Neighborhoods consider name change
Southwest principal resigns PAGE A14
PAGE A11
The sting of a $20 million settlement
Humboldt Avenue’s famed chicken fancier PAGE B12
PAGE B4
May 16–29, 2019 Vol. 30, No. 10 southwestjournal.com
A R S ’ T Y B G U G I Z
S
Wanted: ‘Missing Middle’ housing City may help finance affordable units in 3–20 unit developments
SEE PAGE A19
By Michelle Bruch
New neighbors are moving into townhomes at 3329 Nicollet Ave. this week, where glass-door garages can double as workshops. It’s a rare 12-unit development in a city dominated by single-family homes and larger apartment buildings. Developer Jeremy Edwards said he’s charging a bit less than other new apartments in Uptown ($1,300 for a one-bedroom unit and $2,450 for a three-bedroom unit plus garage), because he purchased vacant land from the City of Minneapolis. “With today’s construction costs it’s very difficult to provide an affordable
Ziggy’s Art Bus board member Erica Marsden helps a child with a project at the Ronald McDonald House on Oak Street on April 23. Photo by Andrew Hazzard
SEE MISSING MIDDLE / PAGE A14
Damond’s neighbors grill city leaders after Noor verdict By Zac Farber / zfarber@southwestjournal.com
Members of Justine Ruszczyk Damond’s community had the chance to explain why they still fear and distrust Minneapolis police as city leaders sat and listened. About 100 people gathered on May 7 at the Lake Harriet Spiritual Community, where Damond taught meditation classes before officer Mohamed Noor shot and killed her in July 2017. Noor was found guilty of Damond’s murder on April 30. “I feel as though the Minneapolis Police Department was convicted along with Noor,” Mindy Barry, a neighbor of Damond, said. “I’ve lost faith in the system that I think covered up a lot of what happened in Justine’s case.” During the listening session, hosted by Mayor Jacob Frey, Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and Council Member Linea Palmisano (Ward 13), many took the opportunity to plead for increased police accountability and to raise concerns about cops who refuse to turn on body cameras and police union leaders who continue to support “warrior-style trainings.” Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman has acknowledged significant errors in the
investigation of Damond’s murder by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and a number of speakers demanded that closed BCA cases be reopened. “If the BCA was incompetent in this case, then the likelihood they’re incompetent in other cases exists,” activist Mel Reeves said. “We don’t see much difference between the way Justine got her life ended and the way Jamar Clark got his life ended. Both were unnecessary.” Arradondo defended the police department against criticism that there is a “blue
I’ve lost faith in the system that I think covered up a lot of what happened in Justine’s case. — Mindy Barry, neighbor of Justine Damond
wall of silence” that shields bad actors from justice. He said the phrase implies that “every single officer in the department is involved in covering up something.” “Have we had officers who have lied? Absolutely,” he said, but “I do not believe that every single man and woman who wears this uniform comes to work lying.” He added that those who lie “have forfeited [their] right to be a Minneapolis police officer.” Noor is the first on-duty police officer to be convicted of murder in Minnesota, and the fact that he is a black, Muslim, Somali man and Damond was a white woman has led many to see race and prejudice as factors in the outcome of the case. “As a woman in my neighborhood, I don’t feel comfortable calling the police,” said Sarah Kuhnen, a Fulton resident who has been active in the group Justice for Justine. “I don’t know how to fix that. And I realize, in my whiteness, that’s something people of color have been carrying their whole damn life.” A Linden Hills resident named nance kent said she’s been working on “my own SEE DAMOND / PAGE A12
Washburn choir teacher wraps up long career By Nate Gotlieb ngotlieb@southwestjournal.com
Nancy Lee’s 35-plus-year teaching career has included building high school choir and musical theater programs nearly from scratch at Southwest and Washburn high schools. It’s also included directing musicals in rural Iowa and teaching the children of East Coast mafiosos. On June 13, Lee will retire after more than 21 years in Minneapolis Public Schools, the past 11 of them at Washburn. Lee, a Southwest Minneapolis resident, said she plans to focus on an intensive summer theater program she founded for college students near her hometown of Osage, Iowa, located near the Minnesota-Iowa border. She also said she wants to find more professional theater opportunities in the Twin Cities. “I think I’ll be much more project-based during the school year here, and then summers will be my big work time,” she said. SEE TEACHER / PAGE A13