welcome uh my name is Keith Baker I'm the executive director for reconnect Rondo uh project to kind of help support the community recovering from the devastation caused by the highway system uh also with me is my colleague uh in the work my Kia Griffin uh she is the executive director of the Rondo Community Land Trust and between the two of our organizations we're moving forward to try to create um the kind of positive impact that we know the cause of the freeway uh really undermined so reconnect Rondo uh is an organization that was technically founded in 2017 um but there's been a lot of work over many years that a lot of organizations have done to rebuild the Community reconnect Rondo is really looking at how do you leverage transportation and transportation policy and transportation investment to rebuild the community it was the very tool used to undermine the community overall to reignite an African-American cultural Enterprise District leveraging transportation investment I want to just give you a little bit of the story line so you know kind of a little bit of how how we got here if you really take a look at migration um of African Americans to St Paul began as early as the 1800s 1835 and for 120 plus years the community was establishing its fabric its social cultural economic Civic spiritual fabric which ultimately in the 1950s if you see there 1956 the Federal Highway Act and urban renewal both were happening at the same time then the destruction the freeway comes through tears apart that social cultural economic and Civic fabric of the community and so for many many years since that time organizations like the Rondo Community Land Trust hi Q brown model cities uh we talk about Walker West Music Academy all of these organizations have spent a number of years responding to how um devastating uh the community was left for us um what's important also is in 2015 at the time there was the commissioner of Transportation Charlie zelli and the former mayor Coleman both apologized in 2015 formally at a healing ceremony that took place but just before that in 2009 there was an opportunity uh where the community pushed back because of the central Light Rail Corridor if you recall there were no stops along the central Light Rail Corridor so that brought forward the idea well not only do we want stops in Rondo but we're looking for the land to be place that was taken in the ' 50s so just framing the the story of reconnect Rondo how we emerged how this idea of a land bridge came about it was directly tied to that there's a question that you have yes um good afternoon sir yeah I'm just trying to understand um you said the highway destroyed the O Community yeah y um help me understand what really took place did did hes you the entire Community was all taken up from the highway you're you're asking the right question so let me I'll I'll I'll I'll begin to address some of those more concrete things but I want to let you know how this idea emerged it wasn't that uh reconnect Rono decided it wanted to uh build a land bridge it really came from the community that was the initiative uh and it was because there were no stops along the freeway or along the uh Central Light Rail Corridor that the community says that's not okay and oh by the way why don't we replace the land that was taken in the 1950s so when we think about the route of the freeway historically there was a decision to take it through Rondo there was a northern route that was an alternative it would have been Pierce Butler where there would have been no homes taken so it was an intentional decision to take it through the Rondo community and we have to really understand like I said urban renewal was going on and what urban renewal was was trying to grab cheap land underinvested in land okay and then utilize that because it wasn't going to go through a wealthy community in fact across the country 900 communities were affected particularly black and brown communities just like Rondo it causes root shock I don't know has anyone heard the term root shock can you imagine what that is it's shock to the system the social the cultural the economic the Civic the spiritual fabric of a community goes through root shock when something comes through it right it's not just applicable to Rondo we can even think about when war is going on the shock that it creates but in this instance it just happens to be the African-American community and like I said more than 950 communities across the country I talk about the ecosystem Rondo Community Land Trust Aurora St Anthony model cities hi Q brown these organizations that stepped in to respond and it's the ecosystem ultimately where the fabric of rebuilding not only has been taking place but I think really sets for the future the ecosystem is already located you all are kind of familiar with the geographic area we've got Lexington We've Got Rice Street we've got the idea of a geographic location to reconnect the community to reignite an African-American cultural interprise District which was Rondo before the freeway came through the social cultural economic fabric within that there are a number of organizations and businesses that have an opportunity to be Amplified and resourced to respond to what has taken place historically number of studies we've conducted and we think that it's important for us to make a business case a technical case a moral case and a just case okay it's easy to dismiss the movement of African-Americans okay by saying okay where's the study where's the information so we want to make sure in no way can an opportunity that we have right now be dismissed again a technical case a business case a moral case and a just case and just to give you a little bit of my background which I failed to do earlier on I spent 18 years working for the Department of Transportation I know