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THE VOICE OF BLACK MINNESOTA SINCE 1934
May 11 - 17, 2023
Vol. 89
Phone: 612-827-4021
No. 41
www.spokesman-recorder.com
DIVIDE AND CONQUER: Park Board’s plan for Hiawatha
The ongoing battle over preservation of an African American historical site By Charles Hallman Staff Contributor
olis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB), finally approved its proposed “Hiawatha Master he Hiawatha Golf Plan” by a vote of 4-3. The Park Course in South Board plan includes reducing Minneapolis has the public golf course from 18 received a Nation- holes to nine holes, improves al Register of His- water management and toric Places designation by the addresses long standing floodNational Park Service, which ing issues. The flooding probwas approved on April 27, lems reached a critical point
T Hiawatha Golf Course
Photos by Chris Juhn
Metro Transit starts Lake-Selby rapid line construction By H. Jiahong Pan Contributing Writer
B Line bus service to replace Route 21
V
ernon Crowe, owner of Selby Wine and Spirits, never understood why Route 21 took a weird dog-leg bend into Midway—running on University between Snelling and Hamline Avenues— on its way to and from Minneapolis. The angled route was implemented to bypass an unsafe bridge spanning Selby Avenue between the two streets, which was closed in 1989. “The bridge is back up,” said Crowe. “I don’t know why they don’t continue running the bus down Selby to Fairview, turn off Fairview, and [go] left on Marshall.” Beginning late next year, the dogleg onto University will be eliminated as 21 is restructured. The B Line, a rapid transit bus line similar to the A Line on Snelling Avenue, the C Line on Penn Avenue, and the D Line on Chicago and Fremont Avenues, all of which make stops at specially-designed stations, will replace 21A’s existing routing. The new B Line will operate similar to the pre-1989 Route 21 alignment. Meanwhile, the 21A itself will be split into two segments–one will only run in Minneapolis, while the other segment will only run in St. Paul. “It is connecting people to a thriving community. This is an opportunity for us to get to jobs, housing, transit stations, key destinations,” said Metropolitan Council chair Charlie Zelle at the groundbreaking for the new bus line. “I always say this is not a commuter line. This is the ‘live your life in the city’ line,” he added. However, not all riders are happy with the change, and some businesses are worried about the impacts the B Line will have on them during and after it is built. The B Line project has been in the works for years, one of 11 transit corridors studied by the Met Council in 2011 and 2012. Originally envisioned to operate along stops between the Lake Street Southwest Light Rail station and Snelling and University, the proposed route was extended to serve downtown St. Paul stops in 2019, after rider feedback. The agency plans to extend the proposed route to serve the Minneapolis-St. Louis Park border, at Lake and France avenues. The project will cost $65 million, with funding to come from state and federal sources. Hennepin County will receive $12 million from a Department of Transportation grant to reconfigure Lake Street with
Mayors Melvin Carter and Jacob Frey at B Line groundbreaking Photo by H. Jiahong Pan
meaning the golf course now in June 2014, when significant joins the list of historic preser- rainfall flooded the Hiawatha vation sites across the country. golf course—described as a However, the fight to keep “100-year flood”—and forced Hiawatha as it currently is—an its closing, until it was fully 18-hole course—continues. reopened in 2016. Last March, the Cultural MPRB Commissioner Becka Landscape Foundation (TCLF) Thompson’s motion last July, to believed that the site was separate the water issues from National Register-eligible and the course redesign was rejecthelped with the application ed. In addition, a rift between process. In a statement, TCLF Black community members, President and CEO Charles A. who are mostly against the Birnbaum said, “The Nation- “Hiawatha Master Plan,” and al Register designation of the Native Americans, who supHiawatha Golf Course, an port it because they want the action we first called for on land returned to its ancestral March 1, 2022, reaffirms the roots, became apparent during cultural and historic signifi- public-comment meetings. cance of the site. The desigWhen asked last week by nation reminds us that African the MSR, about Hiawatha’s American history is Ameri- new historic status, MPRB can history, and the recog- President Meg Forney said, nition includes important “Hiawatha golf course’s Nationinformation about Hiawatha al Register listing does not that we believe is essential to impede the Minneapolis Park any decision-making process Board’s implementation of the about the course’s future.” Hiawatha Plan but requires Beginning in the early the MPRB to consult with the 1930s, Hiawatha has been a State of Minnesota regarding gathering place for African future work.” Americans in the city for recThe Minneapolis-based Bronze reation and golf, at a time Foundation, which commissioned when they were discriminat- the National Register nomination, ed against and often excluded paid more than $18,000 for a from public spaces. study to look into water issues, Last September, after three while maintaining the golf previous attempts, the Minneap- ■ See HIAWATHA on page 5
Survivors of human rights abuses testify at Minneapolis UN hearing By Cole Miska Contributing Writer
up Tuesday morning’s hearing. According to McLean, the goal of EMLER’s visit is to examine n May 2, members of the causes and realities of systhe United Nations temic racism faced by people (UN) Independent of African descent involving Expert Mechanism to Advance law enforcement and the legal Racial Justice and Equality in system, and to learn how laws Law Enforcement (EMLER) may lead to disproportionheld hearings in Minneapolis ate interactions between law to gather testimony related to enforcement and Black people racism and policing. The event, compared to people of other which was held at the Urban races. League building at 2100 PlymThe Minneapolis hearings outh Ave. N, was one of six are part of a two-week tour that stops on EMLER’s visit to the included hearings in WashingUnited States. ton, D.C., Atlanta, Los Angeles, International human rights Chicago, Minneapolis and New lawyer Kerry McLean, who has York City. done work for the UN AntiUN representatives who Racism Coalition (UNARC), set ■ See UN HEARING on page 5
O Photo by Chris Juhn two lanes, a turn lane, and a westbound transit lane. The project east of Hiawatha will be built by Rogers-based Thomas and Sons Construction, who built the A, C and D Lines, while the agency will put the project west of Hiawatha out to bid later this year. Ahmed Ahmed likes the idea of converting the 21 to the B Line. “That makes me feel good. It feels different and will be faster,” said Ahmed Ahmed one Saturday morning as he rode the 21 to a friends’ house in Minneapolis.
Not everyone agrees with him. Some riders the MSR spoke with on the 21 did not like the idea of the B Line, in part because the B Line makes fewer stops and they appear to be accustomed to Route 21, having relied on it for their transportation needs for decades. Some corridor businesses left in dark Some business owners in the Longfellow and the Rondo neighborhood said they did ■ See B LINE on page 5