How do you solve a problem like George Floyd Square? They’ve tried burning it all down and by ‘they’, I mean the BLM mob.
“I have not fully recovered from that time and I know that we as a community have not fully recovered from that time. I don’t know when we will. I do know that we have to try,” City Council President Andrea Jenkins, whose Eighth Ward abuts George Floyd Square, said Saturday. “It is important for our own mental health. It is important for the economic development of our neighborhood.”
How can you go wrong?
Last year, Mayor Jacob Frey proposed a permanent memorial to Floyd at the intersection where he died in the custody of Minneapolis police officers on May 25, 2020. On Saturday afternoon at Phelps Recreation Center, staff from the Public Works Department joined elected officials for the first of two town hall meetings this month to discuss reconstructing 38th and Chicago.
Which will hopefully be entirely, not mostly peaceful.
The former Speedway gas station, gutted during the unrest, covered in murals and re-dubbed the “People’s Way” by activists who regularly gather by its pumps, was used in a March kidnapping during which a man was set on fire, according to criminal charges.
City staff are in talks with the property owner and lease holder of the shuttered gas station to see if they may help develop a transition plan.
A transition away from setting people on fire during kidnappings?
Frey said. He added that he’s particularly interested in exploring the potential of creating a national park space or monument at the spot where Floyd died. “I think there’s broad consensus that we want to have an extraordinary memorial that gives recognition to the legacy of George Floyd.”
That’s the trouble. This is the perfect memorial to George Floyd and his legacy.
For Mulualem Gere, who bought a house on nearby Elliott Avenue last year, the reconstruction project represents hope. He said most of his extended family lives in Michigan, and they worry for him constantly.
That’s old George’s legacy there too.
“We have the whole world’s attention,” Webb said. “Now is our chance to show the world what Minneapolis is really about.”
Mission accomplished.
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