In the 1950s and 1960s, St. Paul’s Rondo Neighborhood was devastated by the construction of the I-94 Highway. More than 700 homes and 300 businesses and civic organizations in this historically vibrant African American cultural community were taken with very little compensation. After many years in the making, ReConnect Rondo is now leading the effort to revitalize Rondo with a community land bridge over I-94 that reconnects historic Rondo and reignites an African American cultural enterprise district in St. Paul.
Understanding the political environment, legislative process and funding opportunities at the State Capitol, the Fredrikson government relations team, working with ReConnect Rondo, devised a strategy and succeeded in obtaining $6.2 million for necessary pre-planning studies and activities, including significant community outreach and engagement, as part of the master planning process. The funding source was basic but the route in which it took to get approved required ingenuity. Working closely with our client, Fredrikson’s lobbying pros helped recruit and retain legislative leadership at critical times to secure needed funding to launch project-development activities as well, to protect it the following legislative session from being eliminated.”
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