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The National Park Service is in the process of restoring the Coldwater Spring area, a 27-acre site situated between Minnehaha Falls and Fort Snelling State Park. The property recently contained 11 buildings, including vacated offices, laboratories, ore bins and miscellaneous storage and research areas. Restoration includes the removal of all buildings, most roads and parking lots. The springhouse and reservoir will remain. A portion of Coldwater Creek in a culvert will be daylighted. Most of the site will be restored to an open space resembling oak savanna/tall grass prairie. Connections to existing trails adjacent to the site are planned. Aug. 31 is the scheduled construction (not completion) date.
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Burglaries on the rise?
BY ED FELIEN
A rash of burglaries in the Page and Diamond Lake neighborhoods set residents’ nerves on edge. The Third Precinct sent out a Police Advisory notice that there had been a series of thefts and burglaries on Park Avenue between 54th Street and 56th Street between 11 p.m. and 10:40 a.m. Thursday, May 7, and there had been a house burglary on June 3 on the 5200 block of Park.
Are we experiencing a major crime wave?
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War with Syria
and Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iran
BY ED FELIEN
About 50 demonstrators gathered in front of the Federal Building in downtown Minneapolis on Tuesday, June 26, to protest the continued escalation of military activity in the Middle East.
They chanted:
WE’VE SEEN THIS ALL BEFORE,
SAME STORY, DIFFERENT WAR!
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Report from the petition drive
BY ED FELIEN
Last month I announced in these pages a petition drive to change the terms of office for mayor and City Council from the present four-year terms to two-year terms. I thought, with the apparent anger of the Minneapolis voters at the mayor and the majority of the City Council for sticking us with a sales tax to support a Vikings Stadium that could cost us $890 million over 30 years, there would be considerable support and energy to change the city charter to make city government more democratic and more responsive.
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The Powderhorn Art Fair turns 21 this year
BY JANET CONTURSI
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“Autumn Landscape” by Kevin Kluever |
Summer is art fair season in Minnesota and the Powderhorn Art Fair, now in its 21st year, should be on the top of your “to do” list. The Fair will run Aug. 4-5, with booths spread throughout the 66-acre Powderhorn Park, in the heart of the city. Thanks to the work of dedicated staff and volunteers, the Fair will bring the arts and crafts of 184 contributors—local and national—to South Minneapolis.
Neighborhood fairs are a great opportunity to support local artists and bring home a piece of original art—a one-of-a-kind treasure that will never be mass produced! Judging from the list of this year’s entrants, there will be plenty of jewelry, pottery, fiber and glass works, but don’t overlook the award-winning artists who will be showing affordable watercolor, acrylic, oil and pastel paintings.
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The Old Woman’s revenge
BY ED FELIEN
When I was a small child growing up in South Minneapolis, my Uncle John used to take care of me and my brothers while my mom and dad had to go to work. He really wasn’t my uncle. He was more my grandmother’s boyfriend. When my grandmother died, when I was 5, Uncle John stayed around and cooked and took care of us when he didn’t have to go downtown and stoke the boilers under the Alvin Burlesque Theater.
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Making Minneapolis healthier from the inside out
BY RAINA GOLDSTEIN
 Adults in Minneapolis are fat and so are their kids. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a shocking 24% of Minneapolis adults are obese and 23.1% of public school students in the city are overweight or obese.
Although those rates are below the national average, they still represent a major public health problem and a bleak future of cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
Many people seem frustrated as they struggle to lose weight but don’t have the support they need.
Without proper infrastructure and community support, it can be impossible for the average family to lead a healthy lifestyle.
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The hungry insurgent
BY CHARLEY UNDERWOOD
We Americans waste a lot of food. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, we throw away about half the food we produce, much of it quite usable. It amounts to filling a large football stadium to the brim every single day, something between 160 and 295 billion pounds of food per year. One way to cut this back lies in our neighbor’s backyard: gleaning. Gleaning is the process of harvesting food you didn’t plant.
