We are not the Rainbow we could be

 

It's okay to leave your car.

Rainbow restaurant sits on an old block: Nicollet Avenue, a street with a lot of history and vibrancy. We often hear our customers concerns about coming to pick up their food and the safety around it. Some of you are traveling across town to pick up your Rainbow take-out, and you may live in monotone neighborhood and aren't used to seeing such a variety of people walking, biking or standing on the street. This is normal, we have a high WalkScore. We consider the neighborhood as safe as any other, you don't need to be streetsmart, just be aware of your surroundings. We helped make the Eat Street that you know today, and do not plan on moving away. We are here for everyone arriving by bus, bike, scooter, car, and on foot. The protests of 2020 had us boarding up our windows, and though we haven't seen any action, or even threatening action we have since removed the boards. Being located a couple blocks away, just on the other side of Lake street proved to be a huge advantage to our restaurant. Minneapolis, like all urban areas, is a city defined by its neighborhoods and city blocks, it's not all "downtown", which is a common term amongst the suburban dwellers that have little geographic familiarity with the city. When people say they live or work downtown, it's a very small area of just a few blocks, limited to the area of the tallest buildings of large businesses. The main distinguishing features are the skyways. If you don't see skyways, you are not "downtown". Rainbow restaurant is in the Whittier neighborhood, just south of Downtown. We share the neighborhood with some distinguished institutions: The Hennepin History Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Children's Theater Company, and Minneapolis College of Art & Design. Now that we have outlined our location, we wonder why we often get requests for charitable donations of our food from institutions located rather far away, like third and fourth-ring suburbs far away. While we are flattered that our food is recognized far and wide, everyday we look out our door and see the people of our neighborhood in need. Don't get us wrong, we want to be charitable, but we look to be there for our immediate neighbors first.

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For Black History Month, We are featuring links to black perspectives, we hope you find them insightful and interesting. All of the writings below are excerpts, you can find the full text in the links provided.

Limiting the rainbow: Racial covenants in Minneapolis

Link to site: mappingprejudice.umn.edu

During the twentieth century, racially-restrictive deeds were a ubiquitous part of real estate transactions. Covenants were embedded in property deeds all over the country to keep people who were not white from buying or even occupying land; their popularity has been well documented in St. Louis; Seattle; Chicago; Hartford, Connecticut; Kansas City and Washington D.C.

Minneapolis planned segregation & discrimination: "premises shall not at any time be conveyed, mortgaged or leased to any person or persons of Chinese, Japanese, Moorish, Turkish, Negro, Mongolian or African blood or descent."

In Minneapolis, the first racially-restrictive deed appeared in 1910, when Henry and Leonora Scott sold a property on 35th Avenue South to Nels Anderson. The deed conveyed in that transaction contained what would become a common restriction, stipulating that the "premises shall not at any time be conveyed, mortgaged or leased to any person or persons of Chinese, Japanese, Moorish, Turkish, Negro, Mongolian or African blood or descent."

Link to site: Mapping Inequality, link brings you to Minneapolis map.

When this first racially-restrictive deed was written, Minneapolis was not particularly segregated. But covenants changed the landscape of the city. As racially-restrictive deeds spread, African Americans were pushed into a few small areas of the city. And even as the number of black residents continued to climb, ever-larger swaths of the city became entirely white. This laid the groundwork for our contemporary patterns of residential segregation.

Link to MinnPost article: With covenants, racism was written into Minneapolis housing. The scars are still visible.

These unjust deeds," as one scholar has dubbed them, were the brainchild of the real estate industry. But they were quickly embraced by public officials, who saw them as a way to promote neighborhood stability. In the 1930s, federal housing administrators endorsed these legal instruments, requiring them for projects that used federally-backed financing. Lenders followed suit, accepting the rationale that covenants provided essential insurance for their investments in residential property. Banks made it a routine practice to "redline" or deny loans for properties in racially-mixed neighborhoods.

Link to historyapolis.com: Minneapolis “Race War” 1909: Prospect Park

Further reading

Read more in the links:  Link to Bloomberg article: When Minneapolis Segregated Link to NextCity article: Minneapolis Mayor Unveils Plan to Undo History of Segregation Link to Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America Link to Economic Policy Institute: The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

The weekly discount

5 % Get 5% off entire order! Use the code below when you pay 012 345 The reward expires on February 22, 2022. No cash value. Not transferable. Valid in-store or via Square Online, if applicable. May be canceled at any time.

Rainbow Rewards

Have you checked your Rainbow Rewards balance lately?  A good number of you now have a Rainbow Rewards account. You might not of considered joining in the past, but if we noticed that your cumulative purchases were qualifying you for a reward, we signed you up, and added the points you would have qualified for. Some of you now have an excess of 1000 points based on past purchases and get a free reward.  Sign up for Rainbow Rewards to collect and redeem points.  For each $10 you spend, you'll get 25 points. This offer applies to purchases made through Square, does not apply to phone-in orders. Sign up, or look up your balance here.

RAINBOW REWARDS

Picking up your order:

Our parking lot on the SOUTH side of the building, but we also have two pick-up parking spots in front of the restaurant. If you opted-in for Order Updates, you will be notified of its status. When your order is marked ready, make your way to the restaurant and ring the doorbell located on the front door. Please do not call us to let us know you are here, you can just walk up to the front door. We often only have one person at the desk, so please have patience when you call us or pick up your order.

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