On September 8, Streets.mn hosted a table at Our Streets’ Imagine Cedarfest, held in Cedar-Riverside. This was the first tabling event our organization has attended in years, maybe ever, and it developed out of board members’ interest in expanding our readership and diversifying the voices of those who contribute. In particular, our recent efforts related to the Anti-Racism Vision Statement highlighted the need for Streets.mn to make active efforts to reach communities of color. Many visitors to our table at Imagine Cedarfest had never heard of Streets.mn. Instead of that being discouraging, we were excited to be where we clearly needed to be — getting the word out to potential new readers and contributors.
Activity Observations
Streets.mn ran a community survey activity during the event, asking visitors four questions about their transportation and housing experiences, as well as about Cedar-Riverside.
Here’s a summary of the results:
Question 1: Where do you live?
Several folks stopping by live in Cedar-Riverside proper, with many more coming from South Minneapolis neighborhoods like Uptown, Whittier, Kingfield, Seward and Longfellow. A smattering ventured from across the river to Cedar-Riverside — often called the West Bank, in a nod to its orientation to the Mississippi — either from Northeast Minneapolis or St. Paul.
Question 2: What type of home do you live in?
- Single-family: 27
- Semi-detached: 10
- Mid-rise: 26
- Highrise: 7
- Other: 1
Single-family and mid-rise housing were by far the most common. We saw surprisingly few high-rise residents, despite our table being situated literally in the shadow of the towering (and architecturally controversial) Riverside Plaza.
Question 3: How do you usually get to work, school or other frequent destinations?
- Walk: 19
- Bike: 39
- Transit: 30
- Drive: 16
- Other: 2
I was happy to see many frequent bicyclists and transit users. No doubt, people with an orientation toward sustainable transportation are more likely to attend an Our Streets event and to engage with our table in particular.
Question 4: What do you love about Cedar-Riverside?
Tasty food, good music, happy faces | So much different food, and theater | Lots of different people is great; Food! | The community which is on the verge of getting gentrified out | We love coming here for the food + shopping! | Diverse and counter-cultural | Welcoming, diverse | Palmers (+1) | Palmers, Hard Times, Community!, Wienery, etc. | Fun place | Great restaurants | Right across the river from me | Minneapolis River Trails | Music! Palmer’s + Cedar Cultural Center | Music | Riding my bike to hang out with friends | Super diverse and lots to explore (+1) | Close to the U & Downtown! So many options for getting around! Blue/Green Line, bike, bus! | The History! | Hidden gem amongst the freeways | Water parks | The people are so nice here and it’s got a lot of great businesses and it’s close to Wilson Library! (+1) | It’s multicultural! | Cool architecture | Density of shops, restaurants, housing!; Proximity to buses & light rail; Diversity of people | Brian Coyle Basketball | I like the food, coffee/tea drinks, and community | The restaurants! Hard Times & Wienery
Music: Music was frequently mentioned as a major draw to the area, with many passersby speaking reverently of Palmer’s Bar (which calls itself “a West Bank institution since 1906”), in particular. The Cedar Cultural Center, as well as Mixed Blood Theatre and Theatre in the Round, also contribute to making Cedar-Riverside a multicultural entertainment hub.
Food: The restaurants of Cedar-Riverside were brought up frequently as draws to the area, with the distinctive, grungy vibes of Hard Times Cafe and The Wienery getting praised in particular. The cuisine of the neighborhood was on display around the intersection, with TAMU Grill & Catering, Afro Deli and Lucky Dragon having tents and grills set up outside their establishments.
Businesses: Shopping centers and small businesses in the area, like Mayday Books, are still a draw, though possibly less so than they used to be. A few folks stopping by lamented the loss of businesses recently. One couple remembered how they would shop at Midwest Mountaineering and a Birkenstock store regularly, before the stores both closed. Freewheel Bike closed its Cedar-Riverside store this month, in favor of an upcoming new location in Northeast Minneapolis. A woman who had lived in the neighborhood for decades noted the area’s past as a hub of the co-op movement in the Twin Cities. She opined that current residents could benefit from some of the collective activity that used to characterize Cedar-Riverside.
Connectivity: Many folks loved how connected Cedar-Riverside was to other parts of the city, despite being squeezed in between the river and the highways. The area’s connection to bus lines and both the Green and Blue Line light-rail trains were praised. The walkability and bike-ability of the area were noted, too, thanks in part to the links to the river trails.
Proximity to the U of M: Related to connectivity were the number of people who had recently moved to the Twin Cities to attend the University of Minnesota and had settled into Cedar-Riverside. It seems to be a common landing spot for students new to the area, both for the U of M and for nearby Augsburg University. Anecdotally, we saw mainly graduate students from the area coming by, possibly because these older students want a bit of distance from the undergrad-dominated Dinkytown.
Diversity and community: Many people directed their love on Post-it® Notes to the welcoming and multicultural community of Cedar-Riverside. One commenter expressed concern over gentrification that could be pushing that very community out of the area, but on this particular day, Cedarfest showcased the diversity of people who live in and pass through Cedar-Riverside.
Additionally, two young men spoke glowingly of time spent playing basketball at the Brian Coyle Community Center, and a mother with a young child loved the water parks in the nearby public parks.
Overall, the written comments about Cedar-Riverside emphasized its welcoming spirit, its great shops and restaurants and its diverse community. In other words, they portrayed a vibrant urban community. This is despite freeways having decimated the neighborhood and isolating it from other central Minneapolis neighborhoods.
Our Streets, the organization that put together Imagine Cedarfest, invited residents to envision a future where their neighborhoods’ physical space shifted back toward human-centric activities and multimodal transportation. It’s exciting to imagine what Cedar-Riverside could become if all levels of government invested in those outcomes.
Future Efforts
My hope is that this initial tabling starts a continued effort by Streets.mn to get out into communities to meet our readers, listeners and supporters and spread the word about the work we do. Many of the people I talked to had interesting observations about their city, its history and the lived experience of the residents. We hope to encourage more people to write posts for Streets.mn sharing this knowledge.
Language accessibility is something to work on. Some folks who passed by did not have the English language skills to engage much with us, but nonetheless appreciated the Streets.mn-branded water bottles or notepads. Another passerby suggested having Spanish language stories or Spanish translated stories. We’ll keep this in mind as we work to broaden the accessibility of our site.
Trust-building with communities takes time, and expanding our audience to better represent the diversity of Minnesota will require patience and persistence. Our first tabling effort in years was an exciting crash course in attending a community event, as well as a welcome opportunity to learn more about Cedar-Riverside and its residents. Thank you to the volunteers who gave their time to run the table that day, and thank you to everyone who stopped by our table to say hello.