Columnists

Regular Columnists

Ed Felien  •  Elaine Klaassen  •  Polly Mann  •  Tony Bouza  •  David Tilsen  •  Debra Keefer Ramage  •  Stephanie Fox  •  Johnny Hazard 

 


A failure to communicate?

BY CAM GORDON Many people were surprised when, on March 29, the city of Minneapolis announced plans to rehouse a police station at one of two locations in the Southside’s 3rd Precinct. According to the announcement, from July 2020 to December 2022 city staff had been examining potential sites for…

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Spring on 34th Avenue

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE South 34th Avenue functions as a sort of Main Street for the tight-knit but diverse community around Lake Nokomis. The pandemic and economic disruption caused some closings but storefronts at the 34th Avenue and 50th Street hub and surrounding areas don’t stay vacant for long. Five…

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Spring on East 38th Street

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Boludo El 38 Spring has come to East 38th Street! East 38th Street stretches from Nicollet Avenue to Mississippi River Boulevard, but we’re going to start just a tiny bit west of there with Boludo, the Argentinian restaurant taking the local food scene by storm. Boludo…

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Spring on Minnehaha Avenue

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Spring is coming on for real now; my allergies tell me so. Despite allergies and other struggles, spring is very beautiful along Minnehaha Avenue this year. It’s culturally blooming, lush with arts, community-building, and the fusion of the two. In addition to our old favorites like…

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How we got here

BY ED FELIEN The name Ukraine probably comes from the Slavic language, meaning borderland. Greek and Roman historians write about Slavic peoples growing wheat and riding horses across the wide steppe or prairie.  The Eurasian Steppe reached from Ukraine to northern China.  It was a wide highway and open invitation for the…

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Whitewashing the riot 

BY ED FELIEN On March 7, the city of Minneapolis released an 86-page study of the riots that followed the murder of George Floyd.  The study says what most government studies say: we need more studies and we need more bureaucracy. It’s called, “Protecting What Matters,” and it seems that what…

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A setback for racial equity in City Hall

BY CAM GORDON The struggle for racial equity within our city government has suffered another setback. As of March 13, Tyeastia Green, the director of the recently elevated Department of Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, no longer works for the city of Minneapolis. In a memo-style report that she sent…

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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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Remembering Ray St. Louis, 1949 – 2023

BY DAVID TILSEN Ray St. Louis died in hospice on March 12, 2023.  He had not been living in Minneapolis for decades, and had only visited when the Minnesota Renaissance Festival was in town. In spite of that, his work and creativity has made an impact on our South Minneapolis…

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