Oct 5, 2021

Press Conference: East Phillips Update

Updated: Oct 7, 2021

We provided an update on the leaked report the City Council buried.

CJC speech by Tracy Molm

My name is Tracy Molm and I am here today as a member of the Climate Justice Committee.

The Climate Justice Committee is supporting and fighting with the East Phillips Neighborhood Urban Farm Initiative because we see this as part of the larger issue of environmental and climate justice. What Minneapolis should look like -- who get’s to decide the future of our neighborhoods and cities and why. The Minneapolis City Counselors have a choice of whether to empower and respect our communities, their needs and desires or to ignore the voices of those closest to this site in East Phillips. This report shows that money isn’t what’s motivating the detractors, and while I won’t speak to the motives of the detrators, I will say shame on them. It’s very easy to justify the moving of Minneapolis Water Works when you ignore all the evidence that shows the harm it will produce for the people in the area, a population that is majority people of color. And it’s even easier when you bury or hide the report that highlights it’s not even financially a sound decision to move the Minneapolis Water Works from it’s current location outside of a residential area. We are also here today to say no more. We want to fight against the historic concentration of toxic industry in communities of color and working class neighborhoods. This city has had a reckoning that is still un-resolved around public safety and it’s time that we also fight to end environmental racism. Every day the dramatic effects of climate change are talked about in the news - yesterday as Louisiana is struggling to come back from ANOTHER record hurricane year or the destruction happening off the shores of California from an environmentally devastating oil spill. Minneapolis needs to be a beacon at a time when climate change and environmental catastrophe are at a tipping point. The Minneapolis City Council needs to stand by its commitment of making East Phillips a Green Zone and trying to turn back the historic environmental racism that has poisoned East Phillips. The Climate Justice Committee stands here today with the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute to call on the Minneapolis City council to vote against moving any more heavy machinery or industry to East Phillips. The people of Minneapolis deserve to be empowered in our neighborhoods to build community spaces and urban farming that will pave a new, sustainable way forward. Urban Farm NOT Toxic Harm!