The Nicollet coffeehouse, with its quaint and modest allure, strikes a contrast to the bustling neighborhood surrounding it. Since reopening under new management in October, The Nicollet has quietly gone about reintroducing itself to the community. The recent expansion of evening hours–the shop is now open every day until 10 pm– is a signal that the The Nicollet is finding its footing along the Eat Street corridor of Nicollet Avenue.The Nicollet is located at 1931 Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. Hours are 7 a.m. – 10 p.m. Monday – Friday and 8 a.m. – 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Telephone: 612-872-2415Facebook A new website will be availalble soon!On the day I visited The Nicollet and spoke with new owner Michael Graca, the place hummed with the sound of chatting students, brewing coffee, and the warm notes of jazz piano playing in the background. Here’s the interview, edited for space and clarity:What is your vision for the new, reopened The Nicollet? Continue Reading
The Third Ward is one of the most disparate wards in the city, particularly after the new re-districting, which added the North Loop, Mill City, Downtown East and Downtown West into the mix. Somehow, the councilperson overseeing the ward has to juggle the needs of downtown with parts of North Minneapolis and Dinkytown. As my friend Chris Stellar put it, “It’s such a non-uniform ward, no end of it connects meaningfully with another. It seems like Yugoslavia or something.” FULL DISCLOSURE: The writer’s aunt is campaign manager for Diane Hofstede.Diane Hofstede has been on the council for eight years, and prior to that she spent 20 years on the library board, and later as a library trustee, where she was instrumental in getting the downtown library built as well as Pierre Bottineau Library. She’s been a teacher at North High School and at Northeast Junior High, and was a curriculum writer for Minneapolis Public Schools, and also was a financial advisor. Continue Reading
UPDATED 3/29/2013: It was a battle of the progressives on Wednesday, March 27 at the Humphrey School as five remarkably similar progressive candidates showed off their feathers in a packed auditorium. There’s a lot to like about many of the candidates, so we’re breaking it down to find the winners and losers on various issues, such as who hates the stadium the most, who’s the BFF of North Minneapolis, and more.Who hates the stadium the most? The stadium issue divided the current City Council, and the drama continues as a campaign issue. Incumbent council members and mayoral candidates Betsy Hodges and Gary Schiff both opposed the stadium, while council member and candidate Don Samuels supported it, saying that it would create jobs.“It was clear that the stadium was going to be built,” Samuels said. “Minneapolis was going to get run over or get on board.” He joined the mayor and the majority of the council in order, he said, to create employment in the community, as well as tax relief. He also said it would save millions of dollars on unemployment for Hennepin County. “Let’s pay for people to get back to work.” As for Mark Andrew and Jackie Cherryhomes, they both said that Minneapolis needed to get behind the stadium, but that it was in the wrong location and both opposed using gambling to help pay for it.Of course, no one’s arguing for a hole in the ground, and whatever reservations any of them had, they all say they are going to be the biggest advocate for making sure Minneapolis gets the best deal going forward. But as for who just hates the stadium the most? Continue Reading
Steve Sandberg, who used to follow his grandfather to work at the Milwaukee Railroad roundhouse in South Minneapolis, today supervises his own train and crew on a 1944 steam locomotive he helped to rebuild over the past four years.Sandberg also rode in diesel locomotives with his grandfather who worked at the roundhouse from 1917 until it closed in 1970. The Milwaukee Railway yard was near Hiawatha Avenue and Lake Street where Target and Cub stores stand today.As a child, Sandberg admits, he never had a toy train.“My model is a scale of 12 inches to one foot,” he says proudly. The locomotive he runs today is 15.5 feet tall, almost 110 feet long, and weighs 460,000 pounds.The engine, Milwaukee Road No. 261, was built for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad during World War II by the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, N.Y.Engine No. Continue Reading
For years, I’ve been hearing about how an Asian diet is so much better for health and longevity than a traditional Western diet. These diets have, we’re told, cardiovascular, blood sugar, and weight loss benefits, and we’d be better off eating Asian than our typical diet.Maybe it’s true. Traditional Chinese and other Asian foods are cooked with the clear intention of increasing health benefits. It’s certain that the Chinese have an interest in healthy eating, the same way Americans do. But sometimes, the theories of just what to eat and what to avoid differ from culture to culture.On a visit to Shanghai Oriental Food in Hopkins, I found a bit of that cultural clash. Continue Reading
