Southwest Journal, March 8–21, 2018 by The Southwest Journal

Spring Poetry

2018

Camp Guide

Southwest Journal Poetry Project

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March 8–21, 2018 Vol. 29, No. 5 southwestjournal.com

REBUILDING TRUST — Police talk culture change following the death of Justine Damond —

By Michelle Bruch / mbruch@southwestjournal.com

Police Chief Medaria Arradondo speaks about Justine Damond’s case at Pershing Park. “We want justice. We want, at the end, the truth. We want to know what happened,” he says. Photo by Michelle Bruch

94 arrested during Super Bowl sex traﬃcking operation By Nate Gotlieb / ngotlieb@southwestjournal.com

Local law enforcement agencies arrested 94 men for agreeing to purchase underage sex during an 11-day Super Bowl sting, a Minneapolis Police sergeant said at a press conference Feb. 20. A team of 50 law enforcement personnel, both sworn and civilian, made 90 felony arrests, three gross misdemeanor arrests and one misdemeanor arrest, Sgt. Grant Snyder said. Over 80 percent of the men arrested were between the ages of 21 and 50, and most had no criminal history other than traffic offenses. “In each of these cases, none of these men, I think it can be argued, actually went on the marketplace, went into the marketplace (or) went on the various ad sites looking for a juvenile,” Snyder said.

The sting came nearly four years after the Guardian Angel operation began with a single decoy ad. Snyder said a core law-enforcement team has conducted or supported as many as 100 operations in seven states in the years since, resulting in almost 1,000 felony arrests. “Our conviction rate approaches 98 percent,” he said. “Point to another crime that has that high of a conviction rate.” Snyder said 9,976 ads were posted on multiple online sites during the 11-day Super Bowl operation, a number not statistically different than the typical period in Minneapolis. He said 1,560 individual people responded to his team’s decoy ads. Forty-one of the arrested men were white, 20 SEE SEX TRAFFICKING / PAGE A12

nspector Kathy Waite remembers a “terrible sinking feeling” when she received the July 15 phone call that Justine Damond had been shot by an officer. “Any time you have an officer-involved shooting, you know the ripple effect that that’s going to have,” she said. “… It’s a lot for an agency to overcome, quite frankly.” “At the end I know there has to be a sense of justice,” said Police Chief Medaria Arradondo. Waite and Arradondo spoke in the Fulton neighborhood Feb. 26 about how they’re working to rebuild trust. Neighbors demanded to know how the department has changed in the months since the shooting. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman continues to seek more information before deciding whether to charge Officer Mohamed Noor in the shooting. More than 30 officers have been summoned to testify before a grand jury, according to the police union president. “I’m still just left wondering why and how could this have happened,” said Fulton resident Chris Gegax. “I’m really sad and angry still that nothing has really happened with this officer.” SEE CHANGE / PAGE A17

Met Council prevails in Southwest light rail lawsuit Judge rules against Lakes and Parks Alliance in ‘close case’ By Dylan Thomas / dthomas@southwestjournal.com

A federal judge said the Metropolitan Council was walking a legal “tightrope” as it sought local approvals for the Southwest Light Rail Transit project in 2013 and 2014, but it did not violate federal environmental regulations. In a Feb. 27 order, U.S. District Court Judge John Tunheim ruled in favor of the regional planning agency in a lawsuit filed in 2014 by the Lakes and Parks Alliance, a citizens group. The alliance alleged that Met Council short-circuited the federal environmental review process as it sought

municipal consent for the nearly $1.9 billion transit project. Describing it as a “close case,” Tunheim granted Met Council’s request for summary judgment, finding that the regional planning agency did not “irreversibly commit itself to a single alternative” even as it zeroed in on a plan to run light rail trains in tunnels through Minneapolis’ Kenilworth Corridor. “We are pleased the Court ruled with the Council, putting to an end this drawn-out SEE LIGHT RAIL LAWSUIT / PAGE A10

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Moments in Minneapolis

By Cedar Imboden Phillips

A bygone bridge

o you recognize this vista? The details may have changed, but it’s still easy to see the contours of Bde Maka Ska’s shore. This undated photograph was taken near the intersection of 36th Street and East Calhoun Parkway looking south; tombstones in Lakewood Cemetery are visible on the left of the image. Riders heading to Linden Hills from downtown traveled south on Hennepin Avenue until 31st Street, then onto a private right-of-way that curved around the lake. This bridge crossing 36th Street is no longer standing, but during the streetcar era steps led from the street to the boarding platform. Visible in the distance is Lakewood Cemetery’s streetcar entrance, marked by a now-demolished freestanding stone station. The Como-Harriet streetcar line stopped operating in 1954, although the Minnesota Streetcar Museum still operates along a small portion of these tracks. Cedar Imboden Phillips serves as the executive director for the Hennepin History Museum. Learn more about the museum and its offerings at hennepinhistory.org or 870-1329.

Photograph courtesy Hennepin History Museum

southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 A3

By Michelle Bruch / mbruch@southwestjournal.com

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“Perfection isn’t allowed in here,” shouts Heather Corndorf as women dance to choreography she creates on the fly. “Look in the mirror. Look at yourself. You’re amazing.” Classes at mXe Movement Studio (pronounced “moxie”) range from cardio dance to kickboxing, hip hop, yoga sculpt, Pilates and core conditioning. Instructors are prepared to teach at all fitness levels. “It’s a party,” said Marissa Bader. “It’s fun choreography, and it’s no pressure. It’s a family. It’s different than any other workout facility, I think, because of that.” “It feels like you’re not working out because it’s so fun,” said Carissa Hogan. While they work out, some parents drop off their kids for classes upstairs. Instructor Jen Feriancek — known as “Miss Jen” at Burroughs Elementary — teaches skills like courage and mindfulness, sending kids home with stickers that say: “I have moxie.” “We’re trying to bring people’s moxie out,” Corndorf said. “There is a deeper meaning behind all of this movement. … It’s not just a gym, it’s a lifestyle.” The studio challenges people to get out of their bubbles. “Call someone instead of texting,” states the chalkboard. At an event on March 11, people will assemble kits to distribute to the homeless. It’s something

Corndorf does at home. She keeps a pile of Ziploc bags in the car filled with dried fruit, jerky and notes from her kids, and she passes them out as she sees people in need. “Any age can do this,” she said. “We let kids know it’s really easy to be compassionate.” Corndorf majored in dance at the University of Michigan and worked at a professional dance company in Chicago. The next 20-plus years of her career fell into place when she took a kickboxing class and the instructor suggested she learn how to teach. “The things I was doing in the classroom were just magical,” she said. “I have the best job.” She went on to teach at facilities that include Life Time Fitness and Calhoun Beach Club. She wasn’t certain about opening a studio of her own until her daughter crawled into her lap and said: “Mommy, I want to see you try something new.” “I say this to my kids all the time: You have to do something scary, you have to do something new. It would be failure not to try,” she said. Though she has several workout videos on the market, she’d rather see people join a class — any class, even if it’s not mXe. “Go somewhere, meet some people and move,” she said.

NOTED: More than 50 businesses are teaming up for a neighborhood-wide game called Love from LynLake. Bingo-style game cards are available at participating businesses, and players have two weeks to complete challenges at local

bars, fitness centers, theaters and coffee shops. Completed cards enter a raffle for prizes. The game runs March 17–31. For more information, visit lyn-lake.org/ calendar/2018/3/17/love-from-lyn-lake.

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A farmers market is in development for the green space on The Mall west of Hennepin Avenue. The East Isles Residents Association is closing in on tentative plans for an evening weekday market of about 40 food-focused vendors to launch this summer. The “heart and soul” of the market is fresh food from local sources, said Debbie Gold, an East Isles resident and board member leading the effort. The weekly market would span at least one block between Hennepin and Humboldt, with the possibility of expanding to a second block if needed. Target market dates are mid-June through September. The East Isles Residents Association is working through the red tape to launch a pilot project with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, which has never permitted a recurring farmers market on park property before. The pilot dovetails with the Park Board’s urban agriculture initiative, which aims to boost access to healthy food in the parks. Permits manager Shane Stenzel said the Park Board has always said no to famers markets in the past, but this concept is appealing because it’s coming from a neighborhood group. He said The Mall is also an appealing location because of its access to transit. Cross streets would remain open, he said. “It is pretty exciting,” Stenzel said. “Who knows, down the road we may add opportunities for farmers markets in other parts of the city.” The East Isles neighborhood has worked in recent years to highlight The Mall, making plans to add trial gardens, replace benches and install chess tables. The farmers market would further those efforts, Gold said. “It’s about calling attention to The Mall, about community building, and bringing fresh and local produce into the neighborhood,” she said. The EIRA’s next step involves hiring a market manager. The cost to the neighborhood isn’t yet certain, but the board is seeking co-sponsors to help cover costs that include city licensing fees,

The Mall between Hennepin and Humboldt avenues will host a new farmers market running mid-June through September. Photo by Michelle Bruch

signage and marketing. EIRA is not looking to profit from the market, but rather provide a service and create profits for vendors, Gold said. An Uptown Farmers Market operated from 2009–2012 at the Intermedia Arts parking lot and on 29th Street between Lyndale and Dupont avenues. Organizers attributed the closure of that market to high rent, slow business and dwindling volunteers. The East Isles neighborhood came close to seeing a new farmers market in the mid-90s. Resident Steve Havig remembers hashing out the idea with an Isles Bun & Coffee customer from the University of Minnesota’s 4-H program. They received approval from the condominium association at 1425 W. 28th St. to hold a market in the building’s parking lot. But at a time when farmers markets were less common, Havig said they couldn’t secure a market insurance policy, and the idea fizzled. “I think insurance stops a lot of good ideas,” he quipped. “… Having a farmers market on The Mall is going to be spectacular.” Interested vendors or market managers can contact info@eastisles.org.

Anna Hillegass owns The Foundry Home Goods, which specializes in “simple, useful and beautiful” products for the home. Photo by Michelle Bruch

48TH & GRAND

The Foundry Home Goods Watch for daffodils to come up this spring near The Foundry Home Goods’ new corner at 48th & Grand. When the shop was based in the North Loop, owner Anna Hillegass cultivated hundreds of daffodil bulbs to surprise neighbors with a #daffodilbomb each year. She also placed sod on the sidewalk and welcomed the neighborhood for lawn parties. That’s how she met her husband, who worked across the street at Askov Finlayson. The pair were recently married in a

surprise ceremony on Christmas Eve — Hillegass placed gardenias in her bridesmaids’ hair upon arrival — and Hillegass is settling into a new home on Nicollet Island and a new shop in Tangletown. Even those who have never visited The Foundry may have unknowingly seen her dishes at local cafés. She’s provided them at-cost to support businesses like Penny’s Coffee and Botany Coffee. SEE THE FOUNDRY / PAGE A5

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Juan Yunga at La Mesa, now open in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood. Photo by Michelle Bruch

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La Mesa Juan Yunga and Ann Carlson-Yunga spent two years searching all over Minneapolis for a spot to house their restaurant, and they were thrilled to land a couple of blocks from their front door in Bryn Mawr. Now they’re serving mahi mahi tacos and wood-fired pizzas to their neighbors at 230 Cedar Lake Rd. S., the former Sparks restaurant, and their 9-year-old daughter is quickly planning a career in waitressing. “We’ve seen a lot of familiar faces,” Carlson-Yunga said. “It’s a nice comfortable spot for people to go and hang out.” The couple met 19 years ago while cooking at the Nicollet Island Inn. CarlsonYunga currently works at TEA2 Architects, where her design for a Lynnhurst garage, woodshop and potting shed earned a BLEND Award last year. The restaurant showcases her photographs of plants like the tree tomato (tamarillo) that forms the base for the gently spiced Andean condiment aji, which shows up throughout the menu in dishes like shrimp or chicken skewers.

“[The restaurant] celebrates all the wonderful things we love about Ecuador,” she said. Yunga grew up in Cuenca, a temperate city set in the Andes Mountains where hillside residents keep plots of land to grow corn and other vegetables. The city inspires some of the restaurant’s warm and hearty dishes like the wood oven-roasted chicken served with roasted potatoes, tomato-onion salad and Cholula aioli. The couple chose a wine list with quality and reasonable pricing in mind. They also serve Andean flower tea, traditionally made with amaranth flowers, lime and sugar; and Fioravanti, an Ecuadorian strawberry soda that’s said to be one of the world’s first commercial sodas. Looking ahead to patio season, the restaurant is planning lush planters with the help of the Bryn Mawr Garden Group. The restaurant is open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch 11 a.m.–2 p.m. and dinner starting at 5 p.m.

NOTED: A new Chuck & Don’s store opened March 1 at 5045 France Ave. S. Grooming is available by appointment. Founded by dog trainers and boarders

Charles “Chuck” Anderson and Don Tauer in 1990, the store offers premium food and treats. A grand opening celebration will take place April 19–24.

FROM THE FOUNDRY / PAGE A4

a nice way to do business,” she said. Some of her products are custom made for The Foundry, including linens from Lakeshore Linen, based in South Minneapolis. The shop orders square cloths that can double as placemats or tea towels. “I like the idea that things should work for multiple uses,” Hillegass said. “… All of the basics are really lovely, so when it’s time to throw together a party it’s not hard.” A former Holly Hunt interior designer and floral stylist, Hillegass is providing a prop shop in the basement of the store for professional photo shoots. This summer, The Foundry will host flower share pickups by Ladyfern Flowers, which is based at Hillegass’ mother’s farm, Two Pony Gardens in Long Lake. The shop is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m.–7 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

As an entrepreneur who dreams of running a full-fledged general store, Hillegass has an oldfashioned strategy for selecting her wares. “I don’t go to trade shows. I just like to find things the hard way,” she said. She discovered herbal tinctures by Wooden Spoon Herbs while visiting a friend in Nashville. She met ceramic artist Ginny Sims when Sims pulled up to the shop with a trunk full of products. She orders cutting boards perfectly sized for two pieces of toast from Dennis at August Fischer. She talked to all the beekeepers at the State Fair to find Old Mill Candles by Kate Ellis, who picks up beeswax from her dad’s fourth-generation family farm and makes candles at her South Minneapolis home. “All of these sweet little networks happen. It’s

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By Dylan Thomas / dthomas@southwestjournal.com

Frey nominates new city coordinator Mayor Jacob Frey on Feb. 28 nominated Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde for city coordinator. Rivera-Vandermyde currently serves as deputy city coordinator and was previously director of the city’s Department of Regulatory Services. If her appointment is confirmed by the City Council, she will take over the post occupied since 2014 by Spencer Cronk, who in February started in a new job as city manager of Austin, Texas. Frey praised Rivera-Vandermyde’s “wealth of experience,” noting her work as an attorney and correctional system administrator in Puerto Rico. He also described her as an “architect” of the city’s recently adopted minimum wage and sick and safe time ordinances. Frey said Rivera-Vandermyde’s use of “datadriven analysis” and her “goal-oriented approach” meshed with his own style of working. “We’ve got a very aggressive agenda coming forward at the City of Minneapolis,” he said, describing Rivera-Vandermyde as “exactly the person to take the reins.” The City Coordinator’s Office advises and consults with both the mayor and City Council, oversees city finances and directs the other city departments. It is the office charged with carrying out many of the policies enacted by the city’s elected officials. Rivera-Vandermyde moved to Minnesota in 2006, and in addition to her work with the city she sits on the board of directors for the affordable housing nonprofit HousingLink. Standing next to Frey at a Feb. 28 press event, she described the nomination as a privilege. “It has been great to really work in a city that is moving things forward,” she said. “It is not just talking about change, it is driving change, it is becoming a change agent in times where, nationally, we are not seeing that change move as quickly as we can.” Frey took office in January but delayed the nomination of new department heads until after the Minneapolis-hosted Super Bowl in early February. The mayor nominates all department heads, but the appointments must be approved by the City Council Executive Committee. A

public hearing on each nomination precedes a final vote by the full council. Frey’s other nominations included David Frank for director the Community Planning and Economic Development Department; Frank currently serves as interim director. Frey also nominated Robin Hutcheson, Susan Segal and Patrick Todd for re-appointment to their leadership roles in the Public Works Department, City Attorney’s Office and City Assessor’s Office, respectively. Segal received mostly praise but also some criticism during a March 1 public hearing on her re-appointment in front of the City Council Enterprise Committee. Dave Bicking, a prominent police reform advocate, said he opposed her nomination for a variety of reasons, including the disproportionate prosecution of people of color. Bicking also raised the issue of a legal opinion offered by Segal in 2012 that allowed the city to make a $150 million contribution to the construction of U.S. Bank Stadium without putting the issue to voters in the form of a referendum. That issue was also raised during 2014 re-appointment proceedings for Segal. In 2016, Segal was one of several city officials who accepted free seat in a stadium luxury suite controlled by the Minnesota Sports Facility Authority. She later reimbursed the MSFA for the ticket, but Bicking said it raised questions about Segal’s ethics. “For someone in that position to accept free tickets to a game at the stadium that she helped ram through, I can’t even imagine how someone wouldn’t say, ‘Oh my goodness, I can’t take these tickets,’” he said. At least seven people testified in support of Segal’s appointment at the same public hearing, including Hennepin County Chief Public Defender Mary Moriarty, who described Segal as “incredibly strong in the area of criminal justice reform.” Former City Council Member Elizabeth Glidden said Segal was a “brilliant attorney” who was pushing progressive reforms. Frey said he was “100 percent behind Susan Segal as city attorney.”

