Mayor Ryback Calls The Eco-Village "Ground Zero" In A Struggle To Revitalize North Minneapolis (Photo 1)

Photo courtesy of HACC

We dedicated the eco-village tree farm today. Mayor Rybak pulled up in his electric car and the first thing he did was to shake hands with Peter Teachout, Jr., age 6.

Days of preparation came down to a scramble in the last hour to procure shovels...

...so Rybak and the other guests could ceremoniously move some mulch. So it was kind of like a ground-breaking ceremony, only it was a mulch-shoveling ceremony. The Polish Lady had the honor of providing the two shovels used by the mayor and others. Appropriately, one of the shovels was green.

Jail labor tidies up

In the hours before the groundbreaking, a county work crew descended upon the neighborhood, cleaning up the weedy, trash-strewn vacant lot next to 420 31st Ave. N. and some other county-owned properties. A supervisor at the site gave me a glance at a map he had in his possession, showing which properties were county-owned versus city owned. There was a lot of county property.

By our bootstraps

We had a "Hawthorne Eco-Village" banner, but needed a way to tie it to the fence. I had some spare bootlaces in my van, University of Minnesota maroon and gold.

So we used those. Somebody called them "bootstraps," which wasn't technically correct but was, perhaps, symbolically accurate.

Like the unpopular high school kids who loathe the student government, two low-income property landlords sat on the periphery in the parking lot of 3033 4th St. N., watching the proceedings. They were talking to each other. Despite owning property in close proximity, these two had never talked to each other before. An interesting development. One wonders what will come of this.

Rybak called the Eco-Village "ground zero" in the fight to revitalize North Minneapolis and said he supported our struggle. He said the city was standing behind us, pouring MILLIONS into this area. So we should not lose sight of that, not lose hope. We should continue to fight for our neighborhood.

Yes, crime was a concern. But recent statistics showed crime was declining. By making our neighborhood desirable and nice with things like lovely, tree-lined streets, we could drive out crime.

HACC Chair Peter Teachout told the mayor how we had recently been on "shoe patrol," cutting shoes off power lines so the neighborhood wouldn't look like gang territory. I talked about how 3119 4th St. N. had become full of mold in the past few days, making the woman who lives next door sick, so it had been necessary to close all the windows and other openings as quickly as possible, and so we did what we had to do knowing the city supported common sense efforts to secure vacant buildings under its "adopt houses" mandate.

"We're not just willing to get our hands dirty," I told the mayor. "We're willing to get our hands moldy, as well."

Myself and the Polish woman both pressed for a firm demolition date on 3119 4th. We were assured demolition was being "expedited." The mayor's housing director said he'd recently gotten "four emails" about the building.

The mayor and the Polish woman threw the first shovels full of mulch on this day, then the shovels were passed around and everybody took a turn. Ward 3 City Council Member Diane Hofstede came later when a lot of folks were gone, but also took a turn with the shovel. Media present appeared to be one radio station, and (of course) Jake and Gabe from 612 Authentic, doggedly shooting their documentary.

(Wait...there's something wrong about that phrase "doggedly shooting." Hmmmm.)

The mayor went to admire the Polish woman's garden, as did Hofstede when she came later. We couldn't help but comment on 400 31st Ave. N., a windowless ruin towering over the tree farm like Mt. Vesuvius smoldering in the distance. The mayor said private property rights would be respected, legal process would be observed, yes, but the city would move "aggressively" on properties which needed to be torn down.

It didn't seem like a good time to point out that, an hour before our ceremony, the owner of the building in question (self-proclaimed mayoral candidate Phil Kliendl) had told me where Mayor Rybak could put his shovel. It would have been possible, I thought, to walk across the street, fetch ol' Phil, and have a sort of Lincoln/Douglas debate right then and there. Or a duel. We had two shovels. They could duel with the shovels.

A balancing act

Rybak said one of the great strengths of North Minneapolis was its supply of affordable housing stock, many with solid and spectacular features. It was a fine line to walk--which ones absolutely needed to be torn down, which houses was it better to preserve? I suggested to the mayor we had to act "just right, like Baby Bear's bowl of porridge."

Throughout these proceedings, Peter Teachout, Jr. wandered around with a live video camera which I handed to him, a loaner courtesy of 612 Authentic. I bet the kid got some great stuff.

A good time was had by all.