Bakery coming to 32nd & Hennepin PAGE A3 • The growth of seed libraries PAGE A14 • Lives touched by bandits PAGE B6 • The monuments of Lakewood Cemetery PAGE B8
July 11–24, 2019 Vol. 30, No. 14 southwestjournal.com
Hotel at Lake & Excelsior approved
‘Justice is a process’
Planning Commission approves 10-story hotel-and-condo building By Andrew Hazzard
Don Damond moves forward without moving away from Minneapolis
The Planning Commission has approved a 10-story, mixed-use condo-and-hotel building at Lake & Excelsior on a site currently occupied by a BP gas station. Submitted image
By Michelle Bruch
Don Damond sold his Washburn Avenue house in 2018. It had become too painful to walk the alley at 11:39 p.m. every Saturday and light a candle on the spot where a Minneapolis police officer shot and killed his fiancee, Justine. Although every glimpse of a squad car is difficult, Damond is still living two miles away in Southwest Minneapolis so he can advocate for police reform as a constituent of the city. “I want to make sure I still have a voice to make the changes that I think are necessary,” Damond said in a June 28 interview, adding that Justine lived for the transformation and evolution of people. “I think that her legacy is that: What can we change in policing as a result of this?”
Don Damond stands near a bench at Minnehaha Creek he dedicated in honor of his late fiancee, Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Photo by Chris Juhn
SEE DAMOND / PAGE A19
The Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve a 10-story, hotel-and-condo building at Lake & Excelsior. The mixed-use building, being built by Elevage Development Group, will have 20 condo units, 100 hotel rooms and about 11,000 square feet of commercial space. The building will stand 114 feet. Three residents of The Loop Condominium building on West Lake Street voiced concerns at the July 8 Planning Commission meeting about excess traffic at Lake & Excelsior and shared their displeasure at losing views of Bde Maka Ska. “The whole idea of living by the lake is to have a view of the lake,” said one woman who told commissioners she moved to the building because she could see the water. SEE HOTEL / PAGE A16
Zen center aims to expand minds, building The Midwest’s oldest Zen center is outgrowing its historic home on Bde Maka Ska By Zac Farber
There were very few Zen Buddhists living in Minnesota in December 1974 when Dainin Katagiri Roshi toured an old Spanish colonial mansion on the east shore of Lake Calhoun. Roshi, a Japanese-born Zen master, had moved from California to Minneapolis in a U-Haul two years earlier to become the founding abbot of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, the first Buddhist center in the Midwest. (“I want to go to the place where nobody wants to go,” Roshi said before his move.) As he toured the house on the lake, Roshi
This Spanish colonial mansion was bought by the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in 1975. The center plans to expand the building. Photo by Zac Farber
was joined by Robert Pirsig, a St. Paul resident whose new novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — a study of Zen’s role in the “everyday world” — had sold 50,000 copies in the three months following its publication and would go on to sell more than 5 million. The goal of their visit was to find a permanent place for the dozen or so core members of the Zen center to practice their faith. The three-story house at first seemed too dilapidated and run-down to make SEE MEDITATION / PAGE A18
Charter schools making moves
Treatment of migrants
A budding industry
Architect artist
PAGE A6
PAGE A9
PAGE A12
PAGE B1
A2 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
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southwestjournal.com / July 11–24, 2019 A3
By Andrew Hazzard / ahazzard@swjournal.com
The new Allina Health Greenway Clinic opened July 9 in the Calhoun Village commercial center. Photo by Andrew Hazzard
CEDAR-ISLES-DEAN
New health clinic opens in Calhoun Village A new clinic offering urgent care and family health services opened July 9 in Cedar-Isles-Dean. The Allina Health Greenway Clinic will operate on the second floor of the Calhoun Village commercial center off West Lake Street. “We are excited to be opening a clinic that puts the patients’ needs first, at every moment,” Melissa Showers, Greenway, Isles & Uptown clinics manager for Allina Health, said in a press release. In addition to urgent care, the clinic will specialize in family medicine, internal medicine and OB/GYN services. “Consistent with Allina’s vision of being a place where all are welcome, Greenway will be home to doctors with a variety of professional interests including care for the transgender community, non-binary community and
LGBTQ community as a whole,” Showers said. “It will also serve as an innovative learning lab for Allina Health Clinics in patient-centered care and technology innovation.” Three of the four doctors at the clinic include LGBTQ health in their specializations, according to Allina’s website, with one of those doctors also specializing in transgender hormone therapy. The 14,000-square-foot clinic will be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Allina Health Greenway Clinic Where: 3270 W. Lake St. Info: tinyurl.com/allina-greenway
UPTOWN
Bakery coming to 32nd & Hennepin Sarah Botcher is a busy woman. At night, you can find her at the Black Forest Inn in Whittier, baking up dozens of delicious delights for Spyhouse Coffee locations throughout the metro. During the day, she’s currently developing the first brick-and-mortar location of the brand those pastries are made under: Black Walnut Bakery. The bakery, being built out at 32nd & Hennepin in Uptown, will open in August. Botcher, who grew up in the area and lives just a few blocks from her new storefront, has been working toward her own space for years. Her first kitchen experience came under renowned Southwest Minneapolis chef Steven Brown (“I was terrible,” Botcher said of the experience), for whom she worked as a line cook. But she loved watching the pastry chef. “I’ve always loved baking,” Botcher said. Eventually she ended up in culinary school in California, where she was certified as a pastry chef. Returning to Minneapolis, she became the opening pastry chef at Butcher & the Boar, where she was supported in developing her Black Walnut brand. In 2013, she started loading a cart with her baked goods and selling them on Nicollet Mall. That led to pop-up events and other opportunities before Spyhouse owner Christian Johnson called in 2015 and asked if she wanted to bake wholesale for his shops. At first, she said no, but eventually relented. Now she prepares about 12,000 pastries a month for Spyhouse. “I knew this was the pathway for me to have my own storefront,” she said. At her coming store, Botcher will keep the Spyhouse account and intends to keep product moving out of the front and back doors. “I will always support them because they support me,” Botcher said. At Black Walnut, the menu will go beyond baked goods. She intends to be open from the morning through the early evening, serving
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Sarah Botcher stands outside Black Walnut Bakery’s new brick-and-mortar location at 32nd & Hennepin. The bakery is slated to open in late summer. Photo by Andrew Hazzard
breakfast and lunch with a menu to include savory items and hot-pressed sandwiches. She has a wine and beer license and, naturally, will be serving Spyhouse coffee. She specializes in Viennoiseries like croissants, her favorite food to bake. “I can never get enough of playing with the dough in all of its stages,” she said. Black Walnut will have seating for 40 people inside and 20 more on a patio. Botcher intends to use “every inch” of the 2,600-square-foot space and will have an open kitchen for people to look in and see the bakers in action. “We’re excited to be here,” she said.
