BY JOHNNY HAZARD In the wake of the passage last year of a series of anti-abortion laws in Texas, there are signs that the opposite tendency is shaping up in Mexico. The Supreme Court there has issued various decisions liberalizing abortion laws in recent years but last September came the…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE I made a quick visit to the south Minneapolis end of Chicago Avenue just as we were emerging from a long and, for me, very isolating winter. I had let my car battery die, and had sort of lost the will to drive, which meant I…
BY STEPHANIE FOX Hennepin Avenue has changed a lot over the years. In the beginning, the neighborhood was focused on the local lake, with weekend homes for those who could afford it. in the 1970s it was a neighborhood of artists and small businesses catering to a younger crowd. Uptown…
BY ED FELIEN Just when you thought you were safe on dry land, the Swamp Creatures rise from the dead and take you back into the muck. Last year was a painful and exhausting struggle. After months of arguing, the Minneapolis Park Board voted 5-4 to not flood the Hiawatha…
BY CAM GORDON On March 10, supporters of the East Phillips Urban Farm project were celebrating. An 8-5 majority of the Minneapolis City Council had just approved a motion by 9th Ward Council Member Jason Chavez which rescinded the 2021 compromise that allowed the city to demolish the Roof Depot…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Chances are, if you know 10 people who consider themselves environmentalists or some version thereof (ecosocialist, ecofeminist, environmental anarchist, left-wing prepper) you will notice that they all have different approaches to their activism, and often different “takes” on what informs their beliefs, what matters the most,…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE So many changes, so few column inches What a year this has been for Lake Street! I have to warn you right at the start, there is no way we can cover everything new and different since April 2021 along South Minneapolis’s most vital street. It’s…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Disco T was a well-known DJ in Minneapolis. He died of brain cancer on Dec. 31, 2021. At his memorial event, on his birthday, Feb. 19, everyone spoke of him as a legend, an icon. He was beloved and admired. I knew him by his given name…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Closings in food and drink From Racket.com and other sources we learned that Tin Whiskers, one of the original artisanal Minnesota breweries, is closing this year. Buy up their inventory while you still can, if you’re a fan. From Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, we learn that 35-year Dinkytown…
BY TONY BOUZA I’m given to hyperbole. Can’t seem to help it. “Best this,” “greatest that,” whatever. The U. S. has earned my devoted study. It has, to put it modestly, really lifted me out of certain defeat. No small feat. I owe this great country. So, what would a…
BY DAVID TILSEN The effort to cause fear and division under the guise of protecting Minneapolis residents from each other during the Derek Chauvin trial has now been revealed to be more extensive and more ongoing than we were told. A recent article in the MIT Technology Review outlines a…
BY STEPHANIE FOX At first glance, the Children’s Theatre’s latest production, “Something Happened in Our Town,” seems to have been written for the Twin Cities, but it’s bigger than that. The plot revolves around two families, next-door neighbors. The Perkins family is Black, the Hartleys are white, and the play…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The big story In a deliberately coordinated effort, MFT59 and MFT59-ESP, representing teachers and other professionals in the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) respectively, and SPFE (SPFT 28) representing both sections in St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS), filed “intent to strike” paperwork on Wednesday, Feb. 23. As…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Now we know what’s going where Augustine’s was A new restaurant under development by a couple with a recognized track record of great restaurants has been announced for the space on Selby Avenue in St. Paul previously occupied by the French bistro Augustine’s. Kalsada, which means…
BY CAM GORDON On Feb. 2, the City Council received a report on police department staffing that recommends steps the mayor and Council could take to improve public safety in Minneapolis. The $170,000 study grew out of a City Council directive from 2019 and its results are reminiscent of the…
