The Cedar-Riverside area has long been a magnet for new arrivals. Today, it's mainly East Africans breathing new life into it. By Allie Shah. In her makeup studio in the heart of the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, Sumaya Keynan painted a metallic shade onto a customer's eyelids on a recent Saturday evening. Keynan could have set up shop anywhere. But like so many Minnesota Somalis, she felt the pull of Cedar-Riverside β or "Little Mogadishu," as the locals call it.
The Somalis aren't the first to feel that way about the half-square-mile area. In the mids, immigrants from Germany and Scandinavia were the first settlers, and for a time, the neighborhood had the highest concentration of Swedes in the state, according to the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota. In fact, Cedar Avenue was nicknamed "Snoose Boulevard" β a reference to the moist powder tobacco many Swedes used.
Separated from the rest of Minneapolis by the Mississippi River and two freeways, the neighborhood operates like a self-sustaining village. Today, the Cedar-Riverside area is home to 8, residents β including a large Somali population. Even for those who don't live there, the place has become a symbol for the Minnesota Somali community, the nation's largest Somali diaspora.
You don't feel as if you're an outsider. Everything that connects to the community happens here. There are many people and places that give it a distinctive vibe. We visited a few. Keynan, a University of Minnesota business major, is working at her grandmother's clothing store on Cedar Avenue S.
She's filled the display window with elaborate wedding gowns and has set up a makeup studio in the back of the store, where she creates custom looks for brides and others seeking a glamorous look.