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A4 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
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A new business is looking to help people stretch into a healthier life. Stretch Lab is set to open on July 25 in the Calhoun Village Shopping Center with a grand opening to follow in August. Stretch Lab offers one-on-one customized stretching programs for
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Stretch Lab will offer one-on-one stretching programs to clients hoping to reduce pain and improve range of motion when it opens July 25 in Cedar-Isles-Dean. Photo by Andrew Hazzard
individuals looking to alleviate muscle tightness, improve their range of motion or manage pain. “I’m excited to get the doors open and get our members on the bench so they can experience the actual stretch sessions. Our staff is ready to rock,” said Kyle Hall, general manager of the Calhoun Stretch Lab. The business offers 25-minute stretching sessions geared toward alleviating muscle soreness and flexibility, as well as longer, 50-minute sessions giving greater attention to more areas of the body. There will also be sessions for group stretchers of all abilities. Customers can purchase monthly packages, memberships or stop by for a single drop-in. Hall said it’s a “great supplement” for anyone going to physical therapy or a chiropractor. “We’re a unique service,” he said. The area “has yoga studios and pilates, but they don’t create those customized static stretching facilities.” The employees at the Stretch Lab, called “flexologists,” all have fitness backgrounds and undergo at least 60 hours of training. Stretch Lab has another location in Plymouth and in other cities across the U.S. — Alex Smith
Stretch Lab Where: 3204 W. Lake St. Info: stretchlab.com
KINGFIELD
Belle Weather settles into new home
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Belle Weather Boutique is nestling into its new location in Kingfield. The store specializes in women’s clothing, accessories and gifts. Photo by Alex Smith
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Belle Weather is enjoying a new location in a new neighborhood. The boutique started moving from its previous location in South Uptown in February and on May 11 reopened its store at 38th & Grand in Kingfield. “It’s nice having more nice, little shops around. It’s fun having restaurants on our block, too,” said Belle Weather employee Haley Davis. “We’re really liking it.” The shop moved from 34th & Lyndale because Twin Town Guitars expanded its store to the boutique’s spot.
The new space was formerly occupied by Bower Boutique, which closed in February. Owner Crystal Zavada opened Belle Weather in 2010. It sells a variety of vintage clothing, quirky gifts and accessories. — Alex Smith
Belle Weather Where: 317 W. 38th St. Info: shopbelleweather.com
southwestjournal.com / July 11–24, 2019 A5
Mucci’s Italian opened its first Minneapolis location in the former Meyvn space at Lake & Bryant on July 2. Photo by Christopher Shea
LYNLAKE
Mucci’s Italian opens Minneapolis location Where once there were bagels now there is pizza. After weeks of feigning ignorance, restaurateur Tim Niver confirmed via Twitter that his popular St. Paul pizza-and-pasta eatery Mucci’s would open a second location at the southwest corner of Lake & Bryant. The Italian restaurant officially opened July 2 at the space formerly occupied by Niver’s deli and bagel shop Meyvn, which closed this past April. Mucci’s menu is largely the same as the St. Paul location, specializing in fried-crust, Montanara-style pizza and fresh pasta. Patrons can buy red sauce for the road, too.
While he is excited about the new venture, Niver still laments the closing of Meyvns. “I can’t describe the amount of stress and disappointment I’ve felt,” he wrote on Twitter. “I’m not dwelling on [the] past and feel a bright future for this next endeavor.” Mucci’s is open for dinner service Tuesdays through Sundays. — Christopher Shea
Mucci’s Italian Where: 901 W. Lake St. Info: muccisitalian.getbento.com
UPTOWN
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Renovation work is ongoing at the long-vacant Suburban World Theatre in Uptown. Photo by Christopher Shea
For more than seven years, the historic Suburban World Theatre in Uptown sat vacant while the rest of the neighborhood turned into a trendy restaurant and shopping spot. Now, it is a just a few months from reopening as a space for live music and entertainment. Renovations for the theater began around April but went into full swing after road construction. Amy Reher, a partner on the project, said most of the work is now focused on the front of the shop, which will be a bar and patio and that these renovations should be visible by the beginning of August.
By the fall, the rest of the theater should be completed and ready for shows. “We really want to do some amazing microshows,” Reher said. “We’ve been reaching out to quite a few really good acts and local talent.” — Christopher Shea
Suburban World Theatre Where: 3020 Hennepin Ave.
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A6 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
Charter schools making moves in Southwest The Studio School opening in September in Lowry Hill; East Harriet K–8 school planning building addition By Nate Gotlieb / ngotlieb@swjournal.com
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Stonebridge World School in East Harriet is planning a building expansion to accommodate a new middle school program. Photo by Nate Gotlieb
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A new charter high school will open this fall in Southwest and another is planning a building addition as it prepares to add more students. The Studio School will open Sept. 3 in Lowry Hill and will serve students in grades 9–11. Meanwhile, Stonebridge World School in East Harriet is working on a building expansion, set to be complete by fall 2022, to accommodate a new middle school program. The Studio School will focus on design, engineering and visual and media arts, along with service learning and the liberal arts. Stonebridge will continue to focus on the arts and providing students with a “global” worldview. It plans on using a temporary classroom facility to accommodate the influx of students until the expansion is complete. Charter schools are publicly funded, tuition-free schools that offer specialized education programs or teaching styles, such as immersion or Montessori. They are independent of school districts and have elected boards that provide governance and oversight. State law requires that new charter schools be approved or overseen by a nonprofit, a school district or a college or university. Minnesota has 164 charter schools serving approximately 57,000 K–12 students, according to the Department of Education. There are five operating in Southwest: Stonebridge, The Studio School, Minnesota Wildflower Montessori, Hennepin Elementary School and Hiawatha College Prep-Kingfield. A sixth, the Academy of Construction and Engineering Sciences, is looking for initial funding to get started, founder Sam Dipaola said. The Studio School was founded by a group of Twin Cities art teachers who came together for professional development, according to founder and executive director Colleen Brennan. She said the teachers drew inspiration for the arts curriculum from government curriculum in New South Wales, Australia, which combines both art-making and art history into studio courses. Several staff from the school recently spent two weeks in Australia learning more about that curriculum. Students at The Studio School will have a 95-minute studio art class four days each week, in addition to classes in core subjects
like math and science. On Fridays, they’ll have a service-learning class and an elective class focused on an artistic medium of their choice. Core classes will be project based, Brennan said, and the school plans on offering 11th- and 12th-graders opportunities to earn college credits through collegein-the-schools courses. Students will come from all across the Twin Cities, Brennan said, and will either carpool or take Metro Transit to get to school. The school plans on adding 12th grade for the 2020-21 school year. Brennan said they plan on having between 60 to 80 students this coming school year and hope to keep growing from there. “Our goal is to try to add a freshman class [of] 80 to 100 every year,” she said. In an email, media arts and design teacher Mary Henry said she likes that the school is taking a project-based approach to learning and that she’s looking forward to writing curriculum for her content area. She said the school’s small size will allow teachers to build stronger relationships with their students. The Studio School is operating out of the First Unitarian Society building near the Walker Art Center, which Brennan said was remodeled a year ago. The seven-classroom space includes a kitchen, a lunchroom and a unisex bathroom. The nonprofit Novation Education Opportunities is the organization that authorized The Studio School and is responsible for overseeing it.
