BY ED FELIEN You see them standing by the side of the road and your heart breaks. They are begging for money, for shelter, for food. And, maybe, sometimes, they are begging for money for drugs. It’s gotten out of control at 46th and Hiawatha. Nicole M wrote on Nextdoor, “My…
BY KAY SCHROVEN While violent offenses in Hennepin County year to date have increased 5 percent over 2023, property offenses have decreased 6 percent, and auto thefts have decreased a strong 25 percent. Auto thefts are also down in Minneapolis year to date, with 3,895 this year (Aug. 5, 2024)…
BY CAM GORDON [Please see Editor’s Note at end of Cam’s Corner.] The Green Party of the United States held their convention in August and selected former Southsider, Rudolph “Butch” Ware III, to be their candidate for vice president in 2024. Jill Stein, the Green Party’s presidential candidate, announced Ware…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Housing nonprofits and land trusts Selby Avenue, like everything else, exists in the now, but unlike many other streets, Selby Avenue seems very conscious of its past and its future. Part of Selby Avenue’s past was the brutal destruction of a prosperous African-American community and neighborhood…
BY STEPHANIE FOX The City of Minneapolis was officially incorporated in 1856 with the Mississippi River as the center of what was to become an industrial powerhouse. By 1874, the city’s flourmills were feeding the nation and thousands of people began moving to the city for employment. By that year,…
BY STEPHANIE FOX Open Streets, the popular Minneapolis tradition of closing long thoroughfares for neighborhood celebrations, was started by the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition in 2009 as a way to show people how the city would look without cars. The group, now called Our Streets Minneapolis, organized the events together with…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Chicago Avenue, from downtown to the city line Every year since 2020, when we check out this section of Chicago Avenue, we focus most sharply on George Floyd Square. And this piece will do the same, but let’s not start there. We sometimes overlook the things…
BY ED FELIEN An international contingent was at the Cedar Cultural Center on August 16 to celebrate the release of a new album and a new biography of Cornbread by Andrea Swensson, Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs, and Salvation of Cornbread Harris. Jimmy Jam Harris from LA, US Senator Amy…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Lots of hot restaurant news! Lynette (3753 42nd Ave. S.) is open. This is the new restaurant, greatly anticipated, in the former Riverview Wine Bar space. Tender Lovin’ Chicks (2700 Lyndale Ave) is also open, the brick-and-mortar incarnation of a popular food truck. Two breweries will…
BY ED FELIEN Okay, so the Cheapside Carnival Freak show that is the Trump campaign, just got freakier. First, some idiot kid takes his dad’s AR-15 and, at the last minute, picks up a couple boxes of shells and heads off to become famous. He makes it to the roof…
By Cam Gordon Minneapolis is falling behind in addressing its racist past. In October of 2020, following the police killing of George Floyd that previous May, the City Council and Mayor unanimously approved establishing a truth and reconciliation process. Then, the focus was clear. The staff report, presented by Joy…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Two East Phillips institutions at Bloomington and Franklin Avenues One of the biggest stories about this summer on Bloomington Avenue is happening right at its northernmost point. This is the heart of the city’s Indigenous people’s community at the Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC). In May,…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The Wonderful Wedge Do you mean the neighborhood or the cooperative grocery store? I could mean both! But right now I mean the co-op. Although I’ve been a member of a different co-op for 33 years, my favorite co-op to shop is the Wedge (2105 Lyndale…
BY STEPHANIE FOX It has been said that you don’t need a Minneapolis passport to visit the iconic St. Paul thoroughfare called Grand Ave., and it’s true. Among the 100-year-old houses and apartment buildings on that thoroughfare are unique restaurants and shops that are worth the trip across the river.…
BY ED FELIEN The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement of the Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations between 1830 and 1850. 60,000 people were forced to leave their ancestral homes. Many thousands died on the trail that led from Georgia and South Carolina more than 800 miles…
