Accountability and other myths

BY TONY BOUZA America is in the throes of an agonizing debate—police reform—and it has no answers. Yet that’s how the U.S. tackles its problems—and often solves them—through heated fulminations and some final distillations into changes. The biggest problems—today—are racism and income disparity. George Floyd launched the discussion on race…

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Lake Street is coming back

BY KAY SCHROVEN A year or two from now, can you picture yourself waltzing into the Longfellow neighborhood’s Coliseum Building at 2700 E. Lake St. for a cocktail, to shop for goods and services, secure a job, or view an art exhibit? Taylor Smrikárova, project manager for Redesign, Inc. (aka…

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It blew up in our faces

BY ED FELIEN We were feeling so hopeful, so optimistic. We were congratulating ourselves on our great victory over ignorance. We lit a cigar to celebrate. And then it blew up in our faces. We made some terrible mistakes. The banner across the front of the stage in Powderhorn Park…

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New transit station at Lake Street

BY STEPHANIE FOX For four years, those traveling on I-35W have seen a mammoth construction project rise above Lake Street. The structure is part of MnDOT’s Crosstown plan to create a 14-mile highway Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line connecting Minneapolis, Richfield, Bloomington and Burnsville. On Thursday, Oct. 21, the first…

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Free speech

BY TONY BOUZA What a facile phrase. Rolls off the tongue so easily we fail to concentrate on its miraculous value. Americans profess it promiscuously, but I’ve found that, when push comes to shove, few really believe in it enough to risk anything meaningful, unless it applies to them. An…

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Mohamed Noor resentenced

BY ED FELIEN Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor shot and killed Justine Ruszczyk Damond in July of 2017. He was convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Damond had called 911 to complain about an incident of domestic abuse happening in her alley. When the squad car passed her in…

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Affordable housing in Seward

BY ELINA KOLSTAD The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) has plans to build and maintain 16 deeply affordable scattered site developments throughout Minneapolis and two of these will be in Seward. The new buildings will consist of modular four- and six-plexes that will be available to people with incomes of…

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