In The News

With the snip of scissors cutting a red ribbon, Minneapolis city officials on Tuesday opened the historic 10th Avenue bridge marking the end of a $60 million rehabilitation project that took almost two years.

Barricades will come down Wednesday allowing traffic and pedestrians to cross the span adjacent to Interstate 35W that connects the Marcy Holmes and Cedar-Riverside neighborhoods, and provides a direct route for scores of University of Minnesota students needing to cross the Mississippi River each day.

“It will be very much a time saver,” said Adam Dickey, a U of M junior studying at the Carlson School of Management who on Tuesday strolled across the bridge before its official opening.

For the past two years, Dickey has had to find alternate routes from his student apartment to class, a trip he makes two to three times a day. “I’ve have had to find other ways. This will save 10 to 15 minutes.”

First opened in 1929, the 2,174-foot-long bridge with its seven distinctive arches had not received a lot of attention in its lifetime. The sidewalk and bridge railings were replaced in the 1950s, and the driving surface was replaced in the 1970s. Those were the last major upgrades to the bridge, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

While they were at it, crews also removed a failing water main on the underside of the bridge. It was replaced with a new one five feet in diameter placed beneath the river. The bridge deck was also reconfigured with bike lanes and pedestrian-friendly sidewalks, adding another chapter to the bridge’s storied history.

“We have multi-modal transportation for the first time,” said Bryan Dodds, deputy public works director and city engineer.

Mayor Jacob Frey was impressed with the outcome, and said the reopening is emblematic of the city coming together.

“It looks brand new,” the mayor said during the bridge opening ceremony. “This is an example of how old things can be exciting and redone in a functional and modern fashion. This critical asset deserves to be celebrated.”

Among those at Tuesday’s celebration were state Sen. Kari Dziedzic, DFL-Minneapolis, who helped secure original funding for the project in 2012 when needs were first identified, Minneapolis City Council members, city public works employees and architects and engineers from contractor Lunda Construction.

University of Minnesota Senior Vice President Myron Frans said the U was proud to partner with the city and the state on the project, and is glad to have restored an important amenity serving the campus.

“This bridge is much older than me, but it looks so much better than me,” he said.

Now, more than a year and a half after the fire, Minnesota lawmakers have passed a new law requiring sprinkler systems in public high-rise buildings like the Cedar High Apartments. Proponents are celebrating the move as a first step in making sure no other community faces a similar tragedy.

“This was closure for some of the family members that came to testify to make sure that this does not happen again,” said Noor, a two-term Democrat who carried the legislation in the House. “This is a really significant first step.”

Tucked into a broader jobs and economy budget bill signed by Gov. Tim Walz, the requirement means out-of-date public housing buildings built before the 1970s and 1980s now must be retrofitted with sprinklers by 2033, bringing them in line with current state requirements.

It affects public buildings across the state that have people living in spaces above 75 feet, the highest reach of many fire department vehicles. A large number of those buildings are in Minneapolis, but there are others across the state, said Sen. Kari Dziedzic, DFL-Minneapolis, who worked on the proposal. No comprehensive data exists on how many buildings need to comply with the new law.

The half-century-old Cedar High Apartments had sprinklers on the main floor and in a mechanical equipment room, but not in residential units.

“Every time I hear about a fire now, I look at how many stories it is and did it have sprinklers,” said Dziedzic. “It will save lives, plain and simple.”

An 18-page report from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Fire Marshal Division one year after the fire blamed the lack of sprinklers and outdated stairwells for the fatalities. The report recommended multiple changes, including the installation of sprinklers in all high-rise buildings.

Noor initially pushed for requiring sprinklers in both public and privately owned buildings as well as residential and office spaces, but the Republican-controlled Senate pushed back on including privately owned buildings because of concerns about using public dollars to pay for those projects.

Finding money for these projects over the decade is the next step, which Noor said could come through numerous funding streams, including a proposal from Minnesota Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith to create a $25 million competitive grant program for public housing agencies to install sprinkles. Noor said he’ll also push for funding through a package of construction projects.

Public housing organizations requested $100 million in a state bonding bill to pay for unmet construction needs last session, including retrofitting older buildings with sprinklers, but the Legislature adjourned without passing a bonding bill.