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southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 A7

Town hall on SWLRT mitigation plan set

The Truth Matters See my movie review in the arts section of

Linden-Hills.com Locally Owned — Community Focused Larry LaVercombe

612-925-0000 | TeamLarry.net | larry@larrylavercombe.com Met Council hosted a tour this summer of the future Southwest Light Rail Transit corridor for local elected officials to see the site of a proposed crash wall. Submitted photo

The Metropolitan Council plans a March town hall meeting to gather public input on plans to mitigate the adverse impact of the Southwest Light Rail Transit project on an historic railroad corridor. Met Council announced the March 22 event at Dunwoody College on Feb. 23, the same day it released a supplemental environmental assessment on the SWLRT project. The report analyzes the environmental impact of 10 significant modifications to the light rail project made since the Federal Transit Administration issued the final environmental impact statement on SWLRT in May 2016. It wasn’t until more than a year later, in August 2017, that Met Council negotiated a memorandum of understanding with BNSF railway to run light rail trains through the BNSF-owned Wayzata Subdivision, located just west of downtown Minneapolis. As part of the agreement, BNSF demanded a barrier to separate freight from light rail traffic, leading SWLRT planners to add a 10-foot-high, milelong crash wall. The Wayzata Subdivision makes up a small section of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railroad/Great Northern Railway Historic District, which has been deemed eligible for placement on the National Register of Historic Places. The entire historic railway corridor extends 205 miles from Minneapolis to the North Dakota border. In November, FTA determined the addition of the crash wall and a new storage area for Northstar Commuter Rail trains would have an “adverse effect” on the historic district — adding a new physical and visual barrier where

there previously was not one and widening the historic cut of the railway trench. Historic retaining walls and earthen embankments will be destroyed by construction. Met Council, the state Historic Preservation Office, the city and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board began consulting in November on how to mitigate the impact of the changes. A draft mitigation plan is expected this spring, according to the Met Council. The supplemental environmental assessment also found the crash wall would have a “moderate degree” of visual impact — one felt mostly by recreational trail users — and a small but “negligible” effect on the noise heard by nearby residents. Bryn Mawr residents raised concerns last fall that the crash wall could reflect the noise of freight rail trains into their neighborhood. A noise study completed since then predicts an increase in noise of 0–0.4 decibels north of the tracks. The supplemental environmental assessment notes changes of less than 3 decibels typically “are not perceptible in … outdoor locations.” South of the tracks, the Interstate-394 bridge is expected to act as a noise barrier. The SWLRT project is a 14.5-mile extension of the METRO Green Line from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie. Completion of the supplemental environmental assessment is one of the final steps required for Met Council to submit a full-funding grant agreement to the FTA later this year. Federal funds are expected to cover about half the cost of the $1.9-billion project.

State and local officials listened as project staff described the crash wall proposed for a portion of the light rail corridor where commuters and freight will run side-by-side. Submitted photo

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A8 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com

PUBLISHER Janis Hall jhall@southwestjournal.com

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By Jim Walsh

St. Patrick’s Day in Minneapolis: one man’s plan

hen I landed in Dublin last year and roamed around the city for a few hours, my very distinct initial impression of being in Ireland for the first time was, “Well … this looks familiar.” For sure, the pubs and music of the Temple Bar district were (somewhat) reminiscent of the music and clubs of the twin towns, and it did my heart good to know that we’re doing something right here. Now comes the real test. “Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” — William Butler Yeats St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Saturday this year, making it an all-day celebration of all things Irish. St. Paul may have the biggest Irish-American population in the Midwest and more timehonored traditions and festivities, but Minneapolis is no slainte slouch. And while there may be other things to write about in this world of human problems and horrors, there’s nothing like an Irish pub to remind all who enter that people are good, friendly, kind, and want to rise above the troubles of the day. Here’s one man’s (virtual) plan for next Saturday: “For you can’t hear Irish tunes without knowing you’re Irish, and wanting to pound that fact into the floor.”— Jennifer Armstrong Up with the sun and breakfast at Curran’s Restaurant (4201 S. Nicollet Ave.). “St. Patrick’s Day is a hoppin’ day around here,” owner and namesake Dennis Curran told me last year. “We go through about 600 pounds of corned beef, 250 pounds of cabbage and 250 pounds of potatoes.” Go for the corned beef and cabbage and morning Guinness, and be sure to linger around the Currans entryway for the wall hangings and Irish literature quotes. “The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad, for all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad.” — G.K. Chesterton Motor down Lake Street to the Schooner Tavern (2901 S. 27 Ave.) for something called “the Bad Lucky St. Pat’s Party,” then it’s on to the city’s best British pub, Merlin’s Rest (3601 E. Lake St.), for a pint and lunch (the Merlin’s Stew is worth the trip alone, along with the wee tots, bangers and mash, shepherd’s pie, pie of the week, and a Brian Oake-worthy selection of Scotch whisky), or skip lunch and save it for later at Keegan’s Irish Pub (16 University Ave. NE) and the St. Brigid’s Irish chips, the Irish poutine, or St. Patrick’s corned beef sandwich. “The Irish are the only people who know how to cry for the dirty polluted blood of all the world.” — Norman Mailer Stumble on over to downtown Minneapolis and look over the drunken emerald city from the rooftop of the Hewing Hotel (300 N. Washington Ave.), where from 3 p.m.–8 p.m. they’ll be offering “complimentary pours of whiskey, Irish music, and a special menu that will have you feeling the Irish spirit.” Then it’s on to

Paul Crilly of Morrissey’s Irish Pub: The five-year-old Uptown bar and tearoom is an essential stop on any St. Patrick’s Day pub crawl. Photo by Jim Walsh

opening day festivities at Finnegan’s Brew Co. (817 5th Ave. S.), where the 13,000-squarefoot brewery and taproom makes its maiden voyage with a commemorative first tap at 9 a.m. Pre-parade (6:30 p.m.–9 p.m., Nicollet Mall) tune-ups continue at downtown pub staples The Local (931 Nicollet Mall) and Brit’s Pub (1110 Nicollet Mall), while a warm-up of Irish coffee nightcaps at Kieran’s Irish Pub (85 N. 6th St.) or O’Donovan’s Irish Pub (700 N. 1st Ave.) might be in order. “Irish music is guts, balls and feet music, yeah? It’s frenetic dance music, yeah? Or it’s impossibly sad like slow music, yeah? Yeah? And it also handles all sorts of subjects, from rebel songs to comical songs about sex, you what I mean, yeah? I’m just following the Irish tradition of songwriting, the Irish way of life, the human way of life. Cram as much pleasure into life, and rail against the pain you have to suffer as a result. Or scream and rant with the pain, and wait for it to be taken away with beautiful pleasure.” — Shane MacGowan Onward to Uptown, where the LynLake Brewery (2934 S. Lyndale Ave.) hosts Mikel Wright and the Wrongs and Will Effertz all night, and around the corner to the BryantLake Bowl (810 W. Lake St.), where Irish music and comedy troupe The Dregs hold forth starting at 10 p.m. Down the block is Minneapolis’s finest Irish pub and restaurant, Morrissey’s Irish Pub (913 W. Lake St.), which describes itself as “the newest link in a long chain of [Minnesota] Irish pubs, dating all the way back to 1875, when The Erin Go Bragh

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Pub opened in Duluth,” and which celebrates it’s fifth birthday with drink specials and a party tent set up in the back driveway. “The Irish: be they kings, or poets, or farmers, they’re people of great worth. They keep company with the angels and bring a bit of heaven here to earth.” — Anonymous Then again, you could skip all that madness and join me at the Mad Ripple Hootenanny (Friday, Studio 2 Café, 6:30 p.m.–9 p.m.) or ring in St. Patrick’s Day with the Belfast Cowboys at Mystic Lake Casino (Saturday) or keep it all going with the Ike Reilly Assassination (Sunday, Turf Club). Cheers and be careful out there, and keep in mind the old Irish blessing: “May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you’ve gone too far.” Jim Walsh lives and grew up in South Minneapolis. He can be reached at jimwalsh086@gmail.com

CORRECTION A story on the Sons of Norway development in East Calhoun in the Feb. 22–March 7 edition incorrectly described Nathan Campeau as a former neighborhood resident. He still lives in East Calhoun.

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southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 A9

Voices

A vision for change Our community suffered a devastating blow last summer with the inexplicable shooting of Justine Damond by a Minneapolis police officer. Since then, many of us have sought to convert our grief into action, working to reform the justice system into a more compassionate and trustworthy institution that serves all Minnesotans fairly. We have spoken with elected officials and police leadership, community groups and social justice organizations. Everyone brought a different perspective to the discussion, and the only point of agreement was that the problem had no simple fix. Tackling this complex issue at the state level requires a representative with a proven track record of social advocacy and coalition building, and I believe Meggie Wittorf is that person. In our conversations, Meggie has always demonstrated an acute awareness that our recent experience in Fulton is not unique and is emblematic of circumstances faced by minority communities for decades. She excels at communicating how what is often perceived as “their problem” is in reality a concern for all Minnesotans. In this way, Meggie encourages more residents to advocate for transparency and accountability in our state’s police departments. At the same time, she recognizes that the police departments themselves must be participants in reform discussions. No policy handed down from on high is likely to succeed without the buy-in of those affected, no matter how noble the intention. This desire for consensus among all stakeholders is crucial for any lasting improvement and is embodied by Meggie’s leadership style. I pass by Justine’s memorial nearly every

day — a constant reminder of the tragic consequences that can result when our justice system falls short of expectations. It compels me to work toward a Minnesota where something like this can never happen again, one where every resident feels safe calling the police when they are in trouble and the police treat every individual with dignity and respect without feeling like they are constantly under threat. This is my vision, and I know that Meggie shares this vision too. I am proud to support Meggie Wittorf to be our next state representative.

NEIGHBORHOOD SKETCHBOOK

Todd Schuman, Senate District 61B delegate Fulton

Ignoring community voices It’s disappointing the Sons of Norway project is moving ahead, ignoring the voices of the surrounding community. Living in the neighborhood for over 25 years, it’s like a gut punch. I wonder if officials like City Council President Lisa Bender even know what they voted for based on her quote. “I can’t in good conscience, as an elected official in the city of Minneapolis, force a developer to build multi-million dollar homes at this location,” Bender said. “It just isn’t consistent with any of our policies or the promises that I have made when I ran for office.” I don’t think multi-million dollar homes were ever discussed for the site. At issue were the existing zoning guidelines and a gradual “step-down” as a buffer to the homes closest to the project. I commend Council Member Lisa Goodman for being the lone dissenter, saying city officials have “a contract, in a way” with the neighborhood to create something that is better. That is all we want! John Hemmesch East Calhoun

A10 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com FROM LIGHT RAIL LAWSUIT / PAGE A1

challenge to the Southwest LRT project, and acknowledging the Council’s efforts to balance federal and state laws,” Met Council Chair Alene Tchourumoff said in a statement. “The Council continues to engage residents and businesses as we plan for this project, which will improve mobility and connect people with jobs all across the region.” Mary Pattock of Lakes and Parks Alliance wrote in an email that she was “extremely disappointed” with the ruling, adding that the group would be considering its options going forward. In his ruling, Tunheim affirmed that “the proper procedures were followed in the approval of the South Tunnel Plan,” referring to the shallow cut-and-cover tunnel light rail trains will run through where the SWLRT route passes between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles. The tunnel was a late addition to the project, an alternative chosen to satisfy three parties with a stake in the nearly $1.9-billion transit project: Minneapolis, St. Louis Park and Twin Cities and Western Railroad. Met Council at one point planned to run light rail trains through the Kenilworth Corridor at-grade. But they faced objections from both Twin Cities and Western Railroad, which operates freight trains in the corridor and wouldn’t agree to a detour, and St. Louis Park, where local elected stood firm against a proposal to reroute TC&W freight traffic through their suburb. Meanwhile, Minneapolis officials said they would not accept any plan that kept both freight and light-rail trains at-grade in the Kenilworth Corridor. Minneapolis ultimately agreed to the tunnel plan after negotiating a memorandum of understanding with Met Council that secured the city a station at 21st Street in Kenwood and funds for Kenilworth Corridor design upgrades.

ROOFING

In a separate memorandum negotiated with St. Louis Park, Met Council agreed to end the study of any plan to reroute freight trains, except as required for environmental review. Hennepin County and all five cities along the 14.5-mile SWLRT route — Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Minnetonka and Eden Prairie — voted in 2014 to grant the project municipal consent, a step required under state statute. Met Council had already completed a draft environmental impact statement on the project in 2012, so in 2015 the agency completed a supplemental statement that included analysis of the tunnels. After making other cost-saving changes to the project, Met Council then went back to the cities along the route and won another round of municipal consent approvals. Lakes and Parks Alliance alleged that Met Council acted improperly by completing the state municipal consent process while the federal environmental review was ongoing. In its lawsuit, the group argued that Met Council essentially cut off alternative routing options before getting the full picture of the project’s environmental impact. Tunheim, however, found Met Council had not “irreversibly and irretrievably” settled on one route. “The municipal-consent process was, and remains, nonbinding,” Tunheim wrote in his order, citing as evidence the fact that Met Council initiated a second round of municipal consent for SWLRT after changing its plans for Kenilworth Corridor. Tunheim said the memoranda of understanding negotiated with the cities of Minneapolis and St. Louis Park were also nonbinding — whether or not local elected officials view them as such. In the order, he described them as “promises that can be broken.” He also found the Federal Transit Administration was not bound by the state-governed municipal-consent process when it issued its

A bridge through the Kenilworth Corridor. Plans to route light rail through the corridor sparked a legal dispute between Met Council and a group of area residents known as the Lakes and Parks Alliance. File photo

record of decision on SWLRT, indicating that Met Council had met the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. “All told, these facts show that the Council did not engage in premeditation. Rather, the Council focused, albeit rather intently, on its preferred alternative, the South Tunnel Plan, which it is permitted to do,” Tunheim wrote. In Tunheim’s view, Met Council was more focused on securing funding for the project and winning municipal consent than advocating for one route option to the exclusion of any other. The agency was more concerned about getting tracks laid than where they would go, and Met Council’s willingness to alter the plan, add a tunnel and go back for a second round of municipal consent showed

that was the case, he added. “To be sure, route predetermination would have helped secure funding and obtain municipal consent,” he wrote. “But the facts indisputably show that the Council prioritized funding and municipal consent over specific routes or alternatives. When faced with financial pressures and the prospect of not obtaining municipal consent, the Council was willing to change the proposed route to advance their funding and municipal-consent goals.” In her email, Pattock described Tunheim’s contention that Met Council could back out of its memoranda of agreement as “shocking.” “The council has a sweet legal status — it’s unregulated with a get-out-of-jail card,” she added. “How did that happen?”

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were Hispanic, 12 were black, 11 were Asian and two were Indian. Five were between the ages of 18 and 20, and one was between the ages of 71 and 80. Snyder said that men between the ages of 41 and 50 made up the largest single population of buyers two years ago. He said it’s important to know age information so that law enforcement can target potential buyers through outreach and prevention strategies. Snyder also said that men of color made up a larger proportion of arrestees than two years ago. He said increased outreach efforts appear to be successfully reaching white men but not serving people of color as well. Law enforcement made in-person contact with 28 potential victims during the 11 days, Snyder said, adding that half of them came from outside Minnesota. Adult Asian women made up the highest proportion of victims, Snyder said, adding that Asian women, primarily adult Chinese women who either are undocumented or overstay in the U.S., are among the most vulnerable. The Super Bowl team consisted of personnel from local, state and federal agencies, along with its service partners, Minneapolis-based Source MN and YouthLink MN. The nonprofits organized service-response teams from a variety of local nonprofits and agencies, such as The Link, Breaking Free and Cornerstone. The team worked more than 7,000 hours during the operation, Snyder said. “Simply, they did whatever we asked them to do,” Snyder said. Laura Mulliken, director of community engagement for SourceMN, said 80 percent of trafficking in Minnesota starts with an online interaction. “That makes those women really difficult to find,” she said. “You aren’t going to find them on street outreach as we kind of typically historically thought about it.” SourceMN has developed over the last two

Shawn Neudauer, a public affairs officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, explains a security feature on an authentic Super Bowl ticket during a press conference on Feb. 20. Photo by Nate Gotlieb

years an outreach program to women who are being sold online, Mulliken said. The organization makes contract with them over text, offers to get together with them and reminds them that “they are valuable and loved just as they are,” she said. “They, over time, many times, will reach back to us for resources or a next step” Mulliken said. Mulliken said 40 churches came together to create a 20-bed shelter space at Hope Community Church in downtown Minneapolis during the Super Bowl week. “It was just a beautiful place of safety for them to just be who they were,” she said.

