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.


Thoughts on environmental racism for Earth Day 2023

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The ongoing fight against fracking, pipelines and all extractive industries We lost the battle if not the war on Line 3. It’s done, it’s dusted and it’s leaking into groundwater even as you read this. (See tinyurl.com/55mjebse for reporting on the 153 cases of pollution control…

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Spring on Lake Street

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Lake Street rebuilding and revival Spring is a good time to talk about Lake Street. Lake Street started rebuilding in the midst of the pandemic from the destruction wrought by the anger unleashed in the George Floyd uprising. But it was slow at first. It’s stronger…

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Spring on Chicago Avenue and 48th Street

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Spring 2023 dawns on a reinvigorated Chicago Avenue at 48th Street and the southward stretch. There are a couple of new incoming businesses, there are some longtime stalwarts thriving once again, there is a lively sidewalk culture, and there’s even a new transit option from Metro…

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Spring on Hennepin Avenue

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Is Uptown … political? There are several different takes on what’s going on with Uptown and Hennepin Avenue south of downtown. Psychically, Hennepin seems to lie upon a political fault line in Minneapolis. Or that’s what you might think if you read Minneapolis “Left” Twitter (which,…

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Ups and downs in public education outlook

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE We published each of 2022’s Education supplements on a sort of a cliffhanger. In early March we were in the pre-strike cooling-off period for a historic strike that took place the next week. In October, it was a month until an election that would bring five…

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Summer camps in 2023

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Arts and creativity camps ArtStart (artstart.org) is an innovative arts nonprofit in St. Paul that combines artmaking with art appreciation, cultural studies, history and – recycling? (See ArtScraps on their website.) Registration is open now for summer programs, which center on studying and being inspired by…

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For the love of cats and dogs

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Unlike most of my peer group, I did not grow up with pets to a large degree. My mother was afraid of dogs, and she believed that cats and dogs were both, along with every other type of non-human animal, filthy and unlovable. Although fortunately I…

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There’s no place like home – finding “inspo”

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Inspo is not a tropical fish, like Nemo. Inspo = “inspiration” in millennial slang. Thanks for attending my tiny Ted Talk. In the throes of winter, even in the supposedly hopeful post-solstice part, it’s kind of hard to think about redecorating, remodeling, or (shudder) moving to…

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Vegetables, vitamins and pickleball

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Healthy eating – let food be your medicine The phrase “Let food be thy medicine” is often attributed to Hippocrates. But a Dutch doctor specializing in nutrition and natural medicine (see www.drgoodfood.org/en/vitarecipes/foodfixes) scanned every known bit of writing by him and found nothing that can be…

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