The Cities Category Archive: Minneapolis

Minneapolis cemetery hosts live show

Posted at 10:20 PM on May 21, 2012 by Jon Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: History, Minneapolis

(Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery on Lake Street in south Minneapolis; Image: Jon Collins)

In the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis, there's a gated community of about 22,000. The area is green and quiet, despite the roar of traffic on nearby Lake Street.

Many of the residents came from Scandinavia. But there are also quite a few African-Americans. There's even a Latvian Jewish Socialist.

Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery is the oldest surviving cemetery in the city. The first burial was in 1853. It's also the only Minnesota cemetery listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Friends of the Cemetery has been raising money for about a decade to rehab the cemetery's big iron fence. They still have about half a million dollars to go. Ironically, one of the group's most successful fundraising and outreach tactics has been to host concerts and other events that bring people inside the confines of the old gates.

"It's particularly important, for this one, because it's a not very active, if you will, cemetery," Friends of the Cemetery's resident historian Sue Hunter Weir said. "But it is a very, very important piece of the city's history."

(Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers' resident historian Sue Hunter Weir; Image: Jon Collins)

The Friends of the Cemetery group is organizing their second ever outdoor concert this summer. The Duluth band Low is headlining the show in front of the caretaker's cottage on June 9.

When they first organized an outdoor concert last year, some in the neighborhood balked at the ghoulishness of a gathering in a cemetery.

"People ask me all the time, 'Aren't you scared, don't you believe in ghosts?' I'm like, 'No,'" Hunter Weir said. "These were nice people, what am I supposed to be worried about here."

The outdoor concert events purposely point back to earlier times, when cemeteries were seen as a refuge from the chaos of city life.

"This was the place you could go for quiet reflection and just to gather your thoughts when there was the industrial revolution," said Aaron Hanauer, a city planner and volunteer. "This cemetery was placed back in the 1850s in a place at the edges of Minneapolis, and the city just continued to grow and it just overtook the cemetery."

Last year's concert, which organizers said was both a financial and social success, featured Minneapolis songwriter Jeremy Messersmith, who lives across the street.

"It felt like a real, 'Hey, we all live in this neighborhood,' and if you don't, 'Welcome to our neighborhood,'" Messersmith said. "To see a bunch of little kids dancing around tombstones was just great. It just felt fantastic and primal."

That sort of inclusive spirit was evident from the cemetery's beginnings, said Hunter Weir.

"It was never racially segregated," Hunter Weir said. "Never."

The cemetery's founder, Martin Layman, came from a strong anti-slavery church, which is why many African-Americans, like Toussaint L'Ouverture Grey, are buried there. Toussaint was the son of free black settlers in the area, Emily and Ralph Grey. The Greys played a major role in an early court case about slavery in Minnesota.

There are a few other big names that found their final rest in the Phillips neighborhood. But you'll find most prominent Minneapolitans of the past century buried at Lakewood Cemetery in the city's lake district, with its polished architecture and ambitious monuments. In Pioneers and Soldiers, by contrast, only one-in-ten graves still has a marker. Many of the wood and iron markers have disintegrated due to weather, vandalism or pollution.

For Hunter Weir, it's the Phillips neighborhood, which itself contains a thriving working class immigrant community, that inspires her efforts to show younger generations the cemetery and teach them about the people buried there.

"I'm absolutely fascinated by who we leave out of history," Hunter Weir said. "The way I always describe this particular cemetery is: these are the people who quite literally built the city of Minneapolis."

(A cleanup of the cemetery in 1925; Image: Minnesota Historical Society)

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Mpls meters double as bike racks

Posted at 2:04 PM on May 18, 2012 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

(photo/City of Minneapolis)
Don't worry, the city of Minneapolis is not requiring cyclists to feed the new, fancy parking meters. The point of this photo released by the city today is to show the loops around the base of the meters. The metal rings are being added in order to increase the amount of rack space. Each retrofitted meter can accomodate two bikes.

This photo was taken in my neighborhood -- along Lyndale Ave. near Lake Street. On summertime weekends and nights, all the bike racks and 'no parking' signs are often full of bicycles. That will especially be the case this Sunday during the Lyn/Lake festival. Of course, if you use a cable lock, not a Kryptonite-like model, you have the option of attaching your bike to trees or lampposts or any other immovable piece of infrastructure available.

Local businesses and neighborhood groups pay for half the cost of retrofitting the meters with the metal loops. The city pays for the other half. So far, city officials say about 80 of these are designated for the Lyndale/Lake/Uptown area and more are in the works for other parts of the city.

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The bain and blessing of surface parking lots

Posted at 3:20 PM on May 17, 2012 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Livability, Minneapolis

Welcome to my downtown Minneapolis neighborhood in a photo from 56 years ago, courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Surface parking lots are nothing new.

A Google Maps photo of this Warehouse District block shows a building has sprouted there.

But the Google photo also shows a breathtaking array of newer downtown surface parking lots.

How many? An estimate was floated over libations the other night with my friend Bill Clements, a former Finance and Commerce newspaper reporter who studied the question.

The answer? Bill's estimate, calculated a few years ago, is that a third of downtown Minneapolis is devoted to surface parking.

You don't need to take Bill's word for it. Google, "downtown Minneapolis." Zoom in a bit and count 'em. An amazing number of blocks are devoted to parking gas burners.

An excellent piece of reporting on the issue is here.

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City aims for June reopening of Sabo bridge

Posted at 10:40 AM on May 16, 2012 by Brandt Williams (2 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

The Sabo bridge may be open to pedestrian and bike traffic starting June 4. That's according to Minneapolis Public Works Director Steve Kotke, who offered a very brief update to members of the city council yesterday.

"I'd mentioned to you at the last council meeting that I was shooting for - my goal was to have the bridge open by Memorial [Day] weekend," said Kotke. "I am not going to meet that."

Kotke said the city is still two to three weeks away from finding out what caused a pair of cables to fall from the bridge in February. He didn't offer an estimate of how long repairs will take.

(MPR photo/Matt Sepic)

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Minneapolis moving toward single-sort recycling

Posted at 4:38 PM on May 15, 2012 by Jon Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Minneapolis

(Image: City of Minneapolis)

Minneapolis has offered household recycling for the last 23 years. But for at least the last decade, recycling rates in the city have been stagnant, at around 18 percent.

That relatively low rate of recycling is partly due to the city's complex sorting scheme. Residents divide recyclables according to nine different categories and place them into separate bags for bi-weekly pickup.

But that sorting requirement might be thrown out.

The Minneapolis City Council's Transportation and Public Works Committee voted Tuesday to start shifting the city's recycling program to a single-sort collection. That means residents will be able to put all their recyclable materials into one container.

The city hopes to increase the rate of recycling in the city by 60 percent with the new system.

Council Member Elizabeth Glidden said she's heard from constituents about the city's recycling program since she took office in 2005.

"It's hard for me to express how excited I am about this recommendation," Glidden said. "I've had residents who, frankly, are angry that we don't have a system that is more simple, that encourages more recycling."

Consultants from Michigan-based Recycling Resources System outlined the pros and cons of different recycling programs. The consultants found that moving to single-sort recycling would decrease costs and increase recycling rates (see PDF).

Glidden told MPR News that the consultants also considered whether the system could add organics recycling, such as food and yard waste, to the single-sort recycling services in the future.

The Department of Public Works will return to the city council with financial and educational proposals to implement the system early this summer. It's expected the city will need to invest quite a bit in capital costs. New trucks are at least $150,000 each. But the bigger expense would be new recycling carts for homeowners, which could set the city back a minimum of $6.8 million, according to the report.

Minneapolis Director of Public Works Steven Kotke told MPR News that the city is trying to push single-sort recycling forward so that it can meet sustainability goals set by the county. By 2020, Hennepin County wants Minneapolis to achieve a recycling goal of 35 percent. The city receives a $850,000 county grant that's tied to changing to a more effective recycling program.

The recommendation to switch to single-sort recycling is expected to be heard by the full City Council on May 25. Kotke said the program could be on the streets by next year.

Minneapolisrecycling

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Maine a preview of MN's marriage vote?

Posted at 7:00 PM on May 11, 2012 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts , Livability, Marriage amendment, Minneapolis, Politics, Religion

Anyone interested in Minnesota's vote on a constitutional amendment defining marriage this November will find the documentary Question One intriguing.

Filmmakers Joe Fox and James Nubile got extraordinary behind-the-scenes access to both sides of the debate over Maine's 2009 referendum on marriage. In an interview from his office in New York, Fox explained he "wanted to tell the human story of the people caught up in the fight that would change their lives."

Fox will be in Minneapolis for screenings of the film May 14-19 at 7 p.m. at the Mall of America Theatre as part of the Twin Cities Film Festival.

For three months, the film crew embedded "war-room style" as Maine voters considered whether to repeal a state law that had legalized same sex marriage. (Spoiler alert: Maine voters repealed the law, but it's headed for a rematch this November.)

So what are the lessons for Minnesota?

Fox says to expect the same playbook. The Yes on One campaign was run by Frank Schubert, a Sacramento-based PR consultant who also led successful campaigns for Prop 8 in California, in North Carolina last week and is working with Minnesota for Marriage.

Even knowing the outcome, the film is dramatic. Right up to the vote, the No on One side was polling ahead. Why did they lose? The No on One campaign director wonders in the aftermath, "People lied in the polling, and that's been eating away at me."

Looking back, Fox remembers a portend. In the phone bank room, Fox overheard Yes callers telling people who were supporting gay neighbors or friends that gays and lesbians already had their civil rights and they didn't need marriage. "When I heard those calls, there was something in my gut--and the person changed their mind during the course of the call--that I felt perhaps the No side would not win."

Lesson number 2:

"Never underestimate the passion of people," said Fox. "I went into this thinking the passions would mostly come from a religious base and yes, that was true, but the passions went beyond that," said Fox, reflecting on the winning side. "These were people that felt they were being ignored, their voices weren't being heard and there was a rage that was brewing inside of these people that their leaders weren't listening to them."

Lesson number 3:

Conversations matter. "I saw how people's minds were changed through one knock on the door and the hello that followed," said Fox. "You're not fighting an issue. It's all personal."

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911 calls from a very dark night

Posted at 3:21 PM on May 11, 2012 by Brandt Williams (1 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Crime, Minneapolis

Last week, a jury of seven men and five women found Amy Senser guilty of two out of three charges of criminal vehicular homicide. They reached those verdicts after nearly 20 hours of deliberation. However, right before they delivered the verdicts in court, the jury's forewoman, Shana Ford, wrote this note to judge Daniel Mabley.

Mabley did not allow it to be read in court.

I emailed Senser's defense lawyer, Eric Nelson, to ask him if he will use this when he files an appeal. Senser's defense was based on her contention that she didn't know she struck someone. Nelson wrote back and said he'll file post trial motions next week, but didn't say if the note from the jury will be grounds for an appeal.

The note is one of many pieces of evidence from the trial now available to the public. The court has also released copies of the 911 calls from three people who discovered 38-year-old Anousone Phanthavong's body, just minutes after he was struck by Senser. The collision occurred on the exit ramp from I-94 westbound to Riverside Ave. just after 11 p.m. on Aug. 23 last year.

The first call was made by Brian Gutterman, a registered nurse who on his way to work. He tells the operator it's very dark. There were no working overhead lights on the exit ramp that night. And Gutterman says he can't tell if the man lying on the ground is dead or alive. You can hear him call out to Phanthavong to make sure he's OK. Gutterman testified that he touched Phanthavong's body and it felt cool. He guessed Phanthavong had been dead for just a few minutes.

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The second call was made by Maria Moralez. Moralez became distressed when she began to realize that the man she saw lying on the exit ramp was probably dead.

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(Note: An earlier version of this post included Maria Moralez' phone number, which we edited out to protect her privacy.)

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Project Homeless Connect prepares to help nearly 2,000 people today

Posted at 6:00 AM on May 14, 2012 by Madeleine Baran (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis

If you're homeless and living in Minneapolis, you probably spend a lot of time traveling from one social services agency to another. There's the building where you apply for public housing, the clinic where you get your blood pressure checked, the welfare office where you drop off paperwork, the workforce center where you get help with a resume.

Navigating between all of those services can be exhausting, but twice a year, there's another option -- Project Homeless Connect.

The event opens today at 10:30 a.m. at the Minneapolis Convention Center. More than a thousand volunteers will be on hand to provide everything from dental exams to haircuts.

Organizers expect to serve nearly 2,000 people in less than six hours.

(The last Project Homeless Connect event at the Minneapolis Convention Center attracted nearly 1,800 guests and more than 1,000 volunteers. Photo courtesy of Project Homeless Connect.)

Matthew Ayres, project manager for the Office to End Homelessness, coordinates the event. His favorite moment, he told me, happens right when the doors open.

As hundreds of people enter, each one is greeted by a different volunteer who serves as a day-long guide through 300,000 square feet of services.

"It's like a treasure hunt," Ayres said. "People are just excited, and they're running, and they're doing stuff, and every time, I look around and I see people crying. It's just such an emotional thing to make this huge massive connection all at once."

Housing referrals, job search and training assistance, dental care, and state I.D. replacement are among the most popular services, he said.

Nearly one-third of participants walk in the door without an official I.D., he said. Volunteers can replace I.D.s on-site, and they offer vouchers to cover the cost of replacing birth certificates.

"It's folks that were escaping domestic violence and lost all their stuff, or their landlord evicted them and threw away all their stuff, or it just got lost or stolen," Ayres said.

(A man applies for a new I.D. at a Project Homeless Connect event in Dec. 2010 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Photo courtesy of Project Homeless Connect.)

A complete list of the services offered is available here.

Similar events are held throughout the state on different days throughout the year. The next St. Paul Homeless Connect is scheduled for June 19 at the St. Paul RiverCentre from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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Free museum pass program to end

Posted at 6:00 AM on May 12, 2012 by Jon Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts , Education, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

(The Museum Adventure Pass display at the East Lake library in Minneapolis.)

One patron wrote about her experience at the Hennepin History Museum's historic shoe exhibit. Another wrote that she planned a Russian-themed outing around a visit to the Museum of Russian Art, stopping first at Moscow on the Hill restaurant in St. Paul.

Those are only two stories of free visits to local museums and cultural centers posted by library patrons on the Museum Adventure Pass website. But after six years of distributing free passes to local museums at about 100 libraries in the Twin Cities metro area, the Museum Adventure Pass program is ending as of Labor Day.

Sally Lederer is the community relations manager for the Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA), which runs the program.

"We wanted the program to be a way to introduce library users to all these great programs in the state," Lederer said. "Fortunately for us, we have these generous cultural organizations that were willing to do this."

Lederer said many of the organizations didn't have an issue with the lack of revenue they earned from the program, but that others were hit hard by the recession. When the program started, 24 organizations took part. This year only 17 were participating.

A lot of money is at stake. In the last quarter of 2011, the program handed out 14,000 sets of free passes to the Minnesota Zoo. That's 28,000 admissions. Without the pass, an adult ticket to the zoo costs $25.75.

Hennepin History Museum Executive Director Jada Hansen said the program has been "phenomenal" for small organizations like hers.

"I know opinion really varies from small museum to large museum, but as a small institution, it literally doubled our attendance," Hansen said. "It's really improved our visibility, and now we have some people that will continue to come back."

The good news is that MELSA is working on a new program that will help library patrons explore local cultural institutions. Lederer said details of the new program should be out by the time the adventure pass program ends.

"Sometimes you get into the mode of rehashing each year the same thing you did the previous year," Lederer said. "This year we have to get a little more creative."

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Lutheran Catholic Frenemies?

Posted at 12:30 PM on May 4, 2012 by Sasha Aslanian (11 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Marriage amendment, Minneapolis, Religion

This weekend, the Minneapolis ELCA celebrates the installation of Ann Svennungsen as the new bishop of the largest Lutheran synod in the United States.

The Lutherans are pulling out all the glam for this event at Central Lutheran Church Sunday afternoon: pastors processing in red vestments, the St. Olaf College Choir and the Augsburg College Woodwind Quintet.

Dignitaries include the presiding Bishop of the ELCA, Mark Hanson, and a Lutheran Archbishop from Nigeria.

It will no longer, apparently, include Archbishop John Nienstedt, of the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Although his name was on the ELCA press release as an ecumenical guest, he cancelled his appearance on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Archdiocese confirmed the Archbishop had "a change in plans."

From reading Rose French's excellent piece in the Star Tribune last fall (Minnesota Bishops, Catholic, Lutheran share common ground), we know Catholic and Lutheran leaders have enjoyed a 35-year dialogue and friendship.

But they are also notably far apart on such issues as the ordination of women, and the marriage amendment on the November ballot which would define marriage as between one man and one woman. The Minneapolis ELCA voted to oppose the amendment, while the Catholic Bishops have made its passage a top political priority.

The Archbishop's no-show at Svennungsen's installation brings to mind an earlier chapter in Lutheran-Catholic relations.

In 1998, a tornado tore through St. Peter, Minnesota, destroying the Catholic Church of St. Peter.

(Photo of Catholic Church of St. Peter courtesy of St. Peter Kiwanis)

First Lutheran Church offered the use of its building for the two years it would take their Catholic neighbors to rebuild. First Lutheran administrator Paul Aasen recalled the deep friendship that grew between the two congregations. A sign was even erected out front, "First Lutheran Catholic Church", that Aasen said elicited some double-takes.

According to Aasen, Father Harry Behan, the Irish priest at St. Peter's, good-naturedly wished the Lutherans a "happy Reformation Sunday." Reformation Sunday marks Martin Luther's break with the Catholic Church nearly 500 years ago.

Father Behan and First Lutheran Pastor Mark Solyst held separate worship times for their flocks on Sunday mornings, but Maundy Thursday, Christ's Last Supper with his disciples, presented a special challenge. Both congregations were used to an evening service. According to a 2007 history of First Lutheran Church written by Donald Gustafson, "A logical but improbable solution was suggested--a joint Lutheran-Catholic communion!"

Mass with the Lutherans apparently proved too much for Behan's Bishop, Father John Nienstedt, then Bishop of New Ulm. Behan was reprimanded, and shipped off to serve two small parishes in the southwestern Minnesota. He's since retired in his native Ireland.

I emailed Behan to ask about Nienstedt's censure of his ecumenical work with the Lutherans. He wrote back:

"The people of St. Peter, in the aftermath of the tornadoes, prayed together, worked together, shared resources and worship spaces, cared together for those who lost property, their health and even a child, to such an extent that it was ecumenism in action. Many of the barriers between different churches disappeared and we were uplifted and joyful as a result. There are so many great stories from that period that 'that all may be one' (Ut unum sint) that we treasure the spiritual progress to this day. This was one of the silver linings in the tragedy that happened. I do not wish to speak about the differences with Bishop John Nienstedt except to say that although 'That all might be one' is his motto, he seemed to need to control everything rather than pastorally make the motto happen."

According to Archdiocese spokesman Jim Accurso, relations with the Lutherans are "good" and the Archbishop had another unspecified engagement.

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Minneapolis murder trial rallies transgender community

Posted at 4:00 AM on April 30, 2012 by Laura Yuen (9 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

The case of Chrishaun McDonald continues to build intrigue as her murder trial gets under way today.

Her defenders maintain the black transgender woman was protecting herself from a hate crime when she allegedly stabbed Dean Schmitz, 47, a white man from Richfield. National transgender-rights activists are in town today to talk about the significance of the case.

Local elected officials also have shown support for the 23-year-old McDonald, who was studying fashion at Minneapolis Community and Technical College and is known to friends as "CeCe." Minneapolis City Council Member Cam Gordon weighed in on his blog weeks ago, arguing that McDonald was targeted for her race and gender.

"It is unfortunate that in this case, as in so many, the hate crime itself appears to have been ignored," said Gordon.

McDonald said she was acting in self-defense after a friend in Schmitz' group hurled a glass at McDonald's face. She also maintains that the group taunted her and her friends with anti-gay and racist remarks.

And state Rep. Susan Allen, DFL-Minneapolis, has written Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, urging him to remember the "extenuating circumstances" of McDonald's race and transgender, which she said "have cast unique question marks" over the case.

But the details of what happened last June outside of the Schooner Tavern in Minneapolis remain in dispute. Despite pressure from LGBT groups to drop the charges, Freeman responded in a letter to McDonald supporters that the evidence will show murder was the appropriate charge. "Gender, race, sexual orientation and class are not part of the decision-making process," he said.

A hearing Friday hinted at the dueling narratives that will likely emerge during the trial. Hersch Izek, McDonald's attorney, said McDonald walked away from the scuffle, but Schmitz followed her to continue the fight.

Prosecutors aren't buying that story. "We don't believe the evidence will show Ms. McDonald walked away from anything," said assistant county attorney Amy Sweasy. "Ms. McDonald has given more versions of the events of that night than I can count."

McDonald told police that she took out some scissors to scare Schmitz, and he was mortally stabbed when he ran into them.

Another twist in the case came Friday as attorneys argued whether Judge Daniel Moreno should allow evidence of Schmitz' swastika tattoo on his chest. Prosecutors say it's not relevant.

But Izek countered that the tattoo represents Schmitz' "hate, violence and his attitude toward people of color and people who are different from him," he said. "CeCe is as different from Mr. Schmitz as anybody."

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Seeing the forest for the trees

Posted at 4:19 PM on April 27, 2012 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Minneapolis City Council member Diane Hofstede and state Rep. Bobby Joe Champion, center, share a shovel as they help plant the first of 3,100 boulevard trees to replace the damaged tree canopy in north Minneapolis. Last May's tornado downed about 2,400 boulevard trees and 3,425 park trees. Also joining in are City Council members Don Samuels and Barb Johnson and state Rep. Joe Mullery. Holding the tree is forestry worker Bee Yang. My colleague Laura Yuen took this photo April 9.

My little tree-hugging heart swelled yesterday when I arrived home.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board crews have planted new trees on the boulevard to replace the ones that died from some kind of bug.

Tomorrow, April 28, the non profit Tree Trust group will host two free workshops on proper tree planting and care 10 to 11 a.m., April 28, Powderhorn Park and 7 to 8 p.m., May 1, UROC (the University of Minnesota's Urban Research and Outreach Engagement Center at 2001 Plymouth Ave. N.). To register, contact Tree Trust's Forestry Department at 952-767-3886.

The workshop is aimed at folks who have asked to have trees planted. City and park officials say 7,500 trees have been planted in the past five years.

When St. Paul city officials took stock of their tree situation they came up with these facts:

Tree canopy covers 32.5% of the total land area of Saint Paul

66.2% of Saint Paul is suitable for tree canopy cover

Residential, single-family parcels offer the greatest area for increased canopy cover

If you want the big picture for the state of Minnesota's tree story, there's a dandy discussion in the newest issue of the University of Minnesota's CFAN's magazine.

Couple of points emerge: There are too many maples, and urban tree life expectancy is relatively short because of stress.

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Carpool lane motorist caught driving Miss Dummy

Posted at 5:30 PM on April 26, 2012 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis, Transportation

Photo courtesy of the Minnesota State Patrol

Sometimes you have to wonder if it's worth the effort to game the system.

Today the Minnesota State Patrol caught a woman driving in a MnPASS lane with a mannequin in her backseat. The special lanes are open only to drivers who pay an electronic toll -- or to those who carpool.

This backseat companion, along for the ride down Interstate 35W south of Minneapolis, was decked out in a comfy hooded sweatshirt and neon orange sunglasses.

The driver claimed someone dared her to do it, according to the Minnesota State Patrol's Facebook page.

Cheaters in the MnPASS lane are nothing new. As many as nine of 100 cars are running afoul of the rules, state transportation officials told the Star Tribune last year. The newspaper reported that mannequin sightings in the special lanes were especially common when only carpoolers used them.

Today's scofflaw was driving on a suspended license and received two citations, the state patrol said.

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Rain gardens blossom in Minneapolis

Posted at 3:57 PM on April 24, 2012 by Jon Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Food, Minneapolis

A rain garden installed in the Powderhorn neighborhood of Minneapolis last year (Image courtesy of Metro Blooms)

A tornado in August 2009 knocked down trees and caused flooding at Phelps Park in the Bryant neighborhood of Minneapolis.

"That started some neighbors talking about bringing some aesthetics to the neighborhood," said Bryant Neighborhood Organization board member Erin Schwarzbauer. "We were trying to just rethink how our backyards work, as well as our neighborhood as a whole."

The neighborhood organization was looking for a solution to the flooding and loss of old trees. They were referred to Metro Blooms, a non-profit organization that promotes ecologically-friendly gardens and landscapes. Metro Blooms helped the Bryant neighbors plan about 15 rain gardens on the pathway of the new RiverLake Greenway, a bike boulevard that connects the Mississippi River to Lake Harriet.

"[It's] just kind of in an effort to make our small little neighborhood distinctive as people bike through and to bring that aesthetic of rain gardens to our neighborhood," Schwarzbauer said.

A rain garden is a flat, bowl-shaped garden usually planted with native plants and grasses that's used to prevent runoff from polluting nearby bodies of water.

Minneapolis has a goal of 3,000 rain gardens by 2015. Between 2009 and 2011, the number of rain gardens in the city jumped by almost 65 percent to 1,400, according to the city's department of public works.

That growth has partly been fueled by neighborhood projects like in Bryant.

But the gardens are more than ornamental. They're also designed to reduce the runoff to storm sewer systems, which often carries sediment and pollution into nearby bodies of water.

Last year Metro Blooms helped households in west Powderhorn plant 130 rain gardens to limit runoff to nearby Powderhorn Lake, said Metro Blooms Executive Director Becky Rice.

"It will capture the runoff before it leaves your property and allow it to infiltrate to the aquifers, so it can reach the rivers and the lakes and stream clean and cold," Rice said.

Native plants are typically chosen for rain gardens because of their hardiness and deep roots, Rice said, making the gardens "relatively" easy to maintain.

"It's a functional garden and it does require attention, but the plants can be fairly maintenance free," Rice said. "Especially in an urban environment where people are planting in their front yard, they're often looking for something [like a rain garden] that's a little more controlled or a little more showy."

Rain gardens also reduce impact on the city's stormwater sewer systems, said Lois Eberhart, water resources administrator for the Minneapolis Public Works Department said.

"A lot of rain gardens are designed so the water soaks into the ground," Eberhart said. "Soaking into the ground helps reduce the volume of stormwater runoff, so we have less stress on the system, less flooding, less erosion of creek banks."

In Minneapolis, the effort of putting in a rain garden is rewarded by a reduction in stormwater utility fees that pay for stormwater infrastructure.

"Learning about rain gardens helps people think about other things they can do to improve lakes and the river," Eberhart said. "When they have rain gardens and take pride in those, they're more attentive to cleaning up pet waste, maybe sweeping up grass clippings to keep them out of the gutter."

In Bryant, most neighbors who will receive rain gardens in June have already received their designs.

"They're beautiful and people are excited to get them planted," Schwarzbauer said. "There's going to be an education piece during the installation, so other neighbors are able to watch the recipients getting their rain garden installed so they'll be able to install their own."

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Acrophobe alert - don't view this photo

Posted at 11:33 AM on April 24, 2012 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: History, Minneapolis

Just looking at this picture, taken by yours truly on Tuesday, April 24, is enough to give some of us the whirlies; you know, the dizzy, spinning feeling more pleasantly encountered during a vigorous polka session, but also caused by our fear of heights.

Anyway, phobias aside, here's what's going on. A short stretch of West River Parkway in Minneapolis, including the biking path, is closed during the daytime hours weekdays into November. It seems the Minnesota Historical Society doesn't want chunks of concrete falling on passersby during repair of the silos.

From the official Mill City Museum Web page:

The Elevator consists of fifteen (15), 128-foot tall, cylindrical grain bins with a 5-story Headhouse structure constructed on top of the bins. The "Gold Medal Flour" sign is attached to the topmost roof of the Headhouse. The work will stabilize deteriorated elements of the Elevator. Work includes:
- Replacing the bin roof (demolishing the concrete and installing new pre-cast concrete.
- Repairing and stabilizing the Headhouse concrete roof.
- Making repairs to the exterior concrete on the vertical sides of the bins.
- Sealing the windows and door openings of the Headhouse.

Here's what the construction of the Washburn Crosby elevator complex looked like back in the day - 1916 - a photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. Squint and check out the horses in the bottom of the pit.

And here's the finished product in an undated photo courtesy of the MnHS. Yes, quite a different scene from today.

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Trashy Earth Day reporting

Posted at 3:29 PM on April 23, 2012 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Minneapolis, St. Paul

I mean literally. Here we are, a gaggle of Earth Day clean up volunteers on Saturday in Minneapolis.

And in the spirit of first person journalism, I donned donated gloves to join, from right to left, Beverly Christie, Kevin Chace, Mark Zimmerman, Trudi Meloche and yours truly in the trashy adventure. This photo was snapped on my MPR-supplied company camera by an unnamed volunteer.

We'd just finished clambering through the Mill Ruins Park area downriver from this site which is now called Water Works by city officials and remembered by many of us as the late Reiki Weston's long vacant Fuji Ya restaurant.

Totals aren't in for this year's event sponsored by the city's Parks and Recreation Board. Last year, officials say more than 1,500 volunteers removed over 10,000 pounds of trash during the one-day event.

No need to detail what we found Saturday. It's a sampling of the usual flotsam and jetsam of our consumption based economy. Likely all tossed with no malice aforethought, simply discarded without any thought.

Minneapolis had 30 sites where volunteers gathered for the trash hunt.

Now, some history, one of my favorite topics with a photo from one of my favorite places.

Who is this man?

This photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society is from 1970, which many regard as the first year for Earth Day, and says only "man distributing leaflets, University of Minnesota," and of course, it's clear the rally is front of Coffman Union. Who is he? Were you there? Are you in the photo?

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Thirty days of biking

Posted at 1:57 PM on April 18, 2012 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: History, Livability, Minneapolis

We're midway through the group's call for pedaling somewhere everyday during the month of April.

Sadly, my machine isn't even off the garage storage rack.

Part of the reason is I spend too much time at the computer looking at old cycling photos including my favorite courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

All the MnHS caption says is Bessie Ingersoll on a bicycle about 1900. I like it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Ms. Ingersoll made a smashing fashion statement while cycling - note especially the jaunty feather in her hat.

More serious students of cycling history than I know that back in the old days two wheelers were a big part of life. Cars were way too expensive. Roads were, well, not much more than ox cart trails. Here's a photo courtesy of the MnHS titled, "Interior, Frederick Roach Bicycle Shop, 519 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis.1904" Very cool.

Bike clubs were all the rage even then. Here's the MnHS Flour City Bike Club photo from 1890.

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Sabo bridge could reopen to bike traffic before analysis is done

Posted at 4:26 PM on April 17, 2012 by Brandt Williams (5 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

The city of Minneapolis is studying the possibility of opening the Sabo bridge to pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Public Works director Steve Kotke updated a city council committee this morning:

"Now that we've stabilized the bridge and are well under way as far as investigating what happened and what the fix is, the next question that has come up is, 'Can we get the bridge back open for bicycles and pedestrians?' So we have been investigating that. The initial structural analysis has been completed and what it's indicating right now is that we are going to have to make some adjustments to the shoring and what's referred to as de-stressing the back-stay cables. We have that information now, so we are processing it and trying to determine what will be the cost of doing that as well as the timeframe. We're going to continue working on that, I'll be back in two weeks and give you an update and hopefully we'll have some good information at that point to figure out when we'd be able to open up the bridge to bicycles and pedestrians."

The city closed the bridge earlier this year, after a pair of cables fell when the plate holding them to the top of a bridge support failed. Kotke says researchers at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania are still analyzing the broken plate and another plate that was also significantly damaged. He says the results of the study should be available by the end of next month.

(MPR Photo/Matt Sepic)

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Occupy protesters say city proposal meant to stop demonstrations

Posted at 8:20 PM on April 13, 2012 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

Nearly one week after a dozen Occupy Minneapolis protesters were arrested for marching in a downtown street, a city council member proposed a measure that Occupy members say is aimed directly at them.

An email from OccupyMN attributed the following quote to Occupy Minneapolis member Ben Egerman:

"It's shameful that Mayor RT Rybak and Council president Barbara Johnson would attempt to ram through an attack on the civil rights and liberties of the citizens of Minneapolis, and a vulnerable homeless population, without so much as a public hearing on the issue. This sort of backroom surprise attack represents government at its worst."

On the night of the arrests, members of the group set up tents in Peavey Plaza next to Orchestra Hall. Police later evicted the group. The city already has an anti-camping ordinance. This morning, Minneapolis City Council President Barb Johnson introduced a last-minute resolution that would essentially close public plazas in Minneapolis between midnight and 6 a.m. People would still be allowed to walk through the plazas as long as they did so 'without delay.'

Council member Cam Gordon produced a blog post expressing his opposition. His Second Ward Blog post also includes the text of Johnson's resolution. Council member Gary Schiff argued that the Johnson resolution should be treated as an ordinance because it proposes a new ticket-able offense. However, city attorney Susan Segal responded that the measure could be treated as a resolution.

Members of Occupy Minneapolis sat in the council chambers and cheered when the council voted to treat the resolution as a proposed ordinance. As a proposed ordinance the measure will go through the city's committee process which will likely mean members of Occupy Minneapolis and others will get a chance to weigh in on it at a public hearing.

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Calling all tortoises: Minneapolis' 24-hour bike race

Posted at 7:00 AM on April 13, 2012 by Jon Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

For one full day last year, Jessica Baltzley rode her bike on a five-mile loop in the streets of south Minneapolis.

"I definitely think I started hallucinating a little bit on parts of the night, especially when it was raining and there were a lot of shadows," Baltzley said.

In all, Baltzley traveled about 225 miles that night and the next day to win the female division of Minneapolis' first 24-hour bike race, called the Powderhorn 24.

"By the end, when I realized it was possible I was going to win, I was kind of too tired to care. I just wanted to keep going until the very end and not punk out," she said.

Baltzley, 30, started bike commuting after moving to Minneapolis from Florida five years ago. She participated in her first bike race only two years ago. She describes herself as a "tortoise," someone who goes slow but just keeps on going to challenge herself.

And that means competing in the Powderhorn 24 again. Registration opens this Sunday.

The Powderhorn 24 is scheduled to start on June 22 at 7 p.m. It's modeled after a similar race in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee. Participants can tag-team the course throughout the 24 hours or, like Baltzley, approach it solo.

The race's main organizers all live in the Powderhorn neighborhood of Minneapolis. Kayla Dotson, 26, has ridden in the Riverwest race. She says the atmosphere in Milwaukee was similar to what she envisioned in Minneapolis.

"There were people just teeming in the street at four in the morning, neighbors just mingling and people just celebrating," Dotson said. "It seemed like a really good recipe for non-traditional community building."

Another organizer Elise Adair, 27, said they felt this community spirit during Minneapolis' first 24-hour race last year.

"Even if people didn't necessarily know what was happening initially, once they found out they were very supportive, people would come out of the woodwork doing weird, random stuff," Adair said. "Someone I work with...ended up living on the route and they didn't really know what was going on, but they ended up making pancakes [for riders]."

Organizers are trying to attract as diverse a crowd as possible. They've built a system into the race that rewards riders for stopping by local community organizations. Last year, a community garden recruited riders to cart mulch from one end of the garden to the other.

This year, the race will include teams involving everyone from a family of five to a gaggle of unicyclists.

Tonja Sahaydak, her husband and her three children, Josie, 7, Jarod, 11, and Justice, 13, rode in the race last year. Because they live right on the course in Powderhorn, they turned their yard into a pit stop, with watermelon and other fatigue-reducing treats.

"We took turns going, so whenever a kid went on a lap, they had a parent go with them," Sahaydak said. "We had lots of friends come out and join us, and their friends would join them and go out for a lap with them."

Powderhorn 24's course this year follows a square of about 4.5 miles through the Powderhorn community. It starts at Freewheel Bike on the Midtown Greenway and includes some bike boulevards. Organizers have promised police that they'll disqualify any rider who doesn't follow traffic laws. Helmets are required.

Baltzley, the rider who won in the female solo category last year, hopes that this year's ride includes more women so she can push herself even harder.

Even without the competition, Baltzley is bracing herself for the time when she'll mount her bike and not stop riding until the following evening: "I know what I'm in for enough that I'm nervous because I know how totally hard it was."

Jessica Baltzley prepares to bike down the Midtown Greenway. (Image: Jon Collins)

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Wrecking ball will likely claim Minneapolis mural

Posted at 12:00 PM on April 13, 2012 by Dan Olson (5 Comments)
Filed under: Arts , Minneapolis

The news that downtown Minneapolis-based Merit Printing is moving caused me to wonder what will happen to the building's mural. Here's a photo I snapped on a rainy morning this week. Not even the gray sky can hold back these colors!

A Merit spokesman says the mural goes when the building is demolished to make way for housing. No easy way to save a mural on an exterior masonry wall.

Got me thinking about murals, and, wow, what a long and colorful history. My colleague Nikki Tundel has collected some of the best images of murals around the Twin Cities.

Mural creation probably reached a historic peak in Minnesota during the Great Depression with federal tax dollars funding Works Progress Administration projects.

Here are images courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society about the WPA Federal Art Project in a book by Minnesota by Thomas O'Sullivan.

And then there's muralist Richard Haines. He created works portraying Minnesota's first residents, American Indians, being affected by and then displaced as a result of white settlement. Here's a 1940 image courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society image of one from the Fort Snelling Round Tower.

If you click the above link you'll see Haines' amazing resume. By one account, the Richard Haines Fort Snelling Round Tower murals do not survive. They were destroyed several decades ago.

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Somali Minnesotans summoned to help rebuild Mogadishu

Posted at 3:02 PM on April 10, 2012 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Immigration, Minneapolis, St. Paul

The deputy mayor of Somalia's war-battered capital is making the rounds in Minnesota, imploring local Somali-Americans to help reconstruct Mogadishu.

Ali Ahmed Gure is promoting a program called "Bring Mogadishu Back." He's asking members of the Somali diaspora to adopt infrastructure projects in his city.

Somali-American community organizer Hindia Ali said Minnesotans will form a committee and decide which projects -- such as hospitals, streets, or schools -- deserve funding for reconstruction. Then a private company will handle the work. Somali communities in London and Toronto are signing on, she says.

"It's like an adopt-a-highway kind of thing," Ali said.

Gure spoke Saturday at a community gathering at Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, and he'll return tonight for a memorial service honoring the victims of a ghastly suicide bombing last week at the National Theatre in Mogadishu. At least six people, including two top sports officials, were killed. Twelve more were killed days later in a market bombing in Baidoa.

Despite two decades of destruction and the recent series of bombings, the New York Times reported last week that Mogadishu is making a comeback. The terror group al-Shabab retreated from the city in August.

And there are other signs of hope and normalcy, as construction crews build hospitals, homes, and shops.

Gure, the deputy mayor, also visited yesterday with the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak tweeted he had a "fascinating" discussion with Gure.

Rybak's spokesman, John Stiles, said the two officials talked about "moving young people toward hope," both here and in Somalia. They also kicked around ideas on how Somali-American entrepreneurs might boost the economy in their homeland, by helping set up businesses and sharing their knowledge there.

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Minneapolis expands recycling

Posted at 5:02 PM on April 5, 2012 by Madeleine Baran (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Add milk cartons, juice boxes, yogurt cups and takeout containers to the growing list of items you can recycle in Minneapolis.

The city is expanding its recycling program to include "nearly all of the frequently used containers that used to end up in the trash."

From the city's news release:

Customers can recycle cartons - that includes milk cartons, juice boxes and soup, broth and wine cartons - and plastic containers including yogurt cups, cottage cheese containers and deli and takeout containers. Minneapolis recycling crews will pick up these additional items with the regular recycling. Cartons can go in the same bag with the paper.

Customers can now recycle the plastic caps and lids on plastic containers and should leave them on the container (after rinsing, of course) or they will literally slip through the cracks of the recycling machinery.

The city's website has the details.

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Who lived in your house in 1940?

Posted at 6:00 AM on April 5, 2012 by Brandt Williams (2 Comments)
Filed under: History, Housing, Minneapolis

When the 1940 Census data came online this week, the first address I went looking for was the house where I used to live in north Minneapolis. I knew that the house was built in the '20s, so I hoped it wasn't vacant when the Census takers knocked on the door.

It turns out there was a family living there, Harry, 55, and Anna Buck, 52. Both were born in Pennsylvania. Harry was a vacuum cleaner salesman, though he listed his usual occupation as "Presbyterian minister." He worked 48 hrs a week. He earned $1,200 in 1939. The Bucks paid $38/mo. rent. Harry had five years of college, Anna had four years of high school education.

The Bucks had two daughters -- Lucy, 20 and Margaret, 17. Both single. Lucy was born in Ohio, Margaret in Minnesota. Lucy worked as a file clerk and labeler at a school library and earned $33 in 1939. Margaret made $15, but how she earned that money was not specified.

I found a telephone listing for a Margaret Buck who was born in 1922 - which would have put her at 17 years of age around Census time. The number I called was disconnected.

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Eagle is newest neighbor in south Minneapolis

Posted at 12:00 PM on April 5, 2012 by Jon Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Minneapolis

An eagle takes off from a tree in Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis. (Image courtesy of Alexandra Ellison)

Alexandra Ellison and her 10-year-old daughter Ella were walking through Powderhorn Park in south Minneapolis a few weeks ago when they saw an unusual sight.

"It was a fully mature bald eagle with the white head and the white tail feathers," Ellison said. "We watched it. And it would get off the perch and hover over the lake and hang down and grab a fish and go back to the same perch."

Ellison said neighbors have reported similar sightings. The eagle seems to frequent a large cottonwood tree.

"It was amazing, amazing that it's been there every day, it's started so many conversations in the neighborhood," Ellison said, noting the bluebirds, cormorants and wood ducks that frequent the park. "People think of Powderhorn sometimes dismissively, but it's got just tremendous wildlife."

The University of Minnesota Raptor Center Clinic Manager Lori Arent said it used to be very rare to see eagles in urban areas. Not anymore.

Until about five years ago, Arent said the region's eagle population was still reeling from the impacts of DDT, a chemical that almost wiped them out. As the population returned, more eagles have been competing for ever-shrinking traditional habitats.

"It's kind of bittersweet because you want to see them and yet we're kind of forcing them to move into urban areas," Arent said. "Because of all the development and progress, we've really fragmented their habitat."

Still, Arent said eagles are doing well as they move to the big cities.

"People's increased knowledge of eagles has really helped a lot," Arent said. "Eagles are protected and a lot of people know that, so they're not approaching them too closely or anything like that. They're observing them from afar, which isn't threatening to the eagles at all."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says that mature bald eagles can weigh up to 14 pounds and have a wingspan of eight feet. The agency estimates that there are about 10,000 pairs of eagles in the United States.

If the Powderhorn eagle builds a nest, the Raptor Center will add it to their list of active eagle nests, which they use to find new families for orphaned eagles.

Arent said most urbanites would be surprised how many eagles are flying over their cities. Not Ellison.

"It was a really, really windy day, we were walking around the lake and..my husband said 'Oh, my God. Look up.'" Ellison said of a recent stroll. "We counted 17 eagles circling."

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Legal decision has attorneys talking

Posted at 5:14 PM on March 30, 2012 by Jessica Mador (33 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Housing, Minneapolis

MPR News received a tip about a complicated story involving an attorney, a judge and the state's foreclosure laws.

U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz has taken the unusual step of sanctioning Minneapolis attorney William Butler for filing what the judge calls frivolous show-me-the-note actions. That's where a homeowner facing foreclosure argues that because the mortgage and note are held by different entities, the home's mortgage or foreclosure on that mortgage is invalid.

Separating the note from the mortgage contributed to the practice of mortgage securitization, one culprit in the housing bubble and crash.

Some courts in other states have ruled in favor of homeowners in cases like these. But here, Judge Schiltz says it's been established under Minnesota law (he references Jackson v. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.) that the entity that holds the mortgage can foreclose on the mortgage even if that entity does not also hold the note. Showing the note is not necessary under foreclosure by advertisement, which is how most of Minnesota's foreclosures are processed.

Butler, of Butler Liberty Law, LLC, brought nearly 30 of such cases on behalf of several hundred people and apparently never won.

Among other things, Judge Schiltz alleges Butler solicited homeowners facing foreclosure for frivolous cases and then "judge shopped" for sympathetic judges while his cases dragged on for months, allowing him to collect fees from clients and allowing those clients to continue living in their homes rent-free.

As punishment, the court ordered Butler to pay a $50,000 penalty and cover attorneys fees for some of the largest firms representing clients like GMAC Mortgage, Deutsche Bank, The Bank of New York and others. People familiar with the case expect these penalties to rise well into the six figures. Butler also risks losing his license to practice law.

Minneapolis attorney Daniel Tyson has been handling real estate and foreclosure cases for decades. He declined to comment on the specifics of Butler's cases mentioned in the judge's order. But he says it's clear the judge's ruling was intended to send a message.

"The amount of the sanction is high and the judge wanted to teach this attorney a lesson that his behavior wasn't appropriate and if he's going to start a lawsuit and bring it into federal court or any court it has to be based upon proper claims, and in this case the judge determined that the show-me-the-note claim was not appropriate for this particular matter before him."

Other attorneys I spoke to about this case agreed the judge's order is severe.
Judge Schiltz is known for being conservative but fair-minded.

Tyson says he hopes the decision won't deter other attorneys from bringing foreclosure cases forward.

"I'd hope that the decision does not have a chilling effect on bringing claims which are properly brought by consumers and their attorneys. That would be an unfortunate result of this claim because there are many appropriate claims and appropriate situations - in particular in this foreclosure area - where bad things were done. That is what the robo-signing cases were all about, that is why there are sanctions and that is why we've got a nationwide settlement with the major banks, because things were not done properly," said Tyson. "I'm hoping it doesn't have a chilling effect on the ability to bring these. And I don't think it will because this was a very limited situation where this individual attorney was using wrong methods and for those clients out there and those attorneys out there who have right claims and good claims to try to prevent foreclosures, that should be brought they should be able to bring them. That is our system."

Butler didn't provide a comment in time for this post, but says he plans to appeal the judge's decision.

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Rybak's staffers really like their jobs

Posted at 5:10 PM on March 29, 2012 by Curtis Gilbert (1 Comments)
Filed under: Budget , Minneapolis, Politics

R.T. Rybak must be a pretty good boss. The Minneapolis mayor's office received the highest marks of any department on the city's 2011 Employee Engagement Survey, whose results were released today.

The mayor is responsible for only 11 employees (although the overachievers in his office somehow managed 12 survey responses), but all of them say they're "extremely satisfied" with their jobs.

In fact, there was only one area on the 68-question survey where a majority of Rybak's staff gave the gig a thumbs-down: the paycheck. Almost two-thirds of them say they're underpaid. Welcome to the club.

