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mplsdirtandmud · 7 years ago

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Nourishing and Flourishing Neighborhoods

Lend your voice to Minneapolis’ revisioning plans for 2020

I didn’t know what would happen when I opened the coffee shop on the corner of 33rd & Lyndale North. At a minimum, I hoped to get away with being truly zero waste (different than zero waste to landfill) in a disposable-heavy coffee industry. A small retail location in a residential area seemed about the right size to try, and a year and a half later, it has proven doable and even given confidence in more ways than one.

My fingers were also crossed that people would gravitate and use the shop as a third space, and as has happened, being here has also been a way to see micro and macro level changes in the McKinley Community, nearby neighborhoods, and the governance landscape of Minneapolis overall. With a deadline of April 30th for public comment looming, this post is meant to encourage everyone to add their opinion about the structure of Neighborhood Associations. Please set aside a little time to email [email protected] soon, and feel free to use any content that you find helpful here…

Something that keeps coming up is the role that corner shops have in serving as neighborhood hubs – think mercantiles, general stores, Mr. Hooper, etc. Today, while many corner locations have become mini marts, others are stalwart in doing business not as grab ‘n go, but as enterprise with full service in mind -- places where trade or market demand is paired with natural talent and usefulness to community. Serendripity Spot is an example in that it has become the de facto community living room where people meet and greet one another, sip and sit for a while, eat made-to-order light bites from produce grown in the gardens out back, and find out what’s going on in the lives and doings of others. What happens here is personal and that is a good thing – everything here is made, grown, sewn, crafted, painted, written, donated, etc. by people you know.

Intentional organization like this is and has been happening on the Northside. Check out Houston White’s vision for a Webber-Camden hub recently featured in the Star Tribune, the Goddess of Glass in Victory (see p. 8 in the 3/29/18 issue of North News), Homewood Studios in Harrison, and of course, “the Corner Store Co-op” (Wirth) in Willard-Hay, just to name a few.

From “liquid networking” at our coffeehouse to barbershops and creative spaces, we hope the City will look at new ideas about how and where people naturally gather and get to know each other, become role models, and just hang out and belong. Social entrepreneurs are showing ways that look a lot different than community meetings focused on single issues or pet projects, and/or Associations made up of Board Members who tend to be the “über doers” in the neighborhood – which are standards that sometimes overshadow other kinds of leadership and participation.

Probably, the City needs some of both, so we urge you to point the City toward a design plan that blends some municipal standardization with flexibility to innovatively gather and create programs in ways unique and responsive to the community being served.

If you are interested in reviewing our talking points about Neighborhoods 2020, please click here.

And, as always, thanks for reading!

With peace, love, and togetherness from your corner shopkeeper,

Kelley

#corner stores #neighborhood hub #minneapolis2020 #neighborhoodassociations #healthycommunity #cornershop

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