August 15th, 2010 by Nieeta

August 15th, 2010 by Nieeta

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010, 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Meet at University of Minnesota’s UROC (Urban Research and Outreach & Engagement Center), 2001 Plymouth Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55411

Last year, the University of Minnesota Extension, the Minnesota NCR-SARE program and the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture collaborated to host a tour of urban agriculture projects in the Twin Cities area.

We had a terrific mix of attendees from the University and public offices (city, state and county), along with practitioners and nonprofits working in sustainable agriculture. Participants on the tour were both learners and teachers, sharing their expertise with the rest of the group. Our objective last year was to bring people together around urban farming and deepen our knowledge, collective resources and ultimate impact.

Attendees were enthusiastic about the day and suggested planning another tour, combined with more opportunity for discussion. This year’s tour will focus on urban agriculture enterprises, and address land access issues. The stops represent a range of entrepreneurial efforts, both in terms of scale and stage of development. We’ll explore rooftops, parking lots, mixed-use developments and neighborhood-based innovations led by urban farmers.

If you’d like to join the tour, please click here and provide your contact information. Cost is $10 (to be paid on day of tour) to cover the cost of lunch. We will confirm your participation within a few days of receipt of your registration. Bus space is limited so please register early.

If you cannot attend the entire day but are interested in meeting the tour as time permits, let us know and we will provide you with a tentative itinerary. We would be happy to have you join us.

Questions? Please contact either Beth Nelson or Barb Grossman.

August 15th, 2010 by Nieeta

Saturday, August 21, 10 to 11 a.m.

University between Western and Marion!

Public Assembly at Western Park 11:15!

We want a better University Avenue! We want a more unified University Avenue! The light rail is coming and we want to celebrate our community, and show our pride! And we want you to celebrate with us!

We will be going from Jackson School, along Thomas to Virginia, along Virginia to University, along University to Galtier and along Galtier to the Western Sculpture Park and the Hmong Arts and Music Festival!

After the parade, we will have a Public Assembly on the main stage at the Music Festival. We will be speaking about what brought us out from 11:15- 11:45!

This parade has been organized by concerned citizens and community groups, including the Metropolitan Interfaith Coalition on Affordable Housing (MICAH), the Aurora-St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation (ASANDC), the Center for Hmong Arts and Talent (CHAT), the District 7 Planning Council, the St. Paul Council of Churches, and more. We have been brought together by concerns over the light rail, and want to show our care, concern, and pride in the University Avenue communities.

We are still accepting registrations, if you wish to participate in the parade! (Contact Vaughn Larry at ASANDC at 651-222-0399 or by email. ) We would love to see you either in the crowd, in the parade, or at the Hmong Arts and Music Festival! For further information, contact John Slade at 651-491-2084 or by email.

August 2nd, 2010 by Nieeta

August 2nd, 2010 by Nieeta

May 26th, 2010 by Nieeta

Community engagement continues to be a central issue in development and planning. When engagement is poorly managed, community members may feel an incoming assault in their neighborhoods, which can make or break a project.

“A lot of folks have anxiety about builders coming into their community,” said Leslie Moody, executive director of the Denver-based Partnership for Working Families, while presenting to an audience of over 100 participants on May 11 as part of a workshop focused on developing transit-oriented districts and walkable communities.

Held at the Wilder Foundation, the workshop, titled Equitable Development and Community Benefits, was the third in a four-part series. The session centered on leveraging a community benefits model, which builds relationships between the community, the developer and the city.

“We want the public involved in government,” said Moody. “Having active civic engagement in these processes is the way to get people to understand government and support it.”

Not all communities are created equal as pointed out by Gretchen Nicholls of the Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a leading sponsor of the event series.

“Community is a term we use very easily, although it’s a very complex idea,” she said.

After Moody’s presentation, participants shared success stories from their local areas and discussed topics related to points of influence in planning, timing mismatch, connecting on different priorities, and engaging communities over time.

A panel of local community organizers offered perspective. The panel included Russ Adams, Alliance for Metropolitan Stability; Gretchen Nicholls, LISC / Corridor Development Initiative; Malik Holt-Shabazz, Harrison Neighborhood Association; Mihailo (Mike) Temali, Neighborhood Development Center; Jonathan Sage Martinson, Central Corridor Funders Collaborative; and Brian Miller, Seward Redesign.

Common themes involved engaging developers early on, the role of small business, and ensuring community involvement beyond planning and throughout implementation.

Event sponsors included Twin Cities LISC, Metropolitan Council, Central Corridor Funders Collaborative, Center for Transit-Oriented Development, Urban Land Institute and The McKnight Foundation.

The last workshop, Financing of Transit-Oriented Districts – Building Public/Private Partnerships will be from 9 a.m. to noon June 15 at Dorsey & Whitney, 50 S. 6th Street, Minneapolis. For registration details, email Gretchen Nicholls.

May 23rd, 2010 by Nieeta

Gordon Parks. Courtesy Los Angeles Times photographic archive, UCLA Library

You’re invited to the first annual Media Arts Premier for the “Transitions: University Avenue” project.  Meet the students, interview subjects, community members and teachers who are making this project possible. The event will begin at noon May 26 at Gordon Parks High School, 1212 University Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55102. Driving Directions

The “Transitions” project combines audio interviews and photography to document the before, during and after of Central Corridor Light Rail Transit development on University Avenue. The project has  interviewed more than 10 community elders.  The project’s “soundslides” will be featured on a website created by the Minnesota Historical Society.

Community listening/brainstorming sessions last winter sparked numerous ideas about how best to serve the needs of students and community through this project. At this premier students will show off a portion of their completed soundslides; the production crew (made up of students, teachers, community members) will describe the production process they’ve used for the project; and we’ll share lunch together, catered by Arnellia’s and Golden Thyme.

