Family-style fancy at Eastside
A digital art pioneer PAGE B1
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Get Out Guide. PAGE B10
February 7–20, 2019 Vol. 30, No. 3 southwestjournal.com
NIGHT AND DAY
Its nightlife remains a draw, but Uptown’s daytime retail scene is struggling “This year in particular it’s gone down so significantly that our company is considering breaking our lease to get us out of here,” Inside one of Uptown’s most recognizable landmarks, business has slowed. said store manager Jamie Liestman, who has been at the store since At John Fluevog Shoes in the Uptown Theatre at Lagoon it opened in 2012. & Hennepin, walk-in foot traffic has been dropping since a peak The other retail space connected to the theater is vacant. Down the in 2015, according to the store’s door-tracker. block, the facade on the former Heartbreakers is beginning to deteriorate By Andrew Hazzard / ahazzard@southwestjournal.com
SEE UPTOWN RETAIL / PAGE A12
Voces de South Central makes the news Lyndale, Bryant and Central neighborhoods co-publish newspaper
Council members highlight potential cost, energy savings
By Michelle Bruch
In the pages of a new neighborhood newspaper called Voces de South Central, a writer covers the Subversive Sirens, a local synchronized swim team that crowdfunded $10,000 to compete in the Gay Games in Paris, winning gold. Another writer interviews Tina Burnside, who grew up in Central and curates the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery, now open at 1256 Penn Ave. N. Every word is translated into Spanish. At a time when neighborhood funding is under scrutiny, a handful of groups are teaming up to try something new. The Bryant, Central and Lyndale neighborhood associations are splitting the cost of mailing about 7,400 newspapers to
Energy disclosure ordinances near passage
every address in their neighborhoods, investing more than $50,000 in the project through the end of 2019. Departing from the feel of a newsletter, writers are covering immigration, offering voter guides and highlighting dramatic changes in neighborhood demographics. “This newspaper obviously is something that we wouldn’t do on our own, even if we had the funding to just do it for our own neighborhood, because the issues are across those boundaries, and the conversations are across those boundaries,” said Eduardo Cardenas, lead organizer of the Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization. SEE NEWSPAPER / PAGE A10
By Nate Gotlieb / ngotlieb@southwestjournal.com
The Minneapolis City Council appears set to pass a pair of ordinances that would mandate the disclosure of utility costs to prospective apartment renters and efficiency information to prospective home buyers. The council will vote Feb. 15 on the proposed ordinances, which would go into effect in 2020 and 2021, respectively. A second component of the apartment proposal would require the owners of large multi-family buildings to report
energy use and emissions data to the city. The vote comes as the council continues to work toward its goal of reducing citywide greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2025 and 80 percent by 2050, using 2006 levels as a baseline. Some council members said the ordinances could spur homeowners to make energy-efficiency improvements that they otherwise wouldn’t. They also said the SEE ENERGY ORDINANCES / PAGE A11
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The Jinx Tea truck was frequently parked at Mill Ruins Park in downtown on weekends this summer. In May they will open a storefront location in Linden Hills. Submitted photos
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Jinx Tea coming to 45th & France A popular tea truck is permanently parking itself in Linden Hills this spring. Jinx Tea, which launched in 2017 as a mobile tea truck, is planning to open a brick-and-mortar location at 45th & France on May 1. Jennifer Wills, who co-founded Jinx Tea with Chris Eilers and his son Sam Eilers, said they noticed a lack of tea-specific shops in the Twin Cities when they started conceptualizing the business in 2017. They wanted to try to do tea in fun and healthy way. They see the business as its own category, not a competition with other caffeinated beverages. “It’s very different from coffee,” Wills said. Bubble tea was the big hit for the truck business, which frequently could be found near the Stone Arch Bridge last summer. Most of their tea is cold brewed and kept in kegs. Their target market is women, but their truck experience taught them men like the tea, too. “What was surprising was how people of all
ages, locals and tourists, embraced the concept from day one,” she said. While bubble tea is a specialty, Jinx Tea serves a range of carbonated and nitro-infused teas, and a line of non-alcoholic tea cocktails like Woke Punch, a carbonated hibiscus tea. They will also serve hot tea and sell a small selection of loose-leaf teas. Most of the tea is sourced through Verdant Tea in Minneapolis, which works with farmers in China. “There’s something on the menu for everyone, from familiar to exotic,” Wills said. Jinx Tea is working on renovating a former Great Clips at 45th & France, and the founders said the Linden Hills location was the ideal neighborhood for them with its community feel and walkable streets. Easy access from Minneapolis, Edina and St. Louis Park was also a benefit. “A couple of years ago if I could have chosen an area that would be it,” Wills said.
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Co-working salon moving into Columbia space A large space recently vacated by Columbia Sportswear along Hennepin Avenue in Uptown will be filled by a co-working space for beauty professionals. Salons by JC, a company that leases individual suite space to beauty industry professionals, is expected to open at 3014 Hennepin Ave. in July, according to co-owner April Simek. April, along with her co-owner and husband Doug Simek, plan to transform the two-story, 11,200-square-foot building from an open concept into 50 salon studio spaces that professionals can rent. The Simeks are franchisees of Salons by JC, which began in Texas, and operate two other metro locations in Edina and Minnetonka. The Uptown location will be their largest space. There will nine Salons by JC statewide once it’s complete. Simek said they were attracted to the area because of its population density and demographics. They said there is a high volume of potential customers and professionals to work the space nearby.
Salons by JC attracts many hair stylists, Simek said, but has professional renters from across the health, wellness and beauty spectrum. Nail technicians, plastic surgeons, massage therapists and even tattoo artists take up residence in their spaces. “It’s really one-stop beauty,” Simek said. She said they intend to attract customers and renting clients through social media, and they don’t mind joining a neighborhood with a high volume of salons. Their concept, Simek said, is different and may attract professionals with a large client list who want to break out on their own without having to do day-to-day building management or acquire their own large space. Salons by JC provides tenants an online booking system, credit card processing tools and other infrastructure needs. Salons by JC is taking the next five months to build out the space and add the infrastructure necessary for multiple suites. “I think we’re going to be a great addition to the neighborhood,” Simek said.
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A longtime Linden Hills acupuncturist and eastern medicine expert is closing his practice next month to pursue a unique opportunity to practice and teach in Sweden. Mats Sexton of Pindoctor Acupuncture at 44th & Beard said he will be closing his clinic at the end of March and is in the process of selling the building through Cushman Wakefield. Sexton has had his clinic in Linden Hills for the past eight years and previously lived at 47th & Upton for 17 years. He said it was a hard decision to leave the practice in a neighborhood he loves, but he couldn’t pass up a chance to work in Stockholm, Sweden, where he studied in college and has family heritage. “It was just an amazing opportunity,” he said. Sexton will be teaching and doing clinical research at the China-Therapy School in Stockholm. He specializes in acupuncture ophthalmology, and said Europeans tend to SEE PINDOCTOR CLOSING / PAGE A5
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Longtime Linden Hills clinic Pindoctor Acupuncture will be closing its 3511 W. 44th St. location at the end of March when owner Mats Sexton leaves to teach and do research in Sweden. Submitted photo
southwestjournal.com / February 7–20, 2019 A5
Several local small businesses, including Magers & Quinn Booksellers at 31st & Hennepin, will be participating in Lake Street Saturdays at pop-up events through May. Photo by Andrew Hazzard Zuehlke, Josh SWJ 020719 6.indd 1
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Lake Street Saturdays aim to support local shops A new initiative from the Lake Street Council is aiming to give a business boost to local merchants who have been impacted by road construction this year. The events, called Lake Street Small Business Saturdays, aim to draw locals and new customers to the businesses around Lake Street in South Minneapolis, running 2 p.m.–6 p.m. on the last Saturday of each month through May. The Lake Street Council will host pop-up events at shops and restaurants on the east and west side of Lake Street to promote local shopping. The Lake Street Council said many of the local businesses in South Minneapolis have been impacted by construction on Interstate 35W and the reconstruction of Hennepin Avenue between Lake Street and 36th in Uptown. “Lake Street has such a fun and unique mix of businesses, from authentic taco shops to book and record stores. These businesses depend on the support of their neighbors,” Lake Street Council Executive Director Allison Sharkey said in a press release. “That’s why we are
NOTED: The Southwest Business Association is launching a new awards programs to recognize business owners trying to make a difference in the community. This year SWBA, formerly known as the Nicollet-East Harriet Business Association, is starting its awards program with four categories: • Small business owner of the year • Woman owned business owner of the year • Minority owned business owner of the year
FROM PINDOCTOR CLOSING / PAGE A4
be more open-minded about using acupuncture techniques, herbology and nutrition to help with eye conditions. As he works toward shutting down his local practice, Sexton said he has been training younger acupuncturists in techniques he uses for ophthalmology so his patients can continue to be treated when he’s gone. While there are many more acupuncturists practicing than when Sexton
inviting everyone to come out and support a favorite business or discover a new one.” The next event will occur Feb. 23 at La La Homemade Ice Cream at 31st & Hennepin. Annie Metcalf, a manager at Magers & Quinn Booksellers, said the events will serve as a good reminder to get people out and shopping local. Magers & Quinn will be the site of a shared pop-up event with nearby eatery Fig + Farro on March 30. “We just want people to know that there’s still a lot going on at the corner of Hennepin & Lake,” Metcalf said. Future events include:
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entered the field 20 years ago, specializations like his are still rare. Sexton is working on solidifying his Swedish, which he learned studying abroad and at the Concordia Language Villages. He will be selling the building he practices in at 3511 W. 44th St. He said there is a good camaraderie among the businesses on the block, and he’d like it to stay that way under new ownership. “I hope to sell it to somebody who respects the neighborhood,” he said.
A6 February 7–20, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
Rod Helm R E A L T Y
By Dylan Thomas / dthomas@southwestjournal.com
G R O U P An outline of the city’s nextgeneration neighborhoods program proposes giving City Hall more leverage over how 70 independent neighborhood organizations spend city funds. Photo by Andrew Hazzard
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The city’s next-generation model for community engagement aims to make it easier to get involved in Minneapolis’ 70 neighborhood organizations while also encouraging those organizations to diversify their leadership. It may also shift the power balance between City Hall and neighborhoods in dramatic ways, giving the city greater leverage over how the independent neighborhood boards spend city funds. The set of Neighborhoods 2020 recommendations released Jan. 28 outlines in broad terms what this new engagement model — successor to the 5-year-old Community Participation Program — could look like. The document distills the work of three volunteer workgroups and cherrypicks promising ideas from other cities with established neighborhood engagement networks, including Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles and St. Paul. Both Seattle and Portland are moving away from systems that channel city funds and engagement activities through neighborhoods. Like Minneapolis, those cities have found neighborhood organizations often struggle to include all the people in their neighborhoods, and so they’re working more with community groups defined by something other than geography, noted David Rubedor, director of Neighborhood and Community Relations for Minneapolis. Neighborhoods 2020 doesn’t scrap Minneapolis’ decades-old neighborhood system, but it recognizes “people-based” organizations can be more effective at engaging certain cultural communities than “place-based” groups, and it proposes financial incentives to encourage collaboration between the two. “What our philosophy has been here is the place-based system has had and will continue to have a significant role in Minneapolis,” Rubedor said. While the Neighborhoods 2020 recommendations honor that history, they also propose new minimum performance standards for neighborhood organizations, covering everything from the groups’ bylaws and financial accounting to their outreach
efforts — requiring, for instance, that neighborhood groups actively reach out through door-knocking campaigns or by tabling at community events. Neighborhoods 2020 would make Minneapolis’ neighborhood program an opt-in system; organizations that don’t want to play by the new rules lose access to city funds. Rubedor described that as a “significant philosophical change” in the city’s relationship to neighborhoods, one that “elevates” the city’s role as funder. “Like any other funding program, people choose whether they want to be in that program or not and whether they want to follow the program guidelines,” he explained Several of the proposed rules specifically target the elected leadership of Minneapolis’ neighborhood organizations, who in surveys have appeared whiter, better educated and more likely to own a home rather than rent when compared to their wider neighborhoods. Those rules include term limits for board officers and diversity targets for elected neighborhood boards. Boards that fail to recruit a more diverse membership would be required to develop a plan for action or face financial penalties. To help bring more diversity to neighborhood boards, Minneapolis may borrow an idea from Los Angeles. While Minneapolis’ neighborhood organizations each follow a different schedule for board elections, Los Angeles’ neighborhood councils coordinate election days — making it much easier for the city to share information on when, where and how to run for a board seat. “I believe that’s critical … because those (elected leaders) are the folks that basically determine where the money is being spent, what programming is being developed,” Rubedor said. Just how much money neighborhood and community groups will have to work with in the future is a big question — one not answered in the Neighborhoods 2020 recommendations. Since the launch of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program in the 1990s, neighborhoods have benefitted from revenues SEE RAISING THE BAR / PAGE A7
southwestjournal.com / February 7–20, 2019 A7
Amendment would reshape city budget process Budgeting is an annual process in Minneapolis, but a proposed charter amendment would shift the city to an every-other-year schedule. Introduced by Ward 13 City Council Member Linea Palmisano, the biennial budgeting charter amendment has the support of Mayor Jacob Frey, who called it “good governance and common sense.” One of the mayor’s primary responsibilities is drafting an annual city budget proposal, and Frey said a biennial schedule would give city departments more time to incorporate longterm planning into their budgets. “If you look back, annual budgeting started when the city was a lot less complex and quite a bit smaller than it is now, and effective governance requires adapting to that change and moving with the time,” he said. Frey said it’s only a matter of weeks after one budget is adopted in December that city departments start working on the next year’s budget. In his Jan. 16 presentation to the City Council’s Intergovernmental Relations Committee, Minneapolis Budget Director Micah Intermill said budget deadlines tend to drive the budgeting process, when it really should be the other way around. Intermill said a two-year cycle would create time for departments to evaluate their spending in off years and ensure resources are being effectively targeted. And it leaves
open the possibility that a mayor could introduce a supplemental budget in those off years to deal with unexpected needs. “We live in a world that’s always changing, and so in that supplemental year I anticipate it would not be uncommon that a mayor would need to make a recommendation for an item that just wasn’t on the radar perhaps just 12 months prior,” he said. There are two possible paths to amending the city charter, by ballot or by ordinance. The biennial budgeting amendment is likely to follow the latter route, which requires a 13–0 vote by the City Council and the signature of the mayor, Charter Commission Chair Barry Clegg said. “Budgeting matters tend to be sort of arcane,” Clegg said. “It’s not like asking should liquor stores be open on Sunday, on which everybody has an opinion.” The amendment will be scheduled for a public hearing in the Intergovernmental Relations Committee after it goes before the commission, which was scheduled to happen in either February or March. Clegg said the timing depending on hammering out a few “minor technical details” raised by the amendment, including whether the city should adjust the schedule for capital improvement planning to some multiple of two; the plan currently looks out five years.
