BY RICHARD TAYLOR When the Minneapolis YWCA rammed through its pay-to-park scheme at the Midtown YWCA, did it omit anything that might be viewed as stretching the truth? Yes! First, CEO Frías justified the pay-to-park gated system on one reason only: non-members were depriving members of parking spots. What she…
BY TONY BOUZA Today I am 90. No, it’s not my birthday, only one of 365 days. Never thought (like death) it’d happen to me. And the point? Only a few ignorant musings. I am more convinced than ever that I am but a worm on the planet, along with…
BY ASHLEY UNDERCOVER I am writing this column at 10 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018. I have a rather disturbing report. Unbeknownst to me, the spirit guide sent me into a mental health unit for senior citizens at a local MN hospital. To protect everyone’s identity, even the guilty,…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The above is the title and call line of a political ballad of 1866 written by then popular but now largely forgotten composer and lyricist Henry Clay Work. You may be familiar with one or two of his better-received works, either 1865’s triumphant martial air “Marching…
BY MICHAEL LIVINGSTON The students in my college classes do not remember a time when the U.S. was not at war in the Middle East. Born in 1999, they were two years old when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and four when the U.S. invaded Iraq. All they know is endless…
BY ED FELIEN On Sept. 9 I sent the following email to Superintendent of Parks Mary Merrill: Hi Superintendent Merrill, Would you please direct staff to remove the boulder dam/weir under the 30th Avenue Footbridge that is obstructing the flow of Minnehaha Creek, as indicated in the Barr Engineering study.…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Mexican-American culture is osmosing through South Minneapolis for sure, and it’s in glorious evidence along 42nd Street. Just up the hill from El Colegio, a publicly supported charter high school “rooted in the Latinx experience,” there are two small businesses across the street from each other…
BY ED FELIEN I loved the façade on the Modern Cleaners building ever since I first saw it as a small child looking out the window of a Chicago Avenue bus. It seemed so sleek, so smooth, so modern. The architectural style is Streamline Moderne, a final flourish of Art…
resistance persistence BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE There have been a few victories in the resistance in the past month. Before the arraignment hearing (Sept. 27) came around for the group of immigrant rights protestors known as #ICEbreakers18, the court dismissed all the charges on Sept. 9. That was one victory.…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Midtown Global Market is coming into its 14th year of existence. There are a few businesses that were there at the very start and are still there. Pham’s Deli is one of them. Although I have been going to MGM for shopping or a quick meal…
BY JOHN KARRIGAN Well, I haven’t been to the park much lately but I have been entertained by the avian visitors to the backyard. On Labor Day, Sept. 3, I saw a Cooper’s Hawk perched on the short fence on the north edge of the backyard. I’ve been wondering what…
Dear Editor, I am looking for an apology from the YWCA about their treatment of members and senior citizens. This is not about Ms. Frias getting an apology from Doris Overby, keeping in mind that Doris was the person harassed by the YWCA’s employees. I think the entire incident was…
In a letter dated Aug. 3, 2018, Minneapolis YWCA management, without prior consultation with members, decreed that it would impose a pay-to-park system with gates to go into effect in September at the Midtown Y. Parking had always been free at Midtown, one of its attractions. Although the letter was…
BY ED FELIEN In late winter of 1976 I got a call from Fran Shor, a friend who was teaching at Wayne State University. He said they were hiring faculty for a new program, The Weekend College for Working Adults. It was an adult education program teaching college classes to…
BY ED FELIEN That’s what they call it. The people living in tents along the sound-wall along Hiawatha from Franklin to 22nd Street call their village “The Wall of Forgotten Natives. FDR in a radio address in 1932 introduced his New Deal programs to help “the forgotten man at the…
