Cities 07: Our Papers! Archives

April 14, 2007

Cultural Events in Minnesota

Jesse Kortuem
3/29/07
Paper Topic

Cultural Events

Culture; what is it and who can define it? For the few who think that they might know the answer to these questions, be aware; be very aware, that the definition of culture is very subjective. What I, the writer, see as culture might not be what you, the reader, define it to be. This is something that Sharon Zukin addresses in her book The Cultures of Cities. The actual definition of culture is being blurred more and more each day in the contemporary US by creating a sense of exclusion to those not in the dominant roles of society. The preservation of culture as we know it is something that I feel passionate about. It is through cultural events that the preservation of ancient traditions lives on. We need people to become emotionally involved while observing the events.
Before embarking on a journey that placed me in Austria for a high school exchange, I thought that I had it all in America. From unlimited shopping hours to inexpensive petrol; my life revolved around a culture of convenience. It was not until I lived in Austria did I realize the importance of having and observing culture. From street festivals, Christmas and New Year celebrations, harvest parties, theater musicals, all the way to skiing down a mountain on old wooden beer barrel slots through an obstacle course, and who could forget, Mozart concerts. Such events may seem crazy to an outsider, but to the people of Austria it is something greater. A sense of welcome, pride, community; call it what you want, but it is something that is missing from our contemporary America.
It was not until I returned to my home of Hawai’i did I realize that I need to be living in a place with culture. I was sitting in my apartment watching a special on the Travel Channel entitled 1000 Places to See Before You Die. At one point during the special they featured the beautiful city of Pisa, Italy. Pisa, familiar because of the leaning tower, has what I would argue one of the longest running competitions in history. Since the Middle Ages, the four historic districts of the city gather on June 17th to observe Saint Ranieri, the patron saint of Pisa. For this event, the four districts select eight men to a boat who race 1500 meters to a floating raft in the middle of the river. On this raft sits a flagpole with three flags. The racers row their hearts out to get their climber to the raft and claim that first place banner. And what does the winning team receive for winning the yearly competition? Nothing; just the simple pride that they won. It is events like this that appeal to me.
The intensity level of people becoming emotionally involved in this might seem crazy to an American. The simple fact that people still observe this tradition and come together as a community is something I want and need in my life. Where in this country do we shut down whole cities for a cultural event? Sure we have federal holidays, but they seem to become more and more commercial each year. (Think of sales that are going on now before Thanksgiving even happens, or memorial day/president’s day car sales!) September 11, 2001 has come and passed; we forget things too quickly in this country. I do not think that most Americans can or even will understand how whole cities shut down for the entire day to observe something that has no real meaning in people lives. This is culture and something that is obviously in the void in this country. So, it is this idea of culture that I am going to analyze in Minnesota.
For my final paper, I am going to do a content analysis of cultural events taking place around the state. I am going to e-mail 2 large municipalities (30,000+ residents) in the southern third of the state, middle third, and northern third asking about their events reported to the municipality for the month of March and April. I will repeat the above steps for 2 middle size municipalities (15,000 -30,000 residents) and 2 small size municipalities (Less than 15,000 residents). For the metro area, I am going to include both Minneapolis and St. Paul. I am also going to contact neighboring suburbs, some known for being mainly white, some intermixed, and some thought to be the “urban ghetto.” Finally, in my analysis, I am going to use US Census data to look at the diversity in certain cities and how this influences cultural events taking place. The following is a copy of the e-mail that I sent out to the 26 respective municipalities:
Hello,
My name is Jesse Kortuem, and I am a senior at the University of Minnesota. Currently, I am enrolled in a course entitled Cities and Social Change. One project requirement is to analyze community activities throughout the state of Minnesota. It would be of great help if you could e-mail me or call me with information about community activities as reported to/or sponsored by your city municipality. I am looking at events that took place during March 2007 and activities that are planned for April 2007.
If you have any question, please feel free to contact me either via e-mail.
I appreciate your help in the study! Thank you.
-Jesse Kortuem
As for theorists from the course, I am going to be building off of Wirth’s idea that the increased density will ultimately increase the number of subcultures within a certain area, ultimately influencing the number of cultural events taking place within the municipalities. For Wirth, urban life is a mosaic of personal traits, occupations, and cultural life, which members of such a community are expected to range, i.e. polar opposites, that is often absent most of the time from rural life (Wirth 99). I will also take into account Zukin’s ideology of the dual city. She argues that in order to clean up our cities from crime, drugs and homeless, we need to attempt to be exclusive at who and what uses the public space. I feel that many cities in Minnesota have silent forms of exclusiveness that tell people where they are welcome to live, what parks they are to use and finally what events they are welcome to attend.
SMALL
As defined by my sampling methods, I sent e-mails to 6 small Minnesota cities – defined as have less than 15,000 in total population – outside the Minneapolis-St.Paul area. With only one respondent it is hard to generalize about all small towns in Minnesota. This particular small town hosted its 4th Annual Commerce and Sports Show during the month of March. There were no activities planned for the month of April. The US Census reveals that the population of this particular city was 1,984. The racial break down of the city has Whites in the majority as 97.3 percent and American Indian/Alaska Native with the next largest percent, 1.3. Latino/as accounted for .8 percent of the population, while African Americans made up .2 percent of the population. For other small cities that did not respond to me with their events, all but one city has Whites making up more than 90 percent of the population. Although these cities were larger than the actual city that responded to my e-mail, I think that it can be generalized that the types of cultural events that take place in small rural cities will be, for the most part, along the same lines – geared toward the majority population. Personally, I feel that if we were to look into Zukin’s idea of the privatization of public space, we can see that those on the outside, meaning those who are not part of the homogeneous society because of race, religion or ethnicity, will most certainly not feel welcomed by a society who does not look like them. A Black Muslim woman would definitely not feel welcomed at a Commerce and Sports show held in a city with over 90 percent of its population as white.
MEDIUM
This particular group of cities had the highest response rate of all. Four of the six cities that I had contacted sent me extensive e-mails about cultural/community events taking place. The average size of the cities was around 16,863, with one city having 27, 069. Events in these cities varied, however the most prominently reported of all events had to do with councils and commissions. Other events included Cop and Fire Talk as well as a city wide clean up effort. Other events focused on seniors living in the area and included events such as defensive driving and the senior board. Pancake breakfasts and fish frys came in as a major event in one community being held four times over a two month period. This same community also held the “Most Beautiful Baby” contest on two occasions as well as the most “cultural event” that I have seen, Norwegian Roll Pancakes. The racial background of the cities varied across the regions. In the southern third of the state, a city with a population of 18,350 responded, of which 92.8 percent of the population was White. Latino/as made up the largest minority population with 9.5 percent of the population. The city in the middle third of the state, with a 97.0 percent White population, held many commissions and committees geared toward the legislation in the municipality. Latino/as were the largest of any minority group in this city, with a population percentage of .9. Finally, the cities that responded in the northern third of the state had White populations of 97.3 and 84.3 percent respectively. The population of American Indian/Native Alaska took on second ranks in both areas with .7 and 11.5 percent of the population. The second largest minority group in both cities was Latino/as, making up .7 and 1.1 percent of the population. At this point in the analysis it became clear to me that even with 12 percent of your population identifying as American Indian/Native Alaska and all that your city sponsors is a city wide clean up, there is a serious issue. Sure, those in power can identify which events they are going to sponsor, but with such a large minority percentage and to not address their culture highlights Zukin. Clearly, the American Indian people in this community are not wanted and this is reflected in the community events. Also, for the northern city with .7 percent American Indian and Latino/a population, there are serious implications to only sponsoring cop and fire talks, as this minority population will always be the focus of your efforts because once again, they are not wanted in the White homogenous society, however, this is not done intentionally but through, what Zukin argues, quiet acts.
LARGE
All but one city that I e-mailed had a majority population made up of 91.7 percent of the population being White. One northern city had an American Indian/Native Alaska as their second ranking percentage of the population with 2.4. The other northern city had a very large Latino/a population, over 4.5 percent. As for the city selected in the central third of the state, 3.1 percent of the population was Asian followed by 2.4 percent Black and 1.3 percent Latino/a. I was, however, surprised by the two cities that I selected in the southern third of the state. Although only 80 miles separate these two large cities, their racial characteristics are quite different. The city with a White population of 87.2 percent also shows Asians making up 6.4 percent of the population and Blacks 4.5 percent and Latino/as 3.0 percent. The other city, with a White population of 92.5 percent, records the Asian population as 2.8 percent, Latino/as as 2.2 percent and Blacks 1.9 percent. This is something that struck me as odd; however, it might have something to do with the type of business located in the municipalities. One is heavy in health care while the other is predominantly a university city. As for the cultural events taking place in the cities, I only received one response e-mail, which I found pretty disappointing. In the city that responded to me, a multitude of council and committee meetings were held, as well as commissions. School board meetings dominated the calendars every other Monday, and high school orchestra concerts along with choir concerts and band concerts were reported to the municipality. I did find one “ethnic” event that took place over the two months. This particular event was the Chicano-Latino Conference. Working toward a mutual understanding of a small minority of its population is a step toward equality in the area. I would be a little nervous to generalize about my findings from one city to the others in the state, especially for large cities because there is some differentiation with the increased density, but it is contingent upon the collective efficacy of the community to recognize the others living in the area.
METRO AREA SUBURBS
I am sitting here in shock because 100 percent of the suburban municipalities that I e-mailed responded not only promptly but also with very detailed calendars of events taking place. The percentages of each race within the municipalities vary somewhat but Whites still dominate all racial categories. The first city that I e-mailed is made up of 93.5 percent Whites, 2.5 percent Asians, 1.7 percent Latino/as and .9 percent Blacks. Events in this particular area ranged from children’s art workshops, monthly music concerts held at the city hall, an egg hunt and finally safety programs aimed at seniors and bicyclists. Interestingly, the cities that had consistent White populations of around 90 percent had relatively high percentages of Asians living in the area, around 5 percent. Latino/as in these four areas accounted for 1.6 to 2.7 percent of the population. However, these four municipalities failed in their representation/sponsoring of community events geared toward any minority population. One city offered a historic farm tour along with men’s and women’s choirs. One city responded but said that there were no community activities taking place. Another municipality reported having a poetry reading night, park clean up and an animal open house. The final municipality of the four held several events, however none were geared toward the Asian or Latino/a population. These events included: a youth tennis “carnival”, community band concert, an ice show, earth day celebrations, a pancake breakfast, ladies golf league, pottery making, and finally egg dying. It is frustrating to see, in my eyes, a significant number of minorities of Asian and Hispanic heritage to not have one single event sponsored by the local city municipality. Here again, we can use Zukin to describe the sense of welcomeness in an area. We will welcome them because it is the “right” thing to do, however, our actions will not speak this. We will not provide activities for those who are different than us, making our society more exclusive than inclusive. Sure, members from the other races are welcome to come to the events, but they will be made to feel very uncomfortable. This is Zukin’s idea of controlling people covertly.
The final two suburbs that I have included in my study are suburbs in “transition.” These municipalities were at one time dominated by Whites. These two areas are now represented by 81.2 percent and 88.1 percent White. Blacks accounted for 6.6 percent and 3.6 percent of the population. Latino/as were close behind, with 6.3 and 3.1 percent of the population. Asians accounted for 5.3 percent and 3.5 percent of the population respectively. Cultural activities in these two municipalities ranged from: a 150 year celebration of the county, bake sale, church chorus concert and dinner, a mock American Idol contest, commissions, young artist competition, youth actors, puppets and popcorn, wine tasting, earth day festivities, a human rights commission, an ice skating show, a silent auction and, finally, a night with the Harlem Globetrotters at the Target Center. Here again, from a list of 15 or so activities, two or three possibly stand out as “cultural”. Some events are obviously a great starting point for many of the areas surrounding the Minneapolis-St. Paul area; however, still many municipalities have nothing to reflect cultural events taking place in their area.
MINNEAPOLIS – ST. PAUL
I have to admit that I was a little bit disappointed, as I did not hear back from the City of Minneapolis. I sent them 2 follow-up e-mails, but I must not have been high on the priority list. If I hear back from them before the final draft, you can be sure that I will include such information.
Breaking down the racial backgrounds of both Minneapolis and St. Paul, we can see that they are very similar. Minneapolis has a total population of 382,600, of which, 65.1 percent are White, 18.0 percent are Black, 7.6 percent are Latino/a, 6.1 percent are Asian, and 2.2 percent are American Indian/Native Alaska. St. Paul on the other hand, has a total population of 287,151, of which, 67.0 are White, 12.4 percent are Asian, 11.7 percent are Black, 7.9 percent are Latino/a and 1.1 percent are American Indian/Native Alaska.
Events in St. Paul as reported by their city calendar include: plays, the cirrus, the women’s expo, the raptor center open house, the chamber orchestra, hockey, a World War II roundtable discussion, a tour of the state capitol, a lacrosse game, the Victorian dance club, an urban expedition about Vietnam, an artifact tour, an art tour, an international film festival, music concerts, a fashion celebration of the 1950s, a ladies etiquette luncheon, a heart walk, roller girls and finally a tour of the historic Fort Snelling. On the surface, some of these events seem simple but they are indeed cultural. For example, some of the plays put on focus on religious oppression and sexism. Also, I personally feel that there is some sort of emotional connection with the circus. This is still something to get involved with, but to a much lesser degree than in years past. Before it was the whole wagon train of animals, the big tent, and great hype about the “world’s greatest show under one roof.” Now, people can buy their tickets online, show up for the event, become involved and leave. This is the changing dynamics of our society, a culture of convenience. I would still argue that in the city of St. Paul we have different cultures living together in a dense setting, which according to Wirth will increase the number of subcultures. Be that as it may, it is not, however, reflected in the city’s sponsoring/listing of community events taking place in the area. These events, such as theater and orchestra, are what Zukin claim to be changing public institutions. “Such high culture institutions as art museums and symphony orchestras have been driven to expand and diversify their offerings to appeal to a broader public. These pressures, broadly speaking, are both ethnic and aesthetic. By creating policies and ideologies of ‘multiculturalism,’ they have forced public institutions to change” (Zukin 137). The people that are going to use these high end places are going to be, let’s face it, mainly White and from the upper-middle class. They are not connected to the city and in fact, their fear of the city as a violent place have intruded on the rights of public space dwellers by the hiring of private police forces (Zukin 137). This is clear for me to see, the listing of community events that was sent to me do not include anything geared toward the relatively high levels of Asian and Black minorities living in the city.
So, what are we left with after all this? This is a great question, but one that is very hard to answer at this point. Culture is what people want it to be, and if a city wants to exclude certain individuals from their ideals of culture, they will do so; however, this will be done mainly covertly but sometimes overtly through staring, public humiliation and the sense of unwelcomeness. Exclusion will also be made simply by the announcement of events taking place in the area. For example, a city with a known large Asian population can choose to not announce certain events taking place in the Hmong community. By doing so, they are covertly excluding the Hmong culture as well as the Asian population in the area. Community event calendars are a good representation of a city’s attitude toward “cultural events”.
I am glad to see that the theorists that I used helped to justify my research process. In rural settings, we do have low levels of cultural integration; however, in the city we do have an increase in the number of subcultures. This seems to be true across all places, excluding the suburbs where people feel safe from the violence in the big city. Since the perception is that the city is violent, those who are in charge of the city are going to produce and support events that reflect a non-violent group; in this case, the events are going to be geared toward Whites. Since we have more Whites using the city, they will as a result, cast judgment on those that do not look like them. This is where Zukin comes into the picture. The loss of public space in America is really tragic. By creating a sense of exclusiveness rather than inclusiveness, those at the bottom of the social ladder remain there for fear out of those now in charge of the public space. Ultimately, we are left with the rhetorical question posed by Sharon Zukin, “Whose Culture? Whose City?”

