Mpls: East Phillips rallies again for the Roof Depot
Minneapolis, MN – Over 20 people came together on a stormy and humid day, August 19. to demand the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, sign over the Roof Depot site to the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) to create a community center in a neighborhood overburdened by pollution.
Over two years ago Mayor Frey had caved to public pressure and had agreed to sell the site to EPNI, but made it dependent on getting $5 million from the state of Minnesota to help move city facilities. At the end of the 2025 legislative session, state lawmakers failed to make good on promises for the money for the Roof Depot site.
“Jacob Frey’s career should be destroyed for this situation. This all started because he disregarded a report that repairs on the Marcy Holmes location would be the economical answer to the needs of public works. Instead, he pushed for the city to buy the Roof Depot. Purchasing and then just leaving the site to sit has cost Minneapolis taxpayers money, including residents here. Then when we stood against the demolition that would poison this neighborhood, instead of cutting losses Frey and his allies had security and barbed wire put up. That also was money wasted on this site,” explained Mordecai Mika of the Climate Justice Committee (CJC).
The reality is that it isn't the responsibility of East Phillips to pay for the city’s utilities or facilities. EPNI has offered the City $10.2 million for the site, which is currently appraised at $3.7 million.
But the neighborhood and supporters aren't afraid to fight for the East Phillips community. The CJC has been organizing with the people of East Phillips for years, beginning with the demand that the city of Minneapolis not demolish the Roof Depot site, which would raise arsenic and other contaminants sealed under the complex. The CJC then joined with the neighbors to demand a century-old foundry that had been polluting the neighborhood be shut down. With very little pressure, an asphalt manufacturer across the street from the Roof Depot shut down, bowing to public pressure. And shortly after, the foundry also shut down permanently.
The CJC has vowed to stand up to Mayor Frey and demand he agrees to sell the Roof Depot site to EPNI. Every day delayed is another day stolen from the people of East Phillips in their quest to turn back the environmental racism and injustice piled on this working class community.