Now for the bad news

The most dissatisfied workers in city government are the firefighters. Only three percent of them think they have enough bodies in the department to get their jobs done. A whopping six percent think city leaders care about their abysmal morale.

Since 2001, Minneapolis has cut 71 firefighters from the department -- about 15 percent of the force. The city installed a new fire chief this year. Clearly, John Fruetel has his work cut out for him.

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Minneapolis redistricting maps are out

Posted at 11:45 AM on March 27, 2012 by Curtis Gilbert (1 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Race

The Minneapolis Charter Commission votes this afternoon on a plan that has the potential to increase minority representation on the City Council. The vote was originally scheduled for Monday, but the city's Redistricting Group made some last-minute changes yesterday in an attempt to address concerns raised by members of the Latino community.

The new map has four wards where minority groups comprise the majority of the population -- 4, 5, 6 and 9. Under the current map, only Ward 5 meets that standard, and Don Samuels, who represents it, is the only African American on the council.

Robert Lilligren in Ward 6 is Native American. The rest of the current council members are white.

Lilligren's ward will be re-drawn to encompass a larger swath of the city's East African population, stretching into parts of Cedar-Riverside and Seward. A Somali-led group called the Citizen's Committee for Fair Redistricting lobbied heavily for the creation of such a ward.

The Somali group also wanted at least part of the Midtown Phillips neighborhood, but the redistricting plan gives that territory to Ward 9 in an effort to create a stronghold for the city's Latino community.

The new Ward 9 is about 37 percent Hispanic, according to the Census. Detailed maps of each ward are available here, labeled as the March 26 maps.

While the new redistricting plan means the City Council could become more diverse over the next decade, its immediate political implications for incumbents on the council are less obvious. The proposed map does not pit any incumbents against each other by putting their homes in the same ward.

The redistricting plan is almost certain to win approval from the Charter Commission, since all of its members also belong to the Redistricting Group.

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Compromise keeps Tin Fish in business

Posted at 3:00 PM on March 22, 2012 by Rupa Shenoy (0 Comments)
Filed under: Food, Minneapolis

The Minneapolis Park Board and owners of the popular lakeside restaurant Tin Fish have come to an agreement that'll keep the business open.

Tin Fish's lease with the park board ran out late last year. A park board subcommittee wanted to renegotiate the lease so that 20 percent of its revenues would go to rent and improvements. Tin Fish owner Sheffield Priest said that was too high.

Last night, the park board voted unanimously (8-0) to approve a contract that sought a compromise. The lease is complicated, but basically the park board will get about 18 percent of the restaurant's revenues -- with 3 percent of that going toward improvements to the building.

Tin Fish owner Sheffield Priest said those terms are agreeable to him.

"All of you have been working hard on this and we've been working hard on this," he told the board at the meeting. "And we know that there are a lot of people behind me who love the Tin Fish who've also been hard on this. And I just wanted to say thanks for all the support. We can all just enjoy the Tin Fish this summer."

Erwin said many residents had come forward in support of the Lake Calhoun restaurant.

"I was here along with three other commissioners when we approved the Tin Fish originally and we received a lot of emails because people were upset about approving a restaurant in a park," he said. "And I think that's it's really rewarding to us to see how committed people are now to saving this and having it in the park."

Curtis Gilbert contributed reporting to this post.

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Sabo bridge damage still under investigation

Posted at 12:16 PM on March 20, 2012 by Brandt Williams (1 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

Minneapolis public works director Steve Kotke presented a brief update today on the progress of the investigation into why a pair of cables fell from the Sabo bridge last month.

MPR Photo/Matt Sepic

Kotke didn't have a lot to say. The city has finished removing two faulty plates from the bridge -- one plate fractured, causing the cables attached to it to fall down, and the other had significant damage -- and has shipped them off to researchers at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Kotke says he expects some results from the study to come back in four to six weeks.

I've ridden my bike past the bridge several times since the collapse. There are barricades and signs directing bike traffic to cross Hiawatha at 28th. And while I miss the view provided by the bridge, I've found that waiting for the light on 28th St. doesn't take as long as I expected.

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Minnesota's 'forgotten Tolkien' died Friday

Posted at 5:31 PM on March 19, 2012 by Jon Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts , Minneapolis

Image courtesy of the Tékumel Foundation

Sixty-thousand years in the future, a planet called Tékumel is settled by space-faring humans. They terraform the land and atmosphere, transforming it into a sort of interstellar Club Med. But a group of powerful aliens knock the planet into an isolated pocket universe. The planet falls into chaos.

That's the premise of the pioneering role-playing game created by Minneapolis resident Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker, who died in home-hospice care Friday at the age of 83. He is survived by his wife, Ambereen.

Barker, who was known as Phil to his friends, was a gamer, novelist, linguist and former University of Minnesota professor. He used all these influences to create Tékumel, a world with its own languages, geography and cultures.

A 2009 article in the German magazine Der Spiegel called him "the forgotten Tolkien," a reference to the author of the Lord of the Rings fantasy series.

Image courtesy of the Tékumel Foundation

Barker started developing Tékumel as a child. In 1975, one year after the popular role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons was released by TSR Games, the company released Barker's "Empire of the Petal Throne," based on the Tékumel world.

The series itself never reached the popularity of Dungeons and Dragons. That was partly because it was based on Barker's professional explorations of eastern and South American cultures rather than more familiar northern European myths like goblins and elves, said Bob Brynildson, partner at Source Comics and Games in Falcon Heights.

"Tékumel stands by itself," Brynildson said. "In Tékumel, there were in-depth cultures, it was elegant, you moved around in a cultural system defined by politics and history and religion."

According to Brynildson, Barker pushed forward the concept of role-playing games, and may have invented a predecessor to fantasy-based video games.

Much of that world-building centered around Barker's interest in languages. In the early 1950s, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study languages in India. While there he became a Muslim. He was a professor in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies from 1972 until his retirement in 1992, according to the University of Minnesota.

Image courtesy of the Tékumel Foundation

For the games and handful of novels that fleshed out his world, Barker created at least three languages from scratch, including one called Tsolyáni, said Victor Raymond, chair of the Tékumel Foundation, which formed in 2008 and seeks to preserve Barker's legacy.

Raymond gamed with Barker for almost three decades, spending Thursday nights with a group of friends in a basement room set aside in Barker's south Minneapolis home.

"This is a man who never let challenges stop him, he took each one on with relish and gusto and he made sure he lived life to the fullest," Raymond said. "He had deep and abiding interest and he followed those interests, and that shaped his life."

The Tékumel Foundation is hoping to reprint Barker's novels originally published in the 1990s and 2000s. They're also digging into Barker's vast collection of unpublished materials.

"It will be years, if ever, before we're done exploring just what a creative mind he had," Raymond said.

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Central Corridor love coming to a yard near you

Posted at 4:00 PM on March 19, 2012 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

The official marketing push for Central Corridor businesses remains tied up in red tape, but that's not stopping other initiatives from rolling out.

Among the grassroots efforts are yard signs in which residents can profess their heart-shaped love for businesses affected by light-rail construction.

The idea is to steal a few glances during the election season, and direct eyeballs to the website for Discover Central Corridor, a buy-local campaign, says Zach Schwartz, a public affairs manager with the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce. You can also follow the campaign on Twitter at @DiscoverCCLRT.

Organizers are distributing the signs through the district councils and other neighborhood organizations.

Also keep your eye out for the 2012 version of a Central Corridor coupon book:

The books were distributed through neighborhood newspapers this month. You can also grab one at Cub Foods (University Avenue location), Park Midway Bank and University Bank, American Bank, St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce and Midway Chamber of Commerce.

The two chambers put together the efforts with help from the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative.

(Images courtesy of St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce)

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MnDOT wants to make bicycling safer and more usable

Posted at 6:00 AM on March 19, 2012 by Jessica Mador (2 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is urging cyclists to comment on Minnesota's statewide bicycle planning study. Eight similar public meetings occurred across the state in late February and March.

"Minnesota is often recognized as one of the top bicycle-friendly states in the country, and the best way to continue improving is to learn from constituents who use the highways, bike lanes and shoulders to bike," said Tim Mitchell, MnDOT bicycle and pedestrian coordinator.

A meeting on the project is scheduled on March 29 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the University of Minnesota Urban Research and Outreach Center, located at 2001 Plymouth Avenue North.

MnDOT is seeking input on what should be improved to make bicycling a safer and more usable transportation option, ideas for future bicycling accommodations on Minnesota roads and barriers to making improvements. Officials say the feedback they collect will help them improve and develop consistent policies and practices for including bicycle components, such as wide shoulders or bike lanes, on future highway and bridge construction projects. It also will help MnDOT develop a new electronic and printable statewide bicycle map.

The public may also submit written comments to greta.alquist@state.mn.us or Greta Alquist, MnDOT Office of Transit MS 315, 395 John Ireland Blvd., St. Paul, MN, 55155.

Anyone unable to attend meetings in-person may join a statewide webinar discussion this Thursday, March 22, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Webinar details are posted at www.mndot.gov/bike/study.html.

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Minnesota Nice, explained.

Posted at 3:10 PM on March 15, 2012 by Laura Yuen (23 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

Cathy Schaefer of Minneapolis, left, chats with Rayane Alamuddin of Minneapolis during a gathering of "League of Extraordinary Women." Schaefer said she started the group as a way to meet people in Minnesota after she moved here more than two years ago. (Photo by Jeff Thompson)

I've been digging out from all the responses we've received from our series exploring Minnesota's polite reservedness toward newcomers.

One lengthy email came from Roger McKnight, a retired professor from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. McKnight, who taught Scandinavian studies, was disappointed we did not explain the roots of our state's perceived standoffishness.

In a nutshell, the state's settlers from northern or central Europe -- primarily Germany and Scandinavia -- had a profound impact on how the social culture here developed, McKnight contends.

"The traditional culture of Norway/Sweden was for centuries based on the concept of One People, One Language, One Religion," McKnight writes. "Swedes' lifelong friends were chosen from among people they went to school with and their kinship group. An individual made friends slowly, but they were friends for life --- in the true sense of the term 'for life.'"

Anyone who has lived in Scandinavia, as McKnight did for years, knows that "it's somewhat hard to get an 'in' there," he said. But once the friendship is established, "all barriers to communication break down and there results a torrent of friendship, expressions of sincerity, and even personal confidences."

Ylwa Eklund Falk and Fredrik Eklund, who moved here from Sweden last year, pray at Eagle Brook Church in Lino Lakes. (Photo by Alex Kolyer)

The lovely young Swedish couple I met in the second part of my series, Ylwa Eklund Falk and Fredrik Eklund, also pointed out this cultural nuance. Falk once heard one of her countrymen compare Swedish stoicism to American friendliness with a clever fruit analogy.

"Americans are like peaches. They have this nice, soft outer shell that's easy to penetrate. And there's a tight, hard core that's hard to get underneath," she told me. "Swedes are kind of like oranges. It's a thick, hard peel at first, but there's a big soft mushy inside."

In other words, once you get to know a Swede, "we tend to be very open about our lives," Falk said. "With Americans, it's easy to get to know them, but hard to make American friends."

This interesting mix of fierce loyalty and initial aloofness apparently applies to Germans, too. That's according to my colleague Alex Friedrich, son of a German immigrant. Alex lived in his father's home country for five years, and says the people there tend to be more reserved.

"No one moved. Everyone already had their friends already," he said. "They see friendship as a sort of investment, and they consider Americans shallow people who say 'LOVE YOU!' and then flake out when you need them. No need to bother with us unless we prove our worth."

But the Germans -- and Minnesotans -- will lend a hand when it counts, Friedrich said. Not because they're warm and loving, but because it's the right thing to do.

"After growing up in California, I've come to appreciate that way of thinking," he said. "My home state is really flaky."

Moreover, Professor McKnight explains, there's something in Scandinavian culture called the Law of Jante, a proverbial concept that values understatedness over backslapping. Tell me if his description sounds familiar:

"Not making a fuss of oneself, not boasting in public, not thinking a person is better than anyone else," he says. "It says in the ten commandments: Don't think you are better than us; don't think you can stand out from us. In short, conform and don't make a commotion of yourself."

So there you have it.

Many, like McKnight, applaud Minnesotans for their sincerity.

But judging from the barrage of responses and social-media chatter our series generated, a lot of transplants to the state are having trouble moving their relationships from "acquaintance" to "friend for life." Some have even emailed us asking for advice on where to meet people.

Here's hoping when they do find friends, they'll be rewarded with that big, soft mushy inside.

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Minnesota rated the least affordable state for housing in the Midwest

Posted at 4:30 PM on March 14, 2012 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

A new national report shows someone earning minimum wage would have to work 86 hours a week to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in Minnesota -- that's more than two full-time jobs.

The report, Out of Reach 2012, was jointly released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based housing policy organization, the Minnesota Housing Partnership and the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless. The report provides rental affordability data for every state, metro area, and county in the country.

Of the twelve states in the Midwest, Minnesota ranked the worst for affordability for minimum wage workers. According to the report:

In order to afford the rent and utilities for a safe, modest 2-bedroom apartment in the private housing market, a Minnesota worker must earn $15.50 per hour, 40 hours a week, all year long. By contrast, the typical renter in Minnesota earns $12.17 per hour. Minimum wage pays only $7.25 per hour.

"The gap between what most renters make and the cost of housing is a problem facing the entire state," said Chip Halbach, Executive Director of Minnesota Housing Partnership. "Families are forced to move because they cannot keep up their rent payments. This kind of instability jeopardizes the future of Minnesota's children."

Numbers:

-An estimated 54% renters in Minnesota do not earn enough to afford a two-bedroom unit at the "fair market rent" where they live.
-Twin Cities metro rents are most expensive. A modest two-bedroom apartment requires a full time worker to earn $17.38 per hour year-round -- the most expensive in the state.
-The counties least affordable to renters, given the incomes they earn, are distributed throughout the both Metro and Greater Minnesota Counties. The top 5 least affordable counties with the highest estimated percent of renters unable to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment are Wadena (67% unable to afford), Carlton (62%), Winona (62%), Chisago (61%), and Ramsey (61%) Counties.

See MHP's additional Minnesota maps based on Out of Reach data here.

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Minneapolis draft map doesn't pair incumbents

Posted at 10:06 AM on March 14, 2012 by Curtis Gilbert (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Politics

The latest map from the Minneapolis Redistricting Group makes big changes to many of the city's political boundaries, but it doesn't pit any incumbent city council members against each other.

Every council member's home remains in the ward he or she currently represents -- though in many cases, just barely. In fact, nearly half the council members find themselves within two blocks of a proposed ward boundary.

Cam Gordon's house is about 200 feet from the proposed border of his 2nd Ward. Lisa Goodman is in her proposed 7th Ward by a block.

Even before redistricting, 6th Ward Council Member Robert Lilligren could walk one block south and find himself in Ward 9. Under the proposed map, he could also go two blocks west if he wants to visit Ward 10.

Sandy Colvin Roy (Ward 12) and Gary Schiff (Ward 9) each enjoy a two-block buffer between their homes and their proposed ward lines. So does Meg Tuthill, but that was the case already.

The previous draft map didn't have as many incumbents skating close to the line, but just like this one, it left all members in their own districts.

The Redistricting Group, which consists of the city's Charter Commission plus nine additional members from around the city, agreed on five principles that guide the map-making process. Keeping incumbents in their wards wasn't one of them.

"It's supposed to be irrelevant, technically," said Jeanne Massey, one of the group's advisory members. "That doesn't mean that it isn't informally considered."

Massey pointed out that since the Redistricting Group tries to make minimal changes where possible, the process tends to protect incumbents.

The map isn't final, yet. It will be subject to a pair of public hearings next week. Following those, there could be additional changes before the city's Charter Commission approves the final boundaries on March 26.

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Shooting victim is trying to leave crime, violence behind him

Posted at 4:32 PM on March 13, 2012 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

Tyron Jenkins, 20, was one of two men shot and wounded while sitting in a car last Friday night in north Minneapolis. Police investigators are trying to find suspects and a motive behind the shooting. I spoke to Jenkins by phone from his hospital bed today. He told me he doesn't know much about what happened. Jenkins says he got hit in the chest and arm. Hospital officials say he's in "good condition." However, Jenkins sounded pretty weary on the phone.

Jenkins has been trying to leave the world of gangs and guns behind. He was enrolled in a program called North4, which focuses on helping gang-involved young men living in one of four north side neighborhoods to get jobs. Last month, Rep. Keith Ellison visited with Jenkins and other young men in the program and listened as they talked about how the program has affected their lives.

Jenkins' life story sounds like it was plucked from a gangsta rap ballad or a Hollywood movie. He had an absent father. He started 'hustlin' when he was eight years old. He was wounded by gunfire at age nine. But now, with help from North4, Jenkins is employed and talking about furthering his education. But as last weekend's shooting shows, real life rarely imitates art.

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Get your trees here

Posted at 12:20 PM on March 9, 2012 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Minneapolis

The city of Minneapolis is offering 1,500 eight foot tall, one-inch trunk trees this spring for $25. Any Minneapolis property owner - resident, business or nonprofit - is eligible for one. Trees are available starting March 12. The trees are first-come, first-served. Limit one tree per property, maximum five properties per owner. Trees must be picked up May 12-14 at the Minneapolis impound lot. Volunteers will be on hand to help load each new tree and complimentary bag of mulch into vehicles.

The city is also making an additional 400 trees available to residents in the tornado-affected area of north Minneapolis at no charge.

From the city:

Varieties of trees available for $25 are Bali cherry, bur oak, Black Hills spruce, Fall Fiesta maple, Honeycrisp apple, ironwood, Prairifire crabapple, Princeton elm, red bud (tree form) and Whitespire birch (clump form). Varieties available for the free trees program are Honeycrisp apple, swamp white oak, Firebird crabapple and Japanese tree lilac.

Ordering begins March 12 for both tree offerings at www.treetrust.org or 952-767-3886. Paper order forms will also be available at UROC, the University of Minnesota's Urban Research and Outreach Engagement Center at 2001 Plymouth Ave. N., and at North Side Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board recreation centers. Additional forms are available by calling 952-767-3886.

Need help planting and learning how to take care of your new tree?

Tree Trust will host two free workshops for participants on proper tree planting and care 10 to 11 a.m., April 28, Powderhorn Park and 7 to 8 p.m., May 1, UROC (the University of Minnesota's Urban Research and Outreach Engagement Center at 2001 Plymouth Ave. N.). To register, please contact Tree Trust's Forestry Department at 952-767-3886. Space is limited.

City officials are urging interested people to get their orders in early. They say in previous years, the trees have sold quickly.

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Bigger compost piles coming to Minneapolis

Posted at 1:48 PM on March 8, 2012 by Curtis Gilbert (1 Comments)
Filed under: Food, Livability, Minneapolis

Minneapolis has made way for bigger backyard compost piles.

The City Council passed an ordinance today allowing back yard composters up to 245 cubic feet for a typical tenth-of-an-acre city lot. That's seven feet square and five feet high -- about twice the capacity the previous law allowed. If you have a bigger lot or one that doesn't have a house on it, you can make your heap even bigger.

Creative commons photo from @nacybeetoo via flickr.

The piles must be contained with something durable -- a wooden box, say -- but they don't need to be covered with anything more than "leaves, straw, wood chips, or finished compost."

Neighbors worried about the smell of decomposing organic matter can take comfort in this, though: Only plants are kosher for composting within city limits.

No humanure in Minneapolis, please.

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Does anybody know what part of my car fell off this morning?

Posted at 11:05 AM on March 1, 2012 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

This apparently got knocked loose while I maneuvered my car over a minor ice canyon that formed around my parked car overnight. The city of Minneapolis decided not to declare a snow emergency. In a press release, a city spokesman said the above-freezing daytime temperatures made the action unnecessary.

Of course, overnight temperatures got just cold enough to solidify the unplowed snow - especially on side streets - and turn them into mini-mountain ranges.

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Stenglein took some lumps in his career on the county board

Posted at 5:00 PM on February 24, 2012 by Brandt Williams (1 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Politics, Race

For the record, Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Stenglein says he decided to accept the job of CEO and President at the Minneapolis Downtown Council because he thought the opportunity too good to pass up.

He leaves the county board at the end of May.

Stenglein was elected to the board in 1996 to lead the county's 2nd District, which includes parts of north Minneapolis and Golden Valley. I've covered Stenglein's career as an elected official and here are a few things that stand out.

At the time he was elected, I was working for the African American community newspaper, Insight News. The paper held a weekly public meeting at Lucille's Kitchen, a north Minneapolis soul food restaurant that closed several years ago. The meetings eventually became a live broadcast event, but in 1996, the format was much more informal. Conversations between newspaper staff and neighbors and newsmakers were held over plates of scrambled eggs, sausage and biscuits and gravy. Stenglein was an early attendee to the meetings. And from what I remember, the dialogue often got tense as some black community members challenged this newly-elected, white, conservative-leaning politician who lived on the other side of the river. Stenglein took some lumps then. But he kept coming back to Lucille's.

Stenglein says while some of the meeting participants took verbal shots at him, he never felt intimidated by being the lone white guy in a group of African Americans.

"What was most interesting to me was people would say to me - people from northeast or the suburbs -- would say, 'well gosh, you're going to represent all of north Minneapolis. A bunch of black people live over there.' And I'd say, 'oh, yeah. I used to live Nigeria, for a couple years. I'm used to being around a bunch of black people.'"

In 1999, Stenglein championed a new effort at the county called the African American Men Project. At the time Stenglein said the idea for the project came to him as he drove through north Minneapolis and saw so many black men standing around on the street. He was criticized by some African Americans who took offense at the idea that black men needed to be studied. But the project continues today and is housed at Northpoint Health and Wellness center. It offers help for black men who are struggling to find employment, housing and other basic needs.

Stenglein ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Minneapolis in 2001. The mayoral primary was held on Tues, September 11. I was assigned to watch the election returns from Stenglein's home and interview him. However, for most of the evening, media and Stenglein supporters alike, watched television news coverage of the attacks in New York and Washington DC.

Commissioner Stenglein was also present for two of the most controversial measures passed by the board in recent years. He opposed the countywide smoking ban, which eventually passed. And Stenglein voted in the majority to approve the countywide sales tax that helped build Target Field. The public hearings before both votes featured some of the most passionate and at times nasty rhetoric I've ever heard directed at elected officials. Often that invective was hurled directly at Stenglein.

Stenglein says some of the worst came from anti-smoking advocates. One accused him of wanting to kill babies. "Yeah, it was nasty," he said.

Stenglein says after the Target Field sales tax vote, a group of protesters gathered on the front step of his home. Some carried signs calling him a "traitor to the taxpayer." But despite threats from voters that they were going to kick him out of office for his stance on these issues, Stenglein kept getting reelected.

But he will not face reelection this fall. Stenglein will replace Sam Grabarski as the leader of the Downtown Council starting June 1. He will still be a public figure, but chances are Stenglein will not need a hard hat for this job.

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Hennco residents--get your shots!

Posted at 5:06 PM on February 22, 2012 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Health, Livability, Minneapolis

Hennepin County Public Health is publicizing three walk-in immunization clinics aimed at people who don't have health insurance, or whose insurance doesn't cover shots.

The county notes that flu season is reaching its peak.

(If you'd like to geek out on flu data, check out the MN Dept of Health web site where you can find Weekly Influenza & Respiratory Activity.)

Shots are free to anyone who doesn't have insurance, though donations are requested.

All are walk-in clinics so no appointments are needed. The clinics will be:

Bloomington Clinic: Bloomington Division of Health, 1900 W. Old Shakopee Road, March 6 and 20, 3 to 5:30 p.m.

Brooklyn Center Clinic: Hennepin County's Brookdale Service Center, 6125 Shingle Creek Road, March 27, 9 to 11 a.m.

Downtown Minneapolis Clinic: Hennepin Health Services Building, 525 Portland Ave. S., March 2, 8:30 to 11 a.m.

For more information about these clinics, call 612-348-2884 or go to www.hennepin.us/vaccines.

Get your shot, sneeze into your elbow and wash your hands.

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Rep. Ellison meets young men trying to leave crime behind

Posted at 4:20 PM on February 21, 2012 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis, Politics

Congressman Keith Ellison was a bit wary of the reporters gathered today at the Emerge office in north Minneapolis. He was at the social service organization's offices to meet with a group of participants in a program called the North4 Project. The program helps gang-affiliated teens and young men get jobs and leave the criminal lifestyle.

Ellison told the nearly dozen group participants that he didn't want them to feel like the media was putting them on display. But he acknowledged that the presence of an MPR news reporter (me) and a Star Tribune reporter would help bring attention to a positive program. Any concerns that the young men would be too shy to speak in front of reporters were put to rest when the first group participant, Tyron Jenkins, 20, opened his mouth.

Jenkins presented his autobiography, which was punctuated by 'youknowwhatimsayin' and 'you feel me' inserted in to nearly each sentence. We 'felt' him. Jenkins talked about how he was thrust into adulthood at an early age.

He'd been 'hustling' ever since he was eight years old. Trying to make a million dollars, he said. And at age nine, he was introduced to gun violence.

"My childhood got tooken [sic] very young, very, very young. I got shot at nine. I was in the hospital, on the bed at nine years old from a gunshot wound. You feel me?"

Jenkins says North4 helped him get a job at MnDOT, where he wears a button-down shirt and tie every day. And he's also in school working on a business degree.

But some of the young men in the program are still struggling. Brandon Turner, 22, (pictured above) told Ellison that he recently lost his truck because it broke down and he couldn't afford to fix it. And Turner says he's facing eviction at the end of the month. Ellison didn't make him any promises, but told Turner he'd see what he could do to help him.

Ellison also encouraged the young men to apply for internships in his office. However, Ellison told them, by rule he can't hire an intern who isn't in school. So Ellison told them now is a good time to go back to school if they aren't already.

Ellison helped secure $240,000 in federal funds to start the program two years ago. To date, the program has involved 31 young men. However, five participants have wound up in jail. But as one staff member pointed out, 'all 31 participants are still alive.' And that's an important statistic. According to data from North4, on average, each participant has lost 5 friends or family members to homicide.

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Poetry Lin Motion

Posted at 10:29 AM on February 20, 2012 by Laura Yuen (3 Comments)
Filed under: Food, Minneapolis

You might be thinking, "Enough with the Jeremy Lin puns already!"

One Asian supermarket and deli in Minneapolis wants you to have some literary fun with the NBA's sudden star -- in the form of haiku.

On its Facebook page, United Noodles announced it will award a Knicks No. 17 jersey to the best writer who can reference both Lin and the grocery in the Japanese poetic form. For those of you who don't remember the rules you learned in fifth grade, haiku comprises three lines totaling 17 syllables -- five, seven, and five, respectively.

It's harder than it looks. Here's my desperate field-goal attempt:

United Noodles
Concocts Taiwanese beef soup
Lin-finite pleasures

Sharpen your pencils and have at it. Deadline is March 1.

In the meantime, check out this brilliant "SNL" sketch from over the weekend about the media's cringe-worthy blunders referring to Lin's race, including some pretty tasteless jokes and an exhausting barrage of puns. I, for one, am co-opting the term "Amasian."

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Minneapolis Lutherans oppose marriage amendment

Posted at 9:44 PM on February 17, 2012 by Sasha Aslanian (14 Comments)
Filed under: Marriage amendment, Minneapolis, Politics

The Minneapolis Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America passed a resolution this evening opposing a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would limit marriage to heterosexual couples.

Made up of 155 congregations from Anoka, Carver, Hennepin, Isanti, Scott, and parts of Sherburne and Wright counties, the synod represents nearly 190,000 baptized members.

The resolution opposes the amendment that would "would prevent one group of committed couples and their families from pursuing ordinary legislative or legal means to gain the support and protections afforded to all other."

In 2004, the Minneapolis Synod opposed any effort to rewrite the federal or state constitutions to forbid the the creation of legally recognized relationships between same sex couples.

In 2009, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the national group, voted to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy.

The resolution takes pains to point out Lutherans may "hold various convictions regarding lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships," nevertheless, the church "has called upon congregations and members of this church to welcome, care for, and support same-gender couples and their families and to advocate for their legal protection."

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Will new transitway spur development in north Minneapolis?

Posted at 3:44 PM on February 15, 2012 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

This Friday is the deadline for public comment on the scope of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Bottineau Transitway. The 13-mile bus rapid transit or light rail line would run from downtown Minneapolis to the northwest suburbs. The line would run through parts of north Minneapolis, a section of town that contains some of the poorest and economically underdeveloped neighborhoods.

I checked the 'Get to NoMi' (North Minneapolis) Facebook group to see what north siders are saying about the plan. Responses ranged from cautious hope to skepticism. As a former north side resident myself, I recognize this as a common response to news of future city development plans.

Some Minneapolis City Council members are also not convinced that the transit plan, as it's currently being proposed, will bring significant economic development to the north side. The council did vote today to be an official partner in the planning process and it also approved a written document outlining what city officials want to be included in the DEIS.

The initial plan includes two different ways for the line to pass through north Minneapolis. One, called D1, largely circumvents much of the north side. The other, D2, would travel along a few main arterial roads in the north side. However, city officials say neither route would do a lot to bring needed economic development to north Minneapolis. And they are recommending the DEIS look at making other transit improvements in the area in addition to the Bottineau line:

Recommendation: The City of Minneapolis recommends that the DEIS include an analysis of the distribution of the project's benefits relative to the transit-dependent, minority and low-income communities in the corridor for the D1 alignment alternative. The City also recommends that, separate from the Bottineau Transitway project, the Twin Cities region pursue arterial transitway improvements (streetcar or rapid bus) and transit-oriented development initiatives on one or more arterial streets in North Minneapolis, potentially including West Broadway Avenue, Penn Avenue North, and Emerson/Fremont Avenue N.

In review of the proposed routes, the MPRB believes that the D2 Alignment presents the greatest opportunities for urban revival, economic development, strong ridership, and transportation equity in North Minneapolis and therefore is the only legitimate option. In addition, the MPRB believes that the D1 Alignment presents great potential for significant impacts to current and potential natural resources, parkland, and recreation opportunities it is entrusted to protect.

The park board has also expressed concern about how construction of the line along Highway 55 will impact the many large trees that line the median.

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Minneapolis touts housing program

Posted at 4:17 PM on February 7, 2012 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

As states' attorneys general discuss a proposed settlement with five banks over their foreclosure practices, Minneapolis is touting its foreclosure recovery strategy.

The city today says its Minneapolis Advantage Program has helped nearly 350 homebuyers purchase homes in neighborhoods stressed by foreclosure since 2008.

The forgivable loan program assists homebuyers with down payment and closing costs. Officials say the city's investment of $1.2 million in the program has leveraged an additional $3.2 million from Wells Fargo, Minnesota Housing, Federal Home Loan Bank Des Moines and through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

"This financial assistance enables a buyer to purchase a house, and that helps to rebuild the neighborhoods," said council member Elizabeth Glidden, who represents Ward 8.

Stats on the Minneapolis Advantage Program:

• All homes had to be foreclosed, vacant, or in a high foreclosure-impacted neighborhood.
• Loan recipients purchased homes in 30 Minneapolis neighborhoods.
• Nearly 350 homes have been purchased.
• Nearly 60% of the home buyers moved to Minneapolis from elsewhere.
• 89% of the recipients are first time home buyers.
• 48% of the home buyers are between the ages of 31-50.
• Average household size is two.
• 49% of the homes' purchase prices are less than $100,000; 39% of purchase prices are between $100,000-$150,000.

More funds are available in 2012. Approximately $400,000, or around 25 loans, is available to help potential buyers purchase a foreclosed home in eligible neighborhoods. Based on income eligibility requirements, buyers within 80% of the area median income (approximately $64,000 for a four-member household) can receive up to $20,000 and buyers within 120% of the area median income (approximately $100,700 for a four-member household) can receive up to $10,000. These funds can be used to pay for closing costs and down payment assistance.

For more information, call the Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation, program administrator, at (612) 588-3033.

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Top Mpls aide Steven Bosacker resigning

Posted at 4:15 PM on February 2, 2012 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Politics

The city of Minneapolis is losing the most influential non-elected official most people have probably never heard of. City Coordinator Steven Bosacker announced he's leaving next month. For the last six years, Bosacker has worked primarily out of the public eye on several major policy issues, most notably the creation of the 311 information call line and the city's conversion from the 20-year-old Neighborhood Revitalization Program to the Neighborhood & Community Relations Department.

Bosacker didn't operate completely in the shadows. Anyone who has watched a city council meeting has probably seen him called to the podium in council chambers to answer an elected official's question. Advising the council and mayor are just two of several duties of the position. Bosacker also oversaw six city departments.

In a press release Mayor RT Rybak praised Bosacker's work:

Steven Bosacker is one of the most gifted public administrators in the history of Minnesota and his work for Minneapolis had been nothing short of transformative.

Bosacker says he's leaving to pursue a "life-long dream" of traveling the world.

No word yet from the city on a possible interim or permanent replacement.

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Minneapolis mayor fires back on stadiums

Posted at 8:35 AM on February 2, 2012 by Tim Nelson (3 Comments)
Filed under: Budget , Minneapolis

A week after a chilly reception for his stadium proposal in front of the City Council, and a day after a shot-across-the-bow from St. Paul, Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak is rising to the defense of his plan.

Rybak sent out the following "Dear Friend" letter via email, explaining why the city needs to put $315 million into a Vikings stadium and another $100 million into Target Center, despite the 1997 charter amendment that caps the city's spending on professional sports venues at $10 million.

Here's what he had to say:

Dear Friend,

As you probably know, City Council President Barbara Johnson and I have proposed a plan to lower property taxes in Minneapolis, fund the Minneapolis Convention Center and the Target Center, and contribute to a new Vikings stadium at the Metrodome. And we do all this by using existing Minneapolis sales and user taxes for Minneapolis -- without raising any new taxes.

Why have we proposed this plan? Why is it worth the fight?

We've proposed this plan because it's a good deal for Minneapolis taxpayers. And we've proposed it because without it, Minneapolis taxpayers could well end up with a raw deal.

That's the difference between being at the table fighting for something -- or walking away, not fighting and getting nothing, or worse.
3-for-1 plan for property-tax relief

I've said it over and over: property taxes in Minneapolis are too high. That's why the City Council and I passed zero increase in the City's property taxes for 2012.

We've worked hard to hold the line on property taxes in Minneapolis, despite drastic State cuts to our budget over many years: we've cut our own spending (now 9% lower than 10 years ago) and we fixed the broken closed-pension system that was the major driver of property-tax increases in recent years. In the process, we've paid down $183 million in debt and restored the City's AAA credit rating.

But an ongoing drain on Minneapolis property taxes has been Target Center. Despite the fact that Target Center is a facility of statewide importance, only Minneapolis property-tax payers have been on the hook to pay off Target Center's debt, to the tune of $5 million a year.

That's just wrong. But despite the fact that the City Council and I have lobbied for years to get this burden off Minneapolis taxpayers' backs, the State has not acted -- and without a change, Minneapolis taxpayers alone will keep paying Target Center's debt until 2025.

Now, for the first time -- and only because Council President Johnson and I have been at the table fighting for a solution to the Vikings stadium -- we have a realistic plan to move the burden of Target Center debt off the backs of Minneapolis property taxpayers and share it with all of the 18,000,000 people who visit and spend money in Minneapolis every year. And we can do it without raising any new taxes on anyone.

By keeping in Minneapolis existing, State-authorized sales and user taxes that are already collected here and currently dedicated to the Minneapolis Convention Center, we will not only lower property taxes on Minneapolis homeowners and business owners: we will continue to keep the Convention Center competitive, renovate the Target Center, and help find a solution for a new home for the Vikings. That solution includes a $1-billion new investment in our city that will create thousands of good jobs in the construction, service and hospitality industries.

What happens if we're not at the table fighting for Minneapolis?

Some say that Minneapolis should just walk away from the table and not be part of this discussion. But this point of view turns a blind eye to reality -- that the Legislature controls Minneapolis' taxes and Minneapolis' fate.

The existing taxes that Council President Johnson and I want to use for property-tax relief, for Target Center and the Convention Center, as well as for a new stadium, are ones that the Legislature has the power simply to take from Minneapolis at will.

If we were not at the table fighting to solve these long-standing stadium issues, the Legislature could -- and in all likelihood, would -- simply apply our taxes entirely to a new Vikings stadium, leaving Minneapolis homeowners out in the cold and still paying for Target Center debt. This would also leave the Convention Center and Target Center financially unsustainable, damage our strong hospitality economy and create even more of a burden for Minneapolis taxpayers.

That's why we're at the table, fighting for Minneapolis: because there, we can strike the best deal for Minneapolis taxpayers. If we weren't there, who would fight for Minneapolis?

Our only choice: being part of the solution

When we face a problem in Minneapolis, we don't walk away from it -- we roll up our sleeves, listen to each other and try to solve it together. That's the Minneapolis way, and that's the way we're working toward a solution to the long-standing property tax/stadium/jobs issue. But being part of the solution is Minneapolis' only choice.

As we stay at the table and keep fighting for our city, I encourage you keep listening, ask questions and look closely at our plan to lower property taxes, build a stronger economy and keep Minneapolis taxes benefitting Minneapolis.

Mayor R.T. Rybak
City of Minneapolis

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Minneapolis seeks public input on 'climate action plan'

Posted at 11:50 AM on February 1, 2012 by Madeleine Baran (3 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Minneapolis

Did you know that Minneapolis has its own plan to address climate change?

City staffers are updating the Minneapolis Climate Action Plan this year, and they're asking for public input at a meeting tonight at 5:30 p.m. at the Central Library.

The city first signed a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions nearly two decades ago. The resolution adopting the plan noted, "there is international scientific consensus that the issue of climate change is of paramount global concern."

The 1993 goal was to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2005 (based on 1988 levels). The city's current goal is to reduce emissions by 15 percent by 2015 and 30 percent by 2025 (based on 2006 levels).

Meeting those goals has been a challenge. A 2009 city report compared emissions data from 2000 and 2006. It found a 4 percent decline in emissions.

Meanwhile, the past decade was the warmest on record, city planners said, and two years (2005 and 2010) tied for the warmest years since recording began in 1880.

The city's website says the problem is urgent:

Without strong and early action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, our city, state and nation will face severe consequences. In the Upper Midwest, we face increased heat waves, reduced air quality and increasing insect and waterborne diseases. Changes in precipitation mean we will also face increased periods of flooding and drought.

Tonight's event includes two speakers - Dr. Mark Seeley, a climatologist and professor at the University of Minnesota (and a regular commentator for MPR News) and Kristin Raab, the climate change project director for the Minnesota Department of Health.

The city has asked those who plan on attending to register for the event online.

If you can't attend, but still want to share your input, the city has created an online survey about energy efficiency and transportation.

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Police report string of copper thefts from air conditioners in Minneapolis

Posted at 3:24 PM on January 31, 2012 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

Minneapolis police say copper thieves are now breaking into commercial air conditioners in Minneapolis to snag tens or even hundreds of feet of copper coil. Twelve incidents have been reported since mid-November, prompting police to issue a request this week for the public's help.

Copper theft has been a long-standing problem at foreclosed homes and construction sites and the number of thefts have increased as the price of copper rose during the recession, according to Minneapolis Police Sgt. William Palmer.

Air conditioners haven't been a frequent target for copper thieves until recently, Palmer said.

"This is the first time I've heard of them getting up on the roofs and going after these commercial units," he said. "I'm sure it's happened before, but I've never heard of it in 18 years."

In most of the incidents, Palmer said, the thieves appear to have climbed onto a commercial roof and stripped the air conditioner units in the middle of the night. The air conditioner units are expensive (between $20,000 and $40,000, Palmer estimates), and the theft makes the units impossible to repair.

Most of the thefts occurred in an area bordered by Lake Street on the south, I-94 on the north, Cedar Avenue on the east, and 35-W on the east.

Palmer said it's unclear how much each unit's copper is worth, but given the complicated operation and the risk of felony-level property damage charges, he said it's probably a considerable amount of money.

"The risk has got to be worth the reward they're getting out of it," he said.

Police are asking that neighbors call 911 if they see any suspicious vehicles with ladders near commercial buildings at night.

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Redistricting game about as fun as it sounds

Posted at 12:04 PM on January 30, 2012 by Curtis Gilbert (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Politics, St. Paul

Ever wanted to gerrymander Minneapolis? Now's your chance.

The good-government group Common Cause Minnesota is encouraging members of the public to redraw the city's ward boundaries using specialized online mapping software.

The object of the game is to ensure each ward has the same number of residents based on the 2010 census. If you like jigsaw puzzles, it might even be fun for you. Or then again, maybe not.

After several frustrating attempts, I called up Mike Dean, who's in charge of the state Common Cause chapter, and he walked me through it. The current map is on the left. Mine's on the right. Can you tell the difference?

Confused? I was too. There's a lot of information displayed there. The yellow lines are what you're actually adjusting -- the ward boundaries. The checker board of black, white and gray represents census tracts. The brown-tinted wards on the left-hand map have too many people in them right now. The blue-tinted ones have too few.

So you basically have to shrink wards two and seven, which include the U of M, downtown and neighborhoods to the west of it. They've gained population over the last decade. And you have to grow wards four, five and six, which have a smaller share of the population now. Those wards include north Minneapolis, plus Whittier and some neighborhoods south of the 94/35W intersection.

I'll admit I learned a lot going through the exercise, but I also had an expert to hold my hand. Plus, I got to do it on company time.

I had a harder time picturing many members of the general public slogging through the process. I'm not sure most people even care whether they end up in Ward 2 or Ward 6.

"They should," Dean said. "Part of the problem is that redistricting for decades has been done in the back room. Because of that, there's not much understanding of how it works or why it matters."

Dean acknowledges that the mapping program can be a little clunky. But he hopes those bugs will be worked out by the time the 2022 redistricting process comes around.

In other cartography news...

The Minneapolis Charter Commission will draft a final map by mid-March, with draft proposals and opportunities for public comment between now and then. A court will decide state legislative and congressional district maps in late February.

St. Paul finished redrawing its wards last year. Its population shifts were much smaller than those in Minneapolis, and the process was largely uncontroversial. But city political maps can certainly be contentious. Ten years ago, the Minneapolis redistricting process resulted in a lawsuit.

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A Minneapolis 'first' steps down

Posted at 12:04 PM on January 27, 2012 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Race

When Alex Jackson was sworn in as Minneapolis' first African American fire chief in 2008 (pictured above), he cracked up the audience in the City Hall Rotunda with his self-deprecating humor. "Twenty-seven years ago, the city hires me. And at that time, I am a lean, mean, 130-pound fire fighting machine," said Jackson, who is also a stand-up comedian. "And I'm going to be honest with you -- because my family is here -- 30 pounds of it was an Afro."

Today, in a more somber ceremony, the city honored Jackson as he leaves the department for retirement. Council member Don Samuels put his arm around Jackson and offered some empathetic words. Samuels, who came to the U.S. from Jamaica in 1970, said he remembered what it was like to be the first black person at every new company he worked for.

"Part of dealing with that, being that first person is dealing with a lot of silly, immature comments from people; expectations from people; and keeping a great attitude and moving forward," Samuels said. "And that's the part of the work that nobody pays you for. And they don't put a holiday in your name, like Martin Luther King. You just do it every day. You come into work and you just do it."

Earlier in the council meeting, the city also honored several young people who won a Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest. Samuels remarked on how important it was that they saw Jackson as a real life example of what King fought for.

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Skyways the death of downtown sidewalk culture?

Posted at 1:56 PM on January 25, 2012 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Business, Minneapolis

This 1963 photo of one of the first skyways opening in downtown Minneapolis is from the Minnesota Historical Society.

It'll be a tough sell convincing folks that skyways are a bad deal.

A recent batch of barbs from some thinkers and from Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak cite the skyway system as the reason the city's storefronts and sidewalks are so blah and devoid of people.

Apparently the critics haven't noticed all the shivering bus riders, buskers and beggars on downtown sidewalks.

But it's true. Most of the city's 160,000 plus downtown workers stride along coatless, hatless and gloveless through the city's eight miles of skyways that connect more than 70 blocks.

Calling a halt to skyway expansion and encouraging more street level walkers, some thinkers argue, would make downtown more interesting.

Weather may play the biggest role.

The downtown scene really perks up with warmer weather as vendors populate the Nicollet Mall.

Business owners funding DID, the Downtown Improvement District, are certainly encouraging sidewalk use by spending lots of money keeping them clean and ice and snow free, and hiring workers who gladly help lost pedestrians find their way.

When it stops snowing, sleeting, raining, blowing and freezing and when more San Diego-type weather arrives in the Twin Cities, I boldy predict a resurgence of people on downtown Minneapolis sidewalks.

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Marketing push planned for Central Corridor

Posted at 3:57 PM on January 23, 2012 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Business, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

As the Metropolitan Council reflects on how to improve Central Corridor construction in 2012, it's rolling out a new marketing push to promote affected businesses.

At a transportation committee meeting this afternoon, the Met Council's project staff is recommending the $1.2 million, two-year contract go to Mod & Company of St. Paul. On its website, the marketing and design firm showcases a sampling of the stylish branding it has done for clients ranging from the Rosedale Center to the Uptown Art Fair.

A collective plug for the corridor can't come soon enough for Jack McCann, head of the University Avenue Business Association.

"We need to have the marketing in place when the cones are set up and everyone says, "Oh Christ, here we go again,'" McCann said.

McCann and other business folks met project representatives today for one of many discussions about "lessons learned" from 2011. McCann said his general message to the council was: "You confused people, you didn't manage your signs, you kind of fumbled your way through the first year."

But McCann said now that the marketing money is secured, it's also time for business owners to work with the Met Council and bring customers back to University Avenue.

"It's time to stop the crabby thing, and we have to do the positives," McCann said. "It's time to say, 'It's a great time to come down here.'"

The mega-marketing push builds on the efforts led by community groups in St. Paul to help businesses during construction. The Neighborhood Development Center's U7 offers consulting services to businesses, and the Midway Chamber of Commerce hosted "Lunch on the Avenue" and developed a grassroots marketing campaign. The St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce developed the "Discover Central Corridor" brand.

And they pushed for more.

Last June, the chambers and several other business groups wrote Met Council Chairwoman Sue Haigh a letter urging the council to fund a comprehensive marketing program.

"The campaign would create excitement around the CCLRT and ensure that the businesses that are facing the hardships of construction today are around to enjoy the excitement and benefits of the completed line," the letter says.

