Group fighting for control of Roof Depot site hold Earth Day rally in Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS – On Earth Day, community groups in Minneapolis continued their effort for a cleaner neighborhood.
WCCO reported on the fight for control of the Roof Depot site in the East Phillips Neighborhood last month.
"It's just everybody playing their part," said East Phillips Neighborhood Institute volunteer Joseph Vital. "It's this direct action that we've seen."
Dozens gathered at the site on Saturday in a celebratory mood because the effort to stop plans for a new public works facility and instead build an urban farm is progressing.
"All of that just amounted to a lot of pressure on the city where they've been forced to sell," said Vital.
The community believes that the previous plan would bring hundreds more diesel trucks into the residential area, causing additional pollution.
"It's a public health issue to not be building heavy infrastructure in a residential context," said Katherine Gould of the Climate Justice Committee. "That would put vulnerable people, elders, children in harm's way in a neighborhood that's already largely polluted."
The neighborhood groups and Minneapolis city leaders held a meeting this Wednesday. The City of Minneapolis released this statement:
City leaders did participate in a meeting Wednesday with EPNI at the request of state legislators.
The City has been open to selling the Roof Depot site to the community if the Waterworks Fund could be repaid, as outlined in Mayor Frey's veto letter from March 11, 2022.
Minneapolis has allocated at least $16.7 million from the enterprise Waterworks Fund (collected from all water customers, including several adjacent government jurisdictions that buy Minneapolis water) to purchase, plan, develop and prepare the site. If the Hiawatha Campus Expansion Project is terminated and the site repurposed for private development, the money expended from the fund must be repaid.
"Now it's securing the state dollars of $20 million so that we can buy out the city and begin with our plans," said Vital.
The neighborhood group will seek state money to purchase the land. They hope this project helps the long-term health of residents. Their goal: help the earth, in the city.
"Undoing this is just the first step in undoing decades of harm," said Vital.
The neighborhood association plans to form a new nonprofit to run the site once they have gained control.
