Partnership Development to Explore Collaboration or Merger

Partners: Reconnect Rondo, Center for Diverse Expression - Rondo Commemorative Plaza, Hallie Q Brown, Aurora St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation

This grant will fund an initiative called Rondo Roundtable, with the long-range goal of establishing "Historic Rondo" St. Paul's African American Arts, Cultural Heritage, and Business District. Select Roundtable members will combine resources and grow a collective capacity to support the ongoing research, identification, protection, development, and eventual designation of historic resources.

Working with Rondoites, students, scholars, and consultants, partners will: 1) align the stories identified in the African American Historic and Cultural Context Study and the Archival Project to the proper locations within the footprint of Historic Rondo and; 2) develop a mapped database of historically significant sites. The mapped database will advance the secondary goals of a) informing the restoration efforts that could take shape along a proposed land bridge and throughout the Historic Rondo Neighborhood; b) calculating the lost wealth experienced by the families inadequately compensated at the time by the I-94 construction; c) identifying original Rondoites and their descendants to collect artifacts and target future wealth-building opportunities; d) prioritizing historically significant sites to inform resource allocation better; e) recognizing what should be preserved, restored, replicated or historically marked; and f) investigating and enabling the design of tours, placemaking, digital interpretative tools or historically inspired business models.

From the recent Green Line light rail installation to the State Department of Transportation ReThinking of the I-94 corridor, the Rondo community has at its feet a catalytic moment to harness the revitalizing energy currently taking shape within the area. By leveraging the benefits of heritage preservation, members of the Roundtable are working to advance social and economic opportunities into the future, including addressing Rondo's legacy.