The memories and questions of history The title of the book is provocative: “To End All Wars,” and the accolades found on the book’s cover from other writers convinced me I should read it. I didn’t read it all in one day, but I tried. I thought it might be…
BY ED FELIEN Terrance Franklin Jamar Clark Thurman Blevins Travis Jordan TerranceFranklin: The city just agreed to pay $795,000 to the surviving family of Terrance Franklin rather than contest the wrongful death suit against MPD Officer Lucas Peterson. Peterson claimed in his police report that Terrance…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE I encountered the above description of this time of this year and I … couldn’t really do better, so I’m “borrowing” it. Actually, things look a lot more normal on Cedar Avenue than most places in South Minneapolis, although nowhere is immune to the changes. Which…
BY DAVID TILSEN In response to the groundswell of action, grief and political pressure, the Minneapolis City Council has finally decided that it must do something about the Minneapolis Police. The City Council has proposed two things. First, the council has committed to do a deep community engagement on what…
BY TONY BOUZA Throughout my involvement in policing—since 1953—I’ve been periodically reminded that every police department harbors a few rotten apples and, if we can only excise them, the entire barrel can be rescued. An attractive notion, but flawed. Those apples are the alpha males that set the tone and…
BY STEPHANIE FOX A little more than two months ago, the corner of Chicago Avenue and 38th Street was a small business hub for many who lived in the Powderhorn neighborhood of South Minneapolis. But when a member of the Minneapolis Police Department kept his knee on the neck of…
BY ED FELIEN I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, but there are some concrete things you can do to help end homelessness and take some of the pressure off the encampment at the Powderhorn Sanctuary. Hennepin County is buying hotels for the homeless. You can do that,…
BY ED FELIEN Last week I sent the following email to Commissioners Angela Conley and Marion Greene, with a copy to David Hewitt, Office to End Homelessness, Director: Thank you for the extraordinary work you are doing in finding homes for the homeless in our community. Purchasing hotels for the…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Two weeks ago, we covered the part of Franklin Avenue west of Cedar Avenue. They were having some hard times but meeting the challenges with the resilience borne of centuries of standing against settler colonialism. Some of the denizens of this issue’s focus, the part from…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN I support the City Council in its intention to defund the police. I’m assuming, though, this doesn’t mean there will be no public safety mechanism in place in the future. I’m hoping this means starting over from scratch, as I understand they did in Camden, N.J., redefining…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Longfellow/Seward Healthy Seniors (LSHS) is a nonprofit that helps seniors live their most healthy and independent lives, following the “Living at Home / Block Nurse” model. It is one of three such programs in Minneapolis, the other two being Nokomis Healthy Seniors and Southeast Seniors. LSHS…
BY DAVE TILSEN Friday morning, June 12. I made coffee and looked out on Powderhorn Park, but the view was not as I expected. There were about a dozen tents pitched in the park across the street from my house. I surmised what had happened. A group of homeless people…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE On May 30, the fifth night of all-night protests and associated property damage responding to the racist murder by police of George Floyd, attention turned to the 5th Precinct police station at Nicollet Avenue South and 31st Street. The 3rd Precinct station had been abandoned by…
BY ED FELIEN Last month we introduced a new feature on our website—exclusive interviews with Stephen McClellan and musicians from local rock bands: Yellin’ at McClellan. This month he hosts his old friends, The Lanes: – https://youtu.be/KkNgAi0-s04 Steve: “Mike and Kiki Lane form the core of a band called The…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE I have flown to star-stained heights, on bent and battered wings In search of mythical kings, mythical kings Sure that everything of worth is in the sky and not the earth And I never learned to make my way down … where the iguanas play —Dory…
