BY ED FELIEN I awoke from a horrible nightmare last week. My wife and I and Keith Ellison were walking in the dark and we were attacked by a man with a knife. I screamed to my wife to call 911 and I tried desperately to reach Keith. He cried…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Writing this with eight days before the elections, I know that you will probably be reading it after they are over. I am not going out on any limbs, and I can’t find it in my heart to plug events in the first half of November…
BY ED FELIEN I loved the façade on the Modern Cleaners building ever since I first saw it as a small child looking out the window of a Chicago Avenue bus. It seemed so sleek, so smooth, so modern. The architectural style is Streamline Moderne, a final flourish of Art…
BY ED FELIEN On Oct. 8, Council Member Cam Gordon wrote on neighborhood forums: “The second draft of the new Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan is now published and you are invited to a Second Ward Community Meeting to learn more, ask questions, share thoughts and hear from others on Monday,…
BY ED FELIEN I lived in Dinkytown from 1962 to 1964, upstairs over what was then Oscar’s Barber Shop at 1302 SE 4th St., home of The Hair Shaft, today. I was just starting graduate school for my master’s degree in theater, and I was teaching freshman English and speech…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE I grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, Ga., and then at age 17 set up as an independent young woman in a neighborhood as close to downtown Atlanta as possible. (Atlanta famously had and still has almost no residential downtown.) I have always loved food—cooking…
BY ED FELIEN Last month we published my criticism of racism in the Minneapolis Police Department, “Still out of control.” Bob left this message on our voice mail: “This message is for Ed Felien. Ed, Bob Kroll, Minneapolis Police Federation. “I just read your most recent hatchet job on, uh,…
BY TONY BOUZA Today I am 90. No, it’s not my birthday, only one of 365 days. Never thought (like death) it’d happen to me. And the point? Only a few ignorant musings. I am more convinced than ever that I am but a worm on the planet, along with…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The above is the title and call line of a political ballad of 1866 written by then popular but now largely forgotten composer and lyricist Henry Clay Work. You may be familiar with one or two of his better-received works, either 1865’s triumphant martial air “Marching…
BY ED FELIEN On Sept. 9 I sent the following email to Superintendent of Parks Mary Merrill: Hi Superintendent Merrill, Would you please direct staff to remove the boulder dam/weir under the 30th Avenue Footbridge that is obstructing the flow of Minnehaha Creek, as indicated in the Barr Engineering study.…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Mexican-American culture is osmosing through South Minneapolis for sure, and it’s in glorious evidence along 42nd Street. Just up the hill from El Colegio, a publicly supported charter high school “rooted in the Latinx experience,” there are two small businesses across the street from each other…
BY ED FELIEN I loved the façade on the Modern Cleaners building ever since I first saw it as a small child looking out the window of a Chicago Avenue bus. It seemed so sleek, so smooth, so modern. The architectural style is Streamline Moderne, a final flourish of Art…
resistance persistence BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE There have been a few victories in the resistance in the past month. Before the arraignment hearing (Sept. 27) came around for the group of immigrant rights protestors known as #ICEbreakers18, the court dismissed all the charges on Sept. 9. That was one victory.…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Midtown Global Market is coming into its 14th year of existence. There are a few businesses that were there at the very start and are still there. Pham’s Deli is one of them. Although I have been going to MGM for shopping or a quick meal…
BY POLLY MANN It was the first and only time I have had caviar: a long long time ago when I was in Moscow with my husband who was attending a joint meeting of American and Russian judges. The occasion was a cocktail party hosted by the Russian judges. It…
