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How Minneapolis made news in 2012
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: December 31, 2012 - 11:09 AM
One reporter’s take on the top 10 Minneapolis-focused stories of 2012:
• A new Vikings stadium approved by the Legislature for downtown, using city-derived taxes, capping a come-from-behind challenge to a proposed Blaine site, and City Council concurs on a 7-6 vote. Deal also subsidizes Target Center renovation.
• Mayor R.T. Rybak walks away from what he’s called his dream job, meaning his tenure at City Hall will end after 12 years and setting off a scramble to succeed him.
• A fired employee shoots and fatally wounds six people at Accent Signage Systems in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood, including the company’s founder, then kills himself.
• Redevelopment surges, with plans for several ambitious housing projects downtown along with an upsurge in apartment construction along transit routes.
• Metropolitan Airports Commission blocks a proposed routing change that would have concentrated jet noise over several corridors in Minneapolis (and Edina.)
• Hiawatha power line is ordered buried under E. 28th St., ending fears that it would mar the Midtown Greenway, and the extra cost is spread over all ratepayers, rather than just those in the city.
• Failure of plates anchoring cables for the Martin Olav Sabo bike-ped bridge detours traffic for several days on Hiawatha Avenue and disrupts bike commuting on the greenway for months.
• Enrollment of white students in Minneapolis schools rises for the first time in at least 35 years and the dawn of the desegregation era.
• Nizzel George, age 5, is gunned down in his sleep on a sofa in a North Side home, culminating a series of drive-by shootings.
• Police and fire chiefs both turn over in Minneapolis, with Janeé Harteau succeeding retiring Tim Dolan, and John Fruetel following Alex Jackson, who retires under pressure from the City Council.
Other notable developments:
School Supt. Bernadeia Johnson is named to a new three-year term when her first one expires on June 30, making her the district’s first two-term chief since Carol Johnson.
Police accumulation of license plate data draws numerous data requests, including from a rep man, and prompts the city to ask for a temporary classification of the data as private until the Legislature acts on its status.
Portland and Park avenues are converted to two-lane streets in a development that frustrates drivers but gives bikers extra space.
Haven’t we done this before? Long Election Day lines form at several precincts, with equipment malfunctions ranging from pens to ballots, and the first results aren’t available until hours after everywhere else in the state, and the final results take several days.
No-sort recycling is adopted by the city, with some households getting their bins now and others in the spring. All recyclables go in one bin, a system some suburbs adopted years ago.
Most city high school students switch to Go-To cards on Metro Transit,
Downtown rowdiness and shootings forced a police and licensing crackdown, with two clubs surrendering their liquor licenses.
Peavey Plaza will get a makeover that historic preservationists decry, including a city commission, but the Minnesota Orchestral Association wants it and the City Council falls in line.
The school district gets its first scratch-built headquarters ever, bringing hundreds of workers to W. Broadway Avenue.
Minneapolis City Council nixes a proposed Hennepin County service hub on W. Broadway Avenue after the community objects to it for drawing thousands of poor people.
Walker Community Church goes up in smoke in a fire that is ruled accidental but injures five firefighters, one of them severely.
A proliferation of new taprooms slakes the city’s thirst for microbrews, while Surly explores a southeast Minneapolis site.
Block E gets even lonelier as its movie theater closes down. But that doesn’t stop its political architect, lobbyist and former City Council President Jackie Cherryhomes, from announcing a comeback bid for mayor.
The school board goes unconventional, contracting for a self-governed school and a third charter school in educator Eric Mahmoud’s empire, both on the North Side.
Civilian review of alleged police misconduct is weakened in Minneapolis with the scrapping of the Civilian Review Authority. The review job turned over to a new agency dominated by police.
Some notable departures:
City Coordinator Steven Bosacker leaves the job, where he instituted statistical results measurement, to see the world.
Gregg Stubbs, named to replace Rocco Forte, who resigned before an investigation into his conduct was finished, leaves himself after only nine months on the job.
Tim Dolan, the retiring police chief, will work with the gun control lobby and chair the mayoral campaign committee for Council Member Don Samuels.
In memoriam:
Marv Davidoff, activist par excellance
Lauren Maker, political activist
Doug Davis, longtime teacher and union activist
Larry Harris, school lobbyist and civil rights champ
Robert T. Smith, Tribune columnist and city editor
NE investment co-op signs purchase deal
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: December 14, 2012 - 4:33 PM
A community investment cooperative aimed at strengthening northeast Minneapolis has signed its first purchase agreement, which could result in an expansion of the city’s smallest food co-op.
The North East Investment Cooperative announced Friday that it has signed a purchase agreement for an empty pair of storefronts at 2504-06 Central Av. NE.
It plans to rehab the smaller of the two storefronts, according to co-op Treasurer Joe Bove, but expects to immediately resell the larger to Recovery Bike Shop, which would move across Central from its present site.
Recovery rents from the Eastside Food Cooperative, and its relocation would allow the co-op to expand if the board gives the go-ahead to that in February, according to food co-op General Manager Amy Fields, who is also president of the investment co-op.
“It makes me feel like we are on the edge of this fantastic new movement for people to invest in their communities,” Fields said.
It’s just that sort of ripple effect that the investment co-op was seeking when it organized last spring. The cooperative has attracted 81 members who have invested $1,000 each in the cooperative, and announced that 27 more people have pledged to join.
The sales agreement, which calls for a closing within 90 days but is extendable, marks a milestone for the cooperative, which is following a still-evolving alternative method of community development.
