|
Small business owners discuss Lake St project
By: Chris Nisan
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
online at http://www.spokesman-recorder.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=47210&sID=4
Originally posted 08.18.04
On Friday, August 6, the Minneapolis City Council voted 11 to 1
in favor of the first phase of the plan to redevelop Lake Street.
The plan calls for the excavation and repaving of the street and
re-stripping of traffic lanes so as to accommodate more traffic.
Planners' intentions are to give the thoroughfare a makeover from
Dupont Ave. South on the west to the Mississippi River on the east.
The Lake Street plan is a part of a much more ambitious project
to redesign a good part of the traffic infrastructure of South Minneapolis.
Beginning with Lake Street, the projected plans include a good
portion of highway 35W south of downtown, ending with the reconstruction
of the Crosstown Commons at 35W and Highway 62 [see series of articles
in Spokesman by Isaac Peterson, published in 2003 and 2002].
Small business owners speak
Over the last decade and a half, the economic and social landscape
of Lake Street and the surrounding communities has been transformed
by the massive wave of immigration to Minnesota. In addition to
this immigration, there has also been a wave of migration to the
state from the bigger industrial cities in the Midwest.
The vast majority of immigrants hail from Latin America, East Africa,
and Southeast Asia, while many of the recently migrated are Black
and have come from places like Illinois, Missouri, Michigan and
other heartland states.
Members of these communities have transformed Lake Street by opening
a variety of small businesses along the avenue, making it one of
the most distinctive parts of the city.
The proposed redevelopment has elicited strong responses from community
groups, activists and politicians. Everyone involved with, or who
will be affected by the proposed make over of Lake Street, agrees
that redeveloping the main artery of south Minneapolis is a good
thing. However, for many of the small business people who have made
the avenue their home over the course of the last decade and a half,
the key question is not whether the street should be redeveloped,
but rather, development for whom and in whose interest?
''Everything is on the plate and now the government wants to come
in and eat,'' said Serigo Nunez, explaining his opinion that most
of the hard work of revitalizing the area has been done by the small
business people. Nunez is a partner in one of the small businesses
in the Lake Plaza Mall on Lake Street, between 4th and 5th Avenues.
Many of the people in this mall are not optimistic about prospects
for their businesses, both during and after reconstruction ''I think
that it is bad. I believe that we will lose customers during the
redevelopment process,'' said Ramon Garcia. Garcia also owns a small
business in the Lake Plaza Commercial Center. ''We could see what
it would be like during the bus strike. When we did not have bus
service it hurt us.''
Many of these small business owners are just starting out. A good
deal of them still work other jobs to make ends meet and to keep
their enterprises afloat.
''Thank God that these minority businesses have come and done a
lot to develop Lake Street,'' said Tom Johnson of the law firm Smith-Parker.
Smith-Parker has been hired by the Minnesota Department of Transportation
(MnDot) and Hennepin County, who owns Lake St., to oversee the project.
''We will be carrying on marketing programs to encourage people
to shop during the construction process.''
Many small business people say that's not enough. ''The government
should give some funds to the commercial people during the construction,''
said Nunez.
''When are they going to offer the business people grants, low
interest loans? When you ask these people about this all they say
is 'Oh, we’re working on that' but they have been saying that
for years,'' said Antonio Rosell a design consultant with the Community
Design Group.
Not all of the people interviewed had a negative opinion about
the project. ''For me it is very good,'' said Raul Zagal, who owns
a small superette in the mall. ''I don't think that I will be hurt
[by the construction] because we have parking in the back and on
the side of the mall,'' said Zagal.
One common refrain from all of the business people is that they
have not been consulted or informed about the project. In fact,
all of the people interviewed looked to this reporter to answer
questions about the project. ''I've talked to other business people
in the mall about the project, but no one official has talked to
me,'' said Emiliano Sanisaca, another merchant in the mall.
The politics of community development
At the heart of the controversy over the redevelopment project
are different visions of what Lake Street and South Minneapolis
should look like, based on the different interests of the groups
involved.
On one side are the large businesses like Wells Fargo and Allina
Health Care, the various governmental bodies involved and many of
the smaller enterprises which don't rely on foot traffic from the
community to survive. These concerns have promoted a vision of development
that accentuates access to the area by auto traffic and structuring
the area to accommodate the larger concerns such as the Midtown
project, which has as its centerpiece the remodeling of the Sears
building at Lake and Elliot.
''Lake Street is a regional destination -- we just can't say the
heck with the automobile,'' said Johnson, referring to the vision
promoted by others in the community who want to see a more public
transportation oriented pedestrian-friendly development paradigm.
''There are many development projects in the Lake Street area. All
are of a scale that they will attract car traffic,'' continued Johnson.
''We want cars to move about more efficiently''
On the other side are the smaller operators, community organizations
and individuals who in addition to wanting a more transit and pedestrian
oriented process, want to see development resources used directly
to the benefit of the small business and working people who currently
live there. ''This development is not going to benefit the Latino,
African and African American small businesses,'' said Rosell. ''People
like Ryan Construction and Allina Hospital are going to benefit.
The city is going to give Allina a property tax break of $750,000
per year.''
Based on the plans approved by the city council on August 6, work
on the first phase of the project will begin on or before May 15,
2005. This first segment of the plan will begin on Lake and 5th
avenue and extend to Lake and Hiawatha Avenue. According to Johnson,
the next two segments will cover Dupont Avenue to 5th and Hiawatha
to the Lake Street Bridge, although not necessarily in that order
says Johnson.
Chris Nisan welcomes reader responses to rclark@spokesman-recorder.com
|
