good afternoon good afternoon boy I feel good today how about yourself I feel so happy today and you would feel happy too if you were standing in front of this incred incredible crowd of lovely beautiful intelligent old young spry barely can walk people all here to celebrate the restoration of Rondo [Applause] [Music] Avenue yeah I feel good I feel good because I'm looking at a couple of my old friends that I hadn't seen in maybe I don't know how many years I'm looking at Eddie Bruce there from the Virgin Islands 50 years Eddie Bruce has been living in the Virgin Islands and he's the voice of the Virgin Islands Master musician a singer all you got to say is I know Eddie Bruce they'll either say you're from Ronda or you're very intelligent so Eddie welcome back home brother it's good to see you uh he's the he's the brother of Roberta Bruce you remember the jazz singer Roberta Bruce and Yolanda Bruce it's the Uncle so you're who was with your with your family Eddie who's here with you today my brother Vincent Vincent okay is that right okay all right well welcome everybody the Bruce family is as a warm spot in the heart around I'm happy because Floyd smaller is here where's Floyd Floyd Floyd that's the co-founder that's the co-founder of Avenue that's been a friend of mine for going on 60 some odd years so Floyd welcome here it's what to see you and behind him is his son Gail there I understand that commissioner dollenberg is here from the Minnesota there she is the Minnesota Department of Transportation no hisses no Boos we're not going to talk about the transportation and why we're here but uh welcome and hope you have a a chance a time to spend with us let's see my up here on this front here is Yousef mageni Debbie Montgomery Mr Nick khik that's our Entertainer Marie flowers she's going to do a spoken word in a minute uh Ana bu I board one city council person Ana and Russell Ballinger they all played a very very important role in making this happen and and it would not have happened had not they been a part of this this program so is there anyone else here that I I would I have to introduce if I knew you were there what where's Bill hey hey Bill there there's Bill my man how are you Bill all right if if if you feel if you feel you're important just raise your hand I'll I'll recognize you if you feel you're all important so thank if I if somebody is here and you should have been recognized City official or uh work for a city official or if you can't send a a nice little letter like Betty McCollum did here she is thanking everybody for coming our Council P Council Woman Betty McCullum and she says that the highlight of recognizing the injustices of the past shows the tireless efforts and commitment of the Rondo Community including the commitment to preserve educate and articulate and accentuate the RIS the rich history of Rondo Avenue councilwoman Betty McCullum I'm happy because I see Marian Jones Kennan here Maran Jones Kennan 1022 Rondo Avenue 1022 Rondo Avenue and I hope that she doesn't mind that I mentioned this to you but recently because of her 40-year service at Breck School increasing the diversity and the presence of africanamerican students in Bre Bre school has had an endowed scholarship fund called the Maran Jones Kennon endowment scholarship fund and it started with $300,000 last Tuesday so there had there's over 6 700 people that Maran has directly touched because of her administrative abilities and because of her commitment for education of our people so thank you for being here Maran all right um my board members I see one of my board members back there Dr Jim Hart is that you all right and uh where is my other board member um where are you Jonathan Palmer where there is Jonathan okay mugs thanks for being here and I see the a great there's a great artist there a young man that uh if you ever go down Selby Avenue or you're driving anywhere or in some big Museum somewhere across the world you'll see tumba Aken there the great artist from the Rondo Community all right that's enough from me if you if you feel like I've overlooked somebody we're going to bring on Marie flowers now Marie is at Walker West Walker West Music Academy she does a wonderful spoken word and without uh up sorry who's that Ron is that you it is oh I'm sorry let me do this and then I'm don't don't leave I want to get you ladies ladies and Gentlemen please welcome Marie flowers thank you Miss Marvin hi everybody how are you I'm nervous so nervous and I'm always nervous and that's a good thing it's it doesn't mean that I don't want to be here it just means that I recognize the tremendous honor it is to be called by your Elder to do something and so it's I don't take it lightly um N I am very nervous sir I will I'm new to Rondo a distant cousin if you will a baby girl who was born on Chicago's Southside who moved to the Twin Cities in 1989 music was all I wanted to do except we didn't know no better you see my family separated and set apart from who we are traditionally supposed to be our names robbed from us so there was nobody to tell me who I could be or what I could do or how I can shine and one day even be in the presence of you you see our Legacy was often stolen from us snatched from our mother's ws and placed in places that we are not supposed to be you see I come from a people that's displaced was our Legacy and we had to crawl through the trenches and wild treacherous mountains of pains and things in our DNA that even to this day we don't understand except we know that there's a fight in us that will remain in us and Trust we will pass it down to our children so our children's children can know that they cannot stop us from doing what our ancestors set out for us to do you see we were destined for greatness so even if they try to Rob us of our names take us and fill our