Bridging the Divide

Misconceptions about crime on West Bank, and the disconnect between Cedar Riverside and the University of Minnesota

By Emma Chekroun

Cedar Riverside is a five minute walk from the University of Minnesota’s West Bank. Despite the short distance, many University students have never been there. In fact, in a survey conducted in February 2019 by the Minnesota Student Association, 62 percent of the University’s student body reported that they had never been to Cedar Riverside. Additionally, many appear to carry  misconceptions about the area. “Everyone calls the apartments ‘crack stacks,’” Emily Jablonski, a senior at the University, said. “My family and my extended family who have lived here think it’s super dangerous.” But Jablonski, who lives in a townhouse near 6th St., says she feels safe in the neighborhood.

Linda Bryant, the senior vice president of programs at Emerge—a resource for job opportunities based in and focusing on Cedar Riverside—believes the negative representation in the media of people of color may be to blame for these gaps in perspective. “I don’t recall even this past week of any positive news feeds on people of color,” Bryant said. “It’s a little bit sad,” Mohamed Ali, Director of Workforce at Emerge, said. “[There are] celebrations, people don’t talk. When there's a tragedy, they don’t talk. But when there’s a little shoplifting boom, it’s the first page in the newspaper.” 

Ali believes there is a problem in Cedar Riverside, but it’s not safety. It’s a growing drug abuse problem. “Overdoses are increasing in the neighborhood. There are about 17 deaths related to that, and none of the reporters talk about it at all,” Ali said. Considering the state-wide rise in opioid-related deaths, his claim is far from shocking . Abdi Warsame, the City Council Representative for Ward 6 (DFL), also cited the opioid crisis as a prevailing issue for the community. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, in 2017 there were over 400 opioid-overdose deaths. The Minnesota Department of Health estimates that number will only get worse.  

Having a police force who understands these struggles would be vital. Warsame believes there needs to be more Somali officers for the Cedar Riverside area who can relate to the youth. Nearly half of the population in Cedar Riverside is Black or African American, according to Minnesota Compass. Warsame believes having that shared cultural background could make a difference. 

The Cedar Cultural Center has also taken a stance on connecting with youth in the neighborhood. “We’re concerned about the crime, we’re concerned about the youth,” David Hamilton, Executive Director of the Cedar Cultural Center, said. “And we are trying to help be a part of the solution.” Hamilton explained how the Cedar has decided to leave its plaza open to youth in the neighborhood rather than making the area a no trespassing zone. “Now, I don’t want to paint this picture that all the youth that hang out there are problems,” Hamilton said. “The interesting thing about it is that most of the Somalis in the neighborhood think the youth who hang out there aren’t from the neighborhood.” They’re seen as outsiders, said Hamilton.

Youth seems to be one of the prevailing focuses for the Cedar Riverside community. While Ward believes the neighborhood is getting safer, he still cited “Somali turf type issues” as a problem for the neighborhood. Programs like Ka Joog are trying to provide education and resources to Somali youth, but some are skeptical that there isn’t enough funding to alleviate the issue. 

“While there may be a lot of youth programming, there is not a lot of youth program dollars,” Bryant said. With a population with high numbers of families and children, there is a high need to be met. Only $10,000 was approved for youth support programs in the NRP’s most recent Community Participation Program Phase. “It’s important for the city not to forget that this community exists” Bryant said. 

The Cedar Riverside Neighborhood Revitalization Program (CR-NRP) has struggled for funding for some time. Most recently, it came to a head with the merger of the CR-NRP and the West Bank Community Coalition, whom the CR-NRP had been competing with for funding. Warsame recalled issues in the program when he was Board Chair of the CR-NRP. High expectations from the community coupled with an unclear role, said Warsame, posed significant challenges for the CR-NRP. 

There’s also no access, at the moment, into universities, said Bryant, when considering the educational institutions surrounding Cedar Riverside. “Just because they are surrounded by educational institutions,” Bryant said when discussing the youth in Cedar Riverside, “doesn’t mean they have access to them.”

Despite their close physical proximity, the University of Minnesota is relatively uninvolved in the community. Bryant mentioned that the University of Minnesota’s former general education department that gave many low income people access into the University of Minnesota now no longer exists. In addition, Bryant commented on the lack of physical access to Universities surrounding Cedar Riverside. “The campuses are on lock down,” Bryant said. “You don’t get in any place unless you’re a student and you have an ID.” 

Jablonski, a University of Minnesota student, said she wished there were more opportunities to meet people in the surrounding neighborhood. “When I walk around, I don’t feel like it's my community. I don’t know anyone—it’s not like there are a lot of college students . . . its families and more adults,” Jablonski said. “It’s hard because I feel like it’s an area for Somalian people and maybe they don’t want me there. It would be nice if there was more cultural blending,” she said. She clarified that she wished there wasn’t such a divide between college students and the Cedar-Riverside community. 

According to Hamilton, who worked at Augsburg for 11 years, Augsburg College engages with the Cedar Riverside community more directly than the University of Minnesota. He says that, as the community demographic became predominantly Somali, University of Minnesota began to engage less with the area. Augsburg, on the other hand, regularly engages with the community. “I saw a group of white students walking around the Sagal Somali restaurant,” Hamilton said. “And I thought, what the hell?” That was before Hamilton realized they were with Mary Laurel True, director of service learning at Augsburg, a program focused on community participation and service. 

When thinking about why such a prevailing fear of Cedar Riverside seems to persist, Hamilton cited “Fear of the unknown.” 

And yet, community members are advocating for solutions: “The U should step up,” Warsame said. “Why not invest in wrap around programs?” Wrap around programs are generally geared toward at risk youth and focus on personalized care, whether that be job prep or after school programs. Warsame believes that a need for more education exists in the community between the communities. Children in the Cedar Riverside community need better access to educational institutions, like the University of Minnesota, and students at the University of Minnesota could use more education on Somali culture. And who better to design such programs than the neighboring University? Warsame hopes building that relationship can eventually become a natural dialogue facilitated by students. He believes it’s not something to just be brought up at one meeting and then forgotten, but rather an ongoing dialogue. 

Ultimately, Warsame acknowledges that “everybody has restraints,” but “sometimes it doesn’t cost anything to have Somali education.” Indeed, for an educational institution, the University of Minnesota still has a long way to go in fostering a cross-community and cross-cultural education between its students and their next-door Cedar Riverside neighbors.