Category: Riverside

BY ADAM M. SCHENCK “Innovation” is a buzzword we hear often. It means to make something new, and we have become used to innovations changing our daily habits. How far away is your mobile phone right now? Yet for various reasons, certain parts of our lives seem completely and intractably…

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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Bloomington Avenue, which runs through the South Minneapolis neighborhoods of Phillips, Powderhorn, Bancroft, Northrup, Hale and Diamond Lake, is one of the most diverse in the Twin Cities. These neighborhoods have been shaped by Africans, the most recent migrants; Latinos, who’ve been calling this area home…

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BY CHRISTOPHER HARRISON ELDRIDGE “These are heavy times.” With this observation City Council Vice President Elizabeth Glidden opened her address to the gathered Minneapolitans, seated and serried in a third floor auditorium in Lake Street’s Plaza Verde complex. The high ceilings, crossed by sheer cloth, combine with the worn hardwood…

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BY ED FELIEN Southside Pride asked the DFL candidates in the upcoming election—Phyllis Kahn, Muhamud Noor and Ilhan Omar—these questions.  Only Ilhan Omar responded: If elected to the State Legislature, would you introduce and support legislation to: 1. Establish free tuition at community colleges for Minnesota residents and establish free child…

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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE I guess we can get a little tunnel-visioned here in South Minneapolis with all the great stuff we have, but we have always been aware of the Ford Parkway/46th Street bridge and the fact that it takes you to a surprisingly close-by and interesting “little” area…

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BY ADAM M. SCHENCK For us brusque and rugged Americans the British sensibility comes to us as a salve. In times such as these we want for nothing more than wit, banter and the literary turn of phrase in hopes they will take us from the unmitigated horrors of the…

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BY ADAM M. SCHENCK No figure in our politics has so confounded pundits and pollsters like Donald John Trump, current Republican nominee for President of the United States. How does one interpret the ascent of a man thoroughly lacking the qualities of statesmanship toward our country’s highest office? How can…

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BY ED FELIEN Thousands of people gathered at the JJ Hill Montessori School Thursday, July 7, to honor the life and protest the death of Philando Castile.  He worked in the cafeteria at the school and was loved and missed by staff and students.  He was in a car that…

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BY POLLY MANN The Business Section of The New York Times of March 3, 2016, carried a front page article about “universal basic income,” UBI, in which each eligible adult would receive $1,000 a month. Richard Nixon first proposed a program he called a “negative income tax,” NIT, but little…

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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE This year East Lake Street’s Open Streets celebration will be on July 24, going from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The boundaries of the East Lake Street festival are Elliot Avenue in the west and 42nd Avenue in the east. Who else closes their streets to…

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BY ADAM M. SCHENCK Millennials, Greatest Generation, Gen Xers, Baby Boomers—it’s easy to dismiss self-appointed experts who separate out groups of people based on arbitrary birth dates. Yet, within a social movement like the gay rights movement, could the gradual ebb and flow of legal rights and social acceptance change…

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BY POLLY MANN It was during World War II that I became convinced that war was evil and that it served no good purpose. At that time I was working as a civilian employee in the Quartermaster’s Office at an army camp in Arkansas where, at lunchtime I walked through…

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BY ED FELIEN Juan Gonzalez chaired the first discussion group on Friday night.  He co-anchors “Democracy Now” with Amy Goodman.  He talked about how when he was in SDS (I always thought it was the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican SDS equivalent), and they were demonstrating at the 1968 Democratic…

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BY ED FELIEN If you’re a member of a co-op, you’re the revolution you’ve been waiting for. If you’re part of Black Lives Matter, you’re the revolution you’ve been waiting for. If you’re fighting for the dignity of all human beings, you’re the revolution you’ve been waiting for. If you’re…

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BY ASHLEY FRAY The first boy I ever liked was white class. His name was A.J. At least that’s what we’ll call him for now.  I met him when I was 13. We were in the same biology class. A.J. and I hit it off from the start. He was…

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