BY ED FELIEN Before there was a city of Minneapolis, there was the town of St. Anthony on the east bank of the Mississippi. Its Main Street was bustling with a thriving lumber trade. In 1861 when they incorporated, they looked at the federal system of government in Washington, D.C.…
BY ED FELIEN When I was a small boy attending Mass at St. Helena’s Church, I remember a sermon by my favorite priest, Father Don Schnitzius. The way Father Don told the story of The Ten Talents was slightly different from Matthew, Chapter 25, but the message was essentially the…
BY ED FELIEN On Sunday, June 27, Andrea Jenkins, the Black trans Minneapolis City Council Member, had her car surrounded by about a dozen protesters as she was trying to leave a Pride event in Loring Park. The ward she represents includes three of the four corners of George Floyd…
BY ED FELIEN On Thursday, June 24, Southside Pride wrote to Andrea Jenkins and Julie Stroeve, the two known candidates for City Council in Ward 8. We asked each candidate to please answer the following questions and send their responses by noon Monday, June 28. Only Julie Stroeve answered the…
BY ED FELIEN Late Sunday night, June 13, Nicholas Kraus drove his Jeep Cherokee through the barricades at Lake and Girard and killed Deona Marie Knajdek. Barricades had been set up to protest the killing of Winston Boogie Smith by U.S. Marshals on June 3 at the Girard Avenue parking…
BY ED FELIEN The people who have held George Floyd Square for more than a year issued the following list of 24 demands on August 7, 2020, that they believed must be met before traffic at 38th and Chicago could return to normal: 1. Recall Mike Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney.…
BY ED FELIEN Jawan Carroll has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder resulting from the shootout in front of the Monarch nightclub at 2 a.m. on May 22. He allegedly was with two other people. He had been identified by police authorities as a member of the Tre…
BY ED FELIEN Shocked at seeing human beings other than her father for the first time, Miranda, in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” says, “Oh, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in ‘t.” The forced isolation and sudden…
BY ED FELIEN Guilty! Guilty, as judged by the whole world. Everyone saw what happened. Millions watched 17-year-old Darnella Frazier’s iPhone video of Derek Chauvin squeezing the life out of George Floyd. The world was outraged. And local politicians acted surprised. Mayor Frey said, “That there will be Black Minneapolis…
BY ED FELIEN Daunte Wright was pulled over in Brooklyn Center while driving his parent’s car for driving with expired license tabs. The officer in charge, Kim Potter, was a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Park Police Department and former head of the police officer’s union. She was training new…
BY ED FELIEN Go to your precinct caucus … and never leave your couch. Now you can register to become a delegate to the DFL ward and city conventions and never leave the peace and serenity of your living room. You can go to caucus.dfl.org and it will direct you…
BY ED FELIEN Two tormented 21-year-olds unleashed a storm of death and sorrow last month in Atlanta and Boulder. Why? There are no easy answers. They were both victims of bullying. Robert Aaron Long was bullied by his evangelical church to hate and fear his natural need for sexual expression.…
BY ED FELIEN There was a lovely piece in the Pioneer Press in February about Bryan Ring bringing help and hope to the homeless camped out near Sheridan Park in North Minneapolis: “Stillwater man is godsend to people living in Minneapolis homeless camps.” “He brings sleeping bags, food, hand warmers,…
BY ED FELIEN Charles Rodgers is running for Park Board. That’s good news for people in South Minneapolis who want a park system that works for all of us. He says, “Growing up in Memphis, the only child of a single mom employed long hours as a domestic to a…
BY ED FELIEN I feel like Oscar in Sesame Street: “I like trash.” What’s there to do during the pandemic and forced incarceration but watch trashy action flicks on Netflix? And, after you’ve watched all the James Bond movies and “Ocean’s Eleven,” you’re left with the dregs at the bottom…
Columns by Ed Felien