154 counterfeit tickets confiscated on Super Bowl Sunday The Minneapolis Police Department and partnering agencies also recovered 154 counterfeit tickets worth an estimated $900,024 on Super Bowl Sunday, officers reported at another press conference on Feb. 20. A 65-member counterfeit merchandising and

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ticketing unit arrested 19 people over Super Bowl weekend and assisted the Bloomington Police Department in making similar arrests at the Mall of America, Cmdr. Christopher Granger said. Counterfeit tickets were being sold anywhere from $400 to $5,000, Lt. Kim Lund said. “There was no way that we could get somebody into the Super Bowl if they had a counterfeit ticket. Period,” said Shawn Neudauer, a public affairs officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Granger said the counterfeit merchandising and ticketing unit included partners from DHS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the FBI and St. Paul Police Department, among others. The unit began its operation on Jan. 26 and was broken down into five plainclothes teams, a day and a night shift, an investigative car and a responsive crime-lab team. A sixth team worked exclusively to target known counterfeiters from out of town starting the Wednesday before the game, he said. The teams recovered 7,597 counterfeit items

of merchandise worth an estimated $520,000, in addition to the tickets, Granger said. He said the NFL issued cease-and-desist orders to businesses caught selling the counterfeit merchandise. Granger said the teams recovered five different types of counterfeit Super Bowl tickets. They interviewed everyone that was caught with the fake tickets, Lund said. “Our fear was that they would go back out of the perimeter and resell the ticket,” she said. Lund noted that the authentic game tickets had heat-sensitive ink on the back of them. She said people from around the world purchased fake tickets on the street during Super Bowl week. Victims hadn’t recovered any financial losses as of Feb. 20, she said, though she added that there should be some indictments coming down federally. Neudauer said there’s often very little law enforcement can do for people who buy counterfeit tickets. He said it’s especially heartbreaking when there are kids involved, noting one family from North Dakota who spent about $1,500 for a Vikings game in December. “Watching those kids and their faces, they’re just crestfallen,” he said. Granger said there was a steady increase in the number and types of counterfeit tickets as the Vikings season progressed. Many victims in those cases were forwarded to Detective Pat Gilligan of the Burnsville Police Department since a couple of the purchases happened in Burnsville. Lund said there are only three places people can buy a ticket to get into an NFL game: NFL Ticket Exchange, a team box office or Ticketmaster. Neudauer said victims are sometimes reimbursed for purchasing counterfeit tickets, depending on the kind of case and convictions that law enforcement can obtain. But he said it’s more of a situation where buyers should beware. “Once you’ve been scammed, it’s a violation of your privacy,” he said. “You can never pay somebody to make that better.”

southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 A13

Renters go on strike Tenants demanding repairs allege mold, pests and leaks By Michelle Bruch / mbruch@southwestjournal.com

A group of Minneapolis renters is on strike. “The heat hasn’t been over 45 degrees since mid-February,” said a resident of 3116 22nd Ave. S., who declined to share her name. She said her nine-month-old son was hospitalized in January with the flu, and the hospital won’t allow him to return to the cold apartment that’s infested with mice, roaches and black mold. “I shouldn’t have to live with this,” she said. In response to her complaints, she said Bison Management maintenance workers added plastic to her windows, and the man vying to remain the landlord, Rickey Misco, offered her a cat to handle the mice. Misco said he helped give a cat to a tenant who wanted a pet, but that’s not his method of pest control. More than a dozen renters in Whittier, Stevens Square and other Minneapolis neighborhoods have filed petitions to demand immediate repairs at buildings previously operated by Stephen Frenz, whose rental licenses were revoked late last year. So far they have paid more than $27,000 in rent into court, rather than pay an interim administrator of the apartments. The administrator, Lighthouse Management Group, has been appointed by the court to manage some contested properties until ownership is solidified. Lighthouse Director Alex Dybsky said apartment temperatures that drop below the mid-60s require immediate action, while issues like window replacement take a lower priority. “We don’t have the ability necessarily to completely rehabilitate buildings, but certainly

bringing things up to code and addressing livability concerns — those are all pretty clearly stipulated in the court order,” he said. Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid is representing rent strikers. Court documents allege issues including mold, leaks, mice, cockroaches and broken windows. One renter showed a photo of ice inside her windowsill at 3112 22nd Ave. S. When the heat doesn’t work, she said she boils water to keep warm. “I think the city needs to be held accountable too,” she said, wishing for more city inspectors.

Ongoing litigation The rent strike is the latest of many legal actions on properties that were owned by Spiros Zorbalas, a landlord with a history of housing violations. City officials revoked the rental license at three of his properties in 2011, and celebrated a purported sale of his 38 buildings to a new owner, Frenz, a move that allowed all of the renters to remain in place. Court proceedings later found that Zorbalas retained an ownership interest, and the City Council responded by revoking Frenz’s 60 rental licenses in December. Frenz is appealing that decision, alleging that the city never properly revoked all of Zorbalas’ licenses. “We believe we moved forward in good faith,” Frenz told a Council committee last fall, explaining that he believed he was the true owner of the licenses. A Feb. 21 court order opens the door for punitive damages in a class action case. Hennepin

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County District Court Judge Mary Vasaly said the landlords created Minneapolis companies that gave no outward indication they were affiliated with Zorbalas, saying in 2012 they would “throw the city off the trail.” The order describes allegations that most Apartment Shop workers were not qualified to perform lead and asbestos work. Children living at 1816 Stevens Ave. S. and 3325 Nicollet Ave. were found to have elevated blood lead levels, according to the order. And the order said that despite about 3,000 instances of pest treatment, a piecemeal “band-aid” approach reduced the effectiveness of treatments. Net operating income targets financially incentivized lower maintenance expenses, according to the order. Frenz did not respond for comment. He defended his record on maintenance before council members in November. “For the last five years, we’ve spent over $100,000 a month on capital improvements on these properties. I’ve worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the past 25 years. This has never been about maintenance,” he said. Frenz has sold off properties in recent months, although the city is withholding rental licenses to some of the new buyers. Mayor Jacob Frey said in November that, while contract for deed purchases are legal, such “rent-to-own” arrangements can become problematic if new owners can’t afford major fixes or balloon payments, causing properties to revert to the original owner. Misco, one of the people who purchased apartment buildings from Frenz on contract for deed,

said he should be allowed to become the landlord. He called the current rent strike a conspiracy. “If you destroy the income to the property by convincing the tenants that you have the worst landlords in the world, then you get to destroy the original deal of the sale,” he said. “And innocent people like myself and other people who invested in these properties, [and] had an opportunity, are the ones that are getting hurt.”

Rent strikers await a ruling At a March 5 hearing, Housing Court Referee Mark Labine said he may consider releasing some of the rent strikers’ money to help fund repairs. He asked Lighthouse Management Group to detail the cash flow of the buildings and estimated costs. He said he wants to give Lighthouse a chance to work. “If the administrator doesn’t have the funds, I don’t see how the property is economically viable,” Labine said. “I don’t think there are any other options.” Lighthouse staff maintains that they need all of the rent money in order to make repairs. “Our whole goal here is to understand any of the issues that people are identifying and triage those so we’re making the situation better as much as we’re able to,” Dybsky said. A follow-up court hearing is set for April. “They don’t deserve that money for a job that isn’t being done,” said the woman living with her child at 3116 22nd Ave. S. “… It’s hard for me to find a new place. What’s going to be the outcome? What are we getting out of all this?”

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A14 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com

Southwest alum Frankowski enjoys experience in Pyeongchang Fulton native took 21st in her ﬁrst Olympic race By Nate Gotlieb / ngotlieb@southwestjournal.com

Rosie Frankowski was shocked to learn she had made the U.S. Olympic cross-country skiing team in January. She was also surprised when she learned she would have an opportunity to race in the games. Frankowski, a Fulton neighborhood native, took 21st out of 47 skiers in the 30-kilometer mass start classic race on the last day of the games, which ran Feb. 9–25 in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The Southwest High School graduate said it was a thrill to compete, noting the excitement of coming into the stadium to cheering fans as she finished her race. “I will remember that feeling for the rest of my life,” Frankowski said in a March 1 interview from Italy, where she was preparing to compete. Frankowski, who lives and trains in Anchorage, Alaska, was one of 10 women on the U.S. team at the Pyeongchang Games. She said before the games that there was a good chance she wouldn’t get to compete at all, given her ranking among the U.S. team members. She said a U.S. team coach told her several days before the Feb. 25 race that she would have the opportunity to compete. Frankowski said she went into the race with no expectations but that it went really well. She kept near the pack of leaders for the first few kilometers of the race before setting her own pace. “The results didn’t matter,” Frankowski said. “What mattered was that I was participating.”

Southwest High School graduate and U.S. Olympic team member Rosie Frankowski takes a training run on the first day of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Photo courtesy Reese Brown/ U.S. Ski & Snowboard

Norwegian Marit Bjoergen, 37, a five-time Olympian, won the race for her seventh gold medal. Finish skier Krista Parmakoski took second and Swedish skier Stina Nilsson took third, while Afton native Jessie Diggins took seventh, after taking a fall early in the race. Diggings, who went to Stillwater High School, won a gold medal in the women’s team sprint freestyle race along with American

Kikkan Randall. Their victory marked the first cross-country skiing medal for the U.S. since 1976 and the first time the U.S. women had medaled in a cross-country event. Frankowski said that race was among the highlights of the games for her, noting the emotions she felt and how much work went into that achievement. She said there was a lot of pressure on the U.S. team coming into

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the games, given its improving standing in the cross-country world, but that the medal helped relieve it. “For our sport and for our team, that was such a historic moment,” Frankowski said. Frankowski said the Olympics was initially overwhelming, given the jet lag, the largeness of the event and the differences between American and Korean culture. She said her routine began feeling normal after about a week at the games, adding that it was cool to be with other elite athletes. Another highlight of the games, she said, was the opening and closing ceremonies, during which she and the other athletes walked into Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium. She said that Pyeongchang is more of a rural city, with attractions and venues built up for the Olympics. Frankowski said she doesn’t know what her long-term future holds in cross-country skiing, noting how expensive it is to ski at the elite level. She said she would love to make the U.S. World Championship team next year and hopes to keep improving. She added that dozens of people from around the country reached out to her after she made the Olympic team, and that she appreciated the messages and the people who watched her race. “That was probably one of the most astounding things,” she said of the well-wishes. “It makes you feel really honored.”

3/1/18 12:28 PM

southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 A15

News

By Nate Gotlieb / ngotlieb@southwestjournal.com

Southwest, Washburn graduation rates remain steady Graduation rates in Southwest Minneapolis remained well above the citywide rate and on par with the statewide rate in 2017, though they appeared to level off slightly. Nearly 88 percent of Southwest High School students and 82.3 percent of Washburn High School students graduated on time last year, according to Minneapolis Public Schools. The district published the data Feb. 27 in conjunction with the Minnesota Department of Education’s statewide release of graduation rates. Both schools had rates well above the districtwide rate of 66 percent and on par with the state rate of 82.7 percent. Washburn’s grad rate increased about three-quarters of a percentage point, marking at least a fifth straight year the school saw a rate increase. Southwest’s decreased 1.5 percentage points from 89.6 percent in 2016, but it was still well above the school’s 2012 graduation rate of 79.9 percent. Both schools had seven-year graduation rates of over 91 percent in 2017, meaning that over nine in 10 students who started high school in fall 2010 had graduated by last spring. The district did not release school-byschool graduation rates for specific demo-

graphic groups. But districtwide, minority students continued to graduate at rates significantly lower than white students. Nearly 86 percent of white students graduated on time, for example, but just 56.9 percent of black students and 56.7 percent of Hispanic students graduated on time. In a news release, the district reported that nearly 73 percent of its students graduated within seven years, a rate it said is its highest on record. It also noted its diverse student population, which includes significantly more English learners and students receiving free or reducedprice lunch than most districts in Minnesota, according to Education Department data. Minneapolis’ chief of academics, leadership and learning, Michael Thomas, said in the release that many of the district’s newcomers to the U.S. are often unable to graduate in four years. The district also has many students who participate in Transition Plus programming, Thomas said, which is designed to help students transition to adulthood and independent living. In the release, Superintendent Ed Graff noted that the district’s graduation rate has increased over the past six years, though its

four-year graduation rate declined by over 1 percentage point in 2017. Graff pointed to improvements in the district’s credit-recovery opportunities and ninth grade on-track efforts, which he said has led to more ninth-graders passing core courses. He asked what the district could do to see the same gains achievement that it’s seen in graduation. Less than half of MPS students in grades 3–10 earned scores deemed proficient on their standardized state reading and math tests in 2017, according to district data. Those percentages have remained relatively flat over the past five years. The district news release noted efforts to better prepare students for college and career, which include cultivating literacy in grades K–12, expanding student-support systems, increasing credit-recovery opportunities and improving ninth grade on-track efforts. The release said that the data do not reflect the success of Minneapolis’ school-within-aschool programs, which offer flexible programming to accommodate students’ diverse life situations. The four-year graduation rate would rise to 89 percent at Southwest, for example, if those students were included, the district said.

Hispanic students made the biggest gain in graduation rates in 2017, according to the district, graduating at a rate nearly 6.1 percentage points higher than in 2016. A new demographic category, students of two or more races, saw a rate increase from 63.6 percent in 2016 to 76.2 percent in 2017. English learner and special-education students also made gains in 2017. Over 57.8 percent of EL students graduated, up nearly 4 percentage points from 2016, and 38.9 percent of special education students graduated, up about 4.5 percentage points. Wellstone, which serves almost entirely EL students, posted the largest percentage-point increase of the district’s 10 community high schools. It graduated 15.6 percent of students on time in 2017 after graduating 8.3 percent on time in 2016. North had the largest percentage-point drop among the community high schools, graduating 70 percent of students on time in 2017 after graduating 80.3 percent on time in 2016. FAIR had the highest on-time graduation rate of any community high school at 89.1 percent.

Minneapolis students march for school safety, gun control Several hundred students marched to City Hall from Southwest Minneapolis on Feb. 21 to protest gun violence in schools one week after a gunman killed 17 people at a high school in Florida. Scores of students met around 12:30 p.m. at Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park in the Kingfield neighborhood and walked approximately 3 1/2 miles to City Hall. They joined up with other students outside City Hall around 2:15 p.m. The march and rally came a week after a former student killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Students from the school lobbied for stricter gun laws Feb. 21 at the Florida statehouse while students across the country walked out of class to protest gun violence.

“Students shouldn’t have to go to school feeling unsafe or feeling that there could be a school shooting,” Washburn High School ninth-grader Sonia Svedahl said. Added ninth-grader Julianna Harritt: “People shouldn’t have to be afraid to go to school. It should be a safe space, and they shouldn’t have to fear for their lives.” Students chanted phrases such as “What do we want? Gun control! When do we want it? Now!” as they walked up Nicollet and 1st avenues escorted by Minneapolis police officers. They cheered when onlookers came out onto balconies or onto driveways to wave. Rhea Strom, a senior at Southwest High School, said the group behind the march, called

students4revolution, had started the day before. “We were tired of just sitting and waiting for something to happen but not actually going out and doing something,” she said. Mayor Jacob Frey addressed the students outside of City Hall, telling them: “We have your back.” “This is a nationwide movement, and it’s young people, it is students that are leading the way,” Frey said. “The (National Rifle Association) is going to be shaking in their boots, because you all are the gun lobby’s absolute worst nightmare.” Minneapolis Public Schools released a statement on Feb. 21 that said in part that “it’s time for our country to have a real conversation

about how to move forward to protect our students and teachers.” The district’s statement encouraged families to have conversations with their students about their expectations and participation in nonschool-sponsored activities, including walkouts. But it said the best way for the district to ensure student safety is to know students’ whereabouts, which isn’t possible once they leave school grounds. “The Superintendent’s senior leadership team will be meeting this week to discuss further considerations for national walkouts planned in March and April. We will share more information as these conversations continue,” the statement said.

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A16 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com

Public Safety Update By Michelle Bruch / mbruch@southwestjournal.com

County seeks community input in sex oﬀender case The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office is asking the community to weigh in on the case of a man charged with sexually assaulting two women he encountered in the Whittier neighborhood in August and September incidents. Now in custody, Christopher Obrien Bogan, 32, is a Level 3 sex offender subject to a lifetime registration requirement, according to a criminal complaint. Officers at a routine traffic stop the night of Aug. 15 heard a woman screaming for help at an alley near 24th & Blaisdell, the complaint said. The woman told police that Bogan, a man she had never met, offered her a

cigarette and she followed him into an alley to smoke. He allegedly grabbed her arm, slammed her against a wall, placed his hand over her mouth and forced down her shorts. She reportedly freed herself and ran toward the squad’s flashing lights. The incident occurred one day after Bogan was released from custody on a charge of interfering with a 911 call, according to the complaint. Bogan is also accused of asking a woman for money near the 2400 block of 3rd Avenue South after midnight on Sept. 10, allegedly cornering her and climbing on top of her. Bogan repeat-

edly punched the woman in the face, according to a criminal complaint, and raped her and took her belongings. Court documents state that the next day, Bogan was captured on surveillance video using the woman’s credit card to buy $255 in merchandise at Foot Locker, also signing up for a rewards program under his own name. The victim identified Bogan as her attacker in a photo display, according to the complaint. The complaint said that in an interview with investigators, Bogan said he knew the woman and alleged the sex was consensual, while also admitting to using her credit card.

Bogan has a prior conviction for attempted criminal sexual conduct for an August 2008 incident involving a 13-year-old victim, according to the complaint. Bogan has a court hearing set for March 12. His public defender did not respond for comment. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office is seeking community impact statements to submit as part of the case. In the statements, residents can describe how the individual’s actions or similar behavior affects them or their property. Statements can be sent to Chris Band at christopherband@hennepin.us.

examination, and the results show that while 99.9 percent of the population can be excluded as a DNA match to semen found on the victim, the defendants cannot be excluded, according to court documents. The woman’s credit card rang up unauthorized purchases at White Castle, Foot Locker, Walmart in Brooklyn Center, a Holiday gas station and Super America, according to the complaint. Surveillance footage showed the suspects making purchases with her card and leaving in her vehicle. Also according to court documents: The afternoon of Oct. 16, police responded to a report of reckless driving near 47th & Beard and discovered the woman’s vehicle. A 17-year-old suspect

said he was driving, and officers arrested him wearing a jacket similar to one shown in a Super America surveillance photo. The juvenile denied any involvement in the sexual assault, and said he received the vehicle from a friend and didn’t know where it came from. Court documents state that when he took off his pants for a sexual assault examination, the woman’s credit card, wrapped in a Super America receipt, fell from his pants. The East Calhoun and CARAG neighborhood associations are hosting a personal safety and robbery prevention workshop March 24 at Calhoun Square, 3001 Hennepin Ave. S. The event runs 10 a.m.–11:30 a.m. and features selfdefense expert Mary Brandl.

