Critical Program

This investigation began with the notion of Post-Secondary Education being the contested terrain. Social justice is the driver for this, rooted in the notion that without post secondary education a person will never be able to acquire a position of true influence in the community within which they live. This is about more than simply providing vocational job training or career development. Those are needed, someone needs to build and maintain our physical infrastructure. BUT, in the end, this is about trying to enable those who do not hold positions of power in society, with the opportunity to join the ranks of policy and decision makers.

By mapping the demographic census data most indicative of those who do not attend college, it is revealed that our community is segregated along this issue. It is actually possible to point to where these people live on a map of the twin cities. We are able to zoom in to this data to the level of a census tract, which includes roughly 4,000 people. After doing this mapping for the twin cites, five tracts were revealed. All of these places contain large governmental housing developments and all are directly adjacent to a major highway.

I have chosen one of these tracts, in the North Neighborhood of Minneapolis to investigate further. The decision was somewhat random, as all of the potential areas were of equal need and interest, but I have not studied North Minneapolis, and felt that this was an opportunity to learn more about an important part of our city.

A cursory investigation into the neighborhood was done by driving into it along the Grand Rounds. It was revealed that the neighborhood is currently disconnected from this iconic and unifying system of public space by a thick band of industry and interstate 94. In fact, the Grand Rounds actually comes to a literal dead end in this neighborhood.

This site, as Broadway Avenue runs from North Minneapolis through this band towards the river has major potential for intervention designed to reconnect the neighborhood to the Grand Rounds system, to the River, and to Minneapolis as a whole.

An investigation of the current condition of schools in the area revealed that throughout the 2000's some major changes have been taking place. Several new programs and trends have ushered in an ara of educational choice for students and parents in North Minneapolis, it is happening all over the US.

The Choice is Yours Program, introduced as the result of a school segregation lawsuit against the State of Minnesota filed by the NAACP gives students the option to attend schools in neighboring suburbs and requires those suburbs to provide them with transportation to and from school.

The MPS (Minneapolis Public Schools) district has moved to an open enrollment model, where traditional neighborhood schools lose their attendance zones. Parents and students are free to send their children to any of the schools in the district.

There has also an emergence of a significant number of charter schools on the North side. These schools receive the same amount of money from the state per student as MPS, are required to meet the same student growth benchmarks, but are free from other constraints such as hiring unionized teachers. These charter schools are typically smaller and more specialized.

Faced with these choices, looking at school performance data and school climate, parents and students are changing where they go to school. These forces have created a condition in North Minneapolis where larger traditional neighborhood public schools are shutting down. They are being replaced by smaller specialty magnet and charter schools. There are fears that these new schools are not properly equipped to educate students effectively and that these trends are leading to an increase in segregation within the school system. This segregation, though self imposed, raises questions about the future identity and vitality of the neighborhood as a whole.

North Community High School is a perfect example of the sate of education in North Minneapolis. Attendance has dropped by more than 75% since 2002. The building itself, formerly the home of just the North High Polars, is now home to four educational institutions; Broadway HS for pregnant and parenting teens, Dunwoody Academy charter HS, Community Ed Adult Basic Education, and last and possibly the least, North Community HS.

The MPS school board has stated that they intend to phase out North High between 2011-14. I attended a listening session held by the school board at the school to hear suggestions and concerns from community members about this decision. Emotions are very high, the neighborhood feels like they are loosing a critical part of their identity in North High. They feel that the school is literally dieing and that MPS, is not simply allowing this to happen, but has willfully created the conditions leading to its demise.

I am interested in examining further how this building is currently being used, making a proposal of how it could be used in the future, and investigating further this notion of identity and community vitality. In light of these issues, I think there is also a potential to make a connection back to the river, possibly with a second sight and program working in tandem with what is going on at North High.