BY ED FELIEN On Friday, May 31, Superintendent Al Bangoura and Commissioner AK Hassan celebrated the opening of new swing sets and sod replanting at Peavey Park. It was a gloriously staged event with television cameras and much self-congratulation. Earlier that week I had sent Bangoura an email talking about…
BY ED FELIEN This map, produced by a team of geographers, historians and social activists at the University of Minnesota (https://www.mappingprejudice.org/), shows the areas of South Minneapolis that had restrictive covenants written into the deeds of homes for sale: “That the said land or buildings thereon shall never be sold…
BY ED FELIEN A trade war is when a country raises tariffs (taxes) on a product coming into the country. The business selling that cheaper foreign product then has to pass that tariff (tax) on to the consumer, and this can make the product cost the same as an American-made…
BY ED FELIEN You can’t see it, but the change has been profound. Drive down 34th Avenue and it looks like nothing’s changed (other than the encroaching construction!). The houses, the commercial buildings, everything looks the same, the way it’s always been. But it won’t be that way forever. The…
BY ED FELIEN When Mayor Frey announced an end to fear-based warrior training for Minneapolis police, Police Federation President Bob Kroll announced his Federation would offer that warrior training free to Minneapolis police officers. Warrior training was cited as the principal cause of Officer Yanez’s killing of Philando Castile. It…
BY ED FELIEN Funding for neighborhood organizations has come mostly from the increased property taxes on downtown development. In 1989 the city gave developers a huge tax break to encourage development. Tax Increment Financing meant they would only have to pay property taxes on the value of the buildings they…
BY ED FELIEN Funding for neighborhood organizations has come mostly from the increased property taxes on downtown development. In 1989 the city gave developers a huge tax break to encourage development. Tax Increment Financing meant they would only have to pay property taxes on the value of the buildings they…
BY ED FELIEN Amy, you stand with the old guard, establishment wing of the Democratic Party. You are a deliberate centrist. You believe in bi-partisan cooperation. You went on the goodwill tour of Neo-Nazi battalions in Eastern Ukraine with John McCain and Lindsay Graham a couple of years ago just…
BY ED FELIEN What does the Los Angeles teachers’ strike have to do with Minneapolis? Well, actually, quite a bit. Some part of the strike was about wages. They got a little bit of the raise they asked for four years ago. They got smaller class sizes and school nurses.…
BY ED FELIEN On Thursday, Jan. 3, County Attorney Mike Freeman released this statement: “Two Minneapolis police officers will not be charged in the fatal shooting of Travis Jordan, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Thursday.” Officers Ryan Keyes and Neal Walsh fired a total of eight shots at the…
BY ED FELIEN What happened? A little over three years ago, on Sept. 30, 2015, you held a big community meeting with more than a hundred people at Plaza Verde to talk about the dangers of gentrification. You told Ryan Williams-Virden from the Twin City Daily Planet, “Gentrification is a…
BY ED FELIEN Brad Bourn has prepared a special welcoming gift for Al Bangoura, the new superintendent of parks due to take office on Jan. 20. Almost the first thing on his desk will be the contract to hire an intergovernmental relations administrator. Last month we noted: “Park Board President…
BY ED FELIEN Nothing can spoil Christmas quicker than hate. And racism is a special kind of hate. It dehumanizes a group, makes them less than human, and allows cops in the Fourth Precinct in North Minneapolis to treat African Americans like trash that has to be swept from the…
BY ED FELIEN People are complaining of a smell coming from deals being made at the Park Board. Park Board President Brad Bourn appointed his best campaign worker, Kendall Killian, to a $114,000 a year consulting contract. They broke the contract into six-month periods, so it didn’t need board approval…
BY ED FELIEN The Park Board continues to threaten to flood the Hiawatha Golf Course. They want to reduce pumping groundwater out of the golf course into Lake Hiawatha. The golf course in some spots is 2 feet below the water level of the lake. The water level is 2…
Columns by Ed Felien