bodies in our DNA with so much pain that our babies don't understand why they're crying themselves to sleep at night and we can't really explain how we just got to fight baby just keep on fighting baby just go to school and keep fighting baby well baby is a fighter and here I am today standing in the presence of such greatness and I'm paying homage to my elders and the ancestors and everybody who came before me who stood before me who told me to stand before your in honor of your ancestors and give back and whether you are a distant cousin invited in by an elder or just a bystander or just a visitor or a baby of Ronda who remember what it was like to have your family's homes stolen for you so the highway can pass through and your names robbed here we are today full of legacy and fight and a tremendous cause because they cannot stop us they will not stop us our names will be written in history on the walls of places that will be our landmarks you see we are destined for greatness and our babies will know how hard we fought so that they can have their legacy too I am honored to be here with you today congratulations Ronda for getting your name back thank you wow yes sir we're going to get started right now with uh Reverend I I Irene Weaver uh she's going to take the place of of the president of NAACP who couldn't be here for some opening remarks in a prayer what a mighty God we serve amen oh is this beautiful here we are all together I I I was telling um Mr smaller I said I don't want to sit down I want to walk around and greet everyone all the people from the neighborhood and the people who have joined us over the years we are so thankful but would you take one minute with me can we go before the throne of grace and can we thank the Lord for all of this would you bow your heads and go to the Creator with me oh mighty God what a mighty God we serve we thank you for this special day for all the people who worked so hard for this to happen for this community community that goes all the way back to when I I was born Lord I thank you for that I thank you Lord God for our leaders I thank you God for our First Responders for our mayor who's coming Lord God I pray for all those who are still coming that you would put a hedge of protection around them and get them their safe Lord God and that you would bless everyone that's here today and let us not forget this but to when we leave here to go tell someone about this beautiful Rondo Plaza and what has been erected here that they may come and see it too we thank you now and forever in Jesus name we pray and we all say Amen okay I did want to recognize Ronald Buford U Ronald where'd he go I'm right here okay Ronald Ronald Buford is uh did last year did the Rondo block party and they are here they'll be doing the Rondo block party right here on August the 3 this year so Junior that's that's Junior yeah that's junior he knows your daddy I I'm glad you called me because I see former commissioner Tony Carter there all welcome Tony and there should be a table back there back there is a little Marketplace we're calling that the marketplace you we have a packet of seeds uh in a in a white envelope and the young lady there Mall she's holding it up these seeds are to be planted in your Gardens U as a result you're going to grow your own Rondo filling with these seeds today they've been blessed and so we want you to take a packet of those seeds and scatter them around your house and then as they grow give give them to someone else because we want this Spirit of rondle to permeate and to spread and I was giving commissioner dalberg uh when I called her out but I I should have said that it was the department of transportation that was very inst Al and getting this Rondo Plaza for us and that former commissioner Charlie zelli set the stage when he apologized to the community of Rondo and said something to the effect they could not they would not they would never build another freeway through a community like Rondo that will never happen again and because of that and because of the strength of his of his apology I'm so happy to say you've carried it on magnificently so we consider you a friend at this point so welcome again commissioner thank you for [Applause] coming then I was hoping the our first Speaker would be mayor Melvin Carter I understand he's on his way but start we're going to start with uh how it all got started uh this time around and let me introduce Russell Ballinger from the benter Hickman family in St Paul good afternoon um I'm not going to go into what happened in the in the past um we know we know what that was but maybe what some don't realize is what we were able to take from that and that we knew what community was and we knew how to rebuild community and we took that with us everywhere we went wherever we went it it wasn't just for this community it had effect on our state and across the country um I remember this goes way back when people were trying to take their mind off of all of this and Marvin Anderson and Floyd smaller said no we're going to remember Rondo and it started with a parade that walked right past this uh right past where we're at and went on for years and years and years and it became a real celebration uh and all people talked about when they talked about the neighborhood was the Rondo Community this is the Rondo Community I was in the barber shop when a young man in there said there was no such thing as Rondo he had the wrong person in the shop then he said Rondo's down there by that freeway somewhere and I lit him up he asked me what my name was and I told him he said you're Russell and rash's daddy we I remember you you was that mean old man who used to tell us to get off the grass I was just telling him right so when he said that I went back to the counil and I want to say I was able to serve