Cedar Riverside tenants complain about broken elevators, parking woes and disrespect
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A group of residents at the Cedar Riverside Towers in Minneapolis’ West Bank neighborhood claim their cars have been ticketed and towed without a reason, have gone long periods of time without a working elevator and are treated with disrespect by Sherman Associates, the company that owns the property. These claims, say representatives and workers from the company are without merit and instead, countered that many making the complaints don’t actually live there.On a recent Friday, more than fifty women stood outside of building A on the Riverside Towers campus holding signs saying, ‘Housing is a Basic Right,’ and ‘We Want Respect.’ Around 2pm, right after Friday prayers finished they began chanting calls for change in both English and Somali as cars passed by with honks and cheers of support.Their complaints were broken elevators (one tenant said the elevator in her building had been broken for nearly three weeks), disrespect on the part of management and…parking. Nearly every woman I spoke with at this Friday protest complained about the lack of parking, the extra fees they pay for their space and the number of times they had been towed. One woman said that while unloading groceries, she came back to find her car gone.A letter dated January 6thwritten by Mohamud Noor from the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota laid out the group’s complaints: discrimination based on race and religion, tenants vehicles being towed out of assigned spots, laundry machines not functioning properly, no parking for visitors, and tenants being charged for repairs.At the end of the letter, Noor asked to have a meeting with management to resolve these issues. Noor said he was contacted by residents who had these concerns and wants to, “bridge the communication gap” between residents and the property management company.“When people don’t talk to one another, you end up having problems,” said Noor when I asked about how residents came to this point of protesting in the street.Valerie Doleman, director of marketing & communications from Sherman Associates, the company that owns Riverside Towers, sees the situation quite differently. Continue Reading