Business

Black-owned businesses get a boost at Chameleon Shoppes

MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN-RECORDER — The businesses are part of West Broadway Business & Area Coalition’s (WBBAC) Shop Northside partnership with Chameleon Consortium pop-up retail initiative. The Chameleon Consortium also partnered with Neka Creative and Impact Hub MSP to activate the shops, which take over the first and second floors at Gaviidae.

Published

5 years ago

April 21, 2019

Oakland Post

By Stephenetta (isis) Harmon

The NCAA frenzy may have left town, but shoppers can still take delight in the more than 20 small Black-owned businesses selling their goods and services at Gaviidae Common in downtown Minneapolis.

The businesses are part of West Broadway Business & Area Coalition’s (WBBAC) Shop Northside partnership with Chameleon Consortium pop-up retail initiative. The Chameleon Consortium also partnered with Neka Creative and Impact Hub MSP to activate the shops, which take over the first and second floors at Gaviidae.

The Chameleon Shoppes are chock full of everything from African clothing and accessories and jewelry to beard oils, body butter, and art. They not only help bring to life vacant retail space in what should be a prime downtown location but also create affordable opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses to expand their reach and marketing efforts.

As a vendor, myself, they also offer an affordable opportunity to expand outreach efforts. Felicia Perry, WBBAC Business Resources Coordinator, said that was a primary goal in partnering.

“The opportunity for our clients to test out their products and services with a different market than they typically have in their own neighborhoods is huge,” said Perry. “We also get to show off how we show up in pop-ups to a different community — especially given the unique marketing strategies required to pull people into a place that we know was already struggling.”

Shop Northside has two retail shoppes on the ground floor, along with a salon and barber experience featuring such services as threading, mini makeup makeovers, a braid bar, microblading and haircuts.

Participating vendors include Tionna Dionne Fashion, Black Excellence, Bowtie Billionaire, Nature’s Syrup, TiAngy Designs, Bimpe Bata Footwear, Just Hair USA, We Wanna Rock, Body Love, Allure Cigars, Cald2Art and Christyle Closet.

The shops will remain open through the end of April. After that, Perry said WBBAC will continue its longstanding efforts to create small business opportunities for its clients.

“We’ve been doing this economic development work in different ways for a while now and we intend to continue to find creative ways to plug our business owners, artists and makers into economic opportunities as we discover them ourselves,” said Perry. This includes their monthly “Northside Business Lunch” — this month’s April 18 session is focused on “Retail Hustle” and tips for being a successful retail entrepreneur.

“It’s a great experience to be downtown,” said Crystal Lemar, owner of Christyle. “It’s exciting because I’ve always wanted to open up or have a boutique in downtown Minneapolis. So this is my opportunity to live out my dream for the month of April.”

Perry added that supporting and creating opportunities for these businesses to thrive also keeps money within the community.

“This is where they stay and this where they spend their money,” she said. “That’s real actual economic and social development because we’re not just getting to know a new business, but we’re getting to know our neighbors, as well.”

The Chameleon Shoppes are located in Gaviidae Common, located 651 Nicollet Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, and are open Wednesday-Friday, 10 am – 2 pm now through April 26.

For more information on Shop Northside, visit northmpls.org. For more info on Chamelone Shoppes, visit chameleonconsortium.com.

This article originally appeared in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

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Google’s New Deal with California Lawmakers and Publishers Will Fund Newsrooms, Explore AI

Gov. Gavin Newsom, California lawmakers and some newspaper publishers last week finalized a $172 million deal with tech giant Google to support local news outlets and artificial intelligence innovation. This deal, the first of its kind in the nation, aims to invest in local journalism statewide over the next five years. However, the initiative is different from a bill proposed by two legislators, news publishers and media employee unions requiring tech giants Google and Meta to split a percentage of ad revenue generated from news stories with publishers and media outlets.

Published

1 week ago

October 1, 2024

Oakland Post

iStock

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

This deal, the first of its kind in the nation, aims to invest in local journalism statewide over the next five years. However, the initiative is different from a bill proposed by two legislators, news publishers and media employee unions requiring tech giants Google and Meta to split a percentage of ad revenue generated from news stories with publishers and media outlets. Under this new deal, Google will commit $55 million over five years into a new fund administered by the University of California, Berkeley to distribute to local newsrooms. In this partnership, the State is expected to provide $70 over five years toward this initiative. Google also has to pay a lump sum of $10 million annually toward existing grant programs that fund local newsrooms.

The State Legislature and the governor will have to approve the state funds each year. Google has agreed to invest an additional $12.5 million each year in an artificial intelligence program. However, labor advocates are concerned about the threat of job losses as a result of AI being used in newsrooms.

Julie Makinen, board chairperson of the California News Publishers Association, acknowledged that the deal is a sign of progress.

“This is a first step toward what we hope will become a comprehensive program to sustain local news in the long term, and we will push to see it grow in future years,” said Makinen.

However, the deal is “not what we had hoped for when set out, but it is a start and it will begin to provide some help to newsrooms across the state,” she said.

Regina Brown Wilson, Executive Director of California Black Media, said the deal is a commendable first step that beats the alternative: litigation, legislation or Google walking from the deal altogether or getting nothing.

“This kind of public-private partnership is unprecedented. California is leading the way by investing in protecting the press and sustaining quality journalism in our state,” said Brown Wilson. “This fund will help news outlets adapt to a changing landscape and provide some relief. This is especially true for ethnic and community media journalists who have strong connections to their communities.”

Although the state partnered with media outlets and publishers to secure the multi-year deal, unions advocating for media workers argued that the news companies and lawmakers were settling for too little.

Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) proposed a bill earlier this year that aimed to hold tech companies accountable for money they made off news articles. But big tech companies pushed back on bills that tried to force them to share profits with media companies.

McGuire continues to back efforts that require tech companies to pay media outlets to help save jobs in the news industry. He argued that this new deal, “lacks sufficient funding for newspapers and local media, and doesn’t fully address the inequities facing the industry.”