how the systems the processes the tools and resources function right the very tools that were used to undermine the community right and so the question is is how does the community harness the policies the monies the processes and the tools right to repair that harm I left the Department of Transportation 2015 and behind the scenes I've been working with Elders that were involved in the push back on the central Light Rail Corridor who really are the founders of the organization I now lead okay so you see the relationship and I think it's important for you to kind of see the entirety of the story let's think about what was taken 700 homes and 300 businesses now that's research that's definitive loss right it's not just an idea an anecdotal story of someone's house that was taken it's real value so just imagine 700 businesses or 300 businesses and 700 homes taken what's the value of the loss 48% home ownership loss 61% population loss in this geographic area from Lexington to R stre okay 61% population loss 48% home ownership loss it's extraordinary right when you think about it not only that we wanted to know okay so what's the transactional loss the home sale or buy loss okay we use a snapshot in time of 1980 tried to calculate the loss from 1956 the homes were taken in 1956 the value when we follow the sales cycles of homes in the area that are similar to the home that were along this track of freeway that was taken out collectively it's $35 million worth of loss value never able to be passed on to descendants 35 million but let's just imagine additional loss that 35 million could have started a business could have sent children to college and I will say we Quantified it that way as well it could have paid for 4800 4-year college degrees at the University of Minnesota in 1980 that's the intellectual power that didn't get contributed in Rondo right that's the potential economic value that was not realized in Rondo so it was not just a transactional house there were other things that really um helped to illustrate kind of the value of the loss so brother I hope I'm answering your question right in terms of what was the actual loss so now let let let's think about it in this way let me go back just one more by each of these measures which are about 18 measures you know a lot of people you've heard the term net zero right Net Zero Net Zero is kind of like zero and then there's a gain from there or it's under net zero right so when we think about equity and people talk about Equity all the time it's easy to say my value of my house went up so therefore I have Equity but what about the emotional life space I talk about rich shock right so by 18 measures Rondo Ranks net negative Financial Security education security housing security you kind of feel where I'm going with this right so an opportunity for us is to ask ourselves the question how do we build that Equity back how do we figure out how we stitch together parts of the fabric social cultural economic Civic fabric of a community overall so we think we have the basis of the potential of doing that again partnering with folks in the ecosystem right leveraging Transportation policy and transportation money right to build it but we've got to have a plan and we have to have a plan well in advance how many people here have heard of the bipartisan infrastructure Bill okay it's important I'll tell you why those of us in transportation know at some Point money's coming for transportation investment at some point it's coming when Barack Obama was the uh a president didn't happen then when Trump was the president didn't happen then okay now with the Biden Administration $3 trillion worth of money available Minnesota is getting $6 billion I just want to lay this out for you min OTA is getting 6 billion so whoever's ready for the money all right is the one that's going to be best positioned to access the money and so as I said the central Light Rail quarter where this idea first emerg in 2009 here we are in 202 2024 we're in 2024 right and the monies that came from the bipartisan infrastructure bill came about in 2021 so who's ready to seize Transportation dollars to leverage transportation to set conditions overall so we're talking 21 Acres of new land over the highway 21 Acres Grotto to chadsworth approximately between Lexington and Dale right so what what's the potential I mean without question what the potential is is to figure out how to create jobs how to bring about Housing Opportunity how to bring about park space Gathering space the potential of so many things and so when we think about this digital access how many folks uh pay their have have cable bills uh that cost them a significant amount and and every time you see your bill you're saying dang right right but one of the things that we learn in some of our studies is that connectivity is poor in communities that have been devastated by freeways they cost people far more for not as likely good a service right it follows redlining how many of you folks have heard redlining well black folks were redlined and forced to live in Rondo the freeway comes through and takes out folks right and then when Provider Services cable and others come through they don't provide the connectivity in poor communities that have been redlined are you following okay that's what happen in Rondo and I would argue we could talk about North Minneapolis exactly the same thing I told you earlier technical case a business case a moral case and a just case are you following me yes we're doing our studies and we know what we're talking about right and it's important to rest on that I'm just going to move forward a little bit this was the technology study that we did okay so when we talk about you know you're on the internet the internet comes up you loading in right you know you're trying to load