Initiative makes Longfellow more welcoming

Downtown Longfellow has a new program running this summer aimed at making it cleaner and safer for everyone.

It includes paid ambassadors, a marketing program and activities to support local businesses in the East Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue area.

The pilot started on July 1 and is funded through Sept. 30. The Longfellow Business Association (LBA) is the program’s fiscal agent, and so far the group has raised roughly $60,000 of its $90,000 goal from local businesses and nonprofit organizations. These include LBA, Lake Street Council, Reema Health, Boker’s Inc., Two Bettys Green Cleaning, and the Minneapolis Foundation.

Project management is provided by the Musicant Group, led by Max Musiciant. Heart of the Paint Hoops, and its owner Ibrahim Oduniyi, provide the ambassadors, and Knack Social is handling the marketing.

HOW IT STARTED
The pilot grew out of concerns about people who are unhoused, safety, debris and the encampment in the area last year.

Justin Ley is an LBA board member who owns and operates Reema Health in the recently remodeled Coliseum Building at 2708 East Lake St. He and the 50 other people who works there overlook the parking lot behind the vacant building owned by Hamoudi Sabri where there was a encampment and a shooting last year on Sept.16.

“My office is right up there in the top corner of the Coliseum and as we were moving in, the encampment was forming in the parking lot behind our neighbor's building,” recalled Ley in a recent conversation. “And very quickly the narrative was, ‘Are we going to clear the encampment or are we going to keep the encampment?’”

Ley thought both were “pretty bad ideas,” and wanted to see more done to address underlying problems. He sought to find better and compassionate ways to keep the area safe and welcoming in the future.
Late last year, Ley reached out to Musicant, who had experience improving a similarly challenged space in St. Paul.

“The recommendation I had,” said Musicant, “was to create a clean and safe ambassador program that would care for the physical environment, the built environment, the public realm and all the spaces between the buildings. They would not only pick up the litter and the dangerous sharps and things like that, but they would also provide a welcoming presence for all people.”

Ambassadors seek to build relationships with those who were “struggling and oftentimes causing the negative behaviors that are impacting the area and doing so by starting that invitation – and everyone is welcome – and then providing consistent credible accountability.”

They worked with the LBA and partnered with others to bring the program to life, beginning in July.

"When Justin Ley of Reema Health approached me about the Clean and Safe program, I was thrilled to support a grassroots action for our community," said Longfellow Business Association Board President Anna Tsantir. "Our previous requests to city agencies and representatives have not yet resulted in solutions for the urgent issues Longfellow businesses are facing."

Janice Downing, of CommonSense Consulting@Work and Co-owner of S.H.A.K.E. Event Center in the Coliseum building, met Ley shortly after he moved into their building and was involved in the project early on.

Downing shared feedback from other tenants and event center guests who are concerned about their safety. She and her partner Alicia Belton host monthly safety meetings and want to see the program succeed.

“I believe that the initiative will provide resources that will engage with those in our community in a respectful manner,” said Downing. “These interactions increase our love for our community and make it easier to engage with one another in a positive way.”

Ley believes that “deep, deep empathy” is needed and said that “if we want this neighborhood to thrive, it can’t stay this way.”

He added, “Everyone is welcome, but not every behavior.”

Downing said there have been positive results so far. “Trash and sharps are removed, and they [the ambassadors] provide a level of protection and visibility that was missing before.” About 100 bags of trash were removed in the first month.

WHAT IS A STREET AMBASSADOR?
Ley and Musicant agree that the ambassadors are the most noticeable and important part of the program, but having dedicated ambassadors in the areas is not a new idea.

“Ambassadors of some sort has long been discussed and desired by area businesses and organizations,” said Musicant. LBA and Longfellow Rising have previously talked about the need for ambassadors.

“This effort then is not so much about Justin and I going out and running a project,” said Musicant, “but the collective vision and desires of many coming to fruition.”

The street ambassadors in Longfellow are similar to those in other areas, but unlike downtown, all the Longfellow workers are focused on safety, as well as hospitality and clean up.

They also plan and set up activities and provide snacks at Nuevo Campo –Downtown Longfellow’s park area created where several buildings once stood at 27th and Lake street prior to their destruction that followed the police killing George Floyd and subsequent police use of less-than-lethal projectiles and chemicals on protesters in the area.

Ambassador services include picking up litter, cleaning sidewalks, greeting visitors, building positive relationships, connecting people to services, encouraging respectful behavior, reporting maintenance concerns, and supporting events and activities at Nuevo Campo.

The hours Longfellow ambassadors work is based on the funds raised so far. Three-person ambassador teams work from 3-8 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday and one person works Monday and Tuesday on clean-up only.

The ambassadors are trained and employed by Hard in the Paint Hoops.

Donnell Green is one of them.

“I try to give them a human experience. I talk to them like a family member,” said Green about the people he comes across who are dealing with homelessness and substance abuse. “I want them to feel welcome.”
Green believes that behaviors and attitudes have changed in the area. He reported community members taking the initiative to clean up more, and returning to apologize after difficult interactions when deescalation was needed. He called the police once in the first month, but by the time they arrived their assistance was no longer needed.

“It’s spreading,” he said, “and it’s a good thing.”

Data being gathered includes amount of trash collected and the number of visitors in the area. They are doing regular counts of people, including tracking woman and children, who visit the park area, as past programs have shown an increase in use by those groups means more consider the area to be safe and inviting.

WILL PROGRAM CONTINUE?
Local businesses, the LBA, Lake Street Council, Longfellow Rising and the East Lake Street Special Service District and other community members are exploring ways to make the program more permanent.

“It needs to be funded long term,” said Downing.

They are exploring creating or using an already established special service district or independent business improvement district to support the program. There is a similar effort through the Downtown Improvement District.

A business improvement district requires a defined geographic area where commercial property owners pay a special assessment fee to the city which then funds supplemental services. The district’s establishment must be supported by a majority of commercial property owners. Publicly owned properties, like the former police station, and other nonprofit, institutional or residential properties could make voluntary contributions.

"We hope to see the same level of city support for Longfellow that has been provided for similar models downtown; we want to stop the trend of businesses leaving and instead make our neighborhood a destination," said Tsantir.

In the weeks ahead the project leaders will continue to meet and assess how the program is doing, but already there is interest in continuing it and potentially expanding it.

“If this could spread in the community, it would be a better place,” said Green.

“I think it needs to grow,” said Ley.