[PHOTOS] #BlackLivesMatter momentum continues, protesters march on downtown Minneapolis

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Over a thousand artists and activists gathered in downtown Minneapolis on Dec. 13 to rally and march in solidarity with the national #BlackLivesMatter movement that aims to highlight the lack of equality and accountability in police dealings with the black community in the United States.The march, organized by a group called the Million Artist Movement, began with a rally at the Hennepin County Government Center, where artists, activists and other leaders from the black community spoke to the crowd about taking action by approaching their elected officials to demand change. The crowd also performed a die-in, lying down in honor of fallen black Americans at the hands of police, and by reading off names of black individuals whose lives were taken by police officers.The march headed west down 6th from the Government Center to Nicollet Mall.Recently, activists pressured the Minneapolis City Council to reverse their vote on a city budget that would cut racial equity programs by about $150,000. Protesters also shut down I-35W two weeks ago for a few hours, garnering national attention.Local activists also plan to hold another rally at the Mall of America on Dec. 20.Coverage of issues and events that affect Central Corridor neighborhoods and communities is funded in part by a grant from Central Corridor Funders Collaborative. Continue Reading

Under high pressure, Minneapolis City Council reverses #Lattelevy vote

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Local activists obtained a rare victory Wednesday evening after the Minneapolis City Council voted to reverse their decision to cut $225,000 from a racial equity program and a clean energy initiative — a cut deemed #Lattelevy.But the contentious and oftentimes emotional city council meeting highlighted a fundamental and ongoing fray between city leadership and local activists, both of whom displayed intense frustration throughout the five-hour meeting.On Dec. 10, Minneapolis City Council members voted to restore funding to the One Minneapolis Fund and the Clean Energy Partnership as well as to decrease the proposed property tax levy to 2.1 percent. In turn, they voted to cut $174,000 allocated to two new communication positions for the city.Hundreds of activists, including some of whom coordinated the headline-making I-35W rally that reduced a portion of the Minneapolis interstate to a standstill earlier this month, flooded Wednesday’s meeting to call fault to pending budget cuts targeting the One Minneapolis Fund and the Clean Energy Partnership.The cuts, which were drafted during a December 1, 2014 city council meeting, would have increased the Minneapolis property tax levy to 2.2 percent, slightly less than the 2.4 percent increase proposed by Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges in her 2015 budget.That difference of about $620,000 would have — on average — decreased property taxes by about $2.50 per resident according to activists. That said, property taxes can shift in either direction depending on changes in the value of a property or neighborhood.Activists deemed that $2.50 fiscal gain “latte levy,” or the cost of a single latte, which they say some homeowners could give up in order to keep affordable housing, clean energy and racial equity programs for all. Some activists even brought paper coffee cups as props during their testimony.“There are many ways to balance a budget but saving $2.50 for homeowners in some of the wealthiest areas of the city will be in lieu of developing leadership in your community,” said one of the over 60 community members who testified during Wednesday’s meeting.“This is not a lot of money,” said Zoe Holloman during the public comment portion. Continue Reading

One last Polish martini; Nye’s employees and patrons reminisce before the closure

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Nye’s is a special place where hipsters and AARP members rub shoulders. Where families come for plates of pirogues and cabbage rolls, and people gather around the piano bar to confidently sing old classics while nursing glasses of Polish beer, schilowitz and large Polish martinis – a pickled mushroom instead of an olive.When the news first broke last week in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, the reaction across the City was as if they’d announced the dynamiting of Minnehaha Falls. Nye’s Polonaise Room, in business since 1950, would be shutting its doors next summer.In its place, developers are talking of a new high rise apartment, part of the New Urbanism, a social theory that may do to Nordeast Minneapolis what Urban Renewal did for the Warehouse District. It appears as if what little past Minneapolis still has, it seeks to destroy.Rob and Tony Jacob, the owners since 1999, broke the news to the staff, some who’d worked there for decades. Continue Reading

Dozens protest Uptown McDonald’s for minimum wage increase

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Fast food workers, home health care workers, airport employees and dozens of supporters blocked traffic outside an Uptown McDonald’s on Dec.4, demanding a $15 minimum wage and union benefits. More than 50 protesters marched into the nearby McDonald’s where several employees walked off the job.Thursday marked two years since fast food workers first walked off the job in New York City to demand a living wage, sparking a movement across the country. Minneapolis first joined the “Fight for $15” in September, when workers went on strike for a day at several fast food locations around the city. Just last week, nearly 500 people took part in a Black Friday protest at two Walmarts in St. Paul and Minneapolis, including dozens of retail janitors who walked off the job. Continue Reading