the the web page and it loads a little slow okay that's what we call Broadband load okay you can see in St Paul no gigabyte U I don't want to get too technical but no gigabyte meaning the speed is very slow doesn't even meet standards okay even though there are 14 service providing technology providers none of them service Rondo they go right along the freeway past Rondo are you hearing what I'm saying okay so when we think about these studies and building this new structure of 21 Acres of new land the question is how do we return benefit back to the community in everything that we do who's the primary beneficiary who's the secondary beneficiary who's the third beneficiary is the question you got a question over there just real fast y u is that based on like the newest Maps the broad Maps even for decades have been really bad absolutely those B map I I'll just say as of as of June okay 2023 now it doesn't mean that PE additional information isn't being gathered but that's after they started fixing the M okay exactly I mean well you're really bad you're you're understanding exactly right so we just have to understand a snapshot and time and the information that's provided here exactly thanks for asking that then we get into the anti-displacement study which we really I can't emphasize enough how pleased we are to be a partner with the Rondo Community Land Trust because the reality is is that as the central Light Rail Corridor came up and emerged right it becomes less and less affordable right less and less affordable along the central Light Rail Corridor development is happening like crazy right and it's so important again that we lay out a study that says how do we respond to this okay how do we put the guard rails in for community so there are four basic goals making sure that there are toolkits for residents and businesses meaning a way in which to make space affordable living affordable etc those that lost the right to remain and return Community invest M how does that happen how does that work how do you leverage newly created land and if we say hm how how can we position the community to be the developer how do you position the community to be the developer because if you think about whoever is the developer gets the return right bottom line so if the community can be the developer then the money Cycles back into the neighborhood for a wide range of of ways so that's part of the reinvestment I'm gonna say we've been doing a lot of community engagement activities over the last few months uh actually last few years just to say okay if we have a blank canvas if we have a new bit of land the land doesn't exist there right now but if we were to have new land what should be on top of it right what's the aspiration of the community housing now our technical feasibility study says if we create 21 Acres of new land we can create 576 new housing units okay if we create 21 Acres of new land we can put 13 acres of open park space for use in the community if we create 21 Acres of new land we have the potential of being able to um establish a Marketplace for businesses okay if we create 21 Acres of new land maybe a library on the land bridge connected to Maxfield school just as an example right so we've been through a process over the last few years of community input that at least points Us in the direction of what the aspirations and the desires of the community are and they really center around these six areas Transportation transportation of Mobility parks and open space Economic Development housing cultural and history activity and as well as looking at environment and resiliency and there's a lot of discussion around climate change right impacts from pollution on the freeway and so on and so forth these are all things that we're paying close attention to including the technology study that I referenced before what what I'd like to do is just share just a couple of more slides and then I'll be done and I'll hand it off to my my my colleague here friend in the work how we're looking at the entirety of our work is connected to three things the anti-displacement works so that people don't get displaced when new development happens cuz usually that's what happens okay people can no longer afford to live where they live when we think about alon's field right we think about Sears near the capital these are often driven by traditional private development mindsets there two bookends and Rondo rest right centering it if we don't put guard rails in place okay it's easy for the price of living to increase dramatically so that people can't afford right so it's to be sure to do that is non-negotiable when it's all said and done and so we really make sure that our anti-displacement policies and Partnerships are in place that we have this vision of almost like it's almost like 21st century right for some of us like this young girl right here she's going to be here the rest of us at some point we're not going to so how do we set up a situation that gives her the benefit and so on right and that's really what the proposition really is intended including this little one that's sleeping right now over here right so what's the vision and how do we set the conditions in the future right now benefit people here right now but always make sure we're looking down and that's part of our restorative development work finally I'm just going to give you the dollars and cents when someone says what's all this going to cost right well for the structure 21 Acres of new land and by the way anybody know anybody making new land are are you hearing what I'm saying to you so for those of you that really nobody's making land so if you can imagine how many of you drive okay going through the Lowry Tunnel right it's really a land bridge something on top it's crossovers roads but it's the same thing except