Creek Cleanup Sunday, July 27

The 2014 Minnehaha Creek Cleanup has been  rescheduled to Sunday, July 27, due to dangerously high water in Minnehaha Creek and surrounding lakes. The annual Minnehaha Creek Cleanup has outgrown its old boundaries and is expanding creekwide to collect even more trash! Volunteers will receive a free T-shirt, water bottle,…

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The greening of the great barrier wall

BY TED MOE & TIM PRICE The Greening Committee of Field Regina Northrup Neighborhood Group wants to plant flowers along the 35W Sound Barrier Wall—on 2nd Avenue from Minnehaha Creek to 42nd Street. They are looking to develop a partnership with MnDOT regarding the care and maintenance of the new…

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Richfield Farmers Market

The Richfield Farmers Market runs every Saturday from 7 a.m. to noon through Oct. 25 and Wednesdays from 2 to 7 p.m. until Sept. 10 at Veterans Memorial Park, 64th Street and Portland, under the wooden picnic pavilion. More than 20 local farmers and producers come to sell at the…

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Unmarried mothers

BY POLLY MANN The recent movie “Philomena,” which has had tremendous box office success, focuses on the plight of an unmarried Irish woman seeking the son taken from her at birth. But before the movie was made, Catherine Corless, a married mother of four children, had discovered that between 1925…

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Egypt, the Next Chile

BY NATHAN BLUMENSHINE Recently I visited the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago, Chile. The exhibits focused primarily on the killings, torture and disappearances perpetrated by the Pinochet military regime during its 16-year rule after overthrowing the Allende government in 1973. As do many monuments memorializing tragedies, I…

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Progress reported in fighting racist lending practices

BY ED FELIEN Minneapolis City Council Member Blong Yang will hold a hearing in his committee on the evidence of racist redlining lending practices by Minneapolis banks.  Council Member Cam Gordon, in his newsletter to his ward, said, “On July 23 (1:30 p.m.) Myron Orfield from the Institute on Metropolitan…

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Historic moments for Cedar Avenue, 2014

BY ED FELIEN The summer of 2014 has been big for Cedar Avenue. The President of the United States came and had a Jucy Lucy [yes, it’s spelled Jucy, not Juicy] at Matt’s Bar on 35th and Cedar. Word is he forgot to “Fear the Cheese” and burned his mouth…

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What happened to True Thai?

BY ED FELIEN It’s sad to see a restaurant go. It’s like an old friend who suddenly leaves town without saying good-bye, and you never know if it was something you said or did that made them leave. True Thai used to be one of our favorite family outings. Everybody…

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SNG reduces rates for loans to 2.5%

FROM THE SEWARD NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP The Seward Neighborhood Group (SNG) has allocated NRP Phase II funding for home improvements within the Seward neighborhood. Eligible applicants include owner occupants and rental property owners of 1-4 unit buildings: 2.50% fixed interest rate. $12,000 maximum. Flexible terms up to 10 years. Eligible improvements…

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Memorial Day

BY CHANTE WOLF I agonize over Memorial Day. I despise the fly-overs, 21-gun salutes, barbecues and blowout sales that make it all seem so cheap and so easy to forget until next year. I want to throw up, sob, run away and hide. Then comes the anger over our never-ending…

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Extending the sun

BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church is the first community of faith in Minnesota to host a solar garden (a solar array) that feeds directly into the Xcel Energy electric grid. Bethel’s pastor, Brenda Froisland, says about the project, “When we say we nourish God’s creation, we really mean…

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Speak up! I can’t hear you.

BY ED FELIEN This Fourth of July at Powderhorn everyone will have an opportunity to speak up and be heard. Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association and Southside Pride are co-sponsoring a speaker’s platform on the Tea House on the Lake. Before the age of Twitter and email, before radio and television,…

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