STARTING POINT
For everyone involved, the undeniable epicenter is West Broadway Avenue. it has to be.
“This mile-long stretch is really the economic, his-
torical and social spine of north Minneapolis,” says
Sue Wollan Fan, president of Catalyst Community
Partners and former senior exec at Accenture and Best
Buy, of West Broadway. “So as the health of this spine
goes, so goes everything else. That’s the core.”
However, articulating the logical root of the north
Minneapolis problem and, presumably, the key to
turning it all around, is not the same as actually know-
ing how to do it. For years—decades really—individ-
uals, organizations and even the city of Minneapolis
have made efforts—most of them financial and most
of them fleeting—to right the north Minneapolis ship,
but never have said efforts come to any sort of mean-
ingful fruition.
even Target, single-handed neighborhood gentri-fier and perpetual bright-spot in consumer spending,
failed in its 2003 attempt to run a profitable north
Minneapolis retail store. They opened on West
Broadway and promptly closed due to their failure to
produce necessary profits.
it wasn’t the first time an attempted white knight
had failed, but Catalyst Community Partners is determined to make it the last.
“We looked at it and said, ‘How do we get this sort
of tired investment terrain and wake it up,’” says Wol-
lan Fan. “We do that by creating cool ventures and get-
ting businesses back in service in such a way that they
stimulate others to invest. That’s our whole model. it’s
not about doing it, it’s about waking up and creating
momentum that creates confidence that stimulates
investment so that we don’t have to do this work any-
more because the market begins to actively work to fill
in the blanks. our goal is to not exist.”
To Catalyst, then, the problem for Target and all
the failed do-gooders before them wasn’t bad inten-
tions—which isn’t to say there haven’t been some over
the years—but rather a go-it-alone mentality.
As Wollan Fan notes in what could be called
the Catalyst mission statement, Reviving Under-performing Low-Income Markets, “low income
areas are such because of a persistent lack of investment over an extended period of time. one
business operating in isolation is quickly defeated
by lack of consumer confidence. everyone watches
the guinea pig. First mover advantage isn’t so unless there are many first movers at the same time.”
And it’s not like there’s no good reason to invest in
« Although physical hints of the original corridor—
including actual businesses like Friedman’s Shoes
(above)—still remain, the area’s crisp vibrance
seems a distant memory. However, while some
of the old West Broadway storefronts are long
demolished, some are still standing and key to
the corridor’s revival. Catalyst converted 1101
West Broadway (top right, then) into what is
now a thriving building that houses three businesses including the Bean Scene Too coffee shop,
complete with sidewalk seating—formerly unheard
of in North Minneapolis.
tion of people stepping back. instead of jumping in,
the entrepreneurs are spectators.”
north Minneapolis. The residents need and want the
same goods and services other Twin Citians do, they
just don’t have access to them in their neighborhood.
HISTORY LESSON
i T’S iMPor TAn T To remember that north Minneapolis hasn’t always been like this. in fact, part of what
makes the area’s Sisyphian struggle to reverse course
so acutely poignant is just how vibrant and crucial a
corridor it once was.
“Turn the clock back to 1950,” says Mike Christenson, director of economic development for the city
of Minneapolis. “you’re in a city that’s one third denser
than this one—there are 526,000 people. West Broadway at Christmas looks like Bedford Falls. it has holiday
trimmings that hang from both light posts up and down
the block. Both sides are three stories high. Skelly’s liquor and Friedman’s Shoes are at the gateway of West
Broadway. There is no Highway 94 and there are no
fast food restaurants with surface parking lots. That’s
where West Broadway was in 1950: a healthy corridor
clogged with useful business that provided goods and
services to the people of north Minneapolis.”