St. Paul police almost twice more likely to fatally shoot black males than white counterparts

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Racial tensions in the U.S. have reached the boiling point in the wake of the deaths of two black males at the hands of police officers, and the announcements in the last few days that grand juries declined to bring charges against either officer.18 year old Michael Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson, just weeks after Eric Garner was placed in a chokehold that resulted in his death by Daniel Pantaleo in New York. Both officers are white.Read more TC Daily Planet coverage of police misconduct issues.The racial tension, already high, reached the flashpoint nationwide in the last few days following the grand jury announcements. Protests, some becoming violent, took place all over the country, including the Twin Cities, decrying a system that seems to allow police to murder black males with impunity and with no repercussion.Nationally, according to a ProPublica study done last October, black males are 21 times more likely to be shot and killed by police than their white counterparts. So the Twin Cities Daily Planet attempted to look into the Twin Cities’ police shooting records to see if the cities’ numbers reflect a similar trend. St. Continue Reading

[PHOTOS] #BlackLivesMatter protesters halt 35W traffic: “We’re ready for change”

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The largest highway in Minneapolis was brought to a standstill on Dec. 4 after protestors marched down a two-mile stretch of I-35W from Uptown to downtown Minneapolis to rally against several recent, high-profile cases of police brutality and racial inequality in the United States.For more than an hour, northbound I-35W was reduced to foot traffic, with cars backed-up for miles behind the barricade of police cars separating protestors from oncoming traffic.Read more TC Daily Planet coverage of police misconduct issues.Related story: Protesters shut down 35W over Pantaleo non-indictment, not fast foodThursday’s “Black Lives Matter” protest was part of a national movement to denounce police brutality, racial inequality and a lack of accountability, sparked most recently by the decision to withhold charging police officers responsible for the deaths of two unarmed black men in New York and Ferguson, Missouri.Around 200 protesters joined the march from Uptown to Minneapolis City Hall.“People are tired of the opposition, people are tired of police not being held accountable and we’re deciding to take a stand,” said Nekima Levy-Pounds while walking down the onramp near 34th Avenue toward the main stretch of I-35W.“We’re ready for change. It’s time for change now,” the University of St. Thomas Law School professor added.Protest organizer Michael McDowell said the group’s goal for Thursday’s protest was to create change and “not just looking to get a bunch of media.”The protesters’ goals include a structural audit of the Minneapolis Police Department, quarterly progress reports to the community on racial diversity issues and police misconduct in the city, and body cameras on officers. The group presented them to Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges in an open letter published in the Star Tribune in September.Hodges, who spoke at a fast food labor rally on 33rd and Nicollet Avenue earlier that day, did not attend the Black Lives Matter protest stating she was unaware of the second protest until she had already arrived. Continue Reading

Protesters shut down 35W over Pantaleo non-indictment, not fast food

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If the Storify story doesn’t appear, refresh your browser.Read more TC Daily Planet coverage of police misconduct issues.Related story: [PHOTOS] #BlackLivesMatter protesters halt 35W traffic: “We’re ready for change”[<a href=”//storify.com/tcdailyplanet/blacklivesmatter-protest-in-minneapolis-shuts-dow” target=”_blank”>View the story “Protesters shut down 35W over Pantaleo non-indictment” on Storify</a>]Coverage of issues and events that affect Central Corridor neighborhoods and communities is funded in part by a grant from Central Corridor Funders Collaborative. Continue Reading

Black Friday protests; Hands up, don’t shop

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If the Storify story doesn’t appear, refresh your browser. Original story here.[<a href=”//storify.com/maryturck/hands-up-don-t-buy” target=”_blank”>View the story “Black Friday protests: Hands up, don’t shop” on Storify</a>] Continue Reading

Dinkytown religions influenced students’ lives

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The Rev. Bill Teska, who leads a small Minneapolis Episcopalian congregation that meets in the University Baptist Church at 1219 University Ave. S.E., and Don Olson, who spent 20 months in federal prison for disrupting draft offices in 1970, led a discussion on Nov. 22, on the role of religion in the peace and civil rights movements of the 1960s.

Many of their old meeting places near Dinkytown in Minneapolis no longer exist.

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