Lisa Hondros

Featured volunteer — March 2008

From first-time advocate to Friends of the Riverfront co-founder

Story and photos by Allison Thrash, fellow volunteer and River Hero

Lisa Hondros loves her neighborhood, and who could blame her? She lives with her husband and two sons in a beautifully restored 19th Century Greek Revival-style house on Nicollet Island Park (they have a 99-year lease for their lot from the Minneapolis Park Board). Lisas house is literally a stones throw from the Mississippi River. Lisas passion for her unique and historic neighborhood led her to become a volunteer, and an advocate for the river.

In 2005, Lisa and her neighbors were galvanized to action when DeLaSalle High School (another long-time resident of Nicollet Island) sought approval from the Minneapolis Park Board to build a stadium on the island. In cases of public land use, the city is required to solicit input from citizens and evaluate the potential impacts of a project on historic resources, the environment, park visitors and the residents. Lisa and her neighbors quickly realized that no one was going to ask their opinion. They needed to organize to ensure their voices would be heard.

So she and neighbors set about forming a non-profit organization, which they named Friends of the Riverfront. Although neither Lisa nor her neighbors had much advocacy or community organizing experience, each neighbor brought unique skills and talents. Together, they learned by asking a lot of questions and by doing.

Wary of being called NIMBY neighbors (Not In My Back Yard), they built a coalition by reaching out to a wide variety of compatible non-profit organizations, including groups interested in historic preservation and environmental advocacy groups such as FMR and the Sierra Club.

We just started calling different people, having lunch with them and talking about our issue. We found a real affection between the environmental and preservation groups because of the unique situation here on Nicollet Island, Lisa explains.

They wanted to show their opposition to building the stadium was about more than aesthetics: it was about honoring the many decades of historic preservation and riverfront revitalization in one of the citys oldest and most important neighborhoods. They wanted to protect the Mississippi River.

Ultimately, the Minneapolis Park Board approved DeLaSalles stadium proposal. While a blow to Lisa and the other members of the Friends of the Riverfront, this served to strengthen their resolve. Armed with experience and connections from their nearly three years working on the stadium issue, the group is now much better prepared to confront and defeat other threats to the river, like the Crown Hydro proposal to build a hydroelectric generation plant near historic Mill Ruins Park.

So, how does helping start a neighborhood non-profit make Lisa a super FMR volunteer and a River Hero? According to Bob Spaulding, FMRs staff River Advocate, the Friends of the Riverfront are natural allies of FMR. In their fight against the stadium, FMR was able to provide them with structure, a knowledge base, and connections. Friends of the Riverfront translated this support into a local movement. FMR now benefits from the capacity they helped build. Because Lisa and the other Friends of the Riverfront members are so well-organized, well-connected and good at research, we were able to walk into Minneapolis Park Board hearings on Crown Hydro totally prepared and able to articulate our concerns about the proposal.

Lisa has equally flattering things to say about FMR. It is a fabulous organization, she says, adding, They are an excellent resource for people who want to do something.

For more information on Friends of the Riverfront, please visit their web site.