on the city council for a w one here and it was one of the biggest honors in my my life uh to be able as I went through the street to see uh the people that I knew and wanted to serve in a way that they would respect I had about 20 minutes left on the console when I said the name's got to be Rondo again maybe I had a little more time than that but it seemed like the time went really fast and uh as it was laid out in the console the day it was laid out of the console I had a lot of memories flood through um and when it passed I felt like that was my bow and I was ready to leave and I I knew that we would be in good hands because I remember everything that happened in this space I remember when it was McGill's I remember when it was the pivot and then the VFW the barber shop an's kitchen and uh there was no more no better food than what was going on in there and it's a Nas's grandmother that served that up so that things are passing right along uh I want to thank you all again for being here and celebrating this I'm so excited I was I said today when people were ask asking me where is the place at I said on Rondo and FIS thank you we're going to continue with our council person for award one first termer she'll be there as long as she wants because she is doing a marvelous job just so far and bringing back this what we call uh Community engagement with the community council person Ana Buie welcome back Rondo welcome back Rondo welcome back Rondo I just have to take a moment as I'm just looking out into the audience I finding myself so emotional going through all of the emotions of joy of Honor excitement pain sadness sorrow the bitter sweetness of all of the people who fought so hard who continue the stories should be here today to see this restoration of Rondo growing up as a Rondo's baby I'm a 90s baby I remember seeing the rondle festivals the parade being part part of the parades and feeling like that was the coolest thing to do having great pride and going to a school called the Rondo Community Learning Center having great pride going to a library called Rondo having great pride in going to a Central High School with a legacy of so many leaders from Rondo and that Pride came not just because we named a street or named a building or named a school that Pride was because we kept a culture going through our stories through our resiliency at the dinner tables with our families remembering who we are and where we come from and although the freeway and we all you know know about that history took away our homes our families our businesses it did not take away the spirit of Rondo the spirit of the place that we continue to call home where we're at right now is uh quite frankly my after school Center I uh my bus stop when I was in elementary was just a block away and uh you know growing up in the neighborhood my parents you know we didn't have the after school uh daycare so the VFW was our day care and uh you know I wouldn't trade it for the world I feel like the the cheeseburgers and the fries beat any type of daycare center out here but it also instilled in me this strong sense of community and being able to be honored and blessed to where when I stepped into my my role as city council member one of the first first resolutions I was able to pass with my city council members was this restoration of Rondo Avenue and that was because thank you and that was because of decades Decades of advocacy Decades of sharing the stories Decades of standing proud of who you are Decades of not allowing shame not allowing the sense of powerlessness that usually sometimes governments inflict on us but ensuring that we are using our power to get people in office who share our history and is going to continue orchestrating change for our future that is Equitable that's inclusive and that's reflective and I want to just do a quick shout out I see my council president Mitra jalali in the audience and this change is possible because of our amazing staff we have director Sean Kershaw right there with the highlighted vest on I see y'all with the glasses looking cool in the background and last but not least I want to also shout out to my dad Mr buoy right there Mr buoy my dad was a small business owner he taught me the importance of hard work he taught me the importance of Entrepreneurship and believing in yourself and always always always putting my Education First and making sure that we're using education to for good right and uh I just want to share like I mentioned that this we are here to restore what was lost but we are also here to celebrate what they could not take from us what no one could take from us and I just want to also say thank you to the elders who would guided all of us along the way through this process of restoring The Heart of the City ward one I have so much pride in I in a Shameless plug like I just I'm just very Unapologetic saying that I think this is the best ward in the city it's the Heart of the City it's the we are pumping the economy we are pum pumping the culture we are the groundwork of leadership and advocacy and I'm just so happy to um be able to lead in this way also we are here because this is a symbolism of restoring faith in our government for having the ability to do the job to work for the on behalf of the people we are here to restore the people's pocketbooks and ensure that we are building generational wealth we are here to restore our houses and invest in our homes we are here to instore our Green Space and make sure that we have a climate action plan that addresses our health and our needs we are here to restore our sense of safety and ensure that it is Community Driven and we're investing in solving our problems we are here to also restore our poose and restore our bike lanes and restore our sidewalks and ensure that we are restoring the