File photo by MPR's Jeff Thompson

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Search for killers of Minneapolis youths continues

Posted at 11:29 AM on January 20, 2012 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

A north Minneapolis community activist sent me a Facebook invite about a vigil that will be held Saturday for Quantell Braxton. Apparently, today would have been his 15th birthday. But he was shot and killed on an August night last year. The vigil will be held at the intersection of 17th and Morgan Avenue North, near the scene of the crime. Shortly after Braxton's killing, Crimestoppers offered up to $1,000 for information in his case. However, police officials say they're still looking for suspects.

Police say they're also still looking for leads in the shooting death of the youngest homicide victim in 2011, Terrell Mayes, Jr. Last week, members of his family teamed with dozens of volunteers to canvass the surrounding neighborhood with flyers. The flyers included a picture of Mayes and information about a $7,000 reward - also through Crimestoppers. According to Sgt. Stephen McCarty of the Minneapolis Police Department, the reward has grown to $10,000. He says Crimestoppers offers the original $1,000. The rest comes from donations.

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City of Minneapolis joins Foursquare

Posted at 8:40 PM on January 18, 2012 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

The social networking site Foursquare recently signed up a new user -- the city of Minneapolis.

The city hopes to use the location-based site to connect residents to local government. It unveiled its Foursquare account today.

For those not in the know, here's how the site works. You can "check in" to a location on Foursquare (like a city agency or, more commonly, a business) and see other people's comments and add your own. The owner of a location can also post "tips" and offer deals to users who check in at their location.

If you check in to a Minneapolis high school on Foursquare, you'll see a tip encouraging you to sign up for the city's STEP-UP summer jobs program. If you check in to City Hall, you'll see tips about city council meetings. And if you check in at a dog park or certain pet stores, you'll get a reminder to license your pet.

City spokesperson Matt Lindstrom says the city plans to add more locations and tips for residents.

Minneapolis appears to be the first city government in the state with its own official Foursquare page. Lindstrom says he's aware of a handful of other participating city governments around the country, including Austin, Texas.

The city already has Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts. The Minneapolis Snow Emergency site on Facebook has proved to be the most popular. At last check, it had 18,652 "likes."

It's seems unlikely the city's Foursquare site will attract that kind of web traffic anytime soon. Only 35 people have "checked in" to the Minneapolis City Hall in the last 60 days and there are only a handful of tips/comments. They include tips for the best vending machines and a post from a user named Jason S., who left the following recommendation on March 11, 2011:

Try to have an interaction with any of the ghosts that walk these halls. There's three that we know of.

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Free fun with Finns

Posted at 1:55 PM on January 18, 2012 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts , Immigration, Livability, Minneapolis

This photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society has former governor Orville Freeman standing next to Finland's prime minister Reino Kuuskoski at a 1958 event in Minnneapolis.

The prime minister is presenting Freeman with a handwoven Finnish rug typical of the art and craft of the country.

Finnish textiles will be among the items on display at an event that is a true antidote for the midwinter blahs.

The Good Design Is Forever event takes place in south Minneapolis, Saturday, Jan. 28.

First of all, the gathering is inside a work of art - Christ Church Lutheran - a national historic landmark designed by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen with an addition by Eero, Saarinen's son.

Besides textiles, there'll be exhibits of Finnish glass along with music, films and food.

There'll be art projects for the kids.

You can tour the church.

Did I say free?

Finns are fun. Besides great design, they have a fascinating, if challenging, language.

Put "terve" (hello, or good health to you) in your collection of greetings - (TARE veh and roll the "r" with gusto) - when you visit the Saturday event and hold on. Native speakers will turn to look at you, correct your pronunciation, and help you learn some other amazing words.

Finns are a smaller but influential ethnic group in Minnesota. Lots of them came to work in the mines on the Iron Range.

More recently, a fellow named Osmo has helped take the Minnesota Orchestra to new levels of artistry.

Years ago, my colleague Mary Losure and I did a piece on the Finns in Minnesota.

Have a listen.

I wonder whatever became of the rug?

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Gov. pitches ballpark for St. Paul, Nicollet Mall renovation

Posted at 4:01 PM on January 17, 2012 by Curtis Gilbert (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Gov. Mark Dayton's proposed bonding bill includes a pair of big-ticket items for Minneapolis and St. Paul. But the state's two largest cities didn't get the governor's backing for a variety of smaller proposed construction projects.

Dayton's $775 million proposal includes $27 million for a new St. Paul Saints ballpark in Lowertown and $25 million to renovate the iconic-but-aging Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. Those were the priciest items on the two cities' wishlists, and they were the only ones that made the governor's cut today.

That's no guarantee of a groundbreaking, though.

The proposed ballpark, which would be built next to St. Paul Farmer's Market, was in the governor's proposed bonding bill last year, too. But it didn't make it into the final compromise Dayton struck with the legislature at the end of the bruising 2011 Special Session.

St. Paul and the Saints are pushing hard this year, billing the project as a job-creation measure and enlisting the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce to help persuade the GOP-controlled Legislature.

But it may still be a tough sell.

"Rather than using debt as a jobs plan, Minnesota would be much better served if the Governor turned his attention to creating a positive tax and regulatory climate in which job creators were more confident about expanding and investing in Minnesota," Senate Majority Leader Dave Senjem, R-Rochester, said in a statement.

St. Paul also wanted bonding money for other projects including a Children's Museum expansion and parking lot improvements at Como Park. Minneapolis had a number of road and bridge projects rejected, as well as money to upgrade the Target Center. But Nicollet Mall was the city's top priority.

"It's in disrepair, and it needs attention," said Jeremy Hanson Willis, chief of staff to Mayor R.T. Rybak.

The Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board submitted its own list of proposals. The only one that Dayton adopted was $8.5 million to renovate the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden across from the Walker Art Center.

Other metro area highlights in the governor's bonding proposal include a $25 million down payment toward a proposed light rail line from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie. There's also $5.4 million proposed to build a fence around the women's prison in Shakopee.

That's right. It still doesn't have one.

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2011: big bike year for Minneapolis

Posted at 12:01 PM on January 17, 2012 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

If it felt like Minneapolis streets and bike paths were more crowded with bicycles last year, your hunch was correct. Today the city released a report showing that between 2010-2011 the number of bicyclists increased 25 percent, and from 2007-2011 the number of bicyclists grew by 47 percent.

The city's new bike and pedestrian coordinator, Shaun Murphy, presented the report's findings to members of the Transportation and Public Works committee. He says the growth in bike traffic has also increased safety. The report shows that the number of bicycle/motor vehicle collisions has steadily declined as the number of riders has gone up.

Some say the increased popularity of bicycling is having a financial impact. Council member Sandy Colvin Roy says she's hearing that the burgeoning bike community is building a bike-oriented economy, "The biking community in purchases and repair and uses of biking and production of biking parts is now a multimillion dollar business in our metro region."

Colvin Roy added that Minneapolis Convention Center officials say the green, Nice Ride bikes have become very popular with out of town visitors. The bike sharing program added 500 more bikes and extended their network to include St. Paul.

The most interesting part of the report, for me at least, was that the new bike infrastructure now includes several public air pumps. I didn't see one last year, but I hope they add more of them - along the Midtown Greenway would be great. Most gas stations charge 50 to 75 cents for air. And that's a drag because bike tires are just not large enough to get your money's worth of air.

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Hennepin County sheriff pushing hard for more courtroom security

Posted at 1:00 PM on January 13, 2012 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Crime, Minneapolis

I just finished a story that focused on the possibility that Hennepin County will increase security measures at three suburban court buildings. This morning, a source sent me copies of letters exchanged between Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek and Chief Judge James Swenson. Stanek, who has repeatedly called for metal detectors at all court facilities, writes to Swenson that he has an interim security solution, but doesn't offer details. In a letter dated Jan. 6, Stanek asks for a standing order from the court to require screening or a change to the county's security policies. However, that change would have to be approved by the Hennepin County Board.

Swenson replied five days later that while he agreed with Stanek that screening should be extended to all court buildings, he didn't think a court order was necessary. But Swenson said he would be willing to sign such an order, provided that the sheriff offered assurances that his office can "provide additional safety at the suburban locations without diverting resources already committed to court security elsewhere."

Hennepin County Board chair Mike Opat says he expects to the board to see Stanek's proposal sometime next week.

Also here's a breakdown for how much the county spends each year on weapons screening. The numbers cover personnel costs, equipment maintenance for the metal detectors. But they don't include the costs for Sheriff's deputies who also provide security throughout court buildings.

Government Center: $895,000
Family Justice Center: $150,000
Juvenile Justice Center: $240,000
Public Safety Center (also known as the jail - but it contains three courtrooms): $325,000

County officials say it will be hard to estimate how much it will cost to add screening to the three suburban courthouses because some of the buildings have multiple entrances.

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Grant puts Mpls Jaguar site on track for redevelopment

Posted at 8:45 PM on January 11, 2012 by Rupa Shenoy (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul

The downtown Minneapolis Jaguar dealership that's sat vacant for several years will be cleaned up to make way for a new mixed-use development of housing and retail space.

That announcement came from the Metropolitan Council today. The organization approved $2.4 million dollars in grants as part of the Livable Communities program, which funds affordable housing, mixed-use development, and brownfield cleanups. This latest round of grants will help clean up 49 acres, the Met Council said in a release.

The grants include one for nearly $442,900 to do an environmental investigation at the Jaguar site, along with soil remediation and asbestos and PCB abatement. The 2.5 acres along Hennepin Avenue has been empty since 2007. The Met Council says plans include 286 apartments and about 40,000 square feet of retail grocery space.

Another grant goes to the Schmidt Brew House in St. Paul. Nearly $248,200 funds for asbestos and lead paint abatement. The building was home to an ethanol plant from 2000 to 2004. Before that it was vacant for many years.

The Met Council says existing brew house buildings will be renovated into 130 affordable apartments.

Other plans have included a rathskeller, restaurants and offices.

The Council received 24 applications totaling more than $5 million for brownfield cleanup awards this funding round. It awarded 12 grants.

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Memorial service planned for former Star Tribune editor

Posted at 7:33 AM on January 6, 2012 by MPR News Staff (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A memorial service is planned for Jan. 19 in Washington for Charles Waldo Bailey II, former editor of the Minneapolis Tribune and co-author of the Cold War thriller "Seven Days in May." He died of complications from Parkinson's disease, his daughter said Thursday. He was 82.

Bailey died Tuesday at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, N.J., his daughter Victoria Bailey said.

"He was a newspaperman. He was a journalist. He loved newspapers and he really believed in the role of newspapers in the community," Victoria Bailey said. "His reporters, his writers really liked working for him."

A Boston native, Bailey became a Tribune reporter in 1950 after graduating from Harvard University. In 1954, he was assigned to the paper's Washington bureau, later becoming its chief.

He was named the morning Tribune's editor in 1972 and resigned a decade later over staff reductions following its merger with the afternoon Minneapolis Star. Bailey returned to Washington, where he was Washington editor for National Public Radio from 1984-87.

Bailey co-wrote three books with Fletcher Knebel, including "No High Ground," "Convention" and "Seven Days in May," about an attempted U.S. military coup. It was made into a 1964 movie directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Fredric
March.

Bailey also wrote the 1991 solo novel, "The Land Was Ours," about a newspaper reporter in the Upper Midwest.

Victoria Bailey said her father "felt a strong commitment to the people of Minnesota."

"He was very clear and articulate that ... people in all parts of the country deserve a good, strong newspaper, and he really cared about Minnesota and the Upper Midwest," she said.

Bailey's wife, Ann Card Bailey, died in 2010. In addition to his daughter Victoria, survivors include another daughter, Sarah Bailey, and a sister, Joanna Hodgman.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Minneapolis fire chief to step down

Posted at 4:02 PM on January 4, 2012 by Jon Gordon (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

Minneapolis Fire Chief Alex Jackson announced today that he will retire.

Jackson spent 27 years in the department before becoming the first African American to be appointed chief in 2008.

Mayor R.T. Rybak and other city leaders praised Jackson's leadership and say he will be missed.

Jackson had been feeling heat from the city council members who were concerned about growing overtime expenditures.

Rybak will nominate John Fruetel as the next chief. Fruetel is a former Minneapolis firefighter of 31 years who retired in 2010 as assistant chief. He currently manages emergency preparedness and training for the city.

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How connected are you?

Posted at 3:00 PM on December 30, 2011 by Brandt Williams (1 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

I've contracted an odd behavioral tick. Every time I see someone talking or texting on their phone, I feel compelled to reach into my pocket and check to make sure my phone is there, or check it for missed calls or messages. It's a similar reaction to being next to someone who yawns. It happens a lot, because everywhere I go downtown people are glued to some kind of device. And very often they are walking and poking a screen at the same time. I don't recommend it.

However, not everyone in Minneapolis is that connected. Now Minneapolis city officials want to know how big that "digital divide" is, so the city has hired a research firm to conduct a survey of 8,800 households chosen at random from across the city. The surveys, which will be mailed next week, will ask people how they use mobile devices, computers and the internet.

City officials say the goal is to figure out where to focus dollars from its Digital Inclusion Fund. The fund was established in 2007 after the city contracted with Minnetonka-based USI Wireless to build a citywide wireless network.

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Northside tornado photography exhibit at the U

Posted at 2:48 PM on December 28, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts , Education, Minneapolis

Of Sadness and Hope: Images from the Northside Tornado is a youth-produced photography exhibit aimed at raising awareness and money to support those still affected by the May 22 tornado.

Many of the young people, who attend elementary and middle school at Nellie Stone Johnson and Jefferson Schools, live in north Minneapolis and were directly affected by the disaster.

The show presents their photos of the devastation at the University of Minnesota Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center Gallery on Jan. 12 from 5 to 7 p.m.

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State pension funds still healthy

Posted at 4:45 PM on December 22, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Budget , Minneapolis

Here's another sign that the economy is improving. The state auditor released a report today that found the state's large municipal pension funds had another positive year in 2010.

During 2010, rates of return for the large plans ranged from 12.0 percent (Minneapolis Fire) to 16.0 percent (Duluth Teachers'). All of the plans except for Minneapolis Fire were able to meet their respective benchmarks.

According to the report, the Minneapolis Fire fund narrowly missed its benchmark return of 12.3 percent. Researchers say the state's funds suffered losses in 2008 and the first part of 2009 but are now on an upswing.

This may be the last report that includes the Minneapolis funds - they're merging with statewide funds next year.

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Building homes in the Central Corridor

Posted at 4:50 PM on December 20, 2011 by Laura Yuen (3 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Light-rail planners say a housing renaissance is already afoot along the Central Corridor, about three years before the first trains begin to roll. More than 5,100 housing units are on the way or have been completed, the Metropolitan Council announced today.

That figure is a bit misleading, though. Included in that calculation are about 1,800 units that make up Riverside Plaza and The Cedars, two existing housing developments on the West Bank of Minneapolis that were part of a large-scale rehab.

The tally also includes "upcoming development projects" that are still in the design phase. One example is the long delayed Penfield grocery-and-housing project that has been on St. Paul's drawing board for years.

Still, there are plenty of recent projects, from university student apartments to senior housing in St. Paul's Frogtown, that make a formidable list when you lump them all together. The corridor encompasses both downtowns, the University of Minnesota and everything in between.

It's not hard to see why developers are eyeing the land around the 11-mile stretch. Light-rail advocates have long seen the transit option as a tool to redevelop urban neighborhoods.

One example of new development is the Chittenden & Eastman building, which housed artist work space, near Raymond and University avenues. The former mattress warehouse and store is poised to reopen in October 2012 as 104 market-rate apartments.

"We would not be there trying to do something with that property had it not been for the light rail line," said developer Jim Stolpestad of Exeter Realty, in a statement today. "University had to be redone."

The question for many neighbors is how to reshape the corridor while preserving what makes it unique. Are you having conversations now in your communities on how to accomplish that?

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Minneapolis: An ever-changing skyline

Posted at 9:15 PM on December 14, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Sometime in the 1970s my mom signed me up for a drawing class for kids at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. They lined us up in a glass hallway looking out toward downtown Minneapolis and taught us to draw the skyline.

We drew the IDS and the Foshay.

I thought of my modest little drawing today as news cameras filled the foyer of the Hennepin County Central Library-- one of downtown's recent treasures-- and downtown business leaders unveiled their vision for the city in 2025.

They used words like thriving, liveable, green, connected, exciting and welcoming.

We reported on the sports district that would include a new Vikings stadium. The plan also includes building Gateway Park and transforming Nicollet into a "must-see" destination stretching from the Walker Art Center to the Mississippi River. You can read the 10 point plan here.

Downtown Council President and CEO Sam Grabarski reminded the crowd of the city's track record for delivering on its dreams: a new Twins stadium, LRT, and residential housing downtown. Even in a down economy, the city continues to think big, even pledging to end street homelessness.

I'm pretty sure I can't draw the skyline anymore.

Photo credits:
Archival image of Minneapolis Skyline photographed by Forest J. Sorenson in 1972 courtesy of the Minnesota History Center.
Vision from Intersections: Downtown 2025 Plan, courtesy of the Minneapolis Downtown Council.

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Minneapolis cops lauded for arresting anti-Somali attacker

Posted at 5:22 PM on December 13, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Immigration, Minneapolis, Race

Remember these guys?

Minneapolis police officers Abdiwahab Ali, left, and Mohamed Abdullahi were profiled in my Sept. 8 piece on what it's like to be Muslim in Minnesota. Despite working on the front lines of fighting crime, the two beat cops spoke of additional security measures they faced while traveling through U.S. airports since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Today, the folks at the Department of Homeland Security singled them out -- to say thank you.

The two men, along with Somali community liaison Officer Jeanine Brudenell and crime-prevention specialist Ahmed Hassan, were honored today with awards of appreciation for their work on a case resulting in a successful federal hate-crime prosecution.

In May 2010, Ali and Abdullahi, who patrol the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, responded to the beating of an 82-year-old Somali man. The attacker punched the man several times, while yelling anti-Muslim and anti-Somali statements and telling him to go back to Africa, according to court documents.

Although the man ran away that time, Ali and Abdullahi talked to witnesses. More than two months later, the officers spotted Goerge Loren Thompson, now 64, who was allegedly chasing a 24-year-old Somali man and threatening to kill him. The officers arrested Thompson, who police say was drunk and in possession of two handguns.

When Thompson, who is white, learned that Ali and Abdullahi were Somali, police say he threatened to kill them, too.

And to top it off, Thompson worked for the Transportation Security Administration, which is part of homeland security.

Thompson pleaded guilty to the May 2010 incident and was recently sentenced to six months in prison.

After accepting the award today, Abdullahi said the award was humbling.

"It's an honor for the job we do in the community," he said.

The attack alarmed many Somali residents because it was so unprovoked, said Abdiwahab Ali. Immediately after the beating, the elderly victim changed his route and was afraid to go out, even to the mosque, Ali said.

The attacker's sentencing and today's award ceremony will be appreciated by his community as the police continue to earn its trust, he said.

"It sends a good message from Homeland Security to the people that a case like this is not going to be tolerated, and it will be prosecuted," Ali said.

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Mpls celebrates local food program

Posted at 2:00 PM on December 9, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Food, Minneapolis

The folks who helped bring urban bees and mini-farmers markets to Minneapolis are holding a community celebration Monday night.

The city-run initiative, called Homegrown Minneapolis, has been around since 2008 - relying in part on funding from the Statewide Health Improvement Program.

Since then, they've helped set up mini-farmers markets in low-income neighborhoods, organized an effort to increase healthy food options in corner stores, opened up city lots for community gardens, taught residents the basics of food canning, and helped create a system for food support recipients to use EBT cards at farmers markets.

Photo: Sandy Miller checks the progress of her produce on June 13, 2011. Miller is part of a community garden program in her Minneapolis neighborhood. "Eventually," says Miller, "we'll add raspberries and other things we can share with people in the community." (MPR Photo/Nikki Tundel)

"We're linking arm in arm with folks in the community to really figure out what can we do to have a more sustainable healthy local food system," said Homegrown Minneapolis coordinator June Mathiowetz.

The event starts at 4:45 p.m. at the University Research and Outreach Center at 2001 Plymouth Ave. N. Residents will also get a chance to share their suggestions for improving access to healthy local food. More information on Homegrown Minneapolis is available here.

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Mpls 'laundry room burglar' is on the loose

Posted at 1:48 PM on December 9, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

South Minneapolis apartment dwellers -- are you looking for a reason to procrastinate doing your laundry? You've come to the right place.

The Minneapolis Police Department says there's a laundry room burglar on the loose. It's likely the same man was responsible for two laundry room break-ins, police said -- one at 3019 Pleasant Ave S. on Nov. 1 and the other at 4300 Grand Ave S. on Dec. 2.

At the apartment on Grand, the man allegedly pried open the coin box on a washing machine and cut several water lines on his way out, causing the basement to flood.

Both break-ins occurred between 6 and 8 p.m., police said.

The Pleasant Ave. apartment building has a camera in its laundry room, and the police released two images of the alleged burglar.

If you rob a bank, I'm guessing you expect to be videotaped. But how many laundry rooms have security cameras?

Police are asking anyone who can identify the suspect or provide information about the break-ins to call Sgt. James Jensen, of the 5th Precinct Property Crimes Unit, at 612-673-5587.

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Minneapolis billboards will carry snow emergency alerts

Posted at 2:46 PM on December 7, 2011 by Brandt Williams (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

The city of Minneapolis already uses a number of electronic delivery methods such as mass emails and online social media to broadcast snow emergency alerts. This year the city is going big. Billboards.

The city will use a dozen electronic billboards to announce when people should watch where they park their cars. The billboards are owned by Clear Channel. The company's Outdoor branch president Susan Adams Loyd says the billboards are seen by lots of eyeballs.

"In fact, the dozen boards that will be used for this program will be seen by more than one million people throughout the community each day during those designated Snow Emergencies."

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Minneapolis police shoot 'Obama' ... the dog

Posted at 4:27 PM on December 5, 2011 by Brandt Williams (2 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

Darrell Williams sued 10 officers and the city of Minneapolis after the officers broke down his door with guns drawn around noon on July 9, 2009. According to the complaint, the officers served a search warrant on Williams' south Minneapolis home. Williams claimed that he and his wife were upstairs when they heard a loud explosion and then gun shots coming from downstairs. He came downstairs and asked the officers what was going on. Williams alleges the officers threw him to the floor and kicked and punched him, leaving him with a black eye, bruised face and two injured ribs.

Then they shot Obama. His dog.

"In some of their answers to interrogatories, they [officers] claim that the dog was coming at them. Which if you look at where the blood was, it wasn't even close to where they were," says attorney Paul Applebaum.

Applebaum says Williams was not arrested and officers didn't find any contraband in the home.

Police spokesman Sgt. William Palmer declined to comment on the settlement, but he says sometimes officers who show up unannounced to homes encounter aggressive dogs. Palmer says often the dogs are doing what they're trained to do.

So far this year, officers have shot and killed 13 dogs. However, Palmer says in most of these cases, the officers were called to respond to 'threatening dog calls.'

Today, the Minneapolis City Council's Ways and Means Budget committee approved a recommendation by the city attorney to agree to a $24,500 settlement. The full council will vote on the settlement Friday.

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Financial lifeline to Somalia remains at risk

Posted at 9:15 PM on December 2, 2011 by Rupa Shenoy (0 Comments)
Filed under: Business, Minneapolis, St. Paul

Bank officials, elected representatives, and Somali money lenders still are trying to find a way to keep a financial lifeline to Somalia open.

Owners of Somali money-lending businesses, called hawalas, were notified by St Paul-based Sunrise Community Banks this week that their accounts with the bank will be closed Dec. 14th. Hawalas are the only financial institutions operating in Somalia, and Sunrise is the last remaining bank in the United States that supplies hawalas with the accounts they need to do business here.

The Association of Somali American Moneylenders says if the Dec. 14th deadline is enforced, it could lead to no less than a humanitarian crisis in East Africa. Remittances are one of the largest sources of income from that country, which is recovering from civil war and mass famine. The hawala owners met with Sunrise officials today to try to get the deadline pushed back.

David Reiling, Sunrise CEO, said the meeting was "excellent." This is how he said he responded to their request for an extension:

Quite honestly, we're still looking through all the various facts. We'll be meeting with our legal counsel and regulators. And we hope to have some sort of decision on that fairly soon. I wouldn't see that before end of day on Tuesday for sure. Obviously everyone would prefer not to have a break in their ability to send money back home, but that's obviously the issue.

Reiling said one possible solution is a humanitarian waiver from the U.S. State department that would offer the bank more legal protection if someone uses its system to transfer money to terrorist groups. But those types of waivers usually aren't given to banks. Reiling said Sunrise and hawala owners have the attention of elected officials who might be able to change that.

"I think they're engaged and they understand the magnitude of the situation and everyone is working in good faith in order to explore alternatives," he said.

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Homeless shelter gets makeover

Posted at 1:00 PM on December 2, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis

Life has improved ever so slightly for the 130 men who sleep at the Salvation Army's Safe Bay shelter every night.

(It's part of the larger Harbor Light shelter operated by Salvation Army in downtown Minneapolis.)

Here's what Safe Bay looked like before:

Here's what it looks like now, after a recent renovation led by a team of volunteer architects and construction workers:

The old layout led to frequent fights and thefts, said shelter operations director Dominick Bouza.

"There was just no room," he said.

Men slept on thin mats pressed up against each other. If someone got up at night to go to the bathroom, it was hard to avoid stepping on someone else.

"Then you've got a verbal altercation, then you've got a fight, and then you've got a third guy who sees all this and reaches over and steals one of the guy's cell phones. That's just the way it goes," Bouza said.

Bouza said that he used to get two or three reports of theft each week from the men sleeping at Safe Bay. He hasn't received a single report since the bunk beds were installed in late October.

It's not just the layout, he said. People are more likely to respect each other when they aren't sleeping on the ground.

"As soon as you raise that dignity level, people have a greater sense of self worth," Bouza said.

That's what the design team hoped would happen. They spent two days visiting the site and drafting plans as part of an annual Search for Shelter project organized by the American Institute of Architects.

Interior designer Rena Feldman, one of the team members, blogged about the effort:

We studied some precedents such as airports, boats and hostels, where space is tight but the sleeping arrangement is still comfortable and adequate. Our solution was to build quad bunk beds with dividers and small storage bins and space them out about two feet apart. It would comfortably fit one hundred and thirty sleeping beds plus a small lounge area.

In a few hours, the bunk beds will be full. They're full every night - as is the entire shelter, which holds upwards of 500 people.

As Bouza puts it, "Basically, this is a small town in one building."

(Photos courtesy of the Salvation Army)

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The Aliveness Project looks to expand

Posted at 9:30 PM on December 1, 2011 by Julie Siple (0 Comments)
Filed under: Food, Minneapolis

Clyde Cross relies on food and friends at The Aliveness Project in south Minneapolis

Twenty-six years.

That's how long the Aliveness Project has been serving Twin Cities residents who live with HIV and AIDS. The nonprofit got its start in the early days of the outbreak in Minnesota, when contracting HIV carried an intense stigma.

It's a different world for HIV patients now. Drug treatments make it possible for people to live much longer than in the past. But Joe Larson, executive director of The Aliveness Project, said the disease is still isolating.

"We have many people who say, 'Don't mail anything to me. I don't want anyone in my household to know I have HIV,''' he said. "I've even had people say, 'I don't even want my mail carrier to know.'"

The are afraid, he said, because they have been rejected in the past.

The Aliveness Project provides case managers, free hot meals, a food shelf -- and a place to gather. Nearly three decades later, Larson said that gathering place is still important.

"This is a place you can come meet someone else who's been living with HIV, maybe for many years, and realize this is not a death sentence," he said. "That makes a huge difference."

But with rising numbers, their space is tight. The Aliveness Project is raising money for a renovation. The group wants to double seating for its daily meal and expand the food shelf so it can offer fresh produce.

Clyde Cross is one of the many who came for food and found more. Cross, 50, has been living with HIV since 1996. He relies on the food shelf because at the end of the month, funds run low.

"When I started eating healthier, I seen my whole health situation turn around," he said. "I was able to stomach the medication."

But that's not the only reason he comes.

"We're all compatible here, in terms of what we're dealing with in life, medical wise. We can sit, talk to each other. And boy I tell you, I've been uplifted talking to people here."

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Metro Transit getting safer; some riders not so sure

Posted at 2:48 PM on November 29, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

A letter to the editor published this week in the Star Tribune about late-night fights and shenanigans at a busy downtown Minneapolis bus stop prompted me to call Metro Transit. I wanted to know if there has been an uptick in bus-related crime or police calls lately. Metro Transit spokesman John Siqveland, sent me an email about the bus stop mentioned in the Star Tribune letter.

"The bus stop at 7th and Nicollet is the single busiest transit stop in the state with over 4,100 boardings each weekday. The area at 7th and Nicollet is under constant video surveillance with cameras at many sources - such as area businesses. All Metro Transit buses have video recording equipment. Cameras can capture activity both inside and off-board the vehicle. Over 1,200 buses serve stops at the intersection of 7th and Nicollet every weekday (850+ on Saturday and 600+ on Sunday). During rush hours, Metro Transit buses serve stops at the intersection about once a minute."

Siqveland also says buses are getting safer.

"From 2006 to 2010, crimes per 100,000 rides have steadily declined from 11.9 to 6.8. Metro Transit Police use a broad definition of crime compared with other transit agencies. Serious crimes like robberies and assaults make up a very small share of the total and 'quality of life' or 'nuisance' crimes make up the vast majority. 'Quality of life' crimes include things like fare disputes and evasion, smoking, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, etc."

Metro Transit Police officials credit a number of factors for the decline in crime, including partnerships with groups like MAD DADS. Members of the non-profit group regularly ride the buses to help keep order along bus routes frequented by rowdy riders. Last year, I rode with a group of the physically imposing, yet extremely polite, DADS for an afternoon for this story. The men chatted and joked with passengers, and no one got out of line.

Do you ride Metro Transit buses? What's your experience? Ever run into unruly characters at a bus stop or on the bus?

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Why Mohamud Noor supports same-sex marriage

Posted at 10:20 AM on November 29, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Immigration, Minneapolis, Politics

In his bid to become the first Somali-American state legislator in Minnesota and possibly the country, Mohamud Noor is explaining to some voters why his Islamic faith is not in conflict with his support for LGBT rights.

Noor is one of five DFL candidates who will face off in a primary election next Tuesday, Dec. 6, to replace former Sen. Larry Pogemiller. Last week, Noor was endorsed by Stonewall DFL, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender caucus of the party. On his website, he argues "marriage is a basic right."

Noor, a former state worker, is courting voters in Minneapolis neighborhoods with heavy East African concentrations, including the Cedar-Riverside area. Many Somalis, but not all, are socially conservative on the marriage question due to religious beliefs.

Some Somali-Americans have questioned him directly, or indirectly, including in at least one spirited debate on Facebook, about his position against the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

What does he say in response?

"I have good friends, neighbors, and co-workers who are LGBT. They don't have the same basic rights as my wife and I do," he said in an interview. "It's more explaining the issue -- we are all in the same boat. How will they feel if their rights are taken way? It's about informing them, educating them. I'm not trying to push them at this stage."

Noor says every voter will be pushed plenty enough as the state ramps up to the ballot question next year. But one thing he can do now, Noor says, is encourage dialogue within the Somali-American community, where sexual orientation is rarely discussed. "In Somalia, if you say you're gay, you will be stoned to death," he says.

He says the Somali and LGBT communities actually have a lot in common, including clashes between youth and their parents, resulting in teen runaways and homelessness.

The marriage question, however, isn't the highest priority for most Somali voters, Noor contends. "They don't talk about the stadium or the gay-marriage issue," he said. "Their concern is just basic one: How can we survive? How can we make sure our children have a better future?"

Noor ran unsuccessfully for the Minneapolis school board last year. But another Somali-American, Hussein Samatar, was elected, and became the first Somali-American to hold public office in Minnesota and likely the nation.

The other contenders in the DFL primary are Peter Wagenius, Jacob Frey, Paul Ostrow, and Kari Dziedzic. All of them say they oppose the marriage amendment. Republican Ben Schwanke has also filed for the seat, and will advance to the general election on Jan. 10.

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Rush hour lane closures halt I-94 commuters

Posted at 8:40 AM on November 23, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

Commuters on eastbound Interstate 94 in Minneapolis were greeted by some rare lane closures this morning after an overnight striping project didn't dry as quickly as construction crews had hoped.

The air was humid overnight, which caused problems for the striping crew, said MnDOT spokesman TK Kramascz. Paint was still not dry by the start of the morning rush hour, and traffic was forced to merge into one lane near I-94 and Hiawatha Avenue.

Two lanes have been open for an hour or so, but MnDOT's traffic monitoring website was still showing slowdowns at about the Lowry Hill tunnel, located a couple miles west of the construction area.

Kramascz says crews tried to avoid keeping lanes closed through rush hour but were concerned paint could splatter onto people's cars. He says all the lanes should reopen soon, so it shouldn't be an issue for people traveling this afternoon. I'll post an update when all lanes have reopened.

The day before Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the busiest travel days of the year. The weather will help most metro-area travelers today — no snow or rain is in the forecast.

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Don Samuels and the magic of beer-making

Posted at 11:14 AM on November 21, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Minneapolis City Council Member Don Samuels got a few chuckles around here with his recent ode to the microbrewery -- a place of decorum, he said, as opposed to a place "to pick up chicks."

Samuels offered his remarks at Friday's council meeting explaining why he was supporting a new measure that would allow breweries more flexibility in where they can set up shop in the city. Current restrictions don't allow so-called "alcohol establishments" to locate near a church.

Samuels opposed the change until a visit to the new Fulton Brewery made him a believer.

The "pick up chicks" line was just one highlight of Samuels' five-minute paean to beer-making. Samuels, whose way with words has at times landed him in trouble, also compared the brewery to a chemistry lab. And a farm where one could experience the magical awe of seeing cows produce milk.

Samuels said brewing beer is "part alchemy, part art, part science." Here's a transcript of his remarks:

The interior of a brewery -- microbrewery -- is a place that requires a certain amount of decorum and order, and there's an expectation of some kind of deferential behavior. And so, as Council Member Schiff said, the sales will take place inside, because that's where the magic of the visual of the brewery is.

It's like being inside of a chemistry lab. To see all these tanks and tubes and processors operating, that is part of it.

It's like going to a farm and watching the milking taking place and having this sense of awe about it. That's what it's really about. It's like a museum.

It's an entirely different feel from a bar. You don't go there to pick up chicks kind of thing. That's not what it is. It's not going to have that kind of crowd, full of testosterone and revelry.

And I think the church can take comfort in that. When people leave, they'll be in good behavior, and they will have just left an experience of awe. And it's a different crowd altogether. There's not going to be the closing-time drama from two o'clock downtown. I think it's consistent with a neighborhood, and neighborhood activity.

And just think, when people leave, if they're still feeling some need, they can go to church. (Laughter from fellow council members.)

That might be a little funny, but I do believe there is a need for us to begin to see our society as integrated, and all the parts compatible. I just love the fact that we have a garbage burner next to the Twins Stadium. I love that! Because it's our garbage, and our Twins.

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Has anyone else had such a life-changing experience at a craft brewery? Is beer the future of Minneapolis, as Mayor R.T. Rybak recently proclaimed?

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Mpls residents help bust drug ring

Posted at 4:15 PM on November 18, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

Police credit a flurry of tips from a south Minneapolis neighborhood that led to the bust of a heroin ring. On Friday, Minneapolis police said the information helped them identify one of the main dealers.

Gonzalo Tapia-Robles was arrested this week and charged with first degree sale of narcotics. The 25-year-old man allegedly sold drugs in the area next to I-35W to Lyndale Ave. S, from 40th St. to 50th St.

Tapia-Robles has 30 aliases and has sold narcotics in several states, police said. Undercover officers also recovered a "significant amount" of heroin and cocaine, according to statement Friday from the Minneapolis police.

Police made the arrest more than two months after sending an email alert asking neighbors for help. Residents responded by calling police to report the license plates of suspected drug dealers.

Crime Prevention Specialist Amy Lavendar said the information helped undercover officers make the arrest.

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Keeping warm at OccupyMN

Posted at 9:20 PM on November 17, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

Few people ventured out to the OccupyMN protest today. The dozen or so people that remained were either piled under a heap of sleeping bags (in the middle of the afternoon) or huddled together wrapped in blankets.

Roger Bracher knew it was getting cold when the Snapple juice he was drinking turned into slush. But he brushed off questions about how he's coping with the cold weather.

"Come on, I look like a grizzly bear," he said. "All I have to do is tuck my paws under my arms and I will stay warm."

He gestured at a human cocoon sitting next to him. "Also, I'm flirting with this woman, and that's nice. There's a little body warmth adjacent."

The woman in question, who gave her name as Lion Starling, said she's grateful for her OccupyMN winter hat. She said a woman who doesn't want to sleep at the plaza has been making the hats for the overnighters.

"Every now and then she makes a whole bunch of hats and comes down and gives them away to everybody," Starling said. "That's her way of showing support, which is just so beautiful."

Bracher, who describes himself as a "drifter and a vagabond and a traveling musician," said he's having a good time at OccupyMN, but he feels awful for people who've been hurt by economic policies that favor the rich over the poor.

"I hurt for these people," he said. "I know that I can grab my backpack and my guitar and I can walk away. They can't. That hurts. That breaks my heart."

A few hours later, nearly 300 people, including participants in the OccupyMN movement, marched across the 10th Ave. bridge chanting, "We are the 99 percent!"

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Metro road construction crews prep for Thanksgiving travel, snow

Posted at 6:00 AM on November 19, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (2 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

(Crews drill holes for noise walls just west of Highway 280 on Interstate 94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul.)

The orange construction barriers are still plentiful on Interstate 94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul, and drivers passing through the corridor at night have been greeted by lane closures in recent weeks.

But by next Wednesday, the big pre-Thanksgiving travel day, officials said things will look a bit more tidy and the nighttime lane closures will end.

"The crews out on that project are very hopeful they can have all lanes reopened and all the barrels and cones picked up for the big holiday weekend travel," said metro-area MnDOT spokesman Todd Kramascz.

But that doesn't mean Twin Cities motorists will enjoy a construction-free I-94 for the rest of the winter. Kramascz says barring any major changes in the weather, the crews should be able to get a little more done before they close everything down.

"The crews are going to work into November as long as they possibly can," he said.

The I-94 project isn't scheduled to be completed until around mid-2012. There are two other bigger road construction projects in the metro — one at Highway 169 and Interstate 494 and the other at Interstate 694 in the north metro. Both will continue to have non-peak lane closures, but not during the big travel weekend, Kramascz said.

The Highway 169-Interstate 494 project is scheduled to be done by late next year, and the I-694 project is the start of a series of projects that will go through 2014, he said.

Kramascz said all of the projects are on schedule despite the state government shutdown this summer. The weather has helped, he said.

"It hasn't snowed and we haven't had a long duration of cold weather, so they're getting an awful lot done," he said.

Kramascz recommended that anyone traveling during Thanksgiving weekend check MnDOT's traveler information page online or call 511 on their cell phones.

(Cars pass by the construction zone on I-94 near Highway 280 between Minneapolis and St. Paul.)

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Construction of Northstar's Ramsey station begins

Posted at 3:00 PM on November 15, 2011 by Laura McCallum (1 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Suburbs, Transportation

Two years after the Northstar commuter rail line began service between Minneapolis and Big Lake, construction is getting underway on a seventh Northstar station in the northern metro suburb of Ramsey. Right now, the commuter train has stations in Big Lake, Elk River, Anoka, Coon Rapids, Fridley and the Minneapolis station at Target Field.

Officials say funding is now in place for the $13.2 million Ramsey station, which should be completed by the end of 2012. The money came from the state, the Met Council, the Counties Transit Improvement Board (CTIB), the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority and the city of Ramsey. The Anoka County Regional Rail Authority says the station is expected to average more than 200 rides per day, adding 52,000 rides per year to the commuter rail system.

Tomorrow state, city and county officials will celebrate the completion of funding and the start of construction. An invite-only Northstar train ride will stop in Ramsey for the first time at 11:30 a.m., and the public can join the festivities for a program in the Municipal Center lobby at 11:50 a.m.

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Hipster mag lauds 'small-town mayor' Rybak

Posted at 6:45 PM on November 14, 2011 by Curtis Gilbert (1 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

The ultra-hip Los Angeles-based online magazine Good just published a glowing article about Mayor R.T. Rybak and the city he leads.

The piece portrays Minneapolis as a bastion of bike paths and good government.

But when you share the link on Facebook, you may see a bit of coastal condescension.

I had to redact the four-letter word so as not to run afoul of MPR's style guidelines. But what's more offensive -- swearing, or referring to a city of 380,000 as a small town?

It appears Good may have realized the headline was a bit belittling. When I posted it on my own Facebook wall, the verbiage had been tweaked: "Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and the Art of Getting S%@# Done."

Much better.

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The "Bono" neighborhood of Minneapolis

Posted at 7:25 PM on November 11, 2011 by Rupa Shenoy (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

James B. Stewart calls Wendell Phillips the "Bono" (of U2 fame) of his time. Phillips was a nationwide star in the years before the Civil War. This weekend the Minneapolis neighborhood that bears his name celebrates Wendell Phillips' 200th birthday.

Stewart is an emeritus professor at Macalester College in St Paul and founder of the national organization, Historians Against Slavery. He's also written a 356-page biography of Wendell Phillips.

Stewart describes Phillips as a handsome and charismatic. He was an aristocrat, among the wealthiest people of that time. He used his considerable powers of persuasion and oratory to argue against social injustice and class oppression. Phillips traveled the country, carrying the controversial abolitionist message -- newspapers wrote about him and swelling crowds would meet his train as Phillips arrived in a new city, Stewart said:

If you can become a celebrity and if people know all about you before they ever meet you and then throng to hear what you have to say, they're coming with a set of expectations that a talented speaker can then begin to play on in order to take very radical positions about the fact, say, that slavery outta be abolished immediately.

Stewart says Phillips helped make freedom for slaves a commonly held and common sense idea.

Phillips visited Minnesota once, and that visit, Stewart says, isn't well documented.

So how did the Phillips neighborhood - just south of downtown - get his name?

Stewart says the New Englanders who settled in Minneapolis in the 1830s through 50s were very intent on putting an East Coast stamp on the city they thought of then as the "frontier." Thus, he says, we have the Seward neighborhood, named for vocal abolitionist William H. Seward, who was Abraham Lincoln's secretary of state, and the Whittier neighborhood for John Greenleaf Whittier, an influential abolitionist and Quaker poet.

Stewart doesn't know who specifically named the Phillips neighborhood or when they did it. But the area's present-day demographics, Stewart says, makes the name appropriate:

The neighborhood named after the most radical of these New Englanders is the neighborhood that ends up containing the kinds of people that Wendell Phillips spoke for.

Tonight Stewart pays homage to his neighborhood's namesake by dressing up and appearing as Wendell Phillips at St. Paul's Church. He has a long coat, a top hat, a comb-over wig, side burns he'll dye gray, and a period-appropriate abolitionist tie made by his wife. He'll answer questions about what Phillips might think of the Phillips neighborhood now.

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Two Minnesota companies recognized for helping military veterans

Posted at 6:00 AM on November 10, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Business, Minneapolis, Veterans

On Veterans Day, Gov. Dayton is expected to recognize Richfield-based Best Buy for its Operation Patriotic Endeavor program. The program assembles and sends care packages to military service members deployed overseas. More than 600 Best Buy employees have put together 3,300 care packages to be shipped to the 34th Infantry Division of the Minnesota National Guard, which is currently deployed in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

The governor and Major General Richard C. Nash, Adjutant General of the Minnesota National Guard, will present the Yellow Ribbon Award to Best Buy. The award recognizes businesses for their commitment to supporting military employees and local communities.

Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp has also been honored for its programs intended to help veterans. The company recently announced plans to double its military hiring in 2012. Beginning next year, U.S. Bank will offer employees up to two weeks paid leave to cover time they would otherwise take off unpaid, per state or federal law, in connection with a family member's military service. The time can be taken not only with the deployment of a child, parent or spouse, but may be available to extended family as well.

As of October, the company reports it employed 1,643 veterans and/or members of the guard/reserve. More than 200 have been hired this year alone.

U.S. Bank's commitment to current and former members of the military and their families also earned the company "Yellow Ribbon" status this year. And Military Times magazine named U.S. Bank as one of just 46 companies in their Best of Vets 2011 annual survey. Over 1,000 firms were surveyed for their recruiting, policies for reservists and overall corporate culture pertaining to the military.

The ceremony honoring Best Buy is scheduled for Friday from 2 to 3 p.m.
on the Best Buy campus.

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Small Mpls farmers markets require more vendors to be farmers

Posted at 3:25 PM on November 9, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (6 Comments)
Filed under: Food, Livability, Minneapolis

You might see fewer bananas, avocados and sunglasses at most Minneapolis farmers markets next spring.

A new city ordinance says at least 60 percent of the vendors at farmers markets have to be food growers. The new rules do not apply to the main Minneapolis Farmers Market near Target Field, where shoppers can browse plenty of items not grown by Minnesota farmers: clothing, jewelry, soaps, plants, and fruits and vegetables that obviously can't be grown here.

But eight other farmers markets around the city — Mill City, Midtown, Northeast, West Broadway, Uptown, Fulton, Kingfield and Nicollet Mall — will have to follow the new rules -- unless they decide to become craft markets instead. As the city's news release proclaims today, the city was interested in putting the "farmer" back in farmers markets.

The ordinance follows up on a city initiative called Homegrown Minneapolis, which aims to encourage "a local, healthy and sustainable food supply."

City Council member Cam Gordon authored the changes and says the city's previous farmers market ordinance was neutral on the local aspect of farmers markets.

"Before, someone could organize a 'farmers market' that was all food distributors bringing in produce from California," Gordon said in a news release.

There are still no limits on that kind of activity at the main farmers market, though.

According to the release, there are several other parts to the new ordinance:

• Mini markets are included in the ordinance and are allowed to have a more flexible vendor mix, with one distributor selling fruits and vegetables not from Minnesota and one food processor that sells things like pickles or jellies.

• A new market type was created to allow certain markets to have up to 70 percent of the vendors selling arts and crafts.

• Food sampling will be easier for vendors.

• Vendors not selling food for immediate consumption can operate from unpaved surfaces.

UPDATE: I updated this post, after finding out that the Minneapolis Farmers Market — the big one located near Target Field and I-394 — is not included in the rule saying 60 percent of vendors have to be farmers. That fact was not included in the city's news release.

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Muslim groups to Bob Fletcher: There's no "Islam" in terrorism

Posted at 6:45 PM on November 8, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul

A number of local Somali and Muslim organizations are taking umbrage with a training session called "Understanding the People of Somalia, Their History, Their Culture and Their Lives in America."