Stonebridge’s expansion Stonebridge, meanwhile, is preparing for its 13th year of operation and its 10th in East Harriet. The school served students in kindergarten through sixth grade for its first 11 years before adding seventh grade last fall. It plans on adding eighth grade this school year. Executive director Barbara Novy said the school received a lot of requests to add the grades, noting that parents appreciate having their kids together in one K–8 school. Stonebridge will have one seventh-grade class and one eighth-grade class next year, Outreach and Engagement Coordinator Shannon Lawler said. She said the school plans on slowly building up to two seventhgrade and two eighth-grade classes. SEE CHARTER SCHOOLS / PAGE A16
southwestjournal.com / July 11–24, 2019 A7
Library aims to spread donations more equitably Grant money to be guaranteed at all branches in 2020
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By Zac Farber / zfarber@swjournal.com
At nearly all of Hennepin County’s 41 libraries, including the Walker, Washburn and Linden Hills branches, volunteer-led organizations hold regular fundraising campaigns. The money generated is then used by the libraries to buy arts-and-crafts supplies, to support adult-learning lectures or to help fund other location-specific programming needs. Some of these local Friends of the Hennepin County Library chapters have been raising money for decades through book sales, and library officials say they’re grateful for the “neighbor-to-neighbor outreach” and want to continue to encourage the community’s enthusiastic pro-library boosterism. But over the past several years, the library has identified and sought to address disparities in how funds raised by local Friends chapters are distributed throughout the library system. Local Friends chapters in affluent communities like Edina, Eden Prairie and Maple Grove have consistently raised more money than groups tied to libraries such as North Regional and Webber Park, and some of the system’s libraries do not have an active Friends chapter. “If you’re trying to have a book sale in a community where people don’t have a lot of books to donate or don’t have ready cash to purchase the books, then it’s not going to work,” said Teresa Mercier, supervisor of the Linden Hills Library. In 2018, local Friends chapters raised a total of $255,000. While they chose to give $18,000 to a redistributional “equity fund” launched the year before, about 70% of the total was given to the chapters’ home libraries. For the first time starting in 2020, the county-wide Friends of the HCL organization will seek to address this inequity by guaranteeing every library in the system a minimum level of unrestricted funding. (The exact amount has yet to be determined.) “We want people to feel like you can be part of your local library whether you can raise money or not,” said Kristi Pearson, the executive director of Friends of the HCL. “There’s a perception that’s based in reality that if you don’t have a local Friends group, you’re not getting all the extras that others are getting.” Pearson pointed out that the money raised by local Friends groups is a small part of a larger ecosystem. The centralized Friends of the HCL organization, which raises money from individual and corporate donors, handed out $1.1 million in grants in 2018
The Linden Hills Library.
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— supplementing the Hennepin County Library’s $86 million operating budget. Many library initiatives sponsored by the centralized Friends group have an equity focus, Pearson said, and programming includes after-school tutoring at 14 libraries and a teen technology center at the Minneapolis Central Library. Local Friends chapters have been contributing to these system-wide initiatives since 2015 and gave more than $50,000 in 2018. “We’ve always had a mindset of equity,” interim Hennepin County Library director Janet Mills said. “This is just a very particular aspect — the local Friends funding — that we want to bring some change to.” Cynthia Haskell, co-president of Friends of the Walker Library, said that over the past few years, local Friends chapters have been encouraged to focus less on fundraising and more on volunteering. A book cart still brings in about $1,000 a year, she said, but they have stopped hosting a costume jewelry sale. “There’s a shift happening,” Haskell said. “They would like us to give more [nonfinancial] support to the library.” Pearson said that details of the new funding mechanism are still being worked out, but libraries with thriving local book sales should see few changes in 2020. “What’s being funded won’t change much,” she said. “But these other libraries that have had nothing will have a pot of money designated for local Friends, resources and programming. It’s a small amount of money, but it will make a huge difference.” Sylvestre SWJ 071119 6.indd 1
5/31/19 4:32 PM
A8 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
PUBLISHER Janis Hall jhall@swjournal.com
CO-PUBLISHER & SALES MANAGER Terry Gahan
By Jim Walsh
America (Minneapolis) the beautiful
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GENERAL MANAGER Zoe Gahan zgahan@swjournal.com
EDITOR Zac Farber 612-436-4391 zfarber@swjournal.com
STAFF WRITERS Nate Gotlieb ngotlieb@swjournal.com
Andrew Hazzard ahazzard@swjournal.com
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Hundreds of Somali and Somali-Americans celebrated Somali Independence Day on West Lake Street in Minneapolis on June 29. Photo by Jim Walsh
D
onald Trump announced his “Salute To America” Fourth of July party in February, tweeting that the event would feature “a major fireworks display, entertainment and an address by your favorite President, me!” Spare me. More Trumpian Fourth wishes included tanks, fighter planes, velvet ropes and a pricey VIP section at what is normally an egalitarian for-the-people birthday party on the National Mall. But if Trump or anyone else wants a taste of what America truly is and can be, I’m here to say that they should skip the faux patriotism and get a load of Minneapolis. I was proud of my city as I tooled its busy streets by bike on June 29. It was a sticky Minnesota summer day, and the scene on West Lake Street between closed-off Blaisdell and Stevens avenues screamed progress with a capital P: At the same time that bulldozers, fire hoses and jackhammers pounded the pavement under I-35W towards the future of this thriving metropolis, vendors set up tables and booths for the start of the week-long Somali Independence Day celebration. At the other end of Lake Street, the event stage was set up in front of the Blaisdell White Castle and New Horizon Academy, with Kmart on one side and the Immigrant Resource Center on the other. As hundreds of flag- and fan-waving Somali and Somali-American Minnesotans took part in a celebration so free, so open and so uniquely American, I took great joy in being a stark minority, a super pale male, and I couldn’t help but think about the racism in this state and country and about how Trump and others have made me so skeptical of patriotism.
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Not today. Heartened, I jumped on my bike and toured the neighborhood, landing at the Chinese American-helmed Dollar Store and Indian American-helmed Uptown Tobacco & E-Cig for supplies, and at the African Americanhelmed Funky Grits for beans and rice. I windowgazed the goods at the Polish American–helmed Finer Meats and Eats, the Colombian Americanhelmed Cocina Latina, the Japanese Americanhelmed Kyatchi, the Mexican American-helmed Cinco de Mayo Mercado, the Mexican Americanhelmed Valerie’s Carniceria and, finally, landed at the Japanese-American-owned Ramen Kazama for a delicious feast of chilled summer ramen. Then it was on to the Driftwood Char Bar, where Canadian rocker Dave Rave led his jubilant band of Minnesota rockers through a manifique set of rock ‘n’ roll and where the between-band bar chatter was all about new ways of being, and the refreshing badassery of World Cup heroine Megan Rapinoe and New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It was all so gloriously and organically, y’know, American, the next day I was inspired to get back on my bike and return to Lake Street, the very same spot that hosted the Somali party just 24 hours prior, now the meeting point for a march of more than 1,000 people protesting ICE, immigration raids and this country’s despicable immigration policies. As protesters chanted “We are here to show our rage/No more children in a cage!” their route to First Universalist Church in South Uptown was cheered by shop owners in Twins caps and hijabs. I walked my bike and took in the scenery. The restaurants, bars, people, places. My neighbors’
awesome “Make America Gay Again” rainbow flag. Big Latinx families walking down the street hand in hand, past Hakal Hakal Grocery, Los Andes Ecuadorian and Colombian Restaurant, It’s Greek To Me and Botanica San Judas, where the bloody crucifixes and statues of the Virgin Mary share storefronts with the punk rock of Extreme Noise Records and the cowboy duds of Schatzlein Saddle Shop. I listened to the harmony of different languages rising up as one in protection of the poorest and most vulnerable among us, and in that moment I felt lucky to be living in this little big city, and in America — land of the free, home of the brave and a bubbling, burbling melting pot that remains a beautiful work in progress, always in progress. Jim Walsh lives and grew up in South Minneapolis. He can be reached at jimwalsh086@gmail.com.