Uptown kidnappers face felony charges A woman who was kidnapped at gunpoint from an Uptown street last fall escaped by urging her attackers to stop for gas, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s office. Three young men are now facing charges of criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping and auto theft. Two of the suspects are 17 years old and in custody. Prosecutors will petition that they be tried as adults. Police are searching for a third suspect, Deonte Darnell Lawson, age 23, a resident of the Lowry Hill East neighborhood. According to court documents: A woman in her mid-20s walked behind her Uptown apartment building to retrieve something from her car the night of Oct. 15. Three unknown men forced her into the back seat at gunpoint.

They allegedly took the woman to a secluded, wooded area and held her down, forcing her to perform sexual acts. They allegedly dragged her back to the vehicle and began driving to a rural area, and she became fearful they would kill her. She convinced the driver they needed to stop for gas, and when they stopped at a gas station in Scandia, she escaped barefoot and hid behind a tree in a nearby wooded area. The gas station was closed, but the woman pounded on a door to find two people living above the station, and called 911 at about 4:26 a.m. Officers said her clothing was dirty, her bare feet were covered in mud and she had small cuts and scratches on her face and hands. The woman underwent a sexual assault

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southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 A17 FROM CHANGE / PAGE A1

Arradondo said he needs to let Noor’s judicial process play out before taking any employment action. To do so early would jeopardize the process, he said. “But for the hours, days and weeks that it goes on, I know people are very frustrated, because they feel that there is no accountability. My accountability is allowing that criminal process to play itself out,” he said. “And then based on what happens there, then I will have the employment piece to that. … Whatever the decision is, it’s going to be tough.” Council Member Linea Palmisano (Ward 13) and Arradondo talked about recent changes to the body camera policy to eliminate ambiguity and clearly state officers should activate cameras whenever they respond to a call or initiate contact. The body cameras of both Noor and his partner were off during the shooting, and a September audit found that officers were activating cameras for only about two-thirds of all dispatches. Arradondo said a recent policy change states that if an officer deactivates a camera, he or she must document the reason for turning it off. The policy will continue to evolve, he said. Apart from body cameras, Arradondo said another shift in the department relates to officer wellness. In years past, he said officers were expected to shrug off trauma on the job — whether it be a homicide, baby not breathing

Quite frankly, there were some parts of our community where that trust never existed, and then some where it had certainly been shaken. — Police Chief Medaria Arradondo

5th Precinct Inspector Kathy Waite speaks about the department’s shift toward de-escalation tactics. Photo by Michelle Bruch

or child witnessing domestic assault — with an attitude to “suck it up and get back out there on the next call.” Arradondo said that culture should change. Similar to debriefings that follow military service, the police department should debrief officers, he said. One meeting attendee said she’s glad to hear police talk about officer wellness. She said some police shootings have left her wondering if officers were stressed or mentally ill, causing them to become trigger-happy. Supervisors are checking in with officers more often, Waite said. And the 5th Precinct now offers weekly yoga and mindfulness sessions, giving officers a chance to reflect on job stress. Arradondo said officers are responsible for their actions, and said officers must always follow policy despite threatening incidents like the 2016 ambush of police officers in Dallas, which riveted the department. Arradondo said that when he took over as police chief, he knew that community trust would be a top priority. “Quite frankly, there were some parts of our community where that trust never existed, and

then some where it had certainly been shaken,” he said. The morning after he was sworn in as police chief, Arradondo said every member of the department received a vision statement laying out his expectations. “If you lie in your words, in reports, I have no need for you and I won’t tolerate it,” he said. “Acts of discrimination? Can’t have you here.” Officers are also accountable for actions like social media posts while not in uniform, he said. Under current practice, the chief’s disciplinary actions can be overturned through the police union arbitration process. Arradondo said he’s closely watching a Richfield Police Department case that’s testing the use of arbitration to reinstate an officer the chief tried to fire. “I’m watching it with bated breath. Because if they rule in favor of the chief of police in Richfield, it helps,” he said. “We have employees who should not be wearing this uniform that are because a third party weighed in.” Rather than spar with the union president, however, Arradondo said he wants to focus on the 300 officers that elect him.

“The union president’s not going to be here 10, 15, 20 years from now. But they will be. I need to focus and persuade them on the importance of procedural justice, on the importance of accountability,” he said. He said he wants to create a climate where even a rookie cop would feel comfortable intervening if a field training officer was acting inappropriately. One meeting attendee asked the police chief if he’d be open to reviewing the use of force policy, perhaps limiting force when guns are not present. In response, Arradondo said the current policy focuses on what a “reasonable” officer would have done with the information available at the time, which is based on Supreme Court precedent. A recent update to the policy states that officer actions should not cause unnecessary injury to themselves, their partner or the public, he said. Waite said that means the SWAT team is rarely kicking down doors. “De-escalation is really key,” she said, adding that it includes “being able to disengage as quickly as you engage.” She said residents might see officers backing away while verbalizing commands or talking to friends or neighbors before rushing in to a scene. Palmisano, who hosted the Feb. 26 conversation, mentioned the 2013 officer shooting of Terrance Franklin. Police pursued Franklin into the basement of a house, and shot and killed him during a confrontation. Policing has evolved since that time, Palmisano said, noting the recent 36-hour standoff with a man at a university campus hotel. Following the meeting, Ryan Masterson said Arradondo’s comments made sense, but they still leave him frustrated. “I’m glad to hear his energy is being put toward the new generation,” he said. Gegax said he appreciated hearing the officers open up and speak. “I don’t think I will be satisfied until Officer Noor is accountable,” he said.

A18 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com

Park Board uncovering riverfront ruins By Eric Best / ebest@southwestjournal.com

Since Claudia Kittock moved to the Mill District a decade ago she’s had to look at a boarded-up building eating up the neighborhood’s prime riverfront real estate. It’s not lost on her that the building in question, the former Fuji Ya restaurant, was pivotal in the history of the neighborhood, an area in downtown Minneapolis that draws people like her not for its “glitzy” appeal, she said, but for its “clear connection to the past.” After sitting vacant for decades, much of the building has come down and will become a new destination honoring the neighborhood’s buried industrial legacy. “Oh, thank God. It’s time,” she said. “The idea that it’s happening I find terribly exciting.” The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board broke ground last fall on Water Works, an overhaul of the riverfront that park leaders have been planning for the better part of a decade. So far, the board has demolished much of the Fuji Ya building, a former Japanese restaurant that was built atop what was left of several mills from the area’s industrial heyday. This spring and summer, the work will focus on what’s underground as the Park Board begins an archaeological excavation to map out what remains of these mill ruins. Park officials say the project will add muchneeded visitor amenities, concessions and bathrooms to the area around Mill Ruins Park, which, as part of the Central Mississippi Riverfront Regional Park, has quickly become one of the top park destinations in the metro thanks in part to the mills. For visitors flocking to the riverfront’s popular sites, officials say the experience can be disjointed. “Everybody loves to walk the Stone Arch Bridge and look at Mill Ruins Park, and then you get to the end and what do you do? There’s one picnic table in the glaring sun, a parking lot and a falling-down building,” said Kate Lamers, a project manager and landscape architect with the board. The building exists as a patchwork of new cinderblocks, pieces of the restaurant and mill masonry. Beneath the surrounding parking lot and hills are ruins. Rather than a full rehabilitation, it’s the Park Board’s plan to create a glass pavilion within the structures to house a restaurant lead by chef Sean Sherman. “We’re not going to try to make it look like a perfect wall again. It will read as a ruin,” Lamers said.

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The work is part of the first phase of Water Works, which is on track for completion next year barring any rare surprises found underground. Lamers said they already have a good idea of what they’ll unearth. “I think at this point the only bad thing would be three-quarters buried and sticking up through our floor,” she said. A second phase will focus on the surrounding area closer to the Mississippi River. That work, which will uncover additional ruins and add a walking bridge at the end of the Stone Arch Bridge, is tentatively planned to begin in 2021 if the Legislature approves the board’s $5 million bonding request.

Flour-powered history While Pillsbury and General Mills remain household names today, their factories were part of a larger network of nearly 30 mills, once one of the densest concentrations of industry in the world. David Stevens, a public programs specialist at Mill City Museum, said these mills were so significant because they revolutionized flour production and changed the ways Americans ate. They put Minneapolis on the map more than a century ago. “The flour mills are what built Minneapolis. These were big, regional and international systems that these millers built. They scaled up flour milling in a way that was unprecedented,” he said. Despite their historical significance, many mills didn’t survive the industrial revolution that took place in the Twin Cities. Many were shut down and demolished due to changes in the industry, which peaked in the early 1900s. Fires and explosions took out several. Only a few of the intact flour mills remain. The project will preserve pieces of three mills representing some of the last remaining untouched relics of the city’s milling industry. The Occidental Mill was a two-story feed mill built in 1883 that was damaged in a fire a century ago. The Columbia Mill, a five-story flour mill, became the B mill of Northwestern Consolidated Milling a decade later after it was built in 1883. The oldest and most publically visible of the buildings is the Bassett Sawmill, whose turbines supplied hydropower to the other two mills. A fire in 1897 destroyed much of the building, though it continued to house tenants until the

restaurant took over in 1968. It wasn’t until 1990 that the Park Board bought it. Back in the 1960s, Stevens said, the riverfront was still raw and industrial. “Nobody was building anything new for 50 years, and it was really on hard times,” he said. “Then Fuji Ya comes in and builds something new and gives a reason for somebody to come down to the riverfront.” Lamers said Fuji Ya’s founder, Reiko Westin, and her family were “pioneers of the riverfront,” who came years before elected officials would make the area a campaign talking point. “(The Westins) saw potential for people here where nobody else saw it as people space,” she said.

in his campaign to turn his Sioux Chef catering operation into his own restaurant. Owamni will join several other park restaurants, including Lake Harriet’s Bread and Pickle, Lake Nokomis’ Sandcastle, Minnehaha Park’s Sea Salt Eatery and Bde Maka Ska’s upcoming Lola’s on the Lake. Evers said some of those agreements have been controversial, but overall the board and the public have been more open to partnerships. “Over the last 15 years, that definitely has changed. Not just the Park Board, I think the community has been more willing to … try it more than before. Now there’s an understanding that there are ways to activate public land through public-private partnerships,” he said.

Risk on the riverfront

Booming once again

Overhauling the riverfront and running a downtown restaurant are major feats for two organizations that have gotten more adept in partnerships and raising private money in recent years. Leading the charge has been the Minneapolis Parks Foundation, the Park Board’s philanthropic partner. The organization is $4.5 million away from hitting its $18 million fundraising goal for Water Works, which will need $2.9 million of that to begin construction early this fall. Executive Director Tom Evers said the project wouldn’t be possible without the nonprofit’s initial fundraising to get designs in order to bring in donations. It’s a big step for the 15-year-old nonprofit, which is supporting several landmark improvements along the Mississippi River under the board’s RiverFirst initiative. “(The Park Board) didn’t have the private philanthropy to take a couple risks and figure it out,” Evers said. Lamers said historic reuse projects like this are big risks for traditionally risk-averse public agencies. “Otherwise I think the Park Board would easily own these ruins until they crumble,” she said. Once the building is complete, the restaurant will be a unique expansion of the board’s business enterprise. The new Water Works restaurant, tentatively named Owamni: An Indigenous Kitchen — meaning “Place of Whirlpools” in Dakota, referring to St. Anthony Falls — will be the city’s first year-round park concessionaire. It also brings a partnership with Sherman, a restaurateur who broke a crowdfunding record

Water Works comes at a time when the Mill District and the east side of downtown are attracting attention from developers, residents and visitors. Stevens said he’s hopeful the project can create a “critical mass” of visitor amenities in the neighborhood and attract even more interest. Rather than compete, he said historic destinations like the Mill City Museum and Water Works will complement each other. “The more of the historic resources that are revealed, folks are going to better understand the scale of the operations that happened here that you can’t right now,” he said. That history will be on display at Water Works. Unlike another ruins park, Stevens said the pavilion will invite guests in to connect to the architectural history. “On one hand, putting a building inside it seems like an intrusion. But I think that, in the end, that’s going to be a better stewardship of the building, because rather than opening up these ruins and exposing them to air and activity, they’re going to do a new, sensitive building that engages those ruins and allows us to experience them,” he said. Evers said it’s this engagement that’s at the heart of Water Works, which he said is about “making a space for new stories to unfold and past stories to be told.” “This is finally a place that no matter where you live in the region, if you come here you’ll be protected from the cold, you’ll get a bite to eat and you’ll get to be on the riverfront,” he said.

3/6/18 3:34 PM

southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 A19

News

By Michelle Bruch / mbruch@southwestjournal.com

CARAG neighborhood hunts for a new name Those who don’t know what CARAG means may never have to learn. CARAG is an acronym for Calhoun Area Residents Action Group, and it’s been around since the 1970s. But a new task force is talking about a process to change the neighborhood’s name. Residents expect to door knock and canvass widely for input, but there are a few potential names floating so far, like Lakewood and Bryant Square. Other ideas capture the neighborhood’s Uptown identity, such as South Uptown. CARAG President Tricia Markle said they’re starting to think about local landmarks, as many neighborhoods are named for a land feature. Neighborhood boundaries are Lake Street, Hennepin Avenue, 36th Street and Lyndale Avenue. It’s located in the heart of Uptown and is home to Bryant Square Park. The issue arises now that the state has officially changed Lake Calhoun’s name to Bde Maka Ska, the result of advocacy to restore the Dakota name and move away from a namesake that vocally supported slavery and played a role in forcing Native American resettlement. Some also dislike that CARAG is an acronym, referencing an organization rather than a neighborhood feature. CARAG considered changing its name 15 years ago. Back then, ideas for a new name

included Diversity, Uptown East, Uptown Crossroads, Wellstone, Urban Forest, LynLake and Emerson. “I’m glad the name will now finally change,” said Aaron Rubenstein, who worked on the first renaming initiative. “It doesn’t provide much of a sense of identity at all.” He said that after U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone’s plane crashed in 2002, a few people suggested changing the neighborhood’s name to “Wellstone.” They opened up the debate to include other names as well and brought the decision to a neighborhood-wide vote in 2003. “We discovered it was harder than we thought to come up with potential new names,” Rubenstein said. CARAG Executive Coordinator Scott Engel recalls that efforts to change the name failed when longtime residents opposed a change and others didn’t like the options under consideration. The new task force will seek community input and research options to find a name that’s recognizable to neighbors and the wider community. Markle said CARAG neighborhood signs are already due for an update, and the cost of a name change is estimated at $1,200. The choice would come to a neighborhood vote targeted for September. “We’re looking for ways to get the word out about it,” Markle said.

Officials talk pedestrian safety after fatal crash Minneapolis officials outlined their developing plans to make city streets safer during a forum Feb. 20 in the Armatage neighborhood, three weeks after a pedestrian was fatally struck by a car nearby. Officials plan to work across city departments and in conjunction with people who use roads in Minneapolis to develop the plan, Public Works Director Robin Hutcheson said at the forum. The city hadn’t set any specific strategies as of Feb. 20, but Hutcheson said they could include measures such as education, design work or lowering speed limits. “There’s no doubt to me that it’s a mix of strategies and approaches that involves (the city) taking responsibility and our public partnering with us to also take that responsibility,” she said. The forum, hosted by Ward 13 City Council Member Linea Palmisano, came nearly five months after the City Council adopted the goal of eliminating crash fatalities and serious injuries on city streets by 2027. It also included City Attorney Susan Segal, Shane Morton of Public Works, Minneapolis Police Department Fifth Precinct Inspector Kathy Waite and Officer Eric Shogren, who has been assigned to investigate the crash that spurred the forum. Waite and Shogren provided a brief update on investigation into the crash, which happened near the intersection of 54th & Penn on Feb. 1. A 47-year-old Golden Valley woman, Debra Skolos, died as a result of the crash, which occurred as she crossed Penn

Avenue midblock. The driver, a 20-year-old Delano man, was uninjured, according to the police report. The report said he had a bloodalcohol level of 0.03 percent. The Southwest Journal is not naming the man because he had not been charged with a crime as of press time. Neither Waite nor Shogren gave specifics about the crash because it remained under investigation. Waite said the timeframe for completing the investigation is dependent in part on lab results and data obtained in search warrants. That data will need to be compared to what witnesses said and what investigators found at the scene of the crash, she said. Investigators will forward the case onto the county attorney for review if it could reach the threshold of criminal vehicular operation, Shogren said. The county attorney can either press charges or decline to press charges, in which case the case is sent to the city attorney for review. Shogren said he would always send a case to the city attorney for review so that the office is aware of what happened. Segal said her office lobbied in recent years to increase the punishment for careless drivers who fatally strike pedestrians, noting several convictions within the past year. She said drivers in those cases weren’t drunk or on their cell phones but weren’t watching where they were driving. — Nate Gotlieb

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A20 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com

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They had seen other work performed by White Crane and liked the idea of working with a design-build firm for the first time. Jaydan walked through the house with them and helped them realize that adding a first-floor bedroom wasn’t necessary. She had another idea that really appealed to Torri Erickson. “When we walked into the room to see where she did laundry, I could tell that she hated it and that she didn’t want to

do laundry in that room,” Jaydan said. “And I said, ‘You know, you have plenty of space. Why don’t we move it up to the mudroom?’ And she just kind of lit up.” White Crane took some space from the garage and added a mere 72 square feet to the rear of the house to create the laundry/mudroom. Next to the washer and dryer, the company designed and installed separate built-in hampers

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southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 A21

REMODELING SHOWCASE

White Crane installed new ceilings throughout the basement and updated the rec room’s fireplace surround, replacing the ‘70s red brick with stone. The repurposed space allowed for the addition of a pool table, something the family hadn’t considered before the remodel. Photos courtesy of White Crane Construction

The basement bathroom was remodeled with a larger shower and a linen closet.

for light and dark clothing, plus upper and lower cabinets for general storage. The mudroom also has a pantry, cubbies for coats and hats, a long bench for changing shoes and storing hockey bags below, plus a back door to the boys’ sport court. The basement had housed a storage room, a bedroom, a playroom and a bathroom, all to the right of the stairs that led to the kitchen. Now Tayden, 15, and Riley, 13, each has his own bedroom that’s much larger than the one they

used to share upstairs, plus ample closet space for clothes and Riley’s Lego collection. The basement bathroom was remodeled with a larger shower and a linen closet. A cozy, welcoming entryway leads from the foot of the stairs to each of these rooms. White Crane also carved some space from Riley’s new bedroom (the former storage room) to create an exercise room in the former playroom, while leaving the large rec room to the left of the stairwell for the boys and their friends to hang out and play video games, watch TV or play pool. The pool table was an addition the family hadn’t considered before the remodel. White Crane also installed new ceilings throughout the basement and updated the rec room’s fireplace surround, replacing the ‘70s red brick with stone.

