Secrets of the City

Really interesting gentrification piece from the Spokesman-Recorder. As a prospective buyer, I dig the idea of buying in an affordable-and-developing area like near North. But, since I’m white, would buying and moving there be perpetuating a system of injustice? Should I just train my eyes on near nordeast?

Barkley is running for Coleman’s seat. No, not Charles. But that would make about as much sense.

I’m always a bit torn on the whole gentrification issue, because it seems like nobody can win – which I suppose is the result of having really fucking poor people in our society and making an effort to keep opening that gap. North Minneapolis housing stock is turning into rubble, because the people who live there can’t afford to keep it up or keep it at all. We all saw the $20,000 house videos. It will take people with money to come in and save those. Until you have more income equality or at least are willing to lavishly fund programs to help the poor live in and keep up decent homes, I don’t see how else to break this cycle.

Barkley is running for Coleman’s seat. No, not Charles. But that would make about as much sense.

Terrble. Just terrble. Whatta knucklehead.

a statement he made with the qualifier that he’ll change his mind if God speaks to him.

It’s shit like that that makes me kinda love the guy. I’m a little sad he’s not running, if only because we’ll miss out on the entertainment factor. Still, he probably would have made Franken lose, so I guess it’s for the best,

Guess the tobacco lobbyist job didn’t work out for Barkley….

What I do not get about cries of gentrification is what actual harm is done when middle class people move into a poor neighborhood? Is having a neighbor who paints his house, shovels his snow or mows his lawn such a bad thing? Also, with neighbors who are not out to victimize them, the poor might have a better chance at advancement, since the victims of crime are disproportionately poor.

Like it or not, the very poor have always been untethered dinghies drifting with the economic current. But wouldn’t a rising tide lift all boats? If it isn’t money what is it?

North Minneapolis is perfect for gentrification to take place. Move all the scum into Brooklyn Center.

What stinks about that SR piece is that it doesn’t offer anything constructive.

If it’s so terrible for people from [gasp] outside of North Minneapolis* to come in and rescue buy deteriorated housing, then what’s the alternative? Give it away to Northside resident renters? And if so, should it only be to the black ones, to the exclusion of of white and Asian families that have also been in these neighborhoods for generations?

*Not to say that all Northside buyers are outsiders either – my anecdotal experience is about 50/50 – half of them live(d) in the area prior to buying.

Many of the people quoted seemed to intimat non-blacks need not come to the northside. Which of course is crap, the northside population has always been in flux. Neigborhoods change for the better and for the worse all the time it’s perfectly normal market at work stuff. What people in the northside are probably nervous about is losing what little political power they have been able to get over the years.

A couple of things on this…

1. Grandmother Bixby has lived in the same house in the Hawthorn neighborhood since 1960ish and I lived on the same block for 13 years. When I was growing up there most of the people on her block either owned their homes (many had lived there longer than my grandma – a few of those ppl still do) or were long-term renters. I’ve seen that neighborhood go downhill in almost three decades but there are still a couple of caring homeowners on her block/across the street. I don’t care what race the people who move into my grandma’s neighborhood are if they take care of her block and are, like previous residents, willing to look out for each other in the neighborhood.

2. I think the gentrification of North MPLS is completely different from NYC and other areas because of the foreclosure rate. It’s not so much that they’re building insane developments or flipping the homes, they’re just trying to get people into already existing homes that have been abandoned in order to rebuild and establish some sort of community.

3. Move all the “scum” to Brooklyn Center? No. Redistribute across the area. It shouldn’t have to be Brooklyn Center’s problem. Also, that would probably end up fucking over Webber-Camden/Victory, which is a pretty diverse area, and one that I’d be plenty pissed about turning to shit.

4. What I found interesting is that the article didn’t seem to discuss would it might take to get more (young), black professionals to move back into the cities from the suburbs. I’ve got some yuppie-wanna be relations who keep moving further and further out into the north ‘burbs (and buying homes that are way overpriced) because they’re under the misguided notion that’s what people who’ve “made it” do. Mother Bixby has always lived in North Mpls and refuses to live in any other part of town/suburb even though she certainly could have afforded to live elsewhere. Yes, she’s changed areas but there’s clearly something that attracted her to the North side and there are plenty of young professionals of all races in our neighborhood.

5. Another interesting aspect to look at would have been the flight of Jews for the Northside. I think there was some riot that went down on Plymouth but I’d have to ask my family. I do know that, when my mom graduated from North, there were a ton of white people there. I think the majority were white (I base this on the yearbook I saw).

6. On the topic of North…Where would the North kids go? Henry and Edison? Yeah, how that would work logistically is a mystery to me. Especially given how small Henry is. They’re not going to close North any time soon.

