BY ELINA KOLSTAD Homeless encampments are popping up in more and more Minneapolis Parks. One of these sites was just bulldozed by the city in Powderhorn Park, where the phenomenon began over a month ago. To be clear, the city left one of the two encampments in the park in…
BY ED FELIEN They’ve pretty clearly laid out their battle plan for the next months leading to the election. A sympathetic police force will say it can’t keep order and protect federal buildings and monuments, and we’ll have to rely on federal assistance. Erik Prince is coordinating the operations. He’s the one recruiting…
BY DAVE TILSEN Dateline: Monday, July 20, Powderhorn Sanctuary, 14th Ave. Front loaders are removing the tents of the homeless campers. Police are forming a line. This is being streamed live by Unicorn Riot, and hundreds of supporters arrive. People are angry. They say the arrestees are Indigenous people on…
BY ED FELIEN The dream is over. The East Powderhorn Sanctuary has been cleared. The campers evacuated. Protesters were arrested and then released. It ended the way it always ends, according to longtime homeless advocates. Some criminal elements start to get violent. The camp becomes unsafe. And the authorities have…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE As we have been doing since March, this week’s focus on St. Paul’s Highland Park will be a geographical guide to services available and businesses open (or not) due to COVID-19. In addition, we will talk a bit about libraries, and a bit about homelessness in…
Michelle Obama’s school nutrition standards upheld It’s a rather fantastic idea, but then there is much fantasy about what the government does. It seems our president has rolled back legislation having to do with school nutrition. A federal court has struck down a 2018 Department of Agriculture rule that reversed…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Compared to the parts of South Minneapolis I usually frequent, the area around Lake Nokomis and southward into Richfield looks placid and untouched. I’m sure there is trauma there too, but at least there weren’t as many fires or as much looting. If you get to…
BY KAY SCHROVEN Shopping carts, clotheslines, outdoor cooking grills, mattresses, blankets, coolers, lawn chairs, backpacks, boxes of diapers, baby strollers piled high with supplies, wheelchairs, bikes, tikes on trikes, people in swimsuits lining up to shower in the facility provided by NECHAMA (the Jewish disaster response organization) and tents of…
The memories and questions of history The title of the book is provocative: “To End All Wars,” and the accolades found on the book’s cover from other writers convinced me I should read it. I didn’t read it all in one day, but I tried. I thought it might be…
BY ED FELIEN Terrance Franklin Jamar Clark Thurman Blevins Travis Jordan TerranceFranklin: The city just agreed to pay $795,000 to the surviving family of Terrance Franklin rather than contest the wrongful death suit against MPD Officer Lucas Peterson. Peterson claimed in his police report that Terrance…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE I encountered the above description of this time of this year and I … couldn’t really do better, so I’m “borrowing” it. Actually, things look a lot more normal on Cedar Avenue than most places in South Minneapolis, although nowhere is immune to the changes. Which…
BY DAVID TILSEN In response to the groundswell of action, grief and political pressure, the Minneapolis City Council has finally decided that it must do something about the Minneapolis Police. The City Council has proposed two things. First, the council has committed to do a deep community engagement on what…
BY TONY BOUZA Throughout my involvement in policing—since 1953—I’ve been periodically reminded that every police department harbors a few rotten apples and, if we can only excise them, the entire barrel can be rescued. An attractive notion, but flawed. Those apples are the alpha males that set the tone and…
BY KAY SCHROVEN Since early June, we have new neighbors in Powderhorn Park. The media called it “the tent encampment,” described then as over 100 (and growing) homeless people living in tents, some evicted from the local Sheraton Hotel where they were being temporarily housed, post protests/riots and the associated…
BY KATHRYN KELLY The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board published the results of their survey for the Hiawatha Golf Course preferred plan. The responses have been compiled to try and quantify the results. This assessment is a best effort considering the vast variety of responses. The top 11 responses were:…