Word Count 3622

Posted by Jesse Kortuem at 01:46 AM | Permalink | Add a Comment (1)

Comments

I think that kind of public humiliation would be recommended in this particular case.

Posted by: The next internet millionaire | July 13, 2007 09:35 PM

Inner-City Push and Pull: The Urban Education System - Draft: Kari Johnson

Kari J. Johnson
April 14, 2007

The Inner-City Push and Pull…

“The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.” - Plato

Before getting to my points, let me ask you one question. What do you think of when you hear the words urban education or inner-city public schools? My guess is that you have thought of things like, crime, drugs, gangs, poor funding, large drop-out rates, poverty, and racial diversity. While some of these things are very true and very alive within city schools, not all are. In the Minneapolis/St, Paul school districts there are some schools who struggle day after day with fear of losing funding, and violent students, but there is hope. In St. Paul there is an Elementary school that is a spotlight to change the face of inner-city education, and rather than fighting against poverty and diversity, they embrace it! Granted Minneapolis/St. Paul are not comparable to the Chicago inner-city schools, there are many difficulties to overcome. Many people have proposed ideas about the inner-city schools on why they do not work, but maybe they do.
Education in Minnesota has always been a strong point among our institutions, until recently. One thing that has always been different is how the same education system works throughout the state. The same curriculums and distribution of funds does not work for all areas of the state. In the rural districts, schools struggle to keep enrolments up, and usually small towns have to collaborate to create enough of a student base for a school. In the suburbs, the public schools are immense buildings and they graduate anywhere from 300-1000 students a year. Finally, the urban schools struggle with funding because of poor performance rates in at-risk areas. At-risk refers to those students who need extra attention because of their home situation and/or poverty struggles.
Comparing inner-city schools to suburban and rural schools is not the same, but from the outside they do not look that much different. The real difference is what goes on inside. The children can have similar attitudes and levels of intelligence, but what about their backgrounds? According to Craig Anderson, the Curriculum Coordinatior/Hamline Liason at Hancock Hamline University Collaborative Magnet School, the big difference between urban schools and others are the language barriers and poverty. Anderson said that around 70 different languages are spoken within St. Paul Public Schools. Anderson brings with him 11 years of teaching experience within the St. Paul school district and has seen first hand the difficulties that arise as a direct result from languages. The young students often do not speak English at home, so, on average a majority of the students in schools that cater to impoverished and immigrant families have limited English. The urban schools do not all see language barriers as a challenge, so even consider it a strength. Anderson said that by the time most of the children are in 4th grade they can fluently speak two languages, when most American born children just know English. Anderson commented that he would like to see a politician take a 4th grade level standardized test, in Somali. Of course most would not be able to do so, but young students have their intelligence tested in English just after learning it.
Another downfall of the inner-city schools are the poverty rates and lack of parent support. Don’t judge the parents though. It is not that the parents do not want to support their children, they just do not have the time. Parents are often working two or three jobs to make enough to survive. That is something that suburban and rural schools have in their favor though. Even with parents working around the clock, families struggle with poverty. For a majority of schools in the St. Paul Public School District, most all students receive free and reduced price lunch. At Anderson’s school 85% of the student population is eligible, and at Como Park Elementary it is 89%, Jackson Elementary is also 89%, Roosevelt Elementary is at a 94% eligibility rate, where as St. Anthony Park Elementary 25% of the student population receives free and reduced price lunch (MN Dept. of Educ.). It is obvious that the children attending these schools and other inner-city school on average have more struggles to deal with than those around the rest of the state.
Having to worry about financial problems can seem menial compared to topics like drugs, gangs and violence. Anderson said that, “Yes, every now and then we will have a student bring a knife or a gun to school, but that happens in the suburbs and rural schools too” (Anderson). Drugs, gangs and violence do lurk within St. Paul and Minneapolis schools, but compared to Chicago, Detroit and New York, the pressures are not nearly as high. On the main page of the Chicago Public School homepage you will not find pictures of smiling children learning, or even stories of the great things happening in the area, but rather a picture of a 17 year old young man who went missing and was murdered in March. The story concludes with a plea for information, but nothing about education (Chicago Public Schools). While what happened is a horrible occurrence, the school systems homepage looks more like a police report in the paper, than a site for children and their parents. The web-page also brings attention to drop-outs with links like “Don’t Drop Out,” and “Getting to the Next Grade” (Chicago Public Schools). The reality is being forced into the minds of young children and adults, and the lack of encouragement is scary.
Yet another disturbing norm of urban schools is not preparing or even encouraging young minds to attend college. For most children they automatically assume that the jobs their parents have will someday be there own, unless they are told they can do otherwise. Author and observational researcher, Jonathan Kozol says in his book, Shame of the Nation, that the low qualities of teachers in some urban areas are “preparing minds for markets” (89). Rather than having dreams of becoming a pilot, a teacher, or a doctor, children are being taught to play pretend as a cashier at Wal-Mart of JCPenny’s (Kozol 90). These disturbing thoughts are quickly becoming the norm, but some schools beg to differ.
Hancock Hamline University Collaborative Magnet Elementary School is located in St. Paul right off of Snelling Avenue. Hancock is not particularly fancy, nor are its ideas, but it is one of the best schools within the Minneapolis/St. Paul inner-city school system. At least Craig Anderson thinks so. Rather than teaching children how to be cashiers at Wal-Mart, the school wants to abide by its motto, “College Begins in Kindergarten.” Because Hancock collaborates with Hamline University, the young students do get a chance to frequently visit the campus, participate in activities and even work with students in classrooms. I spoke with Anderson briefly before visiting the school to get a feel of what I should expect on my visit. I had already made up my mind as to what Hancock looks like, and that they have a lot of problems with violence, gangs, and drugs. Even after talking with Anderson, I still thought that he may be trying to make his school look better than it actually is. I would find out for myself the following day.
Pulling up to Hancock Elementary, the building did not look as inviting as one would think. The brick was an obnoxious red/orange color, but there were a fair amount of windows, except along the street side wall. I parked and walked to the blue doors, three of the four doors were locked, for a means of safety most likely. The school smelled typical of an elementary school, a mixture of sweaty little kids, cafeteria food, and an old building. Walking through the doors I was immediately greeted by staff, including Anderson. He was finishing up a project of putting together these dark green keyboards. They are like computers with a one by three inch screen to see your typing, and then when finished, the documents get transmitted to a main computer. Anderson said they are about $90 and are less distracting than laptops. Just because the school has these nifty things does not mean they don’t have computers. They have a computer lab full of new Mac’s. The office was very busy, Hamline College students walked in and out and some young kids stopped by to say hi to their favorite staff members. Next, came the grand tour. Turning right exiting the office we walked by the first grade classrooms and the science classroom. Jackets and backpacks lined the hallway hanging on miniature hooks. Papers were sticking out of unzipped backpacks and beautiful art work hung on the walls. Every class has a display area to show off their work, in all subjects. Some classes painted group murals, others wrote books with a beginning, middle and an end and others had finger paintings. With the added color from the students’ projects the halls looked much brighter and friendly.
Further down the hall to the right stands the cafeteria. The room is mainly grey, and has many round tables. Anderson said that the school prefers the round tables, so the kids are more likely to interact. The cafeteria also houses a stage and a gym like floor for additional play space. However, the real gymnasium is right next to the cafeteria. I didn’t get to steal a peak, but I heard balls hitting the doors, running feet and little shrieks of joy. My guess is the kids were playing a game of dodge ball. Continuing walking, we ran stopped and chatted with a special education teacher and one of her students. They were playing tennis with a balloon, and the rackets were made of mesh, they were pretty cool! We then walked through two wooded doors into what appeared to be an entirely different school.
We had just entered the Learning Center, which actually is a school within Hancock that focuses on education for “at-risk” children. “At-risk,” again means those students who come from particularly hard homes or life’s. Anderson said the main goal of the Learning Center is to provide more attention to children who have struggled with behavioral issues at other schools. There are three teachers with their own classrooms and nine students in each class. The interesting thing is, almost every child has someone to work with throughout the day, as there are many Hamline students who help specifically in that area. The children were extremely friendly and those that are in the hallway were curious and eager to find out who I was. There were individual study rooms for the Learning Center students and a lot of positive guidance and instruction. Besides walking through closed doors, it looked like the rest of the school, except for two things. Number one, the children in the Learning Center were mostly boys and number two, the walls weren’t as decorated with bright colors. The walls bothered me; I felt that every inch should be covered in color or art projects. Because the children attend school behind closed doors and the walls are more bare, the atmosphere feels like a delinquent center. While leaving the Learning Center I again got curious smiles from the children I passed and I hoped to myself that these young children would find a way to succeed. That they would find a way to beat the odds, that having been told everyday until they started school at Hancock, that they may end up in a gang or drop-out of school or prove another horrible statistic on the endless list.
