Ram Dass passing

BY LAURIE SAVRAN When Ram Dass (formerly known as Richard Alpert, sometimes known as RD), died on Dec. 22, 2019, at age 88 in Maui, I had recently returned from Maui, where I had gone to attend a retreat with Ram Dass entitled “Open Your Heart in Paradise.” People considered…

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Changes at El Colegio

El Colegio is a small public high school in Minneapolis (Bloomington Avenue and 42nd Street) that has been serving students in English and Spanish since 2000. In 2019, Executive Director Norma C. Garcés was awarded a Bush Fellowship, so she will be leaving the school to pursue further education, while…

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December schedule changes, and new projects

BY JOHN CHARLES WILSON Metro Transit’s last round of schedule changes took effect on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019. Those changes were mostly minor adjustments. The biggest change was the reopening of 8th Street in downtown Minneapolis. The following is a list of changes that affect the Southside Pride readership area:…

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Millennials Gone Mad

BY ED FELIEN What happened? There are revolutionary changes happening in Minneapolis, and I don’t remember voting on them. Robespierre had more of a mandate for his Reign of Terror than Bender and Frey do for their changes that are transforming Minneapolis. The city’s so-called “Inclusionary Zoning” has marked the…

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More cops, less hope

BY LEX HORAN, RECLAIM THE BLOCK The Minneapolis City Council on Wednesday, Dec. 11, approved a budget that gives the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) an $8.2 million raise, bringing its budget to a total of more than $193 million, while allocating comparatively insignificant funds to preventative and public health programs…

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Celebrating 100 Years of Polly Mann

BY LUCIA WILKES SMITH A joyful party at the Kenwood Isles condominiums in Minneapolis celebrated Polly Mann’s 100 years on a November afternoon with live music, sing-along and rap songs, original poems, pretty flowers, laughter, foods, bubbly beverages and memories. There were SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER fortune cookies, sugar cookies…

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‘Git outta here!’

BY ED FELIEN That’s what it sounds like, “Git outta here!” The Planning Commission last month just approved zoning changes that will ultimately mean the removal of communities of color and those of us who live in the inner city in affordable housing and replace us with Young Urban Professionals…

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Redemption

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE This holiday season, I am contemplating redemption. I am initially inspired by a nontraditional modern Christmas carol by Bruce Cockburn, dating from an album released in the early 1990s, “Cry of a Tiny Babe.” The chorus proclaims, “Redemption rips through the surface of time in the…

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Prospects for Minneapolis high school hockey

BY TYLER SYNKIEW After graduating 10 seniors in a 9-13-3 2018-2019 season, the Minneapolis boys’ hockey team looks to refocus for the 2019-2020 season. Despite graduating nearly half their varsity team last year, the boys still have 11 upperclassmen this season, including six seniors, many of whom have a couple…

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Stopping the blockbusters

BY EARL NETWAL Prior to being elected to the City Council in 1973, I was an elected and active member of the Minneapolis Model City Planning and Policy Board, which was made up of citizen representatives elected by precincts within the Model City area (a broad area roughly between Cedar…

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