Brian wanted lots of lighting in all of the new and remodeled rooms, and Torri wanted to purchase that lighting through a good friend who works for Muska Lighting. White Crane was willing to oblige. “I really appreciated that willingness to partner with my friend,” Torri said. She was also thrilled to do business with a woman-owned company. Minneapolis-based White Crane was founded in 2002 by Susan Denk. The Ericksons have agreed to show their home in the Builders Association of the Twin Cities’ Spring Remodelers Showcase, scheduled for March 23–25. Having a designer walk them through the possibilities made all the difference, according to the Ericksons. “We got what we were really hoping for in an attractive, functional setup,” Brian said. “In lots of ways, really more than we were hoping for. We’re super happy.”

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A22 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com

By Nate Gotlieb / ngotlieb@southwestjournal.com

Large buildings using less energy, water, report says Energy and water use in large buildings in Minneapolis trended downward after the City Council passed an ordinance requiring certain building owners to benchmark and submit consumption data, according to a new city report. Adjusted for weather, consistently benchmarked large buildings used 1.7 percent less energy per square foot in 2016 compared to 2014, according to the report. The same buildings reduced their water consumption by 5.9 percent, the report said. Total energy use decreased about 10.9 percent from 2016 to 2014 in consistently benchmarked buildings, according to the report, though that doesn’t account for fluctuations in weather. Decreased consumption from 2014 to 2016 led to cumulative utility bill savings of $21 million, according to the report. “We feel very happy with the progress we’re seeing buildings make,” said Luke Hollenkamp, a city sustainability program coordinator. “Benchmarking data is a powerful tool that complements and enables other energy-efficiency work, which collectively is responsible for the substantial savings seen.” The report came about five years after the City Council passed its benchmarking ordinance, which requires the owners of certain large buildings to report their buildings’ energy and water consumption data from the previous year. The idea of the ordinance is to make building owners more aware of their energy and water usage and to motivate them to invest in energy-efficiency improvements, the city wrote in an FAQ sheet. Hollenkamp and Katie Jones Schmitt, the benchmarking program’s outreach and policy associate, added that the ordinance helps the city better target lower-performing buildings and market resources to sectors that use a lot of energy. They noted that the city now has at least three years’ worth of data from most buildings required to benchmark. Jones Schmitt said they waited until that point before analyzing trends.

The ordinance requires operators of public buildings containing at least 25,000 gross square feet and private buildings containing at least 50,000 gross square feet submit data to the city annually. It excludes multifamily residential buildings and industrial buildings. The ordinance gives building owners six months after a year’s end to report their data, so the city won’t have complete 2017 data until this summer. The new report included 2016 data from 434 buildings, which combined to total 125 million square feet of floor space and 80 percent of the city’s commercial square footage. The buildings represented about 16 percent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, the report said. The report said that consistently benchmarked public buildings collectively used 3 percent less energy use per square foot in 2016 than in 2012, after adjusting for weather. Those same buildings saw a reduction in water consumption of nearly 12 percent from 2015 to 2016, according to the report. Consistently benchmarked private properties used 3.4 percent less energy in 2016 than in 2014, the report said. Those buildings saw a reduction in water consumption of nearly 5 percent from 2015 to 2016. The report noted that one of the most dramatic improvements has come from parking garages, which saw a 36 percent decrease in energy use from 2014 to 2016, after adjusting for weather. The improvement was largely due to conversions to LED light bulbs and changes to lighting-controls equipment, the report said. “Lighting is a unique area right now because of improvements in technology to LEDs, dramatic cost reductions and rebates that still exist from utilities,” Jones Schmitt said. “It makes a whole lot of sense to change out lighting to LED and upgrade lighting controls.” Jones Schmitt said all participants in the city’s Building Energy Challenge have done lighting retrofits. The challenge, which is

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The Basilica of Saint Mary saw a 21 percent drop in energy use from 2014 to 2016, after factoring in adjustments for weather, according to a new city report. Photo by Nate Gotlieb

voluntary, asks large building owners and operators to actively take steps to reduce their buildings’ greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent by 2020. She and Hollenkamp also noted the city’s Green Business/Housing Cost Share Program, which offers owners of businesses and multifamily residential buildings funds for projects in the areas of energy efficiency, solar, pollution reduction and more. Hollenkamp couldn’t say that the benchmarking ordinance is entirely responsible for decreased energy consumption but said it’s helped building owners think innovatively about energy efficiency. Jones Schmitt said she thinks it’s brought more attention to something that’s typically “business as usual” for building owners. “It brings more visibility to something that they probably want to spend some time on anyway,” she said. “It just gives

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them one more tool to see.” The report highlighted the work of The Basilica of Saint Mary, which saw a 21 percent drop in energy use from 2014 to 2016 after factoring in adjustments for weather. Dave Laurent, director of buildings and grounds at the Basilica, said his team has replaced the building’s original boilers with more efficient ones. They have also replaced many incandescent light bulbs with LED lights and replaced window air conditioning units with a central air system in the Basilica’s school and rectory buildings. The team further is planning to replace 36 incandescent 1,000-watt light bulbs with LED bulbs, Laurent said, noting savings on maintenance fees for LED bulbs. Visit minneapolisenergybenchmarking. org to learn more about energy benchmarking in Minneapolis.

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southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 A23

By Eric Best / ebest@southwestjournal.com

Park Board looks to support memorial for sexual violence survivors The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is considering directing funds to a memorial in Northeast Minneapolis recognizing survivors of sexual violence. Members of Break the Silence, a local group of survivors and allies, is looking for the Park Board for public support of the memorial, which is being proposed for Boom Island Park. Commissioners voted 5–4 Feb. 21, narrowly passing a resolution directing staff to explore funding options. While the resolution didn’t specify an amount or areas to pull the money from, the group has thrown out a figure of $160,000, roughly matching the funds that have been committed so far. Commissioner Chris Meyer, whose District 1 includes the site, said the project would provide a “space for reflection and rehabilitation for people who have been victims.” Sarah Super, the group’s leader, said the memorial, the first of its kind in the country, would be especially important given the #MeToo movement and recent investigations into highprofile stories of sexual violence. “The memorial concept holds true to what we have seen nationally, that when survivors tell their stories they unconsciously give other survivors permission to tell theirs,” she told the board. Super said the group has committed donations of about $177,000. The current budget is roughly $480,000, which is significantly more than the preliminary $400,000 price tag proposed last year. Commissioners Jono Cowgill (District 4), Steffanie Musich (District 6), LaTrisha Vetaw and

A preliminary design of Break the Silence’s memorial consisted of seating, mosaic art pieces and landscaping. Image by Damon Farber Associates

Meg Forney (both at-large) voted against the resolution. Several said the park system is not in a position to cover the funds of another group’s project. Musich said the board struggles to repair wading pools, add air conditioning to its recreation centers and maintain its other memorials in the city. The board has already stepped up to provide “very valuable” riverfront parkland for the project, she added. “We have a lot of other projects in the docket that I’d consider very essential infrastructure projects that we don’t have sufficient funds to implement,” she told commissioners. “I don’t know what we say to everyone else that wants us

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to be maintaining what we already have.” Commissioners voiced support for the project, but several, including Forney and Vetaw — who noted they are survivors of sexual violence — said the group should explore a broader fundraising effort before looking to the Park Board. “I want to make sure that as a board we do what we can do, not necessarily what my heart says I can do,” Vetaw said. Park staff will come back to commissioners in early March with ways to support the memorial. Assistant Superintendent of Planning Michael Schroeder said they’ve been working with Break the Silence since last summer, when the board

first approved a concept design. “It’s a good project. Sarah has provided a beautiful design that would fit really well within this part of Boom Island Park,” he said. “Staff is supportive, but we need to provide the board with the fuller picture of how this could come together. Right now, we don’t have that.” There remain many unanswered questions about the memorial, from a clear price tag to what an agreement would look like between the Park Board and Break the Silence. Schroeder said the board has spent a couple million dollars on reshaping portions of Boom Island Park and much of that work was due to contaminated soil. “We don’t know what exists in the area,” he said. Schroeder said there are sources of funds out there, and staff may recommend Break the Silence pursue grants for additional funding. Schroeder stressed that the memorial will not take funding from the board’s other capital projects. The partnership that would likely come forward, he said, is a donation agreement where the group would donate the memorial to the Park Board. This is a similar exchange that will happen with the Loppet Foundation and the Trailhead, an outdoor recreation center the nonprofit is building at Theodore Wirth Regional Park. It may not even be legal for the board to spend public dollars on the project, according to the board’s legal counsel. A state statue stipulates that public funds can only fund memorials that honor war veterans and other soldiers.

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2018

Southwest Journal March 8–21, 2018

Camp Guide

e g a St t h g ri At Youth Performance Company camps, children learn theatrical skills by staging their favorite ﬁlms and musicals

At Youth Performance Company camps, students sing, dance, dress up and learn many other theater skills. Photos by Marisa B. Tejeda

By Olivia Volkman-Johnson

jaunty piano accompaniment played as a group of student performers emphatically sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Kids’ voices flooded the room and infectious laughter spilled out of their classmates, who wiggled in their seats with anticipation. Choreographer Johanna Gorman-Baer guided the kids around a black box rehearsal stage with explosive, high-knee skipping until the song ended and the group scattered, catching their breath. “You were singing at the same time as we were dancing. And both were happening loud, right?” Gorman-Baer exclaimed. “You were singing! Were we worrying about how pretty we are?” “No!” the kids shouted. “Were we worrying about how pretty we sounded?” “No!” As a part of morning warm-ups, the third- through sixth-graders were working on taking deep, long breaths to project their voices throughout a theater, even while dancing. Or in this case, skipping. SEE STAGE RIGHT / PAGE B10

B2 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com

LANDSCAPE SHOWCASE

DESIGNER AND LANDSCAPER FIND A MIRACLE CONNECTION Gardening Angel works with Dream and Reality to create beauty

any business relationships result from extensive research and interviews, or at least word-of-mouth. Once in a while, partnerships are formed due to a milagro — “miracle” in Spanish. Brothers Arturo and Filiberto “Fili” Cazales emigrated from Mexico 15 and 20 years ago, respectively, and worked for landscaping companies in Minnesota. They learned a great deal from those employers, but eventually wanted to expand their opportunities. They founded their own company — Dream and Reality Landscape MN — in Minneapolis in 2013. “Changing our mind from employee to owner, it is a big step,” Arturo said. “It has been amazing. It has been a bit of a challenge because of the language, but we try to communicate with our clients.” Here’s where the milagro comes in. In April 2015, Margi MacMurdo-Reading was driving through Minneapolis, wondering where to find a patio and wall design and installation partner for her company, Gardening Angel Garden Design. She saw Dream and Reality’s truck, liked the company’s website and called the brothers. They have been working together ever since.

MORE ABOUT DREAM & REALITY Address: 3519 15th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55407 Phone: 612-225-8753 Website: dreamandreality landscapemn.com Years in business: 5

Last summer, the companies transformed the Southwest Minneapolis backyard of Carol and Dean Rudie. MacMurdoReading designed the Rudies’ garden with oases of trees, shrubs and perennial flowers. Dream and Reality designed and installed curved stairs that lead from the patio door, and a sweeping, cast-concrete paver patio and walkway. Before they could embark on the artistic parts of the Rudie project, Dream and Reality had to deal with a condition that’s common to the neighborhood — a high water table and drainage problems. The company graded the yard and replaced the above-ground downspouts with a pair of underground ones that they linked and extended to the alley. Dream and Reality works with natural or manufactured stone. The company provides a wide variety of other landscaping services, including designing and installing retaining and freestanding walls and fire pits, planting trees and perennials, preparing garden beds, installing mulch, rock, lawns and artificial turf, removing yard waste and brush, replacing sod and tilling. The company also does yard maintenance, including mowing, shrub trimming, and spring and fall cleanup. Knowing that she can rely on Dream and Reality’s vision and extensive landscaping experience has come as a relief to MacMurdo-Reading. “I learned that some companies, they’re very good at doing walls and patios and they’re so-so at plants,” she said. “I consider Arturo and Fili artists.” Carol Rudie wanted the new patio and walk to look more artistic than the plain, straight concrete walk that originally wrapped around the house. Dream and Reality installed three colors of pavers in a variety of irregular shapes and finished the walk and patio with the paving stones’ ragged edges. “The really cool thing about working with them is the openness to suggestions,” Rudie said. “In August, we had National Night Out. All the neighbors wanted to come and see what had been going on in my backyard. Everybody who went out here last summer said, ‘Wow!’” Dean Rudie died of cancer in December, but enjoyed the new

The combined talents of Gardening Angel and Dream and Reality helped transform the backyard of Dean and Carol Rudie into their own “personal park”.

patio and garden while he could, according to his wife. “Last year, he became a mentor for Teen Challenge, and so he would pick up his mentee and they would sit out on the patio,” she said. “He loved it. When you’re out there, it’s like your personal park.” About Landscape Showcase Landscape Showcase is a paid series of profiles featuring local contractors in Southwest Minneapolis. The profiles are written by Nancy Crotti, a freelance writer.

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southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 B3

The Thefig figis isup up P

rices slashed? Sure, I’ll run right over. Everybody loves a deal. But, menu slashed? Not so much. A week after the opening of Fig + Farro in Calhoun Square, I stopped in and picked up a menu of what was heralded as the new wave of pan-global, all-vegetarian fare: 18 mouthwatering items, ranging from carrot osso buco and vegan Swedish meatballs to mashed potatoes with a three-tiered flight of gravies. Sign me up! So I made a reservation. Returning a week later, those 18 items had been slashed to nine (losers include all of the above). No wonder the room was nearly empty. Maybe that prime real estate, formerly known as Figlio — a space that has failed to capture a lasting audience ever since that esteemed café’s demise — has bad karma.

But here’s the thing: Cutting the foodie-type food from your menu so soon after debuting what’s arguably a challenging concept to the Uptown bar-burger crowd may not be the answer. Add in a pleasant server who clearly had had little training in the fundamentals of the job, and start placing your bets. (It should have been a warning when this server told us that two wines were available by carafe, one of which was terrible. Thanking her for the tip, we ordered the other one.) We started with the hummus plate, also featuring baba ghanoush, both of supermarketdeli quality and accompanied by three carrot sticks, three cuke slices, etc., for our party of four. Plus “paan” — the kitchen’s cross-cultural blend of pita and naan but resembling neither. The wedges are thick and bouncy, and just fine.

A selection of Fig + Farro dishes (top) and a view of the dining room (left). Submitted photos

By Carla Waldemar

Next, the Brussels sprouts. (Oh, no, sorry! The kitchen has run out, we were informed. OK, then, down to eight choices. Seven if you don’t count the spiced nuts.) We pointed to the Magic Avocado Burrito, $12 — served, in an unfortunate judgment call, stone cold. The wrap enclosed avocado, bits of hard-boiled egg, tomatoes, feta and MAGIC (no, I don’t know, either) and was accompanied by a dab of standard salsa verde. Then the curried cauliflower, $9 — a huge platter of tennis-ball-size nuggets (over-large, overcooked) dusted with too-mild and modest curry powder. The hit of the evening — and it proved mighty tasty, indeed — was a platter of shakshouka ($12), the dish all knowing Israelis turn to for a bar-close snack and then again in the morning as a hangover cure. I love it. It’s a juicy stew of toma-

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toes, sweet peppers and such, served topped with poached eggs and a nice jolt of savory, salty feta — and here, accompanied by more paan. The latkes we ordered never showed up. Instead, from among the two desserts (plus cookies) listed — a dense Swedish chocolate cake called kladdkaka, and a cake showcasing caramelized figs — we went for the latter. A slim, dense but nicely juicy slice appeared, sweetened with maple and served with a little pitcher of maple-almond milk — but without spoons with which to enjoy it.