FROM RAISING THE BAR / PAGE A6
competing for the other half against other neighborhood groups. “It’s going to be difficult for us to sustain that staff, because now they’ve reduced the predictable element of our budget,” he said. Neighborhoods 2020 aims to cut costs for neighborhood organizations by steering them into cost-saving partnerships with each other or with community organizations. It suggests combining staff and office space and pooling resources to purchase accounting help and other services. Rubedor said a number of neighborhoods can only afford part-time staff, and a shift toward sharing personnel could create more full-time positions with better benefits. Becky McIntosh, who serves as board treasurer for the Windom Community Council and volunteered on a Neighborhoods 2020 workgroup, said she feels optimistic that the recommendations put neighborhoods and the city on the right path. But to succeed, she added, the Neighborhood and Community Relations department will need to “step up their game” and do more to build the capacity of neighborhood organizations. McIntosh said the organization would need increased city support in their efforts to reach renters in Windom — where access to apartment buildings can be a challenge — and to make meetings welcoming to all residents. Translation services for the neighborhood’s Latino and East African residents and childcare during meetings could boost involvement, but they also have a financial impact the Windom Community Council may not be able to bear on its current budget. “I think it can be done,” McIntosh said of Neighborhood 2020’s outreach and diversity goals. “Is it going to be challenging? Yes.” The Neighborhoods 2020 recommendations are expected to reach the City Council in April. The public comment period runs through March 31. For information on upcoming events, or to submit a comment, go to minneapolismn.gov/ncr/2020.
produced by the city’s consolidated tax-increment financing district. The district expires at the end of this year, and TIF district money will dry up by the end of 2020. In November, the City Council moved to include neighborhood funding in the city’s five-year financial plan. While the $7 million per year discussed then would maintain the current levels of funding for neighborhoods, the volunteer workgroups that contributed to Neighborhoods 2020 recommended funding at a level of $10 million per year. Neighborhoods 2020 proposes the city’s budget for community engagement be divided between neighborhood and community organizations, with 75 percent going to neighborhood groups. Half of the total funds available to neighborhoods will be used to cover staff salaries, rent on office spaces and other basic, keep-the-lights-on expenses. One-quarter will be reserved for innovative outreach strategies and the final quarter will be available to fund neighborhood-directed projects, such as farmers markets and community gardens, small business development and collaborations with neighborhood parks and schools. David Bagley, current board president for the Whittier Alliance, said Neighborhoods 2020 was “very consistent” with the goals of that neighborhood organization, which recently completed a strategic plan emphasizing engagement, neighborhood development and inclusiveness. The organization recently brought on two new staff members who dedicate much of their time to engaging the neighborhood’s large East African population, he added. “The thing that’s got us concerned is the impact of this new funding model,” Bagley said. He said the proposed model appeared to guarantee neighborhoods only half the funding they have come to rely on, forcing them to spend staff time and money
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By Jim Walsh
The beat goes on and on and on …
I
started off my 60th birthday celebration in the basement of Studio 2 Café, rehearsing some songs for the monthly Thunderheads and Friends musical free-for-all that’s hosted by singer-songwriter/guitarist Craig Paquette the first Saturday of every month. I was joined by my buddies and bandmates Doug Collins and Shawn Stelton, who’d never been to the former Java Jack’s basement before, so I gave the lads a brief history of the space where we started The Mad Ripple Hootenanny in 2006. We played a lot of songs in that basement, until the fire marshal shut us down in 2009. Saturday evening, as we went through a few tunes, the quiet space, vivid musical memories and speakeasy stories instantly reminded me of the opening scene of Mark Engebretson’s excellent and invaluable new documentary, “Jay’s Longhorn,” which premieres March 31 and launches with a soldout tribute concert this Saturday at the Parkway Theater, with live sets from scene-starters Curtiss A, the Suicide Commandos, Flamingo, Fingerprints, The Hypstrz, Yipes! and Smart Alex. The beginning of the film finds Commandos Chris Osgood and Dave Ahl and soundman/label head/archivist/documentary MVP Terry Katzman touring the old Longhorn space at 14 S. 5th St. in downtown Minneapolis — once a thriving club and ground zero for the punk rock and new wave scene of the day. Now that hallowed ground is a nondescript storage facility, without a single trace of the raw and loud history that was made there, no plaque commemorating the legendary local bands and new music trailblazers that came from all over the world to play there, and the other night it all got me thinking about how fast time moves and moves on, and how in America, preserving important histories of all stripes is usually up to the people who value it most. As the documentary and Cyn Collins’ excellent oral history “Complicated Fun” chronicle for all time, the Minneapolis punk rock scene started with a meeting at writer Andy Schwartz’s apartment. In the mid- and late ’70s, original music bands were forming and recording and needed places to play, and from that meeting, the Longhorn scene was born. The most memorable thing anyone has ever said to me about that meeting came from Curtiss A, who told me for a 1990 story about the 10-year anniversary of the “Big Hits of Mid-America Vol. III” compilation: “It was that Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland thing of ‘Let’s put on a show!’” which speaks to the innocence of the time and suggests to punks old and young that all it takes is a few organized people with a vision, taste and boatloads of passion to make a scene — a scene that, 40 years later, we’re still talking about. I was 19 years old when I walked into the Longhorn for the first time 40 years ago this Valentine’s Day. I had just turned legal, so it was the first time I’d ever been in a bar — for the area debut of Elvis Costello & the Attractions, with Flamingo opening. That night (along with many other nights that heady year of 1978) changed my life, and it was fitting that Flamingo leader Robert Wilkinson was in the Studio 2 house Saturday night. For as I
A flyer teases the March 31 premier of “Jay’s Longhorn,” which documents the venue’s central role in the Minneapolis punk scene of the late 1970s. Debut festivities include a sold-out Feb. 9 concert at The Parkway Theater. Photo by Jim Walsh
looked around the room at all the people and the punk-folk rock happening on that modest café stage, it was clear that another scene has taken root here, there and everywhere, and it’s easy to trace so much of it back to pioneers like Wilkinson and the original music makers who had a vision of what a vibrant live music scene could be. “Jay’s Longhorn” is hardly a nostalgia trip, because the music remains so fresh and largely underground, made as it was by bands that took a stand against the bland and boring music of the day. It also captures a fleeting time of youth, when the drive to create something new is especially ferocious and intense, with all that energy coagulating into community. Not many hit records came from that milieu, but that was never the point, and today that era’s legacy and influence is in the countless young original music bands out there right now, bands who learned from their elders about that importance of making something original and something of your own. It’s happening now, just like before. A few weeks ago, Doug and I were at the Dubliner Pub on University Avenue, taking in a set by a groove crew helmed by singer Clark Adams, percussionist Mikkel Beckman and keyboardist Ray Barnard. Standing at the bar, I told Paul Bergen and Becky Kapell, a couple of songwriters and original music purveyors, that my parents met a mile down the road on University Avenue at the (yes, long gone and demolished) Prom Ballroom while taking in a concert by jazz great Gene Krupa and his big band. Paul hipped me to “The Gene Krupa Story,” the 1959 Krupa biopic starring Sal Mineo. The next day via the magic of YouTube, my dad and I dialed it up, and hell if all the energy, youth, music, competition and scene stories didn’t play out like a “Purple Rain” of its day. Watching Krupa play to wildly wiggling dancers of the ’40s and ’50s, it also occurred to me that if you’re lucky, many
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nights of your youth will be spent on some dance floor, going so hard and moving so crazily that you’ll wake up the next morning sore (we called it “Suburbs neck,” named for the aching morningafter condition that came from pogoing and headbanging to three sets of the Suburbs) and that part of your adulthood will be spent marveling at all the joy you lived through. “Jay’s Longhorn” manages to do both, beautifully validating the here-and-now by remembering a time when all was quiet on the Midwestern front, just waiting to explode. See ya Saturday night. Jim Walsh lives and grew up in South Minneapolis. He can be reached at jimwalsh086@gmail.com.
CALL FOR SPRING POETRY Character building. Bracing. A bit on the chilly side. This winter too shall pass. And when it does, we’ll be ready for spring … and the poetry that celebrates it. Deadline for the Southwest Journal spring poetry issue is Wednesday, Feb. 13, just before Valentine’s Day (no coincidence). Please pass the word and send your best work to wilhide@skypoint.com. — Doug Wilhide, Southwest Journal poetry editor
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southwestjournal.com / February 7–20, 2019 A9
Delivering kindness A longtime Linden Hills mail carrier is retiring, but she won’t be forgotten
By Dylan Thomas / dthomas@southwestjournal.com
As the clock wound down on Linden Hills mail carrier Pauline Pepper’s 37-year career, she spent one of her final days off working on a job application. Pepper hoped to snag a summer job as an usher at Target Field, where she could work outdoors and be around people, just like her mail route. It would give her something to look forward to, she said, and help her transition out of a job she loved. “These people out here, they’re my family. I call them my Linden Hills family,” Pepper said. The feeling is mutual. While the polar vortex had shut down much of the state — including U.S. Postal Service deliveries — a group of Linden Hills neighbors were busy planning a Feb. 2 retirement party for Pepper that drew an estimated 125–150 people. “She’s very dedicated, as well as being this great, friendly person who is interested in people’s lives,” said Dana Schroeder, who has lived on Pepper’s route since she and her husband moved their family to Minneapolis from Elbow Lake in the 1980s. Pepper often went beyond the call of duty, paying postage due on Schroeder’s forwarded mail, showing up at the annual children’s art fair organized by Schroeder’s York Avenue neighbors and loaning a mailbag and hat to her son Carl the year he dressed as a mail carrier for Halloween. When Schroeder’s older daughter, Erin, played park league baseball,
Pepper would occasionally be in the stands. Schroeder repaid the kindness, throwing Pepper a baby shower when she was pregnant with her first child and offering support in the hectic days after her second child arrived. She brought Pepper meals when she was stuck at home recovering from an injury. “We just became very good friends,” Schroeder said. And theirs wasn’t the only relationship Pepper tended to as she swiftly completed her appointed rounds. She’s been to graduation parties and funerals. A proud new father let Pepper hold his four-day-old baby as mom slept in another room. She can hardly walk around Lake Harriet without someone shouting, “Pauline!” Pepper said she’d often stop to eat lunch with a woman on her route who, late in life, had trouble seeing because of macular degeneration. Pepper would help her organize and pay her bills. One day, after the woman died, there was a big hole where her house used to be. There’s a much bigger home there, now. “I can’t tell you how much of that I’ve seen in 37 years,” Pepper said. The job has changed quite a bit in that time. Pepper’s branch is often short-staffed these days, and it’s not unusual for carriers to take extra routes or get called in on their off days, working 55–60 hours some weeks. Days run longer. Pepper was still out delivering packages at 7 p.m. one day shortly before
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Pauline Pepper with Cali, one of the dogs on the Linden Hills mail route she has walked for 37 years. Submitted photo
Christmas. It was dark and freezing cold, she said, and as she approached a house on her route she found a little boy waiting for her, cradling a big cup of cocoa in his outstretched hands. “That was the best hot chocolate I ever had in my life,” she said. It’s not just the people on her route who Pepper will miss. Pet owners tell Pepper their cats and dogs react to her like no one else. She said she’ll especially miss a gangly shepherd mix, “all legs” and up to her chest in height. “We go nose to nose. He never barks and never licks. We just go nose to nose and breath the air,” Pepper said. “We’ve grown old together.” Pepper, who turns 62 this month, lives in Lynnhurst. In the goodbye note she recently delivered to the 300-plus households on her route, Pepper said she looked forward to seeing familiar faces around the lakes and in the neighborhood. Thirty-seven years as a mail carrier is remarkable but not record-setting. Of the roughly 2,900
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city carriers working in the Postal Service’s Northland and Hawkeye districts in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, there are 419 with 30-plus years of service, said USPS spokesperson Kristy Anderson. The average is 15 years, and one carrier has been working for 46 years. The Edina Branch, where Pepper is based, is home to a number of long-tenured mail carriers, said Antonio Maldonado, a supervisor. Pepper is one of several with 30 years of service, and others have been delivering mail for 15 or 20 years. But Maldonado said it isn’t just years of service that set Pepper apart. “She really takes to heart what she does,” he said. “She’s one of the top carriers with us. Outstanding customer service.” Maldonado said he’ll often tease Pepper when she leaves on vacation because he knows she’ll come back a day or two early, on her own time, just to see how things are going on her route. “She cannot help it,” he said.
