St. Paul

September 07, 2008

Alec Soth hears about Bea Molin's turned-around life.

Today I photographed Bea Molin as part of a project I'm doing for CommonBond. Bea lives in a part of St. Paul that used to be known as the Rondo neighborhood. When Bea was growing up, Rondo Avenue was the center of the African-American community in Minnesota. But in the 1960's, city officials chose Rondo as the location for a massive new freeway. While I-94 might have been good for the newly mobile white middle-class, the freeways displaced thousands of black families and businesses.

Standing beneath a tree changing colors on Selby Avenue, Bea and her friend Yvonne talked to me about Rondo and the current plight of African Americans in St. Paul:

“Back then we had insurance agencies, dentists, hair salons, everything we needed. The freeway divided us. You had some people moving to the other side. It was no longer a community. Now you have people from other countries come in and set up businesses but we don't have them. It is very discouraging.”

“Both of the candidates talk about change. Barack talks about how he wants kids in college, but I want to hear someone talk about the basic stuff – things we can do on an everyday basis to achieve that college education. Let's talk about making sure every American kid has a home and has food to eat so that when they get home they can hit the books. We don't have those basics.”

“Due to illnesses, I had to step down from my job. I’m on disability. Before that happened, I thought I was secure. In a matter of six months, my whole life has been turned around. Every day is a challenge. I’ve never been to a food shelf in my whole life until two months ago. I didn’t even know how to act. I went and there and said, ‘I’m not a deadbeat, I do have a job.’ The woman there said, ‘Listen, I’ve been working at this food shelf for twenty years, this is the worst I’ve ever seen it.’ ”