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June 09, 2005
Cedar-Riverside
Last day of my history class today! If it is offered again (and mostly likely will be) I highly, highly recommend this class and this professor: Topics in U.S. History: Exploring the Twin Cities Past taught by Professor David Chang.
For our last site visit, we walked around the whole entire Cedar-Riverside neighborhood this morning. You know that Riverside Plaza building with the funky not-so-bright-anymore colors on the sides on the west bank? Pretty much that whole neighborhood, its shops and community centers. My professor talked about the predominant Somali population in this area. I think many people noticed the influx of the Somalian population, but I don't believe that people have ever stopped to really learn the roots of why or how they got here. I would have taken notes and I would be sharing that with you but it was the last day, would you? For the tour, we even had 2 tour guides, 1 of which was involved in Americorps. The other girl has grown up around in Minneapolis her whole life and has dedicated the past 5 years to research the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood and help with other community center services. The passion that these girls share for this community is amazing! And they filled me up with more information than I could handle. Some things that stuck out: Many of these refugees are unable to learn because of Post Traumatic Stress due to malnutrition or having witness the murder of their own family back in their country. Also, did you know that alcohol is against Muslim religion? Somalia does not have an official government so it's difficult to prove marriage, birth or seek asylum.
The same neighborhood and buildings that these refugees and immigrants reside in used to house the first wave of Vietnamese refugees, many Korean immigrants and especially Danes, Fins, Nordics, Germans, Russians, etc. As the second generation of those immigrants became more succesful they moved out and away from the city and a new wave a immigrants moved in. This is what we have today. It's more in depth than that, but it's very interesting.
Posted by thao0226 at June 9, 2005 01:56 PM | You should know...
Comments
Cedar Riverside has indeed been the Ellis Island of the Twin Cities. Did you talk about Ralph Rapson, the architect who designed the modernist city-within-a-city that the Cedar Square Towers were supposed to be just the first phase of? Rapson also designed the original Guthrie, and architecture building on campus (it's now named for him.
Posted by: Tim G. at June 9, 2005 02:07 PM
Yep, we sure discussed him, I see who the Ralph Rapson architect building was named after now.
Posted by: sylvie at June 9, 2005 02:11 PM