Despite the program's innocuous title, the groups say the Thursday seminar -- whose targeted audience includes peace officers -- appears to have an "anti-Muslim and anti-Somali bias." The organizations, including the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, have emailed law enforcement agencies warning them about their concerns.

The event is not the brainchild of Somalis, but that of Bob Fletcher, Ramsey County's controversial former sheriff. Fletcher, now a watch commander for St. Paul police, recently founded the Center for Somalia History Studies. He tells the Pioneer Press he wants people to wait for the event to take place before they pass judgment.

His critics don't like the fact that Fletcher mentions religion at all when he describes al-Shabab, the Somali group with links to al-Qaida, as an "Islamic extremist terrorism organization."

The letter writers protest: "The Muslim community rejects this biased labeling of a religion practiced by over 1.4 billion people worldwide."

Clearly, Muslim Americans are grappling with how to talk about extremism, preferring to disassociate Islam from terrorists who they believe have hijacked their faith. Is it wrong to call a terrorist a "hard-line Islamist" or a "Muslim extremist" if he is committing atrocities in the name of his religion? There are some Muslims who even object to the word "radicalization" because it implies that the problem is rooted in the religion.

But that's not the only reason Fletcher's new initiative is drawing criticism. He's brought on two well-known but divisive Somali-American activists to help lead the program -- Omar Jamal and Abdirizak Bihi. In the letter CAIR, mosques, and other groups have emailed to law enforcement agencies, Muslim leaders say the "the presenters' credentials are highly questionable."

Fletcher is charging people $150 per person to take part in the all-day session.

The letter goes on:

The vast majority of the Somali population in Minnesota views Omar Jamal and Abdirazak Bihi as unrepresentative of their community and unqualified to speak on the topics outlined in the upcoming presentation. Neither have any academic or practical experience relevant to the topics to be presented.

Furthermore, Mr. Jamal is highly controversial and a convicted felon. Mr. Jamal has been convicted of lying to immigration officials. As the former Executive Director of SJAC, he acknowledged he did not file proper IRS documentation for his organization, yet boasts of having raised $80,000 in funds one year. He was the only paid staff.

Concerns about the two men's credibility ave been chronicled here and here.

No matter your thoughts on Jamal, Bihi, or Fletcher, it should be known that they're not the only ones who are willing to educate the rest of us about Somali culture.

Several young leaders who have stepped up to lead community conversations on issues of radicalization and the generation gap were featured in my story today. Check it out here.

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Election Day in St. Paul Tuesday

Posted at 4:30 PM on November 7, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul

Like the rest of us, you've probably been bombarded with coverage of the presidential race. That election is 365 days away. There's another election that hasn't received as much attention - and it's happening tomorrow.

It's the Municipal and School District General Election. (Cue the low-voter turnout music, if previous elections are any indication.)

Here's what voters in the Twin Cities need to know. (This doesn't include the suburbs. You can look up your city here.)

Live in Minneapolis? No voting for you. The city isn't holding an election in November this year because there aren't any open city council seats. And there's no school referendum, either.

However, Minneapolis is holding a primary election on Dec. 6 for House District 61B and Senate District 59. The general election is Jan. 10.

Live in St. Paul? It's voting time. The city has all 7 city council and 4 at-large school board seats on the ballot. And it's the first time voters will be able to rank their choices for the St. Paul city council. MPR reporter Laura Yuen has the details here.

Yuen explains:

Voters can pick the candidate they most want, but also select second and third choices, and so on. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and those votes are redistributed to the voters' second choice. The process, also known as instant runoff, continues until someone gets a majority.

Questions? Ramsey County has explanatory videos and sample ballots here.

Voting is from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Do I need to register to vote before Election Day?

No. You can register at your polling place on Election Day. Information about what you'll need to bring is available here.

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U of M documentary traces history of North Minneapolis

Posted at 4:30 PM on November 3, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Housing, Immigration, Minneapolis, Race

A new documentary uses north Minneapolis buildings and historic spaces as the backdrop for an exploration of the power of place and community.

Cornerstones: Stories of Place on the North Side premiers statewide at 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, on Twin Cities Public Television's Minnesota Channel.



The hour-long documentary was co-produced by the University of Minnesota's Urban Research and Outreach/Engagement Center and TPT, and written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Daniel Pierce Bergin, who won an Emmy award for his 2004 TPT documentary North Star: Minnesota's Black Pioneers. Cornerstones is narrated by veteran Twin Cities performer Jearlyn Steele.



Check out the website for additional interviews with Northside residents on the importance of place and memory. The site will also include interactive storytelling features and content from TPT, university researchers and community historians.

Rebroadcasts of Cornerstones are scheduled for 2 a.m., 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Nov. 14 and noon Nov. 20 on TPT's Life Channel. Viewers should check with their local PBS affiliates for airing dates and times.


.

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What are your neighbors up to?

Posted at 6:00 AM on November 3, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

There's a new way to get information about the neighbors - and it doesn't require talking to them.

If you live in Minneapolis or St. Paul, you can find your neighborhood on this map created by Minnesota Compass. Click to view all kinds of info - like how many of your neighbors take the bus to work, where they work, and even how much they make (that's as a group, not individually!) The project is led by Wilder Research and pulls data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

There's also detailed information about jobs and housing that could be useful for finding ways to help your community. That's one of the goals of the project.

It's also a handy way to compare two neighborhoods. Take Central and Lyndale - two neighborhoods right next to each other in south Minneapolis. There are dozens of measures. Here are just a few.

Residents who are younger than 18:

Central: 32 percent
Lyndale: 18 percent

Who are older than 64:

Central: 4 percent
Lyndale: 8 percent

Who take public transportation to work:

Central: 22 percent
Lyndale: 24 percent

Who have lived in the same place for less than five years:

Central: 44 percent
Lyndale: 50 percent

Who are Hispanic or Latino:

Central: 44 percent
Lyndale: 24 percent

Who speak a language other than English:

Central: 51 percent
Lyndale: 29 percent

Find something surprising about your neighborhood? Share it with us and fellow Cities blog readers in the comments section.

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Minneapolis smoothes over miles of bumpy roads

Posted at 2:03 PM on November 1, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

I'm guessing that maybe 30 percent of my daily commute is over Minneapolis streets that have been resurfaced over the last several months. I've been quick to kvetch about how potholes have taken their toll on my aging car's suspension system and my nerves. So it's only appropriate for me to now acknowledge that city officials have apparently been listening to the collective gripes of city drivers.

Yesterday, city officials announced that the public works department has just finished resurfacing more than 45 miles of streets and alleys. Here are the city's numbers:

0.82 miles of roadway reconstructed

25.83 miles of roadway resurfaced

18.7 miles of roadways and alleys seal coated

= 45.35 miles of new driving surfaces

That also means there are 45.35 fewer miles of streets and alleys that the city will have to patch up next spring and summer. That should give them more time to catch up with the other miles of streets that will be scarred by the elements this winter.

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Seward Market shootings still haunt witnesses

Posted at 5:07 PM on October 31, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

Today's sentencing of Seward Market killer Mahdi Hassan Ali means the legal chapter of the story is nearly over. Ali is expected to file an appeal. But for the relatives of the three slain men, there will continue to be a painful hole in their lives. Others have lasting memories from the night of Jan. 6, 2010 that will be hard to forget.

Jamilla Ahmed went to the Seward Market to buy some Somali coffee. When she had trouble finding the coffee, a store helper named Youb Ala came to the back of the store to help her. Seconds later, a masked man grabbed the two of them and told them not to move. Shots rang out at the front of the store and the masked man fled. Jamilla and Youb ran to a back hallway and climbed into a beverage cooler. Jamilla called 911.

The following is a recording of her frantic call for help:

When Ahmed testified during trial, she cried as she heard her voice on the recordings. She said it still upset her to relive the events of that night.

Peter Fleck lives near the Seward Market, and was walking by the store when the shots rang out inside. He made a roundabout trek to the front of the store because he said he saw a man come out of the store and hurry down the sidewalk toward him. Fleck feared the man had a gun. When he got to the front of the store, he saw two men lying dead or dying near the front of the door.

He called 911 to describe the scene:

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How do we rank?

Posted at 6:00 AM on November 1, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

If there's one thing you can count on as a reporter, it's this: Your email inbox will receive a steady stream of news releases proclaiming that your state ranks #27 in livability or #4 in happiness. Such email is often used to test the "delete" function on a reporter's email account.

Sure, there are rankings that matter -- like a study that found Minneapolis has the widest gap between minority and white unemployment (tied with Memphis).

But many rankings are little more than advertisements.

There's "15 Most Popular Locations for Bloodsucking Pests," a ranking of the most bedbug infested cities provided by Terminix. Minneapolis was #15 in 2010. It didn't make the list this year.

Not to be outdone, pest control rival Orkin has its own list with a decidedly less dramatic title: "Orkin's Top 50 Bed Bug Cities." This year's list also has Minneapolis/St. Paul at #15. (Cincinnati was a blood-sucking #1 and Salt Lake City was #50).

And then there's even more specific rankings. Did you know that Minneapolis is the seventh best city to find a babysitter? Or the third least-stressed of the county's 50 largest metro areas? Or that we have the 56th best drivers compared to fellow motorists in the nation's 200 largest cities? (Now there's a specific ranking for you.) Or that we're the gayest city in America? Or the most literate?

We're even the fourth most peaceful state, according to a U.S. Peace Index, being out-pacified by only three states - Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. We provide our baseball team with the second most enthusiastic fan support in the nation. Minneapolis is even a "Top 100 Place to Live," according to a website called Relocate America.

In short, we're a relaxed, gay-friendly, peaceful place, where bedbugs are (somewhat) few and the babysitters are plentiful.

But before you get too excited, I have one more ranking for you to consider.

When it comes to deer collisions, we're in the top ten. #8, to be exact. And, yes, that's way ahead of Hawaii, where the odds of an antler-windshield pairing are 1 in 6,267, or, as State Farm Insurance puts it, "approximately equal to the odds that you are a practicing nudist."

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have some emails I need to delete.

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Empowering ex-offenders... slowly

Posted at 6:00 AM on October 28, 2011 by Rupa Shenoy (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

People leaving prison face many obstacles: finding affordable housing and a job, just to start. We've done many stories on those issues at MPR News. But the biggest challenge for ex-inmates may be dealing with the stigma that hangs on them like a prison uniform. It manifests as waves of shame and resentment, coloring their initial months back in society and making reintegration (without re-offense) even harder.

There's a way to make those emotions easier to bear. The trick, experts say, is to gradually reduce offenders' isolation and increase their self-worth. That battle will probably happen as a bunch of small steps, such as one made by the Hennepin County Board and Summit Academy in Minneapolis, a nonprofit educational and vocational training center that concentrates on residents of economically-depressed neighborhoods in the Twin Cities.

Their recent agreement restructures the county's Sentencing to Service Homes Program, which until now has trained offenders in construction skills using community work sites for correctional inmates in state prisons. Now they'll be trained by Summit Academy, and at the end of training, they'll receive Rehabilitation Technician certification.

Under the new partnership, trainees will be recruited and jointly selected by STS Homes, Hennepin County Community Corrections and Rehabilitation, and Summit Academy. The school will offer two 10-week training modules. The first includes classroom instruction in carpentry mathematics, blueprint reading, building materials, hand and power tools, framing, weatherization techniques, and construction safety. The second module, held at Summit, consists of on-site construction and tear down of small homes and garages.

As part of the new arrangement, STS Homes will relocate its camper cabin production facility from Red Wing to the Summit Academy campus.

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See the new logo aimed at luring more people to Mpls

Posted at 1:35 PM on October 27, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

Meet Minneapolis, the city's convention and visitors bureau, has unveiled a new logo and website as part of an effort to attract more convention business and leisure travelers.

At a news conference in downtown Minneapolis today, Meet Minneapolis introduced the logo, which features the city's skyline with reflections of four iconic buildings -- City Hall, the IDS Tower, the Capella Tower at 225 S. Sixth St., and the Foshay Tower -- as trees. The organization says the logo will be the visible mark of an overall brand position called "Metropolitan by Nature." Meet Minneapolis says it will use the brand position to market and sell Minneapolis.

Mayor R.T. Rybak attended the event and said attracting conventions and leisure travelers to the city will help create hospitality jobs.

Meet Minneapolis hopes to increase the number of domestic and international visitors by 300,000, which would create 500 additional hospitality jobs in the city, according to the organization's news release.

The new visitor website includes information on leisure travel, meeting planning and the Minneapolis Convention Center. It also has a way for potential visitors to create itineraries.

Here's what the new website has to say about the new logo:

Sure, some cities scatter trees around buildings, but we have a park every six blocks. Rivers, lakes, parks, farmer's markets, we've got them all. We're really a city that is infused with and surrounded by nature. That's why we chose "City by Nature." Minneapolis truly is a city sprung forth from nature, as if concrete structures sprouted from the earth.

So, when you take a look at our brand new logo, you can see that it is a direct translation of the tagline. The green represents the energy and lights of the city, as well as the relationship of green with nature. The buildings represent the diversity Minneapolis has to offer, as well as a tribute to some of the most iconic buildings in the city (think you can identify which buildings are what?). The blue represents the many bodies of water we have in the city, and the trees are....nature. Obviously.

The coolest part about the logo? The reflection of it all. Look closely, and you can see the trees and buildings merging. The buildings are being reflected upon the blue water, and the reflection cast upon that water is the trees. This is the most direct tip-of-the-hat to "City by Nature," as the city is really a park at heart. Pretty cool, huh?

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Somalis wanted for new Tom Hanks film

Posted at 2:55 PM on October 26, 2011 by Laura Yuen (4 Comments)
Filed under: Immigration, Minneapolis

Photo at Brian Coyle Center by Jeff Thompson, MPR News

Hollywood is coming to Cedar-Riverside.

Casting consultants for an upcoming film starring Tom Hanks are holding auditions in the Minneapolis neighborhood, home to the nation's largest concentration of Somali-Americans. Sony Pictures is seeking black actors, "preferably born in Africa ... Especially seeking SOMALIS," according to a casting notice being circulated.

It's no secret why the first open call will be held in Minneapolis.

"We just looked at where there's huge Somali populations," said casting consultant Debbie DeLisi. "It may be our only stop, depending on the turnout."

Hanks has signed on to play Capt. Richard Phillips, who was taken hostage by Somali pirates who hijacked his ship in 2009.

The movie will be shot next year in New Orleans, and much of it will take place on the water, DeLisi said. The script centers on the "profound, mutual respect" between Capt. Phillips and the leader of the Somali pirates who captured him, she said.

The last time DeLisi worked on ethnic casting in the Twin Cities was for the Clint Eastwood movie "Gran Torino," which focused on the unlikely friendship between a grizzled, white war veteran and his Hmong neighbor kids. At the St. Paul auditions, more than 900 people turned out over two days. About seven nabbed lead roles, DeLisi recalls.

Casting for the Capt. Phillips movie will be Nov. 5 at the Brian Coyle center, a popular community hub, especially for young people.

More info below:

MOVIE CASTING NOTICE - SONY PICTURES is seeking black actors or black non-actors, preferably born in Africa, for roles in the new Tom Hanks feature film "Capt. Phillips." Especially seeking SOMALIS.

MEN (ages 15 - 45), WOMEN (20-30) and BOYS (7 - 10). Ages approximate.

Date: Saturday, November 5, 2011 Time: 10:30am - 4:30pm (anytime during these hours)

Location: BRIAN COYLE CENTER 420 15th Ave S. Mpls, MN 55454

Bring: Non-returnable current photo (if you have one).

NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY.

There is never a fee to audition. Any such activity is fraudulent & should be reported at once.

###

Contact: Debbie DeLisi, Casting Consultant

Email: somalifilmcasting@gmail.com

(h/t Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl)

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Planned bikeway sparks controversy in St. Paul

Posted at 6:45 PM on October 25, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Check out my story about a plan to expand cycling in St Paul.

The four-mile long Jefferson Avenue Bikeway would run from Mississippi River Boulevard on the west to Seventh Street near downtown. The bikeway is part of more than 75 miles of new bikeways and sidewalk changes planned under a federally-funded pilot program called Bike Walk Twin Cities.

The St. Paul bikeway is still in the planning phase. But for now the proposal includes elements known in today's cycling parlance as bicycle boulevard treatments. For the most part, there would be no traditional bike lanes — except along some stretches of Jefferson Avenue east of Lexington — but officials would redesign the street with features like bump outs, traffic circles or speed bumps to calm traffic and make it safer for bikers and pedestrians.

The proposal has angered some residents near the western end of the project. Their group is considering taking legal action to stop the bikeway. The next public meeting on the project is tonight.

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Report calculates pro sports teams' cost per win

Posted at 8:41 AM on October 25, 2011 by Tim Nelson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

Just days after "Vikings Week" at the Capitol and the start of the Christian Ponder era at the Metrodome, Bloomberg Businessweek is weighing in on the NFL. And pro baseball, hockey and basketball to boot.

It's mostly a paen to Mark Murphy, "Green Bay's Beloved CEO."

But it wouldn't be a sports issue without a ranking, and sadly, it isn't just limited to Green Bay or even football.

The magazine came up with an "efficiency index" for all 122 pro sports franchises in the U.S.

"By culling payroll data from reported sources and pairing them with wins and losses over the last five seasons, we calculated the average cost per win in each league. Based on that number, we measured (by standard deviation) how far each team varied above or below the league norm. The result is a cross-sport rating of how every U.S. franchise compares to its peers in squeezing wins from money. We call it the Efficiency Index."

In some measures, the Twin Cities are a middle-of-the-pack sports town. Both the Minnesota Wild and the Minnesota Twins rank above the median, at 56 and 55, respectively. They both fall on the "efficient" side of the ledger.

The Vikings do, too. But they're at the back of the pack -- literally and figuratively. They rank 68th on the list. And they're better than at least 13 other NFL franchises, including the heretofore hapless Detroit Lions, which came in dead last among all pro sports.

And the Timberwolves...Oh, the Timberwolves. They're 119th on the list for cost per win, below the entire NHL and better only than the Knicks in the NBA.

But at least we can say there is ONE Minnesota team that can beat the Yankees.

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Beware of low-flying witches

Posted at 10:30 AM on October 25, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Tonight, residents of several south Minneapolis neighborhoods will attend a Metropolitan Airports Commission meeting to try to find relief for noise caused by low-flying planes.

For residents of this Minneapolis neighborhood, the problem appears to be low-flying witches. Which begs the question: where do these neighbors go to complain? Hogwarts?

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North Minneapolis sidewalk repairs complete

Posted at 5:19 PM on October 19, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

Five months after a tornado ripped through north Minneapolis, officials say they've repaired about 1,600 sidewalk panels damaged by the storm. A Public Works department survey found that around 600 feet of curb were also damaged by the tornado and needed to be replaced. Most of the sidewalk and curb damage was caused by uprooted trees.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board first had to remove tree stumps and roots before city crews could repair the broken sidewalks.

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Courthouse limits access as jury deliberates Somali terror case

Posted at 5:15 PM on October 18, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

As a jury deliberates a high-profile terrorism case in Minneapolis behind closed doors, the only drama to be found is outside the courtroom.

Several dozen Somali-American women have been flocking to the federal courthouse, protesting with signs on the outside plaza and praying and gathering on the 15th floor. They're waiting, like the rest of us, for a verdict in the case of Amina Ali and Hawo Hassan, two Rochester women who are accused of routing money to the Somali terror group al-Shabab.

Even while simply conversing, the crowds that milled outside the office of Chief Judge Michael Davis grew to become so loud that court security officers repeatedly asked them to quiet down. And at one point, two officers guarded the courthouse entrance barring people outside from re-entering the building, according to freelance reporter Mukhtar Ibrahim, who was among them. The former MPR News intern tells us he was standing in the cold for about an hour and a half before the officers finally let a crowd of about 50 inside. They were taken to a cafeteria on the ground level.

Security officers told Ibrahim they had to make sure no more than 40 people were allowed in the public area of the 15th floor, where the trial has played out for the past two weeks.

Thomas Volk, a deputy U.S. marshal, told reporters that there were some concerns about capacity, but he knew of no security threat. He deferred questions to the federal building's managers, known as the General Service Administration, as well as the Federal Protective Services. We are waiting to hear back from the GSA. No one seems to have a working phone number for FPS, which protects federal building.

But one of the defense attorneys says the precautions are nothing out of the ordinary, given the size of the crowds.

"It became a security concern, not anything unusual, just because of the large number of people," said Tom Kelly, an attorney representing Hawo Hassan.

Volk, the deputy marshal, also said security officers were providing "enhanced screening" of vehicles entering the underground parking ramp during the trial.

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Norwegian royalty grace Minneapolis

Posted at 7:07 AM on October 17, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Norway's Queen Sonja (left) enters the Hilton ballroom with Cecile Strommen, wife of Norway's ambassador to the United States, King Harald V and Ambassador Wegger Christian Strommen.

Public radio reporters don't spend a lot of time chasing royalty, so it's helpful that protocols are emailed ahead of time: dress code= dark suit, no photos during dinner, do not drink before the toast, no exits before the King and Queen.

The Hilton ballroom was awash in bunads, the Norwegian national costumes (see the Ambassador's wife pictured above). Gov. Mark Dayton sat at the head table, as did Sen. Amy Klobuchar. It was also a night for Minnesota's most famous Norwegian-American sons: former Vice President Walter Mondale introduced the King, and former Senate majority leader Roger Moe was in attendance.

During his eight-minute speech, the King expressed his thanks for America's compassion and support in the wake of Norway's bombing and mass shooting that killed 77 people on July 22, 2011. The full text of his speech is here.

Reporters were allowed to photograph the royal entrance to the ballroom. The Norwegian press corps tailing Their Royal Majesties then made a bee-line for the press table to enjoy a nice dinner of grilled Norwegian salmon, petit fillet of beef and a trio of desserts.

After Their Majesties (TM as they are referred to in press briefing materials) made their exit, I stopped back at the press room.

"What's the big story tonight?" I asked the Norwegian press corps. They looked at me blankly.

"Are there ever any scandals covering the Norwegian royalty?" I asked.

They shook their heads.

"Not anymore," they said.