A10 February 7–20, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
Neighborhood newspaper Voces de South Central operates with the help of staff including, left to right: Brad Bourn, executive director of the Lyndale and Bryant neighborhood associations; Erin Cary, Lyndale education program manager; Jodi Matthews, Lyndale and Bryant community organizer; and Eduardo Cardenas, lead organizer of the Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization. Photo by Michelle Bruch Lakes Running Co SWJ 020719 6.indd 1
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After publishing a monthly paper for many years, Lyndale staff were prepared to cut back the frequency of publication. But by teaming with other neighborhoods, staff said they evenly split fixed costs and divided the distribution cost based on neighborhood size, using funding comparable to their old newsletters. Lyndale and Bryant are collaborating further. While they’re still independent organizations, they’re restructuring staff to share an executive director and three community organizers focused on issues like housing, food access and racism. They also share office space at 3537 Nicollet Ave. The collaboration comes in the midst of major questions about the future of neighborhood organization funding. Current funding sources are expected to end in late 2020, and city officials are reevaluating the entire program. (For more on Neighborhoods 2020, a draft framework for Minneapolis’ next-generation neighborhood program, see this issue’s Civic Beat column.) “We’re all nervous about a reduction in investment in neighborhood work,” said Brad Bourn, executive director of the Lyndale and Bryant neighborhoods. City staff ’s draft recommendations would award “bonus points” in funding for groups that pool services. Examples of this include Lyndale and Bryant collaborating, the Nicollet Island-East Bank neighborhood contracting staff help from Marcy-Holmes, and the Harrison Neighborhood Association sharing office space with the Lao Assistance Center, said Neighborhood and Community Relations Director David Rubedor. “The city is recognizing they don’t need 84 people like me sitting at a desk,” Bourn said. For Minneapolis neighborhood groups, sharing resources is nothing new. Local groups have partnered to get out the vote,
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hire Somali community organizers, host Nicollet Open Streets, publish newspapers, coordinate garage sales, moderate candidate forums and more. In Lyndale and Bryant, one joint idea in development is a loan program for renters. Similar to a microloan, funds could cover the cost of a security deposit or rent payment, so new renters don’t need to find several thousand dollars to move in. Staff will also evaluate neighborhood garden spaces to make sure they prioritize residents who will rely on gardens for food. Another position is focused on antiracism and inclusion, led by community organizer Jodi Matthews. “Neighborhoods don’t always know what their blind spots are,” Bourn said. “A lot of Jodi’s work is helping us find those blind spots.” More events are in store, similar to the dinner served on the 38th Street bridge over Interstate 35W last summer, which brought together residents on both sides of the highway in Lyndale, Kingfield, Bryant and Central. In some ways, the highway divides the communities less than ever — gentrification is hitting both sides, neighborhood leaders said. A new four-story apartment project at 36th & 2nd wouldn’t have happened two or three years ago, Cardenas said. “The barrier of 35W is less and less,” he said. “… Now Central is marketed as up-and-coming, or downtown-adjacent.” In Bryant, one of the first neighborhoods where African Americans could get FHAinsured mortgages to buy a house, generational wealth is disappearing as demographics quickly change, Bourn said. Neighborhood conversations about gentrification along 38th Street span from Nicollet to Cedar avenues. “It doesn’t make any sense to think of just Central,” Cardenas said. “The only people that really know these boundaries are us.”
Voces de South Central launched in October, funded by the Lyndale, Bryant and Central neighborhood associations. Other neighborhood papers include the long-running Hill & Lake Press, funded largely through advertising along with contributions from the East Isles, Kenwood, Cedar-Isles-Dean and Lowry Hill neighborhood associations. Some neighborhood papers have folded in recent years, including Uptown Neighborhood News in 2010, which was a joint project of the South Uptown and East Calhoun neighborhoods, and The Wedge newspaper in 2014, owned by the Lowry Hill East Neighborhood Association. Photo by Michelle Bruch
southwestjournal.com / February 7–20, 2019 A11 FROM ENERGY ORDINANCES / PAGE A1
benchmarking and disclosure requirements for multi-family buildings could prompt landlords to make those buildings more efficient. Ward 11 City Council Member Jeremy Schroeder, who co-authored the ordinances, stressed that the city won’t require homeowners to make any improvements as part of the ordinance. Rather, he said he hopes the proposals help provide consumer protection and incentivize people to make efficiency improvements. “This is more or less an opportunity to help a buyer improve a home … and at the same time help the city meet its climate goals,” said Chris Duffrin, president of the non-profit Center for Energy and Environment, which helped the city develop the ordinances.
Roots in climate action plan The proposed ordinances date back to 2013, when the City Council passed its climate action plan. The plan noted residential buildings accounted for one-fifth of citywide greenhouse gas emissions in 2010, and it listed dozens of steps the city could take to reduce citywide emissions. One was to include the collection of energy-efficiency data in the truth-in-sale-of-housing program. Kim Havey, the city’s sustainability manager, said research indicates people are most likely to make improvements to their homes right before they sell or right after they buy. He said he hoped the housing ordinance would give people more reason to make improvements. The apartment disclosure ordinance would require landlords to provide average monthly electric and natural gas costs to prospective renters at the time of application. The homeowner disclosure ordinance would update the city’s pre-sale housing inspection program, known as truth in sale of housing, to include the collection of information on certain components of a home. That would include information such as insulation levels, the type of heating system and the type of windows. For homes built before 1980, the energy inspection would include the drilling of a 2-inch hole in an exterior wall to verify the amount of insulation. The homeowner would be able to choose the location of the drilling, which would likely be in a discreet location, such as a closet. The housing inspector would fill the hole after the test.
The inspector would subsequently file a report on the efficiency of a home’s energy assets, which would include recommendations on ways the homeowner could improve a home’s efficiency. The report would also include an overall energy score, which homebuyers could use to compare houses when shopping. Duffrin wrote in a blog post data from other cities indicate a low score wouldn’t prohibit any homes from selling. He wrote that the most energy efficient homes often sell at a premium. Homeowners would be responsible for the cost of collecting the additional information during the truth-in-sale inspection, which typically costs around $225. They would be exempt from the energy inspection if they get a Home Energy Squad visit. The collection of the additional energy information would take approximately 15 minutes, according to Duffrin. The city would not require the homeowners or homebuyers to make any improvements as part of the policy. But it is offering interest-free financing for upgrades, and utility companies have rebate programs available to those homeowners who do wish to make changes.
Reducing costs Duffrin said that approximately 70 percent of Minneapolis homes do not have adequate insulation, which helps keep homes comfortable in both the summer and winter. He said Minneapolis homebuyers should have that information, especially given the city’s cold winter climate. Schroeder and ordinance co-author Cam Gordon said the policies would have the added benefit of helping renters better understand their utility costs, which can add up to hundreds of dollars per month. During a Feb. 4 public hearing, Luke Grundman, an attorney with Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, said the cost of energy is already a big deal for low-income renters. He noted how one client spent $200 a month in rent — thanks to a housing voucher — but $500 in heating bills in winter, because of her home’s lack of insulation and her son’s care needs. There’s a remedy for that particular client in court, Grudman said, but most folks don’t make it to court or have a lawyer to represent them. “This ordinance, I think, levels the playing field for everyone involved and could make housing a lot cheaper for folks out there,” he said.
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A12 February 7–20, 2019 / southwestjournal.com FROM UPTOWN RETAIL / PAGE A1
after nearly two years of being unoccupied. Just south on Hennepin Avenue, the former home of Victoria’s Secret has been empty for over a year, and next-door neighbors Columbia Sportswear and The North Face decided to leave the street last month after their respective leases expired. Uptown is, as always, changing. New housing is constantly being erected, and a thriving nightlife scene brings hordes of pedestrians out each night. But for some local retailers, the rise in population hasn’t led to success. “It’s been an increasingly difficult neighborhood to do retail in,” said Megan Culverhouse of John Fluevog Shoes.
What works In 2017, the city commissioned a study on retail in Minneapolis. The report, conducted by Perkins + Will, found Uptown had $700 million in retail sales and $800 million in retail demand in 2016. The study found while sales for destination retail, such as full-service restaurants and book shops, outpaced demand in Uptown, the reverse was true for neighborhood retail, businesses such as drug stores, grocery stores, hardware shops, salons and dry cleaners, and community retail, like furniture stores, bank branches, clothing stores, theatres and professional offices. “There was an unmet potential for more neighborhood and community defined retail,” said Jay Demma, a senior planner at Perkins + Will who authored the study. The fact that Uptown has many households, and that those households have larger disposable incomes than many areas of the city, is offset by the easy access to other retail hubs. Potential locations for smaller retailers are often crowded out by larger
The facade on the former Heartbreakers space at Hennepin & Lake is showing wear after being unoccupied for nearly two years. Photo by Andrew Hazzard
stores or restaurants, Demma said. Many of the current vacancies in Uptown are in larger spaces, which makes them more noticeable and decreases the pool of potential businesses to fill the void. “The biggest challenge is there’s not that many businesses that need that much space,” Demma said. Retail, he said, follows the lead of the neighborhood. How the neighborhood grows in the next few years will determine the type of retail that’s successful. “I think the market might be pivoting
away from that sort of destination-type retail,” said Aaron Meyers, a commercial real estate broker with The Ackerberg Group who works with the Uptown Association. Stores that could have success in Uptown are those that sell more essential, daily items to the thousands of people who live in the densely populated area, Meyers said. Meyers is listing the former Heartbreakers space just north of Lake & Hennepin, which has been vacant for nearly two years now. Although he acknowledged leasing the space is taking longer than he’d like, he remains
optimistic about retail space in Uptown. “I’m really bullish on it coming back, but I think it will be a different kind of retail,” Meyers said. Down Hennepin at Magers & Quinn Booksellers, the situation is less bleak. While large national chains have been in and out of the block, the independent bookstore has had a few nice years in a row, according to manager Annie Metcalf. But in a business with margins as narrow as retail, Magers & Quinn is trying to strike a balance: assure customers they don’t have to be
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southwestjournal.com / February 7–20, 2019 A13
too concerned about the store, but encourage them to come back on a regular basis. “It’s important to come out and support your local businesses that matter to you,” Metcalf said.
Bringing in business In 2016, Liestman rallied other retailers in the area to form the Uptown Collective. The group, which has members across a variety of shops, spas, gyms and restaurants, has shared sales efforts and charity events. “It seemed like there needed to be a collective effort for Uptown’s retailers to bring people here to shop,” Liestman said. One potential source of customers could come from added daytime traffic in the area. Liestman and Culverhouse feel there’s no good anchor for the neighborhood right now, especially during the day. Meyers, the Ackerberg broker, noted
more people are working in Uptown now, with MoZaic expanding to a second phase and the new WeWork space opening. If more people are working in the area, more restaurants might open during the day to serve them. Right now, many of the popular dining establishments in Uptown are only open for dinner, when some retailers have already closed for the day. “I think it’s going in the right direction,” Demma said of daytime population in Uptown. “But maybe not enough to move the needle.”
from Lake to 31st and removed parking from the west side of the street from 31st to 36th. Michael Pickart, who recently opened the clothing and home decor shop Combine at Lake & Irving, said he wouldn’t have come back to Uptown without a parking lot. Pickart was a co-owner of Intoto at 31st & Hennepin from 1990 to 2010 and decided to return to Uptown for his new shop. He said he believes in the neighborhood, but he chose his current space because it is attached to Amore and Aurora Spa with access to a 25-space lot off Irving Avenue. “I had to have parking, and I knew that from Intoto,” he said. At Lagoon & Hennepin, Liestman said they frequently hear complaints from customers about the lack of parking. As a destination shop, Magers & Quinn hears some complaints from customers about the parking situation, Metcalf said, but she tries to give out tips and also points out bus routes that pass by the store. Parking issues will always be an issue of concern for business and property owners, Demma said, because of the narrow profit margins in the retail business. “It’s always going to be a political challenge,” he said. But, he added, pedestrian-friendly spaces can also lure visitors.
Parking problems A common refrain among Uptown retailers is the lack of on-street parking is hurting business. That issue was pushed into the spotlight by the recent reconstruction of Hennepin Avenue between Lake and 36th streets, which eliminated on-street parking
Megan Culverhouse helps a customer who came in to pick up an order at John Fluevog Shoes in Uptown. She said retail has been challenging in the neighborhood recently. Photo by Andrew Hazzard
Creating an experience With the ease of online shopping, there must be other attractions for real-world retail locations to be successful, commercial brokers say. “There’s got to be more to your location than your store,” Demma said. Longtime Uptown commercial broker Jeff Herman, president of Urban Anthology, echoed those sentiments. He thinks businesses that want to be successful in brick-
and-mortar retail need to have more than a great product. “It can’t be ubiquitous retail. It has to be an experience,” he said. Herman, who is leasing the Columbia, North Face and Victoria’s Secret locations along Hennepin Avenue, said there are businesses that will value those spaces. He already has a salon business coming into Columbia, and he said he’s confident the others will be filled. The best matches for Uptown, Herman said, are food and beverage business, beauty services, apparel and home goods stores. Staple goods stores like grocers also fit the bill. “I think you need a blend of everything,” Herman said.