In fall 2014 the Minnesota Vikings will move into TCF Bank Stadium just as the Minnesota Gophers did three years ago—but the professional team’s impact on the surrounding neighborhoods could be greater than the stress created by the home college team, and the Vikings have not yet agreed to a plan to compensate for the impact on the surrounding neighborhoods.Five Vikings officials met recently with two University-area representatives as part of ongoing negotiations to determine how they will prepare the neighborhoods for the invasion of professional football.The Gophers, with help from the Minnesota Legislature, brought a $1.5 million endowment to create a Good Neighbor Fund to mitigate the impact on the “stadium area” that covers all the neighborhoods surrounding the University of Minnesota.The Vikings are likely to contribute to the Good Neighbor Fund, but neither of the neighborhood representatives—Ted Tucker of Marcy-Holmes and Stephen Banks of Prospect Park—will say what amount has been discussed.Tucker and Banks will advise the University of Minnesota on the appropriate amount of funding that the University should seek in their contract with the Vikings.The actual decision makers—Vikings authorities and the University’s general counsel’s office—did not return phone calls for this report.Although the Vikings may start this coming season in the TCF Bank Stadium, they have not yet signed a contract with the University. The next meeting of the Board of Regents will be May 9 and 10, and the stadium is not yet on the agenda.Tucker, who is chairman of the University District Alliance of neighborhoods surrounding the Minneapolis campus, reported to Marcy-Holmes last June that the Vikings will deal with the community through the Stadium Area Advisory Group (SAAG) that meets periodically to discuss issues.Tucker said the Vikings will provide mitigation support to SAAG’s Good Neighbor Fund and educate Vikings fans about using the LRT to get to and from games. But he did not reveal the substance of discussions since then.The fund’s management committee is a SAAG subcommittee. Jan Morlock, director of community and government relations at the University, serves as convener of both SAAG and the management committee, which reviews grant proposals.Tucker said the neighborhoods supported the stadium on condition that it would host a maximum of 12 major events a year, eight of them being Gopher games. The Vikings would add at least 11 more games for each of the two or three years.The Vikings games are even bigger, putting additional stress on neighborhoods than Gopher activities. Continue Reading
Should the Hennepin County incinerator (HERC) be allowed to burn an additional 212 tons of garbage each day? HERC’s proposal, now entering the third year of hearings and appeals, returned to the Minneapolis city council’s Zoning & Planning committee on February 28. Several residents took time off from their work to appear at the meeting. A neighbor from southeast Como, Jill Ruzicka expressed her frustration that the council members are “dragging this out” and “not taking this opportunity to deny the expansion.” But her testimony, along with all the others, was not heard until after the council had already taken a vote to extend the appeal. Councilmember Lisa Goodman initially moved to continue the appeal until December but Councilmember Gary Schiff proposed a substitute motion that will bring it up as soon as the Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) is completed. Continue Reading
At age 22, Mangala Sharma found much of her life in Bhutan uprooted. The country’s new ethnically-driven policies were forcing many of her close relatives out of their homes. A few even ended up in jail. Sharma herself was beginning to fear persecution for her advocacy work with the United Nations Development Programme. From her story in From Exile to Resettlement:”But the Bhutanese government, instead of giving us our basic rights, both politically and culturally, they forcefully evicted us. Continue Reading
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
About 2000 people gathered in Saint Paul on Valentine’s Day to advocate legalizing same-sex marriage. The faith-led event opened with a 150-person clergy procession, followed by faith leaders, House and Senate members speaking to the diverse crowd.February 14 was the symbolic date for the Freedom to Marry Day Rally because “Valentine’s day is a time that you celebrate people you love and that sort of commitment to relationships in your life, and that’s the reason we’re pushing to change state law this year,” said Jake Loesch, communications director for Minnesotans United for All Families.FULL DISCLOSURE: Katie Maren volunteered with Minnesotans United in 2012.Last November, the proposed amendment to define marriage in the state’s constitution as between one man and one woman was voted down by 53 percent to 47 percent.“Faith is divided on this,” said Loesch, but “We would not have been able to defeat the amendment last year without faithful, religious Minnesotans, clergy members and churches.”Thomas Spargo and Sienna Schuth holding their handmade signs outside the Capitol rotunda Various church groups showed support inside the Capitol rotunda, such as United Methodist, White Bear Unitarian Universalist and United Church of Christ New Brighton. Rev. MacArthur Flournoy, Human Rights Campaign Deputy Director of religion and faith programs said, “There can be no better day than today, a day where we celebrate love, that we can stand on the principles of faith, justice, and equality.” Rabbi Melissa Simon of south Minneapolis Shir Tikvah Congregation said, “In the eyes of Judaism, marriage brings couples closer to our heritage and traditions of our faith.”But not all groups, religious or non-religious feel this way.Marriage for Minnesota recently posted on their Facebook page saying, “Marriage isn’t a ‘love license’ from the state! It’s about a PERSONAL promise with a PUBLIC purpose that benefits everyone–especially kids, parents, and our state’s economy!”Although the amendment was defeated, maybe not all who voted against it are necessarily ready for extreme reform.KSTP and Survey USA polled 500 Minnesota adults through a recorded voice server on telephone and electronic device questionnaires Feb. 1-5, asking if the state marriage law should be changed allowing same-sex couples to marry. Continue Reading