for we're proposing 21 Acres which is about five or six blocks okay and so when we think about that the cost of creating the structure is about 313 million now I'm going to ask you a really important question how much did I say the state of Minnesota was getting billion so compared to 6 billion is 3113 million a lot no not at all now some people would ask the question well how come you just don't use that money for housing cuz it's Transportation money they don't get used for housing but can we partner and leverage for resources for housing the answer is absolutely leveraging this opportunity to create 21 Acres of new land 576 potential housing units you kind of hear where I'm going right so when we think about this too I want to just clip this on too I talked about the bipartisan infrastructure Bill how much did I say that was 6 trillion and aota getting six billion now it's not all for roads but just here what I'm saying 80% of the cost of that 313 million can be paid for using that Federal money 80% can be paid for that means the state would need to contribute about about 63 million now all we're asking the state is for 63 million are you hearing where I'm going okay 63 million okay it's considerably less than the 313 right so that's how projects are put together using Federal money and state money right and so that's what we're proposing to do is to leverage and then the development on top 163 million I think it's important and you see that little this this right here again that's the study that tells us this is possible right and gives us the direction so I just appreciate so much you all hearing what I've got to say because really essentially that's what this displays 8020 split Federal money or federal money state money total cost of the project overall I have question yes that's okay um in your numbers um did you guys study on maintenance I didn't see doll amount for maintenance sure and also for the 18,000 jobs we all know jobs have to end at some point so how do those 18,000 people get more guaranteed for like them because if you're talking about their Generation Um what I'm trying to say is how do we keep the community is still in still in charge of their hard work yeah in maintaining the job stay cuz at the end of the day we don't want uh how do I say this we want to keep our people with our comp how do we keep them that's what running numers all day are numbers going to come but how do we build generational within it I I would imagine I'm going to let Mia talk a little bit more about this as well but part of what's important is to make sure that the community is always in decision making control always in decision-making control we've been work we've been working on this project oh I see we've been working on this project to kind of through our studies figure out exactly how we ensure that the maintenance of control is community in terms of decision making yeah the Rondo Community Land Trust is one model and she'll explain that a little bit in terms of the land bridge itself it's really about creating first of all control of what they call air rights the rights to develop on top and then creating a governance structure okay which Community if we just talk about any decision- making you have an entity that says all right we're going to give the community 51% of the vote we're going to give everybody else 49% that's the only way to do it right it's the only way to do it it's got to be structured so that the voice of community always leads and so our anti-displacement study really focuses in on that specifically okay but the other thing too in terms of jobs what type of jobs should be generated should it be jobs that are generated that where Industries are weak or should it be jobs that are generated where Industries are strong right when we talk about Healthcare Finance technology in Minnesota those three categories are important in the way of creating jobs and then preparing young people in their education right to pursue those things they're going to bring them the kind of return I'm mcka Griffin I'm the executive newish executive director of Rondo Community Land Trust and you know outside of the fact that I get to do really awesome work I get to do a able housing and economic development all over Ramsey County but because I'm a daughter of Rondo my family was here before '94 came through I grew up in this neighborhood I'm repping this neighborhood I have the the privilege of doing really great affordable housing work but I have the honor and the responsibility and the weight to ensure that the Rondo Community moved forward um as a kid growing up here I seen the resilience of the community as well as the um the continued disinvestment of the community and I'm going to try to move forward here um so a little bit about our mission uh we're here to strengthen and preserve communities by providing affordable housing opportunities and we support and celebrate cultural diversity by uh providing affordable business opportunities and um increase Community economic uh opportunities I want to ground us a little bit in our history and I'm going to have to be fast uh because I how much time do I have someone count me down count me down all right um I want to ground us a little bit in our history and um Keith talked a little bit about talked a lot about uh what happened this is a map from 1935 and you'll see here in this thing it just says largest uh uh largest negro section in the city from 1935 from the 20s from the 19 1900s to 1920s the black community was on a really great upward economic Mobility tool and outside of the fact of uh Force segregation when my family came up here from Mississippi uh they pulled over here see where it says go Coast over here that's that's the still rich neighborhood over there in Highland like that's called go coat back then and uh