CORRECTION An article about the restaurant DR49 (Don Raul) on page B3 of the June 27 issue left out a letter of the restaurant’s name. A blurb on page B7 of the June 27 Best of Southwest issue misidentified which of the three Broders restaurants was the first to open. Broders’ Cucina opened in 1982, Broders’ Pasta Bar opened in 1994 and Terzo opened in 2013.
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southwestjournal.com / July 11–24, 2019 A9
Protesters decry ‘unconscionable’ treatment of migrants More than 1,500 marched and protested in LynLake and South Uptown By Nate Gotlieb / ngotlieb@swjournal.com
Hundreds marched through LynLake and South Uptown on June 30 to protest the Trump Administration’s immigration policies and its treatment of migrants. An estimated crowd of roughly 1,500 to 2,500 marchers decried conditions on the southern border and protested the administration’s ban on travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations. They chanted slogans like “free our children” and “repeal the ban” before holding a rally at the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis. “We can’t go about our regular Sunday as usual,” said Mari Mansfield of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), which organized the event with the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “People have to stand up and fight back.” The march came as lawyers, doctors, members of Congress describe squalid, overcrowded and inhumane conditions at Texas Border Patrol facilities as the Trump administration continues to restrict the flow of Central American migrants into the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security’s independent watchdog has reported that some migrants are being underfed and held in standing-room-only conditions. Warren Binford, a Willamette University law professor, has told the New Yorker that older children are being asked to take care of younger chil-
dren and that during a lice outbreak, a group of children were asked to share a comb and then punished for losing it by being forced to sleep on a cement floor. Multiple Democratic lawmakers have said that migrants have been told to drink out of toilet bowls. The march was held exactly a year after hundreds of thousands of people across the U.S. marched to protest President Trump’s immigration policies and nearly a week after a 25-year-old El Salvador man and his 23-month-old daughter drowned in the Rio Grande, with the image of their lifeless bodies causing widespread outrage. Marchers denounced the conditions on the border and also spoke out against the Trump administration’s family-separation policy, which Trump rescinded a year ago, though many children have yet to be reunited with their families. Some marchers read the names of kids who have died in U.S. custody, and others called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Southwest resident Andrea Simon carried a sign that read “free our children, jail our POTUS.” She said she thinks people deserve to be treated humanely, regardless of their immigration status. Simon said refugee status doesn’t make someone “less of a person” and that the U.S. should treat them with dignity. She also said the administration’s behavior will become common-
place unless people speak out against it. Anne Wagemaker, a teacher at Lucy Craft Laney Community School in Minneapolis, said she thinks it’s “unconscionable that we have children in the condition they’re in at the border.” She said attending an event like the march “makes you feel like you’re a little more powerful.” Ryan Donnelly of St. Paul came to the march with his family, including his daughters, who have met immigrant kids who have been separated from
their parents. “It’s just traumatic for kids,” he said. Southwest resident Rosemary Dolata said many people in the area are descendants of immigrants, adding that “children are everybody’s children.” She said things need to change at the border and that it helps when people show up to events like this. “It helps people to remember that their voices matter,” she said. “It’s harder to ignore people when you see real faces.”
Minneapolis resident Yardley Stebbings participates in a march against the Trump Administration’s immigration policies on June 30 in Minneapolis. Photos by Nate Gotlieb
A10 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
Ashes to Ashes (MINUS THE FLAMES)
A new leader for Museum of Russian Art Mark Meister recently took over as executive director
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READY TO GO GREEN? Mark Meister, the Museum of Russian Art’s new executive director, started work on July 1. Meister said he hopes to increase the number of visitors, members and programs at the museum, which opened in 2002. Photos by Alex Smith
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The Museum of Russian Art (TMORA) has a new leader with a little Russian history of his own. Mark Meister, a third-generation Russian American, started as the new director of the Windom museum on July 1. “The museum provides a unique opportunity for people to experience Russian art and culture in this region,” Meister said. “It’s an unusual museum — there’s none other like it in the country.” Russian art, something Meister says is often the “missing piece” of many museums, is put on center stage at TMORA . Not only are paintings and other artworks on constant display, but the museum also puts on exhibits and events featuring Russian music, dance, writing and culture. Traditional items of dress from western and central Ukraine are currently shown in the lower gallery. “When you go to the encyclopedic museum, you’ll walk through Italian, Dutch, German galleries. You’re never going to walk through a Russian gallery,” Meister said. “It’s been completely overlooked.” Meister’s connection to the museum goes beyond his new job. All four of his grandparents
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emigrated from Russia before World War I — making the museum even more personal to him. “It adds another element to [my position],” Meister said. “I’m thinking more about the parts of Russia that my grandparents came from and perhaps visiting for the first time.” One of Meister’s biggest goals is to gain accreditation for the museum through the American Alliance of Museums. This would recognize TMORA for adhering to best museum standards and operating at the highest level of the museum profession. He also hopes to increase the number of visitors, members and programs at the museum. “We’re already making a cultural impact, and I know we can grow even more,” Meister said. This new position is bringing Meister full circle in the Minneapolis museum circuit. He got his first museum job at The Minneapolis Institute of Art — where he met his wife — after graduating with a master’s degree in museum studies from the University of Minnesota in 1976. “I’m very excited to be coming back,” Meister said. “I’m very enthused and excited by the museum. It has such a dedicated staff.” Meister worked most recently as the executive director of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation (DLPP) in Dayton, Ohio, a nonprofit foundation established to advance international peace through literature. Christine Podas-Larson, chair of the board of trustees, said TMORA is “lucky” to have Meister join. Its previous executive director, Vladimir von Tsurikov, departed in August 2018, and staff have been operating without an executive director for the past 11 months. “[Meister’s] in-depth knowledge of and experience in museums made him stand out,” Podas-Larson said. TMORA opened in 2002 and features exhibits that explore the history, art and culture of Russia going back to the medieval period. The museum is located at 5500 Stevens Ave. S.
