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Find out what ReConnect Rondo has been up to lately. See what progress has been made in our collective efforts to reverse racial disparities in Minnesota. Think about how you can support this restorative movement in the Rondo community.
ReConnect Rondo to host first Reconnecting Communities Summit
For immediate release: September 18, 2023 Media inquires: Tim Hunt 651-242-4959 timh@reconnectrondo.com Saint Paul, Minn — The first-ever convening of communities divided by the federal highway system will happen in...
Read MoreRondo was one of only 45 projects funded by the U.S. DOT as part of its “Reconnecting Communities” effort
By Amy Felegy, MPR and Tim Nelson, Sahan Journal. Originally published March 1, 2023. This story comes to you from MPR News through a partnership with Sahan Journal. Nonprofit community group ReConnect Rondo...
Read MoreAn investment seen to right the wrong felt by Rondo five decades later
By Deevon Rahming, KARE11. Originally published March 1, 2023. ST PAUL, Minn. — It’s an investment seen as a way to right the wrong felt by St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood,...
Read MoreNo, a land bridge over I-94 wouldn’t be too expensive to build
By Kyle Stokes, MinnPost. Originally published March 1, 2023. A proposal to build a land bridge over Interstate 94 in St. Paul — physically reconnecting a once-vibrant, historically-Black neighborhood torn in two by the...
Read MoreRondo is seen as an exemplar in this national round-up of Black communities impacted by transportation
By Michael Laris, The Washington Post. Originally published February 28, 2023. The Kensington Expressway, a highway project built in 1958, effectively cut off much of Buffalo’s East Side, an area...
Read MoreAnderson: “It’s a story of heartache; it’s a story of anger; it’s a story of resentment; it’s a story of reconciliation.”
By Charmaine Nero, KARE-11. Originally published February 28, 2023. ST PAUL, Minn. — *Editor’s note: The above story first aired Feb. 4, 2021. The Rondo neighborhood is one of hundreds of...
Read MoreThis is a way of healing, say Rondo residents about the land bridge project
By Richard Reeve, KSTP-TV. Originally published February 28, 2023. Along Concordia Avenue in St. Paul is the Rondo neighborhood — present day. But Nieta Presley shared with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS...
Read MoreU.S. Rep. Betty McCollum and Senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar all significantly advocated for $2M funding
By Olivia Stevens, Pioneer Press. Originally published February 13, 2023. The large-scale land bridge project proposed for St. Paul’s Rondo area will receive $2 million in funding under the federal...
Read More$2M grant is approved through the “Reconnecting Communities” portion of the infrastructure law
U.S. Congresswoman Betty McCollum press release The monumental task of resuscitating St. Paul’s Rondo community took a major step forward this week when the federal government announced it is committing...
Read MoreRondo was an exemplar of Black social entrepreneurship, academic excellence and a vibrant arts culture before it was destroyed
By Jimmie Briggs, AARP Livable Communities. Originally published February 1, 2023. As a home to Black families and individuals migrating from downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, and other areas, the city’s Rondo...
Read MoreTwo community groups have proposed different approaches for replacing a stretch of I-94
By Andrew Hazzard, Sahan Journal. Originally published October 6, 2022. Environmental justice advocates packed a recent public meeting to pressure the Minnesota Department of Transportation to replace Interstate 94 between...
Read MoreFour cities’ plans to revitalize communities previously devastated by the highway system
By Karen Jordan, Urban Land. Originally published October 24, 2022. For decades, highways nationwide were built to connect roads and cities but often came with the added consequence of cutting...
Read MoreMore than a land bridge — the vision is to generate Black wealth and to right past wrongs
By H. Jiahong Pan, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. Originally published October 13, 2022. I-94 plan seeks to resurrect a destroyed community Advocates for a land bridge over I-94 in Rondo say their...
Read MoreAs state considers repairs to I-94, Rondo residents look for reconnection
By Nina Moini, MPR. Photos by Nicole Neri for MPR News. Originally published March 16, 2022. The break room inside of Taste of Rondo Bar and Grill overlooks a well-traveled portion of...
Read MoreMarvin Roger Anderson was displaced from St. Paul’s historically Black Rondo Neighborhood as a child when Interstate 94 was constructed.
By Sheila Mulrooney Eldred, Sahan Journal. Photo by Ben Hovland. Originally published March 31, 2022. Marvin Roger Anderson was 8 years old when he heard the question for the first time: “What...
Read MoreRondo residents advocate for federal help to build land bridge over I-94
By Katie Galioto, Star Tribune. Photo by Elizabeth Flores, Star Tribune. Originally published February 25, 2022. Those who grew up in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood remember it as a vibrant, tight-knit community...
Read MoreCan a new vision for Interstate 94 repair historic harm in Rondo?
By Angela Davis and Maja Beckstrom. Photo by Derek Montgomery for MPR News File. Originally aired May 5, 2022. More than a generation ago, the construction of Interstate 94 dug...
