Unrest devastates a Minneapolis' landmark street of diversity
MINNEAPOLIS — Along the miles-long Minneapolis street where more than a century of migrants have found their American footholds -- Germans, Swedes, Vietnamese, Somalis, Mexicans -- a new history can be traced.
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Go further up Lake Street and there's more fresh history: the Somali restaurant with the broken windows, the empty hulk of a burned sneaker store, the boarded-up party supply store owned by a Mexican immigrant who had been praying for the coronavirus lockdown to end so he could reopen. The protests that have roiled Minneapolis night after night didn't inflame just a single neighborhood: Much of the violence raged up Lake Street, an artery of commerce and culture that cuts across a broad swath of the city.
For residents, for businesspeople, for artists, the Lake Street corridor has long been a symbol of the city's complex history, a block-by-block study in immigration, economic revitalization and persistent inequality. On one end is a trendy district of bars and shopping. On the other are quiet neighborhoods atop the Mississippi River bluff. Between the two is a timeline that spans almost five miles marking each wave of arrivals, along with a tangle of languages spoken in each group's markets, restaurants, churches and community groups.
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It's Lake Street's minority-owned small businesses that may suffer the most from the racial firestorm that hit the city this week. As thousands of people protested a police force with a history of violence against people of color, the collateral damage spread wide — from immigrant-owned restaurants to a center for Native American youth to an affordable housing complex under construction.
"What happened with Mr. Floyd is a horror," said Eduardo Barrera, the general manager of Mercado Central, a cooperative of largely Latino-owned businesses that helped spark economic revitalization along the street when it opened 20 years ago. The muraled corner building was broken into twice during the unrest, with some of its goods stolen. "But we are hurting ourselves," he said.
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Residents and business owners say they've spent the last 20 years working to revive its chain of neighborhoods -- many blighted by years of neglect, suburban flight and disinvestment. "It took years to get where we were and here we're back in square one," she said, noting even the local post office had been damaged enough to disrupt mail service. "No, we're worse than square one."
By all accounts, immigrant entrepreneurs have been the engine of Lake Street's repeated resurgences. The stretch, which runs east-west through the city's south side, has long been a landing pad for recent arrivals to the city.
More..
https://www.startribune.com/unrest-devastates-a-city-s-landmark-street-of-diversity/570907362/
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I wonder whether Trump has the authority to withhold fund to repair the damaged post office..
= new reply since forum marked as read
