Southside Pride

	Phillips/Powderhorn Nokomis Riverside

March 2013

Phillips Powderhorn :


Former customer Elaine Klaassen stands in front of the empty store wearing her gloves, Caterpillar hooded sweatshirt and boots from Kaplan’s. She feels, like many loyal fans in the Twin Cities area, “Kaplan’s was my kind of store.” Photo By Ashley Pederson

A memory of clothes

Kaplan Bros., Inc.
The good old days,
the end of an era

BY ELAINE KLAASSEN

Kaplan Brothers store, founded in 1926 on the corner of Franklin and Bloomington, and relocated to Lake Street and 15th in 1988 after a terrible fire, closed for good on Feb. 16, 2013, at 5 o’clock in the afternoon.

Some musicians introduced me to Kaplan’s almost immediately upon my arrival in Minneapolis, in 1981. I bought my first pair of winter boots there, which finally wore out 16 years later. I had paid $16 for them so I thought that was a pretty good deal. For years they showed not one sign of wear.

I went to Kaplan’s at the first snow this winter to get new boots (now they cost $40, which, if I can rely on precedent, my kids will inherit …) and while shopping thought I’d get some socks, too, those wool Army socks I’ve worn every winter since 1981. They were out. I went back a few weeks later and learned that the company didn’t make them anymore and furthermore had gone out of business.

Culture clash at South

By Ed Felien

On Valentine’s Day fights broke out in the South High School lunchroom that eventually involved as many as 200 to 300 students.

Police say tensions started during first-hour lunch at about 11:45 a.m. when one student threw a milk carton at another, sparking a small fight. By the third lunch hour, around 12:45 p.m., unsubstantiated rumors about that initial fight spread, erupting into a fight between African-American and Somali students. Staff members and school resource officers tried to intervene. One staff member was taken to the hospital after being hit in the head by a thrown bottle.

Abduction in Phillips

BY ED FELIEN

Acting on an anonymous tip, police found 8-month-old Carlos Orozco after a four-hour search in the basement of a home in the 3700 block of 3rd Avenue South.

Authorities allege Isabel Diaz Castillo had befriended the boy’s mother, then took the child when the mother was in the bathroom taking a shower in her home on Portland Avenue near Franklin on Wednesday, Feb 20.

The Sami are coming!

BY ED FELIEN

There are three flags flying at the American Swedish Institute (ASI) these days.

Alongside the American and Swedish flags is a rainbow colored red, blue, yellow and green flag of the Sami people. The native Sami language is part of the Uralic family that includes Finnish and Hungarian, two areas where many Mongol tribes settled after sweeping through Europe in the 13th century. The Mongols had learned about gunpowder from the Chinese, and they were quite accomplished horsemen—travelling thousands of miles from the Mongolian plains to the North Atlantic. With the advantages of light cavalry and firepower, they defeated every army in their path, but in December of 1241 the Great Khan died and the princes that had led the European invasion returned to Mongolia to elect a new Khan.

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.

Ty Moore announces candidacy for City Council

Dear Friends and Neighbors,
It’s time we raised our expectations. Our city is governed by a one-party political machine whose loyalty lies with the big developers, the big banks and the big corporations who fund them.

Twin Cities janitors arrive at possible contract

In a breakthrough that will improve the lives of more than 4,000 Twin Cities janitors, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 26 and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Contract Cleaners Association reached a tentative agreement for a three-year contract that will provide significant gains for workers around hours, wages, healthcare, workload and job security. The deal came just after 4 p.m. on Feb. 23 after more than 31 consecutive hours of bargaining. Janitors still need to ratify the contract.

Raj’s Jungle: a linocut that goes round and round

Article and photos
by Scott Ponemone

Who would have thought that when I went shopping at Maryland Institute, College of Art’s holiday sale last December I’d end up with an 8-foot linocut. Actually, I originally had four 2-foot prints.

After sifting past tables of textiles and jewelry on the lobby level of the Brown Center, I descended the stairs to the auditorium level where student printmakers had set up a long table stacked with prints, but what caught my eye was a huge relief print clipped high up a makeshift wall behind the student salespersons.

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.

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.”

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.”

Undo the harm

By Ed Felien

The Hippocratic oath for doctors generally means, “First, do no harm.” The oath DFL legislators should take for the 2013 Session should probably be, “First, undo the harm already done!”

The 2012 election gave the DFL an overwhelming victory and a mandate. The Republican legislature proposed two constitutional amendments that went down in defeat: a plan to restrict voting rights by requiring a photo ID and an amendment that limited the rights of same sex couples to marry. Both amendments were a cynical ploy by the Republicans to turn out Christian evangelicals. This was the strategy that worked so well for Karl Rove in 2004 in carrying the state of Ohio for George W. Bush. But by 2012 the voters had wised up and the Republicans got whipped by backlash.

Schools aim to make college available to all

Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) is sending a strong message to students, families, staff members and the community that we believe it is imperative that all students be prepared for college, career and life. Providing more students with the right preparation will advance our whole nation.

Think of Others

BY MAHMOUD DARWISH

As you prepare your breakfast, think of others
Don’t forget to feed the pigeons.

As you conduct your wars,
think of others
Don’t forget those who
want peace.

As you pay your water bill,
think of others
Think of those who have only the clouds to drink from.

As you go home, your own home, think of others
Don’t forget those who
live in tents.
As you sleep and count the planets, think of others
There are people who have
no place to sleep.

As you liberate yours elf
with metaphors,
think of others
Those who have lost their
right to speak.

And as you think of distant others, think of yourself and say
“I wish I were a candle in
the darkness.”

Mahmoud Darwish (1941 – 2008) was regarded as the
Palestinian national poet.

March

Phillips Powderhorn Community Calendar

Announcements

Minneapolis’ Peavey Plaza Listed in National Register of Historic Places
The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota (PAM) learned that Peavey Plaza, a modernist urban park plaza in downtown Minneapolis, has been officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The plaza, designed by M. Paul Friedberg and opened in 1975, was documented to have national significance. In June 2012, PAM and the Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) filed a lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis in an attempt to halt the city’s planned demolition of Peavey Plaza. PAM and TCLF filed a lawsuit under the Minnesota Enviro-nmental Rights Act (MERA), which includes historic resources among types of resources protected under the act. According to the National Park Service, “the National Register of Historic Places is in the official list of the nation’s historic places worthy of preservation.” Over 7,000 historic places in Minn- esota are listed in the National Register.

Phillips Powderhorn Religious Calendar

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