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MSPIFF 41
Ukraine, women-directed films highlighted in 41st MSP Film Festival
KINGFIELD BUSINESS
NICOLLET HARDWARE GRATEFUL FOR COMMUNITY SUPPORT AFTER BREAK-IN
HE VIEWS IT AS CO-STRUGGLING
STREET DESIGNS CHANGING
Anyone who has been following street design in Minneapolis over the past 10 years has likely noticed some changes in how the public right is being used and disagreements about how desirable some of …
HERE'S WHAT'S COMING IN LINDEN HILLS
Linden Hills neighborhood sits alongside Lake Harriet/Bde Unma with 8,000 residents, award-winning restaurants, a vibrant business district, several parks and much more. The Linden Hills Neighborhood …
NEIGHBORHOOD BRIEFS May 5, 2022
SPRING INTO UPTOWN MAY 7Celebrate and discover more about the Uptown community through performances, demonstrations, food, art, and activities at a multi-cultural celebration on Saturday, May 7. The …
BRIEFS May 5, 2022
New state policing rules proposedThe Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board has proposed a rule change that would expand their authority to take disciplinary action against licensed peace …
MEET SOUL PAINTING ARTIST ANNE PRYOR
WE BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF THE ARTS TO CHANGE LIVES
Raise your hand if you know a high school kid who suffered through COVID-19... (If your hand isn’t up, then apparently you don’t know any high school kids. Right?) We can probably agree …
Add long-blooming perennials for color all season
Many of us would love to have a yard full of beautiful flowering plants that bloom all season long, providing food for pollinators as well as visual interest. Lots of perennials have showy flowers in …
Home renovations to age in place
At age 69, I was a “silver sneaker” poster child – fit and healthy, living on my own, fiercely independent and proud of it. Ironically, my main fitness exercise, avid fast walking …
FAILED BY FAMILY COURT
Helpless and hopeless.That’s how Kelsey Kruse felt for years as she tried to co-parent with her ex and his wife, Brett and Sarah Hallow.And then one day, she got the call she was scared …
Uncle's bookstore finds new home in Longfellow
The civil unrest following George Floyd’s murder in 2020 delivered a double blow to Don Blyly, the longtime owner of the Chicago Avenue business with the double name: Uncle Edgar’s …
Poll: What does public safety mean to you?
Will Lake Hiawatha be reduced to a holding pond?
By TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN Community members concerned that Lake Hiawatha may be reduced to nothing more than a holding pond gathered at Lake Hiawatha Park on April 16, 2022.They were there in …

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BEGINNING A NEWSPAPER

Welcome, readers of the new Southwest Connector. We’re glad you’ve picked up a copy of our inaugural edition. It’s an exciting time for neighborhood journalism. Thanks for coming …

May 19, 2022 Connector

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POLL

How do we solve the public safety crisis in Minneapolis? Check all that apply.

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Voices Against Violence
 ‘I RAN’
At 25, Sarah* doesn’t speak to her dad. And she points the finger squarely at him and how he treated her before and after her parents’ divorce.She knows that people often blame mom when a …
Professor gives tips to helpers on how to help families affected
Like many issues, domestic abuse situations have only been heightened by COVID-19. Jerrod Brown, a professor at Concordia University and program director for the Master of Arts degree in human …
They took her children away
When Starr Jones* tells her story, people can’t believe this is happening in Minnesota. They can’t believe that the dad was investigated by child protection when their first daughter was …
'She must have done something wrong'
Broke. Homeless. And in danger of losing custody of her children. That’s where Bonnie Roy found herself while trying to get a divorce in Minnesota 10 years ago. Because of her own …
Voices against violence: mired in the courts
Editor's note: Due to the sensitive nature of this topic, this column by a local resident is being run anonymously. Like most people who have experienced intimate partner violence, I was not …

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Home & Garden
 Go native in your yard for bugs, birds, beauty and biodiversity
Despite the roller-coaster temperatures and freeze-thaw hazards in Minneapolis this month, after all it is March and the familiar flowers of spring will soon emerge. But as many people anticipate and …
How to create a food forest
Food forests represent an abundant past and a hopeful future. A diverse planting of native trees, shrubs, and perennials that bear edible flowers, fruit, nuts, and seeds; food forests grow all the …
Wondering what to plant in those tough spots?
As a Master Gardener, people ask me lots of questions about their yards, but probably the most common type of question is “I have a spot that’s hard to grow things in. What should I plant …
PASSIONATE ABOUT BUNGALOWS
What is the history of the Bungalow Club?Longtime Bungalow Club President Tim Counts: The Twin Cities Bungalow Club was started in 1995 by Kristi Johnson, who lived with her husband in a Longfellow …
Purchase smarter
During the pandemic, we all became well-acquainted with our stuff. Perhaps you purged a lot of things to make more room for … well, living. Or maybe you acquired more things to make staying …

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Mindful Creativity
 A voice for justice
Becoming an activist in a worldwide movement for racial justice was beyond anything Angela Harrelson would have imagined for her life. But the murder of her nephew, George Perry Floyd, Jr. – or …
SOUTHWEST WOMAN FOUNDS ESPERIENZA
Over the past two years, we have all been dreaming of something. Southwest resident Anna Bonavita has been dreaming of Italy. She’s the founder of Esperienza, a local nonprofit organization …
Little Sock’s adventures resonate in pandemic
Like everyone else, a sock needs a friend. And with that in mind, Kia Heise and Chris D. Park wrote their second children’s book “Little Sock Makes a Friend.” The book by the …
Exploring ‘Racism as a Public Health Crisis’
As an art teacher at St. Paul’s Como Park High School, Sydney Willcox seeks to connect student creations with their own lived experiences.A recent collaboration with local artists allowed that …
Q&A with Kristi Abbott
Was there a defining moment when in your life when you knew you wanted to be an artist?Kristi Abbott: If you’ve ever met me, you’ll know that I talk with a funny accent. I was born in …