Bove said the price for the former Twin Cities Marine and Hardware building is just under $300,000. After reselling the 2504 side to Recovery, the cooperative plans to invest at least $200,000 to rehab the 2506 space, most likely for rental initially, Bove said. He said bank financing is likely.
For Recovery, the pending move means a near-doubling of its current 1,700 square feet of showroom for used and new bikes in the food co-op building. Just as important, the roughly 7,000 square feet in the new space will also allow the business to consolidate the storage of bikes now squirreled in rental garages around northeast Minneapolis, according to co-owner Brent Fuqua. He said that the business has qualified for Small Business Administration financing. Its payroll fluctuates seasonally between five and 15 workers, including part-timers, he said.
Bove said the co-op’s purchase agreement also helps it seek tenants for the 4,500 square feet in the 2506 storefront. Among the businesses who have looked at the space is Urban Growler Brewing Co., whose web site says it plans to open a taproom yet this year while selling kegs to retailers. But Bove said the timing may not work to rent to the taproom. Brewery representatives couldn't be reached.
The eight-year-old food co-op, now turning a profit, is in the middle of feasibility studies for completely taking over the building it owns, which would be a 50 percent expansion of space. Such an expansion would allow the sales floor to expand from 4,100 square feet now, which is less than half that of the city’s other three food coo-ops, to at least 7,300 square feet.
Fields said the working estimate for the cost of such an expansion is $3 million, and the project would take 12 to 18 months if it goes ahead.
One reason for expanding is that only 40 percent of co-op members spend half or more of their food dollars at the store, according to co-op studies. Besides allowing a greater selection of items, and a bigger deli section, expansion into the bike space would also give the food store frontage on Central Avenue and traffic that approach 14,000 vehicles daily in 2009.
Chicago man arrested in south Minneapolis murder
Posted by: Randy Furst Updated: December 14, 2012 - 10:51 AMA 29-year-old man was arrested Thursday in Chicago for the shooting murder of a St. Paul man whose body was found in an alley in south Minneapolis in the early morning hours of Nov. 7.
Steven John Williams of Chicago was picked up on a arrest warrant after second degree intentional murder charges were filed on Wednesday, according to a Minneapolis Police Department news release.
Williams is accused of killing Michael Hayden, 29. Hayden and Williams knew each other and were having a dispute over the alleged theft of money, according to information gathered by Minneapolis homicide investigators Ann Kjos and Luis Porras, the news release said.
Police from the Third Precinct were first alerted to the shooting when they responded to a report of the sound of gunfire in the 2100 block of 10th Av. South just before 3 a.m. on Nov. 7, a Wednesday.
When officers arrived, they found Hayden’s body in an alley between 10th and 11th Aves., the victim of gunshot wounds. Police located surveillance video from a McDonald's retaurant and a witness account that placed the Williams and Hayden together just before the homicide occurred.
The Hennepin County attorney’s office filed criminal charges against Williams on Wednesday and an arrest warrant was issued. Police said Williams is in custody in Chicago.
Former saloon heads toward move
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: December 11, 2012 - 3:57 PMA bid to demolish an old saloon building tied to the Gluek brewery is turning into a mandate that the building be moved across the street and down the block instead.
That’s the upshot of an appeal heard Monday by a City Council committee by the developer of a West Bank site.
The city’s Heritage Preservation Commission last month denied a bid by Currie Park Development Inc.to demolish the former Gluek “tied house” at 1500 S. 6th St. for its planned 259-unit housing complex across from Currie Park. A tied house served beer exclusively from one brewer.
Developer Bianca Fine, who has been working on the proposal for years, appealed that decision, which also included a directive that the building be studied for historic preservation designation.
The council panel recommended that the appeal be granted but only to permit the saloon building to be moved to 1527 S. 6th St. Fine has said previously that her company is willing to move the structure to that site, which it owns. That full council is scheduled to act Friday on that recommendation.
The company did not immediately return a Star Tribune call on Tuesday.
Father said gun that killed his son was tucked under pillow
Posted by: Randy Furst Updated: December 6, 2012 - 1:38 PMThe 4-year-old boy who fatally shot his 2-year-old brother with a pistol in an upstairs bedroom had found the gun tucked under a pillow.
Kao Xiong, 33, who appeared to be overcome with grief, said in an interview that he had a permit to carry the semi-automatic handgun, and had wedged it under a pillow next to the bed’s headboard.
“My heart is broke,” said Xiong. “I wish I could be a new person.” His wife, Ma Vang, who sat nearby and speaks little English, looked on but had no comment.
Xiong said he worked for a St. Paul non-profit that helps the mentally ill and had come home for lunch. His wife was vacuuming so Neegnco Xiong, 2, and his 4-year-old brother went upstairs and were playing in the bed.
The couple heard a single gunshot and rushed upstairs to find Neegnco hunched on the bed, face down, Xiong said. He told his wife to call 911, picked up the toddler and then spoke to a dispatcher, while he intermittently gave the the boy CPR.
“I can’t imagine this terrible thing would happen to me,” Xiong said. He said he bought the gun a year and a half ago at a sporting goods store and had taken classes and gotten a permit. He said he kept the gun loaded because he sometimes carried it with him, if he went to a store at night or went jogging. Police interviewed Xiong on Wednesday.
Sgt. William Palmer, a Minneapolis police spokesman, called it a "horrible accident" but said an investigation is being conducted and the findings will be turned over to the Hennepin County attorney's office.
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