BY ED FELIEN “Dear landlord Please don’t put a price on my soul” –Bob Dylan, 1967 In 1974 the vacancy rate for rental housing in Minneapolis was 3%. Rents had gone up 35% on the West Bank in the city-supported Cedar-Riverside Towers and 15% around Loring Park. Poor people were…
BY DEANNA BOSS I have the unique blessing of being optimistic. Sometimes it’s hard to fight the negative, but I tend to look at the bright side of things and assume the best. It’s getting harder to do that when I look at the water situation in Minneapolis. When I…
We need to convince Al Franken to run for re-election to his seat in the November special election. He is eligible and neither his resignation nor the allegations that precede his re-election to that seat will allow the Senate to exclude him from representing the good people of Minnesota, should…
BY ED FELIEN What is this guy thinking? Raj Bunnag makes monsters come alive and leap off the page at you, and he uses pen and ink, black on white printmaking and wood block carvings to create a horror that seems lurking behind the public manners of everyday life. The…
BY POLLY MANN The New York Times headline of Dec. 14 read, “The Pentagon Is Not a Sacred Cow.” Of course it isn’t, and our readers know it and so do we, but for the Times to acknowledge that is like finding a shoveled path to navigate after a winter…
At its Dec. 2 General Membership Meeting, Our Revolution Twin Cities agreed to six priorities for the new City Council: 1. Policing: Make $50 million of the police budget contingent on them voluntarily adopting a civilian review board to review cases of misconduct whose recommendations would be implemented in every…
Anti-Islamic, anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiment is out of control. Massive deportations and ICE raids continue. The federal government is planning to build a new immigrant detention center in Minnesota. Against this backdrop, the One Voice Mixed Chorus, Minnesota’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allies chorus, has created “Sanctuary,” a concert…
Editor’s note: An article by Joe Selvaggio, founder of Project for Pride in Living and MicroGrants, was published in the Nov. Nokomis and Dec. Phillips/Powderhorn and Riverside editions suggesting ways to solve the problem of poverty in Minnesota. Elaine Klaassen, managing editor of Southside Pride, responded to the article in…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Minnehaha Communion Lutheran Church (MCLC) has already been for years a place where non-members and strangers come to be buried and married (same-sex couples included). And for many years there have been regular AA, Al-Anon and Adoption Support groups that meet at the church. Community groups sometimes…
BY ED FELIEN Shocked! South Minneapolis was shocked to learn last month that Karen Clark and Susan Allen have both decided not to seek re-election in 2018. Clark was first elected in 1980. She’s served 19 terms. The Farmer-Labor Association decided to challenge the incumbent South Minneapolis State Senator Steve…
I am sitting here in South Minneapolis on the darkest day of the year, Dec. 21, Winter Solstice. I am depressed and sad but not because of Seasonal Affective Disorder. The darkness represents an ignorance that is invading our city and our state (not to mention the country) right now.…
BY JOHN KARRIGAN Finally! It’s winter! Really winter! With a string of sub-zero temperatures and wind chills! Would you rather have this bitter cold, or the record-breaking 50+ inches of snow dumped on Erie, Pa., on Dec. 25 and 26, over a span of 30 hours? On several occasions, I’ve…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Dust to dust. Whatever. Life is hard. Fires, storms, early deaths, accidents, failures, let-downs, rejections, abandonments, wars. Life goes on. We make our chips and dip, fire up the pickup truck, shingle the roof and sew our wedding dresses. We still smile at the sunrise and hold hands at…
BY ED FELIEN First, let’s look at the facts. Leanne Tweeden wrote to Al Franken: “You forcibly kissed me without my consent, grabbed my breasts while I was sleeping and had someone take a photo of you doing it.” Tweeden agreed to rehearse a skit with Franken in which he…
BY ED FELIEN Jews were always revolting. When they revolted against the Persian King Nebuchadnezzar around 600 BC he carried the leaders of the rebellion off to Babylon. In exile for 70 years they studied in one of the great libraries of the ancient world and came up with their…