Walking again past the special education teacher and her student, they both wanted to talk again with Anderson. While he is new as of December at the school, all the children and staff know him. I know for a fact that he is great with children, because he is my cousin’s husband and their three year old daughter, Emily, is extremely social and intelligent. Retracing our steps past the main office, we walked into the main part of the building where 2nd through 6th grade is housed. Coming to a crossway, I looked both ways and again saw the backpacks and jackets hanging from the walls, and artwork filling the white walls. There were students lined up against the walls ready to go to science class I believe. The children all looked happy and energetic, and were extremely patient. As the 2nd graders walked by me and Anderson they all either waved, smiled or said hi, very polite young children! I went into some of the classrooms, and while they were all the same size, the set up was different. Anderson said the teachers have a lot of decision power when it comes to curriculums, teaching styles and room design. All the teachers from a certain grade work together to plan lessons, and they work together to come up with ideas for meeting the standard. I wondered if this is the norm for most teachers in all areas. Anderson said the teachers at Hancock have more liberty to control what happens in their classrooms. In some classrooms the students were working on art projects, some were reading or being read to, and others were working on math. There are a few classrooms that are devoted specifically to teaching English. Hancock is one of the few schools in St. Paul that teach English so intensively, but that may be due to the fact that 62% of Hancock’s students have limited English (MN Dept. of Educ.). Anderson said they do receive additional funding for the programming. The idea of the program is to begin teaching the basics of education in their native language, and then the students begin to learn English. According to Anderson within St. Paul alone, there are around 70 different languages spoken and many of the children in the school are first or second generation immigrants.
Despite the difficulty of language barriers, Hancock is succeeding. Anderson credits the principal and staff for embracing diversity and native languages rather then forbidding students to use them. Why would a school system ever want to take away something that can only be positive and helpful for these students. Continuing my tour around the school we walked up the muddy stairs to the library. Walking into the library I thought, this is not very impressive, but for the inner-city and for a smaller student population compared to my elementary school, it was fantastic. Colorful books were stacked so tightly together to maximize space, and there were small reading spaces for the children. A class was being read a book in the library, but Anderson wanted to show me another collection. Walking quietly behind the small students I entered a partitioned off space full of books in zip lock bags. Anderson said, “It may not look impressive, but schools want this, and not many have it.” The zip lock bags contained approximately five books that fit a certain reading criteria. The scale goes all the way through A1 to Z8, with 8 levels for each letter. This system easily allows teachers to find where their students reading and comprehension skills are at. In every classroom there are various skill levels, because when a first generation immigrant who is 10 enters the school, they do not get placed with the kindergartners, they get to join other 10 year olds in 4th or 5th grade. The idea is simple, but costly. There are books of all types for a specific level, and there are a lot of book! Another section of books consists of example books. For example if a teacher wants students to learn about biography books, or poetry then he or she would take either a green or orange coded book to show a good solid example before the students work on their own poems or biographies. After seeing and hearing about all the great things the library has to offer my view points definitely changed.
Craig Anderson continued to lead me up the stairs to the 4th, 5th and 6th grade classrooms. While the set up is about the same for the 4th and 5th graders as the lower grades, the 6th graders have a different set-up. To get the students ready for middle school or junior high, they have a home-room, and move from classroom to classroom to learn different subjects. Anderson said the teachers also opted for this teaching method, because they all specialize in a certain area, math, reading, social studies. After learning so much about the school and the various methods of teaching I cannot figure out why schools are not doing more to accept children from various races, and embracing the diversity and multiple languages that are spoken.
Hancock is a very typical elementary school, but its collaboration with Hamline sets it apart. According to Anderson about 60 or more Hamline students use their work-study funds to help in the classrooms at Hancock. This additional attention for the children helps them focus on their work and understand the skills need to complete it. There are so many inner-city schools located near colleges and universities that do not have programs like Hancock’s. Tuttle school, located in the Como neighborhood near the University of Minnesota is struggling to meet the standards. If they looked into a program such as Hancock’s the school could become one of the best in Minneapolis.
Funding is another key component to a schools success though. Hancock succeeds with its intensive and respectable English learning program because the state of Minnesota funds programs to teach children English. Anderson said that Minnesota is one of the very few states that actually pay for the programming. Funding from the state arrives if certain areas and standards are met. The Education Budgeting Committee in the Minnesota State Senate and House of Representatives meet every year to discuss how schools should receive funding. In years past, Federal programs like, “No Child Left Behind,” have rewarded schools who have preformed well with additional funding and left the other schools, predominantly inner-city schools with less funding. The initial idea has great potential, but those schools that do not receive the funding to help “at-risk” students are falling even more behind and thus creates a continuous cycle. Working in the Senate with the Education Budgeting Committee I have seen first hand the downfalls of our education system.
Craig Anderson suggests that we have let our education system become so political. Now politicians put education reform and programming on their agendas to win votes. Famous theorists also weigh in on aspects of the urban education system. Fredrick Engels wrote of Manchester during the feudal times when the bourgeoisie and the proletariat struggled to overcome one another. In terms of the wealthy bourgeois and the impoverished proletariat the classic rich vs. poor clash shows through. Although, we haven’t escaped the struggle even in modern society. Engels writes, “Society, composed wholly of atoms, does not trouble itself about them; leaves them to care for themselves and their families, yet supplies them no means of doing this in an efficient and permanent manner” (LeGates & Stout, 66). How is it that over a 150 years has passed and we are still not providing people with a means to advance themselves? Education is the key to development, the key dream, the chance to change the life path laid out by privileged white males. The poverty Engels discusses is just alive today as it was when he wrote about it. Now add to poverty issues of race, gender, immigrants, and language barriers and the whole things looks like a mess! Engels would be disgusted by what our world has become. After clearly writing about the obvious struggles and poverty of the working class, one would think we would have learned to correct our mistakes over a 150 year time period. But, maybe there is still
hope that things will eventually change, even if it is at a slow rate.
A lot of cities try to shut out and invisibly barricade off the poor from certain neighborhoods within the city. However, the idea is not so easily seen in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. Another theorist, Sharon Zukin, author of “Whose Culture? Whose City?” talks specifically about the use of public space the strained or lack of relationship or even intermingling between the rich and poor. Even though public space is supposed to be public, many people feel unwanted in the space or shut out by looks and stares from corporate managers using the park for lunch hour. It is as if our society will not touch culture outside of a comfort zone. Parks are the prime example for space to be shared by people of two different classes. But often those parks have limits to who can be there, a dress code per se. From Zukin’s perspective, looking at the inner-city education system, the use of public space and resources is non-existent. School trips to the park costs additional funding, computers may actually connect children from poverty to the rest of the world, but again they are too expensive. Hancock Elementary has broken the laws and theories of Zukin. The children that attend the school walk around Hamline University as if the college is their school. And, on any given day the students from the college campus, predominantly wealthy, and from the elementary school, mostly from very poor families can be found working and learning together. The invisible wall is broken so progress can be made.
Day after day we watch the urban education system get defeated. The system never wins, and continually sends its students on the way to becoming a cashier at Wal-Mart. Children need to be given chances to escape the pressures of being in a gang, drugs and violence. In St. Paul great things are happening with collaboration and balanced budgeting. Hancock Elementary is using the surrounding resources and college community of Hamline to provide additional attention to young children who struggle with serious life issues. With the right programming, encouragement and embracing diversity the inner-city schools can truly educate. The Hancock Elementary is redefining theories of poverty and public space and new legislation may result. Education is a lovely thing that should be of high quality and readily available. Plato said, “The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things,” and a positive atmosphere will do just that.

