Debra Keefer Ramage

Debra Keefer Ramage began writing freelance for Southside Pride in 2012, shortly after returning from a 13-year sojourn in England. She covers progressive politics, education, co-ops and neighborhoods. In 2017 she started doing Southside Pride’s restaurant review column, The Dish.


Open Streets on Franklin Avenue

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE This year Franklin Avenue’s Open Streets celebration will be on Sunday, Aug. 27, at the usual times: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The boundaries of the Franklin Avenue festival are Portland Avenue in the west and 32nd Avenue in the east (four blocks longer than last…

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Highland Park: poised between past and future

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The automobile, specifically the Ford automobile (and truck) for good or ill, built Highland Park. This fact was amply reflected in the Ford-only Car Show that was a feature of the recent 2017 Highland Fest. But, you know, they don’t make Fords in Highland Park any…

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Shopping adventures on 66th Street

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Southside Pride, well, OK, me, that is I, took advantage of the long Independence Day “weekend” (flexible day Monday, off Tuesday) to visit some alluring businesses that I had heard about lining the mixed residential and shopping hub corridor that is 66th Street, just over the…

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Open Streets 2017—now with more Minnehaha Avenue

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Just like last year, the Open Streets program is putting on eight events on eight separate Sundays through the summer. (Two events, Downtown and Lyndale, have occurred already.) The routes of a few of the events are different this year. Last year the event for East…

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Public art and artists along Cedar Avenue

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Cedar Avenue from the West Bank to Lake Nokomis does not, at first glance, seem to be a cultural corridor. Its houses are modest, its restaurants and other businesses not trendy or pretentious. But nevertheless, it is home to a few unique art spaces and on…

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The Co-op way of business

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE When Sean Doyle, general manager of Seward Co-op, gets me on the phone, he agrees with me that Seward Co-op is currently the biggest news item on Franklin Avenue. It all happened very quickly, with little warning, so the board and managers have understandably been busy,…

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When ‘frosty wind makes moan’

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE In the deep midwinter, we like to keep our eyes on the light. Light entertainment, that is. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that so many cultures have—as well as a solemn observance about the birth of a prophet or a god or the struggle against…

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Voter’s guide to the precinct caucuses

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE March 1, 2016, is Caucus Night in Minnesota. When it comes to presidential elections, Minnesota is not a “primary” state, so there won’t be a Democratic primary for you to vote in. The only way you can register your preference as to the nominee of the…

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The search begins for a super-Super

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE It’s a funny old world. Back when R. T. Rybak was mayor of Minneapolis, he used to say he had the second hardest job in the city, next to Superintendent of Schools Bernadeia Johnson. “People care a lot about potholes, but they care a whole lot…

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Minneapolis elections 2013 – how did we do?

BY DEB KEEFER RAMAGE Dave and Barb Tilsen and five other friends joined me at the Northbound Smokehouse Brewpub for an election post-mortem and to await the arrival of the Andrew Johnson campaign’s post-election gathering. We were all antsy until about 8:30, when results began to come in on our…

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