A footnote I’d written about Cosmos, in downtown’s Loew’s Hotel, in 2017, and returned recently for a press dinner that showcased the hyper-local, vegetarian-forward choices starring on its new, seasonal menu. The Herbiverous Butcher provided an antipasto buffet of plant-based chorizo and more, then a chance to sample the chorizo as a cameo in a frisée-butternut-pepita salad. The HB’s Porterhouse Steak served as a main course (or choose actual bison, mighty tasty, too), assisted by breads from Baker’s Field Flour, love child of iconic Irishman Kieran Folliard. For dessert, another partner, Mademoiselle Miel, baked a chocolatebanana tart sweetened with her uber-local honey. Bravo to the kitchen’s commitment to feature vegan choices as well as local ones on every forthcoming menu.

B4 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com

h c t u l C r e w o p

2018

Camp Guide

Campers at Snapology of Minneapolis learn science, technology, engineering, arts and math skills by using LEGO bricks

By Olivia Volkman-Johnson

A Snapology camper shows off his LEGO creation in one of Snapology’s STEAM camps. Photo by Snapology of Minneapolis

n an unusually cool August morning at Northeast Middle School, Room B114 was buzzing with excitement as Snapology campers prepared for another day of LEGO stop-motion filming. Fourteen-year-old Anya and 9-year-old Presley pulled out a large jungle-scene backdrop filled with vibrant trees and fluff y white clouds for “Darn Apples,” a short film in their “Indiana John” series. “They built all these sets and they have a backdrop, so it’s like an actual movie set,” said instructor Rob Dorsey. In the film, a brave adventurer named Indiana John searches for buried treasure, only to get continually hit in the head with apples. Once he reaches the treasure, he finds out — much to his chagrin — the chest is completely filled with apples. After Indiana John defeats the main villain, who has a pineapple for a head, The Flash dashes through the scene with a wheelbarrow to help save the day.

“We have a Flash wheelbarrow thing at the end of every single thing that we do,” Anya said with a laugh. After the brief premiere of “Darn Apples,” Anya and Presley quickly returned to work on their next stop-motion installment. This is the life at Snapology’s Animation Studio, a half-day summer camp offered for ages 7–14.

Building blocks Snapology — a science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) education organization — was founded in 2010 by sisters Lisa and Laura Coe who wanted to create classes and camps to share their children’s love of educational materials that snap together. Snapology, built on the Coes’ backgrounds in math and science, boasts more than 40 locations across the country, including Snapology of Minneapolis. Aaron Hagebak opened his Snapology of

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A Snapology instructor assists campers in learning how gears turn together. Photo by Snapology of Minneapolis

Minneapolis franchise after leaving the music industry as a way to give back to the community — and make a lasting impact in the lives of children. “I knew that I wanted to work with kids,” he said. “I wanted to give back to the community a little bit and try to make as much of a living doing that as I could.” Snapology of Minneapolis — in addition to its year-round programming — offers halfand full-day STEAM camps, including basic LEGO building camps for ages 4 and up as well as robotics and video-game design camps for kids up to 14 years old. At Snapology camps, children come with a wide range of skills and often end up working together. “We definitely try to have them learn teamwork,” Hagebak said. “A lot of our stuff is really team-focused — in a big group setting or just a partnership.”

Inner-city LEGOs Snapology of Minneapolis, which started out hosting classes and camps at schools and other destinations around the Twin Cities, today

offers most of its classes at its new Snapology Discovery Center in Uptown. “I want the community to have options like this,” Hagebak said. “A lot of play spaces are in the suburbs and if you’ve got kids and you’re looking for a place to go for two hours on a Saturday morning, they’re in Eagan or they’re in Eden Prairie. I wanted to be in the city.” Snapology’s instructors, including Dorsey, come from different STEAM and educationbased backgrounds. Some are licensed teachers or paraprofessionals while others are experts in engineering and science fields. They each have different ways of engaging with kids. “Rob’s style is a little more like a fun uncle,” Hagebak said of Dorsey. “One of my other teachers, Kevin, is like classic teacher. He’s always writing on the board and very structured. [Susan] has been in the nonprofit world for most of her life and she just really wanted to work with kids. She brings this totally different, positive, happy vibe to everything that she does. She loves working with the preschoolers and gets all silly with them.” Dorsey said the traditional science and math curriculum — with an added focus on the arts — helps develop well-rounded kids. “The right brain is doing programming,” Dorsey said of his animation campers, “while the left brain is coming up with the story ideas.”

Busy builders Sessions are meant to be fun and playful as well as educational. A few of the summer camp options for 2018 include “Amusement Park,” “Epic Minecraft,” “Robot Rescue Mission,” “Space Wars” and even “LEGO Friends” — a more feminineoriented part of the LEGO empire that’s decidedly not rooted in sci-fi themes. Full-day camps typically involve one type of camp in the morning, followed by another in the afternoon to keep kids interested and engaged. “Superhero Robotics and Lego City Camp,”

for example, allows ages 5–8 to design programmable robotic superhero vehicles in the morning, followed by lunch and recess, and an afternoon of exploring the world of transportation and city structures. Campers, maybe without realizing it, learn about energy, wheels and axles as well as how to make stable and strong buildings and bridges. Kids in the aforementioned Animation Studio half-day camp got a break from using

SNAPOLOGY Children learn basic and advanced science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) concepts through the use of LEGO, DUPLO and other building toys. Other camp offerings include robotics, animation and video-game design. Ages: 4–14 Dates: June 11–Aug. 24 Hours: 9 a.m.–4 p.m. for full-day camps and 9 a.m.–noon or 1–4 p.m. for half-day camps, which can be combined to create a full-day Location: Snapology Discovery Center, 2649 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis, as well as The Blake School (Hopkins, Wayzata, Minneapolis), Crystal Rec Center (Crystal), Friends School of Minnesota (St. Paul), Hale Elementary (Minneapolis), Kiddywampus (Hopkins), Minnehaha Academy (Minneapolis) and New Life Academy (Woodbury). Cost: $120–$150 for a week of half-day camp or $300 for a week of full-day camp Info: 612-440-7627, snapology.com

computers all morning by attending Ninja Camp in the afternoon. “They build a dojo [out of LEGOS],” Hagebak said. “And they make throwing stars out of origami and do skills challenges with chopsticks.” Campers at Snapology even get to work on their speaking skills: At the end of the week, friends and family are invited to a film festival in which campers present their stop-motion films. “They’ll stand up there and talk about it — why they did it, how they did it, what they wanted to convey,” Hagebak said.

Community outreach Hagebak, as part of his mission to help disadvantaged children, is also using Snapology to reach out to low-income families in the Twin Cities by working at Community Emergency Assistance Programs (CEAP) events. CEAP provides food, housing and employment resources for community members in Hennepin and Anoka counties, including events at local food shelves. Hagebak recalled one event in which he set up a table with art activities and LEGO building stations. “There were like 250 families there, and most of them had kids,” he said. “All of a sudden, these kids came running over to me. It was awesome.” Though the Snapology Discovery Center will be the main location for Snapology of Minneapolis’ camps and classes, Hagebak said he will continue to bring the same learning experiences into schools, including metro-area communities that might not offer so many activities for kids. “I definitely want to keep focusing on the schools that don’t have as many resources — and just being out there and doing as much as I can,” he said. Olivia Volkman-Johnson is a local freelance writer and a recent graduate of Winona State University.

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Camp Guide

2018

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n e p O to all

Summer at Blake day camps oﬀer a slice of the school’s academics, arts and athletics programs for ages pre-K and up

By Olivia Volkman-Johnson

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he Blake School — a private, nonsectarian school — serves about 1,400 pre-K through 12th-grade students across its campuses in Minneapolis, Hopkins and Wayzata during the school year. But did you know that the school is open to all — not just Blake students — for special camp programming known as Summer at Blake? In fact, Blake isn’t unique in this respect: Numerous private schools in the metro area invite non-students to join their campuses during their off seasons. (See our sidebar on page B7.) During summer, Blake hosts about 900 Blake and non-Blake students in more than 100 classes, workshops and camps, featuring academic, arts and athletic activities, including day camps. There’s typically a 50-50 split between Blake and non-Blake students attending camps each summer. Blake’s general-interest day camp — Camp Acoma — includes four age categories — Cubs (pre-K–K), Bears (grades K–2), Adventure (grades 3–4) and Leaders in Training (grades 5–7). Rates are comparable to other local day camps at $245–$340

southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 B7

for a week of full-day camp, including extended-day options. For sessions running June 18–July 20, Acoma campers can take advantage of Blake’s expansive Hopkins campus, which

LEARN MORE Many private schools in the Twin Cities offer summer camps and classes to students and non-students alike. The Blake School Hopkins, Wayzata, Minneapolis blakeschool.org Breck School Golden Valley breckschool.org Friends School of Minnesota St. Paul fsmn.org/summer-camp Groves Academy St. Louis Park grovesacademy.org/learningcenter/summer-school Hill-Murray School Maplewood hill-murray.org International School of Minnesota Eden Prairie internationalschoolmn.com Providence Academy Plymouth providenceacademy.org Minnehaha Academy Minneapolis minnehahaacademy.net Mounds Park Academy Saint Paul connect.moundsparkacademy.org

includes ample opportunities for outdoor play, visual arts, athletics, daily swimming at the on-site pool and even ice skating in a newly renovated ice arena. During sessions held July 23–Aug. 3, Camp Acoma sessions move to the school’s Wayzata campus (known as Highcroft) with swimming at Wayzata Beach. Blake’s core values — respect, love of learning, integrity and courage — are explored throughout the summer. Each week features a unique theme along with weekly field trips and special projects. Off-campus field trips emphasize adventure and new experiences: In 2017, kids traveled to U.S. Bank Stadium, Carlson’s Llovable Llamas and Lake Minnetonka Sailing School, to name a few. Children of all ages can also enroll in specialty half-day camps at all three of Blake’s campuses June 11–Aug. 9. Specialty options include language, music and theater lessons as well as other interestbased half-day camps such as “Magic: The Gathering,” “Buttercream Basics With Cookies,” “Chess Camp,” “Global Art Adventure: American Southwest” and “Gamebots Beginner Coding.” Parents can mix and match all types of camps by enrolling kids in half-day versions of various camps, including the option of half-day Camp Acoma sessions.

Mix and match

Last summer, we met Luana, a fifth-grader, who took advantage of Camp Acoma and specialty camp options in the same week on the Hopkins campus. She attended a “Page to Stage” theaterarts camp in which she helped paint a tree for the backdrop of a theatrical production of “Stephanie’s Ponytail,” based on a children’s book by Robert Munsch. Each morning, Luana learned how to transform the pages of a story into a live

A young camper displays her colorful yarn creation in the “Knit, Purl” camp — designed to teach campers knitting, including a purl type of stitch. Photo by Murphy Byrne

performance through acting exercises and theater games guided by Blake drama teacher Lori Opsal. Later in the day, Luana attended Camp Acoma where she learned team-building and leadership skills while working with younger campers. “There’s a lot of things you get to do and it’s really fun,” Luana said. “And then you get to play with the little kids and you get to help them.” Gabi, a fourth-grader, also attended the theater camp. Her favorite part of the day, however, was swimming and water activities at Camp Acoma. Last year, Gabi participated in the Acoma Aquathlon in which campers raced against each other in running and swimming while

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being cheered on by friends and counselors. Specialty theater camps take advantage of the newly renovated auditorium on the Hopkins campus, which is also home to the annual Camp Acoma talent show. “They might play catch, they might do some tumbling, they might sing,” said Jessie Briol, the director of Summer at Blake. “It’s a super fun time and a chance for the kids to spend some time on stage, which is always nerve-wracking but a great experience.” Summer at Blake also includes — for grades 9–12 — courses for credit, such as “Woodworking” and “Health,” offered to help Blake students — and non-Blake students with permission from their schools — meet their arts and health curriculum requirements. SEE OPEN TO ALL / PAGE B8

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Camp Guide

2018

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A camper studies fossils at the “Geology Rocks” specialty camp at The Blake School. Photo by Murphy Byrne

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SUMMER AT BLAKE Day camps, specialty camps and courses for school credit in arts, athletics and academics are offered for ages preschool through high school every summer for the public as well as students enrolled for school at Blake during the school year. Ages: Camp Acoma includes grades pre-K–K (Cubs), grades K–2 (Bears), grades 3–4 (Adventure) and grades 5–7 (Leaders in Training). Specialty camps are offered for grades pre-K–12. Academic classes and courses for credit are offered for grades 9–12. Dates: June 18–Aug. 9 Hours: 8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. for Camp Acoma — 7:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. with before/after extended-day options; specialty camps and courses for credit are typically offered in twoto four-hour time slots between 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Location: Blake Campus (110 Blake Rd. S., Hopkins), Northrop Campus (511 Kenwood Pkwy., Minneapolis), Highcroft Campus (301 Peavey Lane, Wayzata) Cost: Camp Acoma costs $245–$250 for a week of full-day camp (8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.) or $275–$340 with before/after extended-day options (7:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.); families who mix and match specialty camps may also add recess bridge care between afternoon and morning camps, which costs $25–$35 per week. Info: 952-988-3463, blakeschool.org/ summer

Non-credit-bearing academic classes for upperclassmen as well as intensive ACT prep courses are offered over the summer as well.

Camp Acoma

Counselors at the Acoma day camps create a traditional summer camp atmosphere by singing a special camp song. “Alright! Let’s do the Acoma song!” Briol shouted to a giggling group of kids — pre-K Cubs to seventh-grade Leaders in Training, all gathered on the steps of the Lower School. Quickly, the campers composed themselves and lifted their arms up in anticipation. “A is for adventure that’s headed our way!” they sang as they joined their hands over their heads into a point. “C is for the choice we make to do our best today! O is opportunity to M: make a new friend! A is for Acoma! Acoma! That’s the end!” they shouted with glee. After the opening Acoma song, campers broke into their groups and followed their counselors to start their days — jam-packed with art projects, kickball games and teambuilding exercises, too. Briol said she hopes students leave Blake camps with a well-rounded, fun and educational experience. “I’m very passionate about summer programming, just in general,” Briol said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for kids to be in a space where they can take risks and make friends and have fun and be themselves without any pressure. So that’s what I really hope kids get out of this summer — an opportunity to grow and learn and just enjoy themselves.” Olivia Volkman-Johnson is a local freelance writer and a recent graduate of Winona State University.

Camp Guide

2018

southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 B9

t s i l k c C he Encourage your kid to pack his own suitcase. (Then get ready to pack away your anxiety!)

By Sue LeBreton

“M

om. You forgot to pack extra socks,” my 10-year-old son said accusingly after we picked him up from a weeklong overnight camp. Socks, I mused, mentally searching through the gear I’d packed over a week ago. I remembered making an extra trip to the store for the hiking socks requested on the camp list. Had I not packed them? “Do you mean the hiking socks?” I asked. “No, just any socks. I have a blister because I wore the same pair of socks all week,” he said, his voice rising. “I packed more than enough socks,” I assured him. “They were right there with your underwear.” “Oh yeah: I could not find my underwear, so I wore the same pair of underwear all week, too.” At this point, his dad and I burst out laughing, but he didn’t see the humor. “They were not in the bag! I even had a counselor help me look for them,” he asserted confidently. Puzzled, I wonder if he could’ve been the victim of a cabin prank in which someone hid his underwear and socks. When we arrived home, I opened the large gear bag. Lo and behold, jammed in one section, just where I’d packed them, were ample clean socks and underwear. “Oh, I guess we never saw the second zippered section,” my son said. My mind jumped back to the night before camp when I finished packing his bag and then, as suggested by the camp guide, walked him through where everything was. I suppose his, “Yeah, yeah, Mom, I know,” should’ve showed me he wasn’t listening. Lesson learned. The following year, he packed his own bag and I reviewed it. As you pack and prepare to send your child off to camp, whether it’s for the first or fifth time, remember that camp organizers are experts. Just trust their directions — and follow them closely. Here are some general guidelines I’ve learned (and relearned) after sending two children to various camps for many years. Start early: Review the suggested packing list with your child a few weeks before camp. This will give you time to purchase any missing items. (It might also help your child get excited about camp.) Let them do it: Have your children pack their own bags (with supervision). This will help them eventually find those important socks and underwear. Plus, it adds to their sense of independence, another reason we choose to send them to camp, right? Label it: From luggage to individual items, use a system to label every item that leaves your house. Preprinted labels are great, but can be expensive. One year when my daughter attended camp, we created a logo for her using her initials. We marked all her belongings using a permanent marker. Even if another camper had the same initials, her items were uniquely identified. Be careful with care packages: Double check if these are even allowed at camp. In more rustic surroundings, food isn’t permitted in sleeping quarters because it attracts wild animals. If food is allowed, send enough for your child’s cabin mates, too. But be sensitive

Illustration by Victoria Hein

to any allergy issues. Many camps are peanutfree or nut-free. Pack it out: A horse camp my daughter attended suggested campers bring a detailed list of their belongings. When she was packing up to go home, it made it easier for her to locate missing items. For example: She knew she was looking for two pink shirts, not one. Don’t helicopter: Keep communication to a minimum and obey any camp restrictions. Many camps allow one-way communication in which parents can send a daily letter or email to the child. You’re the expert on your children: Will receiving a daily note from you make them more or less lonely? Our son asked us not to send any notes the second year as he found the notes made him lonely and homesick. Be strong: I know you may be anxious and missing your child, but don’t call the camp unless it’s an emergency. Pack your own anxiety away and prepare your children for the possibility of homesickness. Tell them it’s normal and can happen to campers of any age. Assure them you know they can handle it. Counselors should be trained to help campers work through these issues. If your child calls crying for you to come and get him, steel yourself and repeat that you’re confident in his ability to manage. Then speak to the head counselor to assess the situation. This happened to us the first year our son attended camp. But he worked through it (so did Mom and Dad) and he felt quite proud and independent when he completed his first week at camp. Don’t bring valuables: Jewelry and expensive electronics belong at home. If children attend camp with cell phones or iPads, they might miss opportunities to connect and make new friends. And isn’t that why we’re sending them to camp in the first place? Sue LeBreton is health and wellness journalist who lives in Calgary, Canada.

