains. The nearby Cedars, also a large affordable-housing complex, will soon be revamped, while planning for the neighborhood's Central Corridor Light Rail stop is underway, along with additional streetscape improvements.   

It's part of a conscientious effort to make the developments work together. "The Riverside Plaza project isn't happening in a vacuum," says Goldstein.

Source: Matt Goldstein, Housing Division for Minneapolis
Writer: Anna Pratt

Architects from the University of Minnesota's Metropolitan Design Center led a workshop on Nov. 20 at the school, which dovetailed with an earlier talk about creating a framework for the future of the University District.

The district includes the university campus and its surrounding neighborhoods. 

At the event, which drew nearly 100 attendees, presenters Ignacio San Martin and Marcy Schulte challenged people to think in terms of connection, stressing sustainable, walkable communities.

Organizer Ted Tucker, a 40-year resident of the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood who serves on the University District Alliance, a board that's trying to improve the area, says it builds on the "transformational visioning" process that the group initiated.

The district faces unique challenges, with several large institutions in close quarters, such as the university, Augsburg College, and nearby clinics and hospitals. "We're trying to improve connections with surrounding neighborhoods so it's mutually beneficial," says Tucker.

At this early stage, the group is just trying to keep the lines of communication open as opposed to laying out any specific plans. "We want to have neighborhood residents talking to developers," he says. "They can get accustomed to what residents might be concerned about."

Conversely, he says, "Residents can hear about how developers operate and what they're looking for."

At the recent workshop, San Martin conveyed a perspective that "goes back to geology, landforms, and how the river works with adjacent neighborhoods and the ecology of the area," Tucker explains.  

On a map San Martin pinpointed 10 contested territories that are key places "where there are lots of different forces coinciding."  

For instance, there's the question of what should happen with a right-of-way that's known as Granary Road, which once served the Burlington Northern Railroad. It starts at one end of the Stone Arch Bridge and continues through the industrial area in Southeast, near the new TCF stadium. Part of it is planned to be a two-lane road. There's been discussion about extending it. Some people believe it should be used for trucks. "There are different ideas on the best way to use the land available," Tucker says.   

The events give residents and other community stakeholders the chance to hear ideas for the area and react, Tucker says, adding that their feedback will help inform the process as it moves forward.


Source: Ted Tucker, representative of the University District Alliance
Writer: Anna Pratt

The Twin Cities are showing a fresher face to the online world after Google recently updated its local Street View images.

According to Google spokesperson Deanna Yick, "it usually takes several months from when the photograph is taken until it appears on Google Maps," where the Street View feature is available.

Observers variously reported via Twitter that Google's trucks made the rounds last year in St. Paul and this year in Minneapolis. Google gathered its first round of pictures in 2007, stitching them together to create a virtual local landscape on the internet.

The company isn't keeping images from its initial Street View sweep of the Twin Cities publicly accessible, once newer ones replace them. The goal, according to Yick, is to give online visitors current views so they can feel "as if they're there in person."

A local landmark widely noted when the Twin Cities first joined Google's Street View universe in late 2007 was the former I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, captured intact before its collapse in August that year. Street View visitors now can virtually drive over the new I-35W bridge, but views also remain showing the old span from beneath.

People in the Twin Cities can count on Google to blur faces and legible license plates, Yick says. But that isn't enough for some people in Germany, according to University of Minnesota sociology professor Joachim Savelsberg, who is on sabbatical in Berlin. He reports that "debate about Google Street View reflects attitudes that differ substantially from those in the United States." A history of dictatorial governments spying on citizens there has led people there to gain the right to have Google take images of their homes out of its Street View system. Savelsberg notes, however, that "only a small percentage of Germans have made use of this right."
 
Sources: Deanna Yick, Google; Joachim Savelsberg, University of Minnesota
Writer: Chris Steller

Being divided into 84 neighborhoods isn't always an advantage for Minneapolis. It's a daunting number of distinct districts to grapple with, for officials at City Hall as well as community organizers.

But that impressive roster may have helped Minneapolis secure host-city status for the Neighborhoods, USA Conference in 2013. The Mill City outscored four other cities vying for the national organization's annual meeting -- by a large margin, according to Neighborhoods, USA staffer Karen Huber.

A three-person Minneapolis contingent blew away the organization's board of directors with an impressive presentation at this year's conference, held recently in Alaska. Runners up included Rochester, Minn. (in second place), as well as a couple Pacific Northwest outposts: Eugene, Ore., and Tacoma, Wash.

Board members scored competing cities on criteria that included number of neighborhood organizations and their level of activity. (Most--but not all--of Minneapolis' 84 neighborhoods have resident groups.)

Racial diversity was another consideration for the Neighborhoods, USA board, half of whom are African-American. Minneapolis looked better than some places the organization has considered in the past, Harber says, recalling the response to a relatively homogeneous Utah city.

The group met in St. Paul in 1986. The economic downturn of the last few years has made centrally located cities more appealing as meeting places, she says. The cost of travel has cut attendance by the grassroots activists who make up the group's membership, says Harber, from 1,000 before the recession to a low approaching 400. For the conference in Minneapolis, Harber says the group is anticipating 500�600 attendees.

They'll fan out across the city for tours and meals in Minneapolis neighborhoods. Harber says people who come to the conference are "very relaxed" and down to earth. Some are still learning to grapple with grants and making demands on local leaders at city halls. The conference is a low-key event where they can hone those skills. "You don't have to impress the big shots," Huber says.

Source: Karen Harber, Neighborhoods USA
Writer: Chris Steller

The news that the Bedlam Theatre will have to leave its West Bank space in six weeks to make room for an expanding mosque hit many fans of the offbeat troupe hard.

But Bedlam has periodically embraced and flirted with homelessness in the past as a possibly beneficial artistic state (see its 17-year history recounted in the Twin Cities Daily Planet), only to be set straight by supporters who liked the company's current or earlier digs.

Now co-founder and -director John Bueche says exactly what the theater wants in a new space "is a good question. Sometimes our preconceptions have been proven short-sighted."

Even letting slip that the theater would concentrate its search within the city limits of Minneapolis was enough to generate emails from Bedlam-lovers in St. Paul and a phone call from the St. Paul mayor's office.

The group, founded by grads from St. Paul's Macalester College, has since backed off its insistence on the Mill City.

Would, say, a spot in a suburban strip mall be out of the question?

Bueche said the group, which has built up a loyal following through social events that go well beyond standard theatrical performance, now has two main criteria: "proximity to a young, diverse audience" and a location on "an alternative transit corridor."

That suggests that Bedlam's perfect space is the one from which they're being evicted--located only steps from the Cedar-Riverside light rail station and in the heart of the  immigrant-rich West Bank neighborhood.

"It wasn't our choice," Bueche clarifies. "We'd be happy to stay." He sees a silver lining for the neighborhood Bedlam celebrated in its "West Bank Story" production. "We're moving because development is happening here"--due in part, he says, to resolution of decades-long lawsuits between local landowners.

Source: John Bueche, Bedlam Theatre
Writer: Chris Steller