5. Another interesting aspect to look at would have been the flight of Jews for the Northside. I think there was some riot that went down on Plymouth but I’d have to ask my family. I do know that, when my mom graduated from North, there were a ton of white people there. I think the majority were white (I base this on the yearbook I saw).

There was an article about this in the Strib a while back. IIRC, Jewish flight had something to do with SLP being one of the first cities outside of North MNPLS that would allow them to own homes and businesses.

@alie That’s what Grand/mother Bixby were telling me. If you can find the actual article, I’d like to read it. Otherwise I’ll just look it up in an online database later.

There were multiple race riots along Plymouth Ave in the sixties. Shops were looted and vandalized. That was the beginning of the end for the predominantly Jewish commercial area along Plymouth, as I understand it. (I think that the Homewood Studios site towards the west end is one of the only remaining older shop-type buildings – nearly everything else has been razed.)

One thing to remember about the Jewish community of North Minneapolis is that for a long time they COULDN’T live elsewhere. Golden Valley and other suburbs were strictly off-limits. Even the neighborhood of Willard-Homewood, near the aforementioned studio, was initially a restricted development. Neither Jews nor black people were allowed to live there. The stone pillars demarcating that development (and implying a do-not-cross line) still stand today. Ultimately that neighborhood dropped the no-Jew covenant but kept the no-black people one for quite a bit longer. (Not sure of the years here.)

@aliecat Missed your post – yes, SLP was the first place Jews could go as I understand it as well.

I still find it staggeringly weird and sad that Jews and blacks were restricted from even buying homes.

One good source of info on this topic is the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest. I’d link their website but for some reason I’m having trouble finding it at the moment.

When they did the Northside Synagogue tour, there were oodles and oodles of people who had grown up in the area, and the stories were fascinating. It was almost like the tourists took over the tour, since they all knew so much about the history of the communities surrounding these old synagogues.

Truly neat stuff. I am told there is a podcast somewhere out there as well.

ranty…here is the historical society website.

@ranty

Wow, I didn’t know Willard-Homewood (I didn’t know about the homewood part) was off limits. What were the borders of that neighborhood.

Also, do you happen to know what set off the race riots and approximately when they occurred? I’m going to have to ask my family about this tonight since they lives not far from Plymouth Ave (but closer the Lyndale end than the Penn end).

Did you look at that site, Geoff? Seems a bit funny to me.

looking at it now. the only funny thing I see so far is the title of this piece

Bix, the northern border of Willard-Homewood is Plymouth Ave, and you can see the pillars at Sheridan and Thomas for sure, maybe Upton too, I can’t recall. I’m not sure but I think Sheridan is the eastern border, and probably the city line on the west (maybe??) Not sure about south either.

As for the race riots, all I know really is that they were in the sixties, and were part of the larger national civil rights movement/era. I don’t know what lit the match on Plymouth specifically, as it were.

There’s a great old lady who still lives over on N. 3rd St. who could tell ya aaaaaall about it though – her name is Jeanne Pettiford and she’s nearly 90. She’s been in the neighborhood since she was 17, and has seen it all – segregation, race riots, and (on a happier note) the passing-through of many musical greats like Duke Ellington and Sarah Vaughn… (Jeannie was married to Ira Pettiford.)

She was recently filmed by 612 Authentic for a documentary they were working on about the Northside. Alas their offices were recently burglarized, and I fear the footage may have been lost along with their equipment. Sad.

The 612 Authentic video of Mrs. Pettiford is up on MinnPost here.

OMG! Thanks!!! (so relieved)

Oh MAN. That wasn’t quite what I had expected.

In one of my classes in college we touched on the north side riots, but hell if I can remember the details or where my book is. IIRC, it took place in August of 1967 and to Ranty’s point, it was part of the national unrest at the time – spreading from Detroit and Milwaukee to Minneapolis.

Not a lot of information, I know. I’ll try to find my book.

I’d take any form of gentrification over the pigsty that neigborhood has become. That video is just disheartening.

@bixby: Good point on #2 about this being a totally different kind of gentrification. The article did mention developers coming in, but it seems that most of North’s issue is vacancy, not rising values forcing out current property owners. (Although I suppose the vacancies could be due to rising cost of mortgages pushed on borrowers by predatory lenders…)

On #3, the Atlantic had a good piece on what happened when older projects were torn down and residents moved to the suburbs. Folks didn’t really scatter as much as had been planned, and the criminals among those who left still got together, they just did so in outer communities with less police oversight. What’s more, with the dispersal of project residents, people lost their communities as well.

In that Atlantic piece they noted that people also lost easy access to the social services they depended upon.

re: Riots
I’m going to ask my mom and my grandma about the riots tonight/tomorrow. They were only a couple of blocks from the epicenter of the riots. I think I’d talked about it with them many, many years ago. If anyone is interested, I’ll report back on what I find out.