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southwestjournal.com / July 11–24, 2019 A11
Development
Apartments approved at 26th & Blaisdell in split vote By Andrew Hazzard / ahazzard@swjournal.com
A six-story apartment building has been approved at 26th & Blaisdell in Whittier. Submitted images
Going against recommendations from city staffers, the Planning Commission approved a six-story, 146-unit apartment building at 26th & Blaisdell in Whittier. The July 9 vote was split on the development, which is being built by Yellow Tree and the Goldstein Law firm and designed by DJR Architecture. The building will be a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units on the top five floors, with walk-up units along 26th Street and Blaisdell Avenue. The building will have a shared lobby and a 600-sqaure-foot office space. A green roof is planned for the second level, and resident amenity decks are planned for the fifth and sixth floors. The 92 parking stalls in the building will be accessed via an alley off 26th Street. There will also be 103 bike parking stalls. City planner Lindsay Silas called the project a “significant deviation” from what staff would recommend approving on the street and would be more suitable a block to the east along Nicollet Avenue. Currently, the zoning in the site allows for a four-story building and the 2040 plan, still under review by the Metropolitan Council, would put the area in Corridor 3, which allows for three-story buildings. “This is one of the rare spots in the 2040 plan that has proposed lesser density than what the current zoning would allow,” Silas said. The main contention point was height; the project required a conditional use permit to go from four to six stories. The vote to increase the height was 5–4, with commission president Sam Rockwell breaking the tie. Ultimately all seven variances were approved for the project, though
An aerial view of the project, which would replace the offices of Goldstein Law firm and Gold Realty Group. Submitted image
the maximum floor area ratio was amended to increase step backs on the higher floors, which may slightly decrease the number of units in the building, Yellow Tree officials said after the meeting. “There’s a lot of work that went into the 2040 plan to talk about where the needed density goes in the city and it’s in a lot of places, but it’s not right here,” said commissioner Jeremy Schroeder, who is also Ward 11’s City Council member. Three area residents spoke against the building, arguing it would double the block’s population and voicing concerns over parking and the height of the structure. “There’s just so many things about this building that don’t make sense,” said one woman who lives near the intersection. Six people, mostly from the Whittier Alliance, spoke in favor of the project, primarily citing the need for more affordable housing. According to city documents, the building will have 105,603 square feet of gross floor area, just under the threshold to trigger the city’s interim inclusionary housing policy and require that 10% of units be affordable to people earning 60% of the area median income (AMI), which translates to a monthly rent of $1,415 for a family of four. Yellow Tree CEO Robb Lubenow said despite being market-rate, the majority of the units in the building would be affordable without subsidies to people making 70% AMI, which means rents of up to $1,650. The Whittier Alliance was significantly involved in the project and several members asked that planners approve the project in recognition of the “extensive community engagement process” the group conducted for the project. The developers agreed to partner with the neighborhood organization for the project, including a program where tenants can receive a partial rent rebate by volunteering at nonprofit groups within Whittier managed by the Whittier Alliance. “It gives us something we can do now on rent control when we have so few other tools available to us,” Whittier Alliance executive director Kaley Brown said. There will be a shared-use public space on 26th Street with a bike repair station; some days it would be reserved for residents but other days it would be a community space. The Whittier Alliance plans to rent out the 600-square-foot office space, a move Brown said will help them manage both the rent rebate program and community space.
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A12 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
A budding industry: CBD takes over Southwest The hemp-based product can now be bought at local salons, co-ops and grocery stores By Christopher Shea
Steven Brown has dealt with many babyboomers wandering into his LynLake store Nothing But Hemp thinking it was a place to buy pot. It might look and smell like it, but it’s not, as recreational marijuana is still illegal in the state of Minnesota. Brown’s store sells CBD products. CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a compound that comes from hemp, which is a plant in the cannabis family. Another compound is tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is the psychoactive chemical found in marijuana. By law, CBD contains .3% THC or less, so users cannot get high. Instead, CBD gives users more of a bodily feeling that some people claim can help with a variety of ailments from anxiety to migraines and other physical pain to reducing the amount of epileptic seizures.
Bags of smokeable berry-flavored hemp are for sale at Lyndale Tobacco. Photos by Christopher Shea
HERE
Alex Keith, a business teacher who works part-time at Nothing But Hemp, said he uses CBD to help with shoulder pain from his playing days for the University of Minnesota football team. “I was shocked about how much better my shoulder felt,” Keith said. “It calms everything.” That said, most of these effects are based on anecdotal evidence. Federal and state laws prohibit retailers from touting any of hemp’s potential medical benefits, as there is very little research. “It’s up for debate how much THC to CBD you need for actual therapeutic use,” said Ann Philbrick, an associate professor at the U of M’s College of Pharmacy. She said while CBD therapy has been shown to decrease the number of seizures, placebo effects have also done so. “If it is something that a person chooses to use on their own, it’s a good thing to let your pharmacist or physician know that you’re using it,” Philbrick said. You can buy CBD products all over the state. In Southwest Minneapolis alone, consumers can get CBD sprays at local salons like The Chair in Lyndale, tea blends at the Wedge and Linden Hills co-ops and CBD balms and chocolate bars at Kowalski’s. “It’s an exciting product for sure,” said Mike Oase, the chief operating officer of Kowalski’s.
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The boom in Minnesota’s hemp industry came this past December after Congress passed a farm bill which saw the plant distinguished from marijuana, meaning that it was no longer an illegal substance and CBD could be extracted from it and sold. Brown, who has worked in California’s cannabis industry, said he wants his shop Nothing But Hemp to operate more as a
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natural alternative to pharmaceutical drugs, offering products like oils, lotions and other topicals. “We want people to feel better than how they’re currently feeling,” he said. Brown’s other hope is to educate consumers about the differences between hemp and marijuana. While medical marijuana is overseen by both the Minnesota Department of Health and Department of Agriculture, CBD has very little government oversight, aside from verification that it has the legal amount of THC. This lack of regulation has caused concerns over what ingredients are actually in CBD. To combat this, Brown has his shop’s supplier in Oregon, Siskiyou Sungrown, test their hemp products through a third-party lab in Portland — not only to ensure they are under the legal THC limit, but to guarantee they don’t contain pesticides or heavy metals. Small retailers, like Anit Bhatia at nearby Lyndale Tobacco, police themselves by making sure the products they receive actually contain hemp. “It’s such a gray area where no one knows what to do,” Bhatia said. “We just want the [hemp] name to be out there properly.” A jar of hemp.
southwestjournal.com / July 11–24, 2019 A13
Development approaching for LynLake parking lot RFPs likely to be issued in September
By Andrew Hazzard / ahazzard@swjournal.com
For years, members of the LynLake community have been dreaming about the future of a cityowned parking lot on Garfield Avenue. Soon, they’ll have real plans to debate. Minneapolis is preparing to issue a request for proposal (RFP) for the redevelopment of a surface parking lot behind the Jungle Theater at Lake & Garfield, and local property owners who paid into the lot have big ideas for the space. The 114-space Garfield lot was funded in 1998 by $2.3 million in bonds that were paid off by special assessments to local businesses, with the final bond payment made in December 2018. Now a group of local business owners wants to be heard as development approaches. “The reason we deserve to be a part of this is because we have real skin in the game,” said Morgan Luzier, who co-owns Balance Fitness Studios. The RFP will likely be issued in September, according to Rebecca Parrell, a senior project coordinator for the city of Minneapolis who is working on the project. Parrell said planners are not ignoring the history of the investments made in the public lot by local businesses and said the group will have a different level of engagement throughout the process. Ultimately, the decision on what goes in and what doesn’t will be up to the City Council. The LynLake Parking Committee — a group of local business owners and representatives from neighborhood groups and Minneapolis Public Works — envisions a unique architectural
