BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE
This year Franklin Avenue’s Open Streets celebration will be on Aug. 21, going from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The boundaries of the Franklin Avenue festival are Portland Avenue in the west and 28th Avenue in the east. Who else closes their streets to rampant fuel-burning horseless carriages? Well, Bogota, Colombia, for one. For 40 years, that city has closed its main streets to cars and buses for seven hours every Sunday and holiday. The idea for Open Streets came from a young Colombian radical, trained in the U.S. during the ’60s, who went home to fight the growing tide of excessive motorized traffic and unlivable urban areas. Now the idea has spread throughout Central America, Mexico and the U.S. In Spanish, the event is called Cyclovía (cycleway). But you don’t have to ride your bike, you can also just walk.
Open Streets-Minneapolis started with a single event in 2011 and now comprises eight events, of which Franklin Avenue is just one. In keeping with its origins, the Minneapolis version of Open Streets is co-sponsored by the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition, as well as the City of Minneapolis and Blue Cross/Blue Shield Center for Prevention. Additional sponsors include the University of MN, the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District (DID) and Metro Transit, which among other things provides a free bus pass to anyone for the day. Go to the link for Open Streets – Franklin (http://www.openstreetsmpls.org/franklin-av) and click on the link for the free Metro Transit pass to get one. Some events have a “local” sponsor—which is Children’s MN (children’s hospital) for Franklin.
Open Streets does not announce the participants until just before the event, so we have to go by what happened last year, plus those new participants who have announced their own presence and offerings for this year. I also got some extra information from Deb Ervin at Articulture, who is one of two business-owner-organizers working on Open Streets Franklin Avenue. Last year, the second Open Streets on Franklin, there was participation by a host of organizations and businesses, including Hope Community, Ventura Village, Project for Pride in Living, Zipp’s Liquor (which sponsored a performance stage), Seward Neighborhood Group, Save the Boundary Waters, Health Fair 11, Cycles for Change, The Hub Bike Co-op, Four Sisters Farmers’ Market, Welna II (Hardware store), Pizza Luce, Peace Coffee, Boneshaker Books, Articulture and Capitol Cafe.
Those last two were the businesses that provided the two part-time organizers to get out the word to organizations in Seward about Open Streets Franklin and especially about the mini-grants, from $50 to $200, offered by the Seward Civic and Commerce Association (SCCA), and funded by a grant from Minneapolis Great Streets. One goal of the organizers is to increase participation of East African businesses, as a way to get more of them interested in the SCCA and add to the diversity of the neighbor- hood group. Besides Deb from Articulture, Somali-born entrepreneur Burhan Elmi (also known as Scot), the founder and owner of Capitol Cafe, has been canvassing businesses to great success. (Scot and his business were mentioned in Southside Pride’s Focus on East Franklin article in June.)
Last year, the attendance at Franklin’s Open Streets was on the low side due to uncooperative weather, including a major downpour. This year, they will have to contend with the disrupted traffic patterns of closure of the Franklin Avenue bridge, which will not reopen until fall. But despite all that, some amazing things are on offer. This year there will be a guide/handout produced for the event. The avenue’s various sites are organized into four themes or nodes: Wellness, Kids, Environment and Art.
A new participant this year is Encore, the soon-to-be-famous sushi and karaoke lounge that was also featured in Southside Pride’s Focus on East Franklin story. I probably don’t have to tell you what their location will offer. But some of the businesses are going quirky: Tracy’s Saloon is offering beer pong without the beer, Thai and Sushi restaurant Soberfish is hosting a bouncy castle, and Boneshaker Books is having a dunk tank, for that good old country-fair vibe in the city. Overall there are a lot more businesses involved—over 40 in Seward alone. And I just got late-breaking news that my favorite food truck—the Tatanka Truck featuring food from The Sioux Chef—will be parked at Bloomington and Franklin as part of the Four Sisters Farmers’ Market site.
Another new participant, brought in by organizer Scot, along with several new East African-owned businesses, is the Somali Cultural Museum, which was also a popular stop along the recent Open Streets East Lake Street. They will feature dancing and music near Triangle Park. Also Coach Ahmed, a local hero in the soccer community, will be directing street soccer games. And look for henna artists in the vicinity, and possibly more dancers at Rebecca’s Cafe.
Another new program offered this year at all Open Streets events is the addition of a Learning Experience to any booth, locale or activity on the route that applies for it. This is a collaboration of the U of M’s Learning Dreams program and Hennepin County Libraries, the Franklin Library in this case. Any group that adds a learning experience to their site, with help from the library or the U of M, will have their participation fee waived. Because the application process is still open for non-food-service sites, no list of participants is available, so I guess if you want some free learning, you’ll just have to get out there at 11 a.m. and bike or walk the entire route. That could be a learning experience in itself. If you have or know of any groups participating in Open Streets on Franklin that could benefit from offering a Learning Experience, the link to apply is at www.learningdreams.org/celebratelearning.
Since, at the time of publication, the Open Streets event is still being built, here are some ideas, needs and wants from the organizers of the event in Seward.
Seating + Shade. There is never enough of these. All businesses are invited to set out tents and chairs. You can get creative, too. In 2014, Bedlam Theatre set up a pop up living room outside Hope Community—complete with arm chairs, a couch and a coffee table, and it was a huge hit!
Elders and transport options. We’d love to help our elders engage with the event better. More seating options will help. But it would be GREAT to have options for helping them traverse Franklin. Would you like to sponsor a pedi-cab just for elders? Do you have another idea or connection that could speak to this need?
Bingo. Businesses have made it known they’d like to promote specific event times. To meet this need, we’re considering using a Bingo card to promote things that are time sensitive (i.e., yoga at noon and 3 p.m.). If you’d like to be on the card, email Jim Welna at [email protected].
So just remember, you don’t need to bike to participate in Open Streets. Take Metro Transit for free, use Car2Go, or get there however you can, and walk the route, taking it slow with stops for music, coffee, sushi, art, activism or just plain-old people watching. It’s going to be a great day.
