Background
Low-income communities, Indigenous communities and communities of color in Minneapolis experience unequal health, wealth, employment, and education outcomes, and also are overburdened by environmental conditions such as traffic and stationary pollution sources, brownfield sites, blight and substandard housing.
The idea for developing a Minneapolis Green Zones initiative came from the Minneapolis Climate Action Plan Environmental Justice Working Group. A Green Zone is a place-based policy initiative aimed at improving health and supporting economic development using environmentally conscious efforts in communities that face the cumulative effects of environmental pollution, as well as social, political and economic vulnerability.
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Answers to common questions about green zones
Southside Green Zone
The Southside Green Zone includes the greater Phillips community and Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. It was created by the City Council Resolution Designating Green Zones on April 28, 2017.
Work plan
Built on over two years of work and hundreds of hours of community members' time, the Southside Green Zone Work Plan was adopted by the Southside Green Zone Council on December 16, 2019
Meetings
The Southside Green Zone Council meets the fourth Monday of the month from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Meetings will be held online due to the local public health emergency (novel coronavirus pandemic). All members of the public are welcome and encouraged to join the Online Meetings.
Videos
Land Use: Air and Soil
Self Determination and Accountability
Green Economy and Anti-Displacement
Healthy Food Access
Produced by Creative CityMaking artist, Rory Wakemup, Lorenzo Serna and members of the Southside Green Zone Council.
This is a project of Creative CityMaking, a program of the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy at the City of Minneapolis.
Funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Kresge Foundation.
Northside Green Zone
The City of Minneapolis Northside Green Zone was created by the City Council Resolution Designating Green Zones on April 28, 2017. It exists to address the environmental justice overburden in North and Northeast Minneapolis and design and implement a plan of action to improve environmental and population health, and social, economic and environmental justice.
Work plan
The Northside Green Zone Work Plan was developed by the Northside Green Zone Task Force between November 2018 and March 2020. Task Force members spent countless hours meeting collectively and in topic-area working groups to develop and review the recommendations that were finally included.
Meetings
The Northside Green Zone Task Force meets the first Thursday of the month from 4:00-6:00 p.m. Meetings will be held online due to the local public health emergency (novel coronavirus pandemic). All members of the public are welcome and encouraged to join the Online Meetings.
Minneapolis green Zones — 2016-2017 work group
Read the Minneapolis Green Zones Workgroup Final Report for a summary of the work completed by the Green Zones Workgroup, as well as the efforts of many community leaders, environmental advocates and City staff that led to the final, amended resolution .
Green zones mapping tool
To support the Green Zones Workgroup's data-driven decision making, a Minneapolis Population Characteristics and Environmental Indicators Map was created. The tool shows data by Census Tract for each of the eight priority issues selected by the Green Zones Workgroup: 1) equity, 2) displacement, 3) air quality, 4) brownfields and soil contamination, 5) housing, 6) green jobs, 7) food access, and 8) greening. Multiple data sets may be turned on at once to show cumulative burden.