Nokomis


Stop the flooding

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…

Continue reading

The games we play

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…

Continue reading

Legacy of Hope

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…

Continue reading

Go-To cards?

We asked candidates for county commissioner for District 4: Should Hennepin County have outreach workers working on the street with the homeless, the unemployed begging at highway entrances, prostitutes and drug dealers? Peter McLaughlin was the only candidate who responded: “Yes, coupled with investments in housing with services to end…

Continue reading

ELDERBERRY JAM: Who will serve on the School Board?

BY DAVE TILSEN We are electing School Board members this November: two citywide candidates and three in districts—two of these districts are Southsiders. Incumbents Nelsen Inz and Said Ali from the two Southside districts are currently unopposed DFL- and union-endorsed and seemed positioned to cruise to reelection. Opponents will likely…

Continue reading

FINDING MY WAY: End of my rope

BY ASHLEY THE GREY As a former attorney, I have walked in powerful shoes. Gained respect by the mere title “Attorney at Law.” People wanted to know me. I was asked to sit on boards for nonprofits and odd museums. I had been taught that being a lawyer was the…

Continue reading

Summer Song (love)

BY ELAINE KLAASSEN “I’m having an affair with a married man,” my friend Allie, who is a pillar of respectability, told me. “What???” I said. Of course I had to act surprised, but anybody who ever saw her and her husband together would NOT be surprised. Could they ever laugh…

Continue reading

Minneapolis pushes for blanket upzonings

BY LARA NORKUS-CRAMPTON Look around and it is not hard to see that Minneapolis is being transformed—corridor by corridor, neighborhood by neighborhood. This is a stated goal of the 2040 Comprehensive Plan. We are told that the special permits and upzonings to allow many of these oversized developments are necessary…

Continue reading

The change we believe in on Nicollet Avenue

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE This is a somewhat different take on Nicollet Avenue, South. Last week, I visited the Butter Bakery Cafe at 3700 Nicollet Ave., the ground floor anchor of an apartment building. One of the first things I noticed was that the vestibule was full of flyers, ads…

Continue reading

What’s happening with Snelling Yards?

BY ED FELIEN Snelling Yards is a vehicle storage lot for the city at 3601 E. 44th St. between Snelling Avenue and the railroad tracks. In the 1930s the city had storage facilities in every ward especially for snowplowing equipment that would be watched carefully by the two aldermen from…

Continue reading

ELDERBERRY JAM: Did we win?

BY DAVE TILSEN The Eagles beat the Vikings, so I hated the game. Didn’t even put up all my banners, hardly had a party. It was more like a morgue at my place than a party, but that’s just me. Perhaps you did let your Eagles fly, you ate your…

Continue reading

The Columbia Bust

BY TONY BOUZA Every century has its memorable years—think your birthday. The ’20s had 1927 (Lindbergh), 1928 (Mickey Mouse and Oscar), 1929 (Crash). And then there was 1968 (Nixon, Humphrey, Chicago) Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. Kent State. The Kerner Commission. 1941 (War). 1945 (Peace). And the Columbia University…

Continue reading