Is Uptown dead? After The North Face and Columbia closed in January, a common refrain echoed across the Minneapolis online community: Is Uptown dead? A survey posted by City Pages found 51 percent of 6,000-plus respondents think yes, while another 21 percent believe Uptown still lives. (Twenty-eight percent were unsure). While tongue-and-cheek, question of Uptown’s death bothers Liestman and Culverhouse. Still, they acknowledge at least for retail business, a renaissance of sorts is in order. “I want Uptown to bounce back. I really do. That would be better for everyone,” Liestman said. Uptown isn’t dying, according to city retail study author Demma, it’s just continuing to evolve. Believers contend those evolutions will continue to make the area a destination for people to live and recreate. Herman believes people who say Uptown’s vibrancy is gone don’t spend time there. “Go anywhere on a nice summer day and tell me Uptown is dead.”
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A14 February 7–20, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
Options weighed for Girard Avenue in Uptown
Ryan Brown shares his suggestions for the reconstruction of Girard Avenue at a community meeting at Bryant Park on Jan. 24. Photo by Andrew Hazzard
By Andrew Hazzard / ahazzard@southwestjournal.com
Dozens of Uptown residents and street-planning enthusiasts braved frigid temperatures Jan. 24 to help shape the future of Girard Avenue between Lake Street and Lagoon Avenue. The Girard Avenue reconstruction project is slated to begin next year and will redesign the block, which is currently open to two-way car traffic with an extended sidewalk on the east side and a narrow, 8-foot sidewalk to the west. The city laid out five new options for the block, all of which extend the western sidewalk but vary in how the street would accommodate pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles. Project coordinator Liz Heyman said the city is trying to meet the needs of two competing groups: a vocal crowd that wants to maintain the status quo with two-way traffic and those who want to see cars removed from the block altogether to prioritize pedestrians and cyclists. The project, selected based on the city’s 20-year streets funding plan, is on a fast-track schedule. City staff is seeking approval for the reconstruction concept from the City Council’s Transportation and Public Works Committee this winter before finalizing the design in the summer and beginning construction in the spring of 2020. The five current options are: • Two-way slow street: Extend the western sidewalk to 18 feet from 8 feet; maintain two-way traffic but in a slow street model of
narrow, 10-foot lanes that are shared by cars and bikes. • One-way slow street: Extend the western sidewalk to 15 feet; have a slow, one-way northbound lane for vehicles and a protected, two-way bike lane. • Shared street: Extend the western sidewalk to 18 feet; have a 20-foot-wide “shared street” model where all modes of traffic travel at reduced speeds and the street is raised to blend with the sidewalk. • Pedestrian, bike and delivery vehicles only: Extend the western sidewalk to 20 feet; have an 11-foot-wide shared space for bikes and a narrow lane exclusively for delivery vehicles abutting the eastern sidewalk. • Pedestrians and bikes only: Extend the west sidewalk to 20 feet and the east sidewalk to 22 feet with an 11-foot-wide shared space for bicycles in the middle. With the shared-street model, resembling 29th Street between Bryant and Lyndale avenues, Heyman said it’s important to have a steady flow of pedestrian traffic. City counts of traffic on the street show a high pedestrian presence on the street at night during peak bar hours but inconsistent numbers during the day. “I think every single one of these options has
really great things for the city of Minneapolis,” Heyman said. At the project’s open house at Bryant Park, residents ranked the options based on how each met the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, businesses and vehicles. Uptown residents Katie Jones and Ryan Brown said they wanted the street to prioritize means of travel that are friendly to pedestrians and the environment. Brown said he’s been car-free for the last five years and would like to see the city implement its Vision Zero plan to eliminate pedestrian and cyclist deaths. Jones said she wants the city to incorporate its Climate Action Plan into the design by prioritizing low-emission forms of travel and adding more greenery on the street. Jones said she hopes the model can be replicated in other parts of the city. “I think the city has an opportunity to use it as a pilot,” she said. Brown said he wanted the city to complete a long-term goal identified in the Uptown Small Area Plan, which called for a pedestrian section known as the Girard Meander to
connect the Midtown Greenway, MoZaic and Calhoun Square. Both were receptive to the fourth option, which has one lane designated for delivery vehicles. While they want to favor pedestrian access, they said allowing businesses to receive shipments is a fair move. “For us, it’s deliveries. But we also need a bigger sidewalk,” said Ted Brown, a manager at Stella’s Fish Café. He said either the shared-street option or the pedestrian, bike and delivery lane route seemed best to him. Stella’s gets beer delivered about once a week but receives fresh fish shipments much more frequently, so having delivery access on Girard is ideal, he said. City Council President Lisa Bender (Ward 10) attended the meeting to listen to people’s thoughts on the space. Bender said she enjoyed designs that allow for flexibility and has heard from businesses having vehicle access is important. “There’s clearly a desire to make this a special, calm place where we can walk with ease,” Bender said.
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A16 February 7–20, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
By Mira Klein
Proving the value of urban agriculture Ten years ago a coalition of food justice and urban farming organizations came together to reimagine urban agriculture in the Twin Cities. The Twin Cities Agricultural Land Trust was born with a mission to “secure permanent and sufficient land” for growing local food systems and to “support the recognition of agriculture and food production as valuable land uses and economic engines in our metropolitan region.” Minneapolis is increasingly breaking down the binary between rural food production and urban food consumption through policies like the Garden Lease Program, which supports community gardeners and market farmers (see part one of this column). Still, as TCALT Board Chair Valentine Cadieux said, when it comes to the long-term security of urban food production, “The rules we have are really not working.” An agricultural land trust wouldn’t just tweak the rules; it would fundamentally change the game. Land trusts are a mechanism for holding land in perpetuity through an external non-profit entity. Often employed to safeguard affordable housing (the City of Lakes Community Land Trust is one local example), TCALT wants to use land trusts as a way to guarantee long-term urban farming capacity in the Twin Cities. So far, TCALT has been working to lay the political, legal and organizational groundwork to make this vision a reality. It hasn’t been easy. According to Cadieux, the problem isn’t a lack of political support for urban agriculture in the abstract. But aligning a complicated mix of city and state policy to actually support urban food systems in practice has been a challenge.
There are some helpful models to draw from — in particular, TCALT is working with an agricultural land trust based in Chicago called NeighborSpace — but a lot of logistical components to iron out. So while TCALT’s efforts have been slow, there are some nearer-term solutions that seek to make existing property conditions at least a little friendlier towards food growers. A partnership between the Fresh Water Society, the Land Stewardship Project and soil scientists at the University of Minnesota is investigating a way to ease financial burdens for urban farmers by studying water filtration rates at urban agricultural sites in Minneapolis and St Paul. The premise of the study is this: Does urban agriculture provide water filtration benefits that are greater than if the land were to be left unmanaged? The idea is that if scientists can prove that agricultural land filters water better than unmanaged open space, urban farms could qualify for reductions in stormwater management fees. In Minneapolis these fee reductions are allocated through the Stormwater Credit Program, and in some cases dismissed entirely, if land use is shown to address either stormwater quality or quantity. Soil scientist Nic Jelinski is leading this project alongside academic partners in hydrology, horticulture and environmental health. “Most of the work around urban agriculture has been around food production,” Jelinski said. “But what are the other potential co-benefits?” Jelinski was first approached about the
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project in 2015, and a pilot study was underway by the following year. Now Jelinski is sitting with the first year’s worth of official data out of a planned three-year study. While he is hesitant to comment on any results before the study is finished, so far it appears that urban farmland “infiltration rates are higher in the surface soil relative to other open spaces uses,” he said. These differences are not as significant as you get deeper in the soil, however, and “we need to see whether or not these patterns hold over more sites,” Jelinski added. But the preliminary results bode well for making an argument that agricultural land use provides ecosystem services that should qualify for city subsidies. Even though stormwater credits may provide some financial breathing room, property taxes remain one of the biggest obstacles for urban agriculture. As Tamara Downs Schwei, the city’s Homegrown Minneapolis and local food policy coordinator explained, “We have zoning that allows agriculture to happen but we don’t have agricultural zoning.” This is an important distinction. Even if farming is allowed on commercial land, the farmers don’t qualify for agricultural tax rates and other tax benefits. There are many roadblocks to changing the property tax structure. First, these tax rates are set at a state level. And even if tax codes are re-aligned to give breaks to urban farmers, it impacts city tax revenue. As Cadieux noted, despite best intent “cities want the land to generate the most tax income.”
Minnesota is in interesting case, Cadieux said, because “we are an agricultural state that understands agriculture to require large pieces of land.” This is reflected in the tax code. For example, agricultural homesteads which qualify for special tax benefits must be at least 40 contiguous acres — many times larger than any amount of land urban farmers work with. The issues for urban agriculture are bigger than food production or water filtration alone. It is also important to recognize how race, language, and class intersect with long-term land tenure. As Cadieux pointed out, “Many potential food growers are migrants, refugees, and young adults who do not have the capital to invest in land.” For example, there are many South Asian farmers along the urban periphery operating under year-to-year “handshake” leases, with no guarantee to land access, she said. “We’ve had a really racist system of governing land,” Cadieux said. Increasing attention has been given to the history of redlining and exclusionary covenants in Minneapolis (most recently through projects like Mapping Prejudice and a related exhibit at the Hennepin History Museum, “Owning Up: Racism and Housing in Minneapolis”). Cadieux and TCALT want us to understand that this racist history applies to agricultural land too. And this racist legacy has very real consequences for our food systems at large. “It’s keeping people with skills we really need from accessing the land,” she said. These are the types of systemic issues that Cadieux hopes TCALT can play a part in addressing. It is an ambitious vision that she fully embraces. When it comes to urban agriculture, she said, “We tend to think of ourselves as being more limited than we are.”
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southwestjournal.com / February 7–20, 2019 A17
By Andrew Hazzard / ahazzard@southwestjournal.com
Repair work underway on Minnehaha Creek
Park Board hopeful for more local aid in state budget
Crews working to repair Minnehaha Creek, which was damaged by record flooding in 2014. Submitted photo
The Minnehaha Creek Watershed District has begun to repair seven locations along the creek above Minnehaha Falls that were damaged by flooding in 2014. Work at the seven sites began in December and will continue through the spring. There are a total of 10 locations along the creek where repairs are planned in a project funded by a $250,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Administration. As of mid-January, work at two sites immediately east and west of Interstate 35W was complete. Work is currently underway at a site just east of Lyndale Avenue in Tangletown. Flooding in 2014, which was the wettest year in the Twin Cities since record keeping began in 1871, led to a record high water level for Lake Minnetonka, the
source of Minnehaha Creek. The creek hit a record flow level of 883 cubic feet per second, overwhelming the Gray’s Bay Dam on Lake Minnetonka for 83 days in a row, according to the watershed district. Flooding caused more than $1 million of erosion damage in the watershed district, destroying wildlife habitat and washing away public recreation spaces. The repairs are being made in coordination with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board’s Minnehaha Regional Trail Master Plan. Early concepts for those plans were released Jan. 31 and are being presented at a series of Southwest Area Master Plan open house meetings, including one Feb. 7 at Whittier Recreation Center, 425 W. 26th St., and Feb. 12 at the Jones-Harrison Residence, 3700 Cedar Lake Ave.
Both meetings run 6 p.m.–8 p.m. and include children’s activities. Draft plans for the area between France Avenue and Lake Harriet call for maintaining natural surface trails connecting to the creek’s edge, adding overlooks to the Penn Avenue Bridge with stairs accessing the creek, a waterfront picnic area near Morgan Avenue, including a shelter south of the tennis courts, and a new pedestrian bridge at Morgan Avenue. East of Lake Harriet and west of Interstate 35W, draft plans call for the reconstruction of Lynnhurst Community Center with a new playground and wading pool. They also call for adding a new natural adventure playground and bike park along a daylighted stream that would connect Minnehaha Creek to Lake Harriet.
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The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is hoping the now DFL-led state House of Representatives will increase funding for metro area parks and city priorities. At a Legislative lobbying breakfast meeting on Jan. 25, Park Board commissioners presented the Minneapolis legislative delegation with their statehouse wish list, which includes increasing aid for local government, expanding funding for youth employment opportunities and recreation programs and increasing penalties for false 911 calls. The Park Board is seeking funding for multiple initiatives geared toward youth. They are requesting an increase to $800,000 from $200,000 in 2019 for the Learn to Earn program for youth employment; just over $1 million for youth recreation programing and expanding universal day care for city residents; and $1.2 million for its partnership with Minneapolis Public Schools to get implement full-service community schools in the city. “We can have a better child,” said Commissioner Londel French (At-Large). “We can have a better family.” Transportation Committee Chair Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL- Minneapolis, said they would prioritize improving conditions for bikers and pedestrians in the transportation funding bull. “I want to let you know you’re part of this process when we engage with the transportation funding bill,” Hornstein said. The Park Board is also seeking state money to help complete the Grand Rounds’ missing link. While Commissioner Chris Meyer (District 1) said the route is still being determined between three potential paths, the Park Board is seeking $12 million for routes that have consensus now. “This is a project the Park Board has been working toward for 100 years,” he said. The Park Board is also joining with City Hall to request adding back state funding for the Minneapolis Employee Retirement Fund, which had $10 million in annual state funding cut in 2017. The MPRB share of the fund is $1.1 million. The Park Board is also calling for divestment from the fossil fuel industry in employee pension funds throughout the state.
