BY STEPHANIE FOX As the Twin Cities faces its wettest year ever, as lakes in the City of Lakes are overflowing and Minnehaha Creek sends more and more water—50 to 80 million gallons—through the city, rising water tables are starting to cause significant problems for many living in the area.…
BY LUCIA WILKES SMITH Every year, for the 35 years that members of Women Against Military Madness have organized a silent auction fundraiser, they debate the wisdom of holding such an event. Does it make sense to focus on an activity that doesn’t focus on political and educational content? Well,…
In “Hope and futility neck and neck as first world (barely) takes on climate crisis” (all September editions of Southside Pride), it was suggested that people could mitigate the climate crisis by having no more than two children. Two children? 7.8 billion people as status quo? The most effective decrease…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN On Thursday evening, Sept. 5, I joined a group of about 70 concerned people in a global “Amazon Day of Action” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA). According to Mighty Earth, one of the numerous environmental groups that organized and supported the event, the purpose of…
BY ED FELIEN There is a Race War happening in America. Some very crazy white people are attacking and murdering people of color. Dylann Roof killed nine African Americans during a church service at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2015. White supremacist James Fields deliberately rammed his car into…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE We have discovered some interesting goods and services on Chicago Avenue around the 48th Street commercial hub. In general, things are pretty stable around this location, with its prosperous but not flashy real estate, great schools, and strong neighborhood organizations and business owners’ association. The retail…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE We attended the Open Streets on Franklin Avenue a couple of weeks ago and man, there were a LOT of scooters. Scooters were a novelty rarely seen just last year at Open Streets. During my one-week visit to Atlanta this year in early August, that city…
BY TONY BOUZA There is no doubt in my mind that the most vital institution in America is a free press. Period. And the responsibility of the Fourth Estate? Dig for and report the truth. I tried hard to lead my life as a public servant in service to that…
BY JIM TJEPKEMA Now is the time to gather on the shores of Gichi-gami—Lake Superior—and raise our voices so that Governor Walz, our state agencies, and all Minnesotans can hear. This gathering, titled The Gichi-gami Gathering to Stop Line 3, will be held in Duluth on Sept. 28 from 1…
BY KATHRYN KELLY We keep hearing that the pumping at Hiawatha Golf Course is bad. But why? Let’s turn this idea on its head and ask why is this pumping necessary? Why is Hiawatha Golf Course pumping so much water; where is all of this water coming from? Lake Hiawatha…
BY LUCIA WILKES SMITH “Sometimes they show us the ‘one-fingered peace sign’.” That’s the way Sister Brigid McDonald describes the nasty gesture made by some people who drive past a peace vigil. Brigid and her sisters—Kate, Jane and Rita—are Catholic nuns who were subjects of the History Theatre’s dramatic production…
BY ELINA KOLSTAD Recent discussions of policy, specifically the 2040 Plan in Minneapolis, have discussed the fact that we have severe racial disparities that we need to deal with as a city. This is encouraging in that the first step to dealing with a problem is to recognize that you…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Along with most of my friends, I wish to reduce my carbon footprint. My environmentally-friendly friends and I think if we live sustainably we can somehow alleviate and mitigate the climate heat that is exponentially encompassing the entire planet. (You know, the hotter it gets, the hotter…
The Women’s Prison Book Project (WPBP) is celebrating its 25th year in operation on Oct. 12, 2019. The project has sent requested books to women in prison and, for the past several years, to transgender prisoners locked up nationwide within America’s criminal justice system of mass incarceration. For our commemoration,…
Jimmy and Lorraine: A Musing is a meditation on the American political climate of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s through the eyes of two of the most significant artists of the time, James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry. Using text from journals, letters, interviews, and more, Wilks brings Baldwin and…
