Minneapolis took another step forward joining other American cities in creating Green Zones to help focus resources to areas socially and environmentally overburdened by environmental issues, race, and income.
“Everyone seems supportive of the idea of a Green Zone of some sort, somewhere. But the devil is in the details,” said Northeast resident Gayle Bonneville, one of 10 community reps on the 19-member Green Zones Work Group, which also includes city staff.
The City has been ramping up the project for about a year through the work group, which is also getting input from focus groups. So far about half of the seven focus groups have met, each with about 10 participants. The work group met March 7 at Eastside Food Co-op to review the feedback and work on recommendations to send on to City Hall.
“The benefit, in theory, of Green Zones designation is that it would bring intensive attention and resources to that area to solve the various issues identified by the work group, including environmental and brownfield issues, greening, job growth, and affordable housing, with attention to environmental justice for overly impacted areas like ours, plus racial equity and poverty factors that—surprising to some—also exist here in Northeast Minneapolis,” said Bonneville.
The call for Green Zones in Minneapolis came through the City’s Climate Action Plan, adopted in 2013, at the prompting of the Environmental Justice Work Group, facilitated by Minneapolis’ Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy (CEED).
CEED Executive Director Shalini Gupta said CEED got involved in developing Minneapolis’ Climate Action Plan and pushed for Green Zones due to lack of representation of communities of color in the process.
“Environmental justice was a relatively new concept for environmental and sustainable planning for the City of Minneapolis,” Gupta said. “We reviewed all the policies and applied a racial, heath, and economic equity lens to the Climate Action Plan.”
According to CEED, the Green Zone concept was originated by grassroots environmental justice groups in California where multiple pollution sources are targeted. It’s called “cumulative pollution,” where people have been exposed to the toxic effects of pollutants from heavy industry, factories, and busy highways.
“Minneapolis is heralded as a very progressive city for environmental sustainability,” Gupta said, “but Green Zones acknowledge that it’s been very uneven where those resources have gone.”
Studies across the country, Gupta said, show cumulative pollution disproportionately overburdens low-income communities and communities of color. “Even when we hold for income, race is a defining factor for where a lot of polluting industries are concentrated,” she said.
One of the reasons for the concentration, Gupta said, is the “Legacy of Pollution.”
“If you look at zoning maps, in Minneapolis and across the country,” she said. “There were fewer protections to halt these developments in those areas. They didn’t have the political capital to fight back.”
Minneapolis Sustainability Program Coordinator Kelly Muellman said one concern that has been raised consistently is that improving communities can lead to pricing out residents.
“We are trying to take an intentional approach to the policy development to prevent gentrification and displacement,” she said. “This was an added staff direction given by the City Council in November 2016 when we gave an update on the work group’s progress.”
Minneapolis’ Climate Action Plan: A roadmap to reducing citywide greenhouse gas emissions, recommends developing a Green Zone Initiative as one of its cross-cutting strategies, stating “Green Zones could correspond with targeted housing and commercial retrofit campaigns, to increase energy efficiency or boost renewable energy installation. Areas with Green Zone designation may be better positioned to access benefits offered by the city as well state and federal agencies, ranging from targeted pollution reduction, to increased funding opportunities.”
“The work group has stated repeatedly that it is a very challenging project, especially defining the areas of need,” said Muellman. “There is a general desire that all the City should be a Green Zone, but a recognition that the City should focus on the areas of greatest need first.”
Is Northeast a Green Zone?
Third Ward Council Member Jacob Frey was one of the authors of the resolution that created the Green Zones Work Group.
“We’re trying to place a laser light focus on areas of our city that have a cross section of both poverty and pollution,” he said. “A prioritization of funding for business and green improvements will help bolster those areas that traditionally struggle.”
He said he doesn’t think Northeast Minneapolis is number one or two on the list of Green Zones, but it’s up there.
Bonneville said the definition and location of Green Zones has been a political football. She said she thinks there was a preconceived notion when the work group began meeting, that the Green Zone would automatically be in North Minneapolis.
“We analyzed data and existing programs, and their effectiveness or lack thereof, and had various groups and individuals speak about their respective areas and topics of concern. I think we have changed some minds,” she said.