design with a mix of housing and commercial space, Luzier said. The group would like to see a mobility hub requirement in the RFP that brings in transit connections, bike share hubs and increased wayfinding for pedestrians and cyclists, and public parking to support the local business community. They are advocating for a mid-block pedestrian cut-through from Lyndale to Garfield, where vehicles currently access the lot, to place art and other attractions that are open to the public. They’d like to see a community area, affordable retail space along Garfield Avenue, an extended 29th Street promenade and connections to the Midtown Greenway. “LynLake is a great neighborhood but there’s no place to congregate that you don’t have to pay for,” Luzier said. Much of what the redevelopment can become will be determined by zoning, Parrell said. Currently, the lot is zoned as a C3A Community Activity Center District. The 2040 Comprehensive Plan, currently under review by the Metropolitan Council but likely to be adopted by the time this project goes through, zones the area as Corridor 6, Community Mixed Use, which calls for retail or office space at street level and hopes to draw pedestrian activity. “There’s flexibility within those,” Parrell said. The city will start presenting to neighborhood groups about the RFP in a meeting with the Whittier Alliance housing committee at 6:30 p.m. on July 16 at Black Forest Inn. Parrell
A Garfield lot “character sketch” featuring a connection to the 29th Street woonerf and a public pavilion overlooking the Greenway. The sketch is not a formal proposal or plan. Image courtesy of the LynLake Parking Committee
said she is also setting up presentations with the Lyndale, Lowry Hill East and South Uptown neighborhood organizations. “There’s a lot of opportunity there, given the nature of the parcel,” said Kaley Brown, executive director of the Whittier Alliance. The lot itself is about an acre in size and includes nine individual parcels, according to
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A14 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
By Mira Klein
The growth of seed libraries in Minneapolis Fernanda Sequeiros-Hart’s work is not just about seeds. It is about understanding what we can learn from them. “We talk about seeds being resilient,” she said. “We need to have the same attitude.” As co-coordinator of the Plant-Grow-Share (PGS) urban gardening program with the Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization (CANDO), Sequeiros-Hart applies painstaking intention to ground her work in ecosystems of support — support that makes space for her community to try and fail together. “I love growing food. It’s part of my own process,” she said. “It’s almost like a healing experience for me.” Through PGS, Sequeiros-Hart works to combat what she sees as one of the major barriers to food sovereignty: a misunderstanding of what community capacities are. This misunderstanding happens on both an individual and neighborhood level. People come with this sense that “I don’t feel that I have what it takes,” Sequeiros-Hart explained. And so she tells her neighbors that when it comes to growing food: “Please go home and mess it up.” And while she tries to uplift her neighbors interpersonally, Sequeiros-Hart constantly keeps a framework of collective capacity in mind. This is why she eschews the concept of a “food desert.” “What if we start visualizing grass as a space for food?” she asked. “Then we transform it into an edible space…[Food desert] is such a limiting descriptor of a neigh-
The Central neighborhood seed exchange opened at Hosmer Library in 2018, only to be put on hold four months later when the library closed for renovation. Photo courtesy of Plant-Grow-Share
borhood or what peoples’ capacities are.” The PGS ecosystem has grown substantially since the program began with a small grant from the city in 2015. Like most community gardening initiatives,
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Since then, the program has evolved to adapt to emerging community needs. Neighborhood growers were nervous about over-harvesting, so PGS added home visits to SEE SEED LIBRARIES / PAGE A17
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southwestjournal.com / July 11–24, 2019 A15
By Andrew Hazzard / ahazzard@swjournal.com
Public clay court plan advances A group of tennis enthusiasts hoping to bring a new playing surface to the public realm have reached an agreement with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to fundraise for two clay courts at Waveland Triangle in Linden Hills. Minneapolis Community Clay Courts (MCCC) entered a formal fundraising agreement with the MPRB on June 26, allowing the group to raise money, design and construct the courts. The agreement would make MCCC the steward of the clay courts for up to 10 years. The group is hoping to raise about $200,000 for the project between grants and individual donations, according to Charles Weed, a Kingfield resident who is a leader of MCCC. One possible grant source is the United States Tennis Association, the sport’s governing body in the U.S. Local clay court advocates hope
the group will provide around $30,000 for the project, Weed said, a big part of making the vision a reality. “This would be the type of project we look to support,” said Becky Cantellano, executive director of USTA Northern, which is based in Bloomington. There is only one publicly accessible club with clay courts in the Twin Cities, the St. Paul Tennis Cub, according to Cantellano. But that club still requires people pay for membership and has a long waiting list, she said. Clay courts, advocates say, are better suited for older players because the surface is easier on the knees and hips. Regularly caring for the surface creates a sense of ownership and community, MCCC argues, and the porous surface is better for the environment. Game play is slower and
more tactile on the soft surface, too. “The playability is a big deal on clay courts,” Weed said. Two clay courts are in the preferred concept design for Waveland Triangle in the Southwest Area Master Plan, which is still being debated by a community action committee and will go before park commissioners for official adoption in August or September. The MPRB has agreed to provide water access to the courts; clay tennis courts require regular water care to maintain the integrity of the clay. There are two irrigation options being considered by the MCCC: above-ground and sub-surface. An aboveground sprinkler-type system would cost less up front, about $100,000, Weed said. A sub-surface irrigation system would cost nearly double that, he said, but reduces main-
tenance labor needs, saves on water cost and is considered ideal. “We could certainly do it above ground and that would work just fine,” Weed said. Currently, all public courts in Minneapolis are hard-surface. The MPRB resurfaces the courts every 12–15 years for around $10,000 per court, and every 25 years or so the courts are reconstructed entirely for between $50,000 to $60,000 per court. The Park Board estimates the yearly maintenance of a hard court is around $2,400. The clay courts will be made using Har-Tru, a finely crushed green stone, which would be reapplied annually and cost about $1,000 per year. Maintaining the courts is expected to cost an additional $1,000 annually. Ultimately, MCCC aims to get clay courts in all six park districts of the city.
Ash tree removal continues in Chain of Lakes Visitors to the Chain of Lakes will see temporary trail closures and fewer ash trees this summer. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is in the sixth year of an eight-year plan to combat the emerald ash borer by removing some 40,000 ash trees on public land. It is in the midst of removing about 1,000 ash trees from the Chain of Lakes Regional Park this summer. The cutting in the Chain of Lakes Regional Park, which includes parks and parkways surrounding and connecting the water bodies from Brownie Lake to Lake Harriet, comes as the MPRB shifts its efforts combating the emerald ash borer into the woodland portion of the urban forest, according to sustainable forestry coordinator Philip Potyondy. The MPRB considers unmowed grass areas around the lakes as woodland. Pedestrians enjoying the paths around the lakes have likely seen temporary area closures in recent weeks, which are likely to continue throughout the summer. Potyondy said the crews have worked to make path blockages temporary and asked that people give the workers a wide berth.
A large ash tree was removed from Dean Parkway in the Chain of Lakes Regional Park in late June. Forestry crews will cut down about 1,000 ash trees in the regional park this summer as part of the fight against the emerald ash borer. Photo by Andrew Hazzard
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In a presentation to the Park Board on June 26, Minneapolis tree advisory commission chair Peggy Booth said the city is continuing to lose trees, largely due to the emerald ash borer, an invasive green beetle that destroys ash trees. The infestation was first found in the city in Prospect Park in 2010 and rapidly spread. In 2019, the infestation has been found in 10 new neighborhoods, according to the tree advisory commission. West Calhoun is the only Southwest neighborhood without recorded cases of EAB, though Potyondy suspects there are likely infested trees in the neighborhood. The Park Board’s ash canopy replacement plan is working, Booth said, but trees on private property continue to be an issue. The commission is advocating for a program allowing property owners to spread the cost of tree removal over several years on their property tax payments. The replacement plan is funded through an annual $1.2 million levy that first passed in 2018. The tree advisory commission has asked the Park Board to pass it again in 2020. Before EAB there were 1 million trees in the city, about 200,000 of which were ash
trees, according to the commission. Of those ash trees about 40,000 were in public parks or boulevards. By the start of 2019, 28,000 of those trees had been removed and replaced with about the same number of trees of different species. This year, the MPRB has planted about 9,000 new trees in the city with a focus on species diversity to make any future invasive species less damaging. When ash trees die, they break down and can collapse easily, Booth said. “When they fall, they’re going to hit something,” Potyondy said. More than 70% of the 1,000 ash trees being removed from the Chain of Lakes are under 12 inches in diameter at breast height, or about 4.5 feet off the ground, Potyondy said. But some are quite large. The largest tree being removed is about 39 inches in diameter, he said, one of only five ash trees over 30 inches in diameter in the Chain of Lakes. Ash trees are spread throughout the regional park, with high amounts in William Berry Woods and along the Como-Harriet streetcar line. “It’s what we need to do to mitigate the hazards that are out there,” he said.