The juiciest nugget they had was in 1968, when King Harald married Queen Sonja, a commoner.

~~~~

The Royals head to Duluth today, then on Tuesday, they'll dedicate an exhibit at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport to mark the centennial of Roald Amundsen's successful expedition to the South Pole. Our own polar explorers Ann Bancroft and Will Steger will be in attendance, along with Norwegian explorer Liv Arnesen.

In Nov. 2012, Arnesen and Bancroft will lead a team of six women from six continents on an 800 mile, 80-day long expedition to the South Pole.

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A touchy subject

Posted at 1:09 PM on October 13, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Crime, Minneapolis

U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank ruled Wednesday that two Minneapolis police officers illegally strip-searched Recardo Meeks during a traffic stop in 2009. In writing up the broadcast spots on the details of the incident, I bumped into some MPR News language standards. What you hear on the air is sanitary, but accurate.

I've posted the full ruling below so you can read all the not-appropriate-for-air details yourself.

Meeks.FedCt.GrantSumJudgment.pdf

Meeks' attorney Andrew Muller says it's possible the city will settle the suit before it goes to a jury trial scheduled for December. He says now that Frank has ruled that the officers' actions violated Meeks' civil rights, the next step is for a jury to decide how much harm was caused by the officer's actions. In a civil lawsuit, a jury can award monetary damages. City Attorney Susan Segal says she will not comment on the case because it is still in front of the court.

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Wilder Foundation launches caregiver campaign

Posted at 5:25 PM on October 12, 2011 by Jessica Mador (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

By 2030, twenty percent of Minnesota's population will be over the age of 65. In Minnesota, more than 90 percent of all care for elders is provided by family members and close friends.

But the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation reports that more than 80 percent of family members who actively care for a loved one don't self-identify as a "caregiver." This may prevent them from accessing helpful resources. Wilder notes:

Many caregivers suffer from high levels of stress, which can impact their immune system for up to three years after their caregiving ends, thus increasing their chances of developing a chronic illness themselves. More than 40 percent of caregivers have clinically significant symptoms of depression. And women caregivers are more than twice as likely to live in poverty, and caregiving families have median incomes 15 percent lower than non-caregiving families.

To help this population, the Wilder Foundation is launching an awareness campaign. The new "Capacity to Care" campaign is a series of public service advertisements and a website that provides valuable resources and information for people who help care for older adults.

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Cured wild boar loin or Sardinian hare stew, anyone?

Posted at 12:15 PM on October 10, 2011 by Laura McCallum (0 Comments)
Filed under: Food, Minneapolis

Former Pioneer Press reporter Hank Shaw is back in the Twin Cities today to promote his book, Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast. You may remember Hank from his investigative reporting on the business ties between some Minnesota politicians and a Minneapolis-based telephone company accused of cheating customers in seven states.

Hank's latest venture has nothing to do with politics. It's all about food. Hank, who now lives in California, writes about foraging, hunting and fishing on his blog, and in his book.

He'll be at the Corner Table in Minneapolis tonight, signing books and talking about wild foods in the Midwest. He says tonight's menu will include "four courses, all wild Minnesota ingredients (or ranched game equivalents, as it is illegal to sell real wild game)".

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Lazy taxpayer tour of Central Corridor project

Posted at 10:00 PM on October 7, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Curious about how the first full year of construction on the state's largest public works project is going?

Relax. Sit back. Take a tour courtesy of the Central Corridor folks managing the project.

I can attest from personal observation their photos capture what's going on.

On the other hand, the decent and neighborly thing to do is put on your hiking boots and tour the project with a batch a friends. That way you can stop at bistros along the way to give them a bit of a boost. They're surviving for the most part, but the construction has taken a bite out of their bottom line.

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Judith Martin told us what really happened

Posted at 2:55 PM on October 5, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

The late Judith Martin, a University of Minnesota geography and urban studies professor, was one of our "go to" people when we needed help understanding Twin Cities development.

Here she is in 1998, explaining to former MPR reporter William Wilcoxen how riverfront development happened the way it did in the Twin Cities:

"If you look at a place like Minneapolis where, y'know, the first people that came here looked at those falls, and nobody said, "Parkland!" - everybody said, "Opportunity to make money!" That's what you do there. You park your flour mills and sawmills along the riverfront, and nobody thinks twice about it because it's obvious, in the context of 19th-century thinking, that this is how you build a city."

Martin, as the picture above illustrates, was a riverfront partisan, an advocate for helping people rediscover the river's many attractions beyond being a place to park mills.

Judith Martin, 63, wasn't just a favorite with Minnesota Public Radio reporters. She was respected by academic peers and students.

An excerpt from the obituary prepared by Martin's family explains why:

"Among the many classes she taught was a survey course on the geography of the Twin Cities, which hundreds of students took each year--many learning to their chagrin that understanding the cities and their region was far more complex than they expected. Martin's brusque but cheery style inspired many to get out into the city and see what they could learn from close observation of the city and the people in it. One of her favorite exercises was to assign students to ride an unfamiliar bus route and describe the ridership patterns, landscape, and social relations that they observed."

Her family says Judith Martin, a native of Chicago, died this week from complications due to a recurrence of breast cancer.

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The pain of race

Posted at 10:28 AM on October 4, 2011 by Laura McCallum (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Race

The city of Minneapolis is encouraging residents to read Michele Norris' book, The Grace of Silence, as part of One Minneapolis, One Read. In her book, Norris describes growing up as the first black family on the block in a south Minneapolis neighborhood.

Norris, host of NPR's All Things Considered, appeared at the Guthrie last night with MPR's Kerri Miller to talk about her book and her RACE card project. She asks people to condense their thoughts about race into six words and write them on a postcard.

The responses tend to be provocative:

If only I were white.

Bi-racial means neither race accepts me.

Race is another excuse to hate.

But I voted for Barack Obama.

The audience at the Guthrie was no exception, and shared stories of the pain they've experienced. A black woman told of being denied rental housing on St. Paul's Summit Avenue, because she and her husband would "use too much water." An Indian woman said her mixed-race nephew couldn't understand why he was called an Oreo. And a white man ended the event with his race card statement: Race is only skin deep.

If you missed it, we'll broadcast the event Wednesday at 10 on Midmorning.

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Minneapolis leaders promote pedal pushing

Posted at 11:00 AM on September 30, 2011 by Brandt Williams (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

I'm generally skeptical about promotional productions like this short, video love letter to the Midtown Greenway and the broader Minneapolis bike culture. Obviously, the filmmakers wanted to enhance their case by shooting footage during times when lots of people are out biking. But as someone who rides the Greenway frequently, I can verify that it gets a lot of traffic - even when the weather is not warm and sunny.

And there's more evidence that Minneapolis is serious about enhancing its status as a bike-friendly city. If you drive or ride on Minneapolis streets, you've probably noticed a lot more newly-painted bike lanes along major thoroughfares. I recently rode over a big "bike blvd" sign on Bryant Ave. S. and wondered, "What does that mean?" Apparently, so did Morning Edition producer Jim Bickal, who recently got Shaun Murphy, who coordinates non-motorized transportation projects for the city of Minneapolis, to speak with ME host Cathy Wurzer. Murphy told Wurzer the sign reminds drivers to share the road with the human-powered two wheelers and it encourages bikers to avoid the more car-heavy streets. Listen to the interview here.

If you're a true bike policy wonk, you'll want to check out the city's 2011 Bicycle Master Plan.

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FBI: No book yet by agent who investigated Moussaoui

Posted at 1:49 PM on September 29, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Crime, Minneapolis

Newsweek's recent in-depth look at what went wrong at FBI's headquarters prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks drew heavily on the perspective of Minneapolis agent Harry Samit. The FBI is now taking issue with at least one fact reported in the article: Special Agent Samit has not written a tell-all book about the Zacarias Moussaoui case, according to a bureau spokesman.

Samit arrested the now-convicted 9/11 conspirator on Aug. 16, 2001. Samit has been barred from granting interviews to the media -- or at least to me, over the past couple of years.

Imagine our surprise when Newsweek cited what it described as an "excerpt of a book he's written about the case." An account of Samit's arrest and interview of Moussaoui was published in the William Mitchell Law Review.

But FBI spokesman Kyle Loven in Minneapolis emailed me to say there's no book -- at least not yet:

Apparently, the Newsweek article is incorrect. SA Samit has not written a book on the Moussaoui matter. Will he write a book in the future - perhaps. However, SA Samit's article was written exclusively for the William Mitchell College of Law - Law Journal. It was not an excerpt from any book which he has already written.

Samit's account does not criticize FBI brass, but focuses solely on the two days that Samit and fellow agent John Wess conducted exclusive interviews with Moussaoui after arresting him on an immigration violation.

Moussaoui told the agents he wanted to "follow his dream" of flying a big airplane and was incensed that he could not resume his training. But once the agents began to accuse him of lying, Moussaoui's reaction was not consistent with the anger typically displayed by someone who is telling the truth, Samit wrote:

"Despite the histrionics and gestures, Moussaoui was in full control of himself -- his muscles were not tense, his jaw was not clenched, and his eyes were alert and continually searching ours to see whether we were being persuaded. In short, he was not really mad -- he was lying."

Samit's recounting, which reads like a cross between a standard FBI memo and a novel, offers details into how the agents tried to get the French national to admit the hijacking plot and cough up information that could help authorities thwart an attack.

The agents did not succeed.

But Moussaoui eventually pleaded guilty to conspiring with the 9/11 hijackers. He is serving a life sentence in prison.

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Lead-based paint still poisoning Twin Cities kids

Posted at 5:30 PM on September 27, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

Melisa Illies, a lead hazard reduction worker for Hennepin county is pointing to a north Minneapolis home window from about the 1940's that is likely painted with a lead based paint and will soon be replaced.

The homeowner heard about the lead paint hazard at a community event, applied for and won a grant of about $5,500. The money will go to replace all the windows in her home.

Her two-year-old daughter has an elevated blood lead level.

The grant may be new, but worries over lead paint poisoning have been around for decades here.

St. Paul native Howard Mielke, now a Louisiana-based scientist, was a pioneer in bringing the hazard to public attention.

He'd likely be interested to know that even after all these years and the millions spent to reduce the hazard, Hennepin county officials estimate there are still a thousand kids in Hennepin county with elevated lead levels in their blood.

The heavy metal harms neurological development in children.

Until 1978 when it was banned, lead was commonly used in house paint as a pigment and to make it tougher, more opaque and washable.

Windows with aging, peeling, flaking lead-based paint are a common source of poisoning as kids playing with or near the windows get the powdery residue from the paint on their fingers that go into their mouths.

The $7 million federal grant will go to lead abatement window replacement in hundreds of homes, many of the them in Minneapolis.

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Our home is our (foreclosed, lower value) castle

Posted at 8:15 PM on September 23, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, Race, St. Paul , Suburbs

New Census (officially dubbed American Community Survey) numbers show overall Minnesota home ownership rates remain among the highest in the country, nearly 75%.

But because of the recession - people losing their jobs, foreclosures - the rate is declining and is especially sharp for minorities.

The details paint a troubling picture.

Most of the revelatory details come from Minnesota Housing officials who track the home ownership picture.

The bad news: Home values are down. Lots of homeowners are underwater with mortgages that are bigger than the value of their homes. Add to that persistent unemployment which is causing more homeowners to fall into foreclosure.

The good news: Home values are down. Borrowing rates are low and likely to remain at record lows for some time.

Minnesota Housing commissioner Mary Tingerthall boils all the numbers down to one for people thinking of buying a home.

Given everything that's happened, the average monthly payment for an average value house purchased now including principle, interest, taxes will be $900 a month less than the average monthly payment five years ago.

The worst of times. The best of times. Depending on your situation.

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Twin Cities historic sites vie for Facebook votes

Posted at 3:30 PM on September 20, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

Online voting for 25 local historic sites began today on Facebook, but some eager mouse-clickers can't seem to cast their votes.

There's plenty of excitement fueling the Partners in Preservation contest. The historic sites -- which include beloved buildings, parks, churches, museums and other places -- are vying for a piece of $1 million in grants. American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced the 25 eligible places today.

Yet the voting process is confounding some would-be voters. The contest has also apologized for a "temporary glitch" that caused problems for some users.

American Express spokeswoman Caitlin Lowie says this was the first time the contest has moved its voting platform to Facebook, and the glitch was resolved within 15 minutes. The volume of traffic could have contributed to the problems, she said: "Within an hour, more than 1,000 people went to vote, which we really weren't expecting."

What can we say? Minnesotans love their history.

Glitches aside, the voting process is not intuitive. Here are some tips:

You must first "like" the Partners in Preservation page. That should pull up the voting page. If not, check to see if there is a "VOTE" tab on the left-hand menu. It should bring you to an interactive map featuring all 25 sites and their descriptions. From there, you should be able to click on a place and vote for it.

Full disclosure: MPR's Fitzgerald Theater is one of the contenders.

Voting continues until Oct. 12. The winner of the popular vote is guaranteed up to $125,000. The remainder of the $1 million in grants will be given to a number of the other sites after review by American Express, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and an advisory committee co-chaired by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman.

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A top ranking Minneapolis doesn't want

Posted at 1:15 PM on September 16, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Livability, Minneapolis

Minneapolis officials aren't shrinking from acknowledging the city has a big minority unemployment rate problem.

The Economic Policy Institute study last year found Minneapolis and Memphis rank at the top of 50 metro areas studied for having the widest gap between minority and white unemployment.

The minority rate exceeds 20 percent, the rate for whites is about seven percent.

The local advisory panel to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission heard from former Hennepin County judge Pamela Alexander (pictured above), among others, who said Minnesota is the land of "perpetual punishment".

African Americans are disproportionately represented in Minnesota's criminal justice system, and Alexander says the state is a leader in enacting barriers to employment for people with a record, worsening the unemployment problem.

State demographer Tom Gillaspy offered what sounded like hope when he said there's a bunch of jobs coming open as the Boomers retire.

But in the next breath, Gillaspy says the people including minorities who could and should be stepping into those jobs in too many cases don't have the skills for them.

The ray of hope continues to be youth work training programs including the one run by Minneapolis in cooperation with businesses for minority youth which is being expanded to include thousands more young people.

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Architects offering free design assistance to homeowners affected by May 22 tornado

Posted at 11:23 AM on September 14, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Members of from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Minneapolis and
AIA Minnesota have launched Rebuilding it Right to assist north Minneapolis homeowners affected by the recent tornado. The project's mission is to advocate for quality and architecturally appropriate design for homes devastated by the May 22 tornado that swept through north Minneapolis.

The project is offering free help to maintain the character and quality of their homes as they rebuild.

The north Minneapolis tornado zone is home to many historic homes. Organizers of Rebuilding it Right say the character of these homes should be preserved - and made greener and more energy efficient for the future.

Rebuilding it Right, led by AIA Minnesota and AIA Minneapolis, is working in conjunction with the ongoing Northside Community Recovery Team efforts, the City of Minneapolis, USGBC-Minnesota, Architecture for Humanity - Minneapolis/ St. Paul, The Assembly of Architects, Rebuilding Together Twin Cities, Preservation Minneapolis, American Society of Landscape Architects Minnesota and several local and state organizations.

Non-profits, city officials, contractors and vendors are collaborating with architects and designers to provide services at no cost. For more information contact AIA Minnesota at 612-338-6763 or dehn@aia-mn.org.

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Minneapolis property tax relief party at your house?

Posted at 6:30 PM on September 13, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Hold your breath.

Retired Minneapolis police officers voted today to merge their pension with the state system.

Firefighters voted their approval earlier.

That sets the stage for completion of a decades-long effort to spread the city's pension obligations to state taxpayers.

And thus give Minneapolis property tax payers a dandy break amounting over time to tens of millions of dollars.

Might be just a bit premature to print invites for your property tax relief party.

There's still the matter of the Target Center obligation. City property tax payers fund the upkeep of that piece of real estate.

There's a plan afoot to spread that obligation around.

Maybe real property tax relief for Minneapolis comes when the city starts selling naming rights for the sidewalks and streets.

How about a grand to have a block long stretch of sidewalk named after your first born, or a stretch of Lyndale Avenue re-named after Uncle Bert?

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Better late than never for foreclosed Twin Cities folks?

Posted at 6:15 PM on September 7, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

What a difference from two months ago.

That's when we reported what appeared to be a truly anemic federal response to going after the bad actors at the top in the mortgage meltdown.

State regulators and prosecutors and some local officials have been going after mortgage originators, title companies and others involved in fraudulent mortgages. And they've had some success.

But the fraud we've seen in Minnesota is a small part of the picture, compared to the risky mortgage-backed securities deals that consumed the industry at the beginning of the recession.

In the last 10 days the U. S. attorney general has launched a fusilade of lawsuits aimed at the big banks and another set at individuals.

Enough to keep armies of attorneys tied up in legal warfare for years.

Seems a safe assumption that any lawsuit settlements will come too late for the more than 100,000 Minnesotans foreclosed on since 2007.

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Twin Cities transportation plot thickens

Posted at 1:54 PM on September 7, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

Suddenly, or so it seems, the Southwest Corridor light rail project surges to the fore.

The Central Corridor light rail project overcomes seasonal construction delays.

Money for all things transportation hangs in the balance.

On that last point, the question is when or if Congress will authorize transportation spending under a continuing resolution? The deadline is the end of this month.

At stake are billions for roads, bridges, buses and rail, among other projects.

(The current 169/I-494 interchange is set to be overhauled)

The continuing resolution is for spending at 2010 levels when the old transportation act expired.

Readers of The Cities who spend way too much time following transportation issues know that before he bit the electoral dust, former Minnesota Rep. James Oberstar and then-minority House transportation committee chair John Mica supported a new transportation bill.

It would have authorized spending $500 billion over the next six years - roughly double the expired bill.

There's been precious little talk of that measure since then. Even though there's a chorus building singing the praises of a big transportation infrastructure spending bill to employ people and address several decades of deferred maintenance.

OK. Moving along.

How about that Southwest Corridor project? The Federal Transit Administration permission for Southwest to enter preliminary engineering is, arguably, one of the three big steps in the life of these projects - the others being permission to enter final design and then a full funding federal grant agreement which would be about half the cost of the project. The total price tag has been hovering around $1.2 billion.

For Central Corridor, the blissful late summer weather is a bonus given the wet weather that delayed early season construction. Project officials shy away from uttering the "Ahead of Schedule" phrase but point out that CCLRT met its construction season goal back in mid July of having 20% of the project complete.

A cloud on the horizon for Central Corridor centers on the impact construction is having especially on smaller businesses. Some report their revenue has been sliced by more than half.

Yes, there's $4 million in loans and grants available to help affected businesses. But only a small portion has been used. One reason, business owners say, is getting the money is onerous because of the detailed financial disclosure required.

(Photo courtesy of MnDOT)

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Where did Twin Cities sprawl go?

Posted at 3:45 PM on August 30, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

Don't panic.

There's still plenty to go around.

However, some fun new numbers from Metropolitan Council research manager Libby Starling show the rate appears to be slowing.

"The most recent land-use data, interpreted from aerial photography conducted in spring 2010, show the region added 23,000 developed acres from 2005 to 2010, which compares in geographic size to the City of Plymouth."

Having more fun with numbers, Starling points to this:

"This is an average rate of 4,500 acres per year, compared to an average rate of 7,500 acres per year during the first half of the decade, 2000-2005. During the 1990s, the region added developed land at an average rate of 9,200 acres per year."

So, we're still sprawled out but probably the recession and slower population growth have slowed the rate.

And finally, a bit of fuel for your next happy hour or dinner party conversation:

"The seven-county geographic area is 1.9 million acres--1.78 million acres of land and 125,000 acres of open water. Thirty percent of the geographic area, or 575,000 acres, is developed as of 2010 (including residential, commercial, industrial and major highways). Twenty-two percent of the region, 411,000 acres, is devoted to residential development. Just over one million acres are agricultural and undeveloped land."

Didn't I say these numbers are fun?

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Bike route site adds transit, plans to expand statewide

Posted at 8:27 AM on August 30, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

Cyclopath, a handy bike-route website developed by faculty and students at the University of Minnesota's Computer Science and Engineering Department, is expanding statewide.

MnDOT is providing the funds for the project, which will start this fall and take about a year and a half to complete. Professor Loren Terveen says it's a big task — the Cyclopath team will have to pull data from MnDOT as well as local governments to figure out things like road type, speed limit, shoulder width and whether there are designated bike paths in the area where a user requests a route.

For now, Cyclopath has expanded its options for commuters in the seven-county Twin Cities metro area. The site now allows users to add Metro Transit buses or trains to their bike route. That option includes scheduling, so there's no need to go to the Metro Transit trip planner if you're preparing a route that involves bike and bus.

Another addition for users is the ability to share a route with a friend via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook.

An Android app was also released earlier this summer, allowing people with Android phones to have Cyclopath track their route or provide a new route given their current location.

Twin Cities bicyclists are surely taking advantage of the bike option on Google Maps, but Terveen says it isn't the same as Cyclopath.

"We have a number of benefits that they don't have," he said. "Routes can be personalized based on ratings."

Cyclopath is open content, so besides ratings, users can add edits and comments so that the routes the site spits out are constantly improving, Terveen said.

"We've done studies that show we've actually increased the quality of routes that we generate using user inputs," he said.

Cyclopath has about 2,500 registered users. During bike season, up to 20 registered users log in per day and about 100 route requests per day are processed for people who don't log in.

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Deadline to apply for SBA loans to repair tornado damage approaching

Posted at 7:00 AM on August 29, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

People affected by the May 22nd tornado in Minneapolis have until September 6th to apply for a Small Business Administration loan to help pay for storm repairs. The loans are available for homeowners, renters and businesses. The loans have credit and income qualifications. The city suggests applying for a loan even if you're not sure you qualify because an SBA denial is required to apply for many other types of assistance.

SBA Disaster loans have rates as low as 2.6 percent interest for homeowners and renters, and 4 percent for businesses that meet credit and income qualifications. The amount the SBA will lend depends on the cost of repairing or replacing the structure and/or contents, minus any insurance settlements or grants. To apply, call the SBA's Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 Monday - Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Loan applications are available for download from www.sba.gov. Completed applications should be mailed to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155. Those affected by the disaster may also apply for loans electronically from SBA's website.

More information from the city of Minneapolis:

-Private insurance: What if my insurance doesn't cover the cost of repairing tornado damage to my home or property?
You can negotiate with your insurance company about your claim. Homeowners and property owners affected by the tornado with questions about insurance claims, repair contracts, other real estate matters, or other legal issues can call Volunteer Lawyers Network at (612) 752-6677.

-Other resources: What if my insurance coverage isn't enough to make repairs and I am not eligible for an SBA Loan?
When private insurance and SBA loans do not meet tornado repair needs, other resources may be available. An SBA denial is required to access most other disaster funds. The Minnesota Housing Quick Start Disaster Recovery Program will provide assistance as a last resort to return a damaged home to its pre-disaster condition.

Property owners who need additional financial assistance for home repair can contact these organizations to learn about available loans and grants:
Center for Energy & Environment, (612) 335-5884
Housing Resource Center - North, (612) 588-3033
Neighborhood Housing Services, (612) 521-3581

If your property did not receive substantial damage but you still need help, you may be eligible for assistance from volunteers through these organizations:
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, (612) 788-8169
Rebuilding Together, (651) 776-4273

The Northside Community Response Team Hotline is available to help people with questions on housing and legal issues, dealing with landlords, support for businesses and more at

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Seward Market mural memorializes three slain men

Posted at 3:30 PM on August 26, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Immigration, Livability, Minneapolis

A new mural painted on the side of the Seward Market and Halal Meat in Minneapolis aims to honor three men who lost their lives there last year.

Over the summer, teen artists and neighborhood volunteers came to the Franklin Avenue corner store with ladders and buckets of paint to memorialize the victims. Store employee Osman Jama Elmi, his cousin Mohamed Abdi Warfa, and customer Anwar Salah Mohammed were shot to death in January 2010 in what was the city's first triple homicide in several years.

Elmi and Warfa were Somali-American, and Mohammed was an ethnic Oromo from Ethiopia. A trial for the suspected killer is scheduled for Sept. 6.

The mural is meant to pay tribute to the victims and celebrate the community's diversity, said Articulture, the nearby visual-arts educational group that led the effort.

Guided by professional photographers Mohamud Mumin and Jennifer Larson, the teens also took photos from the community that have been turned into five collage panels along the wall. The photography is meant to tell the story of the community.

A public celebration unveiling the mural, starting at 3 p.m. Sunday, comes on the heels of another tragedy for the Seward community.

True Thai Restaurant will be closed on Saturday from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. in honor of the restaurant's chef, Anousone "Ped" Phanthavong. The chef was killed Tuesday in a hit-and-run off ramp from westbound Interstate 94 to Riverside Avenue.

Our thoughts are with our friends in Seward. More than a year after the triple homicide, many still have signs posted in businesses and homes declaring "Seward Stands Together."

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Footnote to the Hiawatha light rail project

Posted at 9:00 PM on August 25, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

It's a $4.6 million dollar footnote.

The news is that the U. S. Department of Justice will settle for $4.6 million with the major contractors who built the Hiawatha line.

The settlement for the project completed in 2004 resolves allegations that a consortium of construction design and build firms that includes Granite Construction Company and C. S. McCrossan knowingly submitted false claims.

The companies claimed they'd subcontracted with women and minority owned or so-called disadvantaged business enterprises (DBE's) when the government says they hadn't.

The companies agree to the settlement but insist they did nothing wrong.

Federal rules require that contractors make a good faith effort to subcontract with DBE's.

What about the Central Corridor light rail project under construction between downtown St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis through the east bank campus of the University of Minnesota?

Here's the latest from spokeswoman Laura Baenen:

The DBE total achievement in July for the project was about 8 percent. The goal is 15 percent. The reason for the below-goal performance is that the work activities planned for DBE firms has not occurred as yet. Keep in mind that the 15 percent goal is upon completion of the contracts, and the contractors still have years of work ahead of them.

Baenen adds a footnote: "The (CCLRT) project is still on budget. As for time, we have already surpassed our 2011 goal of being 20 percent complete; we did this in July."

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Minneapolis mayor signs "taproom ordinance," clearing the way for more beer

Posted at 1:10 PM on August 24, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

With speculation frothing about where Surly Brewing Company could locate their new event space - the beer company is currently in Brooklyn Center -- Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak Wednesday signed a new ordinance allowing breweries to sell pints of their beer on site.

The ordinance creates a new type of liquor license in the city called a taproom license. To be eligible for the license breweries may not produce more than 250,000 barrels of beer a year. The new Minneapolis law follows a recent change to state law, the "Surly Bill," lifting restrictions on breweries' right to sell pints of beer on site. The change also allowed cities to license the practice.

In a press release Mayor Rybak, whose great-grandfather owned and operated Rybak Brewery in New Prague, Minnesota in the 1920s, said:

"We're making it easier for Minnesota beer drinkers to drink Minnesota beer and create jobs here," said Mayor Rybak. "Sales of pints on site will also grow the local beer economy by lowering the barriers for entry for new breweries, which will allow them to hit the ground running. And it complements Minneapolis' burgeoning local food economy that is creating new businesses and even more jobs."

Mayor Rybak signed the ordinance in the presence of Omar Ansari, president and founder of Surly Brewing Company of Brooklyn Center.

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Twin Cities' electric future

Posted at 4:00 PM on August 23, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

Xcel Energy's Black Dog power plant

It includes more gas, that is, burning natural gas as a fuel to make electricity.

Xcel Energy is angling to complete conversion of its Black Dog electrical generating plant in Burnsville.

Two of Black Dog's coal burning units are now burning natural gas and the utility wants to convert the remaining two by 2016 at a cost of about $600 million.

Let us as eager consumers of kilowatts pause for a moment to consider this apparently mundane issue.

About half our electricity in Minnesota and across the country is from burning coal, and that is not a pretty picture given the environmental costs as measured in greenhouse gas and mercury emissions.

Over the next year and half the federal government will issue a batch of new federal air pollution regulations that may cause the closure of a bunch of old, inefficient coal -burning power plants.

Some utilities are shouting foul, and claiming the new rules will create apocalyptic conditions of brown-outs and other calamities that will cut into electrical addiction.

Others assert nothing of the sort will happen, in large measure because there are oodles of kilowatts that can be found elsewhere including natural gas, wind, solar, geothermal, hydro.

And then there's efficiency.

As in turning off the lights when no one is home or in the room. Or putting all our electric toys with their phantom power supplies on a power strip. And turning off the strip when the big screen TVs and other gizmos aren't in use.

The Black Dog conversion to natural gas needs state approval. The plant would be the third Xcel facility in Minnesota, along with the High Bridge plant in St. Paul and Riverside in Minneapolis, to join the gas burning trend if approval is granted.

A public hearing on the conversion is tonight at the Burnsville City Hall.

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A little free gas and vegan food at Bobby and Steve's Auto World

Posted at 8:15 AM on August 22, 2011 by Tim Nelson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

A nationwide PETA campaign to promote veganism hits Minneapolis this afternoon -- at Bobby and Steve's Auto World at Washington Avenue and Interstate 35W, of all places.

The "Fill Up On Clean Energy: Go Vegan" event promises "Petrol Pin-Ups" in "sexy auto mechanic outfits" handing out free vegan food and pumping two gallons of free gas into the tanks of each of the first 25 people in line for the event.

The point: skipping a single meal of chicken a week, PETA contends, would save as much CO2 as taking a half-million cars off the road. A vegan diet would do more to fight climate change than switching to a hybrid car, the group contends.

Here's what the campaign looked like in Pensacola, Fla. -- or at least what it looked like on PETA "senior campaigner" Virgina Fort's Twitter feed. The campaign debuted in April in Las Vegas, according to PETA spokeswoman Hayden Hamilton.

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Erlinder barred again from representing client

Posted at 4:29 PM on August 18, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

After attorney Peter Erlinder was thrown out of a courtroom Monday, the St. Paul law professor made another appeal to Minnesota's chief federal district judge seeking to represent his client for pretrial release.

U.S. Chief District Judge Michael Davis responded today: Nope.

Erlinder wrote a letter Tuesday apologizing to Davis for "improperly" trying to address the judge Monday at a pretrial court hearing. The William Mitchell law professor is not admitted to practice law in Minnesota because he never took the bar exam in this state. He has sought permission several times to defend clients -- and was denied several times -- as recently as 2009 in the case of terror suspect Mohamed Warsame.

In an email to MPR News, Erlinder points out that he has practiced law on occasion in Minnesota's federal courtrooms over the past 20 years:

"Seeking admission to the Minnesota State Bar to appear in Federal court every 3-5 years seemed unnecessary, but I may have to tre-think (sic) that conclusion if I have any cases in Minnesota District Court."

His current client, Mahamud Said Omar, is accused of helping outfit several Twin Cities men for their trips to Somalia, allegedly to fight with the extremist group al-Shabab. Omar's family contends he suffers from mental disorders and is not capable of aiding terrorists.

Erlinder agrees that Omar lacks the mental faculties to make decisions on his behalf, and says Omar fired his Dutch attorney and essentially gave up fighting extradition.

Perhaps better known for his detention in Rwanda last year, Erlinder is allowed to practice law in his home state of Illinois as well as other federal and appellate courts.

While not naming Erlinder specifically, Judge Davis issued an order today saying he "will not entertain any motion or request of said attorney" until the lawyer complies with the requirements to participate in a criminal case before the court.

(Photo by Laura Yuen)

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Another semi tipped in downtown Minneapolis

Posted at 10:09 AM on August 16, 2011 by Tim Nelson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

The downtown Minneapolis rush hour ended with another upended semi-tractor trailer this morning -- although it doesn't seem as serious as the fatal crash in the Lowry Tunnel last Wednesday. Here's what the culprit looked like after trying to round the 35 MPH curve on southbound Interstate 35W just south of I-94 this morning.

It appears the driver was ambulatory after the incident:

(Photos: Erika Nelson)

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Minneapolis tests 'one-sort' recycling

Posted at 6:30 PM on August 15, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (3 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Recycling is about to get easier for residents of two Minneapolis neighborhoods.

The city has selected about 1,030 households in the Willard-Hay and East Calhoun neighborhoods for a recycling pilot program. The test group will put all of their recyclables in one cart, instead of sorting them into separate bags.

City officials will study the results -- the amount of recyclables, the profits from sales, and the program's costs -- to see how they stack up against the city's current recycling program. Another test project, based in the Seward neighborhood, has residents sort recycling into two piles, one for paper products and the other for everything else.

Here's how the city sorts recyclables now:

In other words, recycling in Minneapolis might not require a Mensa-level I.Q., but it's not exactly easy, either.

Plastic bottles, glass bottles, metal cans need to be sorted into separate paper bags. Newspapers need to be placed in a different bag or tied into a bundle "with string or twine," not to exceed 20 pounds, according to the city's website. And that's not all. Throw away all caps or lids from cans or bottles. Don't forget to put phone books and corrugated cardboard in paper bags. And make sure to remove all plastic from any dry food boxes or office paper.

The city's website explains why:

Sorted recycling generates the biggest revenue ... If the City of Minneapolis used single-stream recycling (all recycling in one bin, as some areas do), the higher cost of processing these materials would result in lower revenue, and possible cuts in other waste services.

The City Council will review the results from the pilot program "for consideration in future recycling operations," the city said in a statement released on Monday.

(Recycling truck photo courtesy of the city of Minneapolis website)

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Pan-African Women's Action Summit underway in Minneapolis

Posted at 3:58 PM on August 11, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Immigration, Livability, Minneapolis, Race, St. Paul

Organizers of the Pan African Women's Action Summit in downtown Minneapolis say the event is part of their mission to increase philanthropy in the Pan-African women's community here and globally.

Some of the event's proceeds will go to The Minneapolis Foundation's North Minneapolis Tornado Recovery Fund as well as East African famine relief efforts.

From the summit's press materials:

In keeping with the United Nations' Declaration of 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent, PAWPNet has taken the bold step of declaring every August as Black Philanthropy Month. Thanks for making this a historic gathering. We hope that together we will change the face of philanthropy and our community for years to come.

The summit also features a film and food festival and an oral history project.

Speakers include:

Dr. Jackie Copeland-Carson, PAWPNet and PAWAS Chair; Karen Kelley-Ariwoola, Vice President of Community Philanthropy, The Minneapolis Foundation; Grace Stanislaus, Director of the Museum of the African Diaspora; Judge (ret.) LaJune Lange, former Minnesota state trial judge, senior fellow with the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and founding president of The International Leadership Institute.

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More tree stump removal in north Minneapolis tornado zone

Posted at 9:54 PM on August 10, 2011 by Jessica Mador (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Minneapolis city officials are holding a news conference Thursday at 10 a.m. to announce the "removal of 1,529 unsightly tipped tree stumps in the 3.5 mile tornado-affected area of north Minneapolis".

This comes after a message earlier this week from Rep. Joe Mullery:

UPROOTED STUMPS AND SIDEWALKS I finally got a response from the city regarding the uprooted tree stamps and destroyed sidewalks. The city says the Park Board will start removing the uprooted stumps on the boulevards on Monday, August 8, beginning at the north end and continuing south. The Park Board plans to be done with the removal by September 1. When the stumps have mostly been removed (i.e. about three-fourths gone), the city will begin repairing sidewalks.

This is good news for the tornado zone. Many blocks, especially in the hardest hit areas, are still littered with uprooted tree stumps.

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General Mills pledges up to $100,000 for famine relief

Posted at 5:05 PM on August 3, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Immigration, Minneapolis

One very large food company is responding to the food crisis in Somalia.

The philanthropic arm of General Mills announced today it has donated $50,000 to the ARC, a Minneapolis-based group that is delivering aid to famine-stricken Somalia. The General Mills Foundation says it will make another matching contribution of up to an additional $50,000 from other Twin Cities companies.

The fact that General Mills is headquartered in the nation's largest Somali-American community was not lost on Ellen Goldberg Luger, vice president and General Mills Foundation executive director. And she's calling on other local corporations to dig deep:

"As the famine in Somalia reaches historic proportions, we encourage other Minnesota companies to support the critical relief work being done by the American Refugee Committee to address this devastating crisis."

As we reported last week, a single fund-raiser held at the Safari restaurant in Minneapolis drew in about $50,000 from Somali-Americans and friends. (Organizer Mohamed Hassan says early estimates of $53,000 were a bit high; he now puts it at $47,000. Still, it's not bad for an event that was put together in less than a week. On the other hand, a benefit concert held last Saturday had a poor turnout.)

We'll continue to track how Minnesotans -- individuals as well as companies -- work to address the humanitarian crisis in Somalia.

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Who doesn't love an occasional 'mill and overlay'?

Posted at 1:14 PM on August 3, 2011 by Brandt Williams (1 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

This mechanical dinosaur - which is actually about the length of a Tyrannosaurus Rex - is lumbering along 3rd St. S. in downtown Minneapolis chewing up and spitting out asphalt. The 30+ ton behemoth is called a cold planer, and it's integral to the "mill and overlay" procedure.

The process is simple - although it requires a lot of heavy machinery. The old, pockmarked surface is scraped away. Then another crew of workers apply a new, fresh layer of blacktop that is squished into place by steamrollers.

At the risk of sounding like an infrastructure-nerd, I really like a good mill and overlay. What's not to like? It makes a street look neat and tidy and it feels great to drive or ride a bike over. Plus, city officials say it extends the life of the road by 10 years.

Several other major downtown streets are on the cold planer's menu this summer as well. Check the city's website for details and maps.

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Annual StandDown for veterans this week

Posted at 4:29 PM on August 1, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Crime, Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Veterans

An annual event designed to help homeless and at-risk military veterans happens this week at Fort Snelling. The Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans' StandDown offers free assistance with VA and other benefits, psychological counseling, legal assistance, and help with housing, employment, and chemical dependency. Veterans can meet one-on-one with attorneys who specialize in child support, social security, consumer law, tickets, DMV, federal and state tax assistance and other issues. Free meals, clothing and haircuts will also be available. And there's a free shuttle from the Fort Snelling Light Rail Station.

WHEN: Tuesday, Aug. 2 and Wednesday, Aug. 3 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Welcome Ceremony will take place Aug. 2 at 11 a.m.
WHERE: Scout Base Camp, 201 Bloomington Road, Fort Snelling, Minn.

The Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans estimates that about one percent of Minnesota veterans - that's nearly 4,100 veterans -- will experience homelessness this year. Last year's StandDown drew about 700 veterans.

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Marquette Plaza goes platinum

Posted at 11:01 AM on July 29, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

I'm a frequent denizen of downtown Minneapolis green spaces. So I've long been familiar with the lush, verdant patch of grass in front of the Marquette Plaza, which sits right off of Nicollet Mall not far from the Hennepin County Central Library. That big natural carpet is actually a green roof that sits over the underground parking garage.

But I didn't know the building recently achieved the highest standard of environmental sustainability - the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum designation.

Here are some of the benefits of this green building, according to a press release from the building managers.

The company also says there are only 47 platinum multiple-tenant buildings around the world.

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Falcon Heights is 12th city with domestic partner registry

Posted at 2:32 PM on July 28, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

The Falcon Heights city council voted unanimously last night to establish a domestic partner registry for unmarried same-sex and opposite sex couples who live or work in the community.

Falcon Heights resident Ann DeGroot brought the issue to her city after learning about other suburbs adopting registries.

"In our neighborhood, most of us think it's a bit of a no-brainer," said DeGroot.

On Monday I did a story on partnership registries multiplying--especially in the suburbs-- as Minnesota gears up for a much bigger vote on a constitutional amendment to define who can marry next year. Same-sex marriage advocates say registries are a sign of growing tolerance. Opponents say registries have no legal power, and the marriage vote is what matters.

Monday evening, Crystal's Human Rights Commission voted to forward the measure to the Crystal City Council for further action.

OutFront Minnesota, which provides technical support to cities considering registries, estimates 15-20 communities will have registries by the time Minnesotans head to the polls in 2012 to vote on the marriage amendment.

Minneapolis established the state's first domestic partnership registry in 1991. Since 2009, Duluth, St. Paul, Rochester, Red Wing, Edina, Golden Valley, Richfield, St. Louis Park, Maplewood, Robbinsdale and now Falcon Heights have approved them.

Moorhead voted one down in 2010.

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Metro Transit says ridership up 3.2 percent

Posted at 8:40 PM on July 27, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Customers boarded Metro Transit buses and trains 39.6 million times in the first six months of 2011, the agency reported on Wednesday.

That's a 3.2 percent increase over the same period last year, which equals 1.2 million more rides.

Buses and the Northstar commuter rail accounted for much of the increase. Urban local service is up 4.1 percent. Express service is up nearly 3.3 percent. And suburban local service increased by 3.4 percent.

Northstar commuter rail reported a 4.4 percent increase.

But ridership on the Hiawatha light-rail line is down 2.3 percent. However, Metro Transit said ridership on the line in June 2011 was up 5 percent compared to June 2010.

Here's what Metro Transit general manager Brian Lamb said about the numbers, in a statement released Wednesday:

Transit ridership has continued to grow through the second quarter as more commuters choose to avoid high gas prices and congested freeways. If this pace continues, it appears that 2011 could rival the record ridership of 2008.

In 2008, regional transit ridership was the highest in half a century.

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Power to the...air conditioner?

Posted at 6:00 AM on July 28, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

This big old spider-like tower supports the massive power lines that come into a portion of downtown Minneapolis.

And in my mind's eye, those wires were red hot on July 20.

Xcel Energy reports they supplied 9.537 megawatts of power during peak demand in their Minnesota service area, a record.

Xcel serves a lot, but not all of Minnesota. So the state's total electric consumption was higher.

What was going on?

Ah, how soon we forget! Here's how MPR weather guru Paul Huttner described the torture in his UPDRAFT blog:

The dew point sensor at Moorhead spiked to 88 degrees at 7pm Tuesday evening. That's the highest dew point ever recorded in Minnesota. (Previous record was/is 86 degrees)

When you combine the air temperature of 93 at that hour, the heat index calculates out to a Persian Gulf level of 130 degrees! That would also be the highest heat index ever recorded in Minnesota. (Previously 124 degrees at Moorhead in 1966)

Ok, back to electricity for a moment.

It's a big part of the Twin Cities "ecological footprint," according to a study done by the U of MN's Ignacio San Martin and Shengyin Xu in 2010.

Transportation accounts for 28 percent of the footprint, and electricity is another 28 percent.

Now, I have to find out what an ecological footprint is.

And a megawatt.

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$53K raised for Somali famine victims; Bono sounds alarm

Posted at 3:49 PM on July 25, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Immigration, Minneapolis

From Bono's shout-out to grassroots fundraising, it was a good weekend for broadening awareness about the famine in the Horn of Africa.

An event held Friday in Minneapolis reeled in about $53,000 in donations and pledges to help the American Refugee Committee provide aid to famine victims in Somalia, organizers say.

That amount will be matched by corporate donations, said a spokeswoman for the Minneapolis-based ARC.

One of the event's organizers, Mohamed Hassan of Minneapolis, said the outpouring of support surpassed even his expectations. He and Hassan Mohamud, imam of the Da'Wah mosque in St. Paul, helped put together the event in less than a week.

"For many of us, particularly the Somalis, it's personal," Hassan said of the drought's effect on refugees. "We know what they're going through. Some people are losing family members to starvation. I lost family members to war and killing."

There were non-Somalis in the crowd at Friday's banquet, a promising sign that news about the crisis in the Horn of Africa is reaching the mainstream, Hassan said. On Saturday, he hopes to put on a benefit concert to raise even more cash for those left behind.

Safari Restaurant and Banquet Center held back-to-back-to-back fundraisers.

Restaurant co-owner Jamal Hashi donated the banquet space. Hashi said it's the responsibility of all Somalis in America to help their extended family and fellow countrymen back home.

"I feel guilty that my fridge is full. I feel guilty that I have a/c on in my house. It could've been any of us," he told MPR's Rupa Shenoy.

Young people are also pitching in with car washes. And none other than Bono lent his celebrity to the cause through ONE, the advocacy group he co-founded to fight poverty and preventable disease. While performing in Minneapolis Saturday, he gave a plug to the ARC's Neighbors for Nations campaign and met privately with a number of Somali-American community members before the show.

In the U2 frontman's own words, according to the ONE website:

We're here to sound the alarm bell in the United States, where there has been very little media coverage of the food crisis -- and now a famine which is threatening the lives and livelihoods of 12 million. This is monstrous. Pay close attention, this is a defining moment for the world. History will be very harsh if we don't move quickly.

(Photo courtesy of ONE. U2 lead singer and ONE cofounder Bono and K'naan, the Somali-born singer and poet, meet with Somali Minnesotans in Minneapolis last night to discuss efforts to combat the famine in Somali. Left to right are Mohamed Samatar, Shukri Abdinur, Bono, K'naan, and Ruqia Mohamed.)

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6th Annual FLOW Northside Arts Crawl

Posted at 2:10 PM on July 25, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

The 6th Annual FLOW Northside Arts Crawl takes place this Saturday, July 30, from 3-8 p.m. This year, the event takes note of the impact of the May 22 tornado on north Minneapolis, and offers people a chance to "make and experience art that responds directly to the tornado". The free event is a self-guided art tour featuring visual and performing artists showing at businesses, studios and organizations along West Broadway in north Minneapolis.

Highlights include:

• Northside 365 photography project

• BLO Stage & Beer Garden and FLOW Afterparty Tornado Response

• Live Chainsaw Carving with recovered trees sponsored by FORECAST Public Art

• Murals by Juxtaposition Arts on tornado damaged buildings

• Photography and field recordings of the aftermath by alleycat.mn

• Northside Community Poem writing project

• Art Sale to Benefit Northside Artists

And from 5-6 p.m. at Penn & Broadway, a special ceremony will recognize the 6,000+ volunteers who've been part of the massive cleanup of north Minneapolis in the weeks and months following the tornado.

You can find more info here.

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What is the role of Muslim Americans in fighting radicalization?

Posted at 1:51 PM on July 22, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Immigration, Minneapolis

It's no secret that U.S. law enforcement wants American Muslims to be the eyes and ears of radical elements in their communities.

But the bigger question is: What should Muslims do if they suspect someone of harboring extreme views, but have no idea if that person poses any real security threat?

In my story yesterday about an assault that took place at a Minneapolis mosque, Nimco Ahmed, a Somali community member who has been involved with counterterrorism discussions with the Department of Homeland Security, raised an interesting point. Somali-Americans are still trying to figure out what their role is in reporting suspicions, she said.

"If we have people inside of our community who are radicalized, what do we need to do to identify them? What identifies a radical individual? I think all of that is not really clear."

Community members may come across someone who seems to sympathize with, say, the terror group al-Shabab. But that in itself is not a crime. Ahmed noted that some people who might seem radical due to mental instability might be in need of an intervention, not necessarily an investigation.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security launched a campaign last year called: "If You See Something, Say Something."

The U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, B. Todd Jones, has been meeting with young Somali-Americans since early this year as part of a broader effort to engage community members. His office recently hosted a civics training with young Somali-Americans (pictured above, courtesy of his office.)

And in March, Jones hired Michelle Tran to fill the new role of community relations specialist. She coordinates many of the conversations between the office and young Somali leaders.

Tran agrees that not everyone feels comfortable calling the FBI.

"A lot of people are afraid to bring it to that level," she said. "They're worried about someone who's young and might be impressionable. That's something we're trying to build a bit a little more -- having a space where people can ask questions without feeling they're going to be investigated."

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Signs of a startup?

Posted at 12:29 PM on July 21, 2011 by Tim Nelson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul

It's the first day of the state startup, following a three week shutdown. That included road contractors working on state projects -- mothballed without state inspectors and supervision.

In the Twin Cities, median work on Interstate 94 has been the most visible of those idled projects, but there was a tiny, tiny sign of life along the freeway already this morning, just east of the 27th Avenue bridge in Minneapolis:

But, um, it didn't look like there was a lot of progress on the actual roadwork yet. It looks exactly like the guy was actually spray painting "PCi Roads" onto the traffic side of the jersey barrier. It looked like he was covering up the Shafer insignia, too.

Roadwork may come to a halt, but brand building never stops.

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Nordeast ramen fest aids Japan

Posted at 1:00 PM on July 19, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Ramen, the fast noodle of choice for generations of people on a budget, is in the spotlight Thursday evening.

That's when a crew of five celebrity chefs and one rank amateur face off in an event called Eat Ramen Help Japan.

Here's one of the organizers, Ken Okumura, in a ramen eating frenzy - probably accounts for the blur - during a visit to Japan with his family.

You can order bowls of ramen, and the proceeds go to aid victims of Japan's tsunami last March. The massive wave that hit the island nation killed more than 20,000 and left countless others homeless.

Hardship is too weak a word to describe the suffering caused by the tsunami and its effects.

Thursday evening's "ramen off" won't feature the dried, instant, cellophane wrapped version sold by the shipload to college students and others.

This is the real thing. A handmade noodle in broth - the original comfort food - called chasu in Japanese.

Okumura was born in Japan, raised in Los Angeles, now resides here with his family in the land of Ten Thousand Taxes. His parents live in Japan and the good news is they are not direct victims of the tsunami. But they share in the rolling electricity rationing which affects the entire nation.

The ramen cook-off begins Thursday at 6 p.m. in northeast Minneapolis at Create Catering. Along with Ken, it's the brain child of Stephanie Meyer, Stephanie March and Aaron Ackerman.

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Is Minneapolis an outlier when it comes to crime?

Posted at 6:00 AM on July 19, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

Fourth Precinct Commander Mike Martin

Some of Minneapolis' top cops gathered Monday to announce the continued dip in reported violent crime and to promote city efforts they say are responsible for the decline.

Though violent crime is down in many big cities across the nation, police chief Tim Dolan says there's something unique about Minneapolis.

Bottom line is, what you don't see in other cities is five straight years of decline. What most are talking about is a one-year decline or a two-year decline.

Dolan says five years ago, the city began to crack down on youth violence, in part by cracking down on truancy and enforcing curfew laws. In 2006, more than half of the violent crime in the city was committed by juveniles. Now, Dolan says juvenile crime makes up 20 to 25 percent.

The MPD has also taken an aggressive stance on removing illicit firearms from the streets. So far this year, officers have recovered 137 guns. Police officials say over the last several years, police officers have collected an average of between 700-900 guns a year.

Dolan didn't give all the credit to police officers. He says a number of city agencies, like Regulatory Services and the Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) department, play an active role in assuring public safety. For example, Fourth Precinct commander Mike Martin says when he took over as the head of north Minneapolis police station in 2007, he was confronted with what to do about a bar on West Broadway Ave. that was the source of numerous police calls. Martin says Regulatory Services put the pressure on the bar's licenses to operate. Eventually, the bar closed down and CPED helped find new ownership who would run a safer business.

Are there other factors you think have lead to the drop in crime? Or perhaps you haven't noticed a drop in crime where you live?

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Event remembers black family terrorized in south Minneapolis

Posted at 5:06 PM on July 15, 2011 by MPR News Staff (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Race

By Toni Randolph

A black family that was terrorized by whites in south Minneapolis when they bought a home in the neighborhood 80 years ago will be remembered during a community program Saturday, July 16. Organizers of "A Time to Remember: The Lee Family Commemorative Event" say the story of Arthur and Edith Lee's purchase of the home at 4600 Columbus Avenue will be retold during the program.

The Lees were among the few black families who bought homes in south Minneapolis in the 1930s. They moved into their home with their school-age daughter in July 1931. According to an article in the Minneapolis Journal, shortly after the Lees moved in, about 1,000 white people surrounded the home and threw stones at the building. Police were called in to protect the family from the mob. Event organizers say mobs gathered at the home several nights for more than a week and that the family was being pressured to sell the house and move away. The Lees owned the home for about a year-and-a-half.

Eighty years later, the current owner of the home is allowing a statue to be erected on the property to commemorate the Lee family. Event organizers say there's an effort to get the house placed on the National Register of Historic Places so that the statue will remain on the property even if the home is later sold.

The event begins at 6:45 p.m. with a procession from the Field Community School at 4645 Fourth Avenue South, down East 46th Street to the home at the corner of 46th Street and Columbus Avenue where the statue will be dedicated.

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35W bridge memorial dedication set for Aug. 1

Posted at 12:16 PM on July 15, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

When Minnesota's construction season began this year, a parade of workers, including heavy equipment operators, stone movers, masons, electricians and landscapers, began putting the 35W bridge memorial together, and here's the progress so far.

The newest additions are the 13 girders symbolizing the lives of the 13 people killed when the bridge collapsed on Aug. 1, 2007.

City officials say the dedication of the memorial is set for Monday, Aug. 1.

The memorial is on public land next to Gold Medal Park in downtown Minneapolis overlooking the Mississippi River.

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Is Minneapolis still in the stadium game?

