MoQevSpeaks?

I was driving to work the other day, and I finally decided to count them. I take Penn down to West Broadway and take that to 94. And between my house (35th ave and penn) and the freeway (broadway and lyndale) is a twenty block stretch. In that twenty block stretch, there are twenty-seven beauty parlors. That’s 1.35 beauty parlors for each block. Then, when I go just a bit further, I get to where Broadway crosses 94. There are like eighty-five roads that come together at this intersection, and each one of them has their own center island. This particular morning, each island had its own dude. There were no less than six people at that one intersection, one block east of all those beauty parlors, standing in the middle of an intersection with cardboard signs saying “homeless & hungry - please help” or “Vietnam vet - hungry please” or whatever.
I started to think about those twenty blocks again. Granted, I love my neighborhood, but twenty-seven?! Braiding salons?! It’s no secret that North Minneapolis has had a few rough decades. It is what realtors call “up and coming,” what demographers call “blighted,” and what city council persons call “a pain in our asses.” We have more than our share of sketchy corners, and if your yard isn’t fenced or well lit you’ll probably have shady dealings in your side lawn.
Don’t get me wrong – there’s a lot of really great things going on on the North Side, too; softball leagues, poetry slams, Frisbee games on the parkway, block club meetings, and kids of all color playing freeze tag together in my front yard. But it is a neighborhood that has seen its fair share of trouble.
This is why, the other day when I noticed these two incongruous phenomena on West Broadway, I had to pause and think. If the five general areas of Mpls were public figures, they would probably be organized as so (& forgive me if they’re all Minnesota liberals, but this is how I view my city): Downtown/central would be, say, Mark Dayton – the rich kid who’s never really felt want, and feels kinda guilty for it, so he wants to get a fair shake for the little guy. Southwest (yes Uptown, you elitists, you are part of this category) would be Al Franken – the witty, cosmopolitan, and smart guy who may have tried to run from his MN roots, but still has a Midwestern sense of justice. Southeast (Hiawatha, airport, river) is a tough one, but I think it would be someone like FBI agent Coleen Rowley – an innate sense of fairness, and always fighting for beauty and truth. Northeast is easy… Hubert freaking Humphrey – the old school, working man’s democrat. A collar that’s blue, and blood that’s red, but enough clout to have a voice. So what does that leave for the North Side? Let’s think: Neighborhood oriented, diverse, fighting to bring change to an unfortunate system, grassroots… Sounds like Paul Wellstone to me. I don’t mean to highjack the persona of an incredible human being to personify my neighborhood’s diverse peoples and goals, and I may not have been living here as long as some, but it seems inconsistent with North Minneapolis’s character to be so concerned with hair salons at the expense of the needy.
Perhaps I’m being simplistic. Let me try again. What I’m trying to say is that from what I can tell, the North Side is the fighting person’s neighborhood. No other part of the city, from what I’ve seen, is working harder to “be the change it seeks in this world.” I have never met any people who care more about their neighbors and creating a great place for their kids to live and play and grow up than the people on my block. The man who lives next door to me doesn’t speak fluent English, but I’ve bonded with him more through gestures and facial expressions than I ever did with my suburban neighbors. So why do we need a place to pay someone to braid our hair on every corner? Isn’t that something we could have our neighbors do and spend some time with them? Maybe keep some of our resources for our less fortunate neighbor? I thought that was what this formerly less fortunate neighborhood was about.
Maybe this isn’t really about the homeless people on Broadway & 94, and maybe it’s not about hair salons. My sister sent me a postcard a while ago that has a Dalai Lama quotation on it. It says: “We have bigger houses, but smaller families. More conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees, but less sense. More knowledge, but less wisdom. More information, but less communication. More medicines, but less healthiness. We have been all the way to the moon, but have trouble crossing the street to meet our new neighbor.” I guess maybe what I don’t understand is why certain things get praised for “community building” (non-profits, neighborhood associations, barbecues, corner groceries) right before they all get overlooked and overrun for “redevelopment” (repaving, condos, beauty salons, high end electronics). But I’ll tell you this right now: I will continue to trim my own hair, and keep a bag of apples in my car to hand out to people who may or may not be combat veterans, but are definitely in need of food and a smile. And I will continue to be the North Side that I seek in this world.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 25th, 2005 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Dope!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.