MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It's been nearly five years since a white Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, a Black man, by kneeling on his neck during an arrest while fellow officers stood by and a crowd watched in horror. The killing, traumatic as it was, sparked a worldwide protest movement. People created a memorial in the streets where he was killed called George Floyd Square. City officials want to reconstruct the area and build a new memorial, but others want to keep the community-run memorial intact. Estelle Timar-Wilcox of Minnesota Public Radio has this report.
ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX, BYLINE: At George Floyd Square, murals of Floyd still adorn building walls. The stretch of the street where he died is closed, covered in art, flowers and posters. Cars drive around the memorial through a roundabout with a statue of a raised fist in the middle. It's where residents meet twice a day in the parking lot of an empty Speedway gas station, now dubbed the People's Way.
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TIMAR-WILCOX: Events are held at the square, and local band Brass Solidarity plays there weekly.
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TIMAR-WILCOX: It's a meaningful spot for a lot of people. Jeanelle Austin lives nearby. She's the executive director of Rise and Remember, an organization that preserves memorials and offerings at the site. She's collected thousands of things that people have left here.
JEANELLE AUSTIN: Everyone is more familiar with, like, the giant paintings and sculptures that go up. But there's also, like, little painted rocks and emblems and an 8.5-by-11 sheet of paper with squigglies on it from a kid who doesn't even know how to write the ABCs.
TIMAR-WILCOX: She says she doesn't know of another place like it.
AUSTIN: People want to come and see and pay respects to where George Floyd took his last breath and see what the community did.
TIMAR-WILCOX: But the city, and others, want change. Businesses say they need something to bring back customers. The city designed a long-term plan. It would include new streets and a new memorial. It also wants a local organization to build something new on the site of the defunct gas station.
Dwight Alexander, who co-owns a barbecue restaurant in the square, backs the idea. He says business has been tough ever since Floyd's murder. Pedestrian traffic was high the summer after Floyd was killed when protesters and visitors constantly filled the streets, but it's a lot quieter now. He thinks something new would spark interest.
DWIGHT ALEXANDER: We want the best for this neighborhood. You know what I'm saying? We want to see the new development. You know, anytime you get something new in the city, everybody will come see it.
TIMAR-WILCOX: It's been a contentious discussion, though, with protesters saying they don't want the city to step in. Even so, the city council did vote yesterday on the first step - the plan calling for new roads open to cars and buses, plus wider sidewalks with space set aside for memorials. Council members sent it back for more work and decided to consider an alternative pedestrian plaza closed to traffic. Council member Jason Chavez says that type of memorial would work for more people.
JASON CHAVEZ: We have one shot to get this right. This area and this corner has brought visitors from all over the world, and it is significant to residents in the area who are deeply impacted and still are.
TIMAR-WILCOX: Council member Andrea Jenkins, who represents the area, called the new proposal a stall tactic.
ANDREA JENKINS: It would take years of community engagement, of designing a pedestrian mall. So it is a delay.
TIMAR-WILCOX: For now, George Floyd Square will remain community run while the city continues to grapple with how best to recreate a neighborhood that functions better for those who live and work there while still paying tribute to George Floyd.
For NPR News, I'm Estelle Timar-Wilcox in Minneapolis.
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