Posted at 8:53 AM on July 15, 2011 by Tim Nelson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

The rivalry between Minneapolis supporters of a new Metrodome and supporters of a new NFL stadium on the Farmer's Market site left a gap for Ramsey County to step through in May.

Now the Vikings say they're about to cross the goal line in Arden Hills.

But developer Bruce Lambrecht, leading the team behind the Farmer's Market proposal (left), wants you to know one thing about a stadium deal looming at the Capitol: It's not dead yet.

"I'm not going to name names, I'm not going to tell you who they are," Lambrecht says. "But I really think we pulled some people over to the Farmer's Market."

Lambrecht says they've been sharpening their pencils and making presentations to business and civic leaders in Minneapolis for weeks, hoping a united front might lure the Vikings back to town.

City Council president Barb Johnson was among them. She said she saw the latest proposal last week. "It was the first time I saw how it actually worked on a map," Johnson said in an interview.

But was she one of the unnamed converts?

It didn't sound like it: "I certainly think there are challenges to the Farmer's Market site... I have always said the Metrodome is the most reasonably priced option, and that's my first choice."

Well, that's the view from the north side of 5th Street. What about the south side?

Lester Bagley says the Vikings talked with Hennepin County talked for "months" about the Farmer's Market site before they moved on to Arden Hills.

Board chairman Mike Opat was key to the Target Field deal for the Twins, and was working on a deal with the Vikings. Opat is more circumspect about the prospects than the city council president.

"I'm not in any hurry to comment either way," he said an email, although he did say he might have more to say next week.

For his part, Lambrecht says he's been winning converts with a new angle on the real estate factors in Minneapolis.

Here's his pitch:

"The land values around the Metrodome site are almost double (the value around the Farmer's Market.) The point we've made is that you can't say that the Metrodome site makes more sense because the land is free. The land has value. What we've shown them is that if you play for the next two or three years in the Metrodome site, and then you put out a request for proposals to a developer or multiple developers, you can sell the land that the Metrodome sits on. You can use the proceeds of that land to acquire the land from the various property owners, and its probably going to be a wash. That was never in the original analysis. It was always, well the land is free, and its going to cost $40 million over at the Farmer's Market."

Will that get anywhere? Hard to know with the Vikings and Ramsey County walking down the aisle and possibly just a few steps from the altar. The team and the county say they're ready for their happily ever after at the old Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant.

But we all remember how The Graduate ended.

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The definitive Twitter list for the Twin Cities food truck brigade

Posted at 12:53 PM on July 14, 2011 by Tim Nelson (2 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul

The Twin Cities food truck fleet welcomes what is, by my count, its 21st member this month. The Twisted Sister House of Hunger

Like others, it's based out a kitchen at Midtown Global Market, and owner Wesley Kaake (pronounced "cake" if you happen upon the truck in the street) says it's licensed in Minneapolis.

"Our daily menu is going to be smoked meat sliders," says Kaake. "Right now we're doing fresh smoked pulled pork with barbeque sauce, cheddar and applewood smoked bacon. And we're also doing a beef brisket smoked slider with our homemade polygamy sauce."

Polygamy sauce?

"It's polygamy sauce because my partner, Cody, is a Mormon from Utah," Kaake says. "and he took me out there and they all do fry sauce, so I though I'd change it up a little bit and we made it spicy with Sriracha and a few other things we put in there."

It's not every day you eat lunch with the likes of Joseph Smith, Dambudzo Marechera, David Tran and Dee Snider.

Kaake says his franchise's name was happenstance -- it was on the truck already when he bought it in Greenspring, Ohio. As for the contents of the truck, that's a bit of an accident, too. He was actually working on a donut shop for downtown Minneapolis, but went looking for something cheaper "when the price went over $500,000."

Like other operators, he says Twitter may be the secret ingredient for mobile food. He says he can actually watch people walk up, tweet their lunch, and see their friends show up.

Anyway, here's what may be the definitive Twitter list for the Twin Cities food truck brigade. I don't know of a longer list. If you know of any more, or would like to discuss the definition of "food truck" in 140 characters or less, let me know at @timnelson_mpr

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Minneapolis electrical union donates to north Minneapolis

Posted at 11:58 AM on July 11, 2011 by Jessica Mador (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 292 is giving away $20,000 in free electrical service and repairs to homeowners affected by the the May 22 tornado. The union says certified and licensed IBEW professionals will restore power and make repairs for homeowners who received storm damage, but have little or no insurance coverage. That's up to $1,000 in free electrical service for a maximum of 20 homes. To qualify, homes must be located in the north Minneapolis tornado zone, be owner-occupied and have limited coverage from any type of insurance for the electrical damage.

Qualified homeowners should contact Betsy Hunter at the Minneapolis AFL-CIO Community Services Office at 612-379-8130, extension 112. Or call 311.

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Shutdown threatens some bars and restaurants

Posted at 4:40 PM on July 8, 2011 by Brandt Williams (1 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

As my colleague Annie Baxter pointed out this morning, the longer the shutdown continues, the more private business are feeling the pinch. Add to that some bars, restaurants and liquor stores that are delinquent in their tax payments.

The Department of Revenue has listed more than 100 establishments across Minnesota that cannot receive shipments of booze until the shutdown is over. The list appears here. Under state law, a liquor license holder can only buy its supply of spirits from a licensed wholesaler. License holders who are behind on their taxes get placed on a list. It's against state law for wholesalers to sell to licensees on the list. It is also against the law for a business on the list to go around the system by buying liquor from another retailer.

The Department of Revenue's assistant commissioner for individual taxes, Terri Steenblock, says businesses had until the end of the day on June 28 to make their payments and avoid being placed on the list which was posted on the evening of June 29. She says while the department is collecting tax revenue during the shutdown, it is not a critical function to remove businesses from the delinquent list.

I called and visited several bars and restaurants on the list, but they all told me they had gotten their payments taken care of before the shutdown. When I stopped by Duplex in south Minneapolis, I saw lunch patrons enjoying wine and beer. The manager told me they weren't having a problem with their booze supply.

Steenblock says delinquent bars and restaurants may continue to sell booze they already have in stock.

However, many Minneapolis establishments need to restock each week. That's according to Grant Wilson, deputy director of licenses and consumer services for the city of Minneapolis. He says one bar on the delinquency list, The Independent in Calhoun Square, has been cited twice by the city for illegally restocking their shelves.

He says the shutdown will also affect liquor licensees that haven't applied for, or renewed their buyer's card. The $20 buyer's card is required for businesses to receive their booze shipments from wholesalers. Wilson says the card applications and renewals - which are handled through the state's Department of Public Safety - are also not deemed essential services.

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Buttoning up the Dome

Posted at 1:43 PM on July 8, 2011 by Tim Nelson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

It looks like they're down to a single open panel in the roof of the Metrodome today. Metropolitan Sports Facitiies Commission facilities manager Steve Maki said crews were scheduled to put in a triangle panel this morning, leaving one diamond panel open.

Sports Facilities Commission chairman Ted Mondale says the dome could be closed up as soon as next week. Crews still have to add neoprene covers to the panel clamps, re-install lightning rods and other details.

Minneapolis photographer Janelle Nivens recently took a great picture from southwest of the dome, showing the progress so far. Those green things are air pillows lashed to the roof panels to keep them taut and prevent them from moving in high winds.

It's been 208 days since the Dome deflated after the 5th biggest storm in recorded Twin Cities history. The project is supposed to be done and ready for inflation by the first part of August. The Vikings first preseason game is scheduled for Saturday Aug. 27.

Here's what Mall of America Field looked like on the inside, from the football press box, this morning (click on the picture for a larger version):

You can see the lifts reaching up to that last opening to the center right of that picture. The field is still covered with plywood, although the scoreboards have been powered up and the sound system is fixed.

The grey panels hanging down are part of the new acoustic damping system that's replacing the scrim that used to cover the bottom surface of the dome. Up close, they look like big silver blankets. Here's Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission executive assistant Julie Millikan holding one up during a tour this morning. They're supposed to help suppress the reflection of sound from the seating area, but allow heat from the bowl to more easily reach the roof and melt the kind of snow that brought the Dome down in December.

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Nail biting time (again) for Southwest Light Rail

Posted at 7:00 AM on July 8, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Suburbs, Transportation

The folks who'd like to bring us the Southwest Light Rail line are waiting for a green light.

Wonder where Southwest Light Rail will go? A map of possible routes is here.

They're in limbo, hoping the Federal Transit Administration grants permission to enter the coveted PE or preliminary engineering phase.

The human equivalent is going from childhood to teen status.

(You're a grownup transit project when you get FFGA, a full funding grant agreement.)

PE means the planners and engineers are allowed to create even more elaborate blueprints.

Predicting the likelihood of Southwest Light Rail ever becoming a reality is tricky.

Obviously the local boosters like it a lot since it connects the wealthy and car congested southwest suburbs with downtown Minneapolis.

The Metropolitan Council likes the project and has given it a high priority among other transit needs.

And the folks at the FTA reportedly like the project.

But take that with a grain of salt. There are somewhere around 100 rail and bus projects across the country in the FTA beauty pageant, all vying for scarce federal funds.

These projects rise or fall to some degree on a community's track record, and so far the Twin Cities is showing it knows how to deliver them on time and on budget.

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KRS-One to headline concert for tornado victims

Posted at 4:05 PM on July 6, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis

The Facebook guy apparently knows how to put on a good show.

Peter Kerre, the Harlem-based man who set up a virtual one-stop shop for resources following the north Minneapolis tornado, is hosting a benefit concert July 19 at First Avenue.

Kerre is known to hip-hop fans as promoter and turntablist DJ Xpect. His website says he used to DJ for the Minneapolis radio station KMOJ.

Rapper KRS-One is headlining the concert, which Kerre promises will be the first of many shows to raise money for relief efforts on the north side. Other acts include Detroit-based Slum Village and Toki Wright.

Tickets went on sale at noon today.

(Photo by MPR's Nikki Tundel)

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Regardless of shutdown, Twin Cities transit funding in limbo

Posted at 1:44 PM on July 1, 2011 by Dan Olson (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

It's deceptive.

The Metro Transit buses, trains, vans, and other services are still up and running at regular service levels.

Temporarily.

The Metropolitan Council, the agency in charge of most Twin Cities public transit, is using reserves to fill the tanks, pay the operators and keep everything rolling.

Without a state budget settlement, those reserves might last a few weeks.

Even with a budget settlement, Metro Transit folks have set public meetings next week to outline a worst case scenario.

That scenario envisions a new state budget with a $109 million transit funding cut over two years, which was proposed by the GOP.

Met Council officials say the result won't be pretty. Suburban express and crosstown bus service slashed, direct bus service to the U of M cut, 500 employees laid off, and 200 buses idled. In other words, nearly a third of Metro Transit's service goes away.

Oh yes, and then there's the matter of fares increasing as much as fifty cents.

Raising fares. Cutting service. Not a formula for increasing ridership. In fact, Metro Transit folks predict the number of riders would nosedive.

And then it would take years to recover should service be restored in some unforseeable transit future.

Those public meetings where you can make your views known are next week:

Wednesday, July 6 - 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Metropolitan Council Offices - Chambers
390 North Robert Street, St. Paul
Served by many transit routes

Thursday, July 7 - 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Minneapolis Central Library, Doty Board Room
300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis
Served by many transit routes

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Still waiting for a tornado fix

Posted at 10:32 AM on June 29, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

Earlier this week we broadcast a story on Maurice Dixon, a north Minneapolis renter who complained that his landlord was not fixing his tornado-damaged duplex.

The building suffered roof damage and water was leaking into Dixon's bedroom. And, more than a month after the storm, a broken window was still not fixed. Dixon showed me the crumbling board he applied as a temporary patch, but it kept falling over every time the wind blew on it.

I called Dixon back to see if any progress was being made. He told me the company that owns the building, St. Paul-based Aims Realty, sent a guy out to fix the window and repair the plumbing. Dixon said his bathtub had recently started filling up with brown, smelly water. He said the repairman came by to take a look and then told Dixon he'd come back to start work later in the day. But the repairman has yet to come back to start work.

Stay tuned.

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Some state money flows into north Minneapolis

Posted at 4:50 PM on June 28, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

The state Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) has awarded a $200,000 grant to Minneapolis nonprofit Northside Economic Opportunity Network, a collaborative that provides guidance and other assistance to businesses and entrepreneurs in north Minneapolis. The grant is part of a commitment that Gov. Mark Dayton made in March to encourage business and job growth in a part of the Twin Cities that has struggled with issues of poverty and chronic unemployment.

DEED says the grant will allow the Northside Economic Opportunity Network to provide free services to neighborhood businesses and entrepreneurs, including counseling, business planning and marketing, access to capital, cash-flow management and start-up assistance.

The one-year initiative begins Friday, and runs through June 30, 2012. To qualify for the free assistance, people must live in one of the following neighborhoods: Harrison, Sumner-Glenwood, Near North, Willard-Hay, Jordan, Hawthorne, Cleveland, Folwell, McKinley, Victory, Weber-Camden, Shingle Creek and Lind-Bohanon.

This grant follows on the heels of another cash infusion announced last week. $430,629 in grants from donations and matching funds raised through the Minnesota Helps - North Minneapolis Recovery Fund will be awarded to 13 organizations assisting north Minneapolis residents affected by last month's tornado.

The grants are aimed at helping local agencies meet the needs of individual neighborhood residents, provide trauma counseling and social services to children and youth affected by the tornado, connect residents with critical services and provide transportation and mental health support. A total of $636,752 has now been awarded from the North Minneapolis Recovery Fund. Previous grants, totaling $206,123, were distributed in early June for emergency relief services.

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Minneapolis mystery project revealed

Posted at 10:29 AM on June 28, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

Truthfully, it's not a mystery to the city of Minneapolis.

They've known for decades what they're doing. Here's what you see on a walk on the west bank of the Mississippi river under the 35W bridge. Isn't that an artfully framed photo? Thank you.

Short story: It's a storm water tunnel project. Yep. That's it. Not a subway, not a new underground bike path.

There are others ongoing or planned over the next few years. They account for some of the downtown Minneapolis lane closures, as crews operating the giant derricks burrow below the cityscape to build the new tunnels. Look for the work to last until 2017.

The new pipes replace 1870s-era storm water pipes. The new pipes are larger and stronger than the old ones. The storm water they collect will go directly in the river.

The new pipes also separate the runoff from running into pipes carrying raw sewage.

You can guess what happens in a storm. Water rushing off streets and parking lots heads into the ancient collection pipes. The gush of storm water overwhelms and floods the system and in some cases sends untreated sewage into the FatherMotherParent of waters. Not pretty.

That changed big time beginning about sixteen years ago. Since then Minneapolis' separation of storm water and untreated sewage has caused the icky overflows to plummet to near nothing.

The whole effort is costing millions, financed for the most part by sewer and storm water runoff fees paid by city residents.

No, a state government shutdown will not stop storms, storm water runoff, or tunnel construction.

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Keep the Minneapolis water clean

Posted at 10:08 AM on June 27, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

The city's annual drinking water report, the 2010 edition, reports, "no contaminants were detected that violated federal drinking water standards."

Keeping it clean was part of the message of the Solstice River XV and Global Water Dances observance Saturday afternoon.

Minneapolis residents received word recently the water is good.

Here are the Women of the Water processing along the Stone Arch Bridge to their dance spot atop the St. Anthony Falls lock and dam.

Dancers were arrayed around the area including up on the Guthrie's Endless Bridge, and then at the end onlookers could grab a section of a long piece of fabric symbolizing what organizers called, "The Blue Highway".

Water worship probably not a high priority in Minot and for communities along the Missouri. But, hey, there's also trouble when there's not enough.

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A Minneapolis Parthenon it's not

Posted at 1:40 PM on June 24, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Concrete columns sprout rusting steel reinforcing rods.

Weeds and trees are thriving in the urban arboretum.

And the neighbors are restless.

This is the stalled (failed?) The Lofts at Minneapolis condominium development in the city's North Loop neighborhood.

It's a relic from the Great Recession.

The property's owner, a New York City-based entity called Lehman Brothers Holding PLC, is part of the debris from the implosion of Wall Street investment banking house Lehman Brothers.

And this parcel is apparently part of the company's long running bankruptcy proceedings.

Hennepin County records put the market value of the land at about $1.8 million (it sold in 2002 for about $5.7 million!). The property taxes are about $43,000 a year, and someone is paying them.

A couple of New York City business publications note that Lehman Holding may be unloading some of its property around the country. But it's not clear what the timetable is for this parcel, and the folks at the law firm handling this portion of the bankruptcy didn't return calls or emails with an answer.

And so the neighbors and the city wait.

But to be fair to absentee out-of-town landowners, there are plenty of folks living right here in the Sin Cities who, for whatever reason, own parcels sprouting urban forests or buildings that are mouldering, contributing to blight.

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Water, water everywhere in Minneapolis

Posted at 4:00 PM on June 23, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

The Mississippi River water volume through Minneapolis, federal officials say, is a third higher than normal for this time of year.

Here's the view many folks enjoy as they walk across the Stone Arch Bridge, SAB, in Minneapolis on a (rare) summer's evening when the sun is shining.

By the way, the SAB once again this year serves as a venue for an annual solstice celebration with dancers on Saturday.

Here's another view. It's from Xcel's "Water Power Park" on the river's east bank across from downtown Minneapolis.

It's fun for many reasons, including the very well done interpretive signs and then, of course, being closer to the actual falls of St. Anthony.

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Thirteen families displaced by tornado remain at 'poverty hotel'

Posted at 5:00 PM on June 22, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

One month after a tornado struck north Minneapolis, 13 families displaced by the storm are still staying at the Drake Hotel.

Shelter providers call the Drake a "poverty hotel." Most of the rooms are rented out by the week by single adults who cannot afford a regular apartment. Hennepin County uses it when all the family shelters are full.

In the first few days after the storm, 54 families were staying at the downtown Minneapolis hotel, but county officials acknowledged it wasn't an ideal situation.

Many of the families that remain at the Drake face more serious barriers to housing, said Cathy ten Broeke, the coordinator of the Office to End Homelessness in Minneapolis and Hennepin County. She said county staff are working with those families to find housing as soon as possible.

"We will keep working with them until we find a solution, but it will take a little longer," ten Broeke wrote in an email today.

She said a few families will be moving out sooner. Some are waiting for landlords to make repairs so they can move back into their original apartments. Others have signed leases that start July 1.

Photo: Maintenance worker Steve Preston takes a smoking break at the Francis Drake Hotel on Friday, May 27, 2011. (MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson)

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A flurry of Twin Cities mortgage fraud prosecutions

Posted at 2:28 PM on June 22, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul

The enforcers are turning up the heat on mortgage foreclosure scammers.

The latest is the announcement by the feds, the state and Hennepin County charging four people.

Minnesota Department of Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman is flanked by Barry McLaughlin, on the left, a HUD special investigative agent, and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman on the right.

They laid out for reporters Tuesday their allegations that a Hudson, Wisconsin couple and a couple of Twin Cities guys went to some unusual lengths to steal mortgage money.

The charge is that the four made a batch of bogus documents including college transcripts, employment records, even a divorce decree signed by an honest-to-goodness Twin Cities judge whose John Hancock, the investigators allege, was forged.

There's much more.

The four allegedly recruited people to pose as buyers of 65 foreclosed Twin Cities homes, then the alleged scammers used the fake documents to win federally-insured FHA mortgages.

And walked away with cash from mortgages totaling $10 million.

They face racketeering charges because they conspired with each other.

That's a heavy wrap if convicted - up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine per person.

That's not all.

The Commerce Department will chase the four in civil action to revoke their various licenses to ever do business again in Minnesota, and will also seek some money.

Authorities say this is the latest wrinkle in the frantic mess caused by the financial crisis, the mortgage meltdown, the foreclosure crisis - you choose the term.

This comes on the heals of a batch of other developments.

Two fraudsters were convicted last week of racketeering in a big Hennepin County mortgage fraud scheme involving 133 homes and about $20 million in losses to lenders (Yes, I know, the idea of banks losing money doesn't generate a lot of sympathy given their profits. Just bear in mind, those losses likely end up somehow costing bank stockholders...who are very likely people including you and me whose retirement or pension fund portfolios include bank stocks).

This week at the federal level, the enforcers who went after J.P. Morgan Chase and RBS for misstating the risk of investments based on mortgages had a partial victory. J.P. Morgan Chase threw in the towel for its part, and is coughing up more than $150 million to settle.

The Cities readers no doubt have much more financial savvy than yours truly and realize that while $150 million sounds like a lot, it is literally a single digit percent of that company's net worth.

Ok, this has gone on way too long.

The point, and I do have one, is there's still lots of action out there among enforcers to try to bring a measure of justice to those who may have accrued ill-gotten gains from the financial crisis.

Sadly, to some, the enforcers are not at the moment snaring many big fish at the national level on criminal charges. Mostly fines.

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Protests over shutdown increase

Posted at 6:00 AM on June 22, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul

The prospect of state government shutting down July 1 has local government scrambling. As we reported last week, shutdown planning is becoming a chain reaction.

Hennepin County sent out a release Tuesday headlined, "State shutdown will have profound impact on residents."

There are at least four services the county has deemed critical to the health and safety of citizens that appear not to be included as critical services in the temporary funding lawsuit. These are homeless shelters, mental health crisis services, emergency case management, and the county's call center, which triages calls for assistance and offers information-and-referral services.

"These are core services for helping people in crisis," said County Board Chair Mike Opat.

Another release rolled in announcing the League of Minnesota Cities, Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, City of Saint Paul, mayors, police officers, firefighters and others will be holding a news conference at the State Capito Wednesday afternoon "to announce legal action."

As we reported June 17, cities want to compel the state to deliver Local Government Aid payments regardless of a shutdown.

We're working on the myriad angles of what a government shutdown would mean.

Check out our own Catharine Richert's continually evolving FAQ on the potential Minnesota government shutdown.

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Summer vacation brings no break from hunger

Posted at 2:05 PM on June 21, 2011 by MPR News Staff (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

by Julie Siple

Families that rely on free or reduced-price lunch during the school year may have a hard time feeding their kids over the summer. That's why the federally-funded Summer Food Service Program is providing free meals in the metro and throughout Minnesota.

Both Minneapolis and St. Paul schools have released their list of sites where kids can get free meals this summer. The city of St. Paul this week announced that, for the first time, meals are also available at four St. Paul public libraries: Arlington Hills, Dayton's Bluff, Riverview and Rondo.

Kids under 18 years old, and people who have a mental or physical disability, may receive free meals at the summer food sites.

Last year, the Summer Food Service Program served an all-time high of 1.7 million meals in Minnesota. Still, more than three-fourths of the students on free and reduced-priced lunch didn't participate in the summer program. Education officials say the state needs more sites, and made a big push back in February for sponsors. This year, 496 sites statewide have been approved to offer summer food, and 41 more are likely to win approval. State education officials say there are 22 more sponsors than last year.

That's good news for the increasing number of students who may need help this summer. Data from the Minnesota Department of Education show 306,000 students are now on free or reduced-price lunch. That accounts for 36.6% of the state's entire student population.

Why such a push to make sure kids get enough nutritious food all year round? Education officials say that if kids are healthy and engaged over the summer, they come back in the fall better prepared to learn.

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Minneapolis 8th grader tops History Day honors

Posted at 7:54 AM on June 21, 2011 by Tim Nelson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Minneapolis

Nathaniel Larson, who just finished 8th grade at Lake Harriet Community School, has taken top honors at National History Day in College Park, MD.

His website, "Debate and Diplomacy: The Panama Canal Treaties" follows the history of the canal and the historic political battle over the US decision to turn the waterway over to Panama in 1977.

Reaction to the treaty and its approval in the U.S. is widely credited with helping launch Ronald Reagan's presidency and bolster what was then called the New Right.

"I'm interested in history," Larson said in an interview Monday night -- after a day of summer study at Macalester College, no less. "Things like foreign policy, different countries working together diplomatically, especially the relationship between a small country and a superpower."

Larson built a website outlining the history of the canal, starting with the 1903 treaty giving the U.S. control of the canal zone, through the 1964 riots in Panama started by a sovereignty dispute along the canal and into the roiling debate that continued even past the 1980 election.

Larson also interviewed then Vice President Walter Mondale, and included a personal letter from former President Jimmy Carter - the president who pushed the treaty through.

Disco-era Central American history might seem a little obscure for an 8th grader. But the competition focused on diplomacy and debate this year, and the Panama Canal was one of the issues organizers suggested as a topic.

"At first I thought I was going to focus on Theodore Roosevelt and building the canal," Larson said. "Then I realized it actually started this 60 year relationship." He said the 1977 treaty fit better into the contest's parameters.

Minnesota's History Day activities are sponsored by the Minnesota Historical Society and the University of Minnesota.

"You know, the Panama Canal treaties isn't necessarily a sexy topic for, you know, a 14 year old kid," said Tim Hoogland the Minnesota History Day coordinator for the society. "But i think what stands out is the kids take something and get into a layer of depth. Plus, if they don't take a topic that's one of the usual things that kids do - that really stands out."

Larson's parents are Karin Larson and Douglas Erickson, and they live in the Linden Hills neighborhood. Nathaniel won $1,000 and a medal for topping the Junior Individual Website category at National History Day. He says he'll put the money in his college fund and hopes to become an engineer some day.

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How Ayaan Hirsi Ali started a scene on Nicollet Mall

Posted at 4:46 PM on June 20, 2011 by Laura Yuen (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

A St. Paul attorney and blogger faces misdemeanor charges after he allegedly hassled two Muslim women and threatened a man who intervened.

Minneapolis police say John Hugh Gilmore, 52, caused a scene Thursday night on Nicollet Mall when he confronted the women, who were covering their hair with traditional Muslim headscarves.

"He was drunk and thought it would be a good idea to start harassing passersby, including two women who were wearing the hijab," said Sgt. William Palmer, a police spokesman.

One of the women was Jamila Boudlali, a geography major at the University of Minnesota. The man told the Boudlali and her friend they shouldn't be in the United States "trying to change things," she said. He then started to take pictures of the women, prompting one of Boudlali's non-Muslim female friends to object.

Boudlali, 20, a lifelong Muslim and Minnesotan, started wearing the hijab about a year and a half ago.

"And nothing like this has ever happened to me," she said. "I've never gotten anything, except people ask questions, but nothing so extremely hateful. I was so confused, just standing in shock."

She believes Minneapolis police, who took the man to jail, did the right thing. Boudlali said many American Muslims are fearful of reprisal, so they don't report disturbances targeting them.

"I have to admit, I was very surprised that the guy got arrested," she said. "It made me really happy and made me have a lot more trust and confidence in the city of Minneapolis."

One of the responding officers apparently told the Muslim women that he was taking Gilmore to "adult time out," referring to the Hennepin County jail, said Hindia Ali, who arrived in time to see the arrest.

"He was so nice and said, 'I'm sorry that this happened to you guys,'" Ali, pictured below, said of the police officer.

Authorities charged Gilmore with disorderly conduct and obstructing the legal process, both misdemeanors, after he allegedly threatened to hit a man who put himself between Gilmore and the women. In fact, several attendees from the liberal NetRoots Nation conference rushed to defend the women from Gilmore. One man placed Gilmore under citizen's arrest.

The event coincided with the RightOn convention for conservative bloggers and activists.

Gilmore, author of the blog Minnesota Conservatives, did not respond to a request for comment. But the incident sparked some testy exchanges on both sides.

So, what provoked the unrest?

Police say Gilmore started to ask the women about Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the controversial Somali-born author of the bestselling memoir "Infidel." The book details Ali's experiences with arranged marriage and female genital mutilation in Somalia, as well as her pointed criticism of Islam.

Boudlali recalls Gilmore gave them the "thumbs up," implying his approval of Ali's writings.

"Actually, we don't agree with her," Boudlali says she and her friends replied. "But it's OK. We can agree to disagree."

That's when things started to escalate, Boudlali said.

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TOD at 38th and Hiawatha?

Posted at 5:00 PM on June 16, 2011 by Dan Olson (3 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Translation: Transit Oriented Development. Developer George Sherman is poised to fill this vacant lot at 38th and Hiawatha in south Minneapolis with Longfellow Station, a mixed use commercial/residential development.

In fact, things seem to be moving right along. Last week Minneapolis found $1.9 million in federal dollars sitting around in the city's till and used it to help Sherman buy the property from the previous developer...whose plan failed.

Anyway, Sherman wants to build 180 apartments, most of them "affordable" which often means subsidized housing. Construction on 10,000 feet of "neighborhood commercial space" is set for late this year.

TOD, as much as moving people, is what light rail proponents promised would be the eventual payoff when Hiawatha line trains began running in 2004.

Boosters of transit argue developers perk up and pay attention when relatively permanent train tracks are laid - a sign the transit service will be there more than a year or two.

Add some stations along the line and developers begin dreaming about the money they might make from building apartments and houses near the station that will be rented and purchased by transit lovers who want an option to owning a gas guzzler.

Oh yes, and cities and counties tend to like TOD because as long as populations increase and the apartments and houses are occupied the development promises more property tax revenue.

Which is why the local governments in many cases are willing to kick start development with subsidies.

Does TOD work? Maybe.

The Metropolitan Council says, "since 2000, nearly 7,700 new housing units have been built along the (Hiawatha) line, with another 6,750 units planned (as of April 2009)."

Will Central Corridor light rail create similar TOD tremors? Stay tuned. The line won't be complete until 2014, but there's certainly no shortage of vacant thus developable space along the line.

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More volunteers needed to clean up tornado debris

Posted at 7:40 PM on June 14, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

It's been 23 days since a tornado struck north Minneapolis, killing one person and damaging hundreds of homes.

The main tornado news of the day? FEMA has denied a request for individual assistance to those affected by the storm.

FEMA said the decision was partly based on the outpouring of volunteer help offered to local residents. As it turns out, city officials had sent out a new request for volunteers a few hours before the decision was announced. That's some seriously awkward timing.

Here's the info about the latest volunteer effort.

The city is organizing two "Clean Sweep" days to help north Minneapolis residents load storm debris onto trucks. The cleanups are scheduled for Sat., June 18 and Sat., June 25 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The city is asking for 200 volunteers each day, split into two shifts (8 a.m. to noon and noon to 4 p.m.).

Volunteers must be at least 18 years old, able to lift at least 40 pounds, and should wear thick-soled shoes or boots. The city will provide food, work gloves and protective eye gear.

To sign up, call the Neighborhood and Community Relations Department at 612-673-2243.

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Cedar Lake trail extension in Minneapolis is open

Posted at 11:14 AM on June 14, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Finally.

The "bike freeway", as cycling enthusiasts call it, is the slightly more than one mile long length of the Cedar Lake trail linking it with the trail along the Mississippi river.

Among other interesting features, the trail runs under Target Field.

The grand opening of the new Cedar Lake Trail link is today at 5 p.m., but the trail is open and folks are using it.

Couple of things, bicyclists. Watch the stop signs at the sharp right turns on the portion of the trail behind the Federal Reserve Bank building...

and where the trail crosses the parkway.

If you ignore the stop signs, make sure you have good health insurance and your will is updated.

Seriously. The cross traffic on the parkway includes motorized vehicles who may or may not stop, even though there's a sign noting it's a crosswalk.

And remember, this is a non-motorized trail, not just a bike trail. That means you'll encounter people on foot who for the most part have a walkway along the trail.

Oh, yes, and remember the speed limit is ten miles per hour. So those of you in training for the Tour de France, ease up.

This is a big year for non-motorized or bike trail openings in Minneapolis. Officials predict up to 35 miles of new lanes this season, more than eight times the normal expansion rate.

Here's an example. This is the extension of the Hiawatha trail that for a time runs parallel to the light rail line.

This is the link under construction in downtown Minneapolis as the Hiawatha trail comes from the west bank, and empties out on 3rd Street South.

Look for an August opening.

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Tickets still available for north Minneapolis tornado relief benefit

Posted at 2:15 PM on June 10, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

Organizers have sold just several hundred tickets so far for this Sunday's tornado relief benefit concert, "Northside: A Twin Cities Community Benefit." They say they're hoping last-minute ticket sales will help them fill the State Theatre in Minneapolis, a venue that seats about 2,000 people.

The show's lineup features prominent Twin Cities recording artists and emcees, and aims to raise at least $100,000 for people who lost homes or businesses in the May 22 tornado.

Organizer Martin Keller says all talent, space and staffing for the event was donated. He says many people who have not personally seen the storm's aftermath up close may not realize the scale of the devastation residents of north Minneapolis are facing.

The need is great. I don't think people really understand the extent of the damage and the impact on a community that generally can't afford to suffer this kind of natural disaster. We've got hip-hop we've got R&B, we've got gospel choirs, we've got rock bands like Soul Asylum, Billy McLaughlin, who is well-known, a now legendary musician here. It is going to blow people away and we have some new faces as well.

The lineup also includes Brother Ali, The new Standards, Prudence Johnson, Paris and Jamecia Bennett, The Peterson Family, Toki Wright, TC Jammers and many more. All proceeds will go to the Hennepin Theater, which plans to distribute the funds to local north Minneapolis groups to pay for an emergency fund, food and neighborhood rebuilding.

The concert starts at 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 12 at Hennepin Theatre Trust's State Theatre. Ticket info can be found here.

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Mosque responds to Somali suicide bombing

Posted at 6:00 PM on June 8, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Immigration, Minneapolis, St. Paul

A Twin Cities man whose family believes was involved in a recent suicide bombing in Mogadishu vounteered with youth programs at a well-known Minneapolis mosque before he left for Somalia.

That's according to Hassan Jama, director of the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center.

Farah Beledi, whom family members identified as one of the men behind the attack, spoke at a press conference at the Abubakar mosque in February 2009. We ran an excerpt of his short remarks in my story from Tuesday.

Eight months after Beledi spoke at the mosque, prosecutors allege he was on his way across the Mexico border with a final destination of Somalia to support the terrorist group al-Shabaab. Most of the roughly two dozen young men from Minnesota accused of joining the group worshipped at the mosque. But federal authorities emphasize that there's no evidence suggesting imams or other mosque officials played a part in the men's radicalization.

Jama emailed me the mosque's response to the news about Beledi today. Here is his full statement:

We share the pain and grief that the family members of Farah Beledi are going through, and we are available to assist them with any support we can provide.

AAIC's Islamic teaching is guided by the Qur'an and the Sunnah (tradition) of Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), and does not preach nor condone any form of extremist ideologies. It has not, and will not, recruit for any political cause, nor allow others to do so at the Center.

It is well known that our youth in the Twin Cities have numerous problems. As the largest Islamic Center in Minnesota, we have witnessed that the greatest threats to our youth are rampant gang violence, post traumatic stress as refugees and children of refugees, high unemployment rate, poverty, language barriers, and lack of recreation facilities. To tackle some of these problems, with limited resources, AAIC organizes seasonal youth activities so that they have a safe space to interact, which is also an alternative to associating with gangs. We have also created mentorship programs which encourages high school students to earn college education.

Farah Beledi was not, and had never been an employee of Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center. Rather, he was one of the youth who wanted to take advantage, participate, and sometimes volunteer in our youth programs. Furthermore, Farah was interested to share his past experiences with the public, like he did in the Abubakar open house in February 2009. As for Farah's alleged travel and his subsequent death in Somalia, the Center has learned that from the media

Finally, we would like to emphasize that Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center (AAIC) does not have a membership, and welcomes all the community members to worship and volunteer at the Center. The Center administration, however, is responsible for all activities and programs it provides. AAIC does not, and will not allow anyone to do any unlawful activities in its premises.

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What's your plan for the Minneapolis Fuji Ya site?

Posted at 3:06 PM on June 8, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

The owners, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, are interested in your ideas. The late restaurant pioneer Reiko Weston's Japanese fine dining establishment in downtown Minneapolis on the riverfront near the Stone Arch bridge is long gone, boarded and mouldering.

But not the photos, and not the memories.

And now the Park Board is interested in plans for the future since it once again has control over the site.

That's after the Park Board prevailed recently in a courtroom tussle over a failed development plan and a lawsuit from an unhappy developer.

What should go on the site?

Park Board officials say they're still open to a private development pitch, but they are also interested in other possibilities.

What about a National Park Service visitor center, or another restaurant, they ask?

What do visitors to the The Cities think?

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Stay cool and learn Minneapolis history

Posted at 10:20 AM on June 7, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Shade and cooler temperatures await visitors to the Federal Reserve Bank's park next to its headquarters building on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis.

A broad walkway starting at Hennepin Avenue curves along the bank down to the Mississippi River parkway.

Markers along the walkway are topped with riverfront scenes with captions that tell the story of development in the area.

Several points stand out:

- The Ojibwe and Dakota had their own names for the river.

- The first (wooden suspension) bridge across the Mississippi was a toll bridge!

- Railroad depots - the Union and the Great Northern - sat on either side of Hennepin.

It's a great family field trip because it's free and very accessible by bike on the nearby and just completed Cedar Lake trail extension and by bus.

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Joel Rosenberg, "accidental activist"

Posted at 5:30 PM on June 6, 2011 by Tim Nelson (4 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

Joel Rosenberg died last Thursday. He might be best known as the author of Everything You Need to Know About (Legally) Carrying a Handgun in Minnesota, at one time the definitive guide for people who wanted to obtain a permit to carry a firearm in public and subsequently exercise that Second Amendment right.

But he put his real work into a more cerebral topic: science fiction and fantasy novels. He was the author of a 9-book series called Guardians of the Flame, as well as a pair of murder mysteries set in Minneapolis, Home Front and Family Matters.

"He was a writer first and a gun person second," said his wife, Felicia Herman, of Minneapolis.

Actually, he was a social worker first. A native of Winnipeg, he grew up in Northwood, N.D., and later moved with his family to Connecticut, where he met Felicia. He studied to be a social worker and counselor, but took to writing after discussing the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons with a friend. Felicia Herman picks up the story.

He said, 'Boy I'd really love to be in the world of my game.' And Joel literally woke up in the middle of the night and said, 'Like hell you would. This is what it would really be like.' And that's how he got the inspiration for starting his best known series, the Guardian of the Flame, in which a group of college aged gamers are transported to the world of their game and they didn't like it as much as they thought they would...It was basically a million-word love letter to the industrial revolution.

Herman said Rosenberg's experience with gun rights was inadvertent. She said a neo-Nazi threatened Rosenberg and his family -- specifically enough to describe his home -- and Rosenberg decided to seek a permit to carry to protect himself. The legal back and forth between Rosenberg and the Minneapolis police department prompted him to push for a change in the law, from a "may issue" statute to a "shall issue" statute.

"He was an accidental activist," she said.

Rosenberg was also scheduled to stand trial in August for an incident at Minneapolis City Hall. He brought a handgun with him to fetch some paperwork from the Minneapolis Police Department and was disarmed by police Sgt. William Palmer during the visit. He was charged for carrying a weapon in a courthouse.

The incident coincided with a renewed interest in the cause. Eight years after he published his guide to the state's firearm laws, he published a new edition in February.

Herman said Rosenberg was a diabetic, but otherwise in good health. She said he suddenly collapsed on Wednesday afternoon, and never really recovered, despite efforts to resuscitate him.

Rosenberg was 57 when he died. In addition to his wife, he's survived by his two daughters Judy, 20 and Rachel, 17.

(Photo courtesy Felicia Herman)

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A new home for the families of injured veterans to be dedicated

Posted at 5:20 PM on June 3, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis, Veterans

The Minneapolis VA Medical Center will officially open Fisher House II, a new 20-room facility designed to be a "home away from home" for families of veterans receiving care at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. Each family gets a private room and access to a shared kitchen and living area.

Here's a story I did on the project.

The dedication ceremony will be Thursday, June 9th at 10 a.m. at east 54th Avenue and Minnehaha, across from the VA.

Speakers will include Robert Petzel, VA Undersecretary of Health; Tom McDonough, Chair of the Bryan McDonough Military Heroes Foundation; Steve Kleinglass, Director of the Minneapolis VA Health Care System; Janet Murphy, Director of the VA Midwest Health Care Network; and Ken Fisher, Chairman of the Fisher House Foundation, Inc. Also attending will be about 400 veterans, families, and VA staff.

Parking near the Fisher House is limited. There will be reserved parking in Lot 11 on the Minneapolis VA Medical Center grounds. Look for signage on East 54th Avenue.

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Talented lineup to benefit north Minneapolis

Posted at 5:30 PM on June 2, 2011 by Laura McCallum (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

Tickets go on sale tomorrow for a June 12 benefit to help the north side tornado victims. Check out this lineup, which includes Brother Ali, Sounds of Blackness, Soul Asylum, The New Standards and Prudence Johnson, just to name a few. No word yet from Prince, who was invited to participate.

Organizers of "Northside: A Twin Cities Community Benefit" hope to raise $100,000 for people whose homes were destroyed by the May 22 tornado. 500 tickets will be held for residents affected by the storm, although the benefit's website says distribution details haven't been worked out yet.

The concert will be held at the State Theatre in Minneapolis. More information can be found here.

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Where did the Twin Cities streetcars go?

Posted at 1:53 PM on June 2, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

This photo, courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society collection, shows that some of the old streetcars were loaded up and sold to other systems in Newark, New Jersey and Mexico City.

And some were burned.

Hennepin County librarians have put together a nifty package on Twin Cities history including transportation history.

Scroll down a bit into the story and check out the photo of the burning streetcar. The folks who engineered the demise of the streetcars in l954 to be replaced by buses couldn't get rid of the old rail vehicles quickly enough.

So they burned them.

Anyway, it's always an informative side trip to review Sin Cities history .

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Art is for the birds

Posted at 11:50 AM on June 1, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

Audubon Minnesota volunteer Brian Goodspeed and AM staff member Joanna Eckles stopped the other day during an early morning walk around downtown St. Paul to admire the art.

Their view is that the art in this St. Paul office building window is great for at least one reason. It is the equivalent of a "road closed" sign for birds, a visual reminder to the little winged critters that there's an obstruction ahead and they should seek a different route.

Birds, Robert Zink reminds us, don't get glass. Zink, curator of birds at the University of Minnesota's Bell Museum, says since birds didn't evolve with glass as part of their experience they apparently interpret reflections as simply another reality.

And then -- smack.

They hit the glass and die in truly amazing numbers - 100 million to a billion a year in this country.

You are correct if that number sounds like an approximation, a bit of a wild guess. That, Zink says, is part of the motivation for research like Audubon Minnesota's effort to walk the downtowns of St. Paul and Minneapolis and try to arrive at a more definitive count of bird fatalities caused by colliding with buildings.

The research is also helping architects and building owners understand how to reduce the toll with better building design and window treatments that help birds see the obstruction.

So, save a bird. Put some art in your window.

Oh, and keep the cat inside. Bob Zink ranks outdoor cats, along with worldwide habitat loss and building collisions, as the top threats to bird populations.

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Youth Farm expands to Hawthorne, Frogtown neighborhoods

Posted at 5:15 PM on May 31, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

In an era of cutbacks to youth programs, Youth Farm's expansion announcement comes as a surprise.

The 16-year-old nonprofit announced it will add programs for this summer in the Hawthorne neighborhood in Minneapolis, and Frogtown in St. Paul. Youth Farm "builds youth leadership through planting, growing, preparing, and selling food" in the Lyndale and Powderhorn neighborhoods in Minneapolis, and on St. Paul's West Side.

Five hundred kids, ages 9 to 18, participate in its year-round programs. Its youth guide positions also provide summer employment to neighborhood teenagers. The program is free to participants, and one perk I noticed for parents: your kids get excited about vegetables and beg to cook at home.

As for why his grant-funded program is flourishing in an economic drought, Executive Director Gunnar Liden thinks a lot of hard work is paying off and the timing is ripe. "I think people right now are recognizing the combination of locally-centered work, meaningful jobs for youth, the whole urban farming movement--I know for the first many years that I worked for Youth Farm, just getting people to see it not as 'cute kids in a garden' was a real struggle" said Liden. "And I think people are starting to recognize -- funders and community partners are starting to recognize -- that this is really transformative work."

Youth farmers plant, care for and harvest flowers and produce, cook nutritious meals, sell their bounty at farmers markets, and work with community artists.

Liden says the Hawthorne and Frogtown programs will start small this summer and ramp up. For more info, visit www.youthfarm.net

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Minneapolis damage map shows tornado's path

Posted at 3:15 PM on May 26, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis

A map released by the city of Minneapolis today offers a striking look at the damage caused by Sunday's tornado and severe weather. Click here for the full map.

The tornado's path is shown with a thick diagonal line across north Minneapolis. Here's a quick guide to what the different map colors means.

Red is for major damage. The city says these buildings sustained serious structural damage that requires extensive repairs. Officials have placarded many of these buildings, meaning they cannot be occupied.

Yellow is for minor damage. The city says these buildings were damaged and may have some structural damage, but none of these buildings have been placarded.
Minor - these buildings were damaged and may have some structural damage. None of these addresses have been placarded.

Pink is for affected buildings. The city says these buildings sustained minimal damage.

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Call 311 for many storm clean-up questions

Posted at 2:59 PM on May 26, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Minneapolis city council members got a briefing today on tornado clean-up efforts underway in North Minneapolis.

Steve Kotke, Director of Public Works, told the council he expects by the end of the day, all streets will be passable.

The Department of Public Works' first priority after Sunday's storm was clearing fallen trees so emergency vehicles could get through. Phase two was clearing streets curb to curb. They've moved on to clearing alleys and boulevard trees now. Kotke says 72 of 86 blocked alleys are now clear, and garbage pick-up has resumed.

Here's some important info for residents in the affected areas:

1. While fallen trees on private property are technically the responsibility of homeowners, if residents can move them to the curb, the city will dispose of them until June 10.
2. Trees do not need to be chopped or stacked in any particular way, but Kotke asks residents to please not move them back into streets or alleys. Call 311 for pick-up.
3. Residents from the affected areas (north of hwy 55, West of 94) can dispose of construction debris for free. Call 311 for more info on disposal site that will be open until June 10.
4. Motorists are urged to avoid parking on streets where heavy clean-up is underway. If you can't find your car, call 311.
5. If you are interested in volunteering, call 311. Minneapolis is planning a major clean-up effort on Saturday, June 4.

Council member Don Samuels, who represents parts of north Minneapolis, praised the goodwill of those coming in to help, and thanked residents on the north side who "retained their civility" despite the frustration of not getting all the help they needed quickly enough. "Remember, people are hurting, so don't back off on the generosity or volunteerism," said Samuels.

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A disaster on top of a crisis

Posted at 11:45 AM on May 26, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis, Race, Transportation

Yesterday, I walked with a group of volunteers who were going door-to-door on Knox Ave. N, talking to residents who may need assistance. The women spoke with people who were either going to repair, rebuild or move. During an off-the-mic chat, one of the volunteers told me she was in a similar predicament -- except she was being forced out of her north Minneapolis home because of a foreclosure. Her foreclosure story is one of the thousands across the city, especially on the city's north side.

It is a reminder that the tornado is a disaster on top of a crisis.

One of the other things I was struck by this week as I walked around the storm-ravaged areas of the north side was the block by block distribution of destruction. Knox Ave. from Lowry down to 27th is a mess. Since I used to live on the 2600 block of Knox, I had to pay my old neighborhood a visit to see how it fared. The block and my old house were relatively untouched by the storm.

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Minneapolis pension bill yet another casualty of 2011 session

Posted at 11:32 AM on May 25, 2011 by Laura McCallum (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

Lost in the budget stalemate news coming out of the Capitol this week was another casualty of the 2011 session -- the pension bill that would merge two Minneapolis police and firefighter pension funds with larger state funds.

Minneapolis officials were pushing for the bill, which they say would save the city $21 million next year. Brandt Williams reported on the bill last week.

The bill failed to get a vote in the House or Senate in the final days of the session. So unless lawmakers take it up in a special session, the pension deal is dead.

The deal would have been welcomed by many city taxpayers, who have been clamoring for property tax relief. While the city council did vote to create a property tax relief account, that account may be tapped if the Legislature cuts LGA to Minneapolis. In case you haven't been keeping track, the Legislature did vote to do that, but Gov. Dayton vetoed the bill.

And while the costs are still being tallied on Minneapolis tornado recovery, and the city hopes to tap state and federal disaster aid, it seems likely that the disaster will have an impact on the city's budget. We'll keep tracking this as the recovery continues.

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North Minneapolis residents could struggle with food for weeks to come

Posted at 3:55 PM on May 24, 2011 by MPR News Staff (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

By Julie Siple

After a tornado ripped through their neighborhood on Sunday, north Minneapolis residents are getting a look at what remains -- and what lies ahead. The area is still strewn with debris, felled trees and damaged homes. Hundreds of people are living in temporary shelters. Some don't know when or if they'll be able to return to their homes.

City and county officials are providing all sorts of resources, and for the moment that includes lots of free food. The city has set up several food distribution spots in the neighborhood.

Ray Camper, 28, of Minneapolis and Emma Beck, 11, of Coon Rapids, worked at the Nate Dogs cart serving free hot dogs to residents of North Minneapolis at a community barbeque held on Monday. (MPR Photo/Caroline Yang)

The Cub Foods on Broadway held a community barbecue last night and plans another from 5 to 6:30 p.m. today. The Northpoint Community Food Shelf reopened today, with a $5,000 grant from Hunger Solutions to purchase emergency food.

But the struggle for food could continue well beyond the day the food carts offering free meals pull away.

"I think there's a daunting task ahead," said Annette Bauer, spokesperson for the Salvation Army. She said the food shelf the Salvation Army runs in North Minneapolis sees a persistently high number of people needing help, even without a natural disaster.

"Now, you pile on top of that," she said.

The tornado tore apart some of the city's poorest neighborhoods, an area marred by foreclosures and home to some people who were already having trouble making ends meet. As residents work to rebuild their lives, Bauer expects, it'll be harder to make their dollars stretch.

"Before they were spending some of their income on food, not worrying about furniture or a place to live," said Bauer. "It's going to be a struggle."

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North Minneapolis a model of cooperation, law and order so far

Posted at 11:20 AM on May 24, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

There will be much more of this as the tornado aftermath unfolds.

Stories of neighbor and neighborhood-wide help abound in north Minneapolis.

Residents have opened their doors to people who've lost their homes. Churches have organized dinners, groceries and counseling.

In the above photo from MPR's Jeffrey Thompson, Wesley Smith directs people waiting in line for food. He helped organize a food and donation area at the corner of N. Lowry Avenue and N. Logan Avenue, which started with a few bottles of donated water and grew into several tables of hot meals and other items.

The Minnesota Black Nurses Association sent in volunteers to address residents' medical concerns. Suburban volunteers with chainsaws helped city crews clear trees. A coffee shop owner from Maple Grove showed up with fresh supplies of the beverage.

On the law enforcement front, Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. Stephen McCarty says there's been no outbreak of lawlessness and credits residents with "great cooperation".

The overall picture at this point is one of well-coordinated and generous human activity in the face of a city disaster of historic proportions.

Have you seen any other instances of this in north Minneapolis? Share them in the comments below.

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Twin Cities transportation a cinch for the able-bodied

Posted at 3:23 PM on May 20, 2011 by Dan Olson (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

Cars, buses, bikes, cabs, limos, skateboards, walking.

Not a problem for those of us with strong legs or a fat wallet.

Quite a different story for people pinching pennies and not so stable on their pins.

That's the situation for south Minneapolis resident Delores Alvous, 82, getting help from Nokomis Health Seniors volunteer driver Zan Ceeley. They're on their way to a health clinic check-up for Delores, a weekly event.

The Twin Cities response is a transit network with Metro Mobility for people with disabilities (at a cost of about $41 million a year) and Transit Link, the seven county-wide dial-a-ride service (about $6.6 million a year), where a majority of the customers are older folks.

The problem is these mostly affordable services are stretched, and still cost a bit of money - up to $8 for a round trip.

Then, there's often a wait.

And some of the service is curb to curb, not door to door, so there can still be a walk. Not always a workable equation for people who need assistance.

Nonprofits have stepped in, offering van services and supplementing with volunteer drivers. But, as one transportation coordinator says, vans are expensive to own and operate, and volunteers are short lived, typically donating their time for about three months before moving on.

Not the case, by the way, for Zan Ceeley, who's hung in there for two years and is still going strong.

Our Twin Cities living habits hinder easy answers to transit.

As one East Coast transplant notes, Minnesotans are culturally opposed to density. We like our elbow room.

The result is a very large metropolitan area, and not much density anywhere except the core cities. Not very cost efficient for transit.

Instead, we have a robust car culture with a highly developed and extremely expensive to maintain road system.

One solution is to have more older residents live closer together, and that's happening. But survey upon survey shows folks prefer to stay in their home as they get older.

Let The Cities know your ideas for ways to help our older population get around.

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Bike rental program adds 40 new stations in Mpls and St. Paul

Posted at 8:20 PM on May 19, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (3 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

The weather's warmer, the potholes are getting filled, and Minneapolis police may have even nabbed the person responsible for a string of violent robberies that left Uptown residents afraid to go outside after 9 p.m.