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A16 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com FROM HOTEL / PAGE A1
Planning commissioner Jono Cowgill, who also sits on the Park Board, said the area is a major transit corridor, which justifies the height and that the lake is best enjoyed from the ground floor. “The adjacency to the lake is more about the experience of walking around it and being in the park,” he said. The city does not have any policies related to protecting views from private property, city planner Peter Crandall said. The vote to approve included a conditional use permit to go above the 2.5-story shoreland overlay district height restriction. Planners believe the project will result in
FROM LYNLAKE LOT / PAGE A13
Parking debate A priority for the businesses that paid into the lot is maintaining public parking in the new development. How much parking that means is up for debate. A recent study commissioned by the LynLake Parking Committee found an ample supply of parking in the area. It found that 64% of the 3,667 private and publicly owned parking spots in LynLake are in use at peak hours. The Garfield lot contains 3% of the total parking in LynLake, according to the study. Even at peak parking times, the Garfield lot was not full, the study found. The lot is seen as critical to some local shops and venues, especially the Jungle Theater. Fees paid by local businesses over the years have accumulated to about $300,000 in what is known as the LynLake trust fund. Originally the fund was supposed to be earmarked for parking improvements, but a political movement away from prioritizing cars makes that use unlikely, Luzier said. Now, the group is hoping to use those funds to beautify the
fewer cars stopping at the site than the current gas station. A traffic study found the gas station attracts 700 vehicles each day, while the proposed building is expected to generate 633 vehicles per day. The building will have two floors of parking with 89 spaces and 34 bicycle stalls. A bus shelter will be integrated into the building on West Lake Street. The project has become taller and slimmer since its initial proposal. The building was initially pitched as an eight-story, 100-foot project with 107 parking spaces, but increased in height to accommodate wider sidewalks on both Excelsior Boulevard and Lake Street. The building is considered to be eight floors
functionally, but a rooftop deck adds height that makes it a 10-story project based on zoning codes, according to city planners. Hennepin County is planning to begin making improvements to the Lake & Excelsior intersection in September, according to project manager Drew McGovern. Elevage is working with the county to add new landscaping as part of the project, McGovern said. Crandall said the project should improve safety and traffic flow for vehicles and pedestrians. The current BP gas station on the site is slated for removal this month. Following a remediation period, construction will likely begin in the fall. The developers hope to open the hotel in the summer of 2021.
area around the business district and the new development at the Garfield lot. Any redevelopment on the lot will look to a similar project at 29th & Aldrich, where the city once owned a 50-space surface lot. The Aldrich parking lot was sold several years ago for development but includes 30 public, metered parking spaces in an underground parking garage. The business owners that
invested in the Garfield lot have been told redevelopment will similarly include public parking, ideally with more wayfinding signage. Parrell said the city will put a minimum and maximum public parking space requirement in the RFP, with the maximum likely to be around 100 spaces. “Most of our adopted city policy veers toward fewer parking stalls,” she said.
LynLake community members have big ideas for redeveloping a 114-space city-owned surface parking lot at Lake & Garfield. The city is issuing a request for proposals for the project in the fall. Photo by Andrew Hazzard
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Stonebridge initially operated out of Plymouth Congregational Church in Stevens Square before moving to East Harriet in 2010. A nonprofit affiliated with the school, called the Stonebridge Building Company, owns the property, since Minnesota law prohibits charter schools from owning land or buildings. The Stonebridge Building Company is in the process of acquiring a duplex immediately north of the school to accommodate the expansion. Students at Stonebridge participate in arts, music, theater and service learning, among other activities. The school has a licensed reading specialist who works with students one-onone and in small groups, and it also participates in the local charter school basketball league. In addition, it offers a no-cost, before-school drop-off center and busing for students in Minneapolis, Richfield and parts of Bloomington. Novy said the school focuses on expanding students’ worldview through inquiry-based learning. That could mean looking more broadly at the underpinnings of historical revolutions, rather than just studying the American Revolution, she said. Or it could mean looking at water usage around the world in a science unit about the water cycle. Just under 15% of Stonebridge students tested were deemed proficient in math by the Department of Education in 2018, and about 24% were proficient in reading. That compares with a statewide proficiency rate of 58% in math and 60% in reading. The North Minneapolis-based nonprofit Pillsbury United Communities oversees Stonebridge.
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southwestjournal.com / July 11–24, 2019 A17
Armatage girl dancing in prestigious program Jaelyn Andresen, 12, is participating in the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s professional-division summer session By Nate Gotlieb / ngotlieb@swjournal.com
An Armatage girl is spending four weeks this summer with a prestigious Canadian ballet company. Jaelyn Andresen, 12, is participating in the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s professional-division summer session, which started July 2. Program participants spend their days learning ballet technique and also receive an education in character dance and modern dance. “A four-week program is a great opportunity to get better and grow as a dancer,” Jaelyn said before she left. She has been dancing since she was 2 years old, according to her father, James Andresen. She grew up doing competitive dance before switching her focus to ballet two years ago. She said ballet is a way to express herself, adding that it’s also good exercise and has “beautiful parts to it.” Ballet is a theatrical form of dance that emerged during the Italian Renaissance. There are many different styles of ballet, ranging from classical to contemporary, and dancers often begin their training at a young age. Many female dancers eventually learn how to dance on pointe, or on their toes. Jaelyn took to pointe very easily, said Allynne Noelle, her teacher at Plymouthbased Summit Dance Shoppe. Noelle said Jaelyn has that “ballerina quality that you can’t teach,” noting a “light, floating look” to her dancing. “She’s extremely talented,” Noelle said. Noelle, a longtime professional ballet dancer, encouraged Jaelyn to try out for the Winnipeg program this past winter. She said kids don’t typically attend pre-professional summer programs until they are 13, though more kids are going away at younger ages. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in North America. It typically has 180 to 200 participants in the professional-division summer session, out of 600 to 800 who audition, according to Natasha Havrilenko, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s communications and public relations manager. The summer program also serves as a tryout for the ballet’s full-time, 11-month
FROM SEED LIBRARIES / PAGE A14
support participants in the harvesting process. People were unsure how to prepare some of the foods they were growing, so PGS added cooking classes and a community cookbook. PGS had an overabundance of food in their communal plots, so the program added a free mobile farmers market to distribute food around the neighborhood. And in 2017, PGS noticed that they were accumulating a lot of seeds. Specifically, they were accumulating under SequeirosHart’s desk at the CANDO office. And that bothered her. “I hate the idea of unshared resources,” Sequeiros-Hart said. “Every week that goes by with these bags under my desk is wasted.” She wanted to get the seeds out into the community but in a way that they could be collected and shared by and for the growers themselves. And so the seeds for a community seed bank were planted. The term “seed bank” speaks to the functional similarities it shares with a traditional monetary bank, according to the Seed Savers Exchange. As tiny genetic packages that hold the key to food production, seeds can be viewed as a measure of future security and return on investment.
