Healthy, Eco-Sustainable Urban Living Initiatives
NRRC is brimming with optimism and gratitude! Despite the many stressors over the last few months, our community has remained resilient, dynamic and focused on how to continually improve the quality of life for all Northsiders.
The Northside Residents Redevelopment Council (NRRC) has served the Near North and Willard-Hay neighborhoods since 1969 and is proud to continue supporting our residents' vision of healthy urban living.
In August of 2019, we completed the renovation of a 100 year old home to become the new NRRC Headquarters. We are now working on Phase II of our plan, which is the implementation of our Demonstration Site for Healthy Urban Living. In little over a year, we have planted a medicinal garden and pollinator patch, received donations of a bike fix-it station and a Free Little Library, installed a water cistern and rain garden, and begun construction on our chicken coop. We are thrilled about our progress and look forward to the demonstration site being a community resource for generations to come!
With help from your donations, we plan to construct our greenhouse and apiary! We can’t wait to introduce this resource to the community!
NRRC’s Healthy Urban Living Initiatives:
A eco-friendly Free Little Library
Bicycle repair and maintenance
Healthy cooking classes
Vegetable, herbal, and medicinal plant gardening
Native pollinator-friendly gardens
Rain barrels and rain garden installations
Rainwater cistern to supply water for gardens
Rainwater cistern for eco-house toilets/handwashing
Backyard chickens for eggs
Beehive cultivation for pollinators and honey/beeswax
Greenhouse gardening
Wood-fired brick oven
Solar and wind energy
This space will be a catalyst for quality of life improvements for residents of our community and further NRRC’s resident-driven initiatives to foster healthy, self-sufficient lifestyles.
Finally, we would like to thank all of our partnering organizations for making this work possible:
City of Minneapolis, Eggplant Nursery, Envirotech Construction, Green Guilds, Little Free Library Impact Program, Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, MN Renewable Now, Mother Earth Gardens, Nexus Community Partners, Old National Bank, Quality Bicycle Products, and Tangletown Gardens.
-----
NRRC's mission is to inform, engage and facilitate the residents of the Near North and Willard Hay neighborhoods in Minneapolis to be primary agents for improving the social, economic, environmental and livability conditions in their community. Current programs include down payment assistance, home improvement loans, and block club grants.
The plans for the demonstration site began in 2017 when we were given the opportunity of the eco-house and urban landscape. We hired Green Guilds Permaculture to work with us on creating the design for the green space. It has evolved over time with phase one starting last year (2019). There will be three phases with different projects scheduled over three summers. We’re currently seeking funding for those projects.
