CURIOUS ABOUT GENTRIFICATION?

We can find out for ourselves what it means in our own town.

The first class we will ask what gentrification is, not to come to a quick conclusion but to create new, answerable questions that will guide our research. There will be also be a discussion of tactics for answering questions. Resources such as the property tax information database, private and public corporation registers, and how to write letters / talk to people will be covered. We will then begin to ask and answer questions about the gentrification of Minneapolis.

If gentrification exists it is happening here and now. We’ll pick a section of town (or a few) and narrow it down to real things going on there, whether it’s home ownership characteristics, development projects, speculators, or anything else that really exists and is part of the process of gentrification.

The class will consist of a weekly meeting time where we present answers to questions (whether in the form of maps, names of people involved, interviews, etc) and go on to ask new ones and give them out to each other.

It is crucial that before we accept it as true, we will filter information through the lens of each class participant. We will use consensus as a way to get to the objective truth in our statements. There are no expert authorities in this class.

The answers that we find will become a publication about our city. After taking this class, our members will have a real and physical understanding of how gentrification and development happens in Minneapolis. We will create maps of unexplored territories, right outside our window.

JOIN US.