While this statement arrives now, our silence has been only outward. Our board and members have been at work – prioritizing the places we live and standing with neighbors most impacted. It should come as no surprise that Streets.mn strongly opposes and condemns the actions and impacts of federal immigration agents that have violently harmed the communities we love and work to strengthen. We exist to tell the stories of the places we live, and right now, those places are grieving.
When fear enters our streets, the harm is real. Transit ridership has dropped. The voices most needed at public meetings have been absent. Businesses are closed. People walking and biking have been made less safe. The small, everyday acts that hold a neighborhood together – waving to a neighbor, running into a friend on the bus, lingering at a corner café – now carry deeper weight. Our streets are never just routes, but fragile spaces of connection. Ones we need to carry and defend.
And still, we’ve seen what holds.
Across Minnesota, community members are showing up for one another. Density and connectivity continue to prove their quiet strength. Bikes have linked strangers from around the globe. Transit has made it possible for record numbers to gather, to protest, to be heard. When neighbors live close, care moves faster – a gentle knock at the door, a hotdish and diapers, a loving escort to school or simply being present. This is our inherent Minnesotan ‘neighborliness’ as it has always been: Core to who we are, woven deep into our social fabric.
Alongside you, we grieve what’s been lost. But we are clear-eyed about what works. Walkable and accessible places matter. Transit matters. Proximity matters. Kindness matters – and it travels best on safe sidewalks, bike routes and buses that belong to everyone.
We will get through this. When we do, let’s remember who carried us. Commit with us now and into the future to supporting immigrant-owned third spaces – the bodegas, cafés, mercados/mercatos, taquerías and gathering places that anchor neighborhoods and help them heal. Showing up, spending money and staying awhile is how we rebuild. That need was yesterday and it will be tomorrow.
In the months ahead, Streets.mn will deepen our commitment to uplifting the stories of immigrant and marginalized community members. If you have a story to share, whether that is in words, images or poetry – we want to hear from you and to help you uplift it.
Thank you for being part of this community. We are all stronger for you being a part of it.