some thoughts on the greenway housing project:
first and formost is the gentrification (or
beltonization, as my wife says) of minneapolis. we
have around 100 townhome units being sold for 95-250k.
i think it is safe to assume that the market for
these units is milktoast liberals who can enjoy the
ethnic offerings of eat street (or even the proposed
greenway level hispanic and asian markets).
this project does not sit well with me. aside from
whatever deal the city has made (will announce) with
kmart and the tif package, setting this very white
project down in the middle of a racially and
ethnically diverse, primarily working class
neighborhood, effectively inserts a "model" for these
communities to buy-into, emulate, or impart the sense
of not being welcome. imagine the owners in their
$250,000 townhomes being plopped into the middle of
that neighborhood as it is now...there are obviously
more changes in store for the neighborhood before
someone is willing to plop that kind of dough for a
close-up view of kmart. this further worries me -
what else is planned and not being discussed for the
"(re)devlopment" of this neighborhood.
the fact that devolpments like this cannot be fully
committed to affordable housing is a major problem in
this town, but i fear it is more than that, i fear it
is the tell that this town has no real interest in
affordable housing. (sure, there are folks who commit
time and energy to affordable housing, but the fact
that a marquee project such as this routinely occurs,
and cannot commit itself fully to affordable housing
is the real issue.)
imagine a true affordable housing project - 100% of
the units, and that project being developed on the
shores of lake of the isles, smack dab in the middle
of kenwood, tucked back in the comfortable southwest
corner near 50th-france...it would never happen. but
every time that a new and >20% project goes into
development, it seems to aim at gentrifying a
"blighted" neighborhood, and by doing so it pulls the
welcome mat out from under the already disenfranchised
communities which are not only essential components of
the city's economic foundation, but real people
treated as if they were merely problems to solve on
the way to creating a better city.
that said, the blueprint for the project looks pretty
cool:)
jon kelland
bryant
>
http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=82840023
The 400 housing units would be grouped on both sides
of the greenway. About 300 rental units in four-story
buildings would slope down to it. Many of the 100
owner-occupied units would be in townhouses fronting
it, some with walk-out access to its paths. The
owner-occupied housing would sell within a range of
$95,000 to $250,000, Dovolis said. He said the
development would more than meet city requirements
that 20 percent of rental units be affordable to
low-income tenants.
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