{"id":3956,"date":"2026-06-18T18:21:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/?p=3956"},"modified":"2026-07-14T18:29:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:29:31","slug":"west-broadway-is-not-just-a-street-it-is-a-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/2026\/06\/18\/west-broadway-is-not-just-a-street-it-is-a-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"West Broadway is not just a street; it is a statement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On\u00a0West Broadway<\/a>, the struggle for Black business survival is not about whether North Minneapolis entrepreneurs have ideas, grit or customers. It is about whether a corridor shaped by disinvestment can get the buildings, capital, insurance, policy support and partnerships needed to let those businesses take root.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWest Broadway is not just a street, it is a statement,\u201d host\u00a0Al McFarlane<\/a>\u00a0said during\u00a0The Conversation With Al McFarlane<\/em>, presented at the Capri Theater\u2019s Paradise Room in partnership with\u00a0U.S. Bank<\/a>. \u201cIt is a corridor that has survived disinvestment, displacement, and the slow erasure of Black commercial life in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conversation was framed at the outset by Greg Cunningham<\/a> of U.S. Bank, who positioned the bank\u2019s role not as the center of the story, but as a long-standing community partner using its platform to convene, support and amplify the people already doing the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He reminded the room that U.S. Bank\u2019s West Broadway branch has been rooted in the Northside for more than three decades, and that the bank\u2019s relationship with Insight News reaches back to the publication\u2019s beginnings, when its predecessor, First Plymouth Bank, placed the first advertisement in Insight in 1974.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That history gave the discussion added weight: this was not only a conversation about West Broadway\u2019s future, but also about what sustained corporate presence, community trust and accountable investment can mean for a corridor still fighting disinvestment while carrying renewed promise for Black business growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conversation centered on Kristel Porter<\/a>, executive director of the West Broadway Business and Area Coalition<\/a>, whose organization is based on West Broadway and works with businesses across the corridor. McFarlane introduced Porter as a leader carrying forward a decades-long fight to make West Broadway a true economic engine for North Minneapolis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Porter began with her own story. She said she is a mother, grandmother, North Minneapolis resident and longtime gymnastics coach for North, Camden and Edison high schools. She also spoke plainly about leaving home at 14, becoming a mother at 14, and refusing to let hardship define the limits of her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have always been somebody who just didn\u2019t accept no,\u201d Porter said. \u201cWhen I was told that I could not do something, I was like, \u2018Oh, okay, so I can.\u2019\u201d That refusal now drives her work on West Broadway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Porter said the coalition\u2019s mission is \u201cto maintain the health and wealth of the avenue\u201d and to bring people into North Minneapolis who too often treat the area as a pass-through. Through events such as Open Streets West Broadway, Black Business Week, Black Friday on Broadway and a planned Blues and Jazz Festival, she said the goal is to bring visitors face to face with the real Northside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCome to North Minneapolis and see that everything that you\u2019ve been told is a lie,\u201d Porter said. \u201cActually, this is a beautiful space filled with family, good energy, and a lot of people that just want the same things that everyone else wants: access to goods and resources that they demand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Porter said the coalition provides business technical assistance and is serving \u201ca little over 300 businesses\u201d looking for brick-and-mortar space on the avenue. Many have already gone through licensing, permitting and business development programs, she said, but now face the harder problem of finding viable space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is where the conversation turned from inspiration to hard economics. Porter said many West Broadway buildings are old, neglected and expensive to rehabilitate. Entrepreneurs are not simply walking into clean storefronts where they can paint walls and install shelves. Some are facing buildings with damaged foundations, failing roofs and years of deferred maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of people that want to open a business in North Minneapolis, they\u2019re somebody that\u2019s from North Minneapolis,\u201d Porter said. \u201cThey have a dream. They have an idea. They have a thing that they\u2019ve been doing for a long time, whether they\u2019re selling their goods online or providing a service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But dreams do not repair roofs. And many local entrepreneurs, she said, do not have family wealth, easy credit or investors waiting behind them. \u201cThe majority of the businesses on West Broadway, believe it or not, started their business with a credit card or a tax return,\u201d Porter said. \u201cThat is the honest-to-God truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurance has become another barrier. Porter said insurers use data points, including historic 911 calls around properties, to price coverage. That means a small business on West Broadway can face higher insurance costs than larger businesses in wealthier parts of the city, even when the current owner has not called 911 in years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got business owners along West Broadway that have told me that they haven\u2019t had to pick up the phone and call 911 for the last three or four years,\u201d Porter said. \u201cBut they\u2019re still paying more insurance for a teeny tiny business than an Aldi\u2019s on Lyndale Avenue South.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Porter, these are not isolated headaches. They are policy questions. She said the community must ask how far back insurance companies should be allowed to look, whether state or federal rules need to change, and whether communities should explore new insurance models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McFarlane described the coalition\u2019s work as sitting at the intersection of business development, community organizing and policy advocacy. Porter agreed but said the only way to carry that much work is through partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t all do everything,\u201d Porter said. \u201cThe more you partner, the better you\u2019ll be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also warned against burnout among executives, organizers and community builders who try to do everything alone. \u201cWe\u2019re all going to get burnt out if we don\u2019t lean on each other,\u201d Porter said. \u201cWhen we figure out how to sew all the little pieces of that quilt together, we\u2019re going to be a mighty force.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The discussion also touched on federal rollbacks affecting minority business supports, DEI programs, CDFI funding and grant making. Porter said many business owners are so deep in day-to-day survival that they do not always know why support is shrinking. They only know that \u201cthis thing is happening to them, it\u2019s getting worse, and they don\u2019t know why.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end, McFarlane framed West Broadway not as a deficit corridor, but as a power center still being realized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe looked at West Broadway not as a problem to be solved, but as a power center to be realized,\u201d McFarlane said. \u201cThe narrative you carry out of this room matters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Porter, that narrative begins with belief. To build on West Broadway, she said, people must know the community, live close to its struggles and still believe in its future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou need to believe in a space that everyone else does not believe in,\u201d Porter said. \u201cIn order to be able to believe in West Broadway, you need to have lived here and know the people that are here and believe in them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On\u00a0West Broadway, the struggle for Black business survival is not about whether North Minneapolis entrepreneurs have ideas, grit or customers. It is about whether a corridor shaped by disinvestment can get the buildings, capital, insurance, policy support and partnerships needed to let those businesses take root. \u201cWest Broadway is not just a street, it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[2573,38,2574,1956],"class_list":["post-3956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-greg-cunningham","tag-minneapolis","tag-u-s-bank","tag-west-broadway","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Insight-News-Website-Images-13.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3958,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3956\/revisions\/3958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}