[Mpls] Brandt's Article. Along Franklin Avenue The Neighborhood and NRP Did It One Building At a Time.

[JIM GRAHAM]

Along Franklin Avenue The Neighborhood and NRP Did It One Building At a Time. Today's Minneapolis StarTribune articles on Franklin Avenue Development should emphasize why NRP is so important to Minneapolis.  What started with a few hundred thousand dollars to renovate the "Streetscape" and create a Master Plan has resulted in the commitment of over one hundred million dollars of committed development. That happened because neighborhood residents controlled the NRP, not "downtown centralizers".  In fact, it happened in the face of opposition from "Centralized" downtown. I appreciate Steve Brandt's article on Franklin Avenue.  That article did some good work in highlighting the changes that are now taking place on Franklin Avenue.  It did, however, miss a couple of very important items. One was the part NRP played in those changes. Steve talked to many of us, but perhaps he just failed to understand or accord much value to what he was told, so he omitted it.   The renovation of Franklin Avenue can be traced to one clear thing, the empowerment of NRP.  NRP may have contributed only a few million dollars to all of the Phillips Community, but it created the planning and energized the residents in Ventura Village to go fight for that change. During the initial stages of the latest LRT planning, it became very clear that the city had a very different plan for the community than neighborhood residents did.  One city planner, looking at development around the Franklin Station, gave an indication of what Minneapolis and government plans wanted for the area. This planner justified building a string of "affordable housing" high-rises along Franklin and I-94 by calling the area the "Black Zone".  When challenged for what was perceived to be a racist statement, he went on to say it wasn't racist, it meant an area where crime and blight were so bad there was no hope, and the area would be better if it were bulldozed and completely redeveloped.  (I still think there were some racial implications).  I later found this to be a common term used to describe the Franklin area (and Northside neighborhoods) by people at the Planning Department.  So clearly, the City and County were making plans for the area, just not the ones the residents wanted. Opposition to this City plan and NRP empowerment motivated people to create the alternatives that are now occurring. Residents decided the only way to fight the crime and blight was to create a"Plan" that would develop the area before it got "Planned" for them. The neighborhood first asked Mayor Sharon Sayles-Belton to make an effort to address crime, gave her a deadline to start, and a blueprint for the campaign.  It was from the neighborhood plan, "One Building At A Time, One Block At A Time".  She promised three times to do so, but apparently she had those other "plans".  The deadline passed, so the neighborhood requested that it be declared a "National Disaster Area" in order to seek other resources, from other government sources.  The City of Minneapolis of course blocked that action, but national and international newspapers and other media attention soon brought the US Attorney General and other governmental interest.  The neighborhood decided that it would have to fight without much help unless it organized further. Neighborhood residents decided to create a new neighborhood and a new identity. Neighborhood residents then committed a most heinous crime: They packed meetings with residents, and those residents seized some NRP dollars and started planning a different future. In the process of those organizing efforts and planning, the neighborhood residents became aware that they could wield considerable power to attract and promote development, to seek funding for development, and to fight development the City was attempting that would further concentrate poverty and crime in the area. The neighborhood not only participated in the planning of such projects, but also was forced to actively seek those funds.  Architect Dean Dovolis is quoted by Neal St. Anthony's article today as saying the development plans came from the neighborhood.  Since he was designing many of those developments and participated in most of the others, I am sure Dean Dovolis is a good source to corroborate where those plans came from. Dean Dovolis also was in the position to know about the efforts to secure the funding to "realize" those plans.  I remember Dean accompanying me on several occasions to "secure" those funds.  At the mayor's office, at meetings with Hennepin County Commissioners, at Met Council meetings, and many others.  When Many Rivers was faced with not being funded, Dean came with me to meet with Peter McLaughlin, Mark Stenglein and other Commissioners and begged them to lobby Steve Crammer on our behalf.  The next evening, Peter called late at night to assure me the MCDA Bonding would occur.  That led to the next fight, this one with MHFA, where the Neighborhood and the Native Community joined together to fight for securing the next pot of money, and then a lobbying of the Met council to get the last small portion.  Those things happened because of NRP and the empowerment that it gave to a neighborhood. While StarTribune Steve Brandt did a good job highlighting Franklin Development he left out another important fact.  He forgot to mention that Neighborhood where most of this was taking place was Ventura Village.  He also failed to mention that the residents of the neighborhood had become so "Empowered" that they were suing the City of Minneapolis and PPL in Federal Court to stop their continued pattern of discrimination against poor people and poor neighborhoods. Another area overlooked in the StarTribune articles is the efforts of this NRP planning group to change zoning in city and state legislation.  The hope for affordable housing in the future is not large institutional types of development.  The future hope is in small, individually financed, affordable housing such as carriage houses, and affordable homeownership opportunities. Ventura Village realized the secret to a vibrant commercial corridor on Franklin Avenue was sufficient mixed income density to support those commercial activities.  So it created the concept of "Low-Profile High Density".  Its Carriage House Overlay zoning has just gone through the City Council after a four-year fight.  That zoning change came from NRP planning. The state legislature is also looking at state legislation to promote this idea. Ventura Village fought the City to not allow our buildings to be torn down! They went out and got a buyer for every boarded up building in the neighborhood when the City of Minneapolis said no one wanted them. There are individuals presently sitting on the Planning Commission who said Franklin Avenue was so blighted, and so valueless, we should be thankful for any development, (even if it violated City ordinance).  Some City Planning Commissioners and elected Public Officials tried to block the Franklin Bakery from going in at 11th and Franklin; the neighborhood joined Wayne Kostroski and won that fight.  (Thank you Wayne for believing in us, we believe in you). Ventura Village brought a developer to the table that wanted to build a Five Hundred Million Dollar development around the Franklin Avenue LRT station. The City of Minneapolis fought the neighborhood and unfortunately they won that fight, but from the fight Ventura Village was able to salvage some development the City never planned on .  The Ventura Village Neighborhood empowered by NRP fought the City because they wanted a Quality place for their families and children and the City wanted a string of "Cabrini Greens" and boy has Ventura Village won.  Of course now everyone knows the politicians had been planning for the neighborhood to win all along, just ask them! So Minneapolis StarTribune reporters Neal St. Anthony and Steve Brandt need to look again.  Their StarTribune articles left out the most important part.  The residents, empowered, by NRP did Franklin Avenue.  They have people and developers competing for those developments because they, the Ventura Village Neighborhood, promoted it as a better place to live and do business. NRP organizing and community building did it "One Building and One Block at a time". Jim Graham, Ventura Village Neighborhood