infrastructure infrastructure for people to do life and like I mentioned um we are we it is it is a different experience to literally be living in our ancestors Wildest Dreams the call of action was for us to educate one another the call of action for us to continue being engaged the call of action is for us to uplift our ancestors in the stories that they passed along and it's our duty to continue passing them along and I'll just leave you with this uh one of uh one of my favorite African Proverbs is until the lion learns how to write the hunter will always be glorified and Rondo I'm here to tell you not only have we learned how to write we learned how to take action we learned how to organize we learn how to pass policy we learn how to elect the mayor from our neighborhood we learned how to elect a city council member from our neighborhood we learned how to ensure that we have a future that works for all of us and we learn that we are powerful and we learn that nothing nothing is going to get in the way of ensuring that we are protecting our families protecting our city and ensuring that we have a place at the table so thank you Council former council person Reena Moran fourth work would you like to say a few words commissioner commission who knows me so good afternoon everyone my name is Reena Moran I am your Ramsey County Commissioner of District 4 I'm also your former State Rep District 65a what an honor to be here today um so I come before you as an elected official but I want to share with you my journey right so I came here like almost 25 years ago seemed like yesterday with my family and I so happened to move in a community that I kept hearing about I kept hearing about this community called Rondo right I kept hearing about I94 I kept hearing about a community of people had that had been displaced by I94 and the more that I heard about the stories that you just heard council member Buie talk about you know although D Rondo Community was not here those stories was here those memories were here those leaders were here and they were active and they were engaged and they were moving they were making decisions even though and in spite of what had happened to them and their families and their mothers and their grandparents so long ago they were still sharing those stories they shared those stories so much with me that I became a fan of that is not right that is not right right and so when you know something that has happened that is not right that happened here in in a community that I decided that I wanted to intentionally be a part of because I wanted to be a part of community that was actively saying that what had happened before will not happen again to us that was a powerful powerful statement that was a powerful move of a community of people whose mothers and grandmothers and great grandparents had been displaced who had decided that this were their home this is where they were going to be and they was going to be a part of making decision around how we're going to move forward for me and for so many of you and why you are here is because of those stories it's because of those injustices that we seen heard people speak of those who had to participate in part and take in partaking those it was a real Injustice but you know what but today is a part of rectifying a little bit a part of that Injustice that happened so many years ago today we get to look at a community of people was displaced Not only was there Community displaced but the name of that Community was displaced and so today we get to see and relive and be a part of another part of history is about renaming and bringing back the Rondo community that is powerful and I feel so honored and so blessed to have been able to come in and find so many friends so many neighbors so many people with passions that look like me cuz that was important to me that they look like me who was fighting for a more just Society or more just Minnesota or more just St Paul a more just community and so I have the honor and honor honor and the privilege and the pleasure of being here to witness this with you to be a part of this with you and for us to be the teachers of the next Generations of how we move forward how we continue to fight and I fight literally with like moving bills and policies and practices that have been is unjust and unfair we got to be at the meat of what we're talking about because it is the Poli and practices that we continue to see that disproportionately impact our families our children in our community and so today we celebrate we celebrate the renaming of O Rondo o Rond thank you okay just want to take a moment to recognize Kenny Pew back there Kenny [Applause] K Kenny and I grew up together we we won the Twin City 880 yard dash Championship State we went to the state yeah that's right Kenny's dad would teach us how to fish on on his birthday our our final speaker today as people say needs no introduction so I'm just going to say may mayor Melvin car thei Once Upon a Time somebody say once upon a time once upon a time see I grew up in a in in a community that takes seriously our oral storytelling tradition I I grew up in a community that take seriously what a moral is and and and you know that's that's the lesson that's learned from every story that's told I grew up in the Arts us young storytellers learning that every story has a lesson so I knew as a young person that when somebody said once upon a time that meant it was time for me to learn something don't laugh cuz you are the elders who taught me that and when you said once upon a time uh when uh Mr khik said once upon a time when Miss Davis said once upon a time when Miss Montgomery or Miss J gen said once upon a time it was time for me to sit and listen so once upon a time I want to share with you a brief Story Once upon a time there was a family