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Rebuild Repair Recycle
Longtime Feline Rescue volunteer Nancy Miller writes monthly newsletters and works as a shift lead. “I love this work because I see first-hand the difference that volunteering makes in the …
The non-profit electronics recycler Tech Dump just celebrated its 10th anniversary. With retail outlets now in St. Paul and Golden Valley, they provide an affordable, reliable source of refurbished …
Many buildings that serve Native Americans across the Twin Cities are outdated and dilapidated, making it even tougher to help those in need, according to Dr. Joe Hobot, president and CEO of the …

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Aging Well
It is widely known that aging is accompanied by varying rates and degrees of cognitive decline. However, neuroscience research has revealed that by keeping physically, socially, and mentally active …
By SUSAN SCHAEFER Much has been written about the benefits of exercise and being outdoors to beat the blues. According to a recent report from the American Psychological Association, “There …
Imagine that we are standing on the banks of the Mississippi River. It is in fact a few blocks east of where I live in south Minneapolis. Imagine with the writing of this column, I am leaving the …

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HENNEPIN AVENUE
 Hennepin Ave design: Helpful or hurtful?
If the proposed reconstruction plan for Hennepin Ave. passes, Kristin Traynor says The Corner Balloon Shoppe will be moving from 2455 Hennepin Ave. “I have an extremely diverse group of …
Hennepin for People supports city’s proposed plan for Hennepin Ave. South
As woman of color, Wedge resident Chandra Lalla says she knows how “our streets don’t serve everyone well.“For generations, city streets were built solely with car travel in mind, …
True progress on Hennepin requires a business plan
Small businesses are the lifeblood of any community. They provide distinctive character to a neighborhood and are the engine that drives a local economy. Without local businesses, there is no local …
COMPETITION FOR SPACE ALONG S. HENNEPIN
By Tesha M. Christensen In a one-way presentation on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, city staff acknowledged that there are competing desires for E. Hennepin Ave., and they can’t all be addressed …
BUSINESSES SUBMIT LETTER TO CITY
Opinion
 HUMANITY IS OUR BUSINESS
The world is opening up again. That’s good news for all of us who are still here. But just when you think life can’t get any more absurd, Elon Musk buys Twitter. The richest man on Earth …
Would you drain a treasured lake in The City of Lakes to save nine holes of golf?
What is causing the flooding at Hiawatha Golf Course is the fact that it is in the floodplain. The course has sunk and now exists 3-4 feet below the water elevation as evidenced by the fact that it …
Faced with controversy, park board once again fails to govern
The Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board is in a difficult position when it comes to Lake Hiawatha and the Hiawatha Golf Course. It has been eight years since the 2014 flood that inundated the golf …
My personal connection to Ukraine
On a spring afternoon in June 2017, I’m bounding along a country highway in a minivan with four other passengers. I’m gazing out the window across a green sea of a waist-high crop …
The Donald L. Hammen I know: staying strong, writing with courage
Imagine you are with me at my recent visit to the River Lake Eye Clinic. I have been a client there for many years. Even before receiving original Medicare plus supplement. You have now taken the …

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COLUMNISTS
 The power of street art
Make today better.  That was the message on a mural created at the LynLake Street Art Series in Minneapolis last summer. The mural started as a black wall painted outside the Jungle Theater …
TRUTH, BEAUTY AND THE UGLINESS WE’RE UP AGAINST
“’Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ that is all ye need know on earth, and all ye need to know.”This famous quote from poet John Keats has lived inside me since I was an English …
ALIGN YOUR WELL-BEING WITH YOUR CHOICES
Spring is emerging here in Minnesota. For me, this is a month to step back, take an inventory of where I am, what I am moving towards, what is clear and what is unclear, what is in flow, and what …
It takes a village to save a guitar program
NEWSFLASH! It was touch and go for a few days, but the one-of-a-kind Southwest High School guitar program is NOT being eliminated. Yay!! Chalk this one up to “Parental Involvement” meets …
A Real Way to Stop the Violence
In Minneapolis, public safety remains an open wound. ​​There has been no slowdown to the shootings, carjackings, robberies and other criminal acts that plagued the city in 2021. Minneapolis now …

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George Floyd Memorial Square

THE 24 DEMANDS

These are the 24 Demands community members wrote shortly after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis Police at Chicago and 38th.

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Neighborhood organizations
 ‘BOULDER SCRAMBLE’ COMING TO PAINTER PARK
In 2023, there will be a new street-style skate park and bounder scramble area at Painter Park. A basketball court will be added, and the tennis/pickleball courts will be improved. Work will start …
IMS ‘Colors of Spring ‘planned
Matt Cook, owner of Sawhill Custom Kitchen & Design and member of the IMS Art Crawl Minneapolis, announcethat the “Colors of Spring” Art Crawl (www.imsartcrawl.com) will be on …
GRAND AVENUE RECONSTRUCTION
The city of Minneapolis will continue with the reconstruction of Grand Ave. S. between 38th St. W. and Lake St. W. The project began in 2021 between 48th St. W. and 38th St. W. The scope of the …
204-UNIT APARTMENT BUILDING UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Yellow Tree Construction Services has been hired by Hall Sweeney Properties to construct a new 204-unit apartment building at 3536 Nicollet Avenue S. “Our general superintendent responsible for …
BMNA meets in person again
Starting in March the Bryn Mawr Neighborhood Association resumed meeting in person. They purchased streaming equipment that will allow them to interact with neighbors and presenters remotely while …

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