Hamline Midway Investment Co-op schedules Community Forum Aug. 20

The Hamline Midway Investment Co-op will hold a Community Forum on Thurs., Aug. 20, 6:30-8pm in the Hamline Midway Library (1558 Minnehaha Ave.), basement meeting room.

What kind of businesses and resources would we like to see (or see more of) in our neighborhood? How can we attract businesses into sites and streets that have seen too little (or too much short-term) usage over the last few years? How can we support local businesses in a way that is mutually beneficial, and more sustainable over the long term? How can we as a community affirm and enhance our neighborhood—its look, its culture, its affordability, its strengths?

A dedicated group of neighbors have been exploring these questions and have more formally moved to form the Hamline Midway Investment Co-operative (HMIC). The group seeks to expand its membership, and its sense of how to answer these complicated questions, by hosting three community forums. The first will be held from 6:30-8 on Aug. 20, in the basement of the Hamline Midway Library. The objective is rich conversation —to get a better read on what a good investment might be and to broaden engagement across the neighborhood. Future sessions will be announced later.

HMIC began as an interest group of 10-15 neighbors, called together by the Hamline Midway Coalition Board of Directors in an attempt to facilitate direct community participation in economic development. With the support of HMC and its director Michael Jon Olson, the group has been meeting for the past year or so to discuss the possibility of creating a neighborhood co-op here in Hamline Midway.

This idea has benefited communities throughout the country. Recently there was discussion on the neighborhood Facebook page about the NorthEast Investment Co-op (NEIC) in Minneapolis. The NEIC illustrates the power of community engagement in economic development. A building cooperatively owned by this group now houses a brewery and a bakery near Central and Lowry avenues.

The local brainstorming group in Midway has met approximately a dozen times and recently enlisted one of NEIC’s founding members to serve as a consultant. Calling themselves the Hamline Midway Investment Co-op (HMIC), they have engaged in preliminary research about how co-ops work, done some preliminary investigation of sites and strategies, and debated different visions for moving forward. A preliminary mission statement emerged from the efforts:

“We want to form an investment co-op, to buy a commercial property, that underpins a sustainable business that serves the community, and provides a return to the investors. We want people in the community to engage with development—property, business, and all the less material elements of community growth and strength—in ways that empower them.”

They are now at the stage where they are ready to incorporate as a co-op and begin coordinating with the broader community about what such an investment co-op might look like here in the neighborhood. There remain many larger questions of where exactly to look to purchase a building and what businesses might one day set up shop there. But HMIC now hopes to further the discussion—and expand the constituency of the steering group—by asking for all neighbors to share ideas, thoughts, input, feedback, and questions.

In addition to the community forums, HMIC will work through Facebook, email, and other personal communications to engage the whole neighborhood. If you are interested in learning more, joining in, or just being connected to our email conversations, please drop Mike Reynolds a note at mreynolds@hamline.edu.