In other words, it's the ideal time for Twin Cities' residents to dust off their bicycles and hit the roads.

Nice Ride Minnesota bike share program chose today to announce plans to add 40 new bike share stations in Minneapolis and St. Paul. That amounts to a near doubling of the number of bicycles in the Nice Ride fleet.

By mid-June, they'll have 1,200 bikes and 113 stations in the Twin Cities. You can check out which stations are up and running here.

New locations include: the Northeast Arts District, Gigi's in the CARAG neighborhood, the Capri Theatre on West Broadway, the YWCA at the light rail stop on Lake Street, Cafe Latte on Grand, and Mississippi Market on Dale Street.

The University of St. Thomas, Macalester College, Hamline University, and Concordia University are also getting Nice Ride stations.

North Minneapolis received 8 new stations in April, bringing the neighborhood's total up to 11. Last year the neighborhood was left out of the first round of stations.

In case you've never rented a bike from Nice Ride, here's a primer:

Users pay a subscription fee, plus a trip fee for rentals longer than 30 minutes.

For tourists who want to ride around the lakes for two hours, the rental would cost $15.50. That includes $5 for the 24-hour subscription fee and $10.50 for the trip fee.
But if you're jumping on a bike to run errands, the program is much cheaper. Right now, a one-year subscription is on sale for $40. Trips under 30 minutes are free.

The news release offers one suggestion that might resonate with St. Paul residents.
"If you want to avoid congestion during the Central Corridor construction, Nice Ride will get you to your University Avenue destination fast!"

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Bulletin: Revolutionary pothole filling technology in Minneapolis

Posted at 3:00 PM on May 18, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

This Stadium Village parking lot owner near the U of M in Minneapolis is on to something.

I'm keeping the precise location private for the moment so I can be the first, and likely only, investor in this amazing new pothole filling breakthrough: Pothole as landfill.

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Eerie Washington Avenue calm before light rail storm

Posted at 10:03 AM on May 18, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Cars, trucks, buses and bikes are diverted.

Pedestrians are on sidewalks behind a high cyclone fence.

Hard hat-wearing workers are measuring and generally taking stock before the earth movers arrive.

Washington Avenue at Oak is closed as it runs through the University of Minnesota's east bank campus.

One U grad student calls the scene, "post apocalyptic."

Not for long. The heavy equipment arrives soon to turn Washington Avenue into a transit mall for the Central Corridor light rail line. Completion? 2014.

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For St. Paul businesses, light rail construction costly as a sudden storm

Posted at 6:00 AM on May 17, 2011 by Dan Olson (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

That's how some businesses along University avenue and in Lowertown may be feeling.

Laura Yuen and I checked in with a handful of owners within the last week. They tell a sobering story.

Light rail construction disruption is hitting them hard in the pocketbook with revenue losses ranging from 15 to 40 percent.

How and why?

The pictures tell the story. Streets diverted, parking gone, customers not showing up.

The Metropolitan Council and the city of St. Paul aren't standing still. They're working with the businesses on signage, promotions and advertising. There's a $4 million fund for forgivable loans up to $20,000 to help qualifying businesses cover losses.

Most of the streets eventually reopen as crews move to another work site. But it can be weeks and months of construction mayhem carving into revenues.

And many of those affected are not big national chains. They are the Mas and Pas, Uncles and Aunts of the world. Pockets aren't that deep, the daily cash flow keeps them a step ahead of the creditors.

Light rail boosters tout the little train as a potent economic development tool.

But the LRT goes into service three and half years from now. And then some years after that transit-oriented development might take hold with the promised economic boost.

Between now and then the business owners along the Central Corridor line are urging their customers to stop by and help them stay solvent.

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Exciting cloud watching in Minneapolis

Posted at 1:45 PM on May 11, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Doesn't take much to entertain me.

Combination of wind, humidity, sirens popping off, some great lightning topped with frosting-like clouds created quite a stir in downtown Minneapolis last night near the Guthrie Theater.

Rubenesque, or full-figured, are descriptors that come to mind to describe the clouds.

The sky show created some pea-sized hail that pinged off cars and bounced off sidewalks.

Weather is worth worrying about. But it's also a great spectator sport when no one gets hurt.

And as usual Paul Huttner has lots of information on how it all came about.

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Zillow: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Posted at 4:10 PM on May 10, 2011 by MPR News Staff (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul

By MPR's Bill Catlin

Zillow.com reports that nearly half of Twin Cities homeowners are under water on their mortgages. In other words, they owe more on their house than their home is worth. The first quarter ratio of 46.2 percent was quite a bit worse than the national average of 28.4 percent of homes being under water.

Zillow has been reporting how many homes are under water, or have "negative equity" for a year or more.

Earlier this year Zillow reported that in the final three months of last year 42.3 percent of single-family homes in the Twin Cities had negative equity. Again, that was much worse than the national average of 27 percent.

But only this past March, another real estate number-crunching firm, CoreLogic, reported that for the same fourth quarter period, just 15.9 percent of Minnesota homes were under water with another 5 percent "near" having negative equity. That was better than the U.S. numbers of 23.1 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

So, given the apparently conflicting findings, what's a Minnesotan to believe?

Zillow certainly knows how to get ink. The website's latest quarterly report was the subject of front page stories in the Wall Street Journal Monday and the Star Tribune today.

But how accurate are Zillow's estimates of the market value of a home?

For the Minneapolis St. Paul Metro area Zillow gives its own system an accuracy ranking of just two out of four stars. Zillow labels two stars as "fair;" three as "good;" four stars as "best."

For all 50 states, Zillow rates its accuracy at four stars, with a median error rate of 12.3 percent.

That means half of Zillow's home value estimates are within 12.3 percent of the actual selling price. Half of Zillow's estimates are wrong by more than 12.3 percent.

Zillow's median error rate for Twin Cities homes is 15.4 percent. That means half of Zillow's market value estimates are off by more than 15.4 percent. How much money is that? Here's a gauge: the median sales price of Twin Cities homes in March was $140,000; 15.4 percent of that is $21,560.

The Twin Cities has the third highest median error rate among the top 30 metro areas. Only Detroit, Michigan at 17.2 percent and Kansas City, Missouri at 16.1 percent have a higher median error rate.

Here's another way to look at Zillow's numbers.

Zillow says its market value estimates for homes in the Twin Cities are within 10 percent of the actual sale price for only 36 percent of the sale transactions in the area. So, let's put that in perspective.

In March, the most recent month available, there were 3,154 closed sales in the Twin Cities. By its own reckoning, Zillow's estimate of the value of those homes was off by more than 10 percent in 64 percent, or 2019 of those homes.

A 10 percent error can add up to a lot of money. The median sales price of a traditional Twin Cities home (one not in foreclosure or a short sale) in March was $192,000. Ten percent of that is $19,200. That amount certainly could make the difference between being under water or not.

Now, here's the double-whammy:

Despite the depth and duration of the foreclosure crisis, the vast majority of homes are not in foreclosure or up for a short sale. At the same time, nearly two thirds of Zillow's home value estimates are off by more than 10 percent. The combination of those two facts suggests that Zillow's numbers for many homes are off by thousands and thousands of dollars.

So, when Zillow reports that 46.2 percent of Twin Cities homeowners are under water, is that a trustworthy number? Does it even stand to reason?

You decide.

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Washington Avenue at the U closes Saturday

Posted at 2:12 PM on May 10, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

When it reopens, you'll be able to ride a train, bus, ambulance, or bike, or you can walk it.

But starting Saturday, May 14, you will not be driving your personal motorized vehicle on Washington Avenue through the University of Minnesota's east bank campus.

Forever.

Light rail builders close Washington Avenue through Stadium Village and the U for construction. It emerges from the light rail chrysalis in 2014 as a transit mall.

The new Washington Avenue transit mall will be similar to what happened to 5th Street in Minneapolis, as the Hiawatha line enters downtown and rolls past City Hall onto Target Field.

There are lots of questions and some answers about how the transit mall will affect the various interests along that stretch of Washington avenue.

Unanswered is how the transit mall will affect businesses in Stadium Village. Some short-term pain -- about three years of it -- seems inevitable as measured by the St. Paul Lowertown experience, where light rail construction has sliced deeply into revenues of some businesses there.

And as with so much of life, there's very little new under the sun including rail service on Washington Avenue. Back in 1948, transit rolled past the front of Coffman Union.

(The 1948 photo looks north from the front entrance of Coffman Memorial Union across Washington Avenue at the Northrup Mall. Visible is the most eastern of the two footbridges, a westbound streetcar and a temporary classroom building on the site of Ford Hall. Northrup Auditorium is visible in the distance. Photographer: St. Paul Dispatch & Pioneer Press. Courtesy the Minnesota Historical Society.)

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More federal dough for rail from Minneapolis to Duluth

Posted at 4:00 PM on May 9, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Secretary LaHood handed out $2 billion of our federal tax dollars today for passenger rail projects.

The biggest pile - nearly $800 million - will go to northeastern U.S. commuter rail service.

A decent chunk of change - about $400 million - is aimed at improving Midwest service, including rail from Chicago to St. Louis.

Minnesota snagged $5 million.

The cash goes to the folks trying to get the Northern Lights Express, NLX, service on track from downtown Minneapolis to Duluth. This map of the proposed route is courtesy of the Northern Lights Express.

They'd asked for $10 million. And it'll take a lot more - estimates range from half a billion to nearly a billion dollars - to actually get trains running, with no clear sign at the moment of where that money will come from.

The NLX was former U.S. Rep. James Oberstar's pet. Attempts to learn freshman 8th district Rep. Chip Cravaack's NLX position didn't net a timely response.

NLX supporters say the $5 million, along with $10 million in state borrowing approved by lawmakers last session for the project, helps pay for "phase one engineering". Obviously, it's a long way from reality.

Rail buffs take the long view. It took half a century to dismantle a once-extensive national rail service network. And they argue it will take decades to restore a measure of that service.

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Medicine collection effort yields 'several large barrels' of drugs

Posted at 4:11 PM on May 4, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

About 100 pounds of Vicodin, codeine and other controlled substances were dropped off at Hennepin County's medicine collection event on Saturday. The sheriff's office released the tallies this week.

The rest of the medications, including prescription and over-the-counter drugs, filled "several large barrels," the sheriff's office reported. Some people even dropped off unused medications for their pets.

Medicine collection events are becoming more common, driven by concerns about pharmaceuticals showing up in drinking water supplies. Hennepin County held its first collection event last year, diverting tens of thousands of pills from being flushed down the toilet or thrown into the trash.

Disposing of prescription drugs isn't easy, even for law enforcement officials. MPR reporter Stephanie Hemphill provides a detailed look here.

All these drugs -- the controlled substances and the ordinary things like aspirin -- have to be taken all the way to Illinois to be burned. That's because in Minnesota, medicines are classified as hazardous waste, and we don't have a hazardous waste incinerator in the state.

Hennepin County is holding another medicine collection event June 2 at the Richfield Ice Arena from 3-7 p.m. More information is available here.

(Photos courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office)

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Housing for homeless Twin Cities teens on Nicollet Avenue

Posted at 12:19 PM on May 4, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

Nearly everyone knows a teenager who for whatever reason decided he or she had to get out of Dodge and head for. . . who knows where?

St. Paul-based Wilder Center in its regular homeless surveys has found more than 1,000 teens on any given night in Minnesota don't have permanent shelter.

That picture changes today for up to 42 homeless teens.

Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation opens the doors to its brand new development at 3700 Nicollet Avenue in south Minneapolis.

No, 42 units doesn't solve the homeless teen problem. But measured in human potential harnessed and money saved, it's a huge deal.

Think of it this way.

If the PCNF 3700 Nicollet project helps even one teen find his or her course to a productive and fulfilling life, the project is a win.

And in a more extreme case, if 3700 Nicollet helps even one teen stay out of jail or avoid some other calamity, well, that's tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars saved.

I consider that a win, win.

PCNF, by the way, is emerging as a significant player in the Twin Cities affordable housing market. They opened the doors not too long ago on their south Minneapolis Creek Commons project.

Then, later this year, they will likely break ground in cooperation with CommonBond Communities on 42 units of affordable housing in Minneapolis' Minnehaha neighborhood.

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Yes, Twin Cities renters, you are paying a lot

Posted at 3:50 PM on May 3, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

The bad news comes from the Minnesota Housing Partnership. Every year, the partnership and the National Low Income Housing Coalition release a renting affordability report.

Minnesota's dubious distinction is that we are the least affordable rental state in the Midwest.

How big a deal is that?

The U.S. Census and Department of Housing and Urban Development statistics show about a fourth of Minnesota's households - nearly 540,000 - are rental households.

Those renters, the numbers show, need to earn more than $15 an hour to afford a modest two bedroom apartment and utilities which can range from $800 to $900 a month.

The numbers show Minnesota's typical renter earns just over $11 an hour.

The result is a troublingly high number of state residents - about a fifth - pay half or more of their income for shelter.

Doesn't leave much for food, medical care, transportation or anything else.

So, yes, Twin Cities rent is high and rising in a very tight market with a vacancy rate hovering around three percent.

But save a measure of sympathy for our outstate cousins. Their rents are rising faster in relation to income.

The Minnesota Housing Partnership points out, "The Minnesota counties with the highest increase in rents since 2000 are outside of the Twin Cities Metro, particularly in southwest Minnesota. Rents in Martin, Faribault, Cottonwood, Pipestone, Murray, Rock, Watonwan and Jackson Counties have increased by 56% or more since 2000, compared to 32% statewide since 2000."

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Twin Cities "ecological" foot print is GIGANTIC!

Posted at 7:00 AM on April 30, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

Take a look at it!

Go to page ten and figure eight of this 2010 report by the University of Minnesota's Shengyin Xu, Research Assistant and the Metropolitan Design Center and Ignacio San Martin, Dayton Hudson Chair of Urban Design and Director of the Metropolitan Design Center. The study tries to measure metro Twin Citians' impact on the environment.

The electricity portion is 28%!

I stumbled on this when I went in search of some kind of measure of our collective electricity use here in the Sin Cities with the announcement that a sizable Xcel wind energy project in North Dakota is off. For the moment.

The assumption by energy analysts is a good share of the juice generated by the wind turbines in the Merricourt Ridge project in south central North Dakota was destined for the "Minnesota market."

At the time Xcel issued a statement that it was pulling out because of the damage the turbines could do to migrating rare birds.

The project is in a major North American migratory bird flyway. Lots of our winged friends including the endangered whooping crane cruise through that area.

And the worry was the birds would collide with the wind towers. And die.

The wind energy analysts are, well, a little huffy about that criticism. They argue we're cooking the planet with all the greenhouse gases created from burning coal in order to make electricity to power our big flat screen TV's, air conditioners and shopping center lights.

The priority, they argue, is slowing climate change by way of switching to non-greenhouse gas producing sources of energy. Such as wind.

What do The Cities readers think?

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A quieter spring in north Minneapolis ... shhhhh

Posted at 11:05 AM on April 29, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

Looking at the latest available crime statistics for Minneapolis the other day, I saw something interesting. So far, there have been no homicides in the area of the city people know as north Minneapolis - the neighborhoods north and west of downtown. This area is also known as the Fourth police precinct.

One killing was committed on Linden Ave located just north of downtown. So technically, that is a northside homicide.

But in the Fourth Precinct, there have not only been no killings, but also a 30 percent drop in the number of aggravated assaults from this time last year. Aggravated assaults include shootings and stabbings.

There are have been seven homicides in the city so far this year - fewer than half as many at this time last year. Most have been committed in the Third Precinct, an area south of downtown. Last year at this time, there were eight homicides on the northside.

But don't expect Minneapolis police to crow about the statistic. Back in 2009, when the city saw an extremely low number of homicides, 19, a member of the command staff told me a fair amount of luck helped produce the number. He also told me that he didn't want to "jinx it" by saying too much. Sure enough, 2010 got off to a bloody start.

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"Local Motives" is primer on Central Corridor politics

Posted at 4:30 PM on April 29, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Documentary film maker James Christenson has made silver screen stars of Macalester prof David Lanegran and U of M prof Judith Martin.

Martin and Lanegran are two of the best thinkers and talkers about Twin Cities development.

But their insights are usually confined to musty academic journals.

In Christenson's new film, "Local Motives," the two professors get some long overdue face time as they talk about the impact of the Central Corridor light rail project.

There's also face time for Metric Giles, Joan Vanhalla, St. Paul city council member Melvin Carter and others who live and do business in the neighborhoods affected by the project.

There's lots of concern among those folks about the loss of nearly 1,000 on-street parking spaces when the line is complete.

Christensen's documentary is a penetrating look at the jockeying around the state's largest public works gambit ever.

The first half is about the swirl of politics around a couple other Minnesota rail projects.

He tells the story with great visuals and soundtrack.

You can see it here.

Or you can go to the screening tonight at 7 p.m. at Macalester, where Christenson is a student. Details on the screening also found by clicking the link above.

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Goats? Minneapolis says no, Seattle says yes

Posted at 6:00 AM on April 29, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

Yesterday in The Cities, we explored the "goat divide" in the Twin Cities. Minneapolis has resisted efforts to allow goats within city limits, but in St. Paul, goats are free to roam in your background, as long as you have a permit.

Minneapolis isn't alone in being somewhat reluctant to expand its urban menagerie. Other cities have fought efforts to allow goats and chickens, but urban animal advocates have fought back, superhero-style.

The Goat Justice League in Seattle led a successful effort in 2007 to allow goats in residential areas.

Jennie Grant, the group's founder, has been raising goats for nearly 5 years. She shared some goat stories with me last week in between milking her two adults, Maple and Snowflake. "It's a tremendous amount of work, but it's really fun," she said.

Grant fell in love with the idea of owning goats when she tasted fresh goat's milk for the first time. Now, her family drinks goat's milk every day and uses the leftovers to make cheese. Each goat produces between 2 cups and a gallon of milk each day.

Grant said her goat-milk mozzarella is impossible to distinguish from the real deal.
"It doesn't have that goaty flavor at all," she said. "You can put it on a kid's pizza, and they'll think it's great."

She receives emails from people all over the country who want to own goats and other small farm animals. She offers advice about all things goat-related, from how to build a goat shed to how to entertain a goat. "They're intelligent creatures, so you want stuff for them to be able to hop up and down on," Grant said. "Like maybe a little staircase that goes nowhere or a balance beam."

The Goat Justice League founder is always on the lookout for battles over farm animals in other cities. She directed me toward the efforts of Chickens In The Yard, or CITY, in Salem, Oregon, 45 miles south of Portland. The group used Che Guevara-inspired chicken propaganda, along with a chicken rap video (below), to win the fight to raise chickens.

I asked Grant if she had any words of wisdom for officials in Minneapolis.

"Get goats if you don't want everybody moving over to St. Paul," she said. "They're going to be fleeing with their goats behind them."

(Photos courtesy of the Goat Justice League. Chicken image and video courtesy of Chickens in the Yard)

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Does the "E" stand for "emptier"?

Posted at 11:59 AM on April 27, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

On a recent stroll through the skyways, I walked into Block E and immediately noticed a lot more closed doors and blank walls. I thought, "Isn't that where T.G.I. Friday's used to be? I thought there was a Panchero's over there?"

The second floor of Block E is a lot emptier since the latest tenants closed up shop. The only businesses left on the second floor are a cookie maker, a video game store, the movie theater and a kiosk that sells perfume and cologne.

Two of the previous anchor tenants, Borders and Gameworks, used to have entrances on the second floor. Of course, those businesses are both long gone. So are both the Hooters restaurant which went bankrupt, and Club Xscape which folded after the smoking ban went into effect. As a second-floor business, it had no patio access for smokers.

What kind of business do you think will thrive on the second floor - or the main floor - of Block E? I wonder if there's enough room for a roller skating rink?

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$478 million back at you Twin Cities

Posted at 8:30 PM on April 26, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

That's the amount delivered today by Peter Rogoff, the top dog at the Federal Transit Administration.

It's some of your federal tax dollars coming home.

The money goes to pay half the cost of the $957 million Central Corridor light rail line between downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis on University and Washington Avenues by way of the State Capitol, the Midway and the U of M east bank campus all the way to Target Field in Minneapolis.

Yes, it's back to the future.

The light rail construction crews (really, this is true, you can go see) are tearing up the trolley tracks for the Twin Cities streetcars that ran from the late 1800's to 1954.

As someone pointed out we reinvent our transportation culture about every fifty years in this country.

We've cast our lot with gasoline and rubber tired vehicles and are just now beginning to look to alternatives.

There's hot debate over the wisdom of building the Central Corridor line. It's not like the Hiawatha project. Central is generating lots more friction because it's affecting lots more people.

Hiawatha's right of way, most of it, had been available for decades, the result of a failed freeway building effort.

But Central is going down the throat of the state's main street, University Avenue, one of the most vibrant and populated venues here in Walleyeland. We're been hearing and are going to hear lots more vocalizations from folks affected by the physical and economic dislocation the project is causing.

Then there's the money.

Nine hundred and fifty-seven million dollars makes Central the state's largest public works project. Ever. Four hundred and seventy-eight million is the largest amount of federal dollars ever sent back from D. C. for a transportation project.

That's money that could be used to build lots of lanes or interchanges in the Twin Cities to speed our commutes to suburbia and exurbia. But as Ramsey county commissioner Jim McDonough pointed out, his colleagues on the Ramsey county board whose districts do not stand to benefit directly from light rail voted to spend tens of millions as their share for the project.

Fifty years from now when we re-reinvent our transportation culture maybe crews will dig up the Central Corridor tracks and put in...what?

Metropolitan Council outreach coordinator Joey Browner signed a rail at the Harold E. Stassen Office Building in St. Paul, Minn. Tuesday, April 26, 2011.

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Goats in Minneapolis?

Posted at 6:00 AM on April 28, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (10 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

Goats aren't welcome in Minneapolis.

That was the clear message from city council members at an April zoning and planning meeting. Members voted 4-2 to remove a few lines about "hoofed animals" in the city's 61-page urban agriculture policy plan. Here's what they deleted:

"Study the impacts of allowing hoofed animals. CPED (Community Planning and Economic Development) would be a partner in this work to ensure a coordinated approach with the regulation of enclosures for animals. Any study of allowing hoofed animals should involve a variety of stakeholders including those with expertise in animal welfare."

City planners stressed that they weren't saying that the city should allow goats. They just wanted to study the matter. Council members Cam Gordon and Kevin Reich tried to convince the rest of the committee, but to no avail.

"I do not want hoofed animals next door to me," said Council member Meg Tuthill. "I'm fine with bees, and I'm fine with chickens, but I spent enough time on farms as a kid picking cucumbers for pickle factories, cleaning barns, slopping the pigs, the whole shooting match. I've chosen not to have that lifestyle. And for those of you that are unfamiliar with that lifestyle, when the wind blows the right way, it can be very fragrant in our homes."

As it turns out, it's not hard to find urban areas that have "chosen to have that lifestyle." Just look across the river.

St. Paul doesn't mind if you own a goat. In fact, the city also allows horses, pigs, deer, and alligators. There's even a macaque monkey in residence, although the state has since made it illegal to own, as the animal control folks put it, "non-human primates". (The monkey was grandfathered in.)

"I haven't seen any aardvarks or zebras yet, and I hope I don't, but I think I've seen every other animal from A to Z," said Bill Stephenson, St. Paul's Animal Control supervisor.

The city requires that most animal owners get a permit. (If you're more traditional and prefer cats or dogs, you can go paperwork-free.) Animal control officers inspect the home and yard to make sure the animal will be well-contained and healthy.

Stephenson helped out with a horse permit inspection a few years ago. "I went in a little bit prejudiced saying, 'Now that's a city lot. How are they going to keep a horse, let alone two?'"

When he arrived, he found a corral and a two-stable barn. "It was ideal. There are probably farms that aren't this good," he said. "I said, 'How can we not approve this?'"

St. Paul has been home to a few goats over the years, Stephenson said. Right now, there's just one.

Stephenson helped me understand the basics of goat inspection. "We'll take a visual, see if the goat looks healthy, is standing upright, and not head-butting me," he said. "And then we'll look at where it stays and where it's allowed to roam."

He sometimes wonders whether it makes sense to own certain animals. "Are you going to pet an alligator?" he said. But he said there haven't been many problems with any of the city's more exotic residents.

Back in Minneapolis, Dan Niziolek tried to make sense of the goat divide. He's a program manager for Minneapolis Animal Care and Control.

"It just a different sentiment," he said. "I think it speaks to the view and perception of each city."

Over the years, Minneapolis has made a few changes. The city now allows chickens and honeybees. Last year, the city had 173 active small animal permits, up from 46 permits in 2007. The permits cover chickens, ducks, or pigeons, but Niziolek said almost all of them are for chickens. (Six people have been approved to own honeybees, if you're wondering.)

And banning animals doesn't mean people don't own them, Niziolek said. It just means that Animal Control has to remove them.

"We've had all kinds of lizards, snapping turtles, snakes of all types, a very nice-looking alligator, sheep, goats, potbellied pigs," he said. "It's amazing what we'll come across."

What do you think? Should Minneapolis allow goats?

Check the blog tomorrow for Urban Animals: Part Two. We'll talk to the founder of a group called the Goat Justice League.

(Goat photos courtesy of the Goat Justice League. Photo of a macaque monkey awaiting adoption in Thailand courtesy of the Associated Press)

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Librarian leaves $646K for Hennepin County Library

Posted at 11:37 PM on April 25, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Good news for book lovers -- a former librarian has left $646,000 in her will for the Hennepin County Library.

The gift from the estate of Lillian Wallis was announced Monday. To put the amount in context, the library's operating budget is $69 million this year. Library officials said it's the largest gift they've received in years.

From all accounts, Wallis led an adventure-filled life. The Star Tribune tells the story here.

She attended the opera in Sydney, went up the Amazon River in a dugout canoe, flew to Audubon birding camps and participated in countless Elderhostel programs. Never married, she lived simply in a Nicollet Mall condo that helped her maintain a car-free lifestyle.

Wallis retired in 1987 after nearly four decades spent working in libraries from Minnesota to West Germany. She died in September 2010.

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A taste of warm weather in downtown Mpls

Posted at 2:56 PM on April 25, 2011 by Brandt Williams (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

As weather patterns as of late have shown, you've got to enjoy every bit of spring when it shows up. Today was a perfect day for a little lunch al fresco. On the menu, a beef torta from World Street Kitchen, the food truck created by the owners of Saffron restaurant.

The sandwich features shredded beef, guacamole, jalapenos and cheese pressed between the halves of a white baguette. I wolfed it down (actually, I may have swallowed a piece of tin foil) while sitting basking in the sun on a marble planter on Nicollet Mall.

So what did you have for lunch? And where did you eat it?

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Piers appear on the rebuilt Washington Ave. bridge

Posted at 12:24 PM on April 25, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

Towers of lattice-like steel rebar are surrounded by a form.

Concrete is poured inside to build each.

And, presto, soon there will be four new piers underneath the Washington Avenue bridge.

The piers are the added support the span over the Mississippi River will need to support the Central Corridor light rail trains when the line starts operating in 2014.

Here's how the National Academies' Transportation Research Board describes the project:

The structure is a unique double-decker bridge carrying an upper-level pedestrian deck with an enclosed walkway and a lower-level vehicular deck with two roadway lanes in each direction. The CCLRT Project proposes to replace one roadway lane in each direction to accommodate the light rail transit.

Read about how the Central Corridor folks explain the process here.

And last but certainly not least, here's a Web page with bridge history and a batch of cool photos.

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Audrey Hull's legacy

Posted at 12:59 PM on April 22, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Safety officials responded almost instantly with pleas to drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians to pay more attention to one another after a rash of fatal collisions including the death Thursday morning of Audrey Hull, 25.

She's the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts student who was on her bicycle when she collided with a truck turning right in Dinkytown next to the U's Minneapolis campus. Flowers remembering Audrey mark the intersection today.

Cycling enthusiasts for years have argued the fact that their numbers on the road are growing actually increases their safety, because drivers will notice and learn to share the road.

A rational argument.

The tragic uptick in Minneapolis bicycle and pedestrian fatalities the past week has the same effect but at a terrible cost.

What if all of us as drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists resolved, in memory of Audrey and other victims, to pay more attention, use more caution, slow down, obey the rules of the road and give a moment's thought to the value of life?

If the moment saves a life or prevents an injury it will be the start of a fitting memorial to Audrey.

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Minneapolis fireman injured in explosion is finalist in TV contest

Posted at 6:30 PM on April 20, 2011 by Brandt Williams (1 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

I recently found out that there's more than one Minnesota first responder nominated for the America's Most Wanted All Star contest.

According to the Minneapolis Fire Department, on July 3, 2010, firefighter Jacob LaFerriere was searching for victims in a burning house, when an explosion threw him across the room. He jumped from a third story window and broke his ankle, tore ligaments in one of his knees and suffered third and fourth degree burns on his hands. He's a finalist for the award.

Roseville police officer John Jorgenson was a semifinalist. Jorgenson is a K9 handler who responded to a triggered alarm call last year with his dog Major. According to police accounts, Major bit and held on to a suspect. The man stabbed the dog several times with a knife. The thief who stabbed Major was caught and sentenced. Major survived, but lost the use of his back legs.

There's more information about the nominees and instructions on how to cast a vote for them on the America's Most Wanted website.

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Shari's sense of University Avenue humor

Posted at 10:43 AM on April 20, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Cafe Biaggio owner Shari Breed doesn't look nearly old enough to remember the Cold War.

But that was her perspective the other day as she looked out the window of her University Avenue eatery near Raymond.

"East Berlin," she says with a rueful grin.

Her perspective? Just outside Cafe Biaggio's front window is a narrow span of sidewalk and then a seven foot high cyclone fence.

Beyond that, two lanes of University Avenue are missing and several feet of earth have been removed, creating a kind of no man's land populated with folks piloting heavy equipment.

East Berlin, you'll recall, was the post-World War II half of Berlin claimed by the communists and barricaded with fences and gates.

The barricades on University Avenue as light rail construction ramps up are not nearly as onerous, but you do need to navigate with care as the landscape literally changes daily.

The advantage on University Avenue compared with the bad old days in East Berlin is that no one tries to shoot you should you cross the barricades.

On the contrary, Shari Breed and the other business owners along University will welcome you with open arms, and in Shari's case, with an appealing menu of Italian fare including "chicken under a brick", or pollo al mattone.

Oh, yes. The bricks are from a friendly construction worker who found them while digging up University Avenue.

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Minneapolis launches rehab loan program

Posted at 6:00 AM on April 25, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

The city is urging residents of neighborhoods hit hard by foreclosure to apply for loans of up to $20,000 at zero-percent interest through its new Rehab Support pilot program, which provides $750,000 in financing to homeowners and buyers to complete improvements and potentially increase their home's market value. Homeowners and buyers can apply for the program starting today. According to the city:

"Funding the City received from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency will be matched dollar for dollar by the homeowner from any other source they choose; around 50 loans are available."

The program is available to qualified homeowners and buyers in neighborhoods where 10 percent of the housing stock is in foreclosure. Eligible neighborhoods are: Shingle Creek, Lind-Bohanon, Webber-Camden, Cleveland, Folwell, McKinley, Jordan, Hawthorne, Willard-Hay, Harrison and Near North on the city's northside and Central and Bryant neighborhoods on the southside. From the city's press release:

Eligible Improvements:

• Outstanding code orders and health and safety hazards
• Floor covering or refinishing
• Kitchen remodeling
• Bathroom remodeling
• New siding
• New or expanded garage, not to exceed 24 ft. x 24 ft.
• Permanent functional landscaping
• Replacement of doors and windows
• Insulation and weather stripping
• Addition to home
• Central air conditioning
• Finishing an unfinished basement or attic
• Replacing a furnace
• Repair or replacement of a deck or patio

Loan Guidelines:

Purchasers must have an income of less than 115% of the area median income ($96,600) and the property must be the owner's or purchaser's primary place of residence.

A maximum loan of $20,000 at zero-percent interest.

For every dollar put into the project by the homeowner or purchaser, the City will match with one dollar of funding.

Improvements must be made to a single family dwelling or a duplex within an eligible neighborhood.

New construction properties are not eligible.

The loan is repaid when the buyer sells, ceases to occupy the home, or in 30 years, whichever comes first.

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Twin Cities light rail funds "expected" next week

Posted at 3:55 PM on April 19, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Lots of tiptoeing and carefully chosen words.

But most of the local officials who consider themselves informed on the topic now say that the long-awaited federal money for Central Corridor light rail is....

Expected.

Ok, not exactly a headline.

More significant is that most of those same folks are making plans to be at a Twin Cities ceremony next Tuesday, April 26, where they expect the agreement for the $477 million federal match to be announced.

No apologies necessary if you've tuned out the CCLRT financial melodrama.

The latest development is that if the Federal Transit Administration signs off on its review of some changes to the environemental impact statement, then, yes, it appears the federal match is on the way.

Sort of.

The money doesn't come as a one big check to the Metropolitan Council, the builder of the line.

It comes in fairly substantial payments which must be approved by Congress.

Yes, that's the same Congress that is having a rather starchy time at the moment getting along and agreeing on anything especially money matters.

Still, if the track record (sorry) for the Hiawatha light rail and Northstar commuter rail is any indication, once the funding agreement is signed, Congress follows through with the money.

It's a big pay when and if that happens. The $954 million CCLRT project by one estimate includes about $380 million that will be spent by contractors to employ more than 3,000 workers.

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Minneapolis tree mapping: How does your neighborhood measure up?

Posted at 9:00 AM on April 18, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

A new tree-mapping study by the University of Minnesota is helping the city of Minneapolis see which parts of the city have the most trees.

Nearly a third (31.5 percent) of the land in Minneapolis is tree canopy, and the study says there's room for even more.

The study is part of the city's effort to respond to emerald ash borer and other diseases.

One interesting part of the project looks at all the city's neighborhoods. Professor Marv Bauer at the U of M Department of Forest Resources sent me the image below. It shows which neighborhoods have the most tree canopy.

The most tree-happy neighborhoods are the ones where tree canopy made up between 41 and 60 percent of the land. They are: Cleveland, Folwell, Waite Park, Audubon Park, Willard-Hay, Bryn Mawr, Kenwood, Linden Hills, Fulton, Lynnhurst, Tangletown, Field, Page, Hale, Minnehaha, Hiawatha, Cooper and Howe.

The downtown area and some industrial areas had the lowest percentages of tree canopy. UTC stands for "urban tree canopy." (Map of Minneapolis neighborhoods here.)

The report also calculated "possible urban tree canopy" for Minneapolis. The highest potential tree canopy for Minneapolis? A whopping 68 percent! The remaining land would be streets, buildings and water.

The report made clear that the 68 percent overall could only be achieved under certain circumstances, and said there are many factors that go into where trees are planted and maintained. On the other hand, some areas of the city are close to that now and could reach or exceed that in the future.

The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board is planting 5,500 trees this year. In the past the annual number was more like 3,000.

Ralph Sievert, director of park forestry for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, told me the study will help his department figure out where more trees could be planted.

One idea is to use the detailed maps to strategically plant trees in places where they could affect city residents' energy use.

Sievert said city officials estimated the Minneapolis tree canopy at about 25 percent in the past. They feel good about the larger number in the study.

"Compared to other cities that's pretty good," Sievert noted.

Minneapolis City Council's Regulatory, Energy and Environment Committee heard the canopy study results today. Afterward, the city issued a press release on the study.

It compared the Minneapolis tree canopy to other cities that have completed recent urban tree canopy assessments:

• Baltimore -- 49 percent
• Burlington, Vt. -- 43 percent
• Washington, D.C. -- 35 percent
• Boston -- 29 percent
• Des Moines, Iowa -- 27 percent
• New York -- 24 percent
• Providence, R.I. -- 23 percent

You can read the entire report here:

Mpls tree canopy.pdf

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For clarity's sake: Mahdi, Ahmed, Abdirahman

Posted at 3:06 PM on April 15, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Crime, Minneapolis

Just in case listeners were confused by my conversation with Tom Crann on All Things Considered last night about the latest Mahdi Hassan Ali hearing, I present the following clarification.

Three people are central to this latest development in the deadly Seward Market shooting case. All three of these people share the last name "Ali" -- however, only two of them are related.

Mahdi Hassan Ali is accused of shooting the three men in the market.

Ahmed Abdi Ali is the other young man accused of being involved in the shooting. Here are their mug shots - Mahdi on the left and Ahmed on the right.

And Abdirahman Abdi Ali is the older brother of Ahmed.

You can read more about how they all fit into the shooting investigation here.

The other confusing part of yesterday's debrief on All Things Considered occurred because of an unfortunate editing error. I explained at one point that Mahdi Ali's lawyer said in court that Abdirahman Abdi Ali, the older brother of Ahmed, is a member of a gang called the Somali Outlaws, but that portion was edited out.

So listeners only heard Tom Crann ask me, "What do we know about the Somali Outlaws?"

Thanks to our crack production team at ATC for replacing the missing audio. The corrected version is now online.

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Minneapolis school district gets graded

Posted at 4:54 PM on April 13, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Minneapolis

A recent analysis of operations at Minneapolis Public School headquarters found Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson needs help, and should hire a second in command. The 87-page report, authored by Robert Schiller, offers observations and recommendations for all the district's departments.

The report also reflects on the organizational culture at the District, and some of the observations are not flattering:

Another challenge is to address the perceptions that during the past few years that "silver bullet /band-aid" or "flavor of the month" approach is used whenever a new initiative is thought to be needed at the schools. In fact, a major perception of the interviewees is that the initiatives are not systemic, but inconsistent. Further, there is a "one-size fits all" mentality and not whether the school needs it or not. It is perceived by the interviewees that too much direction is top-down and with not enough input from the staff regarding new initiatives. It has become very prescriptive and teachers/principals (even some department directors and managers) feel excluded.

You can find the full report here. Ignore the annoying boxes at the top of each page, we were unable to remove them from the report sent to us by the district.

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Photos: Spring arrives at Minnehaha Falls

Posted at 10:44 AM on April 13, 2011 by Jennifer Ehrlich (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

Minnesota Public Radio's Jeffrey Thompson shot these photos of the water flowing over Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis. The ice isn't entirely gone, as you can see below, but it's on the way out. Sea Salt Eatery is open. These are sure signs of spring...regardless of the snow in the weekend weather forecast.

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One gender and color dominate Twin Cities construction crews

Posted at 9:46 AM on April 13, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

The imbalance is changing ever so slowly.

The U.S. Census shows Minnesota is 83% white, which means the state's population of 5.3 million is 17% people of color.

And half are female.

However, a drive past any road crew, or a scan of any construction team, reveals precious few women and faces of color.

A very slow change began a few decades ago with decisions by smart employers to hire the best workers regardless of race and gender, but more so by women and minorities, aided by government-hiring goals, demanding entry to the jobs.

One of the biggest breakthroughs came last year with the Minnesota Department of Transportion and its highway and bridge contractors striking an agreement with community groups to aim higher on workforce diversity goals.

Another milestone came this week with the announcement by the Minnneapolis Urban League, along with two locals of the Laborers International Union of North America, to train a group of 18 - a mix of women and minorities - in highway construction skills at the union's Lino Lakes training facility.

Another group of 20 is waiting in the wings for the next training session.

The Minneapolis Urban League CEO and president Scott Gray put it simply but profoundly, "this is truly groundbreaking, and we look for positive outcomes."

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How bad is the Twin Cities housing market?

Posted at 12:00 PM on April 12, 2011 by Jennifer Ehrlich (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul

Are you out there buying or selling a house? The Twin Cities housing market must look very different depending on your perspective.

As an economic indicator, last month's housing numbers for the Twin Cities are pretty bleak. Minnesota Public Radio's Annie Baxter is reporting that foreclosures made up 43 percent of sales in March. Those properties often sell at fire-sale prices, which drove down the median Twin Cities sales price by 12 percent to $143,000, compared to the same period the previous year.

The number of signed purchase agreements in March dropped nearly 18 percent from the prior year.

Realtors say they're getting a lot of interest in homes under $100,000 that are getting resold or rented out.

Buyers or sellers...Do these numbers reflect the reality of what you're seeing in the Twin Cities?

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Dakota Indian activists plan fishing-rights protest

Posted at 10:05 AM on April 12, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

A group of Dakota Indian activists plans to cast a gill net in a Twin Cities lake on May 13, a day before the fishing opener.

That would be a violation of state law. And this time, Chris Mato Nunpa hopes police will notice.

"It'll be on Friday the 13th," Mato Nunpa notes.

I wrote about their plans last July, when Mato Nunpa's group, Seven Fires Summit, was beginning to plot their strategy. Staged efforts in the past to draw attention to the Treaty of 1805 didn't go far.

In 2008, Mato Nunpa and his friends, including activist Jim Anderson, above, set a gill net in the waters of Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. That demonstration was captured on YouTube.

"Our intention was to get arrested, get ticketed, and then to appear in court, and use the Treaty of 1805 as our legal defense," Mato Nunpa recounted to me last summer. "But nobody came."

This time around, the group is taking cues from the northern Ojibwe band members who announced their intentions to hold a fish-in in Bemidji ahead of time. The media came out in full force to cover the event.

It's unclear, however, whether a treaty-rights exercise involving an urban Twin Cities lake will garner as much attention. And there are far fewer Dakota Indians in the state than there are Ojibwe, says Mato Nunpa, who went to Lake Bemidji last year to observe the fish-in there.

"I envied them because they had so many people to support their efforts," Mato Nunpa says.

He and the other activists are scoping out area lakes and will announce the location in about two weeks.

A Department of Natural Resources spokesman told me last year that officials wouldn't turn a blind eye to an apparent violation of state law. While the Treaty of 1805 obligates the U.S. government to allow the Dakota to hunt and make use of the land "as they have formerly done," some historians say the treaty is no longer valid.

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A police academy for Somali kids

Posted at 3:15 PM on April 11, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis, Race

The Minneapolis Police Department is graduating its first all-Somali class from a youth citizens academy this afternoon.

It's an interesting twist, given that a lot of young people in the Cedar-Riverside area have complained about police harassment. The concerns seemed to escalate once the police added more beat officers to the neighborhood and stepped up enforcement.

The idea for the academy came from youth workers at the Brian Coyle Community Center, who sensed a need for better outreach between the kids and the cops, says Officer Jeanine Brudenell, the Somali liaison for Minneapolis police.

"The kids that are in there are really good kids,"Brudenell says. "They're all kids from the neighborhood. And some of them were very vocal kids about being harassed."

Brudenell says the students learned about the challenges of being an officer through role-playing exercises: The teens played the part of the arresting officers during a traffic stop, and the cops were the ones getting pulled over. In another exercise, the kids pretended to protect a crime scene and had to deal with trespassers.

Brudenell emailed me the photo above of Chala Ahmed, right, checking out a T3 trike used by downtown beat officers with fellow academy participant Salah Ali last week. The 12 teens who completed the program will receive credit toward their high school government graduation requirement.

Will these efforts pay off in bridging the divide between police and the Somali-American community? Will any of the young graduates become future officers?

As it now stands, there are three sworn Somali-American officers with MPD and one civilian crime-prevention specialist.

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A few observations about Twins home opening day 2011

Posted at 5:00 PM on April 8, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

Twins fans gave probably the biggest round of applause during the pre-game introductions to Tsuyoshi Nishioka. Nishioka stood in uniform with his teammates along the 1st baseline with the help of crutches. The second basement took a hard slide from a Yankee base runner last night in New York. The slide broke Nishioka's left fibula. The fans kept cheering and clapping during Nishioka's introduction until he doffed his cap to the crowd and bowed.

The Twins say a team doctor examined Nishioka today and says his fracture doesn't need casting or surgery. He'll only need to walk on crutches until the soreness and swelling subsides.

You might have expected Joe Mauer's first at-bat at Target Field this season to inspire more applause. The ovation was a bit feeble - as if fans were like, 'meh.'

Justin Morneau got his 1,000th hit in the first inning. It was a dribbler that was bobbled by an Oakland infielder. When the scorekeeper announced to the pressbox that it was a hit and not an error, a couple sports writers laughed and wondered out loud if Morneau would want to take that one back.

Team just announced today's attendance at 40,714 - a sellout.

I was too hungry to wade through the crowds for eats, so I settled for a pressbox bratwurst. It's not fancy and doesn't come on a stick. But it's still good.

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What's the real versus the reported Twin Cities crime rate?

Posted at 5:00 PM on April 5, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Crime, Minneapolis

Glynn Merriewether says a lot of crime never gets reported.

Merriewether is a Hennepin County "community coach" in the juvenile justice system. The court assigns juveniles to him, and he counsels them on how to stay out of trouble.

His comments contrast with official rates of reported crime nationally and locally, which are down, and in some categories, way down.

Among juveniles in Hennepin County, for example, officials say crime in various categories is down anywhere from 20 percent to more than 50 percent.

"The stats might show that the arrests are down, but the crimes are not," Merriewether told me. "Stabbings, the muggings, the robberies, the thefts they continue. Whether they are all caught and processed and go through the system, that's a different story."

Here's a finding from a 2003 Minnesota survey:

Sixty-seven percent of 2001 crime victims did not report one or more incidents to the police, the same percent as in the 1999 crime survey.

But tread carefully through this and other documents like it. There are lots of qualifications and in this case, it's a voluntary survey, not a scientific study.

Still, there appears to be a large amount of unreported crime in Minnesota and across the country.

Share your experience with The Cities. Why didn't you report the crime?

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Minneapolis police officer named All-Star nominee

Posted at 11:45 AM on April 5, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

One of the reality-based TV shows that always freezes me on the couch is "The First 48 Hours." If you haven't seen the show, it basically follows homicide investigators as they try to solve violent killings in cities around the country. The show provides an often chilling peek into the lives of people who make a living by examining unnatural deaths.

For the last several years, the TV show that pioneered the newest generation of reality cop shows, "America's Most Wanted," has awarded police officers, firefighters and other first responders with an All-Star Award.

This year, they've nominated Sgt. Darcy Klund, a homicide investigator for the Minneapolis Police Department. Klund joined MPD in 1987 and has been involved in some high profile homicide cases, including the shooting death of 12-year-old Tyesha Edwards in 2002.

You can read more about his nomination and vote for him or one of the other nominees on the show's website.

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Food trucks likely coming to a part of Minneapolis near you

Posted at 4:11 PM on April 4, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

As a person who works in downtown Minneapolis, I welcomed the new food trucks and carts that hit the streets and sidewalks last summer. I ate everything from lobster rolls to bahn mi sandwiches. To me, there's nothing more civilized or urbane than sitting on a park bench or parking barrier, gobbling down a taco in your work clothes on a sunny day.

Today, a Minneapolis City Council committee approved changes to the current street food ordinance that will allow food trucks in other parts of the city. This summer, you may see trucks in other areas that get a lot of foot traffic: the lakes and parks, the Midtown Greenway, Uptown and the Cedar Riverside area, just to name a few. The full council will vote on the measure a week from Friday.

One of the other changes will also allow food trucks to park on a street and plug the parking meter, provided it's not too close to a brick and mortar restaurant.

However, there's one last change street food fans are still waiting for. Food carts and trucks are not allowed to operate late at night, after bar closing.

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Minneapolis police recycle 25 used shotguns

Posted at 12:52 PM on April 1, 2011 by Brandt Williams (1 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

I noticed that several people who responded to the first part of our Following the Firearms: Gun Violence in Minneapolis series focused on the fate of some of the guns in the Minneapolis Police Department's gun vault. Some lamented the fact the unclaimed guns will be destroyed.

Well, here's a story about some guns that have been saved from the smelter. The MPD was going to melt down 25 Remington 870 shotguns formerly used by their officers. The department is upgrading to new shotguns, and normally, they destroy used weapons. However, the Pine County Sheriff's Department has a use for them.

The sheriff's department offered to convert the guns to "less than lethal" status. Pine County Sheriff's chief deputy Steven Blackwell says the guns will be loaded with bean bag rounds. He says they will be used in situations such as when deputies confront someone having a mental breakdown.

The Minneapolis City Council approved the transfer today. However, the guns will first need to undergo an important transformation. Blackwell says the "less than lethal" guns will be refitted with bright orange stocks.

The department wants to make sure there isn't any confusion over what's going to come out of the shotgun's barrel if a deputy has to fire it.

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Energy efficiency and a crabby dad

Posted at 12:49 PM on March 29, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

I was the parent shouting, "Hey, turn off the lights when you're done...."

Better strategy: "Hey, your (pitiable, ridiculously small) allowance will go up if you turn off the lights."

This, of course, is the payoff for energy efficiency. You don't spend, thus you save. And, oh yes, by the way, we won't need that additional coal-fired or nuclear plant if enough people conserve.

Business people, as much as anyone on the planet, understand money and saving it. They're among the leaders in energy efficiency.

Business owners have a chance to learn more about it next week. at a Bryant Lake Bowl session on Lake Street in Minneapolis.

If you can't make the meeting you can always visit the blogosphere including this one from the feds, among many others.

Or you can check in with Xcel, the state's largest power company, and peruse their ideas.

And don't be shy about sharing your energy efficiency ideas with all your friends here at The Cities.

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Two I-35W ramps to close for several months

Posted at 1:08 PM on March 28, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

Minneapolis motorists, start your detours.

Work on the Central Corridor light-rail project will require two Interstate 35W ramps to close for several months, and traffic delays are likely.

Starting Wednesday, the Fourth Street ramp to southbound I-35W will be shut down until this July. Drivers should instead take the entrance ramp from eastbound Washington Avenue to southbound I-35W.

And on April 4, the ramp from northbound I-35W to the University of Minnesota East Bank will close until the end of November 2012. To get to the East Bank, drivers can take the Fourth Street SE/University Avenue SE exit from I-35W.

Crews are preparing to build a bridge over the interstate to join Central Corridor and Hiawatha light-rail tracks, according to the Metropolitan Council.

Next week, crews will be strengthening the Washington Avenue bridge so it will be able to handle the new Central Corridor trains. That will close West River Parkway and the adjacent bike trail from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on April 5 and 6.

Visit the Central Corridor project page for more updates.

And finally, the Met Council is supposed to receive word any day now about a finalized full-funding grant agreement that would obligate the federal government to pay for half of the nearly $1 billion project. Stay tuned.

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Households may lose rental assistance

Posted at 6:50 PM on March 24, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

At least 300 Minnesota households won't get state rental assistance under current budget proposals. Minnesota Housing Thursday announced a freeze on new admissions to some rental assistance programs as a reaction to anticipated budget cuts. House and Senate proposals are at least $2 million below Governor Mark Dayton's recommendation for the program.

The programs help people who have been homeless for months move into stable housing. Participants typically pay 30 percent of their income towards rent. Rental vouchers make up the difference. The program last year assisted more than 2,100 households in 53 counties across the state.

Executive Director of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless Liz Kuoppala says she'll be telling lawmakers that the rental assistance programs keep people from using more expensive emergency services.

If they are trying to get to a place where we are saving money, instead of cycling people through shelters and then through detox and police and all of the things that happen when we force people to live on the streets. We have documented that we save money when we are able to stably house people and that is what this program does.

The freeze on new rental assistance applications takes effect April 1st.

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Hennepin County reports fewer smokers, more fat people

Posted at 12:59 PM on March 24, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Hennepin County health officials say only 12 percent of the people responding to the new survey report themselves as smokers.

By contrast the report says the overall rate for Minnesota is 16 percent and for the nation is 20 percent.

Not such good news is the survey finding that, "more than half of the county's adults are classified as obese (20 percent) or overweight (33 percent)."

The concentration of obesity by location is highest in north Minneapolis.

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Anti-vaccine doctor back in Mpls as health dept. fights measles outbreak

Posted at 9:06 AM on March 24, 2011 by Rupa Shenoy (1 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Race

The Minnesota Department of Health is waging a campaign to educate people in the Somali community about the need to inoculate their children against measles amid an outbreak of the disease. Some, but not all of the people found to have the measles are Somali. Health officials are concerned that talk of a link between vaccinations and autism is keeping parents from vaccinating their kids.

A man who makes that link, the British doctor Andrew Wakefield, below, was in Minneapolis last night at the Safari restaurant to speak with Somali families whose children have autism. Wakefield's findings connecting vaccinations and autism have been discredited, and he has been stripped of his medical license.

(AP File Photo)

Several members of the media, including reporters from MinnPost, the Star Tribune, and me, showed up. We were turned away at the door by organizer Patti Carroll, a Shoreview parent of a child with autism who was identified online as a member of the non-profit Autism One.

Carroll said Wakefield was "not planning on misleading them or brain-washing them or telling them 'don't vaccinate your children' or whatever the heck the media loves to say about him."

She said the event was private and said some parents prefer to allow their children to get measles, and become immune in the long-term, instead of receiving vaccines they view as potentially harmful.

I got a very different reception in December when Wakefield first came to Minneapolis. He was asking local Somalis to participate in a study that would examine the possible vaccination-autism link. Yet I easily approached him that evening. Among many things, he said he wouldn't benefit from the study and simply wanted to help families.

All the Somali parents I spoke to at the meeting knew about Wakefield's past. But they said they would listen to anyone who might know something that could help their children.

There's preliminary evidence the autism rate among Twin Cities Somali American children is far higher than that of other Americans. The evidence comes from school records that show Somalis seek help from schools about autism more often than others. State health officials say they're working on a study that could substantiate that evidence. But they say as yet, no solid studies have been done.