Read MoreRondo Dreams Becoming a Reality
By Zoë Jackson, Star Tribune. Photography by David Joles, Star Tribune. Originally posted July 5, 2021 Advocates have spent 12 years planning a way to reconnect Rondo. While walking through...
Read MoreConnecting past, present, future
By Margie O’Loughlin, Monitor St. Paul. Originally posted May 12, 2021 ReConnect Rondo (RCR) is leading the effort to revitalize St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood. The non-profit organization and its partners...
Read MoreCould a land bridge project help minority communities recover from displacement?
By Fred de Sam Lazaro, PBS Newshour. Originally posted May 26, 2021 President Joe Biden has proposed using some of the $2 trillion of his infrastructure plan to repair harm...
Read More‘It’s just justice’ | Historic Black neighborhood gutted by interstate remembers George Floyd, seeks reconnection
By Charmaine Nero, KARE 11. Originally published May 24, 2021. “George Floyd and all of these African American men whose lives have been taken have shined a light on the basements...
Read MoreSt. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood celebrates Juneteenth with dedication of new community garden
By Deevon Rahming, KARE 11. Originally published June 19, 2021. ST PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul-based home improvement nonprofit, Rebuilding Together Twin Cities, received a $150,000 National Neighborhood Promise Grant from the Republic...
Read MoreSt. Paul’s ReConnect Rondo Is Working to Right Past Highway Development Wrongs
By Cinnamon Janzer, Next City. Originally posted June 23, 2021 Since the late 1800’s, St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood was a thriving Black community. Churches, businesses, schools, and homes all coalesced into a...
Read MoreOrganizers for bridge reconnecting the Rondo neighborhood seek public input
By Alex Chhith, Star Tribune. Originally posted May 10, 2021 Online sessions will gather community input. A bridge proposal to reconnect a historically Black neighborhood in St. Paul is facing...
Read MoreMinnesota’s racial divide: Will land bridge right Rondo’s wrongs?
by Ben Piven, Aljazeera. Originally posted May 11, 2021 In the historically Black neighbourhood of Rondo in Saint Paul, Minnesota, community leaders hope US President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan will help...
Read MoreIn Biden infrastructure plan, advocates see opportunity to revive St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood with I-94 land bridge
by Ashley Hackett, MinnPost. Originally posted May 5, 2021 The Reconnecting Communities Act would establish grants to address the “legacy of highway construction built through communities… that divided neighborhoods and erected...
Read MoreMN lawmakers hear plan to reconnect historic Black neighborhood
by The Associated Press. Originally posted February 3, 2021 Minnesota lawmakers on Tuesday heard a proposal that would construct a “land bridge” to reconnect a historically Black St. Paul neighborhood...
Read MoreNonprofit seeks $6M in state funds for land bridge to reconnect St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood
Residents of St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood, which was torn apart when Interstate 94 was built in the 1960s, are continuing their years-long push to reconnect the predominantly Black neighborhood and...
Read MoreBiden infrastructure proposal has Rondo Land Bridge supporters optimistic
By Maury Glover, FOX 9. Originally published March 31, 2021. ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) – President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan has encouraging news for supporters of the Rondo Land Bridge project in...
Read MoreGroup testifies before Minnesota House Transportation committee about possible Rondo land bridge
By Sharon Yoo, KARE 11. Originally published March 25, 2021. ST PAUL, Minn. — A neighborhood destroyed by an interstate is a story that’s not unique to St. Paul but one...
Read MoreRacism, not a highway, tore apart St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood
By Myron Medcalf, Star Tribune. Originally published February 20, 2021. In the 1950s, Debbie Montgomery, a former St. Paul City Council member and the first woman hired by the St....
Read MoreThe resurrection of Rondo
By Robin Doyscher, The Hamline University Oracle. Originally published March 17, 2021. Decades after Interstate 94 ran itself through the Rondo neighborhood, a land bridge could be built to reconnect...
Read MoreCan a Land Bridge Restore What a Black Community Lost?
By Kea Wilson, Streets Blog USA. Originally published February 19, 2021. At the height of the urban renewal era, state and local governments across the country strategically routed highway projects...
Read MoreCampaigns for Reparations Are Gaining Steam Across the Country
By David Lamb, The Progessive. Originally published March 3, 2021. As H.R. 40 gathers dust in the U.S. Congress, St. Paul, Minnesota, becomes the latest city to join the national...
Read MoreHow to connect and heal St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood
By EDITORIAL BOARD, Star Tribune. Originally published February 16, 2021. As part of America’s development of its highway system, Interstate 94 was routed through the Black community of Rondo in...
Read MoreReConnect Rondo project hopes to reconnect historic Black neighborhood razed by Interstate 94 construction
By Charmaine Nero, KARE 11. Originally published February 4, 2021. ST PAUL, Minn. — “I was born and raised in Rondo,” says Marvin Anderson Anderson’s personal story mimics that of countless...
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