they asked a a little couple little white couple where do the colored stay and they were directed to Rondo Avenue and um now they were impacted by 94 because they were renters when they lost the house that they were living in my great a was pregnant with my nephew with my nephew he would get so upset if he said that with my cousin my uncle you know he's my my uncle and uh and she they had a little daughter they uh my uncle was they weren't able to really find housing outside of the community and so they they they live somewhere on aurar Avenue I'm not going to tell you where it is but you know that's they still live there still have the family house today and uh they actually incubated 10 of their brothers and sisters that came up here that's how my family that's how my grandmother got here great grandmother got here all that and so um really becoming part in history uh of this fabric now I always like to say and I didn't really understand the significance of it but I grew up on St Anthony Avenue literally right down the street from here and uh my bedroom faced the freeway I was physically separated from my family I had to walk across a rickety uh Bridge back in the day I ain't going to tell you how old I am but I do have grandchildren so that should tell you right there don't let the non wrinkles fool you um but we would have to to do that and I don't know uh if you all know but like uh tiger Jacks you drive up on corner of Dale and and uh St Anthony tiger Jack tiger Jacks so my school bus was uh there I catch a school bus and tiger Jack would feed us breakfast in the morning that was commun I couldn't get away with not a thing I really wanted to I you know but I couldn't I had a huge family here and um that's how I I grew up attending mon Olivet Baptist Church where we had the sing offs with Pilgrim Pilgrim and uh St James Amy and uh I graduated from Central I'm just saying I'm deep in it and I have seen what's happened over the last even 20 years the fabric and who we are as a community Still Remains in that Spirit but the identifiers that we used to go by are no longer really African-American centered and so all not just because of 94 and urban renewal and force segregation it is really a Confluence of many different things that have happened from even then to now different policies you know we were again historic but Community we were insular uh the Rondo Community was it still was for a really long time even up to 20 years ago um some of the same information that I'm going to skip you know um I just want to stop here for just a second but um this woman who's singing over here she's part of the crer fund and that was was a social place where people went to because we had to create our own things um and they actually started the cred fund and that started a uh Cooperative Credit Union a grocery store I think there was a development team arm that they had but when we think about who we have already lived the answers that we want to see as a community as a people and so uh if we continue on with doing what we know how to do best you know what that is resilience so you know what like all kinds of things as we're grounded in history do we need to be done if that's fine I caner the community the Rondo Community Land Trust the Community Land Trust uh I'm not going to even call it a model it's a movement for me um really started through the black experience here in Rondo where folks were trying to figure out once um oh no you're once um everyone kind of settled into wherever they were going to live here in in the community after everyone was displaced from Rondo other certain sets of policies started to happen uh you know we probably stretch as far as Laurel and hag and uh around the 60s and 70s around that time it the only really nice place around there was was some Summit Avenue and there were sets of policies around historic tax credits and uh other policies where uh folks were getting displaced so the community did this and it did this it did a little bit of this and did know some shrinking and and going back and forth so at that time in the late 80s uh when the city was trying to help restore historic properties on heg and Laurel those properties that probably were I know my uh father-in-law purchased a house on heg very beautiful Victorian for like $20,000 that same house today is worth almost a million not owned by the family so that was a situation that was happening back when the Community Land Trust uh model was uh thought about to provide affordable housing opportunities for the organization I was 30 years ago I wasn't here 30 years I mean I was here but I was not at the organization 30 years ago um and I also want to talk about the origins of the land trust it is roote as we're end of Black History Month like this is our black history the Community Land Trust model was started actually through the Civil Rights Movement down south when folks who wanted to have just the right to vote and we all know what happened through the Civil Rights Movement the non-violent Student Union uh student Coalition I always get that mixed up I'm sorry uh as they were uh organizing to have folks vote people were getting kicked off out of their homes um they were being terrorized I don't have to tell you all the things we've seen many movies but I know that people were living that every day including my family and they said look uh we're getting kicked off sharecroppers getting kicked off the land all those kind of things we need to H land is power land is land control is important and back then these wonderful folks the shards went around they raised a million dollars and they purchased the largest tract of land not only in Georgia but in the United States at the time it was over 5,000 acres and with that it was contemplated a new community everything centered under Democratic