Word Count = (about 3,780)

Bibliography
Anderson, Craig. Personal Interview. 7 April 2007.

Chicago Public Schools. Accessed on 10 April, 2007. http://www.cps.k12.il.us/. 2005.

Kozol, Jonathan. The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in
America. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005.

LeGates, Richard T. and Fredric Stout. Engels: The Great Towns. Pg. 58-66. London:
Routledge, 2005.

LeGates, Richard T. and Fredric Stout. Zukin: Whose Culture? Whose City? Pg 136-
146. London: Routledge, 2005.

Minnesota Department of Education. Accessed on 7 April, 2007.
http://education.state.mn.us/ReportCard2005/school DistrictInfo.do

St. Paul Public Schools. Accessed on 7 April, 2007. http://www.spps.org/.

Posted by Kari Johnson at 03:03 AM | Permalink | Add a Comment (1)

Comments

Kari - nice job on your paper! Its so hard to see how cyclic these problems are, and its not until more schools like Hamline and Hancock step in that changes will really begin to happen. Like you said in class, it's unfortunate that everything comes back to polotics, but it's the truth.

Posted by: Rachel | May 3, 2007 12:55 PM

NIMBYism in Minneapolis: A Classic Case - Rachel's Second Draft

A Classic NIMBY Case
It happens more often than you would think. Homeless shelters, and other building uses providing valuable social services to the urban poor, are proposed by well-meaning citizens who see the need for them. They work hard to get everything in order, obtain the appropriate permits, and jump through the necessary hoops. However, before long, they run into problems, many of which are associated with the NIMBY (i.e., not in my backyard) phenomenon. In 2000, Mary Gallini and Ann Sandell were two of these well-meaning citizens. They came up with a proposal that would turn the Love Power Church/ Children’s Gospel Mission into a homeless shelter. Over the next two years, they, and others, fought valiantly to create this viable option for working, sober homeless males living in the area. However, they would never see the fruition of their efforts. Issues with zoning officials, opposition from area businesses, and community fallout (i.e., all typical NIMBY responses) would culminate in an unhappy ending (Demko, 2000). In this paper, the issues that people on both sides of the issue were concerned with are discussed. Additionally, these issues are analyzed in relation to the theoretical reasons behind reactions to homeless shelters, the existing literature on NIMBYism, and the role of social service organizations in urban areas. Finally, possible answers to some of these issues are explored and critically analyzed. All of this leads to an understanding that awareness about who homeless people are, the shelters they go to for support, and the services those shelters provide is essential to finding a solution to NIMBY responses.
From Mission to Mayhem
In the winter in 2000, the Love Power Church in the West Bank area of Minneapolis which shares its space with the Children’s Gospel Mission began working with St. Stephen’s Shelter, a provider of homeless services in south Minneapolis, to make their dream of opening a homeless shelter in the church building become a reality. Ann Sandell, the church’s pastor, and Mary Gallini, the day shelter coordinator at St. Stephen’s lead the crusade. They proposed a shelter program that would require residents (e.g., sober, working adult males) to sign-up for a minimum of a 30-day stay, for a fee of twenty dollars a week. Additionally, they would have to save forty percent of their income to put toward permanent housing, as well as attend class sessions that focus on life skills (e.g., nutrition and finance). In return, the shelter would provide them with a mat to sleep on and a hot meal every evening (Demko, 2000).
Together, Sandell, Gallini, and others worked to pull together almost $200,000 in funding from different sources to operate the shelter during the first year. They also spent a lot of time in meetings and by the end of the summer, had the endorsement of both the West Side Citizens’ Coalition and the Cedar Riverside Business Association. However, in October of 2000, they hit a major stumbling block. Dan Dacquisito, a zoning administer in Minneapolis, declared that the proposed use of the building should be categorized as “supportive housing” instead of a homeless shelter, which would only be allowed in residential areas. The Love Power Church is located in a commercial district. This immediately garnered a response from the homeless advocacy community, who passionately disagreed with Dacquisito’s interpretation of the definition. Although the definition of supportive housing that stipulates it as a “facility that provides housing for 24 hours per day” did not apply to the proposed space (it would only be open 14 hours), Dacquisito claimed that because it would work with a fixed group of men and offered program services it fit the definition.
Gallini, with the help of an attorney, appealed Dacquisito’s decision to the Board of Adjustment for the city of Minneapolis and unexpectedly, won. She defended their proposed use of the building as being an overnight shelter, with the additional services offered as accessory. However, the battle continued. Dacquisito then appealed the Board of Adjustment’s decision, but in February of 2001 lost that battle as the city board overwhelmingly (12:1) voted in favor of Gallini. And yet, the battle was still not over.
In August of 2001, five business owners and two residents of the West Bank area brought forward a lawsuit to prohibit the opening of the shelter, which was scheduled to open that fall. Their lawsuit claimed that Gallini and others misrepresented information about how the shelter would be run in community meetings in order to put residents’ minds at ease. However, they too, lost their battle. Judge John McShane declared that their problem was really with the project itself and they were just using the lawsuit as a desperate measure (Demko, 2002). And this, unexpectedly, is where the story ends. No one was able to defeat the proposed shelter by legal terms. However, in the fall of 2002, the shelter did not open. In fact, the whole project has since been dropped. No more law suits, no more meetings, but also, no homeless shelter. So what happened? What went wrong? This is where the true story begins.
A Closer Look
The part of this case that was not widely covered in the popular press and cannot be deduced from simply reading the legal proceedings is what exactly was going on back in the community, while all the logistics of zoning were being worked out in court. There is no way to know what exactly the reason was that eventually the Love Power Church decided to terminate their efforts to turn the building into a shelter. However, an in depth interview with Mary Gallini helps to sort through some of these details.
First of all, there were the countless community meetings. Gallini states that at these meetings she and others did the best they could to put the minds of residents at ease through tactics such as public education. However, she claims that opponents to the proposed use were not as diplomatic in their efforts to gain support in their opposition. For example, they would invite neighborhood Somali residents to their meetings, but not provide translators to help ask and answer questions for them. For those who could not understand English, all they would be able to take away from the meeting was the general concern that was being expressed. On the other hand, Gallini and other supporters of the project would hold similar meetings, but with translators. However, these contradictory methods did not help in efforts to appease concerns.
Then, there was the zoning issue, which was speculated by Gallini to have been brought up by the city council representative at the time, Joan Campbell. However, in a 2001 City Pages article, Campell claimed “I had looked at the zoning code myself and said ‘hey, that is supportive housing, that doesn’t belong here,’ but I had never talked to [Daquisto]” (Demko, 2000). No matter what the case, ultimately, the extra time spent dealing with legal proceedings gave the community time to create videos, posters, and flyers to facilitate community upheaval towards the project, claims Gallini. At the first Board of Adjustment meeting, board member Gary Schiff expressed his own disappointment at the way the zoning laws were used to hold up the project: “We’ve come out of a history where zoning was used as a tool to keep the poor away from the rich. I feel for a society where talking is considered as service. In the last four years I have been supportive of the zoning staff. I am downright ashamed today.” (Brunswick, 2000).
Finally, Gallini suggested, the members of the church, who were on average over 60 years old, were worn down by all the legal proceedings and could not see an end in sight. Even after the neighbors lost their lawsuit, their lawyer, Gary Wood, indicated that his clients would request an amendment of the decision from the judge, and if that did not work may decide to appeal yet again (Demko, 2002). Gallini speculated that bribery or scare tactics may have been used to convince the church to drop the project. For example, one business owner, in particular was interested in the property for his own development, but Gallini knew little about the conversations he had with the church.
In a letter to the editor, as a response to a City Pages article in 2001 about this case, a resident of the community gave their point of view on the situation. He first stated that it was the misrepresentation of the shelter that was the biggest issue for area businesses. He claimed that Gallini originally had promoted the shelter as part of a “Higher Expectation” program where the men would be selected based on criteria, but when she rewrote the proposal, Gallini described the project as an extension of the shelter at St. Stephens where residents would be chosen by lottery. This resident claimed that this was a cause of concern, because the chronically homeless have historically struggled with crack cocaine and alcohol. Bringing them into the community would threaten the pedestrian-friendly environment of the area. Furthermore, with multiple bars in the area, it would not help the men themselves to move past their addictions (Letter to the Editor, 2001). However, Gallini claims that these men would not be “coming into the community,” but were in fact, already a part of it. Many of the men who would have been candidates for the beds were already living on the streets in the area. Secondly, concerns about homeless men crowding around for a chance at the lottery were unwarranted, as intake would have been conducted offsite. Ironically, the letter writer’s concerns that the shelter would not be as organized and programmed as originally planned, gave the lawsuit he was defending less clout, because such a shelter would definitely not fall under the “supportive housing” category. Ultimately, this resident claimed that the problem was with the zoning code itself:
“Currently, all overnight shelters must be accessory to a religious place of assembly. This is a ridiculous stipulation that creates conflict in locating new shelters. Churches are in neighborhoods and neighborhoods resist shelters. Let a homeless shelter operate in a non-residential area with low pedestrian traffic and with access to mass transportation”

