BY LYDIA HOWELL The world generates 400 million metric tons of plastic waste every year, according to a United Nations report. Hennepin County is signing up community partners and individuals for their February Plastic-Free Challenge, with plenty of practical information to help you choose changes in your everyday life. Where…
BY ULLA NILSEN AND MN350 Minnesota is now on track to provide 100% clean electricity by 2040, but are we using it? You have probably heard of the Inflation Reduction Act (or IRA), the biggest investment the United States has ever made toward transitioning to a clean energy future. While…
BY CAM GORDON The future of Hiawatha Golf Course took an interesting turn this January when the city’s Historic Preservation Commission and the Park Board weighed in on its past. Both formally responded to a nomination submitted last year to add the golf course to the National Register of Historic…
I read Cam Gordon’s take on rent “control” [“Competing options for rent control,” Jan. 2, 2023]. Now I have more questions than I did prior to reading it. The options Cam wrote about are vague; they contain no specific examples of how an option would affect renters and developers/owners. Wouldn’t…
BY JOHN RYKHUS JR. Go east on the I-94 freeway and jump off onto Highway 29 near Elk Mound, Wisconsin, toward Green Bay. At Chippewa Falls take a hard left onto Highway 178 and then you will see something. Rolling fields are tree-lined with green forest. After crossing O’Neil Creek…
Pat Welna Pat Welna died on Jan. 17. She was 93. She was the last of the second generation to run Welna Hardware on Bloomington Avenue. She was funny and always cheerful, and she made you feel special even if you acted like an idiot with a plumbing problem. She…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Openings and closings Here is a rapid list of closings, far from comprehensive, but the ones I think you might most care about: Khyber Pass, Stella’s Fish Cafe, Red Stag Supperclub, Common Roots and Bad Waitress. Openings have been slightly more numerous. Again, I won’t even…
Your coverage of the Ukraine conflict aligns with a pro-war narrative driven by neo-cons and the military-industrial complex. These actors have dominated U.S. foreign policy for decades, proclaiming U.S. hegemony and laying the groundwork for expansive wars (in non-NATO countries Serbia, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria). This huge, revolving-door bureaucracy and…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Good places to hear music on or around 2/14 There are lots of diverse choices for a concert or performance to share with your Someone Special the week around Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is on a Tuesday this year, so maybe not the ideal night for…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Inspo is not a tropical fish, like Nemo. Inspo = “inspiration” in millennial slang. Thanks for attending my tiny Ted Talk. In the throes of winter, even in the supposedly hopeful post-solstice part, it’s kind of hard to think about redecorating, remodeling, or (shudder) moving to…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Steve Floyd (not related to George Floyd) has been taking Black youth from South Minneapolis on trips to Africa since the early ’90s. Floyd feels that traveling to Africa is one thing that really works to help them heal from the effects of slavery throughout their history.…
BY KAY SCHROVEN The Lake Street Council (LSC), a nonprofit organization, has been around since the late 1960s. It was formed to support businesses that remained on the Lake Street corridor as the escape from the urban landscape to the suburbs continued. This exodus began in the first half of…
BY TONY BOUZA My very unscholarly appreciation of history includes the bromide that great civilizations implode through moral rot rather than outside challenges. As the saying goes, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” I agree. A recent case illustrated the point.…
BY CAM GORDON The rent control debate is heating up. With the city’s rent stabilization workgroup completing its work in December, it now falls to the City Council to approve a policy and draft an ordinance if we are to have rent stabilization in Minneapolis. On Dec. 13, the 25-member…
BY WILLIAM BURLESON Much has been written about the former White Castle on the corner of 33rd and Lyndale in South Minneapolis. It is certainly a curiosity. Something about it says it doesn’t belong there, this prefab fast-food restaurant in a largely residential neighborhood on a shady tree-lined street. It…
