UPDATED 8/6: Are Twin Cities restaurants too loud? We’re testing them—and you can help

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This story, first published on June 7, has been updated over the course of several weeks. Scroll down to see the most recent update, featuring decibel readings from The Liffey and Patrick McGovern’s.When Jeremy Kleider asked his parents to join him at Pat’s Tap in south Minneapolis, he wanted to share with them a place known for its great food, its great beer selection, and its hip atmosphere, which basically reinvented the neighborhood tavern.What Kleider, 26, and his parents, in their mid-50s, didn’t expect when they arrived for dinner at around 6:30 p.m. was that the music would be so loud that they couldn’t hold a real conversation.”The place was just so loud, it was really kind of impossible to have any kind of conversation,” said Kleider. “It was busy in there…everyone in there had to shout over the music.”Kleider hasn’t been alone in this observation, as Daily Planet columnist Jeremy Iggers pointed out when he visited Morrissey’s Irish Pub, Red Cow, and Spill the Wine back in April.”Am I just turning into a cranky geezer, or are restaurants getting louder? And if so, why?” wrote Iggers in his post, who then noted that of the three restaurants, Morrissey’s Irish Pub was the loudest.So just how loud is too loud? Continue Reading

Powwow for Hope and Pink Shawls: “Changing the story of cancer in Indian Country”

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In October of 2008, Michael Dahl learned that his mother had been diagnosed with stage four bone cancer. Within a month it was stage five. Then, in December, just two months after her diagnosis, Denise “Mashkowizii Gabowiik” Dahl passed away.The next summer, Dahl and his siblings joined Relay for Life, hoping to raise money for cancer awareness and to help them heal after their recent loss. But during the survivor’s walk, the part of the relay where cancer survivors march together in celebration, Dahl noticed there were no American Indian participants. This surprised Dahl, since he could personally think of dozens of Native Americans who had died, been diagnosed, or in some way had been affected by cancer.So, Dahl went to the American Indian Cancer Foundation (AICAF) with the idea of expanding cancer awareness in the Native community and from it Powwow for Hope was born.”We are changing the story of cancer in Indian Country,” said Kris Rhodes, Executive Director of AICAF. Continue Reading

Straw bale gardening: New technique gives anyone a chance at a garden

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When Joel Karsten was just a kid on his father’s farm, he began to notice weeds growing out of some of the discarded straw bales. When Karsten asked his father why this happened, his father told him moisture most likely began decomposing the straw, and not to worry about it because they were worthless.But the image stuck with Karsten even after he had left the farm and graduated from college. Then when he got a house in Roseville, and planned to start his own garden, he realized he didn’t have enough topsoil to adequately grow anything. Again, his mind went to the straw bales and the weeds growing from them. After some trial and error, he discovered not only could his vegetables grow out of straw bales, but most of them were growing even better in these bales than they would be in soil.Now, Karsten is helping others learn the process, which he says is easier, more time-saving, and less spatially restrictive than conventional gardening.On April 27, Karsten held his first Straw Bale Gardens Education Day. Continue Reading

Minnesota Reading Corps and Math Corps birth new generation of educators, help tutors obtain teaching licensure

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Sara Jochems didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do after she received her master’s in English and Literary Studies from the University of Minnesota Duluth, but she knew she most likely wanted to teach. The problem, she said, was that she didn’t know the age group in which she was interested teaching. So Jochems took a friend’s advice and joined Minnesota Reading Corps (MRC), a statewide Americorps program dedicated to bolstering reading fluency of students pre-kindergarten to 3rd grade.Jochems is now in her second year with the program, which, according to MRC’s website, now includes more than 750 tutors spread out within 500 different sites throughout the metro and greater Minnesota area — a significant growth from their 2003 launch at just four Head Start agencies.Full disclosure: Kristoffer Tigue is also a member of Minnesota Reading Corps. He has signed up for a second year, and plans on using the benefits to go back to school for journalism.For more information on how to apply, visit the MRC website here, or the MMC one here. Mary Deputie (pictured here) is serving her first year with Minnesota Math Corps (MMC), Americorps’ math equivalent of MRC, for the same reasons as Jochems. Deputie knew that she wanted to teach but was unsure with which age group. Now both tutors are working toward getting their teaching licenses, a common narrative seen in both programs, according to Anna Peters, Recruitment and Outreach Manager for MRC and MMC.”It is indeed common for people to join Reading Corps or Math Corps to get their feet wet in the field of education,” wrote Peters in an email to the Twin Cities Daily Planet, “either to ‘try on’ the school environment or find some direction in the field. Continue Reading

MUSIC REVIEW | Zammuto at the 7th Street Entry: A breath of fresh air

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Next door in First Avenue’s mainroom, the constant thumps of 4onthefloor could be heard during the lulls in between songs of the opening act, Snowblink. “Should we play to the tempo of 4onthefloor?” their frontwoman, Daniela Gesundheit, joked to a half-filled crowd. However, by the time headliners Zammuto took stage, the crowd had filled in and all noise in the background became just that — background noise.Zammuto, or Nick Zammuto, former guitarist of the Books, put together his own band after the Books broke up last year. Along with brother Mike Zammuto on bass, Sean Dixon on drums, and former Books member Gene Back on several instruments, the band showcased their 2012 self-titled debut album at the 7th Street Entry on Saturday, April 6.Part of what made the Books so appealing was the facade of high-concept art that accompanied their music—it’s also, we can assume, what made their “fair use” of copyrighted recordings legal, around which their songs developed. Zammuto mostly cuts free from that aspect in their debut album, but what it lacks in witty satire and beautifully crafted nostalgia, it makes up for with earnest expression and energy.That energy translated particularly well live during their upbeat, dance-pop numbers “Yay” and “Groan Man, Don’t Cry.” In “Yay” a slicer effect cut Nick Zammuto’s voice into perfectly timed, fast-paced pulsations, making it more synth than human, while his light and plucky guitar in “Groan Man, Don’t Cry” helped us to forget that it snowed just last Friday.But the true culmination of Zammuto’s newfound energy surprisingly came in their techno-heavy “Zebra Butt,” a song which feels a bit forced on the album. Continue Reading

