EPIC Community Meeting Minutes
September 12th, 2019, 6:30
– 8:50pm
East
Phillips Park Cultural & Community Center, 2307 17th Ave
S.
EPIC
web address: eastphillips-epic.com
Office:
2433
Bloomington Ave.,
Minneapolis, MN 55404
Phone: (612) -280-8418
Board Roster: Rosie Cruz, Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Cassandra Holmes,
Shontal Lajeunesse, Abah Mohamed, Carol Pass, Steve Sandberg, Sarah
Santiago.
Board Members Present: Laura Dale, Carol Pass, Steve
Sandberg, Shontal Lajeunesse, Cassie Holmes, Rosie Cruz, Abah Mohamed, Sarah
Santiago
Board Members Not Present: Mary Gonsior (E),
Members:
Brad Pass, Devika Ghai, Lex Horan, Peggy Clark
Guests: Kali Pliego
(crime prevention specialist for 3rd precinct), Chad Berdahl, Jack Loftus, Shirley Heyer, Clay
Dutra, Chad Hebert
6:30 Social
Time
6:45 Greetings and Introductions
Meeting of the whole:
6:50 Approve tonight’s agenda, LD, CP, Approved
Approve minutes from
August community meeting, LD, SS, Approved
6:55 Announcements
·
Next Board
Meeting will be: Saturday, October 5th at 10am at the EPIC
office (2433 Bloomington Avenue)
o
Board Meetings are open to the public
·
Next Community
Meeting will be: Thursday, October 10th at 6:30pm here at East
Phillips Park
·
EPIC
Garden Meeting this Saturday, September 14th from 9am to 10:30am
o
To plan fall harvest party
·
Phillips
Community Clean Sweep –
October 12th
o
Entire Phillips and Little Earth get together to
clean up the neighborhood
·
Garden
Fall Harvest Party Saturday,
October 19th at 4:30
o
Community garden celebration
7:00 Quorum Achieved. Agenda and minutes
approved.
7:00 Crime Discussion and Kali Pliego from 3rd
Precinct and officer Chad Berdahl from
Park Police
·
There have been high levels of crime in certain
areas of the neighborhood
·
Bloomington, 16th and 17th
Avenue
o
This is not the only problem area, lots of areas
seeing really high rates of crime
·
Police being called and saying they know that
it’s going on, but don’t do anything
·
Resident thinks this is the worst it has ever been
·
It’s going to be getting cold soon and these
people need a place to live
·
Kali Pliego’s job is to channel what she hears
from the community to the proper teams at the police department i.e.
investigators, community response team etc.
o
Community based help – pastor of church offered
to help organize walking patrol during bus drops
o
Problem is that people bothering the
neighborhood are criminals (dealing drugs etc) however, they are
§
Standing on public land, not loitering
·
So it is hard to enforce and arrest them
·
Little Earth responded to crime by having a
better relationship with the 3rd precinct and the park police by
having pop ups and showing up in numbers in the community with park police and
Mpls police
·
The words you use when you call 911 i.e. not
breathing vs. overdosing is prioritized differently
·
There is a committee at the city looking at the
response rate of 911 calls
o
Look at it creatively – how can the city best
handle the high rates of 911 calls
o
Lex will send Sarah the information
·
Jack from Southside harm reduction
o
It’s important where we put our energy
o
Safe injection sites are very effective
o
Harm reduction housing is also effective
§
This is where people are allowed to live if they
are using drugs
o
Southside harm reduction provides syringe
exchanges, provides resources, syringe clean up and teaches others how to clean
up syringes
o
Fill out form on southsideharmreduction.org if
you find an area that needs syringe clean up
·
It is hard to take public transit without a bad
incident every time
·
Phillips community center is seeing a great deal
of
·
These issues have deep root causes i.e. poverty,
racism, inter-generational trauma
o
We need to address long term, avoid getting
stuck in day to day issues
o
What are we trying to clean up?
o
Instead of pushing people out of the neighbor,
need to work together and find solutions to these big problems
·
Questions regarding another navigation site
o
We can come up with some ideas with this
o
There are people working to create another
navigation site
·
City is very interested in harm reduction and
addressing opioid problem
o
Have plan coming out from city about this
7:45 Insurance
Update
·
We have a certificate saying we have insurance!
