Star Tribune
YWCA Minneapolis sells Uptown fitness facility to nonprofit creating workforce development hub
YWCA Minneapolis is selling its longtime Uptown fitness facility and pool to a nonprofit that will convert the space into a workforce development and job training hub.
The 80,000-square-foot building, which has housed the YWCA programs for nearly 40 years, will be sold to Tending the Soil, a coalition of nonprofits and unions led by Black, Indigenous and people of color, for $4.25 million.
“We are very excited. We have big dreams,” said Emilia Gonzalez Avalos, executive director of Unidos MN, one of the nonprofits with Tending the Soil. “There’s an opportunity to again bring more vibrancy to the corridor.”
She said the organizations have been planning a workforce development center for years, but the initiative took on more urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sale of the Uptown facility, which is near West Lake Street and includes an 185-spot parking ramp, is expected to close at the end of June.
The YWCA shocked the community last summer with the news that it was closing its Uptown and downtown fitness centers and pools Nov. 1. Both buildings are in high-profile corridors of the city, with the downtown facility on Nicollet Mall since 1929 and the Uptown facility on Hennepin Avenue since 1987.
Earlier this month, the YWCA announced it was selling its downtown building to St. David’s Center for Child and Family Development, a Minnetonka nonprofit that provides mental health and autism services to children. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed by either nonprofit.
As a result of the building closures, the YWCA, which still operates a building in Midtown, laid off 45 employees — about 13% of its workforce. About 300 swimmers in the YWCA’s Otters and Masters swim teams also had to find new swimming clubs including at South High School and Southwest High School.
Like other nonprofits struggling financially after the COVID-19 pandemic, YWCA leaders said they faced membership declines, staffing shortages and rising expenses, and had decided to move away from health and fitness to focus on child care, racial equity and youth programs.
Some YWCA members urged the city, park district or county to buy the buildings to keep them open to the public, but city and Park Board leaders said they couldn’t afford to do so.
Gonzalez Avalos said the organizations met with neighbors who were relieved to hear the building wouldn’t be torn down and turned into more high-rise condos or apartments, and will bring “new life” to an area with many vacant storefronts.
“They’re very excited,” she said. “This is going to create opportunities.”
Gonzalez Avalos said the organizations will renovate the building and reopen it as soon as later this year as the Rise Up Center, which will focus on increasing jobs for green building and clean energy fields. The location was ideal, she added, because it has plenty of space for growing programs and is near a transit line.
YWCA CEO Shelley Carthen Watson said in a statement that the space on Hennepin Avenue has long been a community asset, first as West High School when it opened in 1908, then as a YWCA and now as a nonprofit that “echoes our mission to eliminate racism, empower women and girls; and promote peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.”
Rise Up Center
Tending the Soil formed in 2018 made up of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha, Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia, New Justice Project, SEIU Local 26 and Unidos MN.
The new workforce development program is part of new efforts to diversify the growing energy sector. Across the U.S., the energy workforce is largely white and male. About 24% of the workforce is nonwhite, while women make up 26% of the sector, according to a 2023 U.S. Department of Energy report.
“We hear from the unions that they are eager to diversify their ranks. We hear from developers that are eager to diversify their employee pool,” Gonzalez Avalos said. “This is definitely a cutting edge program.”
The building will also house administrative offices for Unidos MN, SEIU Local 26, Tending the Soil and UFCW 663 and provide a public gathering space, classrooms and a first-of-its-kind worker cooperative for immigrants who are union members in the construction industry.
“This is a multi-sector workforce development program in partnership with unions and organizations deeply rooted in community, and I think that’s what makes this very unique,” Gonzalez Avalos said. “I believe this is going to be a national model.”
Mohamed Omar is the new board chair of Hennepin Healthcare System, the organization that runs HCMC, making him Minnesota’s first Somali American hospital board leader.
The health care system board permanently appointed Omar to the position Wednesday at their regular meeting. He had served as interim chair since Babette Apland stepped down in September.
Omar has been on the volunteer board for three years, working on the finance, investment, audit and compliance committees. He is the chief administrative officer at the Washburn Center for Children and previously was chief financial officer at the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund.
In a statement, Omar said he was excited to lead a hospital board in the state with the largest Somali American population in the U.S. He said he shared the health system’s dedication to providing “equitable, high-quality care.”
“My commitment is to deepen our community engagement, build more authentic connections between patients and team members, and build a confident future together,” Omar’s statement said.
CEO Jennifer DeCubellis and Nneka Sederstrom, chief health equity officer, praised Omar’s selection to lead the board. They said more inclusive leadership with a commitment to ending health disparities are key to HCMC’s success.
Hennepin County Board Chair Irene Fernando, who is also on health system board, said she was excited to work with Omar. She said county leaders are dedicated to good stewardship of the “state’s last public safety-net hospital.”
“As the first Hennepin County Board Chair of color, I know how impactful it is for our communities to see themselves represented in public leadership,” Fernando said.
DULUTH – The Superior National Forest has lifted its forestwide campfire ban, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, effective Friday.
Recent rain and humidity have improved conditions across the national forest’s 3 million acres, forest officials said in a news release.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has also lifted fire restrictions in Cook, Koochiching, Lake and northern St. Louis counties.
Fire danger is still a concern this time of year, said Karen Harrison, DNR wildfire prevention specialist.
“As leaves fall and vegetation continues to dry out, it’s important for people to be cautious with anything that can cause a spark,” she said.
The national forest imposed its broad campfire ban nearly two weeks ago, after a third wildfire, named for Bogus Lake, was discovered on forest land. No significant fire activity has been reported in recent days for any of those three fires. A fourth fire inside the forest, the 8.5-acre Pfeiffer Lake Fire, started Oct. 17. It was contained within 24 hours, the Forest Service said.
Much of northeast Minnesota is still classified in the “severe drought” stage by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris was asked this week if she thought Donald Trump was a fascist, and she replied ‘’Yes, I do.’’ She subsequently called him the same thing herself, saying voters don’t want ‘’a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.’’
But what exactly is a fascist? And does the meaning of the word shift when viewed through a historical or political prism — especially so close to the end of a fraught presidential race?
An authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is often associated with the far right and characterized by a dictatorial leader who uses military forces to help suppress political and civil opposition.
History’s two most famous fascists were Nazi chief Adolf Hitler in Germany and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Known as Il Duce, or ”the duke,” Mussolini headed the National Fascist Party, which was symbolized by an eagle clutching a fasces — a bundle of rods with an axe among them.
At Mussolini’s urging, in October 1922, thousands of ”Blackshirts,” or ”squadristi,” made up an armed fascist militia that marched on Rome, vowing to seize power. Hitler’s Nazis similarly relied on a militia, known as the ”Brownshirts.” Both men eventually imposed single-party rule and encouraged violence in the streets. They used soldiers, but also fomented civilian unrest that pit loyalists against political opponents and larger swaths of everyday society.
Hitler and Mussolini censored the press and issued sophisticated propaganda. They played up racist fears and manipulated not just their active supporters but everyday citizens.
