Neighborhood activists say list of finalists isn't racially balanced

Now the diversity shoe is on the other foot.

When the Minneapolis City Council revamped City Hall's relationship with neighborhoods last year, its members criticized city-recognized neighborhood groups for not involving enough minority residents. Council Member Ralph Remington said he's often the only person of color at neighborhood meetings.

"That means somebody's not speaking out. That means somebody's not represented," he said.

Now it's the turn of some neighborhood activists to point fingers.

They're lambasting as racially exclusive the list of finalists recommended to the council for seven seats on the city's new Neighborhood and Community Engagement Commission, which will advise a new neighborhood-focused city department.

Seven of the eight finalists are white, in a city that's more than one-third minority.

Sixty-six people applied for the seven positions on the commission. The group was whittled to the eight by Council Members Robert Lilligren, Betsy Hodges, Lisa Goodman and Sandra Colvin Roy, with help from city staff. Lilligren said they were trying to balance geography, gender and backgrounds of applicants, but didn't know the racial makeup of the pool.

Critics said the racial imbalance is especially galling after the city faulted the Neighborhood Revitalization Program for lack of minority participation. As far back as 1992, an outside evaluation done during the program's early days said not enough minority and renter participation were the program's biggest faults.

As council members prepared to revamp neighborhood programs, they adopted guidelines that specifically called for participation by all segments of the community, including communities of color. A task force report to the council called for a commission that represented the diverse interests of the city, taking affirmative action into account.

"It is a very hypocritical stance," said Brock Hanson, a leader in the Shingle Creek neighborhood.

According to his staff, Mayor R.T. Rybak is expected to appoint Matt Perry (East Harriet neighborhood) and Crystal Johnson (Near North). Johnson is black. That leaves an all-white slate of six people from whom the council plans to name five at its meeting on Friday. They are: Tony Anastasia (Audubon Park), David Crockett (Stevens Square/Loring Heights), Ed Newman (Loring Park), Doris Overby (Standish), Breanne Rothstein (Windom) and Jeffrey Strand (Shingle Creek).

Neighborhoods will have a chance to show if they can produce a more diverse slate of commission members. They'll appoint eight members through a process that they are scheduled to devise later this month.