
Status
Active
Communities that have been harmed by historic and ongoing toxic pollution and contamination deserve justice. By design and neglect, this harm has affected Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color to a much greater extent than white neighborhoods. Whenever municipal development is proposed in these communities, the voices of community members need to be engaged and respected. Key decision makers must invite everyone to the table to work towards a goal of pollution reduction in neighborhoods already experiencing systemic pollution and poor air quality.
The East Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis is one of these communities. This neighborhood continuously ranks as having some of the worst air quality in the entire state, and it is still being harmed by one of the most brazen and widespread urban polluters in Minnesota history. An insecticide manufacturer at East 28th St. and Hiawatha Ave. polluted the neighborhood with arsenic from the 1930’s to the 1960’s, requiring a massive cleanup of contaminated residential yards.
In 2016, The City of Minneapolis proposed building a new “Hiawatha Campus” adjacent to the former manufacturing site to house city offices and vehicles for the Public Works department. Early in 2021, the City of Minneapolis published an environmental assessment worksheet (EAW) detailing the environmental impacts of the Hiawatha Campus proposal. MCEA filed a response a month later.
Our response was detailed and lengthy, nearly 200 pages. Not only did our staff determine that the City's EAW failed to address key environmental effects, as well as climate change, but also that it failed to examine the impact its proposal would have on existing pollution in the neighborhood as required by law. Even more troubling is the City’s "loud silence regarding the historical environmental racism the residents of the East Phillips neighborhood have endured," MCEA's response states.
An alternative vision for the site, centering around an indoor urban-farm, was developed through a grass-roots, neighborhood-led organization called the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI). Their plan creates clean energy infrastructure, a shared ownership model, and sustainable agriculture. It was a model for environmental justice MCEA committed to supporting through our comment, outreach, and advocacy. After organizing for nearly a decade, the state legislature provided the initial funds needed to purchase the building from the City. EPNI did it! After decades of pollution and harm, this neighborhood will now have the opportunity to use that land and the existing building in a way that reflects the self-determination of the people.
Click here to read the City of Minneapolis environmental assessment worksheet
Click here to read MCEA's response to the environmental assessment worksheet