BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE When you live in south Minneapolis, your only knowledge (if any) of Highland Park in St. Paul may be Ford Parkway and its mostly upscale businesses. That’s because Ford Parkway is accessed via the bridge over the Mississippi River which is at East 46th Street on…
BY ED FELIEN When I was a small boy attending Mass at St. Helena’s Church, I remember a sermon by my favorite priest, Father Don Schnitzius. The way Father Don told the story of The Ten Talents was slightly different from Matthew, Chapter 25, but the message was essentially the…
BY ED FELIEN On Sunday, June 27, Andrea Jenkins, the Black trans Minneapolis City Council Member, had her car surrounded by about a dozen protesters as she was trying to leave a Pride event in Loring Park. The ward she represents includes three of the four corners of George Floyd…
BY STEPHANIE FOX Minneapolis YWCA The YWCA has three Minneapolis locations, Downtown, Midtown and Uptown, and all were busy with activities and events. Then came the pandemic and things changed. During the governor’s shutdown the only thing open was child care. While the mandate eliminated most sports, activities that could…
BY AMY BLUMENSHINE Independence Day reminds us of the democratic leap forward made by an audacious set of colonies to free themselves from the rule of the king. The Bill of Rights of the Constitution insisted on freedom of the press and prohibits indefinite detention and cruel and unusual punishment.…
BY TONY BOUZA Policing in America, today, is about where medical science was in the 19th century—desperate for reform but staggering blindly under the problems. Hacksaws, in the Civil War, got plenty of mileage. Wounds got fingered and microbes ignored. Progress came and discoveries flowed with surprising ease, right? Actually,…
BY CRAIG WOOD “Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.” — Carl Jung Underground writers have found ways to circulate reading material since the 17th…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Where I get information about restaurants In case you wonder where I get information about restaurants, either to pass on news of the restaurant world here or to decide what to review next, I mostly get it from the same place I get a lot of…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Former Minneapolis Chief of Police Tony Bouza at 92 has written “Confessions of a Police Misfit,” a short autobiography that covers a long life filled with remarkable experiences and observations. Along the way, he has much to say about history, current affairs, his peers, anyone else on…
BY ED FELIEN Late Sunday night, June 13, Nicholas Kraus drove his Jeep Cherokee through the barricades at Lake and Girard and killed Deona Marie Knajdek. Barricades had been set up to protest the killing of Winston Boogie Smith by U.S. Marshals on June 3 at the Girard Avenue parking…
BY ELINA KOLSTAD If you’ve streamed all of Netflix’s latest and don’t want to venture out into the heat, look no further than Seward e-Democracy for your next dose of drama. Earlier this spring they held us transfixed with the Saga of the Seward Garage Sales, which consisted of dueling…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Right now, Seward neighborhood and Franklin Avenue from Cedar eastward to the bridge is percolating politically. There’s a city council race coming up in Ward 2 that will be very interesting. With the expected DFL outcome behind us of “no endorsement,” this race solidifies to one…
BY ED FELIEN The people who have held George Floyd Square for more than a year issued the following list of 24 demands on August 7, 2020, that they believed must be met before traffic at 38th and Chicago could return to normal: 1. Recall Mike Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney.…
BY DAVE TILSEN When Devin Hogan agreed to be Minneapolis DFL chair, he certainly didn’t expect the challenges ahead of him. The pandemic and the police killings caused him to stretch and learn and work very hard. Unlike many of our city officials, Devin rose to the task and is…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN On Thursday morning, June 3, my neighbor texted me. She said they were opening up the streets at George Floyd Square!! And Agape guys were helping them. I already knew that Agape, a community organization committed to the well-being of young Black men and made up of…
