Addressing Safety and Livability on our North Minneapolis Block
At this time last year the block surrounding Ascension Place was full of the typical fall sounds and traffic. Kids played on the playground outside at Ascension Catholic School across the street and school buses came and went. Although the Old Highland Area lies in the heavily stigmatized 5th ward of North Minneapolis’ Near North Neighborhood, it is home to a community rich with a history of faith communities, educational institutions, non-profits, and small businesses. Our nearby neighbors include Ascension Church and Catholic School, Elizabeth Hall School, Franklin Middle School, Masjid An-Nur, Greater Mount Vernon Missionary Baptist and several vital non profit organizations and businesses. Old Highland is truly a gem in the Near North.
Neighbors, community leaders, and area organizations could have never predicted the perfect storm of factors that would culminate in the rapid decline of safety and livability in the area. As Minneapolis reels in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, COVID keeps kids out of schools and parents from work, and buildings sit burned and condemned, an environment conducive to the pitfalls of drug abuse and crime, has ripened. Our already vulnerable area quickly became a block where open drug use and sale, sex trafficking, and gunshots have become the norm. The sounds of children playing and school buses have been quickly replaced with fighting, sirens, and the volley of shots fired. For many on the block, summer of 2020 was a sleepless one.
Ascension Place staff and residents became increasingly concerned about what was going on just outside our walls and decided we needed to address what was happening. “If we are going to make a change, it’s only going to happen if we work together” said Lucy, a Haven Housing Case Manager. “Our whole point in being here is to provide a safe space while women do the necessary work of growing. It’s pretty tough to do that with what’s going on right outside the front door.”
We hit the streets in our neighborhood, inviting everyone on them (yes, everyone) to a meeting. We also knocked on doors, stopped into local West Broadway businesses, invited community members, activists, elected officials, respected leaders, members of boots on the ground initiatives, and local authorities to our neighbor, Ascension Church’s back yard for a gathering.
The flyer shared read: “Let’s work together to create a safer and healthier environment for everyone. This conversation will not be a condemnation of anyone rather a solutions oriented discussion.”
Those who attended the meeting, Ascension Church and school, area developers and landlords, residents and outreach workers, shared their frustrations about the rapid increase of crime on the block. A grandmother voiced her desperation as she shared that her school age grandson could no longer play outside safely. One Ascension Place client stated, “I came to AP to get safe, work through my trauma and addiction issues and get the building blocks to move on to a successful life. It is a great program. It’s got some great staff that has been really supportive. It has been a place of healing. But the last couple of months it has been scary. I’m scared to go outside. Before I was not afraid to go to the store. But now we can’t go places safely. It gets really overwhelming. My anxiety is now through the roof. I have been watching tv in our living room and I have needed to get down on the ground because of the gunfire right on our corner.”
Local entrepreneur and property owner Tim Baylor shared some very relevant news about future developments on our block. “A lot of my friends in the development sector think I’m crazy for trying to do what we are doing over here.” Tim’s plans for the new Satori Village will dramatically rehabilitate the block. It will remove vacant condemned buildings, lots containing shells of burned homes and businesses and replace them with new commercial, retail and residential spaces. Tim’s goals for this project highlight that Satori will not promote displacement and gentrification; instead it will contribute to the community balance.
We shared our concerns at the neighborhood meeting, received expert advice from leaders of groups like Mad Dads and We Push for Peace. We took a walk down the busy blocks from 17th St. to West Broadway. We decided we must stay united and in communication with one another and named ourselves Bryant off Broadway Community Collaborative. Since the meeting, neighbors have been able to reach out to one another to share updates and address concerns in real time. Haven Housing and a neighboring organization, Turning Point, has been able to share information with those on our streets about restorative resources to help promote recovery and stability. We recognize that reaching out to those who need social service support is one key to rehabilitation for our neighborhood.
Many areas of Minneapolis are experiencing unprecedented challenges during this difficult season. Although we are no exception to this problem, we will continue to strive for exceptional solutions to it. We believe our block can reduce the issues of addiction, violence, and homelessness by working together consistently.
Pictured: We Push of Peace outreach workers, City Council Candidate Pastor Victor Armando Martinez, Legislative Candidate Esther Agbage, Haven Housing Executive Director Monica Nilsson