BY TONY BOUZA Whenever the Chief’s coffee grows cold and the last bite of the doughnut is taken, a light flashes and a voice whispers, “More cops.” That is the mantra. They will control crime and improve community relations. What tripe. It is nothing short of a scam—or, better yet,…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Open Streets Lake-Minnehaha is happening again this year. The date is Sunday, July 22, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The route is roughly the same as last year: East Lake Street from Elliot Avenue to Minnehaha Avenue, then southeast on Minnehaha to the entrance to…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN If I were to rank different activities in the order of physical difficulty, that is, the amount of effort required, from the most difficult to the easiest, it would look like this: 1) giving birth 2) emerging from the ocean not having drowned 3) playing Chopin Etudes…
BY ED FELIEN The hardest choice in the August 14 Primary for people in South Minneapolis has to be the choice between State Representative Ilhan Omar and State Senator Patricia Torres Ray for Congress in the 5th Congressional District. Ilhan has national recognition as the first Somali representative in a…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE For our focus on 66th Street, Richfield, we will look at how Richfield stacks up to Minneapolis in providing affordable and accessible life necessities, particular food and housing. But first, to get things into perspective, some comparative demographics. In the 2010 census, Richfield had a population…
BY ED FELIEN Last Monday I wrote to Park Board Superintendent Mary Merrill: “Are we to assume as a result of Board’s approval of another Barr Engineering study to evaluate three possibilities: ‘• Articulation of a set of working principles to guide explorations and for use as a tool in…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The Poor People’s Campaign (PPC), which began May 14 with an announced 40-day series of actions highlighting all the major causes and intersections of poverty in the U.S., came to a close in mid-June. The last action was the first one to occur in Minneapolis, where…
BY ED FELIEN On Saturday afternoon, June 23, around 5 o’clock, Thurman Blevins was walking with his girlfriend. There was a baby stroller and a baby nearby. Witnesses say Blevins was drinking Amsterdam Vodka out of a bottle. Officers Justin Schmidt and Ryan Kelly pulled up in their squad car…
BY STEPHANIE FOX From Minnehaha Parkway all the way to the West Bank, Cedar Avenue offers a number of great places to eat and drink. You can elect plain old burgers, pizza and pasta or the more exotic foods of the Twin Cities’ culinary tapestry. There are places for wetting…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The Poor People’s Campaign (PPC), which began May 14 with an announced 40-day series of actions highlighting all the major causes and intersections of poverty in the U.S., came to a close this month. We attended the last two local, public actions, one in Saint Paul…
BY ED FELIEN The Park Board can stop the flooding of basements in South Minneapolis and the flooding of the Hiawatha Golf Course, and it won’t cost taxpayers a dime. The flooding is caused by the dam/weir at 27th Avenue at the outlet of Lake Hiawatha. It backs up about…
BY TONY BOUZA The prosecution of Justine Damond’s killer will start soon and end badly. Kibbitzing comes naturally to dumb onlookers like me. Getting a jury to convict is gonna be a hard—maybe impossible—sell. After all, the shooter is their protector. He stands between the juror and them, and we…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN I read FB posts too many times a day. I am shattered time and again by the evil afoot in our world. I despair. Then I remember my dear friend Rev. Harry Maghakian, who retired from pastoring Andrew Riverside Presbyterian Church a few years ago, and died…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE We attended a panel discussion with public Q&A and feedback on the Minneapolis2040 (Draft) Comprehensive Plan, hosted at the Seward Friendship Store by new City Council Member Andrea Jenkins on Friday, June 22. This was to be the first of CCM Jenkins’ series of talkbacks with…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Franklin Avenue in the Seward neighborhood has so much to offer: one of the oldest worker-owned co-op restaurants in the world, a bookstore with bicycle delivery, a playwrights’ center, a Somali cafe, a sushi and karaoke bar. But this article is not about them. It’s about…
