Harrison Neighborhood, Minneapolis CBA campaign

The Harrison Neighborhood is located in North Minneapolis and is adjacent to the environmentally contaminated Bassett Creek Valley redevelopment area. The Harrison and Bryn Mawr Neighborhood Associations, worried about the effects that the redevelopment might have on the predominantly minority and low-income communities, participated in public meetings and partnered with the major developer to help shape the plan. Neighborhood residents also adopted "Guiding Principles for Redevelopment," a document setting out the neighborhoods' priorities and including affordable and inclusionary housing, living wage jobs and job training, minority and female owned business support and hiring goals, addressing the basic retail and service needs of residents, supporting the neighborhoods' efforts to make a sense of place, using pedestrian-friendly design and improving linkages to other parts of the city.

The developer, Ryan Companies, has agreed to work with the neighborhood associations to reach a CBA. More information is available in a report by the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability, and from Minneapolis' planning department.

Update, 01.22.09:
On November 27, 2008, the Minneapolis City Council passed an amendment supporting good jobs and affordable housing goals. See here, and here for the council's minutes.

Minneapolis Digital Inclusion CBA

In Minneapolis, a 2006 CBA has demonstrated that CBAs need not be limited to physical developments. The agreement was made in relation to the creation of a city-wide wi-fi network and is designed to minimize the digital divide by making the city’s internet service more accessible to low income and other “digitally disenfrachised” residents. The idea to use the CBA model arose as a hybrid, combining elements of CBAs and municipal cable franchise agreements. After a coalition was formed and presented its case to the city council, the city amended its request for vendor proposals to require internet providers to address the digital divide. The city council also authorized the formation of a Digital Inclusion Task Force to work with the community coalition to assess the community’s digital needs and develop a CBA proposal. The task force and coalition worked extensively with the community to develop the CBA, and the vendor contract ultimately included a $500,000 fund for digital inclusion and provisions for advertising revenues to be added to the upfront amount, subsidized internet services for more than 100 community groups and nonprofits and a guarantee of network neutrality. Organizers in Chicago are working on negotiating a similar digital access CBA, and Microsoft has voiced its support for Minneapolis’ plan to address the digital divide.
Several reports about the Digital Inclusion CBA are available at the Digital Access Project's website.
Community organizers should also take a look at these talks given by Catherine Settani and Jim Farstad, who both played pivotal roles in developing the Digital Inclusion CBA. They are positively inspiring.