Nonprofit gets approval for a Minneapolis bike-walk facility

Article by: STEVE BRANDT , Star Tribune
Updated: May 4, 2011 - 9:13 PM

After two other nonprofits fought to a draw, a panel recommended that a church-based bike program get $350,000 for a bike-walk center.

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A Minneapolis City Council panel has recommended that a church-based nonprofit get $350,000 in federal money to create a bike-walk center on the city's North Side.

Redeemer Center for Life hopes to open by mid-summer a center with refurbished bikes and other bike-walk goods and programming. The objective is to lower the North Side's rates of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and other health problems. It comes before the full council on May 13.

The center would be at 1830 Glenwood Av., on the community's southern edge.

Redeemer has operated youth bike-repair and sales programs for several years. It was earlier part of a team assembled by the Pohlad Family Foundation to compete for the federal health promotion grant. But that group failed to win a city staff recommendation, which went to a team assembled by the Cultural Wellness Center. When some North Siders on the council objected, the council decreed a new competition in a move seen as reflecting the foundation's clout.

Redeemer then assembled a new team. City Health Commissioner Gretchen Musicant said neither the Pohlad foundation nor the wellness center is involved, to her knowledge.

"We're very excited about this," said Don Samuels, the City Council member for the lower North Side. "We've been talking about this for a long time."

The proposed center will occupy 1,700 square feet in an old hardware store on Glenwood. Council members suggested that a name more reflective of the greater North Side than the proposed Bassett Creek Bike-Walk Center be found; a contest may be held.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438