As part of a Minneapolis community project, members of the Seward/Longfellow neighborhoods are creating a mural over the site of a 2010 triple homicide. A lot of work has gone into the planning and doing of this mural. My friend, Nick Longtin, and I are creating a short documentary in attempts to capture the creativity and altruism of this project.
For a peaceable neighborhood, unfamiliar ground
Three East African immigrants were shot and killed at Seward Market near my house recently. Before that, I believe the people in my neighborhood felt immune from senseless violence, or even smug about the lack of criminal activity.
Story at MPR on Market’s reopening one week after the homicides.
Ann Treacy has an article at TC Daily Planet on how communities can use social media to inform communities and share ideas. She focuses on what we did with our Neighbors Forum and this blog. It looks at how the discussion spread from a news article at WCCO to Twitter, then our Forum, then the blog. On the Forum, community member Fran Vavrus suggested a vigil which then became reality the next night. It's hard to imagine we could have organized the vigil that quickly if Fran hadn't planted the seed via the Internet.
Seward Market has reopened. Television crews gathered and a squad car
is conspicuous on the corner. It was pretty busy when I went by with a
nice mix of community customers.
Seward Profile 