Author’s note: In the 1960s, a proposed highway spur called Interstate 335, or the “North Ring,” would have connected I-94 to I-35W, cutting through the St. Anthony neighborhood in Northeast Minneapolis; the proposed route is here. The following story would take place in a world in which I-335 was completed and caused major damage to the community, and is also one where concerned citizens are trying to undo the damage, not unlike the Rethinking I-94 Plan.
A group of Minnesota think tanks are suggesting a bold approach to the coming renovation efforts around Interstate 335. Rather than the planned refinishing and repaving of the highway as originally put forward by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), advocates at Our Roads Minnesota have put together a different vision with endorsements from the Twin Cities Bicycle Alliance and the YouTuber CityDork, a wonky data-driven urbanist account with 265,000 subscribers.
Dubbed the Minneapolis Boulevard Project, they’re advocating that rather than renovating I-335 as it is today, the divided-lane highway should be torn down and replaced with a series of surface streets. Their vision would restore the St. Anthony neighborhood to how it looked prior to the highway’s original construction in the late 1960s.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for reparative and environmental justice” the report reads. “Before I-335 was built the St. Anthony neighborhood was a bustling and walkable community, with middle-class residences and successful neighborhood shops and restaurants. This plan would recreate the city grid system as it existed prior to construction and begin to restore those lost connections while decreasing our city’s carbon footprint and creating economic opportunities in Northeast Minneapolis.”
Dubbed the “North Ring,” the I-335 project was approved by Congress and the Federal Highway Administration in 1964 to complete Minneapolis’s inner-ring highway system. Once approved, construction began immediately with the demolition of the Plymouth Avenue bridge and its replacement being built to interstate highway standards with approach roads coming in from Interstate 94. Despite the protests of residents of the St. Anthony neighborhood, highway construction proceeded through the 1960s, demolishing most of what was once First Avenue through Third Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis.
Retired New Hope resident Stan Katzung grew up in the neighborhood, and his childhood home was one of the houses destroyed to make way for the highway.
“It was really a wonderful community,” Katzung remembers. “We’d walk down the block as a family for a night out and there were all these wonderful restaurants around First and University. My favorite one was Kramarczuk’s. It was this classic Polish delicatessen and their sausages were spectacular. Their pastry shop was amazing as well. It’s a pity it isn’t still around.”
Jim Surdyk of Golden Valley also has fond memories of a business in St. Anthony: his family’s.
“My grandfather applied for one of the first liquor store licenses after the end of prohibition and opened Surdyk’s Liquors at what was Second and East Hennepin,” he says. “It was so successful that my dad had big plans for expansion when he took over the business in 1960. It broke his heart when the highway came and we needed to close the place down. Who knows what might have been. If I’d have taken over there’d be a place to buy a decent bottle of wine in Northeast Minneapolis, I tell you that much.”
Others, however, are not so sanguine about Our Roads’ proposal.
“I don’t see this store remaining open without the freeway,” says Nathan Eichner, store manager of the Best Buy in the Grain Belt shopping center at 434 Fifth St. “I see the ZIP Codes of our shoppers and they’re not just locals. If someone from Fridley needs a stereo we’re the closest store to them, but if the choice is between fighting two miles of city traffic and going the extra two miles to Roseville, I think they’re gonna choose the latter.”
Eichner says he’s heard similar sentiments from the employees of the center’s nearby Chick-Fil-A and Joann Fabrics stores, though they were unable to be reached for comment.
“If these anti-car weirdos succeed we’ll certainly have to close,” says Brian Keane, owner of The Shrub restaurant and bar at the corner of Spring Street and Washington Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis. “Our guests drive here, and it’s ludicrous to think in a winter climate that they’d switch to any other mode of transportation. If people can’t conveniently drive here for our renowned cocktails before conveniently driving home, I don’t see a future for us.”
Many online commenters on social media sites have expressed similar sentiments.
“The city was built up around 335,” one Redditor said. “Instead of trying to recreate St. Anthony we should instead put money into existing poor and disadvantaged communities that are struggling now.”
“The plan doesn’t make any sense,” another said. “There is no non-car commute option to travel between suburbs and Northeast. The idea that someone would give up a 15-minute commute so that they can take a 25-minute bus into downtown and take a second 25-minute bus to Northeast is ludicrous.”
Our Roads has an answer to the criticisms of additional traffic congestion levied at them.
“Using drivers’ cell phone data, the report found a majority of vehicle trips along the project area begin and end within one mile from the project area, not the longer-distance trips for which highways were built,” they say.
In his video on the subject, CityDork says “people use I-335 because it exists, not the other way around”.
MnDOT has yet to commit to any individual plans. Reached for comment, a spokesperson for the agency said, “We are currently still in the planning stages of this operation. Construction is slated to begin in 2028. Until then, MnDOT is taking public comments on the project.”