Block clubs make a difference

BY DORIS OVERBY Our neighborhood block club has been celebrating National Night Out (NNO) and other events together for nearly 30 years. What hasn’t changed Since our block club was established in the early 1990s, some important things haven’t changed. We know our neighbors by their first names. We know…

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Cleaning up phosphorus in Lake Hiawatha

BY KATHRYN KELLY Lake Hiawatha is impaired with phosphorus. Much discussion has happened over the past few years about how to resolve this issue. What is the solution? There are several possible solutions: (1) implement natural wetlands (called constructed wetlands), (2) control the sources of excess phosphorus, and/or (3) phosphorus…

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The fight isn’t over

BY JOE HESLA AND ALICIA SMITH MURC (Minneapolis United for Rent Control) You may have noticed, there is a big conversation and fight for rent control going on in the Twin Cities. In St. Paul, renters and organizers collected nearly 10,000 signatures to put a tenant-centered rent control policy on…

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The problem with the airport

BY JIM SPENSLEY The “MSP airport noise problem” isn’t a real problem as much as it is a sign the airport is at the center of life-threatening health and safety problems. An apt health analogy is that hearing airport noise is like seeing the light from a forest fire on…

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New beginnings for In the Heart of the Beast

BY DAVID TILSEN Over 45 years ago, several of us from the Alive and Trucking Theater gathered in a small apartment in Phillips. We were called by Sandy Spieler and Ray St. Louis to discuss a vision. They believed that regular festivals helped make communities strong, and that South Minneapolis…

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Why I love cops

BY TONY BOUZA One of the many flaws I’ve nurtured over what seems to have evolved into an interminable stay on the planet is a serious predilection for criticism. I’m always going on about this idiot or that fool. Surely I can’t be infallible on the issues. And I am…

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Vote No!

BY ED FELIEN Before there was a city of Minneapolis, there was the town of St. Anthony on the east bank of the Mississippi. Its Main Street was bustling with a thriving lumber trade. In 1861 when they incorporated, they looked at the federal system of government in Washington, D.C.…

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Saving the Earth

BY TRISH STACHELSKI On July 15, I attended the Women for the River’s Rally at Shell River Campground in Shell City in Wadena County, Minn., where Winona LaDuke and her organization Honor the Earth have been camped since the beginning of summer. All people were invited to participate in a…

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