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A18 February 7–20, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
News By Nate Gotlieb / ngotlieb@southwestjournal.com
Armatage, Lyndale community ed director was ‘beacon of light’ Steve Bonine had a bigger-than-life personality and a passion for making learning fun, according to Armatage Montessori School principal Joan Franks. “Every life he touched was changed for the better because of him,” Franks said. Bonine, the longtime community education coordinator at Armatage and Lyndale Community School, died unexpectedly Jan. 12. He was 63. Bonine began working in the Minneapolis district in January 1997 as an educational assistant before becoming the community education coordinator at Armatage the next fall. He also worked at Kenny Community School during his tenure. In a eulogy, Franks called Bonine a “one-in-a-million” person who influenced every life he touched. She said “Bonini” brought humor, dedication, determination and passion to his job, noting the lively conversations she and Bonine shared over the years.
Steve Bonine, pictured with his granddaughter Claira, worked for over 20 years as a community education director in Minneapolis before his passing last month. Photo courtesy Jessica Sanders
Orchestra’s Common Chords event comes to MPS
“He was a beacon of light,” she said. Bonine was born in 1955 in St. Paul and grew up as the second oldest in a family of six children. He worked as a carpenter for a time after high school before joining the Peace Corps in his mid-20s. Before joining the staff at Minneapolis Public Schools, Bonine worked at the Minnesota Women’s Indian Resource Center in Minneapolis. Bonine’s older brother, Bruce, said Steve was a pretty complex guy who was simple in his ways, calling him the little brother that an older brother wanted to tag along with. He said Steve was a giving guy who would play with his nieces and nephews at family events before sitting with the adults. “To them, they all thought they were his favorite,” Bruce Bonine said. “He had a way of making them feel that way.” Jessica Sanders, Bonine’s only child, said Bonine was one of the most selfless men she’s ever met. She said Bonine always had a smile on his face and could always make light of a situation, even if it was difficult. “He always wanted to put a smile on someone’s face and make you see the good,” she said. Mark Stauduhar, principal at Lyndale, said Bonine was someone who gave selflessly to everyone who wanted to be a part of the school community. He said Bonine had a nickname for everybody and worked hours that went above his expected duty. “It didn’t matter the time of day or year,” said Franks, adding that it wasn’t uncommon for Bonine to work 14-, 15or even 16-hour days. “He was there if you asked him.” Franks said the kids loved Bonine, noting his ability to remember kids’ names. She said there was a sense of sadness across the school after his passing, noting how students made banners for his memorial service, which was held at the school. Franks estimated that over 800 people were in attendance. Sanders said it brings her peace and comfort to see the impact that Bonine made, noting the stories she heard during the service. Bruce Bonine said it was amazing to see how beloved Steve was, noting the powerful experience of meeting the teachers and staffs at the schools. “It was an amazing awakening on how loved this guy was,” Bruce Bonine said. “We knew what he meant to us, but we didn’t know he meant the same thing to so many other people.” Bonine is survived by Sanders, her husband Chad Sanders and their four children, as well as his mother, five siblings, 18 nieces and nephews and 21 great nieces and nephews. A scholarship fund has been set up at Armatage in his name to support students whose families can’t afford to pay for afterschool activities.
Minnesota Orchestra harpist Kathy Kienzle plays music during a yoga class at the Davis Service Center on Jan. 24. Photo by Nate Gotlieb
The Minnesota Orchestra held several events in Minneapolis schools during the last week of January as part of its annual Common Chords residency week, held each year in a different Minnesota community. Orchestra musicians performed at five north side schools, including Patrick Henry, Lucy Craft Laney and North, where the group held a concert on Jan. 26. In addition, principal harpist Kathy Kienzle played music at the district’s headquarters during a Jan. 24 yoga class taught by Jaina Portwood, founder of Radiant Life Yoga in Lowry Hill East. Common Chords is an annual project the orchestra hosts in conjunction with communities across the state. Orchestra musicians hold events in both traditional and non-traditional settings, including coffee shops, pubs and community centers, to bring music to the community. The orchestra works with a local steering committee in each community to develop goals and activities for the week. The orchestra held about 25 events throughout North Minneapolis during the week, which wrapped up Jan. 27.
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southwestjournal.com / February 7–20, 2019 A19
Planning Commission approves new Planned Parenthood Uptown clinic By Nate Gotlieb /ngotlieb@southwestjournal.com
The Minneapolis City Planning Commission on Jan. 28 approved Planned Parenthood’s plans to replace its Uptown clinic with a new clinic and office building. The commission approved two landuse applications for the three-story building, which will replace Planned Parenthood’s existing Uptown clinic at Lagoon & Emerson. The project will allow Planned Parenthood to triple its annual patient capacity in Uptown, according to Jen Aulwes, communications director of Planned Parenthood North Central States. The organization will provide all of the same services in the new building that are available in the existing building, including OB-GYN exams and pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease testing, according to Aulwes. Planned Parenthood plans on breaking ground in the spring and expects construction to last about nine to 12 months, Aulwes said. The organization will be leasing a temporary clinic space located just a few blocks away from the site, and patients will be able to schedule appointments as normal, she said. Current patients will have no interruption in their care, according to a Planned Parenthood fact sheet. The new clinic and office building will cost about $14 million, according to Aulwes, and will be funded entirely by donations, including one of $6.5 million from a local family.
Planned Parenthood’s new Uptown clinic and office building will include space for a clinical research lab and the organization’s education/ outreach and patientservices staffs. Rendering courtesy Planned Parenthood North Central States
The project is part of a larger facilities initiative that Planned Parenthood North Central States is undertaking, Aulwes said. The project will include a total of 69 parking spots, including two levels of enclosed employee parking and a fenced-in patient parking lot. The building will house a clinical research lab and Planned Parenthood North Central States’ education/
outreach and patient-services staffs. The organization’s headquarters will remain in St. Paul, but the Uptown location will be an “anchor” building, Aulwes said. “It’ll be one of our main hubs,” she said. Aulwes said the architects and interior designers reviewed feedback Planned Parenthood received from patients focus groups while planning the building.
She said the organization is incorporating items such as local art and greenery as a result of feedback. Planned Parenthood North Central States serves Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas, operating 29 clinics that serve over 114,000 patients annually. The organization is one of over 50 Planned Parenthood affiliates across the U.S.
10-story residential building proposed in Uptown includes affordable units By Andrew Hazzard / ahazzard@southwestjournal.com
A 10-story mixed-use building that would align with new city policy of inclusionary zoning passed in connection to the Minneapolis 2040 plan has been proposed at Lake & James in Uptown. The plans call for 127 residential units. Thirteen of those units, or 10 percent of the total, would be priced affordable to those earning 60 percent of the average median income, bringing it in line with the city’s interim inclusionary zoning policy, and another 13 units would be affordable for those earning 80 percent of the average median income. Last year when passing the 2040 Plan, an update to the city’s comprehensive plan, the City Council approved an interim inclusionary zoning policy requiring large projects to make 10 percent of their units affordable at 60 percent of the average median income. That equates to rent of $1,062 for a one-bedroom apartment. In addition to the residential portion, plans for the building also call for a 3,500 square-foot commercial space along Lake Street. There would be 90 parking spaces spread across two subterranean levels under the current design for the building. “We think this project has a lot to offer the neighborhood,” said Chris Kirwan of Oak Management and Development Company, the project’s developer. The current site is home to four duplex-style homes now owned by Oak Management and Development Company. The unit mix includes 66 studios, 47 one-
bedrooms, 16 two-bedrooms and six penthouse units. The one-bedroom units would range in size from 550 to 800 square feet. Two walk-up units along James Avenue would be townhouses. Plans call for a shared gym space and patio for residents. “The project is really about providing a variety of unit types at different price points,” said David Miller, principal for UrbanWorks Architecture in Minneapolis. The building, named James & Lake, has grown substantially since it was initially proposed in May, when it was envisioned as a six-story apartment building with no commercial space. The building would be slightly shorter than the peak of the nearby Sons of Norway development and about 20 feet taller than the Edgewater Condos at Lake & Knox. “We think it really matches with other projects in the pipeline,” Kirwan said. The proposal was presented to the Planning Commission Committee of the Whole on Jan. 31. Current zoning on the four existing parcels is split between C1 neighborhood commercial and R4 multi-family residential. The site is also within a shoreland overlay district, which has a by-right height maximum of 2.5 stories or 35 feet. The project will require a conditional use permit to go higher. The firm also will be seeking variances for a setback reduction, parking reduction and a height increase. Given the project’s location on a high-
The proposed James and Lake project would add a 10-story apartment building with 127 residential units with 3,500 square feet of commercial space in Uptown. Submitted image
frequency transit route, Kirwan said he’s optimistic the planning commission will be receptive to the taller building. “We feel this project is reflective of Uptown,” he said. Some local residents aren’t so sure. David Tompkins of the East Calhoun Community Organization’s Livability Committee said that while he supports density, the ten-story project seems too large. Current R4 zoning allows for four stories in the area, while the 2040 Plan recommends allowing up
to six stories in the area. The Uptown Small Area Plan of 2008 suggested a maximum two to five stories along that stretch of Lake Street. Tompkins said he was happy to see affordable units in the project, but added he feels a shorter building would be a better fit. “We just feel it should be more in scale with the neighborhood,” he said. Tompkins said the neighborhood has not spoken with Oak Management since the project grew in scale but noted the developer will meet with ECCO 7 p.m. Feb. 18 at St. Mary’s Church.
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Southwest Journal February 7–20, 2019
A pathway to pure form By Dylan Thomas / dthomas@southwestjournal.com
MCAD CELEBRATES ROMAN VEROSTKO, A PIONEER OF DIGITAL ART page B7
An untitled 1989 drawing by Verostko executed in ink and watercolor using a multi-pen plotter. Submitted image
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southwestjournal.com / February 7–20, 2019 B3
Eastside, round two BY CARLA WALDEMAR
C
ondo towers are sprouting faster than Jack’s magic beanstalk in East Town, yet their new residents face a landscape that’s (with a few notable exceptions) still a dining desert. Thus the news that Eastside’s previously less-than-palate-palpitating menu had been revised by Grand Café’s illustrious Jamie Malone prompted this new East Towner to snag a rez. I entered smiling; I left bemused. A focus of the new list is on family-style entrees, meant to serve two to four, priced at $55 for chicken to $130 for a ribeye/ lobster thermidor combo. As far as I could tell, only one party had settled on this section of the menu on the night of my visit. So, if you’re a twosome or simply wish to explore more than a sole entrée to feed your four-top, you’re limited to six entrée selections, three of which are pasta ($16–$39). We’ll dissect these in a minute. First, a glance at the starters, leading off with oysters and frites ($22) or shellfish platter ($40). For us working stiffs who rarely splurge that much for an appetizer, the list continues with a few more choices. From these, we selected the wood-fired oysters Rockefeller ($12 for three). (Note to chefs: Yes, a trio of something looks pretty on a plate, but how many parties of three do you seat? Right. Don’t make it awkward for us, as in “Go ahead, take the last one.” “No, you have it.”) Anyway: the oysters were downright tiny upon their bed of greens. And bland. On to the beef tartare ($14). The juicy patty proved pert with onions, abetted by a pool of suave mustard sauce. It’s garnished with translucent moons of radish and greenery and presented with toasted slabs of the house-made sourdough, which is stupendous. We wolfed down every crumb. (It’s also served as the house bread, along with unsalted butter. Fine.) Or choose a salad, caramelized cauliflower or burrata to begin your meal. From those six entrees, we selected the roast quail ($28). Ms. Malone chose to disassemble the bitty bird and present dollops of the tasty, tender meal around the rim of a plate, punctuated by plump, sweet prunes and a drizzle of prune-red wine demi. On the side, out comes a tray of caramellzed onion bread pudding. The presentation veers between precious and awkward. Were I queen of the kitchen, I’d have served the bird whole, bordered by those limpid prunes, with the bread pudding (aka stuffing) plumped alongside it. On to our second choice, the lobster spaghetti — a dish that was the hit of 2018 in a couple of East Coast cities I happened to visit, so I learned to love it. And it’s my fave
on this menu, with sweet chunks of the pearly meat (too small, however) spangling a tangle of noodles along with cubes of roasted butternut squash (which needed longer cooking) in a lovely Cognac cream. We continued with more pasta — wide, gutsy ribbons of pappardelle in a sofrito of — get this — braised hazelnuts and pistachios (thus, a vegetarian ragu, for a nice change). It’s fine but not memorable. Or choose scallops or short rib. Or dessert. Three choices (plus ice cream): lemon tart, financier cake or cherry-olive oil cake ($7–$8). We chose the cherry treat, presented as a generous Bundt slice, dark in mien, moist and sweet with bits of cherry and cherry liqueur. Also, tobacco
cream (which had intrigued us but couldn’t be discerned in the crème anglaise, although we kept trying.) The most interesting cocktail — the Bufflehead, with duck fatinfused Bourbon — was unavailable that night (“Not up to our standard”), so we settled for a house-bottled Manhattan. (Why bottle, you may wonder? So did we.) Both fine. Or go with wines BTG ($10 and up) or beer. Or cocktails “to share” ($50–$72). I wish I could say this new menu will drive folks back, or in for the first time. I hope I’m wrong, but it doesn’t seem to nail the neighborhood’s demographic — much less diners heading for the nearby stadium or Guthrie Theater.
