BY ELINA KOLSTAD April has finally broken through the snowpack in Minneapolis; in a similar way signs of hope are sprouting up in a political system still recovering from the regressive policies of Trump and his MAGA movement. I have been proud to see Minnesota making national news. First when…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE South 34th Avenue functions as a sort of Main Street for the tight-knit but diverse community around Lake Nokomis. The pandemic and economic disruption caused some closings but storefronts at the 34th Avenue and 50th Street hub and surrounding areas don’t stay vacant for long. Five…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Boludo El 38 Spring has come to East 38th Street! East 38th Street stretches from Nicollet Avenue to Mississippi River Boulevard, but we’re going to start just a tiny bit west of there with Boludo, the Argentinian restaurant taking the local food scene by storm. Boludo…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Spring is coming on for real now; my allergies tell me so. Despite allergies and other struggles, spring is very beautiful along Minnehaha Avenue this year. It’s culturally blooming, lush with arts, community-building, and the fusion of the two. In addition to our old favorites like…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Spring thoughts A project a lot of people are undertaking this spring is to make their home as close to zero waste as possible. It makes a lot of sense. News from the ever-growing Great Pacific Garbage Patch is troubling, Minneapolis environmentalists are pressuring Hennepin County…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Openings and closings • A restaurant known as Juniper in its development stage was previously announced for the former Common Roots site at Lyndale and 26th Street. At the last minute, they changed the name to Hi Flora! due to an older place in Lanesboro called…
BY DANIEL COLTEN SCHMIDT, EAST PHILLIPS RESIDENT A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and a society is only as prosperous as its most marginalized community. East Phillips Neighborhood Institute’s (EPNI) plan for a cooperatively owned indoor urban farm, massive solar array, community space and low-income housing…
BY ULLA NILSEN, MN350 On April 19, the city of Minneapolis released a new 10-year climate action plan for public comment. Why should I care, you ask? Without a city-coordinated program, most households will be unable to access the $14,000 of federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding. This means they…
BY STEPHANIE FOX It’s another frigid Monday afternoon in mid-March and the lines of people are already beginning to form outside of New Creations Ministries, a South Minneapolis church at the corner of 51st Street and 13th Avenue. It’s an hour before the food shelf opens to the public. Senior…
BY ED FELIEN The name Ukraine probably comes from the Slavic language, meaning borderland. Greek and Roman historians write about Slavic peoples growing wheat and riding horses across the wide steppe or prairie. The Eurasian Steppe reached from Ukraine to northern China. It was a wide highway and open invitation for the…
BY ED FELIEN On March 7, the city of Minneapolis released an 86-page study of the riots that followed the murder of George Floyd. The study says what most government studies say: we need more studies and we need more bureaucracy. It’s called, “Protecting What Matters,” and it seems that what…
BY CAM GORDON The struggle for racial equity within our city government has suffered another setback. As of March 13, Tyeastia Green, the director of the recently elevated Department of Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, no longer works for the city of Minneapolis. In a memo-style report that she sent…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The ongoing fight against fracking, pipelines and all extractive industries We lost the battle if not the war on Line 3. It’s done, it’s dusted and it’s leaking into groundwater even as you read this. (See tinyurl.com/55mjebse for reporting on the 153 cases of pollution control…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Lake Street rebuilding and revival Spring is a good time to talk about Lake Street. Lake Street started rebuilding in the midst of the pandemic from the destruction wrought by the anger unleashed in the George Floyd uprising. But it was slow at first. It’s stronger…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Spring 2023 dawns on a reinvigorated Chicago Avenue at 48th Street and the southward stretch. There are a couple of new incoming businesses, there are some longtime stalwarts thriving once again, there is a lively sidewalk culture, and there’s even a new transit option from Metro…