Food truck wars? Minneapolis brick and mortar restaurants ask food trucks to spread out

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Food truck wars, lunch wars, skyway vs. food trucks — the conflict between the brick and mortar restaurants in downtown Minneapolis and the growing population of food trucks has bred plenty of euphemisms, but essentially the situation comes down to a question of turf. Some restaurant owners have asked food trucks to disperse their ranks throughout downtown to ease the heavy concentration of trucks along the eastside of Marquette Avenue.Earlier in January, citing revenue and parking loss, a coalition of downtown restaurants, who call themselves the Downtown Food Committee, held a meeting to discuss the concentration of food trucks parking between 6th Street and 8th Street on Marquette and how it was adversely affecting their businesses.Some of the restaurants have reported up to a 30 percent drop in revenue, said Doug Sams, head of the Downtown Food Committee and owner of downtown’s D. Brian’s Deli & Catering for 26 years. Sams believes that the heavy concentration of trucks on Marquette has disproportionately hurt the area’s brick and mortar businesses. Others believe too much blame is being placed on the rolling restaurants. Continue Reading

Occupy Ward 9: Newcomer and Occupy Homes advocate Ty Moore, incumbents Cam Gordon and Annie Young endorsed by Minneapolis Greens

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The 5th Congressional District Green Party endorsed three candidates February 17, including incumbents Cam Gordon, Ward 2 Councilmember, Annie Young, Minneapolis Park-Commissioner, as well as newcomer and Ward 9 hopeful, Ty Moore.Over 25 people showed up at New Faith Baptist Church on 42nd and Cedar, to listen to the candidates speak and vote for whether or not the candidates would receive Green Party endorsement. Both Gordon and Young are running for re-election in November, and many members at the convention expressed their deepest approval of the two incumbents.Young, who is in her sixth term as Park-Commissioner, spoke of her work surrounding urban agriculture, for which she has been pushing for five years. She also spoke out against the Keystone Pipeline, saying her work now lies with the protesters.”I have been invigorated by seeing uprisings all over the world, as we try to make things right,” said Young during her speech. “I believe it’s not about going over the fiscal cliff, I actually think we’re going over the environmental cliff.”Gordon, who is running for his third term in Ward 2 City Council, spoke of his many accomplishments since he was first elected back in 2005, such as passing the Commercial Recycling Ordinance back in 2011, which requires commercial properties to recycle.Official candidacy won’t be announced until August 15, and neither Gordon or Young know just who they may be running against, if anyone at all. However, with Young’s track record and with Gordon recently receiving the Green Party’s as well as labor endorsements, it may be smooth sailing for the two.As for Ty Moore, his biggest threat in the race is Alondra Cano, who is hoping for DFL endorsement.During his speech at the Green Party endorsement convention, Moore admitted that he believes winning Ward 9 is a slim chance.However, Moore’s campaign is less about winning the City Council seat than about creating a powerful movement, he said, using phrases popularized by Occupy Wall Street.”For us, winning is much bigger than this one office, than this one election,” said Moore. Continue Reading

Q&A with Joe Nathan: “Can we assess a broader range of outcomes?”

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When it comes to education, Joe Nathan has been around the block. He was a teacher and administrator for St. Paul Public Schools, a PTA president, on the board of the state PTA, and he worked for the National Governors Association, working with several states attempting to pass legislation on education. Now, he’s working with the Center for School Change.We spoke with Nathan about the emphasis on testing in schools, how it can be improved, where it’s being done well, and what we should be doing over the next biennium to make our schools in Minnesota better.What effect do you think the current emphasis on testing is having on schools?I think the question, for me at least, is not just current emphasis, it’s ‘what kind of assessment are we doing?’ Because I think that any effect the organization [has], whether it’s a nonprofit, a social service agency, a school, a business, any organization has to make assessment of its impact, and an important part of what it does is that in order to find out what it’s doing well, and in order to consider what it might do better, the organization has to assess how well it’s doing toward its goals.I think that we need to be doing the broader kind of assessment and schools that I’ve helped start over the last 40 years, we’ve examined things like: What do graduates say about the schools? Continue Reading

Q&A | Envision Minnesota’s Lee Helgen on balancing urban sprawl with conservation

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With a world population of seven billion and counting, the human being is one prolific creature — and in recent history, humans have treated nature mostly as an obstacle to urban sprawl. For years, the people at Envision Minnesota have been working to bring balance back to the equation, focusing on smart ways to redevelop communities while conserving and protecting natural resources.We spoke with Envision’s new executive director, Lee Helgen, to ask him about that balance, his transition from St. Paul city council, and just how Envision’s recent EPA funding will be put to use. He noted that the city council focuses on a city with 280,000 people, a budget of $550 million, and 3,000 employees, with an even more specific focus on the ward’s population of 40,000.You were very recently named the new executive director of Envision Minnesota. How big of a change is this from City Council, and what should we expect from Lee Helgen, executive director?As a city council member, the issues [are] pretty narrowly defined … Continue Reading