EASTSIDE 505 S. Washington Ave. 208-1638 eastsidempls.com
Submitted photos
B4 February 7–20, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
Thousands enjoy Loppet festivities Four-day festival saw relatively mild temperatures Photos by Nate Gotlieb and Andrew Hazzard
T
he big chill lifted just in time for organizers of the annual Loppet crosscountry ski festival, held Jan. 31–Feb. 3 at locations around Southwest Minneapolis. Thousands of bikers, skiers and snowshoers participated in the 20 events throughout the weekend, from a 37-kilometer cross-country ski race (see above and below) to a team bike race (see right). Other events included snowshoeing, a snow sculpture contest and skijoring (a race in which a dog pulls a person on skis). Loppet Foundation Marketing and Communications Coordinator Alora Jones thanked the 50-plus volunteers who helped shovel the courses in the week before the festival. Those volunteers braved frigid conditions to do so, she noted. —Nate Gotlieb
ABOVE: A golden retriever named Rudy prepares for the Chuck & Don’s Skijoring Loppet on Feb. 2. Camille Johnson of Alexandria skis on Lake of the Isles in the 21-kilometer Puoli Loppet classic race on Feb. 2. RIGHT: Steve Young smiles with his dog Hugo, a Bichon Maltese mix, after completing the Chuck & Don’s Skijoring Loppet on Feb. 2. Hugo was perhaps the smallest dog in the race. A skier races in the adult classic team sprints race on Jan. 31 at Theodore Wirth Park.
southwestjournal.com / February 7–20, 2019 B5
Gadget Guy
By Paul Burnstein
A workout watch
M
y friends at Verizon recently shared a smartwatch with me, the Fitbit Versa. Much like the Fitbit activity bands, this has all of the features of step and calorie counting and more. The one I had was black with a black band, but it comes in a variety of colors, including rose gold and silver. There are different band options, as well. The watch comes with both small- and large-sized bands so that you do not have to choose in advance which size you need. Fitbits are generally simple to use, and this is no exception. Different watch faces can show various information. The watch face that I liked to use displayed heart beats per minute, a step counter and a calorie counter — all available on the face with simple taps to get to more information. It also displayed the date and time. Plus, when emails, calendar reminders or text message notifications came through it showed them on the watch screen. One complaint that I had about the watch was that it did not display when I raised my wrist. It took tapping the watch or activating a button to wake up the watch so that I could see the display. On other smart watches, the screen will illuminate by just raising your wrist towards your eye line. There is no mistaking it, the Fitbit Versa is a workout watch. While wearing it and pairing it to the Fitbit app, one can track steps, calories, water intake
and more. It can also be used for sleep tracking and even for female health tracking. It gives you reminders to take steps each hour and tracks Programs Starting Soon! how many workouts you have done in the last week, congratulating you if you have been consistent in your routine. SOCCER, BASKETBALL While the watch can only show you so much BASEBALL, & NINJA WARRIORS on the screen, the companion app for your smartphone has a plethora of information, including - Instructional Classes Ages 2-12 the aforementioned health tracking data. Built into the watch is a Coach mode that can - Non-Competitive Skill Building take you through a few quick exercise routines. - Experienced, Professional Coaches You can subscribe to Fitbit Coach Premium to get even more workouts and tailor your routine. The Coach mode that I tried out was a For a list of locations visit seven-minute exercise that provided vibraMinneapolisParks.org tion prompts to move onto thePlease next exercisejoin us for a talk entitled: and kept track of time for a countdown while REVSPORTS.ORG | Info @ RevSports.org | 612-234-7782 Please join us for a talk en coaching me through the exercises. It looks like the prices ranges $150–$200 depending on where you buy it, with $200 being the original retail price. Paired with Bluetooth earbuds, the Versa can play music straight from the watch from Pandora and Deezer. (I had never heard of Deezer before.) Battery life was great. I charged it maybe twice per week, and the charging time was so fast that I was not without my step counter for very long. It is also water resistant up to 50 Please join us for a talk entitled: Please join us for a talk entitled: meters, so you can use it in the water without fear of it getting damaged. The Fitbit Versa also works with Android, iPhone and even Windows phones, so there should not be any compatibility issues. The attrack Second Versa uses your phone’s GPS to length of Church of Christ, Scientist, Minneapolis workout, pace and distance and then can at Second Church of Christ, share this data so that they can be tracked Free Parking• Child Care Provided and synced with other devices. 2019 •• 1:00 1:00p.m. p.m. Februar The Fitbit Versa is a solid February 9, 2019 Free Parking• Child Care Pro at Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Minneapolis watch that provides the most at Second of Christ, Scientist, Minneapolis Talk sponsored by the members of Second Church benefit when being used Christ, Scientist, Minneapolis Free Parking• Parking• Child Care Free Care Provided Provided as a fitnessof tracker. Talk sponsored by the members of Sec
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SECOND CHURCH OF CHRIST, SECOND CHURCH O SCIENTIST, MINNEAPOLIS SCIENTIST, MINNE
The Healing Power SECOND OF CHRIST, CHRIST, The Heali SECOND CHURCH CHURCH OF SCIENTIST, MINNEAPOLIS SCIENTIST, MINNEAPOLIS 01 01
Stillness Still
The Healing Power The Healing Power February 9, 2019 • 1:00 p.m. 001 February 9, 2019
Stillness Stillness
Paul Burnstein is a tech handyman. As the founder of Gadget Guy MN, Paul helps personal and business clients optimize their use of technology. He can be found through gadgetguymn.com or via email at paul@gadgetguymn.com.
of Christ, Scientist, Minneapolis
Talksponsored sponsored by the members Talk membersof ofSecond SecondChurch Church ofChrist, Christ, Scientist, Scientist, Minneapolis Minneapolis of
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B6 February 7–20, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
Ask Dr. Rachel
By Rachel Allyn
Taking time to transition
M
y ex-husband and I divorced almost two years ago after 18 years together. We have three kids and share custody of them, although I’m with them about 70 percent of the time. These last couple years I’ve been dating and have met some wonderful men, some of whom put pressure on me to become more committed. I keep finding myself reluctant to put a label like boyfriend or girlfriend on any of these relationships. How can I explain this to them? And do you think there’s something wrong with me not wanting a serious relationship?
There is nothing wrong with you. If you opt to be fancy-free indefinitely there is nothing wrong with you. If you opt to commit to the next wonderful fellow you meet there is nothing wrong with you. If you decide to become a nun and be celibate there is nothing wrong with you. If you decide to date a different person every month there is nothing wrong with you. My point is there is no one right way to be in a relationship. Everyone is different in what they need. Be the wise woman who knows and accepts where you’re at in life. After almost two decades with a ball and chain, why wouldn’t you want to be free from those shackles? But seriously (and with all due respect to the institution of marriage) you are still in transition. Eighteen years is a good chunk of time. Just as it took you and your “was-band” (ex-husband) time to assemble your life together, it will take time to disassemble all that history and reassemble your life. You’ve got to adjust to the “new normal,”
which may mean your needs and priorities are different this time. As a parent — and all those years as a partner — you’ve been and continue to be a caregiver. You don’t mention how old your children are, but if you’re raising three kids on your own almost three-quarters of the time, you probably don’t have much left to give to a serious romantic relationship. Keeping things light means you can focus on how your children are transitioning, what it’s like for you to be a single parent and what you want from a relationship in the future. It can be common for people who’ve come out of a long-term relationship to want a little space, freedom and time to digest what happened. Depending on how the marriage ended, perhaps you’re working through some betrayal and question whether you can trust again. Try to let go of comparing your new suitor to your ex. As humans, our fearful mind can overanalyze, compare and make assumptions, especially on the heels of something as emotional as a divorce.
Keep listening to your gut instinct on what you want and need right now, and then confidently and kindly be honest with them. Tell these gentlemen that you enjoy their company but it isn’t fair to anyone if you move too fast. Explain that you don’t want to put a label on the relationship and limit it or cram it into some box that isn’t ever going to capture all the nuance and mystery of a budding relationship anyway. At least you are coming from a place of integrity and honesty, which is essential to healthy relationships. And at least you’re not
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ghosting them — the slow or sudden disappearing act when you don’t have the guts to be honest, which has become more common in our modern dating era. Being frank and standing up for yourself will probably make them want you all the more. Get it, girl! Dr. Rachel Allyn is a licensed psychologist in private practice. Learn more about her unique style of therapy at DrRachelAllyn.com. Send questions to Rachel@DrRachelAllyn.com.
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southwestjournal.com / February 7–20, 2019 B7 FROM ROMAN VEROSTKO / PAGE B1
nologies. But it would be another decade before he had a computer of his own, an IBM 6150 he purchased in 1981. (He still has it.) The next year he exhibited “The Magic Hand of Chance.” Software written by Verostko generated basic animations and word combinations that always varied and never quite repeated — an early example of what he called “generative art.” In computer coding, an algorithm is like a recipe, a set of instructions that produce a desired result. Randomness — a coded role of the dice — is a key element in Verostko’s art-making algorithms, so that the recipe produces something slightly different and unexpected every time. Verostko prefers biological metaphors, like the relationship between genetics — the DNA sequence — and epigenetics — the way that DNA is expressed in a living being. Or the leaves of a tree, or snowflakes, or the formation of crystals. “A generative algorithm always in some way mimes nature,” he said.
W
hen Roman Verostko arrived in Minneapolis in 1968 — newly married and no longer Father Roman, the artist-monk who mingled with art world celebrities in New York City and studied at École du Louvre in Paris — the Twin Cities was a global hub of the emerging computer industry. “The first supercomputers in the world were right here. Minneapolis was a hotbed,” the artist, who turns 90 this year, recalled recently, his voice inflected with wonder as he ran through the roster of companies that made Minnesota a mid-century Silicon Valley: Honeywell International, Control Data, Univac and “dozens of startups.” He could sense the potential. “Oh my god,” he said. “It was like goose pimples.” The subject of a career retrospective at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Verostko would become a pioneer in the realm of digital art, coding form-generating algorithms that can grow drawings like a plant from seed. The year he moved to Minneapolis with his wife, Alice Wagstaff, and joined the humanities staff at MCAD was a turning point, and what had come before would prepare him for what came after.
Unknowing
The search Born Joseph Verostko in 1929 in a small coal mining town in western Pennsylvania, Verostko graduated from high school in 1947 and enrolled at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. It would have been nearly three years since he’d last seen his older brother George, who in 1944 set sail for France with his army battalion and was killed in action in World War II. George was 22. The loss reverberated through Verostko’s family, and it prompted him to follow the path of another older brother when he graduated from art school in 1950. With the U.S. on the verge of war in Korea, he joined his brother Bernard at St. Vincent Archabbey, a Benedictine monastery 40 miles from Pittsburgh in Latrobe. He took his vows and his new name, Roman. Monastic life provided Verostko with opportunities to continue his development as an artist. In the early ’60s, he spent two years living in the rectory at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Midtown Manhattan while earning an MFA at the Pratt Institute. The man in the clerical collar drew attention on the New York art scene; he appeared in a 1962 Harper’s Bazaar photo spread conversing at a party with sculptor John Chamberlain just a few feet from Andy Warhol, and the headline of a 1965 profile in The Washington Post announced, “Scholarly Priest Is at Home With the Beats.” Influenced by the art and theories of Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich, key figures in the development of abstraction, Verostko’s work was a “search for pure form,” he said, an attempt to uncover new visual systems that referred only to themselves. Paintings from the “New City” series, which bridge the end of his monastic life and the beginning of the next stage, combine purposely placed rectangles of color with randomly distributed marks made through automatic drawing
Detail from “Ezekiel Series: Version 2,” from 1993
— aiming for what Mondrian called a “dynamic equilibrium” by finding a precarious balance in color and form, control and spontaneity. Alongside art, he studied theology, the history of philosophy and logic, the branch of philosophy that laid the groundwork for computer language. He even dabbled in electronics, creating audiovisual experiences for spiritual retreats. But even as he used his art to help others access their spirituality, Verostko’s doubts about his own faith strained his relationship with the church until, near the start of 1968, it broke. At the same time, his friendship with Wagstaff, a psychologist and member of the Duquesne University faculty, had developed into something much deeper. They married in August of that year, one week before the move to Minneapolis.