So that was all up the air when the measles outbreak struck. I wanted to ask Wakefield what he thought, but this time he refused our requests for comment.

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Clinics aim to combat measles in Hennepin County

Posted at 2:44 PM on March 22, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

You don't hear much about measles these days.

The virus also called rubeola has been mostly kept under tight rein in Minnesota by a fairly widely vaccinated population.

In Hennepin County, though, the vaccination rate is slipping. It's still pretty high at 85% of all two year olds, according to county public health officials, but they say it should be well above ninety percent in order to contain spread of the illness.

All of this comes to our attention by way of the Minnesota Health Department reporting nine cases of measles so far this month. That's more cases in one month than in the past five years combined.

All the infected are babes and kids - 4 months to four years of age. And five are from the Somali community where by some accounts there's a fairly high number of people not innoculated.

Parents cite all sorts or reasons for avoiding having their kids vaccinated, many with roots in less than scientific findings. There'll be another vaccination clinic for kids and adults this Sunday afternoon at Children's Hospital at 25th and Chicago avenue in Minneapolis.

Here's what the CDC says about measles.

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How I got my gun

Posted at 7:00 PM on March 21, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

Sometimes things don't work out they way you planned them. So you change your plan. And then sometimes, that's when the original plan magically comes to fruition.

Case in point: The original focus of the MPR News investigation "Following the Firearms: Gun Violence in Minneapolis," which launches Tuesday on Morning Edition and online here.

My goal was to find a gun homicide case and trace the firearm back to where it came from and then follow it forward to the crime scene. I was hoping we would find some ATF tracing data buried in a court file that would lead us perhaps to some pawn shop in a southern city. I'd planned on traveling to the city and shop where the gun was purchased to interview the shop keeper or better yet, find the original owner of the gun.

But it didn't work out that way. In fact, I never saw an ATF tracing document throughout the entire investigation. The project morphed into a broader examination of gun crime. I started combing through complaints, indictments and whatever court documents I could find in an attempt to explain to listeners who committed gun violence last year in Minneapolis and where they got their guns.

The project also profiles a family devastated by gun violence and we look at how gun trace data has become the center of a political fight.

But after the original plan changed, something happened. I stumbled upon some leads that led me back to the homicide case and gun I started looking for four months ago.

And as it turns out, this particular case illustrates exactly how dangerous ill-gotten guns can be in the wrong hands.

Tune in Tuesday on the radio or online for more details.

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Marriage proposals a hit at Target Field

Posted at 9:00 AM on March 22, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

Colleague Molly Bloom noted a sign of spring the other day - workers peeling back the tarp protecting the Target Field grass.

Here's another.

My friend Rick, a tour guide at Target Field, says marriage proposals are on the rise.

Folks over the years have used the scoreboard or even banners to propose tying the knot.

The latest fad is booking a Target Field tour. You and your beloved walk through the clubhouse, the dugouts, around the field, then you stop at home plate to pop the question.

That's hitting a home run. If the answer is 'yes.'

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Mpls fire chief watches gas explosion from Maryland

Posted at 3:50 PM on March 17, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

The Minneapolis Fire Department fought the massive fire at a natural gas main in south Minneapolis today without its top commander.

Fire Chief Alex Jackson is in Maryland participating in an emergency operations training drill sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Council Member John Quincy, whose ward covers the area where the fire occurred, is at the same training.

Here's what each had to say in the city's press release today -- sounds like they wish they could have been here to help out:

"Currently, I am in Maryland participating in an emergency operations training drill sponsored by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). The team of City staff is refining our emergency preparedness and response operations as part of our commitment to maintain the highest level of disaster preparedness. I will be returning to Minneapolis tomorrow," said Ward 11 Council Member John Quincy, whose ward includes the area where this morning's gas explosion took place. "Although I am not presently in my ward, I am staying on top of this incident in the same room as the Minneapolis Fire Chief who is also following the City's response. It's clear that emergency responders have been doing great work to protect the people in our community and handle this dangerous situation. Trust that we're already preparing the necessary steps to deal with the after-effects of this incident in coordination with our nonprofit partners. We know that a lot of people have been helping their neighbors. I want to thank you for being so engaged with our community."

"Even though I'm in Maryland at the National Fire Academy, I have been in close contact with command staff in Minneapolis as the incident unfolded this morning," said Minneapolis Fire Chief Alex Jackson. "I want to commend the Minneapolis Fire Department for their professionalism, their calm under pressure, and for staying true to our core mission to keep the community safe. I would also like to thank all the agencies that responded and assisted and to thank the community for working with us through this incident."

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Johnny Northside wants to enlist Courtney Love in free speech fight

Posted at 6:10 PM on March 17, 2011 by Laura Yuen (3 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Housing, Minneapolis

Johnny Northside is hoping to get some Love in his First Amendment fight.

Blogger John Hoff says he'll try to enlist rocker Courtney Love in his appeal against last week's jury decision ordering him to pay up $60,000 in a defamation suit against him.

Love ran into her own free-speech troubles after ranting on Twitter against a clothing designer, who sued Love for defamation. The same week Hoff's case went to trial, news broke that Love was settling out of court for $430,000.

Hoff apparently sees a kindred spirit in the Hole frontwoman, and plans to ask Love to help support his defense fund.

"She found it more expedient to settle," Hoff tells me today. "If she threw some money our way, we'll fight the battle for free speech."

I ran into the boisterous blogger at Hennepin County Government Center while digging around for some unrelated court documents. Turns out Hoff was doing his own digging, searching for more evidence to bolster his claims against former Jordan neighborhood leader Jerry Moore. Moore sued Hoff after the blogger accused him of being involved in a major mortgage-fraud case in an online posting.

While Moore was never charged, the jury believed Hoff's statement against Moore was true. But the jury still decided he should pay damages to Moore, who was fired from his job after the blog item ran.

Hoff says it's not like he has $60,000 lying around.

"You can't get blood out of a turnip," he says.

The jury's decision, Hoff says, has energized a half-dozen organizations that are lining up to write amicus briefs out of concerns about free speech.

The attention is coming from coast to coast, Hoff says. A California attorney is weighing the possibility of becoming a co-counsel in his case.

"The more, the merrier," he says.

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What does progress in the Central Corridor look like?

Posted at 4:48 PM on March 16, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Public officials and urban wonks agree light-rail will have benefits that go way beyond moving people.

Economic development, vibrant businesses, and new affordable housing are among the desired outcomes of the planned Central Corridor line connecting St. Paul to Minneapolis. And now there's a new metric to assess progress made on such goals.

With help from Wilder Research, the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative today released a so-called "tracker" that will measure the impact of the new transit line. It includes 13 indicators, such as residents' accessibility to shopping as well as new construction jobs for women and minorities.

The report provides where the corridor stands today on these indicators, and it will be updated annually.

One of the stated goals of the funders collaborative is "effective coordination and collaboration," particularly when it comes to supporting existing businesses along the line.

Today is a big day for small businesses in the corridor for another reason: Light-rail planners are taking public testimony regarding the potential loss of business during construction. The planners recently concluded businesses would likely experience zero to 2.5 percent drop in revenues as part of their supplemental environmental assessment. Business groups say they plan to contest that finding -- and provide affidavits.

You can still catch the second hearing at 6 p.m. at Goodwill/Easter Seals, 553 Fairview Ave. N. in St. Paul. These comments will be entered into the public record.

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A visual history of pro basketball in Minneapolis

Posted at 2:32 PM on March 17, 2011 by Molly Bloom (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

As the Timberwolves and city of Minneapolis seek a $155 million upgrade to the Target Center (pictured above), let's take a look at how basketball used to be played in the Mill City.

Before the Timberwolves came to town, our hometown team was the Minneapolis Lakers. The team formed in 1947 and took home the championship title in their first three seasons (they won the first ever NBA championship in 1950).

Not only did the Minneapolis Lakers have championships and a big star in George Mikan, they also played in style.

Until they moved to Los Angeles in 1960, the Lakers played at the Minneapolis Auditorium, built in 1927.

Here's what it was like to see a basketball game there in the 1940s:

And here's the view from the court:

The Minneapolis Auditorium also hosted conventions, auto shows, concerts, speeches and other events.

The building was demolished to make way for the Minneapolis Convention Center in 1989, the same year the Timberwolves made their debut.

The Kimball Organ from the Minneapolis Auditorium, the largest instrument built by that firm, remains in storage.

All images of the Minneapolis Auditorium courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

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Minnesota's congressional delegation urges FEMA flood prep action

Posted at 11:47 AM on March 16, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

As the state prepares for what could be record flooding, Minnesota's entire congressional delegation is pressing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to take immediate steps to facilitate a timely response to any flood damage. The delegation sent a letter to FEMA urging the agency to plan, prepare, and coordinate flood protection efforts in advance of the flooding. Forecasters from the National Weather Service are predicting major flooding for many of the state's waterways this year. Last year's flooding led to a disaster declaration by President Obama for 31 Minnesota counties.

The full text of the delegation's letter:

March 15, 2011

The Honorable Craig Fugate
Administrator
Federal Emergency Management Agency
500 C Street SW
Washington, DC 20472

Dear Administrator Fugate:

As Minnesota prepares for the potential for devastating flooding across much of the state this spring, we ask for your immediate assistance to plan, prepare, and coordinate flood protection efforts to facilitate FEMA's timely response to any damage once the water recedes.

Last year, above average rainfall, an untimely melting of snow, and a steady stream of severe weather resulted in the Red River, the Minnesota River, and the Mississippi River reaching major flood stage and devastating communities across Minnesota. As a result, President Obama declared 31 counties in Minnesota as disaster areas resulting from the spring 2010 floods. Communities across these river valleys launched an unprecedented effort to protect homes, businesses and schools from record flooding. Residents acted heroically to protect not only their own homes, but the homes of their neighbors and community landmarks.

Unfortunately, the National Weather Service's most recent outlook for spring shows that regions across Minnesota are again facing the strong possibility of major flood events. Specifically, there is a 50 percent chance that the Red River of the North in Moorhead-Fargo will rise to 38.8 feet, and a 20 percent chance the River will rise to 41.9 feet, which is over one foot higher than the 2009 historical event. Further north, East Grand Forks-Grand Forks has a 50 percent chance that the Red River will rise to 50.4 feet, which is five feet higher than last year. Along the Mississippi River, the latest projects show at least a 50 percent likelihood that the water will rise significantly above last year's level in Aitkin, St. Cloud, and St. Paul. Communities along the Minnesota River are also preparing for rising water with a 50 percent chance that the water reaches nearly the same levels as last year near New Ulm, Mankato and Jordan. These same communities devastated by last year's flooding are now preparing for yet another flood event.

Thank for your consideration of our request. These communities need and deserve the attention of our federal agencies.

###

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Twin Cities diamond mine? Yes! Well. Maybe.

Posted at 5:15 PM on March 10, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul

Minnesota state geologist Harvey Thorleifson's theory goes like this: Diamonds are being mined in Canada. The geologic structure holding the precious stones is similar to Minnesota's.

He posits the odds are fifty-fifty of finding the formations in Minnesota where diamonds reside. One of the possible locations is right here in the Twin Cities.

Before you start digging in your backyard, Thorleifson, a University of Minnesota geology professor, points out there are plenty of diamond miners around the world who've dug all their lives and never seen the precious rocks.

Thorleifson is the opposite of a stuffy academic. Strap a microphone on him and he takes over with his game show style presentation and informative power point of the history of diamonds.

He spoke recently to a few dozen folks at the recent, A Sip of Science happy hour event at the Aster Cafe in Minneapolis. I bet he'd be willing to share it with other groups.

Here, for more, is an excellent piece of reporting on Minnesota diamonds by my now colleague Paul Tosto back when he worked for the Pioneer Press. Take it away, Paul!

Minnesota's geology reveals road signs to diamond riches
Don't start digging yet, but a study suggests a treasure trove lies beneath the state

BY PAUL TOSTO
Pioneer Press

They rarely yell "Eureka!" in the diamond exploration game. But surprising details from a just-released survey of Minnesota has the state's top geologist saying: "Maybe."

An exhaustive study by University of Minnesota researchers and an Australian mining company discovered geological markers across Minnesota similar to those in Canada that have led to huge diamond strikes over the past 10 years.

Held in secret for two years as part of a rare deal the U signed in 2004, the newly published findings reveal patterns researchers didn't expect -- mineral arrows that may point to pipes of kimberlite, the underground rock formations where diamonds are most commonly found.

"We did find something and it's like the first hints" that led to diamond-field discoveries in Canada, said Harvey Thorleifson, head of the Minnesota Geological Survey and a world-renowned diamond geologist.

It's no "X marks the spot" discovery. It will take several years to trace back the mineral markers to see if they lead to kimberlite and, perhaps, diamonds.

Thorleifson called the findings significant but compared them to a hunting dog picking up the scent of a fox: Sometimes the fox is never found.

He plans to unveil the findings next week at an international prospector's convention in Toronto.

A diamond strike might seem unlikely in Minnesota. Scattered exploration in the central part of the state 20 years ago failed to find a mother lode. But geologists have long seen Minnesota's glaciated terrain as potentially fertile diamond territory, and chemical and computer testing of soils to find diamond markers has improved dramatically.

Hired in 2003 to lead the Minnesota Geological Survey, Thorleifson helped develop many of the indicator-minerals tests as a scientist in the Geological Survey of Canada. That work helped establish Canada's booming diamond industry, which didn't exist 10 years ago.

Thorleifson's reputation and the potential to discover a billion-dollar industry were compelling enough that the U in 2004 agreed to let the mining company, WMC Corp., withhold publication of the study's most sensitive findings for two years.

Diamonds form in rock that is about 2.5 billion to 3 billion years old. They rise to the surface in explosive eruptions and can be found in the carrot-shaped formations of kimberlite, named for Kimberly, South Africa, where it was first discovered in the late 1800s.

Diamonds have been found around North America, including Wisconsin, but mining was nearly nonexistent. That's changed over the past 20 years as geologists began examining the sandy sediments of land scraped by glaciers.

Because kimberlite is soft, some of it can catch in the glacier and leave a trail traceable to its source.

Geologists sample soils, looking for kimberlite indicator minerals, such as garnets. After a few hits, they follow the trail in the direction the glacial ice came from; if the number of markers increases, they may lead to kimberlite -- and, maybe, to diamonds.

That's how it has played out in Canada, now one of the world's fastest-growing diamond producers.

Garnets with just the right chemical makeup were the survey's "complete surprise" in Minnesota, Thorleifson said. Found in a couple of spots, including near the Twin Cities, the garnets held levels of magnesium and chromium that flag them as particularly good markers to lead the way to kimberlite.

It's possible they may point the way to a kimberlite plume between the Twin Cities and Duluth or western Wisconsin, he added.

Canada began producing diamonds in 1998 when the EKATI diamond mine opened in the Northwest Territories. Two other mines have opened nearby since 2003.

With this multibillion-dollar business, officials say, Canada is now the third largest producer of rough diamonds by value after Botswana and Russia. At least two more Canadian mines plan to open in coming years.

Initial results here are exciting because they mirror those found in the early days of diamond exploration in northwestern Canada. Thorleifson and others, though, say there's a long road ahead.

"The report looks thorough and is a good first step in assessing the potential for diamond deposits and other mineral deposits in Minnesota," said Brooke Clements, vice president for exploration at Ashton Mining of Canada in Vancouver.

Clements, who explored central Minnesota in the mid-1980s with another firm, cautioned that the samples in this newest report had no more than one grain of each of the mineral species that might lead to kimberlite.

"While there are examples of instances where kimberlite pipes were discovered after an initial sample had only one indicator grain, more work is required to assess the significance of these results," he said.

The next steps involve follow-up soil surveys that likely will include northwestern Wisconsin to see if the markers will lead to kimberlite formations, Thorleifson said. That process will take several years of work and consultation with other geologists.

"There is a source out there somewhere," said Thorleifson. "Sometimes it's kimberlite but there are no diamonds ... or you might have a kimberlite with beautiful diamonds that might be too deeply buried. Sometimes you can't find it."

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Norwegian reality TV casting for love in Minneapolis

Posted at 12:15 PM on March 9, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (2 Comments)
Filed under: Immigration, Livability, Minneapolis

Norwegians are crazy about Americans. Especially Americans who appear on Norwegian reality TV. Now's your chance:

Would you like to date interesting and beautiful Norwegian men and women? Nordisk Film TV is looking for participants for a brand-new TV series about single Norwegian-Americans looking for love.

This Thursday to Monday (March 10th-14th) we will be in Minneapolis/St. Paul looking for candidates.

I emailed a producer who provided more details:

When it comes to how Norwegian you have to be to qualify, we haven't made any absolute demands for this. Whether you are half Norwegian, or your grand parents Norwegian, or whether you speak Norwegian or not, we want you to contact us! The only thing we need is that you have some sort of personal relationship to Norway, and an interest in meeting single Norwegians...

Here's how the show works:

The four Norwegian American singles will be presented on Norwegian TV in an episode this May. Norwegian singles looking for love can then log on to the show website and send a date-request to one of the Norwegian Americans, and write a little bit about why they want to date this person or upload a video of themselves.

The single Norwegian Americans will then each select eight single Norwegians they want to get to know better. Those Norwegian singles will be flown to the U.S and will go on dates in the Norwegian Americans' hometowns. The Norwegian singles will the be voted off, one by one. Finally, the Norwegian Americans will have to choose which of the singles they want to be with. Will they find true love?

Norwegian Americans, this is your chance to reverse the mistakes of your ancestors who left behind the country that now enjoys the highest living standard in the world.

You wouldn't be the first Minnesotan to break into reality TV in Norway. Below, Kari Tauring (wearing white) from Minneapolis explored her cultural roots and wrote about it here.

And a Lutheran minister from Alexandria rose to celebrity status in Norway after his appearance.

Good luck!

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Where are the worst potholes?

Posted at 11:59 AM on March 8, 2011 by Molly Bloom (4 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

"Danger zone." "Sinking area." "The Widowmaker."

For the past month or so, we've been asking you, our lovely audience, to map the worst potholes across the state. We've partnered with SeeClickFix to help us track the potholes and alert the officials in charge of fixing them.

So far people have reported 125 issues with potholes in the metro and three of them have been resolved. The three most nefarious stretches of road (based on the number of people who want to see them fixed) are:

1) 28th Avenue between 38th and 50th Streets, Minneapolis: "I no longer drive on it - the road is too narrow to avoid the potholes, and the potholes are deep enough to do a lot of damage."

2) Washington Avenue North, Minneapolis: "Washington Ave is littered with potholes. Cars swerving to miss them are creating near accidents."

3) 46th and Hiawatha, Minneapolis: "I could probably bottom out a school bus on some of the holes in this stretch. And it's almost the only way to get to several of these businesses."

Check out the map below and vote for the potholes that you'd like to see fixed or add your own.

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Convoluted history of Fuji Ya site, a re-telling

Posted at 10:00 AM on March 9, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Minneapolis riverfront mavens can get an update later this week on what the future may hold for the late Reiko Weston's Fuji Ya restaurant.

It hasn't been a fine dining establishment since the doors closed in 1990. That's when the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board purchased the building through eminent domain for $3.5 million to help make way for parkway expansion.

There's not enough space in the Cities blog to rehash the long and litigious contemporary history of the Fuji Ya site.

Minneapolis architect Tom Meyer will sketch the big picture - past and present - Thursday evening at 6:30 at the Mill City Museum in downtown Minneapolis.

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Gazing into the Central Corridor crystal ball

Posted at 5:07 PM on March 4, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, Race, St. Paul , Transportation

ISAIAH, the interfaith advocacy group, and a coalition of nearly two dozen community organizations, have been analyzing what life is like along Central Corridor, aka University and Washington Avenues in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Their results help paint a picture of what life may be like when the light rail line is running.

Their findings raise interesting questions: 86 percent of the enterprises along the corridor are small businesses, collectively employing more than 4,000 people. Do those businesses have the resilience to survive light rail construction and the loss of 1,000 on- street parking spaces?

Their study finds that the educational attainment of people living on and near Central Corridor is slightly less than the rest of the Twin Cities, that the diversity rate is higher, that a fourth of the residents don't have a personal vehicle. How will the rail line affect their education, job and earnings prospects?

One of the most interesting findings is that gentrification of the area has already begun, it started a decade ago. Housing costs are on the rise, and in fact, the study finds that some of the poorer residents are paying as much as half their income or more for shelter.

Among the recommendations: Government should make plans now for preserving and creating affordable housing, rezoning of property should be done with utmost care to preserve housing and business opportunities for the people living there.

All of the findings will be on the table at a community meeting Saturday morning, March 5, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer on Dale street North in St. Paul.

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Suburban lawmakers try to halt Central Corridor

Posted at 7:00 AM on March 4, 2011 by Laura Yuen (3 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Those sprawling holes in the ground in downtown St. Paul would remain wide open if four Republican lawmakers from the suburbs and outstate Minnesota have their way.

The state representatives introduced a bill today that would halt all work on the light rail line until the Metropolitan Council amends its final environmental study to reflect how construction would hurt nearby businesses. The other condition? A majority of plaintiffs in the Rondo lawsuit or a federal judge would have to sign off on the findings.

The bill's authors are Reps. Mark Buesgens of Jordan, Bob Barrett of Shafer, Linda Runbeck of Circle Pines and Bob Gunther of Fairmont. Admittedly, this metro reporter had to get out a map to find out where these cities are -- and I can tell you they're nowhere near University Avenue in St. Paul.

The bill might be a reaction to recent developments in the business vs. light rail debate. You might recall about a month ago, Judge Donovan Frank ruled that the Met Council's environmental-impact study was "deficient," and ordered up a new assessment of how the project would affect businesses.

The Met Council did just that -- and this week completed a study predicting businesses would experience a zero to 2.5 percent decline in revenues during the build-out. Those figures weren't what University Avenue businesses had in mind.

And they're apparently getting a little sympathy from lawmakers far, far away.

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Not the Oscars, but the (Met Council) winners are....

Posted at 5:04 PM on March 2, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

The Dayton administration's list of appointees to the Metropolitan Council is out, and their collective resumes are replete with other public sector service, including transportation, housing and natural resources.

Roxanne Smith from Champlin, Gary Van Eyll from Carver County, Gary Cunningham from Hennepin County, and Steven Chavez from Eagan all have experience with housing issues.

Jon Commers and Richard Kramer from St. Paul, Jim Brimeyer from St. Louis Park and Harry Melander from Mahtomedi have experience with urban planning issues.

Jennifer Munt from Minnetonka, Steve Elkins from Bloomington, Edward Reynoso from Ham Lake, Adam Duininck from Minneapolis and John Doan from Blaine know about transportation issues.

Sandra Rummel, a former state Senator from White Bear Lake, and Wendy Wulff from Lakeville, the lone Met Council holdover from the Pawlenty administration, know about environment and resource issues.

Lona Schreiber from Brooklyn Park is a former state lawmaker who follows issues related to the region's older residents.

Dayton appointed five women and eleven men. Make that six women when you add his earlier appointment of Susan Haigh as Met Council chair.

The Met Council is the Twin Cities' 40 year old regional governance agency that manages waste water treatment, transit, parks and planning.

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Namesakes: Who is Amplatz?

Posted at 6:00 AM on March 1, 2011 by Molly Bloom (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

A listener wrote in today asking us who the new Amplatz Children's Hospital in Minneapolis is named after.

The short answer is Dr. Kurt Amplatz, whose daughter Caroline has pledged $50 million to the hospital over the next 12 years.

A longer answer should describe Dr. Amplatz as a pioneer of the medical device industry who holds more than 30 patents and is still working well into his eighties.

A 2003 New York Times profile describes him as:

An avid tennis player and inventor whose continuing contributions to pediatric cardiology have been described as legendary...

Because of the inventions that bear the Amplatz name, fragile infants and children born with life-threatening heart defects and adults who are discovered to have them can be spared risky open-heart surgery, chest wall incisions and lengthy recoveries. Instead, the defects are repaired through a catheter inserted in the groin. Most patients go home to normal lives the next day.

Dr. Amplatz grew up in Austria during WWII and came to the United States to finish his medical training. The Minnesota Historical Society has an hour-long interview with him as part of their oral history collection. Here is an excerpt from the transcript:

Well, originally, I came from Austria, and things were going very badly in Austria after the war [World War II]. We were occupied by Russia. We had very little to eat; as a matter of fact, 800 calories a day. I had been studying in Fribourg, Switzerland; Paris, France; and Zurich, Switzerland, so I thought it may be interesting to go to the United States.

My intention was only to stay one year, but after one year, I liked it so much that I took a year's internship at Brooklyn, St. John's Hospital in Brooklyn. Then I was looking for a residency program and I wrote thirty letters, and I got only one answer. That was the Mayo Clinic. So I flew there for an interview in the wintertime. I remember I landed in Rochester and it was snowing and people were so slow, and they talked so slowly, and I thought, I will never survive in a place like this.

He retired from the University of Minnesota in 1999 but still works as a research consultant at the company he founded, AGA Medical Corporation.

Have you been wondering about the namesakes of any other spots in the metro? Tell us in the comments and we'll find an answer for you.

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Washington Avenue bridge redo will test drivers

Posted at 2:54 PM on February 25, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

Get used to delays while trying to use the Washington Avenue bridge near the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

And then, around May, get used to not driving on a portion of Washington avenue through the east bank U campus.

The Central Corridor light rail construction folks are rebuilding the bridge to handle the trains when (if?) they start in 2014. Lanes will be reduced to one direction each way.

Washington Avenue through the U becomes a transit way - no personal vehicles - as the project unfolds.

Plan to use the 10th Avenue and 35W bridges for your U of M east bank commuting purposes. Or walk, bus, or bike. By the way, the upper level Washington Avenue bridge biking and pedestrian ways remain open throughout.

Tell us here at the Cities blog how you're coping.

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Where Are The Crows Of Minneapolis' Elliot Park?

Posted at 11:53 AM on February 24, 2011 by Dan Olson (3 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

It's a mystery.

Nearly every day in December as the sun was setting, a long column of crows commuting from somewhere would circle the Downtown East neighborhood of Minneapolis next to the Metrodome.

Hundreds, actually maybe thousands of them.

They raised a huge ruckus, talking crow talk, apparently jockeying for position, and then they settled into the trees in Elliot park at the very tips of the branches.

Others have commented on this. Where are the crows now? Have you seen them?

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Transitions for two controversial Twin Cities developers

Posted at 7:00 AM on February 23, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

The recent death of Robert Boisclair recalls the arrival in Minneapolis of deep-pocketed investors from Japan.

Boisclair's wooing in the 1970's of a Japanese bank and construction company led to Lake Point on Lake Calhoun. The 20 story condo raised a ruckus with neighborhood residents but became a luxury destination and an enormous source of property tax revenue.

Two other Boisclair ventures, Riverplace, the so-called festive retailing project along Mainstreet across the Mississippi river from downtown Minneapolis and the Galtier high rise development in Lowertown St. Paul, were bold and big and apparently ahead of their time.

St. Paul developer Jerry Trooien had hoped to make such a mark with the $1.5 billion Las Vegas-style The Bridges of St. Paul, but the riverside development never got out of the starting gate. He's currently awaiting word along with the rest of us as to why the Feds raided his St. Paul offices last week looking for evidence of fraud as one FBI spokesman put it.

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Metro Transit lines ready for a name change

Posted at 2:47 PM on February 22, 2011 by Dan Olson (8 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

Here's a chance to have your kid, your favorite uncle or maybe Electra your cat memorialized forever in Twin Cities transit history.

The Metropolitan Council invites us to name the system many of us know as Metro Transit or, 'the bus.' To be clear, they're not changing the name of Metro Transit, they're inviting the public to name specific transitways, such as the blue line or the red line.

The Portland, Oregon light rail arm of their transit network is MAX, the commuter rail portion is WES.

MAX and WES, sort of the daytime soap opera approach to transit branding. Especially once you add MARTA from Atlanta.

In other cities, the systems are BART, DART and so on. In San Francisco, a city with an unbeatable mix of charm and hipness, their antique cable car system has named individual vehicles with labels such as, 'cable car 15.' Still a ways to go on the branding front there.

We can do better. Get that name in now, make history. Share your ideas here on the The Cities Blog.

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Thaw not enough to lift Mpls winter parking rules

Posted at 3:43 PM on February 18, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

As snow and ice disappeared off of roofs and sidewalks this past week, some of us wondered if the Minneapolis winter parking restrictions would go away, too.

Not yet.

Tom Crann and Sam Choo of MPR's All Things Considered did a ride-along today with Mike Kennedy, director of transportation, maintenance and repair for the city of Minneapolis. Their reporting focused on potholes, but they also asked Kennedy about the parking restrictions, which call for parking on only one side of the street on non-snow emergency routes.

"Yes, we've lost a lot of snow cover," Kennedy said. "But the windrows that restricted the streets have not really receded as much. We still have very narrow conditions."

Without the restrictions, fire trucks would still have a hard time getting through, Kennedy said, adding that crews did some measurements during the thaw to make sure.

The other issue: Winter isn't over. It could snow again as soon as Sunday.

"If we get the 4 to 6 inches that they're talking about, we'll be right back to where we were when we had to implement [the rules]," Kennedy said.

So much for that hopeful "winter is almost over" feeling many of us got during the thaw.

Last year the winter parking restrictions went away the first week of March. Kennedy said the parking restrictions will be lifted by April 1 at the latest.

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Will the mailed puppy story end after today's lottery?

Posted at 6:38 AM on February 18, 2011 by Jennifer Ehrlich (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

The real question of the day is not which lucky animal lover will get to adopt Guess, the schnauzer-poodle snatched from the jaws of postal death by workers who spotted him en route to Georgia in a sealed box.

No the real question is if news coverage about this puppy is finally over today.

Everyone loves a cute animal story with a happy ending - particularly when it involves a rescue, and fodder for universal finger-pointing (What kind of person mails a puppy! Killing in self defense justified? Maybe. Mailing a puppy? Never.)

Unless Guess alerts police to a boy in a well, or solves the state budget crisis - there doesn't seem to be much more to report after announcing the winner of today's drawing in Minneapolis. One can only hope a dog that people line up to adopt will have the best shot at a post-postal incident life. End of story...or at the very least until the anniversary of the adoption of Guess.

Anyone else had enough of Guess?

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Minneapolis lists problem landlords online

Posted at 7:00 AM on February 17, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

The city of Minneapolis has launched a new website aimed at protecting residents from irresponsible landlords.

The new site posts the names of owners who've had properties condemned or demolished, or had their rental licenses revoked. The site is part of an ongoing campaign of stepped up enforcement aimed at cracking down on problem landlords.

Henry Reimer from the city of Minneapolis says poorly maintained rentals affect the livability of the entire community. He says they hurt property values.

Properties that are not well-maintained - that tends to set a standard that drags down the rest of the neighborhood in terms of maintenance.

Since 2005 the city revoked about 200 rental licenses - that's compared to just 11 revocations in the five years prior. City officials say the number of violations for irresponsible landlords skyrocketed during the housing crisis of the last decade. They say there has also been an increase in the number of single family rental conversions.

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Hennepin County adds CDs, DVDs to list of recyclables

Posted at 2:58 PM on February 16, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

You tried to sell your collection of "Ernest Goes To..." DVDs to a pawn shop or used media place. To your dismay, they wouldn't give you one thin dime for all those magical hours of cinematic amusement.

There is now a more green alternative to throwing your discs in the trash. Hennepin County announced this week that it will recycle all sorts of media, digital and analog: computer disks, DVDs, CDs, Blu-ray discs, video cassettes, audio cassettes, game cartridges, Secure Digital (SD) memory cards, flash drives, plastic cases and jewel cases, ink jet and laser toner cartridges and vinyl records.

"It is unknown how much media is currently disposed of in the trash, but staff anticipates the new recycling service will be very popular among residents. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that every month approximately 100,000 pounds of CDs become obsolete in the United States and more than 5.5 million boxes of software are discarded each year."

To find out where to drop your boxes of CDs, DVDs and tapes that not even the most die-hard, garage-sale-kitsch-seeker would pay for, check out the county's website.

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Best New Chef Midwest nominees announced (we're watching you, Missouri)

Posted at 12:51 PM on February 15, 2011 by Molly Bloom (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Suburbs

Ocean trout from Sea Change (Sharyn Morrow via Flickr)

Every year, Food & Wine bestows the title of Best New Chef on the top up-and-coming chefs in 10 different regions of the United States. This year, they're opening voting up to the public in what they're calling, "The People's Best New Chef."

Minnesota is well-represented in the Midwest region (which includes Arkansas for some reason). Our nominees are:

Mike Brown and James Winberg - Travail (Robbinsdale)
Landon Schoenfeld - Haute Dish (Minneapolis)
Erik Anderson - Sea Change (Minneapolis)

Three out of ten nominees is nothing to scoff at. The only state with a better showing? Missouri. We didn't even know they were our Midwest culinary rivals, but now...it's on. The last time Minnesota took home the Best New Chef in the Midwest was Stewart Woodman of Heidi's (which re-opened last month after a fire damaged their old spot last year).

Check out the nominees and vote for your favorite here.

What do you think of the nominees? Who should have made the cut?

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More people rode Northstar commuter rail last month

Posted at 7:37 AM on February 15, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Suburbs, Transportation

One month of numbers does not a comeback make. But Metro Transit folks are very happy about January's uptick in Northstar commuter rail ridership - weekday ridership is up nineteen percent.

You may recall last year's ridership, the line's first full year of operation, was nearly 21 percent below projection. Northstar boosters say it's worth keeping in mind Northstar is young and it takes time to build a following.

Political jousting over whether the service is a taxpayer boondoggle or a true transit option seems to have died down. One opponent says the service is here, it's time to help make it work.

A proposal aimed at attracting more bus riders to rail calls for new station in Ramsey. It could cost as much as $14 million.

There's some money on the table for the idea, but more to be found, not an easy task in this fiscal climate.

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African American Parent Involvement Day is more than a name

Posted at 6:37 PM on February 13, 2011 by Rupa Shenoy (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Minneapolis, St. Paul

Monday is African American Parent Involvement Day -- and right there, you probably wonder what I have to say about it, because it's all there in the name. People want black parents to get more involved in their kids' lives. There's a big disparity in Minnesota between the academic performance of white kids and minority kids. Experts figure more parent involvement can only improve the picture.

But it'd be nice to take a minute to recognize that the Twin Cities has a very active group of African American parents who take their children's education seriously. That became pretty clear during the uproar following Minneapolis Public School's decision to close North High School. Apart from that, local black parents have put on several events lately that sought to teach kids about African American history and their own emerging identity.

Among those active parents is Kristin Morris, who was at Ames/Sheridan Elementary School in St. Paul, getting stuff done as co-chair of the PTA when I talked to her last week. Morris is at her sons' school so often that they no longer get embarrassed about it. Morris said her older son, fourth-grader Kencale, told her his friends think she's cool. It's a compliment she's pretty proud of.

Morris said a straightforward thing like African American Parent Involvement Day can actually have a sophisticated effect - it gets parents and students together with other parents and students. What they have in common is all around them - the school.

"Parents get together, we become friends, and our kids get together and they're comfortable with one another, they can do homework together," Morris said. "You build a cohort of kids who want to do well together and you just want to foster that hunger for learning."

She said creating a community focused on kids who want to learn is an incredibly effective way of reinforcing the importance of education on children. And that makes African American Parent Involvement Day sound pretty important.

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You think potholes are bad now?

Posted at 4:32 PM on February 11, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

If you're like me and you drive to work over the same route every morning and evening, then you've memorized where you have to swerve or change lanes to avoid potholes. My eight-year-old car feels like it has the knee and hip joints of a 90-year-old marathon runner. There's not much 'cartilage' left in the suspension system to cushion the blow.

Well, the problem will likely get worse with the warmer weather. Today the city of Minneapolis sent out a press release reminding drivers that the daily thaw and nightly freeze will further damage already pockmarked roads. So the city is adding crews to work on weekends in addition to the round the clock work going on Monday through Friday.

Since the start of January:

· More than 5,000 truckloads of snow have been removed from City streets. That's in addition to the regular plowing efforts by Public Works.

· More than 200 tons of temporary asphalt mix, or cold patch, have been used to fix potholes.

· About 16,000 of the 20,000 corners in the City have been cleared of snow piles left after plowing.

City officials urge drivers to call 311 to report potholes. In the meantime, hold on to your axles. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

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Timing those pesky Twin Cities traffic lights

Posted at 2:33 PM on February 10, 2011 by Dan Olson (2 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Suburbs, Transportation

Richfield and Bloomington drivers on streets next to Interstate 494 may soon be spending less time stopped at red lights. That's what appears to be behind the Hennepin County board approval this week of spending $30,000 to hire a stop light timing consultant.

The county, MnDOT and the two cities want to "optimize" the timing of 43 signals between York Avenue and Highway 77 or Cedar Avenue.

The county says it has an overall goal of completing traffic signal timing on one-third of all coordinated traffic control signals annually.

This may sound like pretty small potatoes, but that's probably not the view of the folks who drive those streets regularly. It's certainly not the view of traffic engineers.

Better timed lights, they argue, improves traffic flow, saves lots of gas and obviously reduces pollution as cars spend less time idling at a dead stop. That's the good news. The bad news is that many municipalities including Minneapolis, the state's most populous city, no longer have the person power to do extensive signal timing.

Maybe the county action is the start of a change.

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Troops showing signs of strain after nearly 10 years of war

Posted at 12:10 PM on February 9, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Veterans

The nation has about 12,000 special operations forces deployed around the world, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. But after nearly 10 years at war, commanders this week said they're worried about the toll repeated deployments are taking on troops and their families.

Minnesota's Army National Guard 34th Infantry Division, known as the Red Bulls, are preparing for another deployment. Maj. Gen. Richard Nash announced recently that about 2,400 soldiers are expected to start training in May and head to Kuwait, where they will provide security as US troops pull out.

This will be yet another deployment for many of these soldiers, who've already served in Iraq or Afghanistan over the last several years.

From the AP's Lolita C. Baldor's story on concerns about the effects of repeated deployment on special operations forces:

Adm. Eric T. Olson ... said the demand for the specialized units in Afghanistan is insatiable, forcing troops to deploy to war at a rate that is off the charts. And he said he does not see that demand declining in the next several years. Officials say they are taking measures to ease the strain on service members and families and devoting more resources to programs for wounded and ill service members.

Scientists at the Minneapolis VA have been studying National Guard soldiers to try and pinpoint why some people are more resilient to combat stress than others, and to research the connection between PTSD, TBI, concussion and other things.

They expect to release more findings this spring.

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Will Central Corridor be jobs machine for women/minorities?

Posted at 10:00 AM on February 9, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Race, St. Paul , Transportation

Gilbert Odonkor owns YAW Construction, one of the Central Corridor's minority-owned contractors. He says his business doesn't solely depend on set-asides, but he favors the program to help others get work.

Before you know the job is done and there were no minorities on it, so I think holding the generals to a higher standard helps everybody.

The whole Central Corridor project is expected to cost $957 million, creating 3,000 construction jobs over four years of work.

Those are the rough parameters of the Central Corridor light rail project, the 11-mile rail line from downtown St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis. The Metropolitan Council hopes to finish construction by 2014.

The Met Council's goal - they admit it's a stretch goal - is to have the five prime contractors subcontract up to fifteen percent of the value of the work to women and minority owned companies. Already, more than 60 of them have been hired for various jobs.

Minnesota does not have a commendable history of women and minority hiring on transportation projects. Officials have committed to changing that and the Central Corridor project will be the biggest and most ambitious test.

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Safer biking in Minneapolis? City stats say yes.

Posted at 2:12 PM on February 7, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

The rate of bicycle crashes of all types are down by nearly a quarter in Minneapolis the past 15 years. The new numbers are from Shaun Murphy the non motorized traffic (that means biking and walking) specialist in the city's public works department.

You can get all the statistics including state numbers here.

It's good news, of course, but as the numbers show there are still fatalities and plenty of life-changing injuries happening to bicyclists.

One way to reduce bike and car accidents is to create more trails. And according to Murphy, this will be a bumper year for bike lanes in Minneapolis.

Normally the city of Minneapolis adds about four miles a year. This year it's poised to add up to 35 miles.

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Aiming to close achievement gap in North Minneapolis

Posted at 12:00 PM on February 7, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

The celebrated Harlem Children's Zone education project is inspiring copycats around the nation. One of these is ramping up in North Minneapolis. The Northside Achievement Zone hopes to help families support their kids, close the achievement gap and replace it with a culture of high achievement that gets all children in the zone to college and beyond.

The Northside Achievement Zone is a 13- by 18-block area on Minneapolis' north side bounded by 35th Avenue on the north, West Broadway on the south, I-94 on the east and Penn Avenue on the west. The area has about 5,500 households with an estimated 7,500 children.

Why this geographic area was chosen for the project, according to the Northside Achievement Zone:

Minnesota's 4th grade reading scores had the 5th largest achievement gap in the nation--only 12% of African American children in Minnesota were reading at grade level on the national assessments in 2007 (Vanneman et al., 2009). In the Jordan Neighborhood, at the heart of the Zone, 13% of eighth graders passed a basic skills test in 2006. And in 2008, while Minneapolis'
four-year graduation rate for white students was 69.5%, it was just 33.5% for African American students (Minnesota Department of Education, 2010).

Gwendolene Hollins, one of the community activists recruiting new families to the Northside Achievement Zone, says:

We are on the verge of opening up a floodgate. I think that word of mouth still is the best form of advertisement for anything. When we are successful with connecting our families with our partners and getting them where they are trying to go and helping them get past their barriers they share that with other people, either in their families or communities.

The Northside Achievement Zone works with community organizations to provide families in the program with support services - like childcare assistance, parenting classes, transportation, career assistance - anything they need to be stronger and more hopeful about the future.

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Civil rights activist who marched with MLK confused by dog park controversy

Posted at 2:46 PM on February 3, 2011 by Brandt Williams (1 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Race

There will be no dog park in Martin Luther King Park in south Minneapolis. The opposition to the dog run expressed by some African Americans made me wonder if Dr. King ever expressed any feelings about dogs. Did the use of police dogs by southern law enforcement to attack civil rights protesters make him anti-dog? Would he be offended by an off-leash dog park in a park bearing his name? I've tried to get a response from the King Center in Atlanta, but so far I haven't gotten one.

I posed some of those questions to a man named Bob Zellner during an interview for a dog park story I produced recently for National Public Radio. Zellner, who is white, marched with King in the 60s. He remembers seeing police dogs held at bay by officers as he and others participated in one of the Freedom Marches in Alabama. But Zellner says the dogs didn't get him, the police officers did. He got zapped with a cattle prod and was badly beaten by the cops.

Zellner says he was surprised the dog park issue raised so much conflict.

"I don't think that he would at all be insulted," said Zellner. "He loved children. He spent a lot of time with children. And I could only assume, I don't know for sure, but he must have loved dogs too."

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Mpls. woman who tried to mail puppy wants it back

Posted at 11:32 AM on February 3, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (12 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Minneapolis

Stacey Champion has been charged with animal cruelty for trying to mail a puppy from Minneapolis to Georgia last week. But now she wants the dog back.

Sgt. Angela Dodge of the Minneapolis Police Department says Champion appealed the animal cruelty citation and will likely have a hearing Friday or Monday. The hearing will determine whether she can keep the puppy or if it will go up for adoption.

If she loses the appeal, there will likely be a long list of potential new homes for the dog, Dodge said. As has been the case with other celebrity animals, the calls are already coming into the Minneapolis 311 phone line asking if the puppy, named Guess, is available for adoption.

In cases like this, Dodge said, people line up the day of the adoption and animal shelter staff take down everyone's information.

"We draw names. It's that simple," Dodge said. "Whoever wins, wins."

Clerks became suspicious of the package Champion dropped off last week. They called postal inspectors, who opened the box and found the puppy.

The puppy's story is showing up on news websites across the country after the Star Tribune and several Twin Cities TV stations reported on it earlier this week.

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U of M exhibit looks at making old age more livable

Posted at 11:12 AM on February 2, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

The first wave of the nation's 70 million baby boomers hit age 65 this year. With this generation predicted to live longer - and live longer at home - planners are looking at ways to make homes and communities more senior-friendly.

Glenn Ruffenach wrote about this trend for the The Wall Street Journal's September 19, 2009 Personal Finance blog.

The University of Minnesota's Goldstein Museum of Design has built what they're calling a Smart House, where visitors can experience what the home of the future might look like. The house belongs to fictional senior couple Jim and Sarah, who renovated their traditional home with stuff designed to make life a little more accessible as they age - like special showers and kitchens. Where do you want to spend your old age?

Smart House, Livable Community, Your Future

The exhibit runs Feb. 5 to May 22. Opening Reception Feb. 4, 6-8 p.m.

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Light rail prep to begin on Washington Ave. bridge

Posted at 8:24 AM on February 2, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, Transportation

Mark your calendars for more Central Corridor construction, especially if you work or study at the University of Minnesota.

Traffic on the Washington Avenue bridge on the U of M campus will be reduced to one lane each way starting Feb. 26. Crews will remove medians that weekend, and traffic controls will be installed on March 2. Construction starts in late March.

The lane reductions will be between Cedar Avenue on the west side of the bridge to Church Street on the east side.

That could cause delays, so start thinking about using alternative routes. And you might end up using those alternative routes permanently, because the Central Corridor light rail line will dramatically change Washington Avenue through the U of M East Bank campus.

As for the bridge, crews will begin construction in late March to replace the vehicle deck and add tracks for the trains. Here's a few more details from the Metropolitan Council's news release:

One lane will be maintained in each direction on the bridge during construction. Traffic will be restricted to one lane in each direction on the north side of the bridge while crews remove the vehicle deck on the south side this year. In 2012, traffic will be shifted to the newly built south side while the vehicle deck is removed on the north side.

Cyclists and pedestrians on the upper deck of the bridge will use the north side this year and be shifted to the south side in 2012.

We'll take a more detailed look at bridge construction in future posts -- it's a pretty major endeavor involving adding girders and other elements to strengthen the bridge so it can carry cars, trains, bikes and pedestrians.

You can also check out the Central Corridor website.

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Mpls teacher gets 'Teacher of the Year' award from Junior Achievement

Posted at 5:26 PM on February 1, 2011 by Tom Weber (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis

Shirley Poelstra, a business teacher at Edison High in Minneapolis, has won this year's 'Teacher of the Year' award from Junior Achievement, the worldwide organization dedicated to teaching students about entrepreneurism, financial literacy, and other business-related matters.

Poelstra got the nod for an effort last spring in which Edison students partnered with Best Buy to develop, market and sell their own international cookbook. The students, for that project, won fourth place last summer in the Junior Achievement National Competition of the Year.

The organization has existed since 1919 but has awarded a top teacher since 1990 - because it's a global organization, the winning teachers (like last year's, from Norway) can come from anywhere. According to the JA's list of past winners, Poelstra is the second Minnesotan to win the award (Lorraine Palkert, South St. Paul High School, won in 1991).

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Homeless in the shadow of Target Center

Posted at 4:31 PM on February 1, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

Never let it be said that Minnesota Public Radio isn't green. We carpooled today to the announcement that the Timberwolves and Minneapolis want a renovated Target Center arena. The comment from one of the poolers, my colleague Bob Collins (offering, by the way, invaluable back seat driving instructions on where to park - he's a Timberwolves season ticket holder) hangs in my mind.

The comment? Something like this. How interesting that two of the Twin Cities' major entertainment arena's, Xcel and Target Center, have homeless shelters, Dorothy Day Center in St. Paul and Salvation Army in Minneapolis, in their shadow. That's it. Not exactly an original observation. Read into it what you want. Economic disparity is nothing new, won't be going away soon.

It's worth noting that the users of both facilities - touring shows, sports teams, conventions - return lots and lots of money in the way of fees and taxes to the state. The city of Minneapolis which owns Target Center asserts the facility has returned $120 million over its life to Minnesota on an investment of less than $8 million. And it's reasonable to assume some of the dough goes back into the economy to help kids and older people and maybe even the homeless.

The Target Center folks also point out they're a decent-sized employer with 200 full-time and 700 part-time workers. Anyway, brace yourself for a fresh round of debate over "how many professional sports teams...." or "how many stadiums does this state need....?" set against the question of how we find money to help the poor, fund child protection workers and fill potholes.

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Why isn't Target sponsoring the LGBT national conference in Minneapolis?

Posted at 10:14 AM on February 1, 2011 by Laura Yuen (5 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

If you agreed with the Advocate magazine's recent announcement that Minneapolis is the gayest city in America, well, it's about to get a lot gayer.

That's according to Russell Roybal, one of the organizers behind the National Conference on LGBT Equality, also known as Creating Change. It's billed as the nation's largest annual strategy summit for advocates of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

The conference has set a record in the number of volunteers it's recruited - and the amount of corporate cash it's raised, Roybal said.

But while glancing at the list of sponsors, which includes local heavyweights Best Buy and Xcel Energy, we noticed one major Minnesota-grown company missing: Target.

While Target has never been a sponsor of the conference, company spokeswoman Amy Reilly tells me Target was at one time considering a partnership:

"We had discussions with the [National Gay and Lesbian Task Force] about a potential sponsorship, and we kind of mutually agreed that this year's conference wasn't the right opportunity for both of us."

Roybal, deputy executive director of the Task Force, acknowledges that Target's decision to contribute to a group backing former gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, who opposes same-sex marriage, "still lingers in the minds of many people."

Roybal notes that Target, through its policies and health benefits, has long been a model employer for the company's gay and lesbian workers. That caused many to view the company's decision to support MN Forward as a kind of betrayal, he said.

"The LGBT community is really loyal, they love shopping at Target," he said. "And when we see a friend do something questionable in our minds, we get upset by that."

It should be noted that Best Buy, one of the sponsors for this year's conference, also contributed to MN Forward.

But Roybal said Best Buy's senior brass quickly responded to the backlash from the GLBT community after the donation became public, and sent the company's CEO to meet with Task Force leaders and local advocacy groups in December:

"After that conversation, we decided that having a partnership and working together on the conference would be a good decision for both of us. We're in continued conversations with Target. We've not the same level of conversations with Target, and so that's where we're at."

Roybal says Target is sending several employees to participate or volunteer at the five-day event. And the door is open, he said, for Target to give money to the conference in the future.

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Everything you wanted to know about ice dams

Posted at 7:51 AM on February 1, 2011 by Jennifer Ehrlich (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

It's been a particularly bad winter for roof ice dams in the metro area. Homeowners seeking do-it-yourself solutions tend to receive suggestions about getting up on a ladder to apply salt to the roof or rake off snow, followed by dire warnings about the dangers of climbing ladders. Even the University of Minnesota's ice dam information page contains repair advice alongside warnings about taking action.

MPR's Midmorning is devoting its 10 a.m. hour to winter home repair, featuring experts who will try to provide some guidance on how to handle ice dams. Listen live or check it out later online.

Have you found any ice dam advice useful?

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Twin Cities bonding projects, no sure thing

Posted at 1:30 PM on January 31, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Minneapolis and St. Paul officials were quick to praise Gov. Mark Dayton's bonding bill, which includes projects like a downtown ballpark in St. Paul and repairs to the Plymouth Avenue bridge in Minneapolis.

Both cities' mayors applauded the bonding bill proposal in press releases sent out within 90 minutes of Dayton's press conference.

But the GOP-controlled Legislature might not go along with the plans. Republican leaders said it's the wrong time to use the state's credit card to fund projects that might take years to complete. One GOP lawmaker said bonding should be reserved for emergencies.

Here's a rundown of what's in Dayton's bonding proposal for each of the cities:

St. Paul: $20 million for a new regional ballpark where the St. Paul Saints would play

Minneapolis: $8 million for capital improvements to the Target Center; $7 million to repair Plymouth Avenue bridge; $5 million to construct phase 2 of Granary Road near TCF Bank Stadium and the U of M Transitway

St. Paul has been talking about building a downtown ballpark for more than 10 years. Voters in 1999 rejected a sales tax to pay for a stadium. The city and Saints have pledged $10 million each for a stadium this time around, but if the other $20 million doesn't come through in a bonding bill, officials would have to figure out another way to pay for it.

In Minneapolis, the Plymouth Avenue bridge seems to be the most urgent of the three projects. That bridge has been closed to vehicle traffic since October after inspectors found corroded cables.

The city has said the bridge could be closed until early 2012, depending on whether officials can find money for the needed repairs.

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