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Insight News
November 29, 2021 - December 5, 2021
Vol. 48 No. 48• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
4RM+ULA
Photo by Terry Faust, longfellownokomismessenger.com
James Garrett, Jr.
Taylor Smrikárova
The 2800 E. Lake Street property will be redeveloped for housing, commercial and outdoor retail use and arts and cultural spaces
U.S. Bank to donate Minneapolis Lake St. branch property to Seward Redesign for redevelopment U.S. Bank last week announced that it intends to donate its branch property located at 2800 E. Lake Street to nonprofit community development corporation Seward Redesign. Seward Redesign will partner with 4RM+ULA, an architectural design firm, to redevelop the property into up to four sub-divided parcels to include affordable housing, commercial and outdoor retail spaces, nonprofit services and arts and cultural destinations. The partnership with 4RM+ULA represents an innovative model that will focus on design and aesthetics, community input and activation and will be inclusive of multiple people of color partners. “In response to the civil unrest that followed the death of George Floyd, our communities invested significant effort to first stabilize, and now rebuild Lake Street in a more equitable fashion,” said Taylor Smrikárova, project leader from Seward Redesign. “Our team is intently committed to ensuring that the U.S. Bank property is lifted up as a demonstration site for wealth creation for communities of color. When this shared vision
is achieved, the result will be that each parcel will be owned by BIPOC-led businesses or community organizations.” Seward Redesign recently celebrated its 50year anniversary and is the only community development corporation with an exclusive focus in the Seward and greater Longfellow neighborhoods of South Minneapolis. 4RM+ULA is a nationally renowned, award winning firm with an extensive portfolio in the Twin Cities. “We are both humbled and honored to be awarded the opportunity to help facilitate this innovative process,” said James Garrett, Jr., partner at 4RM+ULA. “Our goal is to create a new model for equitable development and demonstrate new ways in which architects can engage and partner with community.” Foundational to the winning proposal submitted by Seward Redesign and 4RM+ULA were strategic partnerships with both Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio (CLUES) and National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS). Both CLUES and NABS have been invited to
own and co-develop specific site parcels. Preliminary project concepts include: • An intensive community engagement and activation process to ensure broad and diverse participation. • Creative interim uses and site activation strategies including pop-up retail facilities, public art installations, and community events/gathering spaces. • CLUES ownership to ensure long-term service to Latino communities in South Minneapolis inclusive of affordable housing, client services and arts & technology center • NABS ownership inclusive of a national center for truth and healing, affordable housing and retail locations. • A development owned and operated by 4RM+ULA inclusive of affordable housing and commercial/retail spaces. • The opportunity for an additional people of color developer/owner to codevelop a remaining land parcel. “After listening and learning alongside community partners through an extensive RFP process, we are excited to
announce our plan to donate this property to Seward Redesign,” said Reba Dominski, chief social responsibility officer for U.S. Bank. “We were looking for a community-focused developer who was aligned with our commitment to racial equity throughout the entire property donation process – in the interim and after the redevelopment of the location. Seward Redesign knows and understands the Seward and Longfellow neighborhoods deeply and will bring strong relationships, credibility to navigate community engagement and technical capacity to the project.” The development will be consistent with community input and will include a combination of affordable housing, commercial and retail locations and outdoor community spaces. Seward Redesign and 4RM+ULA are exploring a range of interim uses for the property to engage the neighborhood through arts and culture, while also creatively soliciting community feedback regarding permanent uses for the site. A community engagement process will begin in the next couple of months. Less than a mile
from the Lake Street site, Seward Redesign is nearing completion of the construction of the Seward Commons masterplan, a transit-oriented, mixed-use, mixed-income, multi-phase redevelopment. The future masterplan for the redevelopment of the Lake Street property will be part of a larger vision for equitable development within the Seward/ Longfellow neighborhoods. The Lake Street property was damaged during the civil unrest in May 2020. Shortly thereafter, U.S. Bank set-up a mobile banking unit in the parking lot that will continue to provide banking services to the community on-site until it completes its redevelopment of a former commercial building at 3600 E. Lake Street in 2022. U.S. Bank is also building a new branch location at 919 E. Lake Street set to open in 2022. To learn more about Seward Redesign, visit redesigninc.org. To learn more about 4RM+ULA, visit www.4rmula.com About Seward Redesign Seward Redesign is a nonprofit community development corporation
established in 1969. We are dedicated to improving the Seward and Greater Longfellow neighborhoods of South Minneapolis. The organization provides comprehensive community development services inclusive of housing and commercial real estate development, infrastructure advocacy and small business development. About 4RM+ULA 4RM+ULA designs for the ever-evolving 21st century city. We believe in celebrating existing structures and improving engagement and communication between clients and community. We integrate emerging technologies and construction practices, continually seeking innovative, artful ways to improve the quality of life for our community. We bring award-winning design and development through mutually beneficial partnerships that positively impact the community through creative, high-quality, environmentally conscious design and engagement.