·
We can get the money for the Violence Prevention
Grant but there is more to do regarding properly safeguarding EPIC, Devika, the
mentors and mentees
·
We will have to pay for background checks
·
EPIC needs to decide how we want to conform to
this issue of insurance for Devika and how to set up a payroll plan
8:06 39
unit development at 17th and Lake
·
Continue discussion from August
·
Update from Steve on communication from planner
o
A petition
with signatures can be sent to her office and will be considered along with
emails and written comments. It doesn’t have any formal requirements or doesn’t
trigger any particular action.
o
The
developer withdrew his application, and will need to reapply, but hasn’t as of
9/13/19. When he does, EPIC and the CM’s office will be notified. (9th
Ward Aide Graham Faulkner has been the contact on this. 612-673-2209). The
holdup for the developer is the design for the alley closure. This needs approval
by Public Works. They will look at issues of drainage, access, increase use
capacity, clearances, snow removal, etc. Steve will try to find out who is point
person at Public Works for this.
o
The
350 foot mailing list is not readily accessible, so Steve suggests that a separate meeting from EPIC is set up and the two affected blocks are doorknocked. Once Steve finds out who from Public Works to include, Steve will let
people know.
·
Clay Dutra – the developer
o
The developer has not reapplied again
o
If Clay does not get this land, a different
developer will and they will probably not be as responsive to community
concerns
o
Dealing with alley closure issues with the city
including
o
Working with sewer and storm water for best way
to drain water
o
Clay is wondering about petition
§
The petition is asking for 3 things:
·
Majority of units be affordable based on
neighborhood income
·
No closure of alley
·
Additional parking spots sufficient in number to
reasonably accommodate the dozens of new residents and commercial tenants the
development expects to attract
o
Clay understands affordability concern
§
Would like to have as many affordable units as
possible
o
Parking is a shared concern with Clay as well
·
Lot is so small, trying to use alley to maximize
space
·
Would love to add a floor underneath but they
can’t because there is not enough space for a ramp
o
Clay does not agree with alley closure
·
Might be because Clay does not live on this
block, he doesn’t know how it would effect neighbors
·
But Clay sees that there are problems with drugs
in this immediate area, so why not close the alley
o
Alley closure concern is primarily a 16th
avenue resident concern
o
Issues because we don’t have housing or
employment, not because there is an alley there – this is an interpretation of
why this is on the petition
o
How will traffic be affected with an alley
closure?
·
Steve suggests that property owners (including
those that created the petition) in this immediate area get together with the
developer and discuss the alley closure issue and how to best move forward
8:45 Update
on Roof Depot
·
How did the city council meeting on August 12th
go?
o
Not well, they did not let us speak
o
Cano did not ask for environmental assessment
worksheet
·
We are hoping that the Clark-Berglin law will
apply. The city says it doesn’t because a pollution assessment is not necessary
– this depends on being a super fund site
·
EAW can be sent in by the community, rather than
depending on the city to do it
·
EIS (environmental impact statement) is next
level – will hold them up even longer
·
There is other pressure being put on MN
Pollution Control Agency
·
MN Pollution Control Agency setting up
preliminary odor monitoring of the site
8:50 Arsenic
Triangle Super Fund Site
·
Thanks to all who wrote a letter or e-mailed
Randolf Cano at the EPA.
·
This is vital to the roof depot fight
·
Any response?
o
Yes, Brad spoke with someone at the EPA
·
The EPA received 34 letters, which they said is
a lot
o
They are making a decision on whether to delete
the status of the super fund site based on these letters
8:52 Adjourn
