Otherwise, the plan puts lower-income neighborhoods at risk. Duckworth says changes on the ground will take new commitments from Minneapolis city leaders, especially to ensure that new housing includes affordable housing. Zoning plans are essentially just blueprints for a city. "And I think that was also quite frustrating." "There was a lot of, really, what we saw being self-congratulatory press both locally and nationally," says Owen Duckworth, director of policy and organizing at the Alliance, a racial justice and housing coalition in the Twin Cities. In Minneapolis' communities of color, the reaction was more mixed. California lawmakers made a similar attempt, but so far have failed three times to pass legislation. Oregon soon followed suit, passing a plan that "upzoned" single-family neighborhoods to duplexes or fourplexes. Minneapolis's plan opened the door for other cities and states to take on single-family zoning. Walton in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune, Jan. Racial restrictions were advertised by developers, like in this ad placed by Edmund G. "It's costing you more in the summer when it's hot and more in the winter when it's cold."Īs the city drafted its plan, the staff acknowledged that the two central goals, addressing racial inequity and climate change, were intertwined. "If you live in substandard housing with poor insulation, just by virtue of that fact, you are paying more for your energy bills," says Sam Grant, executive director of MN350, an environmental advocacy group. The buildings themselves also play a big role in energy efficiency. Many neighborhoods were not designed to promote walking or biking, with jobs, stores and housing in close proximity to each other. Land use patterns can have profound effects on the carbon emissions a city produces.Ī lack of affordable housing in cities often pushes residents into the outskirts and suburbs, driving up car use. Minneapolis also began to consider another central goal for redoing its zoning: combating climate change. At the time, according to Kirsten Delegard, this part of Minneapolis was being rapidly developed by investors, who blanketed new neighborhoods with racial covenants that reserved them for the exclusive use of white people. It changed land zoning citywide, acknowledging that the history of covenants created housing inequities that persist to this day.Ī photograph, taken circa 1928, shows southwest Minneapolis. In January, months before George Floyd's killing thrust racial inequity into the spotlight, Minneapolis enacted an ambitious plan in an attempt to address it. Such covenants were attached to tens of thousands of homes across Minneapolis, carving inequity directly into the city's map and creating a foundation for one of the biggest racial wealth gaps of any major American city. That language, known as a "racial covenant," barred any nonwhite resident from buying or living in the property. When Kirsten Delegard's grandparents bought their first house in south Minneapolis in 1941, they signed the property's deed, as is standard for any homebuyer.īut the deed came with this line: "No person or persons other than of the Caucasian race shall be permitted to occupy said premises or any part thereof." This year it was a clean sweep for the dirt with Promising Shoes leading the way.In 2018, Minneapolis undertook a major effort to redo city zoning with racial equity and climate change in mind, which divided the community. In the past, turf dominated with dirt only winning once. The turf race was a mile and 70 yards while the dirt was a mile. This season pit a set of eight $4000 claimers on the dirt against a field of eight $20,000 turfers. The goal in putting the race together is try and get a blanket finish between two surfaces which is done by tweaking distance and class. The purses and official order of finish for racing purposes are separate but they are combined for betting purposes. It is the combined running of horses on the dirt and turf. The most popular race each year, however, is the Battle of the Surfaces. There were races for horses that haven’t hit the board at the meet as well as for horses that haven’t yet won on the turf. The Dash in the Flash was a 110 yard quarter horse race which was followed by the two furlong Spurt in the Dirt for the thoroughbreds. In additional to the usual – camels, zebras and ostriches – there were several races that you don’t usually see on regular race days. SHAKOPEE, MN – The weather was perfect and a crowd of 14,425 packed Canterbury Park for the annual Extreme Day festivities.
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