We had to call 911

BY DEVIN HOGAN The CRUNCH was so massive it shook the earth. I was tooling around in the back yard when I heard squealing tires, followed by that visceral blow of what sounded like a car accident. I ran around to the front of the house, and, to my surprise,…

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Justice in the Green Zone?

BY KAY SCHROVEN Low-income communities, Indigenous communities and communities of color in Minneapolis (and many cities) experience unequal health, wealth, employment and education, and also are often overburdened by environmental conditions such as traffic and stationary pollution sources, brownfield sites (real property that may be compromised by the presence or…

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Who is running in the 6th Ward?

BY ED FELIEN Southside Pride sent the following to the two candidates running to represent the 6th Ward on the Minneapolis City Council, Abdirizak Bihi and the incumbent, Jamal Osman: “Southside Pride will be publishing a Guide for Voters in the 6th Ward in our upcoming Riverside edition coming out…

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Bethany Lutheran Church closed Sept. 12

BY ELAINE KLAASSEN “The Times They Are A-changin’ ” is ever true. Sunday, Sept. 12, was a “bittersweet” morning, said Bethany’s Pastor Jeffrey Schulz at the final worship service of Seward neighborhood’s Bethany Lutheran Church. An ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) congregation at 25th and Franklin Avenues, it was…

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The ups and downs of Selby Avenue

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Selby Avenue’s hilly, bumpy history When Selby Avenue was first named on a map, in 1854, the site of the present Cathedral of Saint Paul (the fourth and final one to bear that name) was occupied by a 40-acre farm belonging to Jeremiah Selby. This land,…

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Eyes on Afghanistan

BY ELINA KOLSTAD Rep. Barbara Lee is having a well-deserved moment as the sole congressperson to have voted in 2001 against the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which granted war powers generally held by Congress to the president of the United States. Twenty years of war has long…

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What will be your place in history?

BY DEVIN HOGAN In 2005 the junior senator from Illinois – then in office for just six months – gave the commencement address at Knox College, a small liberal arts school in western Illinois. It was a speech whose themes would define his career. Knox and the city of Galesburg…

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Block clubs make a difference

BY DORIS OVERBY Our neighborhood block club has been celebrating National Night Out (NNO) and other events together for nearly 30 years. What hasn’t changed Since our block club was established in the early 1990s, some important things haven’t changed. We know our neighbors by their first names. We know…

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Cleaning up phosphorus in Lake Hiawatha

BY KATHRYN KELLY Lake Hiawatha is impaired with phosphorus. Much discussion has happened over the past few years about how to resolve this issue. What is the solution? There are several possible solutions: (1) implement natural wetlands (called constructed wetlands), (2) control the sources of excess phosphorus, and/or (3) phosphorus…

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The fight isn’t over

BY JOE HESLA AND ALICIA SMITH MURC (Minneapolis United for Rent Control) You may have noticed, there is a big conversation and fight for rent control going on in the Twin Cities. In St. Paul, renters and organizers collected nearly 10,000 signatures to put a tenant-centered rent control policy on…

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The problem with the airport

BY JIM SPENSLEY The “MSP airport noise problem” isn’t a real problem as much as it is a sign the airport is at the center of life-threatening health and safety problems. An apt health analogy is that hearing airport noise is like seeing the light from a forest fire on…

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New beginnings for In the Heart of the Beast

BY DAVID TILSEN Over 45 years ago, several of us from the Alive and Trucking Theater gathered in a small apartment in Phillips. We were called by Sandy Spieler and Ray St. Louis to discuss a vision. They believed that regular festivals helped make communities strong, and that South Minneapolis…

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Why I love cops

BY TONY BOUZA One of the many flaws I’ve nurtured over what seems to have evolved into an interminable stay on the planet is a serious predilection for criticism. I’m always going on about this idiot or that fool. Surely I can’t be infallible on the issues. And I am…

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