Blue Line Extension Project Office Hosts ‘DREAM Sessions’
A group called the DREAM Team is making its way through cities that the Blue Line extension is set to run through. Its leaders hope to engage the community and get new ideas. This week, Brooklyn Park is up.
The title is an acronym: DREAM stands for Develop Recommendations, Empower Action and Mobilize. This group isn’t made up of government decision-makers, but helps connect the community with those people.
DREAM Team engagement lead Anika Robbins said these sessions are for discussion. Its a chance for neighbors to share how they’d like their cities to look with the Blue Line in place. That could include ideas for development around the Blue Line or design concepts.
“It’s really an opportunity for residents to chime in, weigh in, lend their voice to what kind of development they’d like to see in their communities,” Robbins said.
Robbins said these sessions started in north Minneapolis last year. Those residents’ input, she said, was used to make changes to their part of the extension plan.
According to a flyer, DREAM’s Brooklyn Park sessions are on May 27 and 29 at Ebenezer Church in Brooklyn Park. It starts at 5 p.m. both days, and neighbors come up with ideas for a report that will be recommended to local officials and leaders.
There will be another “DREAM week” for Robbinsdale and Crystal on June 3 and 5 at Elim Church in Robbinsdale. Sessions also start at 5 p.m.
At the end of the DREAM sessions, Robbins said there will be a regional summit where everyone’s ideas will be presented. That’s on June 14 at 10 p.m. in north Minneapolis.
More information about the Blue Line extension and the DREAM program is available on the Metropolitan Council’s website.
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