BY ED FELIEN Council Member Phillipe Cunningham was quoted in a recent article in The New Yorker: “No one could say that we didn’t try reform. We tried every kind of reform.” I phoned his office. No one was there. I left a message: You say you’ve tried everything? How…
BY ED FELIEN Cierra Hoffman reported on Nextdoor that while she was in the Speedway at 44th and Lake, “I was standing at the register checking out when the gas station clerk ran outside abruptly and confronted a young woman (in her 20s) with a large black & white patterned…
BY ED FELIEN They’ve pretty clearly laid out their battle plan for the next months leading to the election. A sympathetic police force will say it can’t keep order and protect federal buildings and monuments, and we’ll have to rely on federal assistance. Erik Prince is coordinating the operations. He’s the one recruiting…
BY ED FELIEN The dream is over. The East Powderhorn Sanctuary has been cleared. The campers evacuated. Protesters were arrested and then released. It ended the way it always ends, according to longtime homeless advocates. Some criminal elements start to get violent. The camp becomes unsafe. And the authorities have…
BY ED FELIEN Terrance Franklin Jamar Clark Thurman Blevins Travis Jordan TerranceFranklin: The city just agreed to pay $795,000 to the surviving family of Terrance Franklin rather than contest the wrongful death suit against MPD Officer Lucas Peterson. Peterson claimed in his police report that Terrance…
BY ED FELIEN I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, but there are some concrete things you can do to help end homelessness and take some of the pressure off the encampment at the Powderhorn Sanctuary. Hennepin County is buying hotels for the homeless. You can do that,…
BY ED FELIEN Last week I sent the following email to Commissioners Angela Conley and Marion Greene, with a copy to David Hewitt, Office to End Homelessness, Director: Thank you for the extraordinary work you are doing in finding homes for the homeless in our community. Purchasing hotels for the…
BY ED FELIEN Last month we introduced a new feature on our website—exclusive interviews with Stephen McClellan and musicians from local rock bands: Yellin’ at McClellan. This month he hosts his old friends, The Lanes: – https://youtu.be/KkNgAi0-s04 Steve: “Mike and Kiki Lane form the core of a band called The…
BY ED FELIEN The cops in Minneapolis have got to be brought under control. They must be held to the same standards of behavior as the rest of us. Our civil rights in Minneapolis are protected by the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission. If some person, some business, or some institution…
BY ED FELIEN Last month we introduced a new feature on our website—exclusive interviews with Stephen McClellan and musicians from local rock bands—Yellin’ at McClellan. He was going to have a new program this month featuring The Lanes, but “the George Floyd killing has definitely shifted the nation’s priorities and…
BY ED FELIEN Well, since my baby left me Well, I found a new place to dwell Well, it’s down at the end of Lonely Street At Heartbreak Hotel —Elvis There are lots of reasons for homelessness. More than half of all working adults in America are a paycheck away…
BY ED FELIEN On April 29, the Minneapolis City Council agreed to begin paying out more than a million dollars to stop the civil trial of Officer Lucas Peterson, charged with the wrongful death of Terrance Franklin. I couldn’t resist writing to the Council: “Your refusal to hold Lucas Peterson…
BY ED FELIEN If you read (and, you’re reading this) you probably spend a lot of time on the internet these days. There’s a lot of wonderful stuff out there. Here are some things I found recently … But first, what is it you miss most about social isolation? Isn’t…
BY ED FELIEN April. “When April the sweet showers fall And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all The veins are bathed in liquor of such power As brings about the engendering of the flowers.” —Chaucer “April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead…
BY ED FELIEN I asked City Council Member Andrew Johnson on Dec. 27, 2019, whether the Park Board’s plans to reduce pumping water from the Hiawatha Golf Course would compromise the footings for the Bergan’s Supervalu construction project. The 2017 analysis by the Park Board (<https://www.minneapolisparks.org/_asset/0rc7ml/February-2017-Stormwater-Surface-Water-and-Groundwater-Analysis-Summary.pdf>) provides no clue. Figure…
Columns by Ed Felien