This last statement is very telling, indicating, at least for this man, that the reasons for not supporting the shelter are ultimately to keep such programs “out of his backyard.”
Why NIMBY Responses Present Themselves
NIMBY responses present themselves for various different reasons and in various different ways. Experts Mike Davis and Sharon Zukin have similar, yet distinct viewpoints on how and why upper and middle class citizens tend to want to spatially separate themselves from their fellow citizens who are of the lower-class. In his analysis of Los Angeles, Davis points to a “panopticon shopping mall surrounded by staked metal fences and a substation of the LAPD in a central surveillance tower” as one tactic such residents use to separate themselves from the lower class and homeless. The mall structurally marks off the space so that those unlike themselves feel intimidated and constantly observed in the space (Davis, 1990). Although not a direct correlation, if the proposed shelter were to become part of the Cedar Riverside neighborhood, their “panopticon,” so to speak, would be jeopardized. Instead of the homeless feeling out of the place in the area and under constant surveillance, they would be able to come into the area more unnoticed. By staying at the shelter through the night, working through the day, there would not be as much of a need to keep an eye on them (outside of the shelter). This is exactly what the residents in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood do not want.
Zukin has a similar theory. She claims that by focusing primarily on a singular vision of what a community or city should be residents create a “visually seductive, privatized public culture.” It is possible, that the attempted spatial exclusion of the proposed homeless shelter was an effort on the part of the area residents and business owners to create such a culture. This idea is strongly supported by the fact that the homeless people the shelter was to serve were already living in the area. They simply were not visually or spatially represented, and it was the objective of opponents to the shelter to keep it that way. Zukin may say that the building itself was part of a “symbolic language of exclusion and entitlement” in the area. In other words, whoever occupied the building would be included as part of the community and entitled to be there, and opponents of the shelter did not want this to be homeless people (Zukin, 1995).
The NIMBY Phenomenon
The NIMBY phenomenon began to emerge in the early 1980s. Typically, residents and whole communities garner NIMBY reactions to proposed land uses that are unwanted. Sometimes these land uses are ones that may have a negative impact on health (e.g., waste or industrial facilities). However, many times, they are buildings that provide social services to marginalized sectors of the population, as was the case with the proposed homeless shelter discussed above. Although, it can seem like a simple concept on the surface, NIMBY responses are often triggered by a number of different influences and concerns (Schively, 2007).
NIMBY responses have been characterized in a number of different ways. Some see the responses as being motivated solely by self-interest, self-promotion, or self protection (Schively, 2007). The business owner who already owned several businesses in the area and wanted to buy the Love Power Church property, and therefore was a big opponent to the proposed homeless shelter is a classic example of this. Additionally, Mary Gallini indicated that there were others who were concerned about property values.
On the other hand, some see NIMBY responses as a fundamental right of a democratic society. This view indicates that there is much value for “grassroots’ opposition”, as it may promote better decisions in the siting process. Often times these positive reflections on NIMBY responses are associated more with the land uses that affect public health and the environment than those that provide social services. However, the business owner who wrote the letter to the editor would argue that the opponents to the shelter were exercising their basic right, as he remarked “the citizens of Minneapolis have a right to equal and equitable enforcement of law (Letters to the editor, 2001).”
Some would argue that neither of these descriptions accurately reflects NIMBY responses. Rather, they would argue, more or less, that the NIMBY phenomenon is actually a result of misconceptions and stigmatization. In her book, Homelessness, AIDS, and Stigmatization, Lois Takahashi indicates that “differences of socially disqualifying attributes are signs that there are significant discrepancies between society’s ideal and homeless persons…and that these discrepancies constitute extremely negative qualities in persons who are homeless…,” ultimately leaving them with a stigmatization they cannot overcome on their own (1998). To apply this idea to the above situation: the homeless men who are living in the West Bank area may have been labeled (at least in the minds of some) as “synonymous with laziness, substance abuse, mental disability, uncleanliness, and even perversion.” All of these characteristics are ultimately associated with a lack of productivity, which is in direct opposition to “economic production, technological advancement, and land development,” the very foundation of a capitalist society (Takahashi and Dear, 1997). Therefore, the reaction of the community is one that is concerned with the idea of a group of people coming into the area that would counter their productivity.
Elizabeth Kuoppale, the local policy director at the Coalition for Homelessness of Minnesota, would agree. In a telephone interview she indicated her belief in the overall goodness of most people, even those who have such blatant NIMBY responses to homeless shelters, and that “they would want to help if they understood.” In her experience she has seen many people who are concerned that homeless people are plagued with mental illnesses and they are “uncontrollable and unpredictable” and that, if allowed to live in the same community as themselves and their families, their safety would be jeopardized. However, both Kuoppale and Gallini indicated that, often the homeless people they work with are some of the kindest people they know and that the people who work in the shelters (e.g., volunteers) do not share these concerns. Kuappale told a story of one man, who visits local schools and organizations with her to promote awareness. When asked by a child what the one thing he thought that homeless people needed more than anything else, he answered “hope.” Kuappale reiterated that many homeless people find hope hard to find in a society that is so quick to make assumptions about who they are.
How Could Things Be Different
The questions remains: What would have needed to change in order for the homeless shelter proposal to have been a success? First, one must answer the question of whether or not it was a good idea to put it there in the first place. While there were some moderately valid reasons to halt the continuation of this project (e.g., the proximity to local bars, questionable zoning appeals), the viewpoint from here on out is that the shelter had every legal right to be located in the Love Power Church building. It would provide 25 extra beds for the homeless of Minneapolis and a stable program to help them move toward independence in permanent housing and would have been a valuable addition to the city. So what needs to change? Several theorists and researchers have studied possible solutions and tactics that social service organizations may consider using to more affectively implement homeless shelters into communities.
In her research analysis, Carrisa Shively identified four general approaches for responding to NIMBY concerns. The first, compensation (i.e., monetary and other indirect types of compensation to counterbalance potential losses) is sometimes successful, but often ethically questionable and therefore, would probably not have been an option for Mary Gallini and Ann Sandell. It appears the second approach, communicating the impacts (e.g., through public education and structuring technical information in a simpler language) was used by Gallini and Sandell, but not effectively enough. The third, empowering affected parties (e.g., through giving residents positions of influence in the decision-making processes) was complicated in this situation, as it appears resistance to the project was high and any leeway given would be used to relocate the shelter or terminate the proposal all together. The fourth, consensus-building, similar to communicating the impacts, was attempted, but due to the conflicts with area businesses was ultimately, not possible (Schively, 2007).
In 2000, David Cress and David Snow identified several factors that are generally important to the successful action of social movement organizations that provide relief services (e.g., St. Stephen’s Shelter). However, they claim that different situations call for different factors to be present, making finding solutions more complicated than some theorists make it out to be. In a situation where the city, as a whole, is responsive to and supportive of social change (which Cress and Snow deem Minneapolis), having allies in the city and affective framing of the situation are necessary. In the case of the Love Power Church, Mary Gallini, Ann Sandell, and other supporters did all they could to frame the proposed shelter as the answer to a problem in the community and the city as a whole (e.g., diagnostic framing) and to present specific ways in which the shelter would achieve its goals and objectives (e.g., prognostic framing) (Cress and Snow, 2000). However, notably, this project did not have the support of the city council member in the area, Joan Campbell (who, notably, did not get reelected and is now serving as secretary for the Minnesota Ballpark Association) or any other prominent city leaders. If they had, this project may have seen different results.
In general, more awareness and understanding about the homeless and homeless shelters may have been helpful. Unfortunately, the best opportunity for this could have come after the homeless shelter was open. For example, since the facility is in an area surrounded by restaurants, workers at the restaurants could have come into the shelter and brought food to serve the evening meals. Not only would it be a great help (and probably a big treat!) to the residents staying in the shelter, it also would have been an excellent way for those who work at the restaurants to overcome the stigmatization they have with the residents. Through conversation and interactions, the workers could see in the residents, what Mary Gallini, Elizabeth Kuoppale, and numerous others see everyday: kind people who are simply trying to make a better life for themselves. Even better, these same workers could volunteer their time to train residents in food service skills to increase their opportunity for better jobs. However, none of this can happen until someone takes the first step.
Closing Thoughts
In the winter of 2000, a project proposal was brought forth in Minneapolis that would result in one of the most obvious cases of NIMBYism the city had ever seen. Ultimately, the fears, concerns, assumptions, and misconceptions that resulted in a stigmatization of homeless people, would win out over the efforts of Ann Sandell, Mary Gallini, and others to bring a homeless shelter into the community. Different tactics were used on both sides of the issue. Those who were opposed to the shelter used zoning laws, community upheaval, and other fear tactics to scare off project backers. Similarly, supporters of the project used their own legal rights, meetings to educate and relieve concerns, and other framing techniques to garner support for the project. However, without the support of the community, the project leaders did not have enough sustenance to overcome the powerful force of stigmatization that is expressed through NIMBY responses. However, there is still hope for future homeless shelters in Minneapolis. In the end, the city did stand by the proposed shelter in the face of questionable zoning rulings, indicating that support for these projects is out there. As board member David Fields stated at the first Board of Adjustment meeting, “We’ve gone far beyond the time when everyone can say ‘Yes, we know homelessness is out there, but not in our neighborhood’” (Brunswick, 2000). Homelessness is already a part of many Minneapolis neighborhoods; however the stigmatization that goes with it does not have to be. In the future, awareness will be essential to overcoming stigma, and will be needed for initiatives with objectives of “housing for all” to move forward.

REFERENCES

Brunswick, M. (2000, December 14). Citizen board oks plan for Seven Corners shelter; supporters say it might be running as soon as January. Star Tribune p. 07.B

Caldiera, T. (1996). Fortified enclaves: The new urban segregation. Public Culture 8(2), 303-328

Cress, D. & Snow, D. (2000). The Outcomes of Homeless Mobilization: The Influence of Organization, Disruption, Political Mediation, and Framing. American Journal of Sociology 105(4), 1063-1104.

Davis, M. (1990) City of quartz: Excavating the future in Los Angeles. London and New York: Verso

Davis, M. (2006). Planet of slums. New York: Verso

Demko, P., (2000). Zoned out: Minneapolis bureaucrats put the kibosh on a West Bank homeless shelter. City Pages. Retrieved March 30, 2007 from http://www.citypages.com

Demko, P., (2001, August 22). Tainted love. City Pages. Retrieved April 13, 2007 from http://www.citypages.com

Demko, P., (2002, June 5). Off beat: Love triumphs City Pages. Retrieved April 4, 2007 from http://www.citypages.com

Schively, C., (2007). Understanding the NIMBY and LULU phenomena: Reassessing our knowledge base and informing future research. Journal of Planning Literature, 21(3), 255-266

Takahashi, L. (1998). Homelessness, aids, and stigmatization: The NIMBY syndrome in the United States at the end of the twentieth century. Oxford: Clarendon Press

Takahashi, L. & Dear, M. (1997). The changing dynamics of community opposition to human service facilities. Journal of the American Planning Association 63(1), 79-94.