Generative art When Verostko started teaching history of art courses at MCAD, the school still offered courses in traditional animation, a laborious process of hand-drawing and photographing each and every frame. So seeing even a rudimentary example of computer animation — a wireframe cube tumbling in black space produced by a UNIVAC computer — was to Verostko a kind of revelation. “I knew at that moment,” he said. “I thought, ‘My God, they just wrote an instruction, a logical instruction. And you can get that!’ “I thought, I’ve got to learn how the hell to do that.” He took lessons in Fortran, an early programming language, at Control Data in 1970, the same year a Bush Foundation grant funded his work on the “humanization” of emerging tech-
Verostko’s “Epigenesis: Growth of Form” is installed in the University of St. Thomas Frey Science and Engineering Center. Submitted photo
Since the mid-1980s, Verostko has worked with a computer coupled to a multi-pen plotter, a machine drawing tool used to draft architectural plans and engineering schematics before advances in printer technology made it obsolete. (Hackers and artists are driving a recent revival in their use, and at least one company, AxiDraw, is producing new desktop models.) Verostko loads the pen plotter’s mechanical drawing arm with a variety of colored pens, and the machine executes a drawing. The drawing program, a generative algorithm that makes its own random choices while operating within a set of parameters defined by Verostko, carries on his decades-long search for pure forms. The software Verostko designed to run the plotter he named Hodos, from the Greek for “path” or “road.” In computing terms, it is an “expert system,” a basic artificial intelligence. Its code is shaped by Verostko’s aesthetic, but Hodos is free to navigate its own path through the chaos of chance. It can produce dense tangles of multi-colored lines, repetitive marks clustered together in a probability cloud that floats in negative space. These are sometimes paired with bold, calligraphic strokes in black ink, created when Verostko replaces the plotter’s pens with Chinese brushes. Those brushstrokes are indistinguishable from a mark made by a human hand, a tribute to Verostko’s nearly bionic relationship with his tools. More recently, Verostko through Hodos has created complex, three-dimensional forms built up of extremely fine lines that trace undulating contours. These single-color drawings can resemble topographical maps or translucent fabric twisting in the a wind. In these works, Verostko approaches “the cloud of unknowing,” a concept he borrowed from a 14th century Christian text. To the work’s anonymous author, the “unknowing” was the mystery of faith, impenetrable to intellect — or, as Nicholas of Cusa, another Middle Ages philosopher put it, a “learned ignorance” that accepts the finite human mind cannot grasp the infinite. Verostko draws an analogy to the “undecidable,” a problem beyond the power of any algorithm — any computer — to solve. When Hodos comes up with something previously unseen, it is like reaching into the realm of the undecidable and pulling something out. When he parted ways with the Catholic church, Verostko understood God as an undecidable, choosing instead to live in mystery. With his art, he walks a similar path through the clouds.
ROMAN VEROSTKO AND THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWNING When: Through Feb. 24 Where: Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 2501 Stevens Ave. Info: mcad.edu
B8 February 7–20, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
By Emily Lund
Seeking market vendors and community sponsors
W
hat do Sun Street Breads, Bogarts Donuts, Rise Bagels and The Beez Kneez have in common? They all got their start at a Neighborhood Roots market! Neighborhood Roots is the nonprofit that operates Kingfield, Fulton and Nokomis farmers markets in South Minneapolis, as well as a series of Winter Markets at Bachman’s on Lyndale. With a few staff members, a dozen board members and a great network of volunteers, we support more than 100 local businesses grow every year. Our mission is to bring neighbors together to buy, eat and learn about local food. We support local farmers and small businesses, promote vibrant community and affect important changes in food and agriculture policy. Farmers markets are small business incubators. They provide a unique opportunity to access new markets and pilot new products. New farmers who vend at markets have more flexibility to control their operation, as opposed to wholesale contracts with retailers. Social enterprises like Big River Farm have an opportunity to do face-to-face outreach and education about their mission of supporting small farmers. As our vendors grow and evolve, they can build a solid customer base and develop their niche in the local economy. If you are a starting or growing a business in Minnesota and want to gain access to the Twin Cities marketplace, apply to become a vendor with Neighborhood Roots! Our markets are first and foremost producer markets. Vendors must grow, produce or
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substantially transform the products they are selling. Typically, our markets are comprised of a mix of agricultural vendors, value-added packaged food vendors, baked goods vendors and ready-to-eat food and craft vendors. When selecting vendors for our markets, we select first for farmers. We prioritize connecting consumers to locally grown and produced agricultural products — vegetables, fruits, meats, dairy, grains and legumes — that are sold at the market by vendors who cultivate and raise their own products. Each market serves the unique needs of its respective community. Decisions regarding vendor selection and market mix are made by a committee comprised of board members, community members, market volunteers and staff. To apply, visit our website (neighborhoodrootsmn.org/becoming-vendor) for more information. Before you start your application, take time to review our vendor policies first so we’re all on the same page. We are accepting applications until Feb. 17, so apply today! Starting and growing a new business can be stressful and uncertain. You can support these brave entrepreneurs by becoming a market sponsor. The generous support of neighborhood businesses make our markets happen. Each market has unique relationships with business owners who want to build trust and name recognition in the neighborhood. For example, Nicollet ACE Hardware has been a longtime champion of Kingfield Farmers Market, providing both financial support and
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The Vang Family of Morning Sunshine Farm. Submitted photo
special in-kind donations, like a grill for our raffle fundraiser last summer. We direct our market gardeners and cottage food producers to buy their supplies at ACE after stocking up on plant starts in the spring or soon-to-be-pickled produce in the height of summer. Nokomis Farmers Market has flourished thanks to 3 Bears Landscaping. Our partnership has led market goers to choose 3 Bears for their next big landscaping project. At Fulton Farmers Market, we are lucky to have Kamie Augustine in our corner. Augustine Team of Keller Williams has been with us for years and
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has built strong relationships with current and future homeowners in Fulton neighborhood. One of the major sponsors of Neighborhood Roots is HERO Plumbing, Heating and Cooling. They even provided us with an amazing bounce house for folks to enjoy at each of our markets last summer! Becoming a market sponsor supports your own business, strengthens the local economy and invests in the farmers markets as valuable community assets. To learn more, contact Neighborhood Roots Executive Director Emily Lund at emily@neighborhoodrootsmn.org.
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southwestjournal.com / February 7–20, 2019 B9
Moments in Minneapolis
By Karen Cooper
Lights on in the warming house
I
t’s easy to believe that the long, north-pointing “finger” of Lake of the Isles freezes right to the bottom every winter. Lake of the Isles is never more than about 30 feet deep, and that northern finger only gets as deep as 10 feet in a couple of places. Most of Lake of the Isles is only 5 feet deep. That makes ice skating seem, somehow, a little safer. Lake of the Isles has been one of the best places to skate in Minneapolis since the earliest years of the Park Board in the 1880s. Here was one of the first warming houses at a Minneapolis skating rink. Lake of the Isles was also one of the first places where lights were provided for skating at night. Electric lights were available back in the 1880s at Loring Park, but lights came later to the Isles rink. Back in 1914, a dentist named Bell contrived a way to light the ice for himself by hanging automobile headlights on his chest and powering those with batteries. It certainly looked silly, but he did not worry about holes in the ice or danger spots. And he got to enjoy the peaceful silence of skating under the winter stars. The picture is by Miriam Kelen and was taken at dawn on a winter morning in 1992. Skating at Lake of the Isles is a quintessential Minneapolis experience. Perhaps it is the easiest one to share with the past — across more than a century of winters.
Karen Cooper is a researcher at Hennepin History Museum who spends less time skating than she used to and wonders if age is just a number. Her skates languish in the hall closet, but the museum’s holdings are on display in the “Shelf Life” exhibit. Drop by 2303 3rd Avenue South in Minneapolis or get more information at hennepinhistory.org. Image from the collection of the Hennepin History Museum
Mill City Cooks
Recipes and food news from the Mill City Farmers Market
Cooking up a #WeeklyMarketMeal
SWEET AND SAVORY APPLESAUCES Recipes courtesy of the Mill City Farmers Market
Rosemary applesauce
(Makes about 3 cups.)
Serve this with pork or chicken from Sunshine Harvest Farm* for your #WeeklyMarketMeal or as an accompaniment to a farmstead cheese plate.* unpeeled, quartered, cored and cut 2 cups unsweetened apple cider from into 1-inch chunks (about 12 cups) Horner’s Corner* 4 fresh rosemary sprigs from WEI farm* 1 to 2 tablespoons honey from Ames Farm*, or more to taste 31/2 pounds (about 7–8 medium tart Pinch salt, to taste apples) from Prairie Hollow Farm*,
W
hile many people are interested in eating local, not everyone knows how to cook with seasonal ingredients like cabbage, dried beans and parsnips. The Mill City Farmers Market is hoping to change that with their winter market cooking demonstrations and #WeeklyMarketMeal campaign. The market’s goal is for every visitor to prepare at least one meal per week using ingredients from local farmers and food makers. And their demos are here to inspire you! As part of the market’s 14-year-old mission and dedication to healthy and local food education, they offer free cooking demonstrations at all of their indoor winter markets, which take place inside the Mill City Museum 10 a.m.– 1 p.m. every other Saturday. The Mill City Cooks demos include a sample and printed recipe card and feature seasonal ingredients from over 30 local, sustainable
In a large pot, combine the cider, rosemary and apples, set over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the apples are very tender, stirring occasionally, about 35 minutes. Continue cooking until the liquid is reduced and the sauce is thick. Discard the rosemary sprigs. Sweeten with a little honey and a pinch of salt to taste.
farmers and food makers who can also be found at the winter markets. Mill City Cooks is also a place for experienced cooks to pick up new and creative recipes, such as the carrot cashew pâté with miso, which was being sampled at the last indoor market on Jan. 26th. In addition to cooking classes, Mill City Cooks often features book signings, local chefs and special events like its annual Bread Festival in September. You can even support this educational programing, the market’s food access work and grant program for local farmers and food makers by becoming a Friend of the Market! Learn more at millcityfarmersmarket. org/support/market-friends/. Find the local ingredients you need for these sweet and savory applesauces at the upcoming indoor Winter Market on Feb. 9. — Jenny Heck
Ginger-cinnamon applesauce
(Makes about 3 cups.)
Here’s the classic, homey applesauce recipe with a little grated fresh ginger for zing. It’s a great snack and wonderful served warm on top of pound cake or over vanilla or butter pecan ice cream. 2 cups unsweetened apple cider from Horner’s Corner* 31/2 pounds (about 7–8 medium tart apples), unpeeled, quartered, cored and cut into 1-inch chunks (about 12 cups) from Prairie Hollow Farm*
1 4-inch piece cinnamon stick 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger root 1 to 2 tablespoons honey from Ames Farm*, or more to taste Pinch salt to taste
In a large pot, combine the cider, cinnamon, ginger and apples, set over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the apples are very tender, about 35 minutes. Continue cooking until the liquid is reduced and the sauce is thick. Discard the cinnamon stick. Sweeten with a little honey and a pinch of salt to taste. *Ingredient available at the Mill City Farmers Market indoor winter markets
B10 February 7–20, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
Get Out Guide. By Sheila Regan
‘HAIR’ There’s a new theater company in town, but these actors aren’t new to theater. Theater 55 aims to enrich the lives of elders as artists, audiences and lifelong learners through theater. Their inaugural show is a production of “HAIR,” a musical that, perhaps more than any other, defines the baby-boom generation during the Vietnam era. The musical marks its 50th Broadway anniversary this year.
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9; 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10. Where: Mixed Blood Theatre, 1501 S. 4th St. Cost: $25 Info: theatre55.brownpapertickets.com
‘[PERIPHERY] THE STUDENT SIT-INS OF 1960’
‘MARA DUVRA: TO BE SEEN / TO BE MANIFOLD’
Youth actors from Youth Performance Company bring audiences back to the Civil Rights movement with this piece that takes place in North Carolina in 1960. Four black activists make radical change by sitting at an all-white lunch counter — and history is altered forever. Taking place in Black History month, the show takes on this important moment in our country.
Local artist Mara Duvra explores a different visual representation of black women and women of color than what predominates most of our culture. Duvra’s photographs evoke the interior life of her subjects, exposing poetry and vulnerability. Finding threedimensionality in photographic work, Duvra is an artist you will want to get more familiar with.
When: Feb. 8–24 Where: Howard Conn Fine Arts Center, 1900 Nicollet Ave. Cost: $15 adults, $12 children/seniors Info: youthperformanceco.org
When: Feb. 11–April 6. Opening reception is 6 p.m.–9 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 14. Where: Juxtaposition Arts, 2007 Emerson Ave. N. Cost: Free Info: juxtapositionarts.org
INDIGO WORLD
‘AS YOU LIKE IT’
In the Heart of the Beast’s Avalon Theatre gets transformed into an interactive — and inclusive — art and music party when the Indigo Crew takes over the space. DJs Michel.Be, Lady Em, queenDuin and TaliaKnight will be providing the music, while local artists create an installation all about sacred geometry, love and liberation. With live visuals created by Nolan Regan Morice and the creative imaginings of Studio Thalo and Adrianna Foreman, it should be a fun night.
The Guthrie presents Shakespeare’s most romantic play that doesn’t involve everyone dying at the end. “As You Like It” feels rather contemporary these days, with its teasing out of gender identity and critical look at how its female characters carve out power and control in their own lives. Local actor Meghan Kreidler takes on the role of Rosalind, a character who was feminist before feminism.
When: 9 p.m.–1 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 9 Where: In the Heart of the Beast’s Avalon Theatre, 1500 E. Lake St. Cost: $5–$15 Info: facebook.com/events/2255074248152626
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southwestjournal.com / February 7–20, 2019 B11
Valentine’s Day
Whether you’re looking to go out on a date with your sweetie, looking for a sweetie or just want to do something fun with friends, there are plenty of options for Valentine’s Day — either on the day itself or on the love-filled days around it.
BUMRAISER Dance-as-party company Dancebums are having a fundraiser with performances by local musicians Aby Wolf and Eric Mayson, plus a performance by dance duo HiJack. There’s be dancing, snacks and beverages.
