Minneapolis news for your Monday:
What's that thing on wheels with the long pole parked on the corner? It's the Minneapolis Police Department's latest crime-fighting weapon - the mobile camera, a rolling expression of our ever-widening surveillance culture, Matt McKinney reports. So far, folks in rough neighborhoods have welcomed the additional eyes, although in at least one other city, Washington DC, public concern about violations of privacy has led to limits in the use of the cameras.
The enrollment boom in parts of the city, especially south Minneapolis, could lead to expansions of three elementary schools: Lake Harriet, Lake Nokomis-Keewaydin and Pratt, Corey Mitchell reports.
The May 22 tornado created a landscape of stumps and bare streets in north Minneapolis. Now the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board will divert much of its tree planting budget to reforesting those hard-hit neighborhoods, Nicole Norfleet reports. The park board is also considering another addition to the city's amenities: a floating museum from a decomissioned dredge, Tom Meersman reports.
Streetcars are a museum piece ever since the last commercial trolley rolled into transit history in 1954. The City Council wants to bring them back, so it commissioned a study Friday of the feasibility of putting one on Nicollet and Central avenues, Steve Brandt reports.
Brandt also got ahold of an analysis of property tax changes by neighborhood that shows how neighborhoods in south and southwest Minneapolis are most likely to see taxes go up.
Some artists are owed thousands of dollars by a Minneapolis art dealership that was closed by its owner, who then opened a new business, Paul Levy reports in Sunday's Whistleblower column. One legal expert said the situation demonstrates the need for a tighter law governing business between artists and dealers.
At age 18, Mahdi Ali can expect to spend the rest of his life in prison, after his conviction Friday in the triple murders at the Seward Market, Abby SImons reports. Columnist Jon Tevlin describes how much changed in the 62 seconds of violence that evening in January 2010.