land control own together share together and then housing Economic Development agricultural um a Main Street housing and schooling and all of those things its own community and um that was the first since then it's been uh the Community Land Trust movement uh has really grown across the United States not even just the United States but across the globe now there are over 460 Community Land Trust across the United States and we are working with at least four other uh Community Land trusts that are uh uh across the Grobe globe and um as folks really looked at how were we going to use this tool it became more of a affordable housing tool for for folks and um that's I always call it the community less classic the you know light I call it Community less light do I need to be done uh you got about eight minutes okay all right I'm gonna be I'm G be clicked I I just really like grounding Us in the community Land Trust history because we've lost that along the way it is something that people died over back in the 60s because they had the audacity to own more land than some of the white owners that were down south so I always want us to to be grounded in that and because of that ingenuity there are Community Land Trust all over the United States and across the globe Rond Community Land Trust pave the way as the First Community Land Trust in state of Minnesota there are now 15 others and we are formally organized if you were put all of the stuff that we do together we'd be the largest Community Land Trust in the United States that's how this work has moved forward okay all right what is a community Land Trust what is a community land we're a land we're a community based organization nonprofit organization um it's governed by the member it's governed by members it's a membership organization it's it's governed by folks who own houses and uh lease our our businesses business areas and um we have public Representatives so again that Democratic process um we what are we designed to do we're designed to ensure long lasting Community ownership and stewardship of land and you know what we also create shared Equity opportunities for folks to have um so long Arc from 1993 when Rondo Community lust first came on the scene to now bam right um mcka Griffin comes in along with the really awesome team of great people and um you know what we said we got to go somewhere you know what we need to do we need to go back we need to reach back and understand that as I said we've already lived the we've already lived the change that we want to see I know what it was and what it felt like to be part of an inter um an intergenerational uh uh inner economic mixed uh Community where I was home and this is Rondo and we were that expression of what new communities was we had our own social fabric we had our own inter uh uh Enterprises and we had economic opportunities and I say let's get back there how are we we going to get back there so Rondo CLT is moving uh to be and to serve as a community anchor and to use the Community Land Trust tool as a versatile Innovative tool to be able really to talk about how do we how do we just stop displacement and how do we maintain control so as we're repairing for the past and building for the future we have what we have called our repairative development framework that takes into um consideration kind of CLT classic what we were right shared shared equity and shared ownership and kind of all of those things yes but it takes in the collective and it also takes in the individual but it also talks about what's the solidarity economy that we're going to have and share together how do we do B goods and services together yeah all this stuff solidarity economy uh you know keeping our dollar keeping our dollar here how do we how can we do that Democratic and Dem uh dignified labor so uh you know why what can we own together from Cooperative worker owners owning our own labor being Democratic in that labor um and culture and arts as a source of healing because we need that as a community what are we doing to do that and then we also are place-based you know we are we serve all of Ramsey County but we're we are uh very steeped in what Rond is and who Rond is and what Rond needs are and you know we're able to help get people uh along the way so all right I have a question yes you say y'all in base to Rond area and so forth in St Paul what about Minneapolis isn't that nice to ask min also had they have they have uh Community Land Trust over there as well so we all have territories cuz we decided to play nice together and um we have all of Ramsey County as Rondo Community Land Trust and um city of Lakes Community Land Trust is in Minneapolis and so um but again there we have Community Trust all over the state of uh Minnesota so let's talk about what we do best uh our 30-year history really is steeped in um our residential programs and and affordable housing so uh right now we uh have a couple of things we have something called our home buyer initiated program uh this year we're pairing folks with up to $150,000 of a grant to purchase a home we pair it with your mortgage and then you can you can shop anywhere in the in Ramsey County uh we have uh some kickers on top of that up to $200,000 if you are a right to return as part of our Rondo neighborhood Legacy we were awarded 2.2 $ million from the state of Minnesota to be able to deepen that work that we do and this year we also were awarded uh just about 8 million from Minnesota housing and Finance Agency to do some a series of things one is to 30 about 35 folks in the home buyer initiated program um where it's up to the 150,000 you buy a house anywhere and uh get in where we can fit in and you know gives you choice and uh we also then pair you with an additional $60,000 of uh kind of owner occupied rehab and the things that we're