When: 6 p.m.–11 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 14 Where: Public Functionary, 1400 12th Ave. Cost: $25 in advance ($45 for two), $30 at the door Info: dancebums.com
LOVE ART AND CHOCOLATE ColorWheel Gallery will have art for sale, arts activities and plenty of chocolate at their Valentine’s Day event.
When: 2 p.m.–7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10 Where: ColorWheel Gallery, 319 W. 46th St. Cost: Free Info: colorwheelgallery.com
‘THE LOVE TAPES’ ‘LOVE COMICS’
When: 7:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 14 Where: In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, 1500 E. Lake St. Cost: $12 Info: hobt.org
When: 5 p.m.–6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 14, with repeated screenings on a loop Where: Walker Art Center, 725 Vineland Place Cost: Free Info: walkerart.org
PUPPET CABARET
Have some fun at this campy live-action musical inspired by romance comics of the 1940s and ’50s.
When: Feb. 8–March 2 Where: Bryant-Lake Bowl, 810 W. Lake St., Cost: $19 in advance; $22 at the door Info: bryantlakebowl.com
What better way to celebrate love than with puppets?
Experimental video artist Wendy Clarke explores what “love” means to different people in this participatory project made in 1981, now on view at the Walker. Take your date to the film before perusing the galleries or having a cocktail at Esker Grove.
CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1 Org. whose product is measured in barrels 5 Pillar of Islam involving travel 9 School near Windsor Castle 13 Hugs-and-kisses symbols 14 Pacific island host of two “Survivor” seasons 15 Medical image 16 Analogy words 17 Modern John Hancock 19 Epithet never actually used by Jimmy Cagney 21 Angsty music genre 22 LAX posting 23 Elect (to) 24 Dressed down 28 Songwriter Porter 30 Frightening 31 Red wine choice 33 Fairy tale baddie 34 Be victorious 35 Was in debt to 36 WWII naval threat 38 Picnic invaders 39 Grass roll 40 Shopping complex 41 Go by, as time 43 They’re planted in snow while skiing 45 Civil rights icon Parks 46 Largest living bird 47 Emails a dupe to 48 Couture initials 51 Tapped-off cigar remnant 52 Hours for cuppas 54 Cord cutters’ reception aids
58 Air filter acronym 59 __ hop: gym dance 60 Infatuation 61 “I’ll take care of that” 62 Log splitters 63 Spade of handbags 64 Education support gps.
DOWN 1 Nitrous __ 2 Theorize 3 *Grade-boosting option 4 Crotchety oldster 5 Attacks 6 Got off a horse 7 XKE, for short 8 *Singer’s spouse who co-wrote “Ring of Fire” 9 Raves about 10 Play about Capote
Crossword Puzzle SWJ 020719 4.indd 1
11 Rowing tool 12 TV scientist whose show has won 19 Emmys 14 *Chess situation that forces a draw 18 Love, to Luigi 20 “Carpe diem” initials 24 Game Gear creator 25 Typical mortgage requirement, and what ends each answer to a starred clue 26 Gives off 27 Closely packed 29 Out-of-date 30 Deceives 31 Meno __: not as fast, in music 32 Furry C-3PO worshipers 37 “Eww!”
38 Small batteries 40 Somewhat wet 42 Nowhere to be found 44 Practical jokes 47 __ and desist 49 Vintage photo tone 50 Exams for aspiring judges, briefly 52 Item listed above “u-bolt” in a hardware glossary? 53 Blue-roofed eatery 54 Airport safety org. 55 __ populi: popular opinion 56 Blackjack half 57 Gun lobby org. Crossword answers on page B12
2/5/19 4:47 PM
Southwest High SWJ 012419 4.indd 1
1/22/19 4:22 PM
B12 February 7–20, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
By Linda Koutsky
You think you have too much stuff ?!
W
ith all the fuss about the Netflix show “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo,” I took a critical look around my home office/studio. The perimeter is lined with storage options. In one corner is a 100-year-old iron pipe printers cart where I keep old Weekend Tourist columns and a box of fabrics. Behind my desk is a Golden Acrylics paint store fixture from a long gone art supply store. Next to me is a steel cart I got at the Macy’s going-out-of-business sale. It holds my printer, computer supplies and a Western Newspaper Union steel drawer full of more computer supplies. I’ve got a couple bookshelves, a file drawer and an antique book press. Across the doorway is a counter I had made from floorboards from the apartment where Bob Dylan recorded one of his first reel-to-reel tapes. (For more on that, Google “Something’s missing in Dinkytown.”) Under that is an old library index card case and a pullout audiovisual cart with an assortment of old wood storage boxes, a wire-o binding machine and a large paper cutter I got from the University of Minnesota’s surplus store. There’s actually more floor space than furniture, and that must be good, right?
If you like Ax-Man Surplus stores, you’ll love this place. Photo by Linda Koutsky
I like the stuff around me. It might sound like a used store fixtures showroom, but everything is organized and has a place. There are a lot of memories there, interesting collections — and joy. So I decided it was just fine and I don’t need Marie’s help after all. With that solved, I decided to celebrate and headed to what must be the largest permanent store for an ongoing assortment of items no longer needed: the University of Minnesota ReUse Program Warehouse. Located in an industrial area off Como Avenue and Highway 280, this Home Depot-
University of Minnesota ReUse Program Warehouse 883 29th Ave. SE
Open to the public 8 a.m.–8 p.m. Thursdays and noon–4 p.m. Saturdays. Follow them on Facebook for updates on incoming items.
SAME GREAT COMPANY,
BRAND NEW LOOK!
sized building contains floor-to ceiling shelves of office chairs, desks, overhead projectors, text books, test tubes, gurneys, bikes, picture frames, magazine racks or anything no longer needed at any one of the university’s buildings throughout the state. They go beyond the “reduce, reuse, recycle” mantra, adding “redistribute” and “relieve.” Your purchases help relieve the university of extraneous
LUNCH TIP The Blue Door Pub’s gone one step further than a Juicy Lucy and offers the Blucy: two ground Angus patties surrounding a bleu cheese and garlic center. “Often imitated, never duplicated.” (1514 Como Ave. SE)
goods and redistribute them right into your very own home. Nice for both of us! Over the years, I’ve “helped” them by removing the aforementioned paper cutter and AV cart. I’ve also redistributed numerous worn books, 1950s paperboard boxes, vintage 3M tape dispensers, chrome sign holders, wood frames from the former Bell Museum, stadium seat cushions and the occasional T-shirt. Need a 3-ring binder? Get one here for free! From current conference binders to vintage black binders from the 1940s, they have a huge assortment. Part of one of the back aisles is a free zone. File folders, labels, desk organizers, window envelopes and other small office items are free. But you have to bring them to the checkout counter to be weighed. My latest treasures are a beautiful set of geologic survey maps from the early 1900s that were removed from Pillsbury Hall. There are plenty more there for you. But like most thrift shops, the merchandise changes regularly and what you see one day won’t be there the next. Plus, this store is open to the public only two days a week. The other days are reserved for university shoppers. So instead of following Marie’s advice, I’m going to practice designer Nate Berkus’s philosophy: “I believe in collecting things that you connect with. We should surround ourselves with things we care about, that have meaning.” Follow Linda Koutsky on Facebook for more adventures.
I LIKE BIG
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CROSSWORD ANSWERS
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Windom with tosponsored encourage by reading in ourSchool neighborhood! a free-will donation from 9am–10:30am. Pancake sponsored by Windom School DesignBreakfast a bookmark Learn about braill Guest readers •the Fun activities • Healthy snack with a free-will donation from 9am –10:30 amFeder . (and enter bookmark with the National Design a bookmark Learn about braille design contest!) of the Blind (and enter the sponsored with the National Pancake Breakfast by Windom School Design a bookmark Learn with a free-will donation fromFederation 9am –10:30 am. about braille bookmark (and enter the bookmark of the withBlind the National Federation design contest!) design contest!) of the Blind Learn about braille Bring a book for the book swap! with the National Federation
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Leanne Benson, Patricia and illustrator David Geist Eileen Beha, Kristin Johnson, Tracy Meet theBauer Authors! Meet the Authors! Nelson Maurer, Leanne Benson, Patricia Eileen Beha, Kristin Johnson, Tracy Nelson Maurer, Eileen Beha, Kristin Johnson, Tracy Nelson Maurer, Leanne Benson, Patricia Bauer andDavid illustrator David Geister Bauer illustrator Geister Leanneand Benson, Patricia Bauer and illustrator Co-sponsored by: David Geister
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Crossword on page B11
Crossword Answers SWJ 020719 V12.indd 1
2/5/19 11:59 AM
southwestjournal.com / February 7–20, 2019 B13
Enhance Your Everyday
By Carly Ettinger
Motivation to move
I
one before and now I don’t workout without it. At under $10 on Amazon, it is worth it. You can also set up the Spotify app on your phone or make a playlist that pumps you up. Whether it is electronic dance music, Beethoven or a science podcast, audio can be a powerful technique to get you going. You might be amazed how clothing and music can transform your attitude and approach to exercise.
f you made an exercise-related resolution last month, now is a good time to check on your progress. Have you kept your promise? Have you gotten closer to reaching your goal? Is anyone holding you accountable? Well for today, I will. For those of us accustomed to a sedentary lifestyle, incorporating activity into a daily routine can be tough. Exercise can feel intimidating, expensive and even pointless. There are countless reasons it may fall to the bottom of your to-do list. I am sharing tips on what has inspired me to exercise in the hopes it will encourage you as well.
Get creative
Get clear One of the first steps I took toward getting motivated to move included getting to the core of why exercise is important to me. Yes, I want to look better. Yes, I know it’s good for me. And so on. After years of basing my exercise inspiration on these broad, vague reasons, I came to the conclusion they were not enough to stimulate me and sustain me. I decided to dive deeper into my reasoning and get specific. Beyond exercising to “be healthy,” I narrowed in on the concept that diabetes runs in my family and I do not want to develop issues with insulin. This reason lights a fire under me. What is your reason? Do you want to decrease your risk for developing osteoporosis? Or fit into your favorite jeans from 15 years ago? Define your reason and let it guide you. Being clear on why movement matters to you can be a great way to not only jumpstart your journey but to keep you going.
Get practical Next, I got practical. This meant coming up with an exercise strategy that truly aligned with my preferences when it came to environment, activity and scheduling. For instance, after years of signing up for fancy gym memberships, I came to the conclusion this format is just not inspiring for me. Nature is what will get me out the door. Jogging among trees with the sun warming my face is more invigorating for me than using a machine in a crowded, fluorescent-lit gym. And while I enjoy attending classes, I can conveniently watch videos online at home or sign up for the occasional on-site studio class.
After trying out a variety of workouts over the years, I learned some feel fun to me and some feel like chores. My best experiences exercising happen when I do not watch the clock or the calorie counter. Though nightclub-esque spinning is trendy, know that you may desire a peaceful bike ride around the lake. Aspire to discover a workout that doesn’t feel like a workout. Through trial and error, you will learn what you gravitate to. Honor and engage in the activities you like most. Finally, start small. If you have not exercised for years, you may not want to set a goal of 60-minute workouts, three days a week. Try setting aside 10 minutes, once a week. By structuring your exercise in an environment you like, engaging in workouts you enjoy and for brief periods to begin with, you are setting yourself up for success.
Get equipped You know the phrase, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have?” I applied this
to my new exercise venture. I swapped out my worn-out, slouchy sneakers and grungy T-shirts for new sport clothes and shoes. Research shows that your clothing can affect your athletic performance. A 2013 study by the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology reported that wearing different colors incites different physiological effects. When comparing red to blue, researchers learned that athletes in red were able to lift heavier amounts of weight and had higher heart rates than those in blue. By dressing like an athlete, I felt one step closer to being one. Sporting my new slip-on, air-cooled memory foam Sketchers, I felt like I could jog further and jump faster. This new gear prompted me to feel eager to exercise and even enhanced my workout sessions. Research athleticwear brands and treat yourself to that moisture-wicking, microclimate technology and that breathable, stretchy, fastdrying fabric fabulousness. I also invested in accessories. One of my favorite items is a slim, lightweight running belt that holds my phone and keys. I’d never had
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Carly Ettinger is a trend forecaster and writer from Minneapolis. Her experiences living and learning in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and most recently New York have shaped her fascination with studying cultural trends in fitness, food and lifestyle.
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The last thing I did was to put my gym goggles on. This meant that I began to view my environment and everyday items as catalysts for calorie-burning. For example, when I first began strength training at home, I did not have a set of handheld weights. I grabbed two soup cans and began bicep curls. Believe it or not, a 25-minute workout with these one-pound dumbbell substitutes got my heart rate up and my forehead sweating. You may have heard of the 86-year old woman who lost 120 pounds by doing daily walks in her one-bedroom apartment. Talk about making the most out of your surroundings! Fitness can be fun if you are willing to be playful. During your workout, chart your own obstacle course. Walk up a steep hill. Duck beneath branches. Hop over puddles. At the gym, ask for help using a weight machine you have never tried. Start slow, go with a friend and don’t push yourself too hard. When life gets busy, exercise often falls by the wayside. But it turns out those busy times tend to be when we need movement the most. Know that there will always be a reason to focus on something other than fitness. I can guarantee you won’t want to work out when you’re tired or on the days it gets dark at 5 p.m. It may might feel like an imposition at first, but over time your body may learn to love and even crave movement. I encourage you to embrace what excites you.
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