Eye on U, April 2008
The 17-member steering committee for the new University District Partnership Alliance is expected to announce in mid-April the selection of a demonstration project, following the roundtable discussion on the topic that was led by Ward 2 City Council Member Cam Gordon on March 17 at Van Cleve Park.
The Alliance — composed of university, city, and neighborhood and business organization representatives — was established in mid-2007 by the Legislature upon the recommendation of a university area neighborhood impact report, conducted by the university’s Stadium Area Advisory Group (SAAG).
In a 2007 bill, the Legislature allocated $750,000 to fund the Alliance. It directed it to conduct a demonstration project and to report on it in January 2009. Sen. Larry Pogemiller, one of the bill’s sponsors, and others, suggested that the demonstration project focus on housing conditions and improvements.
The Alliance hopes a successful project will lead to another $30 million from the Legislature for an endowment to fund Alliance programs and projects.
At the roundtable meeting, 15 people raised issues that could be addressed in the five Alliance neighborhoods: Cedar-Riverside, Marcy-Holmes, Southeast Como, Prospect Park and the university neighborhood.
Issues included:
• improving run-down housing stock to keep and attract university faculty members;
• the safety of students;
• the university’s land grant responsibility to the community;
• quality of living;
• crime prevention and safety issues to provide a safe and healthy environment;
• the city’s response to noise complaints;
• drug dealings;
• city housing code compliance; and
• abandoned houses.
Housing ideas offered included financial incentives, marketing the area, and establishing real estate covenants and land trusts to improve housing.
At the meeting, Cedar-Riverside resident Lynn Johnson asked, “How can we get the university police active in our community?” Johnson said a safe environment is needed. He reported that, while leaving home for the meeting, he stopped to break up a fight between two youths, only to find that it was a setup and that four other youths wanted to steal his vehicle. They were not successful, he said.
Gordon said that public safety issues were part of the neighborhood impact report, and that one of the goals could include leveraging more police coordination. Gordon, one of three city representatives on the Alliance, suggested that it could provide “one unified district so all agencies communicate with each other.”
Gordon said he might need some help in his Alliance proposals, such as restructuring city services and arguing for a moratorium in city rental licenses.
Mary Mellen, a Cedar-Riverside resident and a rental property owner, said, “We provide quality housing. We take very good care of our people. We try to take care of the university, and maybe they could take care of us, too.”
Not to be confused with the University District Partnership Alliance, legislators in 2007 also added $1.5 million to the stadium budget for a “good neighbor” fund, intended to mitigate the neighborhood impact of construction and events at the new football stadium.
For information on the University District Partnership Alliance, visit www.community.umn.edu/alliance.
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last revised: April 24, 2008