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2/8/18 10:36 AM

B10 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com

2018

Camp Guide

FROM STAGE RIGHT / PAGE B1

A student performer shows off her talents by singing loud and proud. Photo by Marisa B. Tejeda

One of the things we value at YPC is that we’re not just teaching theater. They’re learning community building, leadership, empathy. — Maya Washington, Youth Performance Company

Let’s take it from the top

The workshop — in which students learn and perform a collection of popular songs and scenes from the Tony award-winning musical “Wicked” — was one of several five-day workshops offered last summer by Youth Performance Company (YPC) for K–12 kids. Upstairs, inside YPC’s oﬃce and rehearsal space in Minneapolis’ Prospect Park neighborhood, instructor Kayla Feld led a “Frozen” workshop in a different kind of warm-up for a group of kindergarteners through second-graders. “Simon says: ‘Turn to the audience.’ Simon says: ‘Go to center.’ Simon says: ‘Go to stage left,’” Feld directed. Some kids giggled and bumped into one another, while others stood still and furrowed their brows, trying to remember which direction to move in the brightly illustrated rehearsal space. “Simon says: ‘Dance.’ Simon says: ‘Dance to stage left.’ Go upstage. … I didn’t say Simon says!” Feld laughed as her students dropped to the floor in amusement and mock frustration. By playing this classic camp game, the K–2 kids learned how to closely follow directions as well as terminology for blocking — where to go on stage during a scene — when rehearsing lines for their take on the acclaimed Disney musical. Why are they rehearsing? Show-driven workshops at YPC end with final workshop presentations — for friends and family — to give kids real performance experiences. Sound like fun? This summer, YPC is back at it with a rich schedule of full-day, weeklong workshops including, to name a few, “Moana Junior,” “Trolls” and “Annie” for grades K–2; “Hogwarts Express,” “Wicked” and “Descendants” for grades 3–6; and “Hamilton,” “Newsies” and “Legally Blonde” for grades 7–12. Other workshops focus on special subjects such as improv, dance, set-building, playwriting, singing, auditioning and more.

Artistic director Jacie Knight founded YPC in 1989, with a mission to serve the community and empower young artists. During the school year, YPC holds auditions for plays and musicals that show at the Howard Conn Fine Arts Center in Minneapolis. In summer, in addition to offering day-camp-style workshops, YPC hosts a one-week overnight camp at Bay Lake Camp in Deerwood for grades 7–12. Professional actors, directors and choreographers, including YPC alumni, are among the instructors for the theater company’s summer workshops. Maya Washington — who directed the aforementioned “Wicked” workshop — is a multidisciplinary artist with experience as a writer/ director, filmmaker, actress, choreographer, poet and arts educator. Washington discovered her love for performing in a dance class when she was 8 years old, and later got her theatrical start at YPC as a teenager. “Teaching and directing are a way for me to give back to YPC for all they’ve done to support my creative development,” Washington said. “I draw on my own experiences as a young artist and think about the teachers who were really impactful in my journey.”

Stage fright One of the biggest obstacles facing young students interested in theater is the fear of performing in front of others — especially peers. Though most of the kids who enroll in YPC workshops have some experience or interest in participating in theater, performing can still be a scary endeavor for young artists. “Our classes are incredibly inclusive and the instructors are really skilled about making sure that the activities and materials are approachable for a student who maybe doesn’t have much theater experience,” said

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Julie Heaton, YPC’s director of education. Workshop leaders also add in some elements to make it challenging for students who have already spent some time on stage. “A lot of the week is spent focused on building confidence and having fun in the process of taking on new challenges,” Washington said. That might mean singing a solo or singing in a small group, learning new dance steps or taking on a speaking role.

A group of student performers gather around their instructor and to warm up for a day of rehearsals. Photo by Marisa B. Tejeda

YOUTH PERFORMANCE COMPANY Students learn acting, singing and dancing skills — as well as community building and leadership skills — through workshops built around popular films and musicals. Ages: Grades K–2, 3–6, 7–12 Dates: June 11–Aug. 24 Hours: Half-day workshops run from 9 a.m.–noon or 1–4 p.m. Full-day workshops go from 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Workshops for grades K–2 are all half-days. Location: Youth Performance Company office and rehearsal location, 3338 University Ave. SE, Minneapolis Cost: $130 for weeklong half-day workshops (Monday through Friday); $250 for weeklong full-day workshops (Monday through Friday) Overnight camp: Bay Lake Camp (16257 Brighton Point Road, Deerwood) Aug. 13–17 for kids going into grades 7–12 ($550) Info: 612-623-9180; youthperformanceco.org

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Washington said the week-long intensive workshops are an “extremely ambitious” undertaking. “[We’re] putting on a show with kids who’ve never met, with varying experience in performance, in only five days!” she said. Washington stressed the importance of supporting others in her opening remarks to the “Wicked” workshop. “If you see someone who’s struggling — those of you who are in a really great space — see if you can notice that and be a support system for them, OK?” Washington told her student performers. Washington then asked her students to think of (and share) one goal for the day. Some wanted to try to remember all their lines, while others aimed to hit their choreography with more power and excitement. “If something happens, whether your voice shakes a little bit or a crack happens or you forget a line, consider being proud of yourself

2/28/18 3:30 PM

for surviving it,” Washington said. “Can we all agree we will not beat ourselves up today?”

There’s no place like home YPC strives to create a strong sense of community within the company, too. “One of the things we value at YPC is that we’re not just teaching theater,” Heaton said. “They’re learning community building, leadership, empathy.” Workshops help teach theater basics, including terminology, performance and etiquette, but also self-confidence, teamwork, responsibility and professionalism, Washington said. “If I do my job well, they have fun while they’re learning,” she added. Heaton and Washington believe YPC can become a place for kids to feel comfortable while challenging themselves to learn something new.

“A lot of our students have really found a home at YPC where maybe they haven’t found that same kind of community at their school or elsewhere,” Heaton said. “We sort of have the philosophy that saying ‘yes’ makes you ‘good enough,’” Washington said. Before the “Wicked” performers took their places for their final rehearsal, Washington had them take deep breaths and channel their excitement into confidence. “Repeat after me: ‘No matter what happens, I am awesome. In fact, I’m actually the king or queen of awesome. At 4 o’clock today, or 4:30 or 7 p.m., I am going to be SO profoundly PROUD of myself that I will give myself permission to BURST!” Olivia Volkman-Johnson is a local freelance writer, a recent graduate of Winona State University and a former theater fanatic from Richfield High School.

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B14 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com

Southwest Journal Poetry Project

Spring Poetry SPRING IS ALWAYS an iffy thing around here — so yearned for … for so long … yet, if you don’t pay attention, gone before you know it. This winter produced an intriguing collection of poetic insights: love and yearning, children and recollections of childhood, visions from home and abroad, sexy mushrooms. We begin our 12th year of doing the Southwest Journal poetry pages. Thanks again to everyone who has sent in poems and everyone who has enjoyed reading them. — Doug Wilhide is the poet laureate of Linden Hills and poetry editor of the Southwest Journal

Yet, we cannot all be the industrious, wood-working, little pig. Some of us do better reading the newspaper or baking, and we need to take the consequences and deal with the wolf as best we can. It is obviously correct to live as we will, build our houses out of the material we want, gift the story with our own uniqueness.

Dark City Miriam Moore-Keish

We used to go there all the time and I memorized your favorite page of the menu like I memorized the mountains and valleys in the old tables and you pretended to memorize the names of the waiters. And I would always leave with the smell of your beer on my lips and with bits of wax under my nails, the wax they used to pretend the tables were still young, filling the valleys flat… or maybe it was melted crayons from the children’s menu.

My Time Scott Mitchell

Sometime around midnight Out my frosted window A sleek dark runner appears Along the road; It must be record cold. I’d like to be that person So purposed, so lithe Who probably has a reason to be In full stride on the parkway But that is not I Rather the sloppy trail of next month And wet shoes in the daylight. That is my time.

And every time I return I point out the spelling mistake on your favorite page of the menu and I tell myself that this was our place, that we came all the time. But then I suppose we never came all the time, we just came enough.

A Distant Day in April Elizabeth Weir

On child legs, weak from influenza, my mother supporting my elbow, I stepped through our French windows into an English spring garden. Wrapped in a torrent of thrush song, The day floated in stilled perfection.

The Parting Laurie Lykken

We should be, you and me, old friends; old friends is what we should be. It is too sad, a tragedy, that we should part for eternity, that we should break the heart we once shared when we dared to care enough to be kind, to be of one mind. Now, grown old, we could be sitting on a bench throwing bread crumbs out to birds not needing to say a single word. Old friends are that way; the more they’ve shared, the less they need say. But you have gone away riding on the drift, out of reach. Though I see you, you’re not here. You are nowhere. Not bold enough to stay. Not bold enough to go. Just out of reach and on your way.

There will always be wolves who will huff and puff and blow our house down, but living as we are always gives us a chance to win.

Dew-silvered lawn sponged underfoot. I trod gingerly to avoid coiled worm casts. Mummy lead me to three deck chairs

The Three Little Pigs Revisted

set beneath our orange-pippin apple tree, where my father puffed his Players Navy Cut, its smoke curling through clusters of blossom.

Chuck Kausalik-Boe

He tucked a blanket around my knees. Mummy brought two cups of coffee and nourishing honey barley water for me.

As a little boy, I wanted to be the little pig who built the house of sticks. In my picture book, that little pig was rolling out dough at his kitchen table, wearing an apron, when the wolf came to call.

In the gentle hum of working bees I drifted, drowsy in the comfort of affection listening to quiet talk of parsnips and petunias.

The little pig in the straw house was reading the newspaper. The little pig in the brick house was doing woodwork. I wanted to be the little pig who baked.

Pale sun dappled through the fragrant canopy, warming my upturned face, and I knew I would hold this moment forever.

The teacher said I was wrong. The little pig in the stick house gets eaten by the wolf. It is obviously correct to be the industrious little pig in the brick house. He is the little pig who wins.

Now, on a cold April morning in middle-age and in another land, I sip this sustaining draught as I convalesce from my first Minnesota winter.

southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 B15

Lingering on this bed, we swim into each other’s color scheme. Caressed by grey-green waves, I long to dive into her opaque depths until, like Argus, we become two peacocks, full of eyes that watch and play and love.

She nods her head in satisfaction Turns and walks back to her place on the side of the road

A Day on My Street

Granddaugher—for Rosalie

Dave Griffin

Doug Wilhide

Lyndale. Morning was a stop-and-go grind of coffee drinkers with elsewhere minds And the day a festival of ambulance sounds and a crane with at least 100 wheels.

A baby is a powerful force against cynicism and sarcasm and irony and all that other snark we let ourselves get into as we grow older and old.

We drive off slowly She waves A soft smile lights her face Her eyes bright in the late afternoon sun.

April in Minnesota Annette Gagliardi

I see them everywhere, slicing the soft earth, slipping their spear-tips skyward — stretching their spikes of green and purple. They emerge in regiments, in battalions, fighting for space with other newly-forming species. The war is waged through rain and sun, through day and night; with all their might, they surge upward tilling the soil with their appearance; surfacing, and then unfurling shining new leaves, as they rise. And, I want to throw my hands upward and thank the sun - shout out to the world, when I realize, “The Hostas are coming! The Hostas are coming!”

Mushrooms John O’Connor

Mushrooms have sex. Did you know? They seem so respectable. So uptight. So boring. So blandly edible. You think you know a plant. You never know. There should be a hypocrisy warning: These plants have parties in the trees – And then, on Sunday morning, Are just as churchly as you please. I’m not a plantist or a mycophobe. I’m not saying all fungi should be deported. I’m not calling for purges. But maybe there should be a probe Based on what has been reported Of their uncontrollable urges.

Then evening rush hour came and another car scraped a tree off the center strip leaving a shiny scatter of bumper parts and reflective headlight shards to catch, much later in the night, the blue and red flash of police cars in a row moving fast as a wind storm, without sirens, creating the breathless Dopler sounds of tires advancing and retreating and finally leaving Lyndale, in the pre-dawn light, A brief temple Of silence.

Living Hard

Toni McNaron

Grey-eyed Athena is wise in my arms this morning, drowsy with desire played out in dwindling candle flame. I lounge beside her letting pleasure wander down my body length. Iris to iris we hold our position: hers darken, angle off in fear, return to call me deeper away from codes and secrets. Mine respond in motley— blue-gold, flecked with desert rose.

She is honestly innocent: watching, testing, reflecting, wondering — full of wondering — she wants to know what is going on: who are you? what are you doing? what is coming next? do you mean me harm? what if I smiled at you? what if I fell asleep in your arms?

Bob Swandby

On the high emerald road from Olympia to Tripolis We come off a sharp curve A small gray haired woman with wrinkled face carved like an ancient mountain Raises a wooden bowl laden with red fruit above her head Brings it down and raises it again As if we are gods to whom she is presenting her offering Thoughts of sweet fruit on a hot afternoon Turn us around and we stop near her I get out and approach She beams; her eyes say “I have caught you Now you are mine.” I begin to gesture that I would like a small bag Of her ripe red plumbs

Grey-eyed Athena

Snide humor just doesn’t work when those wide open eyes stare back and you… this child doesn’t get shrugs and puns and critical poses.

She pours the whole bowl into a plastic bag Never taking her eyes from mine I pay her more than the fruit is worth Before I can turn to leave, she says “Cigarette?” and brings her curled left thumb and index finger to her mouth, puffs “Chocolate?” she bites into an imaginary bar She follows me to the car Stands in front of me “Pen?” she writes with her left index finger on her right palm I open the back door and take a new gel pen from my satchel And present it to her

Outdoor Recess Stuart D. Klipper

Undaunted by the onset of storm, these stalwart children of Minnesota soldier on gleefully outside into another outdoor recess. From one story up in my school I watch, below, a Breugel of Brownian movement, the snowsuitedup bodies bounding about at random buoyed by their exuberance so easily relentless in the sideways snow. An abundance of bootprints everywhere tells their story: little vital lives oblivious to the weather’s will rampaging and radiant the air about them clouded with condensed joy.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY

B16 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com

Mill City Cooks

Recipes and food news from the Mill City Farmers Market

Shrubs: America’s not-so-new drinking vinegar

et’s talk shrubs. Now, I know there are two feet of snow covering your junipers and boxwoods right now. I’m talking about drinking vinegars. Shrubs are a mixture of vinegar, sugar, fruits and herbs created to be mixed with soda water for a dynamic sweet-and-sour beverage or with liquor for a simple, flavorful cocktail. Shrubs and other vinegar-based drinks — like switchels, which we see popping up on craft cocktail menus and in little bottles at farmers markets — have much of their history in colonial America.

Before the invention of refrigeration, vinegar was used to preserve fruit. The syrup that is produced during this process became a widespread drink. Everyone from field workers and slaves who mixed the vinegar syrups with water to stay hydrated to patrons of big city saloons enjoyed this combination of vinegar, sugar and fruit. Shrubs’ history can date back even further to ancient cultures in Persia, China and the Caribbean where vinegar drinks are still very popular on warm days. The multi-dimensional flavor of shrubs

is what originally drew Phil Calvit, owner of Minneapolis-based Calvit’s Shrubs, to the craft. “I started making shrubs when I needed something interesting to drink after I quit drinking [alcohol],” Phil said. “I started playing around with different flavor combos myself, and enough friends and relatives told me, ‘Man, this stuff is delicious!’ that I decided to try selling it.” His shrubs feature unique flavors like tomatillo-tamarind with hibiscus, beet-ginger with Szechuan pepper, and Thai basil with lime leaf. They’re great with club soda for a dynamic soft

NOT-A-ROSÉ

THE LYNNHURST

A non-alcoholic option that hits a lot of the same tart, tangy, sweet, floral, spicy notes as a rosé (and, yes, looks lovely in a wine glass).

Named in honor of the Shrubber’s home turf.

1 ounce Calvit’s Tomatillo Tamarind Shrub 3 ounces tonic water Combine ingredients in a wine glass. Almost too simple, right?

1½ ounces good bourbon 1 ounce Calvit’s Ginger Lemongrass Shrub 1 Tablespoon of fresh lemon juice Splash of club soda Lemon twist (because it’s pretty) Stir together the bourbon, shrub and lemon juice. Pour into a low ball over ice. Top with club soda and garnish with a twist of lemon.

drink or with a shot of liquor for craft cocktails at home. They also make fantastic gifts. Calvit’s Shrubs are available at the Mill City Farmers Market’s remaining indoor winter markets on March 10, March 24, April 14 and April 28. The indoor market runs 10 a.m.–1 p.m. with 30-plus local food makers, farmers and artists inside the Mill City Museum, 704 S. 2nd St. You can learn more at millcityfarmersmarket.org. — Jenny Heck

THE GLAMOROUS VIKING 1½ ounces aquavit 1 ounce Calvit’s Beet Ginger Shrub Squeeze of fresh orange juice Fresh ground black pepper Shake aquavit and shrub with ice. Pour into a martini glass. Add a squeeze of orange juice and a grind or two of fresh ground black pepper.