April 28th, 2010 by Nieeta

In answer to the growing epidemic of gun violence, The Twin Cities Anti-Violence Coalition and it many partners:

• Parents of Murdered Children
• Alternatives to Violence Project
• Citizens for Safer Minnesota
• Minneapolis Department of Health & Family Support
• African American Men Project
• Acme & Smith Foundry
• Shiloh Temple International Ministries
• Gospel Temple COGIC
• Oasis of Love
• National Association of Black Social Workers

and others have committed to hosting several Anti-Violence Weekend Events. The Coalition will focus on awareness of youth violence, as statistics show that many of the crimes committed today are committed by youth. We recognize that a long-term solution lies in a multi-pronged, multi-faceted approach to poverty, drugs and lack of opportunities. However, holding meaningful activities in the communities most impacted by gun violence is one way to begin to address youth violence.

Upcoming activities planned by the coalition are:

• May 1, 2010:   Anti-Violence Motorcycle Ride, Brookdale Mall at 8:30am
• June 11, 2010:   Anti Violence Talent Show Contest, Capri Theater, Minneapolis 5:00 pm-10:00 pm
• June 12, 2010:  Lay Down Your Guns, Hug Your Sons Car Wash, 10:00 am-3:00 pm (site to be determined)
• June 12, 2010: Anti-Violence Five on Five Basketball Tournament, Zanewood Community Center 10:00 am-4:30 pm
• The Anti-Violence Weekend Finale is:
• Gun Buy Back – Project II in two locations, Shiloh Temple International Ministries, 1201 West Broadway Avenue North, Minneapolis, and Gospel Temple COGIC, 247 Grotto St N, St. Paul, from 10:00 AM-10:00 PM,  June 18, 2010

Tax Deductible Donations (for operations/administration) to:

Citizens For A Safer MN
2395 University Ave. West , Suite 300E
St.Paul  MN 55114
651.645.3271
CSM@endgunviolence.com

For more Information, please contact:

• Deseria Galloway, 612-296-2895
• Shane Price, 612-543-2905

Through the above anti-violence education and awareness events we hope to heighten the community’s understanding of the impact gun violence has on our kids and mobilize them to actively work toward a solution. The challenge is to motivate neighborhoods to no longer sit on the sidelines in silence and watch our youth hurt and kill themselves or others.

We want to educate and raise awareness around gun violence. Each anti-violence event will dedicate a portion of time to educating the audience on gun violence, its impact, offer conflict resolution services, counseling, to provide information and resources, encourage healing to begin.

April 28th, 2010 by Nieeta

Nieeta Presley of ASANDC and Joan Vanhala of Alliance for Metropolitan Stability

Please join us for the 2010 Allies for Justice Awards Dinner and Celebration on Wednesday, May 19, from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. at Nicollet Island Pavilion (40 Power Street, Minneapolis).

Join us to honor this year’s Allies for Justice Award recipients, chosen because they embody Headwaters Foundation’s conviction that, together, we can create social and political conditions that guarantee justice for all.

GRANTEES: MOVING JUSTICE FORWARD ON TRANSIT EQUITY
For the first time, the Allies for Justice Awards will honor a group of organizations for their collective impact in the local community. Through their collaboration with each other and numerous other community organizations on Central Corridor Light Rail Transit development in St. Paul, these Headwaters grantees have brought attention to the issues of affordable housing, maintaining bus service in this transit-dependent community and, in a recent victory, the need to add stops in three high-density neighborhoods. The 10 organizations being recognized for moving forward on transit equity are:

• Alliance for Metropolitan Stability
• Community Stabilization Project
• District 7 Planning Council
• Got Voice? Got Power! / Aurora St. Anthony NDC
• ISAIAH
• Jewish Community Action
• JUST Equity
• Metropolitan Interfaith Council on Affordable Housing
• Somali Action Alliance
• TakeAction Minnesota

April 15th, 2010 by Nieeta

Wing Young Huie

Go to  http://www.theuniversityavenueproject.com for more info….

Public Art Saint Paul Presents Wing Young Huie’s The University Avenue Project — The Language Of Urbanism: A Six-Mile Photographic Inquiry

From May through October, 2010 Wing Young Huie’s photographs will transform Saint Paul’s University Avenue into a six-mile public gallery, revealing the everyday realites of the diverse neighborhoods connected by this urban thoroughfare. Hundreds of images will be displayed in windows and on buildings from the KSTP tower to the State Capitol. Each night at a landmark project(ion) site Wing’s images will be shown on 40-foot screens, accompanied by a soundtrack from local musicians.  Monthly cabarets will feature live community performances and new media presentations. A two-part book from The Minnesota Historical Society Press documents this extraordinary project.

Get Involved:

VOLUNTEERS We are currently recruiting volunteers that will be an essential part of producing this exciting large-scale project. Volunteer opportunities include project outreach, exhibition set-up, installing the photographs along the avenue, nightly running of projection site, community events and exhibition strike. If you are interested in participating, click here to register online.

BUSINESSES along University Avenue, offer your storefront window or building wall to exhibit Wing Young Huie’s photographs. Offered space must be available until the exhibition end in Mid-November. Click here to offer space at your business.

MUSICIANS, submit your music to be a part of the University Avenue Project! Images will be shown nightly on billboard-sized screens at the Project(ion) site, accompanied by prerecorded music by local musicians from an array of genres and cultures to create a musical soundscape that reflects the diverse and unique sound of the city. Take a look at the gallery of images and imagine which of your songs would add layers of meanings to this significant community project. Download this form for more information and to submit your music.

PERFORMERS Once a month The University Avenue Project(ion) site will host a community event to showcase the talents of local individuals, organizations and community groups. Information on how to register for a performance slot at a community event coming soon.