“One of the most attractive proposals right now, in my opinion,” added Bonneville, “is that the Green Zone actually be sort of a ‘doughnut’ encompassing parts of North Minneapolis, South Minneapolis near the Phillips area, and across the river into parts of Northeast. We are still debating this. And several focus groups have been held in the last couple of weeks, so we need to get a summary of that information, too, in order to make informed decisions on all of this.”
The most talked about area in Northeast so far, she said, is along the upper portion of the river, around the Lowry Avenue Bridge, over and up University Avenue and over into Shoreham Yards.
“In one of the exercises used by the work group, we could suggest our dream project,” said Bonneville. “My dream would be to see the portion of Shoreham Yards along Central Avenue that has been for sale and includes the Historic Roundhouse be turned into the jobs opportunity zone that community forums have talked about for years. Green Zones designation might light a fire under government officials, the railroad, and developers to make something beneficial to the community happen there.”
Other Northeast Green Zone projects, she said, could include expanding the air pollution studies being done near the Lowry Avenue Bridge, and including Northeast in the “cumulative impact” legislation the State Legislature passed a few years ago.
“Even if Northeast is not included in a Green Zone, I feel the process has been beneficial in raising awareness among my fellow work group members and city staff about environmental problems on the Eastside,” said Bonneville.
“This seems to be a dirty little secret, too often ignored by City Hall. We are overly impacted with most of the city’s industrial-zoned land and the historic land uses that have left us with air quality issues, a large and complex Superfund site, contaminated groundwater, serious soil contamination in many places, two huge intermodal rail yards and hazmat trains spewing diesel into our community, and more. My feeling—and my main reason for serving on the work group—is that the city needs to buckle down and deal with its contaminated areas and stop bringing more of the same to Northeast Minneapolis.”
The work group is developing data-driven recommendations for how to determine what areas should be designated as Green Zones, how to improve those areas, and ways to track progress.
To support the work group’s data-driven decision making, the City created a Green Zones Mapping Tool that maps data by census tract for each of eight priority issues the work group identified early in the process: equity; gentrification/displacement; air quality; contaminated soil/brownfields, food access; green jobs; vegetation and clean energy; and sustainable, affordable, accessible housing.
Multiple data sets may be turned on at once to show cumulative burden.
First Ward Council Member Kevin Reich said that while the City has already been doing a lot of pollution cleanup, he thinks Green Zones can be a way for Minneapolis to look at blind spots that may need extra attention–such as prioritizing areas where youth may be exposed to pollution—and as a way to address pollution with “new ideas, with fresh eyes, and to look at approaches other cities have done.”
“Often times when we think of pollution, we think of air, and air is really important, but out of sight, out of mind, water quality is an issue, too,” said Reich. “I want to make sure we don’t miss pollution and challenges that are water and land related.” He said the river is a shared access, and “Instead of being a line that separates North and Northeast, it should be a connector.”
The work group plans to present recommendations, including a possible pilot program, to the City Council during the first quarter of 2017.
“We hope to start with the Health, Environment and Community Engagement Committee on March 27, but that won’t be confirmed for a couple weeks yet,” said Muellman, adding that “long-term options will have to be discussed and it will be up to Council to determine.”
Bonneville said she thinks the future effectiveness of Green Zones rests on political will.
“I think it will depend upon how the work group finally defines Green Zone. And the City Council will need to dedicate funds or find resources to support it,” she said. “Some of the suggested ideas from the Green Zones discussion have been smaller scale and seem very do-able, while others will take more political will. It will be key to ensure the city tackles those bigger issues, not just the small projects. The city needs to tackle Green Zones projects that are truly transformative.”
Gupta said she thinks there’s a huge community push for Green Zones and she hopes there are eventually several Green Zones in Minneapolis and that the city uses Green Zones as a tool, with community input, for a coordinated response of multiple levels of government to reduce pollution.
“Your income shouldn’t dictate whether you have clean air and water,” said Gupta. “It’s a fundamental right.”
A link to a Mapping Tool and more information about Green Zones is available at: www.minneapolismn.gov/sustainability/policies/green-zones. All work group meetings are open to the public. Contact Muellman at kelly.muellman@minneapolismn.gov or 612-673-3014.