living in a town called Paris Texas and once upon a time there was a fire that burned that town and that family decided they needed to be in a whole different place uh uh uh probably weatherwise probably opportunity wise probably uh geopolitical wise they wanted to be in a place that was very very different than what they experienced in Texas this was once upon a time of very a long time ago and once upon a time that family heard that there was opportunity in St Paul that there was a little bit of fairness in St Paul that there was a chance for even an African-American family at the turn of the century to raise their children with hope of a better life in St Paul and they moved all the way from Texas to St Paul to start a family and once upon a time that couple got to St Paul and had a child that they named Melvin Carter senior well they named him Melvin Carter and my grandfather my grandmother I know many of you probably knew them better have more stories to tell about them than I do they built a life on Ronda they raised their children on Ronda they uh built properties on Ronda they owned over a half dozen commercial properties on Ronda and I always tell folks long story short I don't have over a half dozen commercial properties today they couldn't have known they couldn't have known that Melvin Carter Jr would be a reputable St Paul police Sergeant for 30 years in this community yeah they couldn't have known that Tony Carter would be the first African-American County Commissioner here in the state of Minnesota and my grandfather left us just a few months too early to see it with his physical eyes but I know he got to see it with his spiritual eyes it always amazes me to think what they might have thought in 1923 when my great-grandparents named this child Melvin Carter that one day the mayor of this city would bear that same name all right all right right on and what I learned is that the only reason once upon a time has hour is because there's another phrase called someday somebody say someday someday and one of the things that I appreciate about this Plaza one of the things I appreciate about the great and incredible very very very young leader behind me named Marvin Anderson cuz you know you think all about your date of birth and I would suggest that Marvin Anderson is one of the youngest leaders we have in our community give it up for Marvin Anderson so cuz I grew up in the park going to Rondo days and looking at old pictures and telling old stories and the story of Rondo was a story of Once Upon a Time but reconnect Ronda this Plaza the vision for a landbridge the opportunity to plant a tree dedicated to my grandparents in this Garden changes the story of old Rondo from Once Upon a Time to one day changed the story about old Rondo from what happened in the past to what we're building for in the future but but but the most important thing that I learned through those stories is that the bridge that connects Once Upon a Time to one day is right now somebody say right now right now now cuz right now in St Paul we have the inheritance fund that offers up to $110,000 in fully forgivable financing for families who had a property taken on Old Rondo to rebuild weal through home ownership right now right now we literally have five W one St Paul City Council Members right here council member buy we have council member Ballinger we have council member Buie we have council member khik we have council member Montgomery and we have one more former W one city council member Carter and we have an opportunity right now somebody say right now right now see cuz I I was excited when I was young and we started putting up those old Rondo those historic Rondo those Memorial Rondo uh uh uh street signs but I'm even more excited to take them [Applause] down we're taking down the Once Upon a Time Rondo signs and putting up the one day Rondo signs we're putting up the tomorrow Rondo signs we're putting up the uh the one day Rondo signs we're putting up the Rondo signs that declare where we are and where we will be and when are we going to do it right now thank you so much for being here right now right now right now right now right now right now W buddy thank you Reverend I mean [Applause] may we are going to take an offering though right now right right now right now wooo boy that's why I was feeling good today and I had a little lag but I'm feeling good again yes sir whoa uh we're going to hurry on now because it might rain but before we go a little bit further I want to just recognize Margaret Ponder they live in the same house since 19 1944 on Rondo Avenue said 33 for 33 if you go up there they've been living in that house taking care of that's her daughter the ponderers everybody remembers the ponderers the Ponder sisters and now we got Margaret and then her family Rondo they've been living there all of this time so thank you for coming out is Terence crew still here there's Terence that's the new chairman of the reparations Fund in the city of St Paul just want to say thank you for stopping by yeah right now we want to bring forward uh Sean Sean where's Sean the Department of Public come on Sean some information for you in public works we do magic um if you live on um Rondo Avenue from Griggs to mccubbin or in St Anthony from Western to Rice the city thanks to the mayor and council member Ballinger and council member Buie has set up a fund to pay for your costs for changing your license um business license driver's license checks and things like that so if I could ask Janette in the back janette's waving her hand if you live on the Avenue please talk to Janette um if you know of somebody you'll also be getting mail but just reach out to Janette we'll take your information and we'll show you how to do it and make it as easy as possible thank you Mr [Applause] Anderson 2 1 w