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Corcoran Neighborhood Tour

10/30/2011

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Neighborhood Profile

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Corcoran neighborhood, just east of Powderhorn Park, is between Lake Street East and 36th Street East and between Cedar Avenue South and Hiawatha Avenue. Named in honor of William Wilson Corcoran (1793-1889), who founded the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., this is a mainly residential neighborhood – more than 60 percent of the land is used for single-family residences. The light-rail stop at Lake Street gives the neighborhood an easy connection to Downtown, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America. In addition, plans to develop the Lake Street corridor as a commercial thoroughfare are under way, and will have an important local impact.

Source: Minneapolis Neighborhood Profile.

Tour Guide

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Jim, Amy and Piper Arcand.
Amy Arcand  has been the Executive Director of the Corcoran Neighborhood Organization for 9 years.  She and her husband, Jim have lived in Corcoran for 8 years.  They have a 3 year old daughter, Piper, so most of their free time is spent at the park, playing in the yard, coloring, painting, going for walks, swimming, playing Candy Land, or pretending they are princesses.  Jim and Amy love to camp, travel, cook, and hang out with their friends and family.  Jim plays golf in a league at Hiawatha Golf Course and Amy has been in a book club with friends for more than 10 years.  

While on our walk I learned that Amy has a lot in common with my sister - she graduated from Humphrey with an MPA and studied in Namibia.  Her African study abroad experience was through Augsburg in 1993 right after Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa.

Tour Route

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Route of the Corcoran tour on August 13, 2011.
For visitors, Amy suggests:  To get here, take the [light rail] train to the Lake Street station or ride a Nice Ride bike on the Greenway, then work out at the Midtown YWCA, and finish off with a stop at the Midtown Farmers Market [May - October] for the best locally grown produce in town.  

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Cedar-Riverside Neighborhood Tour

10/16/2011

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Neighborhood Profile

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The Cedar-Riverside neighborhood is named after the intersection of the two main avenues of the neighborhood, Cedar and Riverside. The neighborhood is triangular-shaped with three definitive boundaries: the Mississippi River on the east side, Interstate 94 on the south side, and Interstate 35W on the west side. Cedar-Riverside‘s history is nearly as old as Minneapolis'. In the late 1890s, the neighborhood was known as "Snoose Boulevard," with a thriving community of Scandinavian immigrants, many of whom worked in the milling and lumber industries on the Mississippi River. In the 1960s and 1970s, Snoose Boulevard turned from a quaint neighborhood to a beehive of hippies, intellectuals, actors, artists and musicians. Presently, the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood boasts the largest community of immigrants in the Twin Cities, continuing a long history of ethnic and cultural diversity.

Source: City of Minneapolis Neighborhood Profile Page

Tour Guides

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Andy Lee, Cedar-Riverside resident.
Andy Lee has lived in Cedar Riverside since Fall 2001 when he started his academic career at the University of Minnesota in a residence hall. After earning his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, he decided to continue his education and remained in the neighborhood. He is in-between his first and second years at the Humphrey School's Masters of Urban and Regional Planning program. He is currently an intern working for Metro Transit on Arterial Bus Rapid Transit, which he says is a fancy way of saying that he’s helping make the most heavily used urban bus routes faster. So, if you see someone taking photos at a bus stop, it may be Andy doing research. When Andy is not studying or working, he spends a lot of time biking or walking around exploring the city. He says that even though he’s lived in Minneapolis his entire life (grew up in Prospect Park), he still finds new things.
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Caren, Cedar-Riverside resident.
Caren has been a Cedar-Riverside/West Bank resident since 2007. She chose to live and work in this community because it so vibrant. Caren is a graduate student at the University of Minnesota on the West Bank. For fun, Caren bikes, takes photos and likes to explore.

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Neighborhood tour update

10/4/2011

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It's been awhile since I've posted a neighborhood tour so I thought I better check-in with an update! While I continue to tour neighborhoods, my blog posts have slowed down due to an unusually full social calendar. The last couple of weeks I've been preparing for my husband's 40th birthday party which just happened to be the eighth annual Scottoberfest. The celebration of Scott and beer was this past weekend and there were a few neighborhood guides in attendance! 
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Lucy and Justin, Cooper neighborhood guides and current Minnehaha residents.
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Brian (L), Hiawatha guide and Andy (R), Kingfield guide.
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Janelle (L) and Allison Long (R), graphic designer for Minneapolis 81 and Scottoberfest.
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Kenny neighbor, Jackie and her son, Gus.
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Mark (L) is a childhood friend of Scott's (R) and has been to all 8 Scottoberfests.
Because my hectic schedule isn't slowing down until mid-October,  I have chosen to delay my next blog post about the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood until I have more time and mental energy to give it the attention it deserves. Check out the neighborhoods and progress section of this site to get an idea of what's coming up (18 published tours, 11 awaiting publication and 10 neighborhoods with a scheduled tour). 
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