looking for in that program one is to ensure uh that we can um that that we're looking at the mechanical systems and the roof and all of those things uh uh to ensure that you don't have to have any big major things that would come up for your house in the first 10 years that's the goal um on top of that we are working and have some funds to be able to start getting folks to what we are calling Net Zero not Net Zero in terms of what we don't have but net zero on the cost of you running your home starting in 2025 any Community Land Trust uh uh owner for housing single family housing will also have reduced property taxes um we do a lot of different things around that and again we're a developer at the heart of what we do um we've got uh about 500 units in uh in development pipeline uh which we will start breaking ground on soon here in the next uh hopefully by summer we've got a a couple things about 90 that we'll have in the Rondo Community itself um and then our commercial programs so um we really support business owners right now uh we have our our um affordable commercial space uh so we do it in a few ways we if you want brick and mortar we try to work with business owners that are ready to move into a brick and mortar and own their own building um that's nuanced takes time we work with that but um in our Flagship development um right on S Selby Avenue uh we are renting out at $7 a square foot where do I do that at $7 a square foot it's important that we help people move along a Continuum for affordability and by the way did I tell you that we are here forever no we are seriously um we're here forever so as part of our neighborhood Legacy work our right to return if you have long-standing history um in the community those kind of things we kind of give you first R of refusal in those spaces that are in in Rondo Community um and then for our Legacy businesses we are also preserving Legacy businesses because we need to do that um and so we've purchased golden time Coffee Cafe we've purchased um uh enj cleaner site which was a historic black uh uh dry cleaning business in the community um and hold on wait one more thing and taking culture centering that culture piece between uh like between Lexington and Dale on Selby Avenue uh we are we are continuing the legacy of folks that have uh been trying to uh through Selby JazzFest and other things make that the African-American Arts and Cultural corridor Center cuz you know we got to have somewhere to go before the bridge comes right well I like to say we the bridge before the bridge we the bridge to the bridge right um so again it's uh doing all of that that work that we're doing uh is also part of that so between Dale and and Lexington on Selby Avenue is the African-American Arts and Cultural Corridor and we are busy at getting work to work to um create spaces uh for Community to to come to and um I just say be patient I've been here 2 years and but you know we've been growing the business and growing our capacity and uh growing the support that we need but we are we are we've got about um 880,000 Square ft of commercial space that we have in production that you know still needs to be built 18 to 24 months out uh some of them might be 36 but you know I don't I don't like slow timelines um so we're we're doing that we're and again preserving businesses and buildings why we're here um so if we when we weave together our commercial work our housing work to strengthen communities um and to drive local economies we are also looking at um what's coming down the pipe right we need to be Keith has talked a lot about transportation and yes we do work with transportation to dollars but there's more money that's there it is our climate and environmental resiliency money that's there and that's just about $ 1.5 trillion dollar 40% of that supposed to be be spent in um underserved communities like R so uh we're getting ready to get ready to be ready so that we can ensure that we you know grab up snatch down deploy and you know so we've been taking we've been taking the two years to be ready to do that uh so when we do that uh right all the cultural keeping we're going to keep going oh oh is that okay no um so some of our strategic priorities right now we're going to grow our residential portfolio expand our commercial uh Land Trust model we're going to implement more shared Equity uh ownership models you know all this to do to create vibrant and cultural economic nodes AKA Rondo um and you know what you know what the most build people power if we don't build people power we're not doing the work okay so just where we're at a couple of other things um you know Rondo is poised to become a really large scale resident large scale developer um In This Moment we've got about 600 uh units of uh housing ready to be uh put into production uh then our goal is to create it uh an acquisition and development in investment fund so um that we can capture uh work with other developers that want to get into the game and do that um and then um a green infrastructure investment fund and then we're opening a small business incubator at the uh hopefully it'll be open by August we are going to do that on Selby Avenue uh really our goal is receive those 300 businesses that were lost and then um really really continue to concentrate on the African-American Arts and Cultural Corridor to ensure that we start building this place where people want to live work play and be and um and then we get to step back and ensure that uh what we do is no no one's G to tell no one should be able to tell us no by the time we get ready for the bridge and by the way I'm hopeful that we can raise enough money that they're like well we need 3150 million okay well we have it we got it we don't need you government our goal really again is collective ownership of land and things