Leading the Lake Street Lift Project — A Defining Chapter of My Professional Work

One of the most significant projects of my professional career has been serving as Project Lead for the Lake Street Lift Project, a state-funded economic recovery and revitalization initiative in Minneapolis.

This work is deeply consequential, not only because of its scale, but because of where and why it exists.

The Lake Street Lift Project is centered in East Lake Street, the area profoundly impacted by the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Just blocks from where he was killed, this corridor became a national and global symbol of racial injustice, grief, and civil unrest. It also experienced extensive physical destruction, economic disruption, and long-term instability, particularly for immigrant-owned and BIPOC-owned small businesses. Leading this project meant stewarding public resources into a community carrying both historic disinvestment and acute trauma.

Administered by the JD Graves Foundation in partnership with the Lake Street Council, the Lake Street Lift Project was designed not as a short-term recovery effort, but as a long-term investment in stabilization, ownership, cultural preservation, and resilience.

As Project Lead, I am responsible for:

• Managing implementation of an $8M public-philanthropic investment

• Coordinating across nonprofit partners, consultants, creatives, and business owners

• Overseeing compliance, invoicing, reporting, and legislative accountability

• Translating policy and funding structures into accessible, community-centered outcomes

• Ensuring transparency, equity, and measurable impact

What made this work especially significant was the responsibility to balance public accountability with human reality, to honor the history of the place, the trauma experienced by the community, and the urgency of rebuilding livelihoods without erasing what the area represents.

Lake Street Lift reinforced my belief that effective leadership sits at the intersection of policy, community trust, and long-term vision. It demonstrated what is possible when recovery efforts are grounded in cultural competency, lived experience, and rigorous implementation.

This project stands as a defining example of my work in public-private partnership, place-based economic development, and community-centered leadership, and reflects my broader commitment to rebuilding systems in ways that are both structurally sound and morally grounded.

Beirut Abafogi is a public policy strategist, nonprofit advisor, and social impact consultant with over a decade of experience working at the intersection of government, philanthropy, and community-driven institutions.

https://www.lakestreetlift.org/