Some say more input is needed from community
The city wants to rebuild Nicollet Avenue so people driving, walking, and taking the bus can use it, much like how it was before the city bulldozed it for a Kmart. Not everyone is happy with the design or how the city has engaged the community, as those who show up to provide feedback continue to be primarily white.
The block of Nicollet between Cecil Newman Lane and Lake Street was closed and demolished in the 1970s. The city was hungry for tax revenue and wanted to renovate the area into a shopping mall. Ultimately, it settled for a Kmart, which opened in 1977.
The city, later regretting the decision, ultimately bought the land and building back from a company created to manage land owned by Kmart’s parent company in recent years. After it was temporarily used as a post office, the city demolished the building last October after it burned.
Restoration
Before Nicollet was flattened for Kmart it was a two-lane street with sidewalks, parking, apartments, a cafe, several repair shops, a post office, and a concert venue. The city plans to restore the site in phases in the coming years.
City officials first intend to restore the street alignment and bring the Route 18 bus back through the site. They also hope to add a northbound bus-only lane so buses can get to a bus stop envisioned for the site. City officials are also dedicating roughly one-fourth of the site to a park.
Officials are not considering restricting the new Nicollet to buses only, even though the city has goals to reduce driving. “We know that [site] is going to redevelop,” said City Transportation Planner Kelsey Fogt. “There’s going to be more shops, there’s going to be more housing, and we assume that a third of those trips that would come to the site would be by [private] vehicle,” said Fogt, adding restricting Nicollet to buses-only would make walking and biking conditions around the site less safe.
Still, this move upset local transportation advocates who believe the city is making a mistake. They believe the city contradicts itself; as it strives to reduce driving to address the climate crisis, it simultaneously wants vehicles to have access to the new Nicollet.
Dissent
Meanwhile, other community activists, who happened to be the few people of color attending the March 7 open house where the proposal was presented, were disappointed to see the people engaged were not in line with the demographics of those who live around the site. According to the city, white people ages 20-39 have mostly been attending meetings and taking surveys. Census data, on the other hand, show the four tracts that touch the Kmart site are about 52% people of color.
“They don’t feel like they’ve been included, especially regarding the deployment and what the neighborhood should look like,” said community activist Farhio Khalif. “People want to know how they can be involved.”
City officials say they have been inclusive. “We’ve met with many community groups that work with people of color,” said Fogt, “and we’ve been working with community partners to identify how to connect with groups. We’ve had several meetings specifically organized by those community partners.”
Other advocates point out youth have yet to be included in the conversation. Youth under 20 comprised about one percent of survey responses and nine percent of attendees at 16 city-sponsored engagement events. Census data show about 22% of residents in the four tracts touching the Kmart are under the age of 18.
“Just to have a large open space is not gonna solve some of the safety issues, and some of the issues that our young people are dealing with right now,” said Mark Graves, Southside Village Club director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities.
The city does not plan to talk about what to do with the rest of the Kmart site, including what amenities to provide and how to accommodate an increase in day laborers congregating across the street from the site, until after they finalize the street and open space layout.
Latonya Reeves hopes to see more affordable housing on the Kmart site. “We need some more affordable housing up and down this area. This is a high concentration of where they have homeless encampments. And so this obviously is the area people feel comfortable in,” said Reeves.
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