Wright, T. (2000). Resisting homelessness: Global, national, and local solutions. Cotemporary Sociology 29(1), 27-43.

Zukin, S. (1995). The cultures of cities. London: Blackwell

Posted by rachel at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Add a Comment (1)

Comments

Great topic and well covered! I agree that if more people understood, they'd probably be okay with it. However, I think a lot of people are unwilling to try. The thought that people who own or rent homes are somehow fundamentally different from those who are homeless makes the possibility of homelessness seem less likely and therefore less of a threat.

Posted by: Tavia | April 19, 2007 09:44 AM

What is a community?- Angela Mulcahy

“A city is a large community where people are lonesome together.” - Herbert V. Prochnow.
Communities are formed when conditions are right- shared interests, beliefs, and a connection to the geographical area. Communities must have a center point, a common meeting ground. Does Mr. Prochnow have a point in saying the city is a lonely place? In this paper I will be examining 3 different ‘communities: University Commons Apartment complex, rural Scandia, MN, and Dinkytown. Through personal interviews, research, and non-participant observation I will seek to explain that the essence of ‘community’ can develop anywhere where there are people willing to foster it regardless of it being a rural or urban area.
At a first glance, urban, suburban, and rural communities are, particularly by stereotype, appear to be very different ways of living. Urban gives you the hustle and bustle of commerce Monday through Friday, mothers walk to the park with their children in the suburbs, and tractors slow traffic on the highways of the rural towns. There are even many theorists who claim to give evidence of these differences and do so adamantly. Wirth declares that in urban life, people substitute primary relationships for secondary ones, in turn weakening our traditional human ties, something also known as “urban personality”. Webber supports his own claim by saying that “Urbanites no longer reside exclusively in metropolitan settlements, nor do ruralites live exclusively in the hitherlands,” (472). Urban and rural areas are becoming more and more integrated and the interaction between the two is growing less expensive. It is for this reason that ‘community’ is not only found in rural areas, but wherever people want it to foster.
Conventionally, when we hear the word ‘community’ it reminds us of the suburbs, community centers, PTA meetings, et cetera, but what is the true meaning of community? Dictionary.com gives definitions ranging from “an assemblage of interacting populations occupying a given area.” To “a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists”. With such variations it is difficult to find a happy medium that covers all of the characterstics that a community does.
Things such as density, heterogeneity, and homogeneity all come into play in the construction of a community. Urban communities may tend to be more apt to be formed with less emphasis on physical location and more focused certain groups of people who share a common interest or belief which brings them together. This however, does not hold as true for the people of rural areas where there is far less density, and people are brought together more through common geography than shared interests. Though bringing this to another level, it may be the common interest of privacy or space that brings the people to a rural area, in turn being the same attraction that draws communities of urbanites together. According to Wirth, this may very well be the case. Urban dwellers are inclined to be dependent on more people for their needs and contentment; therefore they associated themselves with far more groups and organizations than do the people of rural areas. This is what Wirth is referring to when he claims that people of urban areas substitute primary relationships for more secondary ones. There is lots of recognition between people in close quarters, yet most of this communication takes place at an elementary level, particularly if they are not in a place for similar interests.
Such secondary relationships, associations almost being the better word, are often found in large apartment complexes in urban areas. For example, take University Commons, a large apartment complex near Dinkytown. This high density complex includes 4 buildings with approximately ## units per building, housing anywhere from 1 to 4 people per unit. This particular apartment would even do the work to find roommates for you. In a personal interview with a University Student and University Commons, Jessica, we discussed the situation. The roommate selection process happened in Jessica’s case. She lived in a 2 bedroom apartment, sharing one bedroom with a close friend, while the other bedroom was occupied by two people she had not had previous contact with. It is interesting to note that though these four girls shared a common area of laundry, kitchen, and living room, no more than secondary relationships were formed over the course of one year. This is an easy example of an urban personality setting. Though most of the people who live in University Commons most likely do have the common interest of attending school at the University of Minnesota, being that it is such a large school with many, many different interests most of which attract an extremely diverse association of people. This setting does not create a ‘community’ of people. Wirth states that the higher number of people within contact of each other, there develops an affinity for elementary level communication. This elementary level of communication includes general topics which could be believed to be of interest to the general population. The girls that Jessica lived with (excluding her roommate) had almost nothing in common with her besides their mutual attendance at the University. To overcome this lack of community through geography, people in urban areas seek other ways to satisfy their need for a community through organized groups of people with similar interests to themselves.
On the University Commons website it claims that this is a ‘student oriented community’- hence the word ‘community’. However, if one clicks on the ‘community’ tab, you are brought to a page of floor plans, amenities, and a topic called lifestyle which basically speaks of the attractions of the city of Minneapolis, not its personal features. Given its location and overall setup [drawing], Jacobs would love to tear this ‘community’ apart. While containing sidewalks (that go nowhere except around the buildings) that the people who live there use to some extent there is almost no surveillance whatsoever. There are no businesses within a half of a mile from the complex and the few windows that are at ground level typically shut out the sidewalk with closed curtains. There are also no attractions for people from outside the ‘community’ to go to. It is almost in a sense a gated community, minus the gate and the shared want of safety and privacy that a gate would offer.
One rationale in explaining this lack of community at University Commons, as well as for many other areas of the city, is that the people who reside there do not own their place of residence. They bear no connection to the land around them, many having come from smaller towns farther away. There is so much to take in when living in an urban area that one must pick and choose which is the most important to him, and that more often than not, does not include wherever they happen to be living that year. What use is it to get to know your neighbor when you will both be in different places within the next year? This is the problem of heterogeneity often found in the city. Wirth states, “Wherever large numbers of differently constituted individuals congregate, the process of depersonalization also enters.”(p101). The people living here tended to assume a temporary status thus feel little desire to foster a real community.
Instead of fostering close relationships as the dorms often do, the denseness of the people there creates separated by walls does not lead typically to primary relations with ones neighbors, as Jessica previously described to me. When asked if she knew or had met any of her apartment neighbors, I was surprised to find that for the most part, she did not know any of them, in fact, she rarely saw anyone in the hallway or outside of the complex. This could be said to result in an alienation of people. But is it the density and heterogeneity of the city that leads to alienation and a lack of community?
The second community I observed was Scandia, Minnesota. Scandia is a small town of about 2,700 people located along the Wisconsin border, northeast of the Twin cities. This situation presents quite a different view from the University Commons ‘community’ setting. Here, many of the houses are not situated near one another and approximately 94% of the people own their homes (Census, 2000), quite the opposite of UC. There are, however, quite a few similarities between the two. There is also a substitution of primary relationships for secondary ones. For instance there is one main ‘ma and pa’ goods store in the ‘downtown’ area of Scandia. After sitting in my car and observing for about 15 to 20 minutes one Saturday afternoon, I saw many people I recognized, mostly parents of past friends or friends of my parents. There were also several that I was not familiar with, though they seemed comfortable with the area and had most likely lived there for a long time as well.
The amenities in Scandia include things such as an elementary school, one Lutheran church, two restaurant/bars, a small goods store, gas station, pet food store, and of course, a liquor store. The nearest commercial area outside of Scandia is over ten miles away. This being true, it limits the options of the local people to the same small businesses which increases contact among the general population. The community center is the meeting place of several local clubs and also the home of Scandia’s annual celebration called “Taco Daze,” where tacos are served and a mini (and I mean MINI) carnival is hosted after the parade which takes place the first weekend in September, and has been for over the past 30 years.
Webber states that cities only exist because having such a high density of people in one area allows for reduced costs of living. Everything begins to increase in expense the more distance you add to it. It could be for this reason that there are simply more families than single people in rural areas. In Scandia, around 70% of the people are or have been married, and there is also a surprisingly low divorce rate (Census-zip code 55073, 2000). Interestingly enough, in an urban area, about 70% of people had never been married (census-zip code 55414, 2000 ). Being that the cost of living tends to run higher in rural areas, it helps to have the support of a possible two incomes which a family lifestyle can offer.
There are no fast food or chain stores in this rural setting either. This aspect alone gives each person a general connection to their physical community in that there is a local economy which depends on the people of the area associating and doing their business at these local enterprises. This local economy that has a long history, unites the people of the area, creating a sense of community between them. The local community also caters to their local population of families, from the elementary school to businesses closing early, recognizing that there is little demand for nightlife activities.
Upon visiting one of the local bar/restaurants two Friday nights in a row, I observed mostly families or couples of elderly people frequent the restaurant until early evening. As the night approached, I saw many of the same faces the second Friday that I observed the first Friday night. Wirth includes in his argument of Urbanism being a poorer form of social control that within a rural society there is a sense of predictability about it. It is feasible to predict who will socialize with whom and their relationships with each other. He claims that there is a lack of this predictability in the city. General patterns of people could possibly be forecast, yet with the high heterogeneity of an urban area there is an increased sense of complexity and disorder associated with group formation.
Interestingly, throughout this rural community, the ‘Urban Personality” can still be found. Whether they be people who simply refuse to be a part of the social community or are people have moved from the city, many people have been attracted here for the increase of space and privacy that the area offers. The rural area and its low density does offer people a lot of physical privacy, as well as activities not always available in an urban area.
Thus far we have discussed two types of ‘communities’. The Urban giant apartment complex and a small Minnesotan town. The first bearing a geographical sense of community, but lacking common interests between people, and the second also having a geographical sense of community but also sharing common interests and beliefs. The third type of community that I would like to discuss is one that has less of an influence through geographical area and more of the people are drawn to their ‘community’ through common a attraction and benefits from being members in such a community.
Dinkytown, though urban in location, bears a relatively strong resemblance to a rural town. Most of the restaurants and bars are non-chain and cater specifically to the majority of people in the area. The population in and surrounding Dinkytown is compromised mostly of young adults attending the University of Minnesota. The businesses in there understand the wants and needs of this population and therefore most food businesses cater to the night life often associated with young people. Here there is also a small goods store, restaurants, bars, churches, and a few others. As stated before, most of these are locally owned and have a long history with the area. This long history and personal ownership gives the people of the area a sense of belonging. Wirth also makes the point that as more and more youth join the national and international cultures through a college education the focus and attatchment to physical locations is declining. So while most of the student population will not reside in the area but a few years, having these businesses that have been there many years before and will be there many years after gives them a way to connect to the area.
While walking around Dinkytown it is a commonplace to see many familiar faces, just as you would in a small town. In going out to restaurants and bars one can almost expect to be surrounded by recognizable faces be it someone from a class, a neighbor, or friend. This familiarity is at the heart of the spirit of community. It gives one a connection to the area, which is something very unique, particularly in an urban setting. Community can be more complicated in the city, for everyone is drawn to urban areas for different reasons and finding a common interest that is strong enough to persist through all the dissimilarities is very unique. Perhaps the community in a city is not established through residency as found in a rural area, but a combination of geography and mutual wants and needs. Particularly in this Dinkytown example of an urban setting, this is many people’s first home outside that of their parents. So many firsts happen to a person as they begin their life here that it can be overwhelming. Fortunately this uncertainty is also felt by many in the area, bringing them together through their shared experiences.
I would hold both Dinkytown and Scandia to be comparatively strong communities, though they are extremely different. These examples show that the urban personality can exist in any setting, it follows the person, the area does not always bring it upon the person. ‘Communities’ such as University Commons do not foster a social community, but this is not always an issue for an urban dweller. Webber states that physical location is of decreasing importance because of today’s opportunities to be a part of so many other communities not based on physical locality. “..lives in a life-space hat is not defined by territory and deals with problems that are not local in nature,”(p474). This is quite a contrary view from most of history. For many, urban space merely offers a well-situated position for access to all of the other communities that are of more importance to them than a spatial one.
Overall, while it can be said that Wirth makes some very good points, as does Webber, their theories are incomplete (though this may be due partly to the era in which they were written). The word ‘community’ encompasses such a broad and complex amount of areas it is hard to exactly pinpoint where it can or cannot be found. Today with the blending of rural and urban peoples, one can no longer state that ‘community’ only exists in small towns or specific organized groups. There will always be people who value a sense of community and those who don’t. Those who do find value in it will either physically place themselves with others who feel this way also- be it in the middle of the city or the middle of nowhere or they will find connections through groups be them organized or not. True ‘community’ cannot always be found in highly capitalized situations or through those claiming to have community- it is all through the social effort of the people involved. It cannot be created commercially or merely by association but embracing the bonds of genuine common interests, goals, and beliefs of the people.

