EDITORIAL Sears project must uphold civil rights laws By: Pauline Thomas Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder Originally posted 10/29/2003
Many of you may know that our nonprofit organization, the Community Collaborative, has worked actively to ensure equal rights for minorities in publicly funded construction projects. As of this writing, the decision about who will be the developer for the old Sears Building, to be known as the Lake Street Center, is pending before the City of Minneapolis. The Center is a large project � more than one million leaseable square feet. It requires a substantial amount of public funding and will be located in an area that houses a relatively large concentration of people of color. By the time of this publication, the City and its Minneapolis Community Development Agency will probably have selected Ryan Companies as the developer for that site. I am concerned about whether the City has included African American contractors and employees in the development of the Center. The City has a checkered history when it comes to involving persons of color in large construction developments in Minneapolis. Recent history shows that the City, in order to attract a large Canadian development firm to build the Minneapolis City Center, agreed in writing that the firm could discriminate in constructing the site and the City would not enforce anti-discrimination laws. During the period 1986-1996, the City sponsored more than one billion dollars worth of development with no documentation showing that any of this was shared with African American contractors or other contractors of color. http://www.spokesman-recorder.com/News/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=34030&sID=16 Shawn Lewis, Field Neighbhoohd -- __________________________________________________________ Sign-up for your own personalized E-mail at Mail.com http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup Search Smarter - get the new eXact Search Bar for free! http://www.exactsearchbar.com/ REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
