BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Selby Avenue’s hilly, bumpy history When Selby Avenue was first named on a map, in 1854, the site of the present Cathedral of Saint Paul (the fourth and final one to bear that name) was occupied by a 40-acre farm belonging to Jeremiah Selby. This land,…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE McRae Park is one of the friendliest parks, much beloved by its surrounding neighborhoods. It stands as a green and welcoming gateway to the business hub of Chicago and 48th and the southern parts of south Minneapolis beyond. Current use information for parks and rec centers…
BY STEPHANIE FOX Each year, thousands of people flock to Open Streets events in Minneapolis. During these city celebrations, streets are closed to automobile traffic for blocks and people walk, bike and even skate, visiting booths and businesses along the way. But then, COVID-19 happened. In non-pandemic years, there are…
The desperate need for prison reform Linda Franks of Baton Rouge, La., turned a room in her beauty salon into a meeting place for the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Reform Coalition, exemplifying what is happening to prison reform all over the country. One example is Vanessa Fano’s brother who…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Downtown at Chicago Avenue’s northern terminus, the venerable Guthrie Theater is cautiously reopening. I have really ambivalent feelings about entertainment happening while the pandemic is in the situation where there are no ICU beds available, and kids are having to go back to classes with nothing…
BY DAVID TILSEN Over 45 years ago, several of us from the Alive and Trucking Theater gathered in a small apartment in Phillips. We were called by Sandy Spieler and Ray St. Louis to discuss a vision. They believed that regular festivals helped make communities strong, and that South Minneapolis…
BY TONY BOUZA One of the many flaws I’ve nurtured over what seems to have evolved into an interminable stay on the planet is a serious predilection for criticism. I’m always going on about this idiot or that fool. Surely I can’t be infallible on the issues. And I am…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE New eating places and concepts and “new to me” Amazingly, new restaurants and cafes and food service “concepts” keep on opening. Three fairly recent openings, in descending order of grandness (which pretty much relates to price and that pampered, entitled feeling, but not necessarily to actual…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Grand Avenue is not like most of the other major thoroughfares we write about. It’s the only one with two esteemed liberal arts universities on it. Which may explain why it has no less than three independent bookstores on it as well. Also, although in terms…
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 ELAINE KLAASSEN Remember a few years back when Twin Cities Nonviolent partnered with individuals and peace organizations to create 10 Days Free from Violence in the Twin Cities? It was in the fall. The initiative wasn’t so huge the first year, but the next year, in 2019, hundreds of…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE We have a load of interesting things to tell you about on or near Lyndale Avenue South. A few are long-time stalwarts, and a few are either new, or newly reopened since the last shutdown, or newly discovered by me and checked out for the first…
Call it murder The Catholic Agitator of June 2021, a monthly newsletter, carried an article by the journalist Chris Hedges, entitled “The Age of Social Murder” which should be required reading for all of us. He defines the murderer’s weapon as global warming, seldom defined or recognized as such. Each…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Bloomington Avenue is looking OK these days. I love to see it, because a year ago, I wasn’t sure. Businesses along Bloomington tend to be either very small and/or creative and unusual. Eateries capitalized on being cozy and intimate, and had to pivot to takeout, which…
BY TONY BOUZA Another proposed system change to reform the police. How we love gimmicks and formulaic answers. And yet, in our real lives, we mostly tend to be more practical. In the end we usually find that the person matters and the system can be manipulated. Talented folks make…