Posted by Angela Mulcahy at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Add a Comment (3)

Comments

there's no agreement

Posted by: John Bliss | April 28, 2007 02:27 AM

you made some really great points in your paper. it seems that many of the student-based apartment complexes on campus emphasize some sense of community, but people dont actually know (or care to interact with) their neighbors. you made some really great connections with wirth on that issue. nice job!

Posted by: amber | May 2, 2007 09:30 AM

When working on my paper, Teresa and I talked about not really using the word community because it can be a very ambiguous term. You did a really nice job of defining it though!

Posted by: Rachel | May 3, 2007 01:00 PM

kaitlin on the Midtown Makeover

Introduction and thesis

As you walk through the city of Minneapolis many different neighborhoods and communities surround you. Downtown, Uptown, Marcy Parks, Como, South Minneapolis, North Minneapolis, Dinkytown, and the recently added Midtown are some examples of the places you might encounter as you make your way through the city. Race and class help determine who populate each area, and these social constructions can be detrimental to the city when hierarchal relationships are created. I have decided to research that the effects of condoization on storeowners and businesses in Minneapolis’s Midtown area. Reading the works of Manual Castells, Jane Jacobs, and Sharon Zukin helped me form a prediction that the effects of condoization on storeowners and business in Minneapolis’s Midtown area have been damaging. For example, the process of renewing Midtown’s Lake Street has neglected an entire Latino population. As condominiums are being built in mass amounts new populations inhabit cities. The heterogeneity of the city is becoming a homogenous field of middle to upper class citizens that have little care for community. Low-income families have been pushed out of their city homes into less than favorable suburban streets. Immigrants who have spent their life savings establishing homes and businesses in the city are now being booted out with no place or money to restart. Corporations are replacing family owned businesses, and taxes are being raised so that family-owned businesses that have lasted thus far are doomed to be out competed.

ADD ANALYSIS OF CASTELLS, JACOBS, ZUKIN

Method

I started my research by contacting The City Pages, locating a front-page article all about condoization in Minneapolis. I furthered my research by contacting three different sales centers of condos to set up appointments to speak with both owners and sales staff. I was trying to locate both the basic demographics of and also the motives for living in such housing structures. Unfortunately I was transferred from person to machine and no one called back to answer my questions. On Sunday April 5, I located several open houses in the paper and tried to enter into the condos this way. I had surveys to set out for residents to fill out and get back to me. I was only successful in getting into the Steele Flats on Chicago Ave S and 45th, but it was only through residents themselves that I was allowed access. Since it was Easter Sunday, I think the open houses were limited to appointment only. Three people filled out my survey at the Steele Flats location, and one resident gave me a tour of her condo. I also was able to catch two tenants as they walked in and out of the Chicago condos in the newly renovated Sears building. Shifting gears from condo owner to business owner helped me obtain more information. On Monday April 6, I interviewed two local businesses along Lake Street: Ingebretsen Scandinavian Gifts located at 1601 E Lake St in Minneapolis, and Las Petacas located at 1509 E Lake St. I interviewed Julie at Ingebretsen and Maria at Las Petacas…..

Results

My first interview with Julie at Ingebretsen was very thorough. I walked into Ingebretsen with my tape recorder and a clipboard with several questions. I browsed through the store before making my way to the front to call for Julie. The store, I learned later, was built in 1921. The shelves were filled with trinkets of all sorts, and organized by themes. Finally, I made my way to the counter and the sales associate called Julie up from the basement. A woman appeared shortly and from the moment she introduced herself I felt calm. Her soft voice and peaceful demeanor helped emphasize the contrast between the corporate world and family owned business. She led me downstairs to her office where the interview took place. I told her that I had several questions and she seemed to want to help in every way. Firstly I asked about her for her general thoughts on the renovation and condoization of Lake Street. “The whole big general picture is that it has brought more people to the street. Unfortunately that doesn’t translate directly into more people in the store, but an increase sense of safety is felt. That parts easy enough to see.” She explained that her customers tend to come from further away, that her shop is more of a destination shop than a drop by one, and so her customer base has not changed very much. The new owners of the condos do not seem to be directly interested with her shop.

When talking about how the increase of taxes has affected the small business owners her first response was: “That’s definitely a big issue.” She offered her sympathy to several Latino business owners who she explained came here with everything they had and built up these tiny businesses and have either already been forced out of their areas or are facing the reality now. “We’ll survive it. Some wont.” She said that she hadn’t seen the direct affects of the condo’s pushing residents out of their homes into their suburbs but attributed her lack of knowledge in this area to the fact that her store focused primarily on customers outside the Midtown area. She didn’t seem at ease with the fact that the Latino tenants in particular were disappearing from their shops frequently. She talked about how the frequent changes in store owners created less community in the area because the stability and the “unity” was never certain. Her emotions were dynamic throughout the interview and she seem to have had invested a lot of thought into this subject already. It was as though she felt somewhat guilty that her business would stay around while others who worked just as hard were not able to. She couldn’t quite grasp the difference between her business and the Latino ones but any ideas were linked to the amount of time her store had been there.

When asked about the Global Market’s effect on her business, she once again claimed that it was less punishing for her because her shop brought in regular customers. She realized that she was “lucky because her competition was far less than some of the other businesses along Lake Street”, and attributed her

Further down Lake Street, and closer to the Global Marker, resides Las Petacas. The store is tiny in relation to Inte

Discussion

City Pages:
Over the past two years, more than 2,000 rental tenants of all sorts have been booted out of their apartments, the latest victims in a Minneapolis condo-conversion wave that has displaced young and old, poor and middle-class, healthy and disabled alike. The end result is that while downtown Minneapolis is seeing an unprecedented residential development boom—most of it in high-end properties—neighborhoods in other parts of the city are seeing radical transformations that by many accounts are unwelcome.
NEED TO RELATE THIS TO THEORISTS…AND FIND CITATIONS.

It seems appropriate to assume that gentrification and condoization help create and maintain social hierarchies. The urban communities and neighborhoods that make up a city play a role in the way the community interacts and operates. Manual Castells helps deepen this argument even more by explaining, “Cities are socially determined in their forms and in their processes. Some of their determinants are structural, linked to deep trends of social evolution that transcend geographic or social singularity. Others are historically and culturally specific. And all are played out, and twisted, by social actors that impose their interests and their values, to project the city of their dreams and to fight the space of their nightmares” (Castells 476). The Lake Street/Midtown gentrification has taken about ______ years to complete and this relatively sudden change has taken a prior population of predominately Latino citizens and is seemingly converting it into a dominance in white-middle class Americans. In a white dominant society, it seems appropriate to assume that the change of ethnic populations is emphasized by a power relationship where white citizens are unfairly winning based on their general status in the United States.

Castells argues that the trend is increasing towards an increase in technology and this IT age encourages a capitalistic society where corporations help create an apparent contrast between the classes. The IT age creates competitiveness and ‘allows for the simultaneous process of centralization of messages and decentralization of their reception, creating a new communication world made up at the same time of the global village and the incommunicability of those communities that are switched off from the global network. (477). He argues that the “major functions of the economic system” are becoming completely dependent on the exchanges of information between structures of institutions and that the community and cooperation of ___is being reestablished in a segmented way. He claims, “the filing of downgraded jobs by immigrant workers tends to reinforce the dualization of the urban social structure (483)” and continues his argument by explaining that ‘the global economy embraces the whole planet, but not all regions and all people on the planet.” (478). In all actuality, only a small portion of people are truly integrated into the global economy, mostly being large corporate bodies. It seems safe to assume that Minneapolis will follow a similar set of rules. As the gentrification and condoization of the Midtown area increases due to the switch from an Energy Age to an Information Age, there has been an outpouring of homogeny and a switch of power. Suburban dwellers are migrating into the city and negating any efficient communication/receptor mechanism, and instead are concentrating their power to create unfair relations of power.

