Views of the City

Tonight I had the opportunity to visit a new friend, Kim, who lives in an Urban Ventures home in North Minneapolis (see: http://www.urbanventures.com/).  We had a great time eating dinner while listening to Latin music from the car stereo of her neighbor.

After supper the neighbor boy, Marc- who is three, brought over a soccer ball and we played throw the ball at the basketball hoop (not too many of his attempts made it in) =+) while I spoke to him in both English and Spanish, and he responded only with smiles and hand claps the way three-year-olds often do. I met his dad and explained to him why I won’t be able to make it to their salsa dancing party on Saturday night because I will be up the North Shore (not to be confused with Hawaii’s North Shore–this one is in Duluth, MN on Lake Superior). In broken spanglish we communicated with one another.

I have to admit, tonight at Kim’s house off of Broadway and Emerson, I found myself in a different part of Minneapolis than I have ever been.  I was just a few blocks from North Senior High School.

North is a rough area of town…an area of town I haven’t been in.  An area where I, as a white woman was a (at least temporary) minority. Tonight on my drive back to where I live I heard different noises- people yelling and talking more loudly and saw faces different from mine. And it got me thinking.

Thinking- and returning to a thought I had last summer when I went to another part of the city I had never been …thinking about the many, varied views of the city we all experience.

I grew up in the shadow of the city…a shadow from which I was far removed. Minneapolis was something I remember only from driving into, coming from the South.  While being raised in the suburbs, I only came to the city for Twins Baseball games, Vikings Football, and Christmas displays on the Nicollet Mall.  Thus, my view of the city has always held excitement and fun adventure for me.

But this is not everyone’s view of the city.

Yesterday, I went biking with a friend on a path that encircles the city of Minneapolis. This friend lives in a predominately Somali-immigrant neighborhood with high-rises and women dressed in robes from head to toe.  As we rode I wondered what the city looks like from their vantage point.

The further we rode our bikes, the more distant and peaceful the city seemed to me; like a dream that the urban yuppies can afford.  It was beautiful and breathtaking. 

As we returned to the city, I saw the new condo developments along the Mississippi River and thought of the excitement the city must bring to all of the business professionals in their sweet urban dwellings in the heart of the city. They must be poised and ready for new adventures.

Then there’s the view from the University of MN’s West Bank campus. Another view entirely. And what about the view coming in from the Western suburbs?  Their first experience is to visit the old Guthrie Theater or the beautiful Sculpture Gardens.

Then there’s Uptown.  Uptown in the cool part of town, but wedged next to it is an area that was declared a federal disaster area in the early 90s because poverty had overtaken it.

And then there is the view I saw tonight.  A view of the path that my journey has before brought me. And tonight I wondered what my view would have looked like if I had grown up there? 

An experience with a population and a place I had never experienced or known before.  Our views of the city. All different.  Some evoke feelings of fear and desperation. Some hopes of adventure and salvation.

Yet each one of us…rich, poor; black and white; male and female….we all live in the shadow of the same city and are bound together in our common humanity.

So tonight I ask:

What view of the city do you see?