By Josh Blanc
The city of Minneapolis held a two day listening and engagement session about Quincy Street NE on September 16th and 17th. It was the kickoff event to get feedback from the artists, businesses, and residences of the whole surrounding community that spans from Quincy st, to Tyler St and all the streets from Broadway to 18th which includes, the Solar Arts Building, Q’arma building, Highlight Center, Northrup King Building, Waterbury building, Architectural Antiques building and the many businesses that are on those streets. Over 500 artists work in those buildings in this densely concentrated area. That represents almost half of the artists in the Arts District.
The city’s plan says it needs to upgrade the infrastructure under the cobblestone streets to repair the main water pipes and other issues. The City says that the cobblestones can not be put back as the main road but can be considered for a parking area. The cobblestones were everyone’s favorite component of Quincy St. Parking quickly became the hot topic over the two days of conversation. There are 824 parking spots on Quincy St. itself. Overall there are just under 2000 parking spots in the area where the city is going to fix the streets (1882 parking spots counted on Google Maps Aerial View) This count includes Tyler St. VanBuren, 12th,14th and 15th Ave. The vast majority of parking on Quincy St. are privately owned by Hillcrest, the Keller building owned by Chicago based R2 Companies, and Solar Arts. Most are paid lots but many are not available to the masses of people that come to Quincy St. So the remainder are coveted by the art businesses along the street. The artists and business owners fought tooth and nail to try to convince the city that they need dedicated parking and access for deliveries for each of the art buildings. CM President Elliot Payne said “the city is reluctant to have dedicated parking because it would set a precedent that other parts of the city would want the same”. So many of the businesses on Quincy St. get deliveries for supplies that require large semis and regular trucks that bring in thousands of pounds of clay, wood, metal, beer, food and ice for the restaurants and event centers. Jono Query says “For this project to truly succeed the City needs to see artists and arts buildings as partners with a shared interest in each other’s long-term health and viability.“
Quincy St. has quietly been a major hub of art business over the past 30 years, with Q.arma, Solar Arts, Architectural Antiques, and Sign Minds Buildings leading the charge. The street infrastructure has been in disrepair for at least 30 years. In the past few years many new businesses have moved in and it has become arguably the hottest street in Minneapolis to see and be seen in the evenings. You will see Lamborghini’s, BMW’s and Tesla’s crawling and roaring down this very beat up cobblestone street. In 2012 The Solar Arts Building was the first to have an event center hosting weddings and music events while having artists on the 3rd floor. Now there are three breweries and two other event centers that have appeared over the past five years. The crush of events beyond Art-A-Whirl is straining the street. Opening up a series of issues, walking, biking and driving are all a dangerous sport while visiting Quincy St. Many cars drive way too fast on the street, there is no sidewalk, pedestrians must walk in the street behind cars backing up and swerving back and forth around the pot holes. Bikers must dodge all of them. All of this is an issue mainly because Quincy was never intended to be an entertainment street, it was an industrial one and during the days still is.
It is not clear why the city is focusing on Quincy St. now. It had many opportunities over the past three decades where it was in the same poor condition. But now the stakes are huge and contentious. The city must decide if it is fixing the roads for the businesses and the artists that work there or are they remaking it for the future for other businesses? The curb manager of the city staff stated that future businesses were more important than the current ones and this is how the city must think about the area. Which seemed antithetical to this process. It seems development should be done to improve the city designated Northeast Minneapolis Arts District infrastructure not cater to potential businesses that don’t even exist yet. Query says “More appropriate would be for the city to assume that artists will be in these old buildings indefinitely, and that it would be in everyone’s best interest to develop a cooperative partnership, for the City to draw on the deep pools of resourcefulness and creativity engendered in the arts community, and give artists the tools and voice to help craft a vision where developers, creatives and the City work together for a shared future.”
Many city staff and hired landscape architects who put on the two day event clearly have empathy for those who work on the street and have written out the history of the street and the challenges facing the impending reconstruction to meet current street design standards that is tentatively scheduled for 2027. But what becomes apparent is the city zoning will become a powerfully oppressive force on this development and has the potential to create city induced gentrification. Once the first cobblestone is pried from the street it will be subjected to all the modern details of zoning that will dictate so many challenges for those people working and playing on Quincy St.
Those who will most likely benefit from the updates will be developers, as their buildings will instantly become significantly more valuable with a brand new street. Allowing them to sell with higher profits and raising the taxes for everyone on Quincy St. Making the street less affordable every year for artisans and small businesses. “ Query says “I believe we are at a critical juncture with the City and its plans for Quincy, and want us to stay ahead of the process proactively rather than stumble along behind their plans reacting with too-little-to-late to something that will have deep and long term consequences, not just for our little patch of the arts scene, but with the NE Arts District as a whole.”
This will be part I of this topic of development. The city has a big challenge with this street repair. Fixing the infrastructure and ensure the arts buildings needs are addressed should the main focus. The artist’s success should be rewarded for their ingenuity, inventiveness, and the creation of culture for the city, not thwarted and dismantled to achieve conformity. If you want to get notices on this development here is the link to the city’s News and Alerts https://www.minneapolismn.gov/contact-us/sign-up-for-news-alerts/
280 Hillcrest parking big lot
140 In main lot by building
320 Total
120 Earl Giles Restaurant/R2 Companies
75 Waterbury Building
60 On street in front of art buildings
255 total
70 Solar Arts parking paid parking
50 Back of Solar
120 total
25 Street parking by Centro
22 Behind Centro
47 total
23 down street to Highlight center
47 Highlight Tower
12 Street parking
82 total
824 grand total
150 Timber and Tie
20 street parking in front of Timber and Tie building
170 Total
86 NKB back space
32 NKB street parking
195 NKB big lot
165 NKB
478 Total
1440 Total parking spots
On Tyler 90
Bauhaus 82
159 Total
Dogwood cafe 79
Spyhouse 96
Tyler St Stacks 50
1049 Total
Grand total 1824 parking spots