Posted by Teresa Gowan at 02:20 PM | Permalink | Add a Comment (0)

Dorian Stanasel's Paper in Progress: Broadacre or Contemporary Minneapolis? (2ND DRAFT)

Minneapolis: Broadacre or Contemporary City?

Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier have radically different opinions as to how a city should be built and how it should grow. It will be my attempt to find out which path Minneapolis is headed. Will it grow vertically with huge skyscrapers will simultaneously cultivating a near-by suburban “Garden State” as Le Corbusier envisioned or will urban growth give way to suburban sprawl and an increase of land per citizen and small business growth à la Frank Lloyd Wright? I will be doing a mostly archival research for this paper since neither Wright nor Le Corbusier spend a lot of time talking about the people in the city. I will go to parks, skyscrapers and surrounding areas of Minneapolis to inspect the growth and degeneration and come to a concise conclusion about the direction in which Minneapolis is headed.
The first step to finding out how a city expands is to look at the industry of a city. According to city-data.com, “Sixteen of the Fortune 500 largest U.S. corporations are headquartered in the Twin Cities, which is among the largest commercial centers between Chicago and the West Coast. The area is also home to 30 Fortune 1000 companies and several of the world's largest private companies.” This type of data is extremely important because it shows that Minneapolis has a city focused on big business. In Wrights Broadacre city, the businesses, along with the schools and pretty much everything else, are small. Since this paper is focusing on what Minneapolis will become, rather than what it is though, one must consider what the city officials are doing with regards to businesses. Is there a push for smaller business expansion or are there incentives for big businesses to keep coming to Minneapolis? City data shows

“The Minneapolis Community Development Agency (MCDA), the development arm of the City of Minneapolis, provides a host of affordable financing packages and site-search assistance for businesses expanding in or relocating to Minneapolis. As an authorized agent for the federal Small Business Administration, the MCDA can combine federal small business financing with Minneapolis' own unique finance tools to help companies grow. MCDA business experts help businesses realize their goals from preliminary negotiations to closing. Business Link is a one-stop business service center located at the MCDA.
State business tax incentives include research and development credits, foreign income deductions, and sales tax exemptions and reductions. In addition the state of Minnesota offers, through a network of five job-training programs, assistance to businesses in locating and training employees.”

Yes, there are incentives for businesses to start up as well (small ones Wright condones), but they are businesses that centralize themselves in places such as downtown or the Mall of America so they may maximize profits. Wright would suggest these businesses be stationed along the outskirts of a city if they are industry based, or near suburban homesteads if they are service businesses. Local mom and pop shops are a novelty that some people enjoy; however, the majority of individuals do their shopping at mega-corporations such as Target or Wal-Mart. Even in the outside of the city, where one would think it would look more similar to Wrights ideal, the businesses are still mega-crops. McDonalds, Starbucks and other chains are all right next to homes that exist far away from the city. One cannot escape the grasp of the city wherever you go, it just happens that in Minneapolis the businesses are centralized. Wright would hope that small communities would form, to rely on internal cooperation and small businesses, but Minneapolis and its suburbs are more of a central city with offshoots (Garden Cities), that some can choose to live in to escape the noise and pollution of the inner city. However, when it is time to go to work, the people do not stay in their garden city, they return to the megalopolis that houses all the businesses, as Le Corbusier predicted.
One can deduce that since there are incentives for business to keep coming to the city, general density and business density will increase. According to censusscope.com the population of Minneapolis has increased by almost half a million people over the years of 1990-2000 with continuing growth. Suburbs have increasing population as well; Le Corbusier considers that when one takes the Garden Cities into mind. He states that “… we must increase the density of our cities, where business affairs are carried on.” So it would seem that so far, business growth and population growth in the city point to Minneapolis becoming more like Le Corbusier’s Contemporary City. Sadly, Frank Lloyd Wright’s hopes that a city would not be necessary, instead that many small communities with little government could prosper, are not feasible at this point for Minneapolis and its garden cities (suburbs). Why? The city would have to knock down buildings and disperse businesses in order to accommodate the increased demand for horizontal space. Just because the pure ideology of wide open spaces and small communities Wright predicted cannot be achieved, it does not mean this contest belongs to Le Corbusier just yet.
Next, it was my goal to see what types of homes were being created in Minneapolis in order to contrast Le Corbusier’s assembly line style homogenized homes with the organic homes of Wright. An ezinearticles.com article had the following to say about the future of Minneapolis homes:
“One of the most surprising elements of today's real estate market has been the resurgence of loft condos. These open floor plan living spaces first gained popularity as artist live/work spaces and were home to a fairly eclectic group (stereotypically) Lofts lost some notoriety when the condo boom began, the abundance of new condo projects ensured that condos were the living space of choice. But like all good things, lofts did not fade into obscurity; in fact they have made an amazing comeback and are now dominating the real estate scene in Minneapolis.”

So, basically, people are migrating into the city because it is becoming trendy and quite affordable. Realestate.mns.com states that
“Minneapolis comes out on top of many "Best Places to Live" competitions, thanks to a wealth of urban amenities combined with a cost of living that's still relatively affordable. Abundant lakes and a terrific parks system provide plenty of outdoor fun, while the Walker Art Center, the Guthrie Theater and four professional sports teams provide indoor entertainment.”

But what about the Garden State that Le Corbusier speaks of? Is there such a thing near Minneapolis or does it become more Frank Lloyd Wright-ian as one departs the city? I visited a community called Village Creek just a few miles drive away from Minneapolis. The main growth that I found in this community was town homes. Here is a picture of 3 town homes:

As you can see, the homes look identical. Wright believes that every home should look organic and of nature. These homes look like they were cranked out in an assembly line, which Le Corbusier is pushing for in his contemporary city. I am not saying that every home now being created is a town house but according to census data town home growth is expected to increase by 11.8% over regular suburban home growth. One must point out that suburban growth is increasing as well, though it is unfair to say that the direction Minneapolis is headed is in favor of strictly Le Corbusier. These town home dwellers are the “mixed sort” that Le Corbusier speaks of that work in the business parts of the city but bring up their families in garden states. I’m not saying that there is no growth of regular homes but I am looking at where Minneapolis is headed and more growth is taking place in condos and town homes surrounding Minneapolis. The people that live in these garden cities are the ones who want the easy access to the parent city but like then comfort of suburbia and faux Wright freedom of community feel. It is completely synthetic of course, since all the houses are attached to each other and each family barely receives any individual land. Big businesses are just a few short minutes away. There is no sense of community here.
The way that the homes are laid out is more of Le Corbusier’s style as well. Here is a picture of one of the garden cities called Eden Prairie.

The garden city is a built within a geometrical triangle with extremely similar dwellings in straight lines. Nothing about this architecture can be traced to Wright yet it falls into the categorization of “garden city” almost to a “T”.
Le Corbusier and Wright have their own magic numbers formulas to go off of. Le Corbusier uses his 400 yards unit to inspire everything from streets to space between buildings. Wright has a more simplistic approach. One acre per person, and more if there are more members of the family. Sadly, I could find no data to prove Minneapolis is headed to the 400 yard or the one acre ideals. There are no set mathematical formulas for the building of Minneapolis. It is a creature that grows where it needs to, not where it should.
Is there anywhere that Frank Lloyd Wright could be seen as influencing in the nature of Minneapolis communities? Well, no, not at this point in my research. There are some rural areas that are strikingly similar to Broadacre city but it doesn’t appear that Minneapolis itself is trying to go towards that lifestyle. It is a bustling city that, along with its garden cities, keeps growing and pushing the lifestyle of anything that resembles Wright’s vision out of the picture.
I must not be too quick to judge and call this contest in favor of Le Corbusier just yet. There is still the matter of open space to deal with along with other aspects of each architects ideologies that must be taken into account. Also, it is important to note that neither theorist can be completely right about the direction Minneapolis is headed. Their hypothetical cities were never constructed so having a concrete working example to go off of is impossible. There is also the problem that there are significant errors in the theorists thinking, which contradict the main themes of their theories. For example, Frank Lloyd Wright talks about self sustaining communities as the staple of his theory, yet his roads are long and vast and used for inner community travel. This type of paradoxical thinking is also present in Le Corbusier because of the “garden cities” aspect of theory. His main point states we must build upwards because of lacking space; however, “garden cities” will take up far too much room and will infringe on the special needs of the main city.
The next item to research was the use of open spaces in the city of Minneapolis. Open spaces are rare in Minneapolis, save for the abundance of parks. Both Wright and Le Corbusier stress the importance of parks in congruence with open space. For the first time though, Wright has a more accurate portrayal of Minneapolis than Le Corbusier. The public parks offered in Minneapolis are not centered on returning capital; they are there to enhance the beauty of the city and to be enjoyed. Le Corbusier’s argument for parks is that they will be used as an alternative source of income and place of business, but the parks in Minneapolis, such as one I visited called Loring Park, are not cost effective. The parks are not really run like businesses. They are open 24 hours and offer free entertainment and a gathering spot for dwellers from urban or suburban dwellings. Here is an information tidbit I found regarding the park:
“In 1883, the city purchased 35 acres of land and turned it into the first city-owned park, a gorgeous commons known as Central Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, the designer of New York City's Central Park, thus the name. In 1890, the park's name was changed to honor Charles Loring, the first president of the Minneapolis Park Board and the initial force behind preserving much of the land that eventually evolved into one of the nation's most magnificent city park systems.

An active and much-used inner city recreation area, Loring Park has a basketball court, paved walking and bike paths, numerous tennis courts, horseshoe pits and shuffleboard courts. In winter, the lake is packed with skaters. On the west side Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge connects the park to the Walker Art Center. Loring Greenway, a well-traveled pedestrian thoroughfare, connects the park to downtown's Nicollet Mall. At the end of the Greenway is the Berger Fountain, shaped like a giant dandelion. Free concerts are held in the summer and picnic tables are scattered throughout the park. The recreation building houses restrooms, an information center and ping-pong tables.”

Sure, there are places where money is collected and business are near the parks, but places such as Lake Calhoun are free and offer an oasis that the city pays for, subsequently making its citizens are happier. So, when it comes to parks, Frank Lloyd Wright earns a point.
As for the use of open space in general, neither theorists have guessed which way Minneapolis is headed. The density problem of Minneapolis will not be solved by creating more open space because space is needed for business growth. Sadly, when Minneapolis was built, it was not planned out as masterfully as either theorist would have liked. Wright obviously demands open space for every person and Le Corbusier craves it in certain areas of his city, but the rea