Columnists

Regular Columnists

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

 


One last summer fling at Open Streets Minnehaha

BY STEPHANIE FOX The Minneapolis neighborhood celebration known as Open Streets will have its final festival for 2022 with Open Streets Minnehaha, in the Longfellow neighborhood on Oct. 1 from 11 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. The street will be closed to all motor vehicle traffic between East Lake Street and…

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48th & Chicago and beyond

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Eat, drink, and be entertained The Parkway Theater is having some fun events both cinematic and otherwise coming up this fall. From Sept. 15 – 29 is “Mel Brooks Month.” You can buy a pass to all three special screenings for $27. On Sept. 15 it’s…

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It’s time

BY ED FELIEN It’s time. “It’s time,” the people of the East Phillips neighborhood are saying. It’s time the city started taking itself seriously and started believing some of the things it’s been saying about the environment and equity. In 2019, Mayor Jacob Frey said, “Minneapolis is doing nation-leading work…

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Fighting crime with justice

BY LYDIA HOWELL It’s a strange time to be a progressive with a lifetime of doing anti-racism and police accountability activism and, now, seeing my city overwhelmed by crime. Conversations about Minneapolis ping-pong between right-wing screeds, “Minneapolis is a crime-ridden hellscape! Leave NOW!” to progressives asserting, “The real problem is…

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I hear voices

BY TONY BOUZA America has always spoken to me. Its powerful culture overwhelmed me on my arrival from Spain on Dec. 22, 1937, at nine and a half years old. I embraced the movies, songs, magazines, comic books, etc.—and unconsciously rejected everything I came from. And those voices? What follows…

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MPD and consent decrees

BY CAM GORDON The role of public involvement has been questioned as the mayor and City Council move forward towards court agreements on racist policing practices. Last April 27, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) released a report that found probable cause that the city and its police department…

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Who won?

BY ED FELIEN The DFL won the DFL primary last Tuesday. DFL-endorsed candidates beat challengers up and down the ticket. At the top of the South Minneapolis ticket, Ilhan Omar beat Don Samuels for a seat in Congress by a little more than 2%, in spite of her support for…

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A simpler Hiawatha plan

BY ED FELIEN Ian Young, in a Star Tribune editorial published Aug. 5, said, “Those commissioners voting to advance the nine-hole master plan are the ones who have done their homework and understand the reality of the issue.” Really? Young says any proposal to save Hiawatha Golf Course would “not…

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The saga of Omar Fateh

BY ED FELIEN After a long and painful two-month inquiry, the Minnesota Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct cleared state Sen. Omar Fateh of any serious wrongdoing, but they did find that Fateh didn’t disclose the $1,000 he paid Somali TV for campaign advertising. His statement: “The unanimous decision reached today…

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Summer on Lyndale Avenue South

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE For this review of things in the neighborhood, we’ll go geographically down Lyndale Avenue, starting just north of Franklin Avenue, and ending just south of Minnehaha Creek. The first organization to check out is called Vision Loss Resources, a nonprofit that provides just what the name…

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Restaurant news, plus two mini-reviews

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE An opening The long-vacant Viking Bar location on Riverside Avenue has finally attracted a new resident: TAMU Grill and Catering, with a Kenyan fusion menu. Owner George Ndege, aka Chef JoJo, was formerly known as both the host of KFAI’s African Rhythms and a caterer of…

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There’s a bad smell somewhere

BY ED FELIEN [Ed Felien’s remarks to the Park Board on July 20] In a promotional video having something to do with the Hiawatha Plan, Michael Schroeder is shown saying, “My mission is to de-Wirthify the Minneapolis Park System.” The crown jewel of his plan is to turn the Hiawatha…

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