Harrison Neighborhood, Minneapolis CBA campaign

The Harrison Neighborhood is located in North Minneapolis and is adjacent to the environmentally contaminated Bassett Creek Valley redevelopment area. The Harrison and Bryn Mawr Neighborhood Associations, worried about the effects that the redevelopment might have on the predominantly minority and low-income communities, participated in public meetings and partnered with the major developer to help shape the plan. Neighborhood residents also adopted "Guiding Principles for Redevelopment," a document setting out the neighborhoods' priorities and including affordable and inclusionary housing, living wage jobs and job training, minority and female owned business support and hiring goals, addressing the basic retail and service needs of residents, supporting the neighborhoods' efforts to make a sense of place, using pedestrian-friendly design and improving linkages to other parts of the city.

The developer, Ryan Companies, has agreed to work with the neighborhood associations to reach a CBA. More information is available in a report by the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability, and from Minneapolis' planning department.

Update, 01.22.09:
On November 27, 2008, the Minneapolis City Council passed an amendment supporting good jobs and affordable housing goals. See here, and here for the council's minutes.