BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The most nail-biting local race was Keith Ellison’s last-minute, quixotic run for Minnesota attorney general. He had an absolute safe seat in Congress, one of the safest, and was deputy chair of the DNC, a leader in the Progressive Caucus, and sponsor of the House version…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Seward Neighborhood has written an intriguing book about its own history. The project has involved a “cast of thousands,” and took seven years to complete. Its 19 chapters start before the arrival, in 1850, of the first non-Natives who built homes and settled, and end in the…
BY ED FELIEN The tremendous public interest and community involvement around the city’s proposed 2040 Plan has been a great exercise in democracy. And, as my wife continually tells me, “Exercise is what you need to stay alive.” There has been a lively debate on the Minneapolis Issues Forum between…
FROM ST. JOAN OF ARC CATHOLIC COMMUNITY After years of silence, the bells of St. Joan of Arc Catholic Community are ready to bring their joyous sound to the neighborhood again. Church bell ringing goes back thousands of years. Historically, church bells announced the time of day, ringing on the…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE I grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, Ga., and then at age 17 set up as an independent young woman in a neighborhood as close to downtown Atlanta as possible. (Atlanta famously had and still has almost no residential downtown.) I have always loved food—cooking…
Diamond Lake neighbors gather every weeknight at Chicago Avenue and the Parkway as a protest, part of the “Stand on Every Corner” movement. The national grassroots movement started in Minneapolis by Bryce Tache on July 21 has grown to 233 locations with more being added every week. The protests will…
Keith Ellison: Stands with Bernie Sanders. Ranked most liberal in the Minnesota Delegation to Congress by GovTrac. “I am working to advance gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) equality in Congress by ending existing discrimination written in federal laws, giving law enforcement tools to pursue perpetrators of hate crimes, and…
BY ED FELIEN Last month we published my criticism of racism in the Minneapolis Police Department, “Still out of control.” Bob left this message on our voice mail: “This message is for Ed Felien. Ed, Bob Kroll, Minneapolis Police Federation. “I just read your most recent hatchet job on, uh,…
BY RICHARD TAYLOR When the Minneapolis YWCA rammed through its pay-to-park scheme at the Midtown YWCA, did it omit anything that might be viewed as stretching the truth? Yes! First, CEO Frías justified the pay-to-park gated system on one reason only: non-members were depriving members of parking spots. What she…
BY TONY BOUZA Today I am 90. No, it’s not my birthday, only one of 365 days. Never thought (like death) it’d happen to me. And the point? Only a few ignorant musings. I am more convinced than ever that I am but a worm on the planet, along with…
BY ASHLEY UNDERCOVER I am writing this column at 10 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018. I have a rather disturbing report. Unbeknownst to me, the spirit guide sent me into a mental health unit for senior citizens at a local MN hospital. To protect everyone’s identity, even the guilty,…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The above is the title and call line of a political ballad of 1866 written by then popular but now largely forgotten composer and lyricist Henry Clay Work. You may be familiar with one or two of his better-received works, either 1865’s triumphant martial air “Marching…
BY MICHAEL LIVINGSTON The students in my college classes do not remember a time when the U.S. was not at war in the Middle East. Born in 1999, they were two years old when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and four when the U.S. invaded Iraq. All they know is endless…
BY ED FELIEN On Sept. 9 I sent the following email to Superintendent of Parks Mary Merrill: Hi Superintendent Merrill, Would you please direct staff to remove the boulder dam/weir under the 30th Avenue Footbridge that is obstructing the flow of Minnehaha Creek, as indicated in the Barr Engineering study.…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Mexican-American culture is osmosing through South Minneapolis for sure, and it’s in glorious evidence along 42nd Street. Just up the hill from El Colegio, a publicly supported charter high school “rooted in the Latinx experience,” there are two small businesses across the street from each other…
