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   Small business owners in Minneapolis say a million dollar city-run   
   event meant to uplift Black-owned businesses ended up leaving them   
   with losses.   
      
   The planning of Minneapolis’ inaugural ‘I Am My Ancestors Wildest   
   Dreams’ Black business expo is under review by the City Auditor’s   
   office and the primary planner — the director of the new Racial   
   Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Department, Tyeastia Green — no   
   longer works for the City as of Tuesday.   
      
   The fallout comes after Councilmembers kicked in an extra roughly   
   half a million dollars following a last minute request from Green a   
   week before the event that several vendors said fell far below   
   expectations.   
      
   Markella Smith owns The Dream Shop. The North Minneapolis boutique   
   is chock full of art, jewelry and other distinctive items made   
   mostly by neighbors nearby. On Feb. 25, she put up for display at   
   the city expo.   
      
   “The expectation was to go in there and make a nice profit,” Smith   
   said Wednesday.   
      
   That expectation faded fast day of as attendees merely trickled into   
   the Minneapolis Convention Center, she recalled.   
      
   “At one point they said they were expecting 20,000 people. That   
   definitely did not happen. As a vendor, I likely didn’t see over 100   
   people, and I would be very surprised if they said it was over 200   
   or 250,” Smith said. “It was a complete disappointment.”   
      
   When asked to quantify her losses, Smith said, “Oh, well over   
   $2,000.”   
      
   Vendors paid for parking and for food at the Convention Center over   
   the course of a more than 12-hour event, Smith added.   
      
   “The responsibility boils down to, where did you market the event?   
   How come nobody knew about it?” she continued.   
      
   Planning was placed on Green’s shoulders as the head of the Racial   
   Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Department. The City initially set   
   aside $450,000 for the first-time event. Then, a week before the   
   expo, councilmembers granted Green’s request to double the budget,   
   pulling $290,000 from federal COVID-19 relief money and another   
   $145,000 from the City’s contingency fund which is set aside for   
   “unforeseen” or “urgent” needs.   
      
   Councilmembers had several questions about the need for that extra   
   nearly half a million dollars and where it was pulled from, but in   
   the end, there was a commitment to keep the expo on the calendar,   
   Vice President Linea Palmisano said in an interview Wednesday.   
      
   “On the back end here, we really do need to audit how taxpayer   
   dollars were spent and see what we’ve learned from this in terms of   
   how we would do such a thing in the future,” she said.   
      
   Smith seconded the call to audit the event.   
      
   “We want answers. Where did this half a million go?” she said. “We   
   also really, in reality, want and deserve compensation.”   
      
   At least some of the money was sent to companies outside of the   
   city, several came from out of state, several vendors have   
   confirmed.   
      
   KB Brown owns Minneapolis print shop Wolfpack Promotionals. City   
   staff reached out to him a week before the expo to get a quote for   
   promotional swag, he said Wednesday.   
      
   Just hours later, “They told us ‘We’re gonna go with another shop,'”   
   he said.   
      
   It turned out another staff member had already offered the contract   
   to a St. Paul shop.   
      
   “It pisses me off,” he said. “It’s not the first time that we’ve   
   lost a city contract to a business in St. Paul, a business in Kansas   
   City.”   
      
   When asked if he had anything else to add, Brown said, “It’s not   
   about Tyeastia. She’s literally is a cog in the wheel. This is about   
   a larger issue that has been systemically happening, that we’ve been   
   actually asking to get fixed for a long time.”   
      
   Green did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.   
      
   https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/citys-inaugural-black-expo-   
   leaves-minneapolis-small-business-owners-with-losses/   
      
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