Ed Felien

Columns by Ed Felien

Ed has been the owner and editor of Southside Pride since 1991, writing articles and essays.


Commitment to Change!

BY ED FELIEN A super-majority of the Minneapolis City Council issued a Housing First statement of principles and objectives. Finland has a policy of Housing First as a solution to homelessness: first, get them a safe place to stay, then get them a job, and then make them pay rent. Here…

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Vote Nov. 5

BY ED FELIEN Another month, another probable attempt on Trump’s life. Vance said: “I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this crap out,” “the left needs to tone down the rhetoric”????? The Trump campaign is built on Fear…

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Jason Chavez is trying to save Agate Housing

BY ED FELIEN The City Council voted 10 to 3 on Sept. 20 to provide a $1.5 million dollar grant to Agate Housing. Chavez wrote: “Agate Housing and Services recently announced the closing of its 42-bed shelter program and 95-bed board and lodge program at 510 South 8th St despite…

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TMORA’s Magic Mushrooms

BY ED FELIEN The Museum of Russian Art has a charming exhibit of watercolors by Alexander Viazmensky in one of its backrooms. It’s all mushrooms. His detail, down to the specks of dirt clinging to the roots, is astonishing. The flyer advertising the show has on its cover (unsurprisingly) a photo of…

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Todd’s Trial

BY ED FELIEN About the middle of September, Todd Lipelt got called to serve as a juror in Hennepin County District Court. It was a horrific experience. He was rejected for a trial the first day, but he got picked for one the second day. The case was the State of…

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Remembering Joe Selvaggio

BY ED FELIEN I confess, I always kind of resented Joe Selvaggio. My best friend for almost twenty years, Tony Bouza, always said that I was his second favorite hero. I would ask him, “Who’s first?” He would always answer, “Joe Selvaggio.” But I had been publishing Southside Pride for…

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Homeless beggars

BY ED FELIEN You see them standing by the side of the road and your heart breaks. They are begging for money, for shelter, for food. And, maybe, sometimes, they are begging for money for drugs. It’s gotten out of control at 46th and Hiawatha. Nicole M wrote on Nextdoor, “My…

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Cornbread Released!

BY ED FELIEN An international contingent was at the Cedar Cultural Center on August 16 to celebrate the release of a new album and a new biography of Cornbread by Andrea Swensson, Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs, and Salvation of Cornbread Harris. Jimmy Jam Harris from LA, US Senator Amy…

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The Trail of Tears and Sderot

BY ED FELIEN The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement of the Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations between 1830 and 1850. 60,000 people were forced to leave their ancestral homes. Many thousands died on the trail that led from Georgia and South Carolina more than 800 miles…

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What Trumpers got right

BY ED FELIEN First, what they got wrong. This whole white male privilege thing is way out of date. The last time that worked was before the Civil War. Is the antebellum South the “Great” era that Trump says he can “Make” for “America Again”? Birth of a Nation, D…

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Retraction and apology to Bob Kroll

BY ED FELIEN, EDITOR We received this correspondence: “Dear Mr. Felien: “I write to request that you issue a retraction and apology for the false statements about our client, Bob Kroll, in your June 4, 2024, article titled “Trump and the threat of civil war.” In this article, you made…

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Tommy Goodroad and The Highway Birds

Tommy Goodroad BY ED FELIEN Tommy Goodroad and The Highway Birds made it home last month. On Thursday night, July 11, they played songs from their new album, See You Around, at 7th Street Entry. Pictured above is Peter Briggs on electric steel guitar, Tommy Goodroad on guitar, George Adzick…

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Nero of the Northland

BY ED FELIEN Instead of burning Roman slums to make way for the Via del Corso to the Colosseum, Michael Schroeder, the planning “genius” of the Park Board, is flooding homes in South Minneapolis to make room for his vision of a swamp. If Nero could be credited with the…

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