I’m also wondering why St. Louis Park decide to let Jews move in and open business while the other suburbs didn’t?

re: Ms. Pettiford:
I’m trying to place where her house is. although the piece kind of describes where her home is, I’m wondering where exactly it is – could someone approximately what her cross-street is. I noticed that I saw that development that has recently been built in the background but I’m having a really, really hard time picturing where she is.

My grandma’s neighborhood is rather interesting because on her block she’s not even the person who has lived there the longest. Her two of her neighbors have lived there a couple of years longer than she has, since before ‘61. A neighbor immediately across the street has lived there almost as long as she has as has someone around the corner.
But the people in the neighborhood are getting very old and several spouses of her neighbors have passed away. I wonder what’s going to become of that block many years down the line. Still, there are a couple of rentals but, for the most part, a large portion of her block is owned by people and given where she lives, that’s impressive.

@Jerad
I read the Atlantic piece a couple of weeks ago and found it really interesting. I think it’s interesting to look at what happened in North Memphis and what happen in the Chicago projects can be seen. Originally Cabrini and the Robert Taylor homes had more stringent screening and they could have functioned like the North Memphis projects could have. Granted, part of the downfall of the Chicago projects can be attributed to the fact that in order to live there women had to be single parents, so a lot of men stayed away because they never knew when the authorities would check…Regardless, it was a great piece.

I believe Mrs. Pettiford lives on 3rd Street, just north of Broadway.

I would love to hear more of what you find out from your mom & grandma, Bix. I bet they both have some pretty amazing stories to tell about the neighborhood.

It’s fascinating to me that people stay in one place for so long.

@Ranty – then she really doesn’t live that far from my Grandma. Okay, now I know where she is – she must be by the Taco Bell/Wendy’s.
The part of that area that’s always intrigued me is that little sub-division sort of behind Hall School and east of Lyndale. It seems like a little slice of the suburbs in city. I think my mom said that was intent when it was built but I could be making that up. Do you know anything about that area?

@Cat – Will do. I’m still not sure what my mom’s obsession is with North Minneapolis. I’ve asked her why not South Minneapolis and she’s like, “I just don’t like it”. The exception to this is Bryn Mawr. I remember that we did look at homes in that area.

But to be fair, lately whenever I go to S. Mpls, it seems like there is road construction. EVERYWHERE. It’s much more pleasant driving to Northside suburbs. At least for me.

She’s on the other side of Broadway from Taco Bell Bix – think behind that weird “international foods” brownstone building (which looks more like a sauna) and the Kemps place with all the trucks. (On your right-hand side as you cross the 94 bridge west-bound.)

Oh. Okay, I know exactly where that is. Right where the exit is for the freeway.

re: Riots
I’m going to ask my mom and my grandma about the riots tonight/tomorrow.

The alleged riots on plymouth avenue occurred in the summer of my 18th year. A bunch of black teenagers burned and looted some stores along there. Most believed they were just young warriors caught up in the new “black power” movement, led by people like H. Rap Brown and the Black Panthers. (”If America don’t come around, we’re gonna’ burn it down”)

Most people in St. Paul were just surprised because there had never been any racial problems on our side of the river, so the general attitude was “what the bleep?” We had a thriving black middleclass of merchants, entrepreneurs and skilled laborers who weren’t into the “black power” thing.

The real turning point was in the spring of the following year (1968) when MLK was assassinated. Then all hell broke loose. I was in the navy, but my sister was a sophomore in high school. The school was the most racially integrated in town and everyone got along just fine. But when MLK was shot, the black kids in school went nuts. Kids my sister had grown up with and was friends with her whole life turned on her because everything from then on became black vs. white. After the incident in the 1968 olympics (black power salute by the american sprinters) everything changed. Race relations were never the same again in this town.

btw, I had never heard of jewish people being denied the right to live or own homes anywhere around here. I grew up within a block of two different synagogues. The rabbi of one of them lived with his family across the alley from us in a home they owned. His synagogue was right across the street from us and he would come over on saturday mornings and ask one of us kids to turn the lights on for him because he was not allowed to work on the sabbath, which even meant turning a switch apparently. The hebrew school in the neighborhood was always full of kids and no one ever spoke unkindly towards any of the jewish families that I was ever aware of.

Maybe that was a minninapolis thing.

I’m fairly confident that they weren’t “alleged” riots. Especially since the national guard was involved.

When I think “riot” I usually envision more than a couple dozen people. Ever hear of Watts? That was a riot.

most interesting thing I’ve read in this thread…Dennis Tester was somebody’s Shabbos Goy.