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Spidey, almost a man
By Ed Felien
 The latest Spiderman is a prequel. It takes place before Tobey Maquire’s character burst on the scene ten years ago.
Andrew Garfield plays Peter Parker, a nerdy high school student who gets bit by a genetically modified spider, develops superhuman powers, causes the male authority figures in his life to suffer tragic consequences, and still has all the major hormonal imbalances of a normal teen-ager.
You don’t have to be much of a Freudian to fully appreciate our Peter killing his father over and over and saving the final embrace of the film for his surrogate mother, Aunt May, played by Sally Field.
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Aftermath of Mexican elections: The protests continue
BY JOHNNY HAZARD
 Mexico City, Tuesday, July 3
On the eve of Sunday’s national elections, hundreds of thousands of protesters, mostly students, stayed till midnight in marches in Mexico City and other cities. The polls opened at 8 in the morning with the usual fraud and inefficiency: Some polling places didn´t open till noon, but they closed on time at 6 p.m. and left people waiting in line, unable to vote.
The unofficial results, hailed by most Mexican media and by governments like that of the United States, show Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI, the historic ruling party, six points ahead of his nearest rival, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of a center-left tendency.
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When Minneapolis stole Richfield and Lake Nokomis
 David C. Smith, in his Minneapolis Park History, says, “The Cedar Avenue Bridge at the bottom of the aerial photo was the subject of great debate at the park board, Minneapolis City Council, the Hennepin County Board and Village Council of Richfield in the 1910s.
Park superintendent Theodore Wirth’s plan for the improvement of Lake Nokomis in the 1912 annual report included rerouting Cedar Avenue around the southwest corner of the lake to eliminate a “very unsightly” wooden bridge over the edge of the lake at the time. Even though the park board owned all the shores of the lake and the lake bed, the south end of the lake was then in Richfield, which is why the county and Richfield were involved in decisions on the bridge.
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My memory of Lois Swenson
BY POLLY MANN
 The last time I saw her was several weeks ago in my living room with two of her old friends who, years ago, had taught school with her at Robbinsdale. They were trying to convince her to buy a unit and move into the Kenwood Isles Condominium (minimum age 55) where she’d possibly be my hall neighbor. She smiled agreement. Lois Swenson smiled a lot. But to occupy my building, she’d have to sell her house and its contents, much of it derived from her frequent dumpster divings. Shaking her head she said, “I’ll think about it.”
A few weeks earlier when she had provided me a ride to the monthly meeting of People of Faith Peacemakers, she was driving a new car. As I remember, her brothers had either forced her to get rid of the ancient, beat-up one she’d had or they’d given her the car.
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July
Nokomis Community Calendar
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Trees Need an Inch of Water Every Week
Even with recent rain, years of drought have stressed our urban forest. Our yard and boulevard trees still need an inch of water every week throughout the spring, summer and fall. Last fall was the driest on record and last winter yielded the 10th lowest snowfall in more than 100 years.
Extended drought conditions can make trees vulnerable to insects and disease and cause permanent damage to young and old trees alike. Young trees three to five years old are especially susceptible. An effective way to water a tree is to turn on a slow stream of water (just so the hose is weeping) for a few hours. Watering in the evening after dinner time is best since it minimizes evaporation, and trees tend to take most of their water during the night. Watering one tree weekly for the warmer months costs only about $3 for the entire season.
For information on tree care and the urban forest call the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board’s Forestry
Department at 612-313-7710, e-mail forestry@minneapolisparks.org or visit www.minneapolisparks.org/trees.
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| Nokomis Religious Calendar |
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SUMMER
OPPORTUNITIES
FOR KIDS
Urban Fun Camp
Monday – Thursday, July 9 – 12, 5:30 – 8 p.m.
Living Spirit United Methodist Church
4501 Bloomington Ave. S. (on #14 bus line)
Children ages preschool through grade 5 are invited to participate in a summer camp experience. Each evening will begin with a light meal followed by selected sports, arts and nature activities. For more information call the church office at 612-721-5025 or visit www.livingspiritumc.org. Same-day registration. All children are welcome.
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July 2012 