Cocktail recipes courtesy of Calvit’s Shrubs. Find more at calvitsshrubs.com/recipes

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southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 B17

Bloomington Athletic Association — BAA By Dr. Teresa Hershey

For vets, it’s an opioid shortage

f your dog is going to be undergoing a surgical procedure in the next year, chances are that your veterinarian will be wondering what drugs she has available to control pain during and after the procedure. Everyone has heard about or personally experienced the tragedy of the opioid epidemic. Meanwhile, in the veterinary world, we are experiencing an opioid shortage. We get varying reports as to why this is happening. Some say it stems from the opioid epidemic and tightening government regulation. Opioids are highly addictive, and getting hooked can lead to death or destroyed lives. It is necessary that steps be taken to try to better control diversion and misuse of opioid drugs. Others say that the opioid shortage veterinarians are experiencing has nothing to do with the epidemic. The real reason for the shortage, they say, is that manufacturers are having quality control issues and aging manufacturing plants are no longer passing inspection. Likely the real reason is somewhere in between. But what it means for your local veterinarian is that we can no longer buy most of the common opioid drugs that we use in our pain control and anesthesia plans. Medicine has advanced so much it is a given that if we undergo a surgery we won’t remember it, we won’t feel much pain and we will be able to go through that procedure safely. Dr. Kurt Baker-Watson, an anesthesiologist from Loyola University Medical Center, published his five goals of general anesthesia: amnesia (not remembering what happened); hypnosis or sleep/coma; analgesia (not feeling pain); muscle relaxation (the patient can’t move); and reflex control. Opioids play a key role in the drug “cocktail” used to accomplish the five goals of general anesthesia — in particular, the analgesia portion of general anesthesia. A typical anesthetic protocol for a veterinary patient undergoing surgery involves: • A premedication given in the muscle. This is typically an opioid mixed with some-

thing else, like a Valium-type drug. This allows us to get ahead of the pain by blocking pain receptors before the surgery starts. It also relaxes the patient before the “real” anesthesia starts. • An induction agent. Commonly, this medication is a drug called propofol given in the vein to make the patient sleepy enough to allow us to pass a breathing tube. • A gas anesthetic for maintaining anesthesia. Through the breathing tube we can give the patient a gas anesthetic, which allows us to put the brain to sleep. • A pain control plan. For painful procedures, we typically are giving a CRI (constant rate infusion) of medications, including an opioid so that the patient stays asleep better during surgery and isn’t uncomfortable in the recovery period. As of this writing, the standard opioids that we use in dogs we can’t buy right now. That means that we have to use other, less traditional opioids for dog pain management. This swap would be fine, if it weren’t for the fact that the non-traditional opioids are 20–30 times more expensive that our standard opioids. Veterinarians are acutely aware of how much our raw materials cost. We strive to prevent our goods and services to from being cost-prohibitive to clients. It is disheartening when our costs increase so much as that is then reflected in the price to the client. The latest information we are receiving is that our drug supply should improve by 2019. Until then, we do the best we can with what we have, considering the patient first. The patient is always first, and readers should know that veterinarians take a very considerate approach to the precious creatures in their care. The goal of this article is to shine a light on one of the hurdles veterinarians face every day to deliver quality care while still trying to stay within a client’s budget.

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B18 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com

NO FICTION FESTIVAL

Get Out Guide. By Jahna Peloquin

‘ALLEN RUPPERSBERG: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: 1968–2018’ In the 1960s, a group of L.A. artists began to mimic the look and feel of commercial marketing strategies by treating viewers as consumers. Among them were Allen Ruppersberg, one of the first generation of American conceptual artists who changed the way art is thought about and created. “Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property,” organized by the Walker Art Center, is the first comprehensive U.S. survey of the artist’s work in more than 30 years. Ruppersberg is known for creating participatory artworks that masquerade as everyday objects, such as a diner and a hotel, and offer a multi-layered experience for the viewer. “Intellectual Property” showcases half a century of his best-known works, including the iconic “Al’s Café” and “Al’s Grand Hotel,” which converted physical spaces into fully functioning concepts, in unprecedented depth and breadth. The show also features some of his lesser-known works, including photo-based narratives that combine text and image and installations of his commercial letterpress posters and drawings, as well as selections of his films, books and various ephemera.

When: March 17–July 19; Walker After Hours: March 16, 9 p.m.–midnight Where: Walker Art Center, 725 Vineland Place Cost: $7.50–$15 museum admission (free under 18); $15 for Walker After Hours Info: walkerart.org

‘LAUREN ROCHE: COLLECTED VESSELS’ Lauren Roche received a Jerome Foundation Emerging Artist Fellowship in 2012 — an auspicious moment for the artist, who had yet to show a collection of artwork publicly. After showing her work in several group shows over the next few years, she had her first solo show at Bockley Gallery in 2016, an eerie series of figural drawings of women and animals. Now, the Minneapolis artist makes her return to the Kenwood gallery with another transfixing collection of artworks. “Collected Vessels” consists of five dynamic mixed-media works on paper in which female nudes, animals, rough fields of color, abstracted furniture, ceramics and textile forms float, touch and bleed onto one another. The dramatic new compositions of gouache, watercolor and acrylic suggest solidarity and harmony within a communal setting, while smudges of red and black become mysterious masks and veils.

When: March 9–April 14 Where: Bockley Gallery, 2123 W. 21st St. Cost: Free Info: bockleygallery.com

CUBAN FILM FESTIVAL

‘ARTISTS IN THE KITCHEN’

Against the backdrop of the current U.S. administration’s threats to recently improved U.S.-Cuban relations and loosened travel restrictions for U.S. citizens, the 9th-annual Cuban Film Festival offers Minnesotans a timely opportunity to view a curated selection of Cuban films. This year’s seven selections highlight Cuba’s cultural heritage. They include 1987’s “Buscando a Chano Pozo,” a documentary about the legend of Chano Pozo, a Cuban jazz musician and dancer credited with playing a major role in the founding of Latin jazz, and 2014’s “Me Dicen Cuba (They Call Me Cuba),” which documents the unique experience and outlook of more than 70 prominent musicians in Cuba today on universal subjects such as peace, love, family and community. Other films include offbeat romantic comedy “El Techo (On the Roof)” and “Cuba and the Cameraman,” which examines the ways Cuban changed over the course of 45 years under Fidel Castro.

The long-standing relationship between food and art is at the center of “Artists in the Kitchen,” an innovative new exhibition that pairs 50 female artists with 50 female chefs, restaurateurs and food writers from the Twin Cities. The partnership between the 50 duos began last December, with the artist taking inspiration from their paired chef for a new piece of artwork. Each artist will also incorporate a textile element into their work as a nod to exhibition host, the Textile Center. Featured chefs include 2018 James Beard Award nominees, Diane Yang of Spoon and Stable and Michelle Gayer of Salty Tart Bakery, Ann Kim of Young Joni and Lisa Carlson of Chef Shack, with artists including ﬁgurative painter Caitlin Karolczak, illustratorartist Jennifer Davis and milliner Celina Kane. The show will be on display in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the Women Chefs & Restaurateurs (WCR) national conference from April 21 to 23.

When: Ends April 5 Where: St. Anthony Main Theater, 115 SE Main St. Cost: $6–$8 Info: mspfilm.org

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) has been on the forefront of the contemporary chamber music landscape since founding its Liquid Music series in 2012. Created in partnership with music programmer Kate Nordstrum, Liquid Music has since become a destination for world premieres and commissioned works featuring adventurous, cross-genre hybrids of contemporary classical music and visual art, music and dance. Now, the SPCO is debuting the No Fiction Festival, which combines the innovation of the Liquid Music series with the intimacy of its long-running Chamber Music Series. Programming includes a “Strong Sisters,” a series of SPCO chamber music concerts centering on the theme of sisterhood and featuring works by composers Hildegard von Bingen, the Boulanger sisters (Nadia and Lili), Jessie Montgomery and Dame Gillian Whitehead. The festival also features two Liquid Music–presented works, “Fanm d’Ayiti (Women of Haiti)” by multi-genre performance artist Nathalie Joachim, who has long been pushing the boundaries with her ﬂute, and Brian Harnetty’s “Shawnee, Ohio,” about life in a small Appalachian mining town, as well as events with Macalester College and Carleton College.

When: March 14–20 Where: Various locations in St. Paul Cost: $12–$50 Info: thespco.org

When: March 21–May 19; public reception: Thursday, March 29, 5:30 p.m.–7 p.m. Where: The Textile Center, 3000 University Ave. SE Cost: Free Info: textilecentermn.org

‘DROP THE MIC: METAMORPHOSIZED’ Curio was founded in 2009 by brother-sister duo Dario and Giselle Mejia, who placed third on “America’s Got Talent” in 2011, as a way to showcase the diverse dance talent of the Twin Cities. “Metamorphosized,” the company’s seventh show in its Drop the Mic series, revisits the company’s best pieces from its past six productions. The show pairs new and classic forms of dance such as contemporary, breaking, jazz, funk, pointe work and Brazilian zouk with live musicians performing a mix of classical, hip hop, Latin and R&B genres from an allstar cast of Twin Cities performers, including popular hip-hop artist Maria Isa. “Metamorphosized” promises a dynamic cross-section of Twin Cities dance—and its continue evolution.

When: Friday, March 16 at 7 p.m., Saturday, March 17 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 18 at 2 p.m. Where: The Cowles Center, 528 Hennepin Ave. Cost: $22–$25 Info: thecowlescenter.org

southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 B19

St. Patrick’s Day Thanks to its Irish heritage, St. Paddy’s Day is a big holiday across the river in St. Paul — but Minneapolis has some Irish fun in store, too. Whether or not you’ve got the luck of the Irish in you, the holiday provides the chance for everyone to get into the spirit with parades, block parties and more.

Minneapolis St. Patrick’s Day Parade: The Minneapolis parade celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and marks the occasion with a trip along the new-andimproved Nicollet Mall from 6th Street to 12th Street. Afterward, stop by the 50th-Annual St. Patrick’s Day Blarney Blast at Westminster Presbyterian Church or head to nearby Irish pubs, including the Local, Kieran’s Irish Pub and O’Donovan’s Pub.

When: Saturday, March 17 at 6:30 p.m. Where: Nicollet Mall between 6th and 12th streets Cost: Free for parade, $5 for party Info: mplsstpats.org

St. Patrick’s at Kieran’s: Kieran’s Irish Pub celebrates St. Paddy’s with live music from Irish bands Stirring Ashes, Sweet Colleens, Broken Spoke, the Minnesota Police Pipe Band and the Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band, plus a DJ under a heated tent outdoors.

When: Saturday, March 17 from 10 a.m.–2 a.m. Where: Kieran’s Irish Pub, 85 N. 6th St. Cost: Free Info: kierans.com

St. Patrick’s Day at Brit’s: The British bar is turning Irish for St. Patrick’s Day with a full day of festivities, including bagpipers, live music from the O’Hammer Band, a cornedbeef-and-cabbage special and happy-hour drinks, right oﬀ the parade route.

When: Saturday, March 17 from 11 a.m.–11 p.m. Where: Brit’s Pub, 1110 Nicollet Mall Cost: Free Info: britspub.com

Quest for Morrissey’s Magical Medallion: Test your luck at Morrissey’s Irish Pub in Uptown as you follow a scavenger hunt for a chance to win $500. Grab your ﬁrst clue at Morrissey’s when you get a drink and head to Bryant-Lake Bowl and Muddy Waters for more clues.

When: Begins Saturday, March 17 at noon, ends Sunday, March 18 at 2 a.m. Where: Morrissey’s Irish Pub, 913 W. Lake St. Cost: Free Info: morrisseysuptown.com

CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1 Medicare section for doctors’ services 6 Number of sides on most game cubes 9 Fit of __: irritated state 14 Western neighbor of Wyoming 15 Omelet meat 16 Finnish hot spot 17 Deck 18 Some Little League eligibility rules 20 *Samsung Galaxy, e.g. 22 Aberdeen native 23 Salty waters 24 Eastern neighbor of Wyoming: Abbr. 26 Sewn loosely 29 Put together, as IKEA furniture 33 Pale

61 NHL surface

34 Urge forward

9 Pitchfork-shaped Greek letter

34 “__ just me ... ?”

62 Layered cookies

35 Curtain holder

63 With 21-Down, dictation taker’s need

10 Sean Penn film with a Seussian title

38 Goes off script

64 Bobbsey girl

11 *Yeast-free bakery product

44 Astronaut Collins

36 Reggae relative 37 *Trick that’s “pulled” 39 Bit of energy 40 Capek sci-fi play 41 Jerk 42 Taxi meter amount

65 Group described by the starts of the answers to starred clues

12 “Do __ others ... ” 13 Dawn direction 19 Reduce

37 Royal decree 42 Narrow crack 45 “That feels good!” 46 Inning half 48 Poet Nash 49 Inbox list: Abbr.

DOWN

21 See 63-Across

1 Apple seeds

25 What a stet cancels

47 Big name in banking

2 “The Voice” judge Levine

26 Iraqi port

48 “So that’s it!” cries

3 Pro __: in proportion

27 Invite to one’s penthouse

49 Heavy hammer

4 Needing a drink

28 *Hairpin turn, e.g.

54 Cal.-to-Fla. highway

51 *Optimist’s perspective

5 Crocheted baby shoe

29 “Are not!” response

55 Couples

6 Persian monarchs

30 Dalmatian mark

56 She, in Sicily

57 Barbra with Oscars

7 “Othello” villain

58 Prefix with -bar or -tope

59 Ballet skirts

8 Marvel Comics mutants

31 Sitcom producer Chuck

43 Tickle the fancy of 45 Puts up with

60 Donates

Crossword Puzzle SWJ 030818 4.indd 1

32 Boundaries

50 Going __: fighting 52 Reason to roll out the tarp 53 Peruvian native

Crossword answers on page B20

3/5/18 11:05 AM

Southwest High School SWJ 030818 4.indd 1

3/2/18 3:10 PM

B20 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com

By Linda Koutsky

A wild and wooly visit in St. Peter

he thing about going to different places is that it opens you to unexpected experiences. And it might even make you sleep better at night. We were heading home from a photo exhibit at Gustavus Adolphus College a couple weeks ago when “the Percolator” saw a little sign on the side of a nondescript building: “St. Peter Woolen Mills. Est. 1867.” Perc has been going to St. Peter for years, and I’ve been there at least a couple times, but neither of us had even heard of St. Peter Woolen Mills. And that’s unusual, because we actually collect wool or, more specifically, blankets. Here are some of our favorites: Faribault Woolen Mill Co. opened in 1865. The mill is one of the oldest vertical woolen mills in the country. That means raw wool comes in and wool products go out — they do it all right there. They make blankets, throws, scarves and other accessories. They closed for a brief moment a few years ago, then reopened. But we nearly lost one of Minnesota’s important heritage companies.

LUNCH TIP Join students at the Gustavus Adolphus student union cafeteria. Then check out the college’s gallery and a pick up a guide to locating the several Paul Granlund sculptures on campus.

PY P A H ER T S EA

Colorful wool products, fabrics, craft instructions and bedding pack the small mill store. Photo by Linda Koutsky

When the machinery booted up again looms wove a limited edition, commemorative Hudson’s Bay-style blanket with a special label numbered by its makers. We have No. 55 out of 250. Bemidji Woolen Mills got its start in 1920 and has been keeping people warm in northern Minnesota and beyond ever since. They make wool clothing, sweaters and blankets right on site. We have a heavy green blanket with a vintage illustration of Paul Bunyan. Today the mill is run by the family’s fourth generation. North Star Woolen Mill operated on the banks of the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis from 1864 to 1949. They made blankets, scarves, yarn and lap blankets for Pullman train cars. The building is now lofts, but blankets can still be found in antique shops and online.

processing wool for local ranchers. They do not make blankets! That must be why we missed them. But they do make wool duvets, mattress toppers and pillows. And they still process raw wool for customers across the country. We chatted with a woman from New Ulm who was having her raw wool washed and cleaned so she could spin it into yarn. The mill also makes quilt batting and has a store full of wool-related gifts and supplies: sheets of wool felt; purses, hats and mittens; and fabric for quilting, rug hooking and making duvet covers. When we stopped in, St. Peter was staffed by Pat, a fourth-generation descendant of the second owners. She told us the mill is one of only five left in the country that does custom wool processing. Pat also explained how wool products

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St. Peter Woolen Mill, got its start in 1867

become heirlooms passed from generation to generation. The mill cleans and refurbishes heirloom quilts and comforters, too, because wool packs down after time and needs to have more fluff added to it. Duvet inserts are available in three thicknesses and fluff y-but-firm pillows come in two varieties of softness. It didn’t take us long to decide we wanted a wool duvet. We placed our order, added a custom muslin cotton duvet cover, then went home to wait for Pat’s call. We didn’t have to wait long. Our custom duvet and cover were made in about three days. Back to St. Peter we went. We pulled into the lot on the side of the building. A woman was pushing duvets into her already full SUV. I jokingly asked her if she was a distributor. Turns out, she was! Moss Envy, the eco-minded store on Excelsior Boulevard by Whole Foods, carries bedding products from St. Peter Woolen Mills. She still had another six comforters and several pillows that were just not going to fit in her vehicle, so she offered to pay us with a pillow if we brought the rest back to Minneapolis. Sure! We got home that night and took turns sleeping on the pillow while hunkering down beneath the warmth of our new wool comforter. It was like sleeping under a cloud. We dropped off the load at Moss Envy the following day and bought another pillow. For comments or suggestions write to weekendtourist@mnpubs.com. Follow Linda Koutsky on Facebook for more tourist tips.

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Crossword on page B19

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southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 B21

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B22 March 8–21, 2018 / southwestjournal.com

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southwestjournal.com / March 8–21, 2018 B23

PAINTING

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