Star Tribune
Minneapolis neighbors want to determine the Third Precinct’s second act
The Third Precinct’s neighbors had no say in what happened three years ago.
They want a say in what happens next.
The charred wreck of the police station has stood at the corner of Lake and Minnehaha for three and a half years, wrapped in razor wire and bad memories.
“People tell me that when they drive by there, their stomachs sink. They have a horrible feeling,” said Fred Brathwaite, who lived two blocks from the precinct on the night of May 28, 2020, when he saw the red glow of fire through his windows.
The precinct was burning. Along with neighborhood grocery stores, restaurants and mom and pop shops, as grief over George Floyd’s murder turned to rage.
Many ruined businesses rebuilt or are rebuilding. The precinct remained unchanged. A daily reminder of the sting of tear gas, the crunch of broken glass underfoot and the terror of the neighbors who stayed up all night with their garden hoses aimed at their roofs.
Brathwaite thinks this neighborhood deserves better.
Just before Thanksgiving, neighbors along Lake Street gathered at the Hook and Ladder Theater, next door to the precinct ruins, to talk about the Third Precinct’s second act.
A Black cultural center. That’s Brathwaite’s dream for the site.
Brathwaite, who owns Mama Sheila’s House of Soul restaurant with his wife, Sheila, has lined up support for the idea and the pro bono services of DJR Architecture. As he talked in the Hook and Ladder, a projection screen behind him lit up with images of uses the neighborhood could make of a center like that. Museum exhibits. Classrooms. A wellness center with exercise equipment and basketball courts. Retail space for small businesses and restaurants. Event space for concerts and art shows and celebrations.
“We have a historic moment, we have a historic opportunity. We can’t let it slip by,” he said. If you have an idea of your own for the site, send them to Brathwaite at mplsblackculturalcenter@gmail.com.
It was nice to hear people talking about the site’s future, not just its past. The Longfellow Community Council has been working on it for years. Local artists turned the ruined precinct into a canvas earlier this year, projecting a better future on its walls. Flames and pain, slowly shifting to images of flowers and smiling children and a community knitting back together.
That’s what Brathwaite remembers most about those days. Not the people who tore Minneapolis apart after George Floyd’s murder. He remembers the ones who came to help.
“These protesters, they walked, they marched right in front of my business,” said Brathwaite, who remembers marveling at how many white people were marching to protest the murder of a Black man by a white police officer. “Ninety-five percent of the people marching were white … Instead of pulling us apart, it’s drawing us together.”
Minneapolis is moving forward with plans to build a new Third Precinct and safety center less than a mile away, at 2633 Minnehaha Av. The city still owns the former site and will have the final say on what happens there.
Now that the Third Precinct has a new home, the city can make plans for a new use for the old site at 3000 Minnehaha. City staff could approach the council, possibly as soon as next month, to begin planning a public engagement process.
A small crowd came out to listen to Brathwaite’s pitch before the holiday and even with those numbers, it was easy to see how complicated it will be to turn the page on the Third Precinct.
Some think the building should be preserved as a piece of history. Others can’t bear the sight of it.
Brathwaite is just happy the community is talking about it now. Someday, he hopes his neighbors feel good when they round the corner of Lake and Minnehaha.
“We can then walk by and look at this edifice, glimmering in Minnesota sunshine. Shimmering in Minnesota moonlight,” he said, voice soaring to the theater rafters in his excitement. “We can walk by — not with our heads bowed down in shame, but we can lift our heads up high.”
Two people from Minnetonka were killed late Friday afternoon when their GMC Suburban ran a stop sign and was struck by a GMC Yukon headed north on Hwy. 169 west of Palisade, Minn.
According to the State Patrol, Marlo Dean Baldwin, 92, and Elizabeth Jane Baldwin, 61, were dead at the scene. The driver of the Suburban, a 61-year-old Minnetonka man, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The Suburban, pulling a trailer, was headed east on Grove Street/County Rd. 3 at about 5:15 p.m. when it failed to stop at Hwy. 169 and was struck by the northbound Yukon. The Yukon then struck two westbound vehicles stopped at the intersection.
Four people from Zimmerman, Minn., in the Yukon, including the driver, were taken to HCMC with life-threatening injuries, while two passengers were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Three girls in the Yukon ranged in age from 11 to 15.
The drivers of the two vehicles struck by the Yukon were not injured, the State Patrol said. Road conditions were dry at the time of the accident, and alcohol was not believed to have been a factor. All involved in the accident were wearing a seat belt except for Elizabeth Baldwin.
Hill City police and the Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.
Amid the cacophony and chaos of the pregame preparation before a recent Minnetonka High School football game, an exceptional group of six girls is gathered together among the school’s deep and talented cheerleading and dance teams.
The cheerleaders, a national championship-winning program of 40 girls, dot the track around the football field. As the clock ticks down to kickoff and their night of choreographed routines begins, the six girls, proudly wearing Minnetonka blue T-shirts emblazoned with “Skippers Nation” and shaking shiny pom-poms, swirl around the track, bristling with excited energy.
Their circumstances are no different from any of the other cheerleaders with one notable exception: The girls on this team have special needs.
They’re members of the Minnetonka Sparklers, a squad of cheerleaders made up solely of girls with special needs.
A football game at Minnetonka High School is an elaborate production. The Skippers’ recent homecoming victory over Shakopee brought an announced crowd of 8,145. And that is just paying attendees; it doesn’t include school staffers, coaches, dance team, marching band, concession workers, media members and others going about their business attached to the game.
The Sparklers program, now in its 12th season, was the brainchild of Marcy Adams, a former Minnetonka cheerleader who initiated the program in her senior year of high school. Adams has been coach of the team since its inception, staying on through her tenure as a cheerleader at the University of Minnesota.
She started the program after experiencing the Unified Sports program at Minnetonka. The unified sports movement at high schools brings together student-athletes with cognitive or physical disabilities and athletes with no disabilities to foster relationships, understanding and compassion through athletics. Many Minnesota schools offer unified sports.
“I grew up in a household that valued students with special needs and valued inclusion,” Adams said. “I saw a need to give to those students. At Minnetonka, we have a strong Unified program, and this was a great opportunity to build relationships and offer mentorship opportunities.”
Elite runners are in a league of their own.
To get a sense of how far ahead elite runners are compared to the rest of us, the Minnesota Star Tribune took a look at how their times compare to the average marathon participant.
The 2022 Twin Cities Marathon men’s winner was Japanese competitor Yuya Yoshida, who ran the marathon in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 28 seconds, for an average speed of 11.96 mph. He averaged 5 minutes and 2 seconds per mile.
That’s more than twice the speed of the average competitor across both the men’s and women’s categories, of 5.89 mph, according to race results site Mtec. The average participant finished in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds. That comes out to an average time of 10 minutes and 11 seconds per mile.
And taking it to the most extreme, the fastest-ever marathon runner, Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, finished the 2023 Chicago Marathon in 2 hours and 35 seconds, for an average pace of about 13 mph. Kiptum averaged 4 minutes and 36 seconds per mile.
Here is a graphic showing these differences in average marathon speed.
