Why are you so passionate about this building in particular?

This isn’t just about a building. It’s about how you use a major piece of real estate to grow the economic opportunities and wealth of a neighborhood that needs them. It’s about how you start solving some deep economic and social issues that impact everyone in the city. That’s the heart and soul of it. This building can give ownership, generational wealth, jobs, secondary jobs and other opportunities the community hasn’t had. This neighborhood can model how we get to a better future for everyone.

Why is the indoor urban farm vision important?

There is something innate, a natural instinct to grow food. And this project will allow people to grow healthy food, right in a neighborhood where there is now a food desert. Each community can grow their own culture’s food — East African, Latinx, Native American, Asian — and have adults teaching children. That’s what Little Earth has done with their youth farm and it’s made a tremendous impact for the youth.

What drawbacks are there for the city’s plan for a maintenance yard?

The city’s plan would be a tragic loss economically and socially, not just for East Phillips but for the entire city. It would be economic racism. So much land and health has already been taken from this neighborhood, for industries, highways, and major roads. It would make people poorer, more disenfranchised, more angry, more disconnected. We need to use community land in a way that addresses the roots of economic disparities. We need to put economic and beneficial uses where they’re needed most, like East Phillips.

How does this project help youth?

That is probably the biggest part of it. This will offer employment, like in the indoor garden where they’ll have pride in creating something, seeing it in the soil and watching it develop. Kids can learn about how good food is part of their cultural traditions. And they can help their family and community create economic opportunity with each other. We’re seeing this already at the Little Earth Farm and we’re expanding it to other communities.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.