Defending Community: The Struggle for Alternative Redevelopment in Cedar-Riverside

2. Capital Invades Cedar-Riverside

CHAPTER2 Capital Invades Cedar-Riverside It is somewhat ironic that the most stnking, most tangible projects in which our local governments have engaged-projects that have been most loudly and confidently justified as being for the common good-have presented some of the severest threats to the neighborhoods and individuals unfortunate enough to have been in their paths. -Jeffrey H Henig, Neighborhood Mobihzation THE URBAN redevelopment that mushroomed after World War II provides an extraordinary account of the destruction of urban communities, affordable housing, and community services. Blighted, poverty-stricken slums were targeted for grand schemes controlled by powerful central governments, institutions, and corporations. A flurry of concrete freeways, hospitals, corporate headquarters, and high-rise condominiums began replacing inner-city neighborhoods, which were politically-and literally-bulldozed. It seemed as if the neighborhood communities at risk from top-down, capital-conscious urban renewal stood little chance against the onslaught of urban renewal dollars. In the 1960s the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood was targeted for the same type of urban renewal that was destroying neighborhoods across the country. The City of Minneapolis's new official Urban Renewal Plan specified clearance of a primarily Scandinavian, working-class neighborhood. A neighborhood of single-family homes and duplexes was to be replaced by a high-density, high-rise living environment. Local developer Keith Heller stepped in with his "New Town in Town" plan and began buying up the neighborhood property. Copyrighted Material 27 The Context: History, Economy, and Politics of the Twin Cities The "Twin Cities" Metropolitan Area, built around the two cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, is the sixteenth largest metropolitan area in the country, encompassing a population of two million. Built on the historical rivalry between Minneapolis and st. Paul, which once, it is told, tried to beat each other out in census totals by counting headstones and barbershop customers as residents, Minneapolis eventually took the lead in both population and commerce, leaving St. Paul the center of state government. Dominating the upper Midwest economy , culture, and politics, Twin Citians have prided themselves on their quality of life. There has been a relatively small difference between metropolitan area and central city incomes, and the overall metropolitan economy has been more or less stable (Abler and Adams, 1976). In the "Land of 10,000 Lakes," at least twelve lakes are within or next to the city limits of the two center cities, and many others lie within the metropolitan area. The Twin Cities have, since the 1960s, developed thriving arts and theater communities with national reputations . The failure of lumber and milling around the turn of the century, on which the Twin Cities rose to early prominence, provided the necessary capital and economic need to invest in new industries. "Enterprising" bankers, particularly in Minneapolis, began concentrating their capital into huge financial institutions. As a result, by the early 1900s Minneapolis was developing a fairly diversified economy (Workers of the Writers' Program, 1944). With its large amount of space, needed for distribution industries to locate conveniently and economically, Minneapolis was in a much better position to diversify than st. Paul, which was more limited and congested (Baldinger, 1971). S1. Paul, more of an ethnic, working-class, and Catholic city than Minneapolis, was also more conservative, while Minneapolis was more "progressive" in altering its landscape to serve capital (Baldinger, 1971). At the same time that the old economy was failing, some "high technology " firms were gaining a footing in the area-including Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M) and Electric Thermostat Company (Honeywell)-as well as such companies as Super-Valu, Northern States Power, Land O'Lakes, American Hoist and Derrick, Dayton's, Northwest Bank Corporation, and First Bank System, which provided for a "fully diversified economic infrastructure" (Galaskiewicz, 28 Copyrighted Material Chapter 2 1985 :8}. Minneapolis in particular was building its industries during the "golden age of invention" and was able to exploit new technologies without having to dismantle old plants (Workers of the Writers' Program, 1944). The computer industry was founded in 1944 at Harvard University , and only two years later it started up in the Twin Cities with the incorporation of the navy-linked Engineering Research Associates (ERA), one of only three computer research organizations at the time (Draheim, Howell, and Shapero, 1966). In 1966 Draheim and his colleagues cited the conditions they believed, apparently correctly, would produce growth in the Twin Cities high-tech military business in particular and in...