Public Safety Forums Bring the Wedge Together

The Lowry Hill East Neighborhood Association, the volunteer-led nonprofit recognized by the city as the Wedge's official neighborhood organization, has treated public safety as something neighbors can organize around through its committees and forums.

One of those forums, held Oct. 21, 2020, brought MPD leadership together with grassroots violence-prevention figures. Participants included then-Chief Medaria Arradondo and Fifth Precinct Inspector Amelia Huffman, along with community leaders Korey Dean of The Man Up Club, Lisa Clemons of A Mother's Love Initiative, Raeisha Williams of Guns Down Love Up and Charles Caine of Brothers EMpowered. The value of a forum, organizers say, is that it gives residents a venue to compare notes, surface trends and press officials for follow-through rather than trade rumors online.

The association has also paired that work with a longer-term effort. LHENA was chosen to pilot a community public-safety program built on restorative practices, its "Block by Block" model, developed in partnership with Restorative Justice Community Action, the Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute and community leader Manu Lewis. Beginning in January 2022, a six-person core team of Wedge residents, LHENA staff and community leaders went through six months of training and mentoring through that partnership.

That approach reflects LHENA's broader theory that a connected, watched-over neighborhood is a safer one, alongside its small-business outreach and other programs. Public safety has been a recurring item for the association rather than a one-time response.

LHENA holds public board meetings on the third Wednesday of each month from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at its office, 2744 Lyndale Ave. S. More on its safety work is at thewedge.org.

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