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Photo By Ashley Pederson |
Sandcastle coming to Lake Nokomis
On Dec. 5, the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board (MPRB) approved a contract with Sandcastle, a new enterprise by Doug Flicker and Amy Greeley, to operate the Lake Nokomis concession. Doug Flicker’s restaurant, Piccolo, has been featured on Anthony Bourdain’s TV show “No Reservations,” and he was named Outstanding Chef at the 2012 Charlie Awards.
According to Chris Lautenschlager (as reported in The Daily Planet), “Sandcastle will be a sharp contrast to the Lake Nokomis concession that residents and park visitors have seen slowly degrade for years. The recent vote to improve the facilities at the lake’s main beach was not a hasty process. In August 2011, the MPRB created a community advisory committee (CAC) made up of five members, one from each of the lake’s nearby neighborhood associations. I represented the Standish-Ericsson Neighborhood Association throughout this process and, along with my fellow CAC members, helped to relay community input for the project..
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They want to burn more garbage
BY ED FELIEN
[Full disclosure: My wife, Carol Hogard, ran against Mark Andrew for DFL endorsement for county commissioner 20 years ago because he led the effort to build the garbage burner downtown and concentrate the poisonous emissions of mercury and dioxin in poverty-impacted central city neighborhoods, areas where we already knew there were high levels of asthma hospitalizations and elevated blood lead levels.]
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Northrop School to go private?
BY ED FELIEN
Now it looks like Northrop School could become a private charter school.
Hiawatha Leadership Academies has bid $1 million for the property. It would be its third charter school. Its original school, Hiawatha Leadership Academy, was founded in 2007 and currently serves grades K-4. It is located at 3810 E. 56th St. Its second school, Adelante College Prep at 3800 Pleasant, currently serves children in 5th and 6th grades. The middle school will add a grade level every year to eventually serve grades 5-8.
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Wounded Knee Commemoration:
A report from Pine Ridge
BY DAVID TILSEN
The last few days of February have been observed on the Pine Ridge reservation every year since 1973 by a four directions walk onto the gravesite at Wounded Knee with speeches, food and powwows. This year, which marks 40 years since the occupation or Siege at Wounded Knee, was marked with the same, although more people came from around the world because of the anniversary. I brought my 85-year-old father who (along with my mother, myself and my siblings) have spent the last 40 years working as allies of the Lakota people. He was honored for his work as the legal coordinator for the Wounded Knee Defense/-Offense committee, and arrests coming out of the same struggle since then. We spent three days meeting old friends, honoring those who have left us, and celebrating the new generations both emerging and established.
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Handicapping the race for mayor
BY CAROL BECKER
Mayor R.T. Rybak has announced that he will not run for a fourth term. So far, nine people have declared their intention to run for mayor. Eighty percent of Minneapolis voted for Barak Obama in the last election so one would expect the next mayor would be a Democrat. Today it would appear that there are three viable candidates for the DFL endorsement. These are current Council Members Gary Schiff and Betsy Hodges and former County Commissioner Mark Andrew.
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Susan Lindauer to speak on 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq
CIA whistleblower Susan Lindauer, who was arrested and imprisoned under the Patriot Act without trial for a year, will speak at the St. Paul Labor and Professional Building, 411 Main, St. Paul, on Tuesday, March 19, at 7 p.m.
As a reporter, Lindauer covered anti-terrorism at the Iraqi Embassy in New York from 1996 until the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Veterans Today, a military and foreign affairs journal, wrote, “Independent sources have confirmed that she gave advance warning about the 9/11 attack.”
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After the war
BY ED FELIEN
Americans feel pretty good about the ending of the Afghan war. Obama says he will withdraw 34,000 troops (more than half the total U.S. troops in Afghanistan) by the end of 2013 and turn all responsibility for military operations over to the Afghan government. In his State of the Union Address, he said, “[W]e can say with confidence that America will complete its mission in Afghanistan, and achieve our objective of defeating the core of al Qaeda.”
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The hungry insurgent
BY CHARLEY UNDERWOOD
As I write, snow and ice are still thick on the ground and it’s below freezing, but I am planning for the spring. I’m getting ready for maple syrup season. As daytime temperatures inch above freezing, the sap starts to flow. To get ready, I have contacted friends and neighbors with maple trees, bought my taps, checked my buckets. I am feeling a smug self-satisfaction at using an “untapped” urban resource.
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Walker Library do-over
BY ED FELIEN
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| Minneapolis-based Vincent James Associates Architects (VJAA) designed the new Walker Library, scheduled to open in the Uptown area of Minneapolis in 2014. (Submitted rendering) |
Construction of the $12 million new Walker Library at Lagoon and Hennepin seems to be right on schedule. The Hennepin County Library System says, “We’re looking forward to re-opening the library in mid-2014.
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13 arrested at Wells Fargo
BY ED FELIEN
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| Photo by T. K. |
Thirteen people were peacefully arrested at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage on 26th Street Feb. 27 demanding turnover of vacant homes to community control and fair banking practices.
A march of about 200 people, organized by Occupy Homes MN, Neighborhoods Organizing for Change and allies from faith and labor communities, began at the home of Gayle Lindsey, fighting her foreclosure with Occupy Homes and her neighbors in the Foreclosure and Eviction Free Zone in the Central Neighborhood. It proceeded to Jessica English’s reclaimed vacant home, which had turned into a drug house after being abandoned by Wells Fargo. Jessica, a single mom of four experiencing homelessness, has rehabilitated the house with Occupy Homes as a place to raise her children.
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Understanding Arab culture through film
By Ed Felien
Films from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Palestine, among other countries, will make up the Eighth Annual Mizna Arab Film Festival. The Festival runs March 14-17 at the Heights Theatre at 3951 Central Ave. NE and opens at Walker Art Center on March 13 with “OK, Enough, Goodbye,” a film about a single man whose mother eventually moves out. Variety calls it “humorous, melancholy, sardonic and wistful.”
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March
Nokomis Community Calendar
Announcements
Neighborhood Craft Store Opens
On March 2, Crafters Haven Ltd had its grand opening at 5404 34th Ave. S. The small family-owned store sells products for scrapbooking, card making and mixed media. On Friday craft nights you can bring your project in and craft away with friends and meet new ones. Any craft is welcome: sewing, quilting, knitting, cross-stitching and more. Come check them out!
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| Nokomis Religious Calendar |
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Help Give Simpson Shelter Kitchen a Makeover
Simpson Housing Services has been selected as a top finalist for The Family Handyman Rescue Remodel Contest, sponsored by IKEA. The organization with the most votes will receive a fully customized kitchen makeover valued at $25,000.
The renovation would be carefully constructed to serve the needs of shelter staff, volunteers and guests, and would better equip Simpson Shelter to serve the 66 men and women who stay in the shelter each night of the year.
Voting is open to the public from now until March 30 at RescueRemodel.com. You can vote once each day, and just for voting you’ll be entered to win a $100 IKEA gift card.
The final winner and completed kitchen will be unveiled in The Family Handyman’s September issue and on its website, as well as on RescueRemodel.com.
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March 2013 