Housing groups say they support the call to add sprinklers, but they’re concerned the law was passed without any funding to pay for it, said Shannon Guernsey, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials.

Public housing developments, which serve low-income households, are federally funded and cannot raise rent to cover costs of major projects.

“In addition to the importance of sprinklers in high-rise buildings, there are also many other competing needs,” said Guernsey. “Updates to elevators, roofs that need to be repaired, many of our HVAC systems are decades old. There’s a whole host of things.”

The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority says 16 of its 42 high-rises already have sprinklers retrofitted, and it plans to start sprinkler installations at another 10 buildings this year. But that work, estimated to cost more than $9 million, will consume roughly half of its capital funds from Congress in 2021.

The MPHA’s high-rise buildings are all over 50 years old and together have $152 million in deferred capital needs, said Abdi Warsame, the authority’s executive director and CEO. “MPHA would have hoped that the state Legislature would have recognized the scale of the expense and public housing’s overall unmet capital needs along with its recognition of the need for sprinklers.”

State lawmakers passed proposals in 1993 and 1994 to require that old high-rise buildings have sprinklers on almost every floor, but then-Gov. Arne Carlson vetoed the bills after objections about lack of funding. Carlson has since said he thinks the state “failed in that regard.”

After those efforts failed, St. Paul’s public housing authority started independently adding sprinklers to every unit on every floor in each of its 16 high-rise apartment buildings. The move took two decades.

Tom Brace, a former state fire marshal who serves as a regional coordinator for the National Fire Sprinkler Association, was there advocating for the change in the 1990s. He hoped the new requirement would extend to private buildings, but he’s relieved that at least something has passed after decades of trying.

“I felt after Cedar-Riverside, absolutely this is the time. We watched as probably the best-equipped fire department in the state tried to fight it, and it was an all-out effort for them,” said Brace. “We can’t afford another tragedy like that.”

For far too long, Minnesota’s arcane sexual harassment policy has failed both employees and employers. A 2018 Star Tribune Minnesota Poll reported that nearly two out of three women in the state have personally experienced sexual harassment. We hope that 2020 is the year we can finally provide clarity in our laws, so that neither employees nor employers must continue to tolerate sexual harassment in the workplace.

Minnesota courts have held that the harassment must be “severe” or “pervasive” in order for a sexual harassment survivor to hold their abuser accountable. This means individuals experiencing sexual harassment must be subjected to the abuse over a prolonged period of time — or endure the abuse until it finally becomes “severe.” According to Minnesota case law, unwanted intimate touching and kissing is not considered “severe.” We simply cannot keep asking Minnesota employees and employers to put up with this oppressive and outdated standard that puts their health, safety and dignity at risk.

Last session, the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee heard from survivors on the limitations of the current sexual harassment standard. A.S.K. shared her heartbreaking story of repeatedly being stalked and physically assaulted by a group of customers at the restaurant where she worked as a waitress. (To protect her identity, only her initials are given here.) Her multiple requests to managers to not serve these customers were ignored. Her managers forced her to serve these customers or end her shift. This abuse occurred weekly for more than a year. Each week, A.S.K. had to choose between paying her rent and protecting her physical, emotional and mental well-being. A.S.K’s legal case was dismissed for failing to meeting the severe or pervasive standards. She deserves better. We all deserve better.

Minnesota employers want to create a company culture where all employees feel valued, respected and safe. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, many have begun the work to root out harassment in the workplace. But the lack of a practical sexual harassment standard not only prevents them from doing so, it actually increases the gap between harassment that is “illegal” and harassment that employers are seeking to address. We can support employers in creating safer company cultures by passing sexual harassment reform legislation. Under House File 10, no employer will be liable if it responds reasonably to a claim of sexual harassment. This bill gives employers the ability to do the right thing for their employees.

Sexual harassment reform is not a Democratic or Republican issue. This affects all Minnesotans. In the 2019 session, this bill passed the House with strong bipartisan support. We are grateful for the leadership and progress that former House Majority Leader Joyce Peppin, R-Rogers, made on this important issue in the 2018 legislative session. We invite our legislative colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike, to join us in fighting for a safe working environment for all Minnesota employees and employers.