BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Where you are born is the luck of the draw. We don’t choose our birthplace. Why is THIS my home? The rippling grain, the lone tree, the curling creek beds and endless sky. The prairie is my home. Not the desert, not the mountains, not the sea,…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Everybody hopes they will never be jumped, assaulted, robbed, held up, mugged, etc., on the street. But it happens. It’s hard to imagine what gives perpetrators permission to traumatize vulnerable victims, such as the disabled, the elderly, young mothers, unarmed people. At the end of January, Mr.…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The business and cultural scene along East 38th Street, a personal favorite east-west connector and not just because I live near it, remains lively but in a healthy way. There have been some beloved mainstays that went under—notably Southside Farm Store. I will kind of miss…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Some of us were deterred on April 15 from attending the Anti-War Rally by the crazy blizzard that hit us on the 14th and lasted three or more days. But not everyone! Our Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America comrade Andy Guthrie was there and filed…
BY ED FELIEN There’s a lot you can do if you’re a City Council member in Minneapolis. Someone came to me while I was on the Council and told me they were being evicted from their apartment because the landlord hadn’t paid the utilities. They thought they should be able…
BY DAVE TILSEN April 7, at the American Indian Center on Franklin Avenue, there was a large turnout, a very diverse crowd, many East African folks, lots of Native Americans, some Latinos. A friendly crowd, but I sensed an undercurrent of tension. Not racial tension exactly, but partially, political tension.…
BY ED FELIEN The Minneapolis City Council Housing Policy and Development Committee will hold a public hearing on May 2 to allow “public verbal input pertaining to the Draft 2018 Consolidated Action Plan (CAP).” Your participation is important. The city is required by HUD to listen to you and pass…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE March was a dizzyingly busy month for Twin Cities progressives, and it’s going to get even more intense in April and May. Even though admittedly the DFL cannot always claim to be progressive, still a lot of progressive folk can be found there, especially in March…
BY ED FELIEN We’ll be fighting in the streets With our children at our feet And the morals that they worship will be gone And the men who spurred us on Sit in judgment of all the wrong They decide and the shotgun sings the song I’ll tip my hat…
BY TONY BOUZA In August and in October 2017, I wrote essays on the Justine Damond shooting in Minneapolis in these pages. I called it murder and criticized the mayor, police chief and prosecutor. The first two are gone—not, I’m confident, as a result, but following a vague chiasma of…
BY STEPHANIE FOX At the corner of Bloomington and Lake Street is Mercado Central, recognizable by the bright blue awning above the doors and the always-crowded parking lot. The stores, restaurants and other businesses reflect a vibrant, flourishing marketplace. If you come to the Mercado on weekends you will have…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Zen Box 612-332-3936 602 Washington Ave. S. Minneapolis MN 55415 zenbox.com Before there was Zen Box Izakaya, there was a much smaller lunch place in the Minneapolis skyway called simply Zen Box. They sold Japanese-style lunch to go—bento— which is the Japanese name for a lunchbox—not…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN War is waging and we picture the children, 4 years old, 8, 10, 12. It is dark, they’re hungry. Anything could happen tomorrow. There is nothing to count on. They have to believe that somewhere a great big unseen father, or mother, looks out for them. They…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE In an article about another cemetery, local journalist Andy Sturdevant remarked that in his opinion, “The most profound meeting of public space and private lives is in our cemeteries.” And indeed, it turns out that a major inspiration for noted 19th century landscape architect Frederick Law…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE March was a dizzyingly busy month for Twin Cities progressives, and it’s going to get even more intense in April and May. Even though admittedly the DFL cannot always claim to be progressive, still a lot of progressive folk can be found there, especially in March…
