BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Fortunes on the part of Chicago Avenue south of 44th Street have been varied during the COVID-19 pandemic and the period of civil unrest in late May through mid-June. This area is mainly residential, with a concentrated commercial hub between 46th and 49th Streets. There is…
BY KATHRYN KELLY What are we getting with the new Minneapolis Park Board plan for the Hiawatha Golf Course property? *The Disappearing Park – The neighbors who want to keep their little park at 19th Avenue South and East 43rd Street will have to take up golf, because it will…
‘Black Boy’ by Richard Wright The first 24 years of my life were spent in the south—that is, the southern part of the United States: Arkansas. In our household of nine, we always had one Black servant. We called her the maid, but she really was the “jill of all…
BY ED FELIEN Around 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 23, Kenosha police officers responded to a reported domestic when a woman called saying her boyfriend was present and was court-ordered not to be on the premises. Officer Rusten Sheskey and his partner tried to detain Jacob Blake. He resisted arrest. They…
BY ELINA KOLSTAD We just went through a second stint of authoritarian lockdown in the form of curfews declared and the National Guard occupying our streets. Many will say that misinformation was at fault here. A Black suspect was said to have been shot by police. Riots broke out. The…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Since May 25, 2020, Chicago Avenue in South Minneapolis will forever be associated in history with the “George Floyd uprising.” In fact, the exact location where the murder of Floyd occurred, 38th Street and Chicago Avenue South, is unofficially renamed George Floyd Square (and making that…
BY ABĒ R. LEVINE Carmen Means rallies the crowd at the “Peoples’ Press Conference” on Saturday, Aug. 15, at the George Floyd Memorial site in front of Cup Foods. Means, along with memorial caretakers, have submitted demands to Mayor Frey in response to George Floyd’s murder. Five women organizers who’ve…
BY KAY SCHROVEN Gardens are growing in four Minneapolis parks and others are in the works, including Powderhorn Park. If you haven’t completed the Powderhorn Park Community Garden Survey, please do so now. Nearly 100 responses have already come in. Your input will help the garden planners know just which…
BY KAY SCHROVEN Powderhorn is not the only neighborhood in the Twin Cities recovering from a unique summer, but surely we’ve had our share of challenges: protests/riots, destruction, violence, including the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the MPD, unemployment and hundreds of unsheltered neighbors living in beautiful…
BY TONY BOUZA “What do you have to lose?” Thus Spake Zarathustra! Well, Sarah Palin, of revered memory, might have responded: “How’s it working out for ya?” The Wall—ah yes, a metaphor for all that is good and wholesome about this great country. China has its Great Wall—why shouldn’t we…
BY DAVE TILSEN The burning and looting is terrible. It alienates the workers, it causes pain and suffering to many, it makes life in the city more difficult, and it increases support for the police. These are questions that dominate all conversations. The burning and looting does amplify Trump’s messaging,…
BY DEB TAYLOR Unprecedented levels of loneliness and isolation have swept our communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially affecting seniors, the most vulnerable to this persistent virus. The threat of this virus has kept older adults quarantined and distanced from their loved ones. “I haven’t hugged my kids and grandkids…
Why were there riots in Minneapolis? The New Yorker magazine occasionally runs an article that is a barn burner. Years ago, it published a long article by John Hersey about the bombing of Hiroshima that fit the same category. There’s no way I could do justice to another New Yorker…
I have rented out bedrooms in my home to single women for more than seven years. My rents hover right around $500 per month, with one very large bedroom going for $525, and the tiny one with a balcony looking over the backyard for $475. This includes utilities except for…
BY ED FELIEN Is the nightmare over? Have the plague and pestilence gone? Have we buried the dead? No, the nightmare is not over. The madman still runs the White House. The plague and pestilence have not gone because there is no leader to rid the land of plague and…
