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Activists in the East Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis are regrouping after a Hennepin County judge granted a temporary restraining order, putting the planned demolition of the Roof Depot building on pause. The demolition was previously slated to go ahead this week. 

The East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) requested the pause. The group has an appeal filed in the courts, and the restraining order gives time for courts to hear that appeal. EPNI and other neighborhood groups argue that the project will increase pollution in the neighborhood. 

Jason Chavez, Ward 9 Minneapolis City Councilmember representing the area where the site is located, said the effort to stop the project isn’t done yet. He was one of many leaders and community members who spoke during a panel discussion about the issue on Sunday.  

“The goal, from my perspective, has always been to reduce the amount of harm coming into this ward and get the best possible outcome for my community,” Chavez said. “There is no other answer besides stopping this.”  

Last week, activists conducted several efforts aimed at stopping the project. A day-long occupation at the site ended with eight activists arrested. At a city council meeting on Thursday, a re-vote to stop the project failed, and activists in attendance confronted councilmembers.  

The city says that the project will be safe.  

“We would not be going forward with this project if the City of Minneapolis did not believe it was a safe project, and a project that is going to improve the area,” Minneapolis public works director Margaret Anderson Kelliher said.  

Judge Edward Wahl, who granted the temporary restraining order, had previously denied a request for a preliminary injunction, saying there was “insufficient evidence” that pollution from the project would harm the neighborhood. He specified on Friday that he still believed this but chose to grant the temporary restraining order to give time for the appeal to go through the courts. 

Activists say they don’t believe the city’s claims that the project will be safe.  

“We have not been given enough information to know that the city will keep us safe,” EPNI member Delaney Russell said. “We don't trust the city. Maybe they are going to keep us safe, but we don't know.” 

The neighborhood is one of the most diverse in Minnesota. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has found that neighborhoods with higher populations of Black, Indigenous, and people of color suffer from higher rates of illness caused by air pollution. 

Neighborhood groups have plans for alternative uses of the site, including an urban farm, a community center and tiny homes to shelter unhoused people.  

Activists hosted a block party near the Roof Depot site on Sunday, where they raised funds for the movement and for Little Earth, an urban Native American community in East Phillips.  

One of the conditions of the temporary restraining order was that EPNI raises money to cover some of the cost to the city to delay the project through a $10,000 bond. The group has two weeks to raise the funds.  

Although the project is on hold, activists say their work isn’t.   

“We are going to hold the line because our children deserve it,” Ward 2 City Councilmember Robin Wonsley said.

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Estelle Timar-Wilcox

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A Hennepin County judge granted a temporary restraining order, putting the planned demolition of the Roof Depot building on pause. The demolition was previously slated to go ahead this week. Although the project is on hold, activists say their work isn’t.

Opponents of Roof Depot demolition vow to fight on

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