SUV tragedy in Wisconsin shows how vehicles can be used as a weapon of mass killing – intentionally or not By Mia Bloom Evidence Based Cyber Security Program, Georgia State University (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
Vice President Kamala Harris salutes U.S. Marines as she disembarks Marine Two at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, Friday, June 25, 2021, to begin her trip to El Paso, Texas.
Kamala Harris becomes first woman Commander-in-Chief in U.S. history as Biden undergoes colonoscopy By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia Call her Madam President. Vice President Kamala Harris was sworn in on Friday to occupy the role of commanderin-chief while President Joe Biden underwent a colonoscopy. Because the procedure requires anesthesia, the temporary transfer of powers was deemed necessary. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki remarked that the president underwent the procedure at Walter Reed Medical Center as part of
his
yearly health checkup. She said the transfer of power isn’t unusual nor unprecedented. “As was the case when President George W. Bush had the same procedure in 2002 and 2007, and following the process set out in the Constitution, President Biden will transfer power to the Vice President for the brief period of time when he is under anesthesia,” Psaki insisted. “The Vice President will work from her office in the West Wing during this time.” The press secretary for former President Donald Trump, Stephanie Grisham, claimed that Trump refused anesthesia before a colonoscopy in 2019 because he chaffed at turning over power
to Vice President Mike Pence. The United States has never had a woman president, and Harris’ stint was expected to last not more than one hour. President Biden selected Harris to serve as vice president following her decades of public service. Harris served as San Francisco’s district attorney, California’s attorney general, and in the U.S. Senate. A graduate of Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of Law, Harris became the first woman and first person of color to serve as vice president. Reposted from Black Press USA.
Police have yet to confirm what caused a driver to plow a red SUV into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on Nov. 21, 2021, killing at least five people and injuring scores more. But one thing is clear: Vehicles can be a deadly weapon, whether used deliberately or unintentionally. The suspect, identified as Darrell Brooks Jr., is expected to face charges including five counts of intentional homicide. It has emerged that Brooks was previously arrested earlier in November after being accused of hitting the mother of child with his car in a gas station parking lot. Waukesha police confirmed on Nov. 22, that the latest incident, which left 18 children between the ages of 3 and 16 in hospital, was not an act of terrorism. Nor did it follow a police pursuit, although reports suggest that the suspect may have been fleeing an earlier incident. But the manner of the deaths conjures up recent memories of terror attacks using vehicles on perceived soft targets, such as holiday
Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
Debris at the site where an SUV plowed into a Christmas parade. markets, as well as concern over the risk of high-speed chases ending in tragedy. As a scholar who has researched the weaponizing of vehicles, I know that cars, SUVs and trucks can be an efficient means of mass killing, and one that can be virtually impossible to prepare against. Furthermore, it is becoming harder to prosecute the driver involved in such fatalities in some states. ‘Poor man’s weapon of mass destruction’ Vehicle ramming – defined by the Department of Homeland Security as the deliberate aiming of a motor vehicle at individuals with the intent to inflict fatal injuries or cause significant property damage – has been called the “poor man’s weapon of mass destruction.” Members of the
terrorist group Islamic State were not the first to employ this deadly innovation – in attacks on people in London, Nice and New York – but in recent years they have perhaps become most closely associated with the tactic. The group featured “vehicle ramming” in their propaganda as one of their preferred weapons against Western targets and encouraged supporters to use vehicle ramming against crowds. Islamic State group propaganda magazine, Dabiq, even advised would-be lone actors which vehicle could do the most damage In North America, white supremacists and other militant and terrorist groups have also rammed their vehicles
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