Armatage resident Jaelyn Andresen, 12, is participating in a pre-professional summer program with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Photo courtesy of James Andresen
pre-professional program, in which 30 to 40 new students are typically accepted each year. Jaelyn said it’s not necessarily her goal to be part of the full-time program, though her ultimate goal is to dance for a professional ballet company. She said she was looking forward to growing in her technique and ability this summer, adding that she wants to learn how to partner dance.
“I see it as a really good opportunity for her to grow and develop,” James Andresen said. Jaelyn is the oldest of four sisters, all of whom have followed her into dance. Noelle said she’s a loving older sister and that the younger girls look up to her. “She definitely deserves to be [in Winnipeg],” she said.
But while large-scale seed banks like Seed Savers operate as massive sites of seed preservation, community seed banks “are more about sharing seed season to season.” For this reason, Seed Savers explains on its website, it may be more accurate to call them “seed libraries.” And so it is no surprise that public libraries have emerged as homes for community seed exchanges. While these library-based exchanges are not a new idea, they are relatively new to Minneapolis. When PGS began planning for a neighborhood seed exchange, there was only one other local seed bank in operation, housed at Nokomis Library. In partnership with then-Hosmer librarian Chip Gehring, the Central neighborhood seed exchange opened at Hosmer in 2018, only to be put on hold four months later when the library closed for renovation. Still, it generated significant enthusiasm even in that short time. When the Hosmer Library reopens later this summer, it will do so with an entire section dedicated to the seed bank. Magdalena Kaluza co-coordinates PGS alongside Sequeiros-Hart. One of her roles is to oversee the seed bank partnership with Hosmer and to integrate it as a resource for neighbor-
hood gardeners who participate in PGS’s existing programs and networks. Kaluza is working with Hosmer librarians to expand library services in order to better support the seed bank and increase accessibility. For example, the library is looking to expand its collection of Spanish-language gardening books. Kaluza is also interested in increasing Spanish signage and informational materials in and around the seed bank area. There are other complications to this partnership. Although libraries often serve as community gathering hubs, they may not be welcoming to everyone. In addition to language barriers, undocumented residents may be scared away from using the seed bank if it necessitates presenting a form of identification, even if it’s just a library card. According to Sequeiros-Hart, making the seed bank accessible also means moving away from a culture of policing who and how many seeds people take. In doing so, she hopes the exchange can be built on a sense of accountability and mutual ownership rather than fear. “We’re talking about food sovereignty,” she said. “These seeds belong to us.” Still, as Kaluza observed, the community seed exchange is “a great cross-pollination between two organizations.” Through this collaboration, she explained, “[PGS] partici-
A four-week program is a great opportunity to get better and grow as a dancer. — Jaelyn Andresen
pants may be accessing the library in ways that they wouldn’t be otherwise.” Gehring expressed his agreement in a 2018 newsletter from Peter McClaughlin, who then served as Hennepin County’s District 4 commissioner. “At the library, we see this as extension of our core mission of empowering the community through information, and community connection and resource-sharing,” Gehring said. For Sequeiros-Hart, the seed bank is another marker of how local successes reflect the capacities of her community more than the capacities of any particular grant funding. “It feels like a dream model of what we can do as a community to bring people together,” Sequeiros-Hart said. For now Hosmer and Nokomis libraries are the only two library-based seed banks in the Hennepin County Library system, although according to both libraries, other locations have expressed interest. Southwest Journal columnist Meleah Maynard also operates a Little Free Seed Library in Linden Hills. Those interested in bringing seed exchange to Southwest Minneapolis can check out the Community Seed Bank guide from Seed Savers at tinyurl.com/seed-library-guide, or reach out to Plant-Grow-Share to learn about their holistic community seed-sharing model.
A18 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
The three-story “Vista del Lago” house, built in 1905 by Dr. M. Russell Wilcox, who modeled its design after the Spanish colonial homes he and his wife had seen on a trip to Europe. The Minnesota Zen Meditation Center bought the house in 1975. Submitted photo FROM MEDITATION / PAGE A1
a suitable home. Constructed in 1905 to resemble houses on the Spanish Mediterranean, seven decades of Minnesota winters had taken their toll. In the 1960s or ‘70s, after protesting neighbors stymied plans to erect a high rise on the site, the building was sold to a substance abuse recovery center. “The windows leak[ed], the walls [were] peeling, the ceilings show[ed] irregular circles of water damage,” wrote Erik Storlie, who accompanied Roshi and Pirsig on their visit, in a 1996 memoir. Yet the old house retained an undeniable majesty. Sitting on a lake-facing porch and looking out over “a mile of crusty, windsculpted snow” as sunlight filled “the white, plastered room with glowing pinks and golds,” Storlie remembered thinking, “I know we’ll buy this building.” Pirsig and his wife, Nancy, donated $20,000 from his book royalties, and the Zen center purchased the home in May 1975. Four-plus decades later, the Zen center has grown to more than 200 members and the historic “Vista del Lago” house is becoming increasingly crowded. A popular introduction to Zen class brings upwards of 1,000 people a year to a small bedroom on the building’s third floor, and the class’s leaders are often forced to turn people away. Co-guiding teacher Ted O’Toole said you can sometimes “feel like a sardine packed into a tin of sardines on a hot day.” The center is now in the final phases of a multi-year $730,000 capital campaign to expand the size of the 3,700-square-foot building at 3343 East Calhoun Parkway. The center has raised more than $450,000 so far and aims to start construction in spring 2020. O’Toole said the main problem with the building is the lack of a large central hall. The center’s first-floor zendo meditation room is no bigger now than when it was used as a living room. Plans call for a bulky central stairwell to be removed from the interior of the house and replaced by a new set of stairs in the backyard. This would allow the zendo’s
wall to be moved out by eight to 10 feet and add about 600 square feet of useable space throughout the building. “An expansive space encourages the mind to be expansive,” O’Toole said. Architect Rick Okada, a practicing Buddhist, said design work is expected to start in the fall, and he will look to give the building more of a Japanese aesthetic, using earthen colors, rough textures and natural materials such as unfinished wood. Zoning restrictions prohibit expansion to the side of the building facing Bde Maka Ska, so changes will either stay within the existing footprint or add space to the Zen center’s rear. A bamboo front porch would be remodeled to reveal what O’Toole called “the most beautiful unrealized view of the lake in the city.” Windows would be enlarged, ADAaccessible bathrooms added and the roof and driveway repaired. New storage rooms would be designed for future conversion into an elevator shaft. “We want to be able to share this practice with anyone who wants to do it, regardless of physical ability,” O’Toole said.
‘A great hunger for some calm’ O’Toole attributed the Zen center’s growth in membership to “increasing stress in our society” and the heightened popularity of mindfulness techniques in the culture. “Our country is divided in many ways, the pace of life keeps quickening and there’s a great hunger for some calm in the midst of all of that,” he said. “People want to go to the source and get the true understanding of mindfulness.” Before coming to the center in 2006, Paul Gilsdorf said he felt like he was “sleepwalking through life.” He said the center got him “to wake up and connect with the present” and stop “being a slave or follower of my patterns.” Katie Albright described sitting meditation as a refuge from the chaos in the world and in her mind. “You just sit and look at what your brain is doing and watch
Image courtesy of Minnesota Zen Meditation Center
Dainin Katagiri Roshi, the founding abbot of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, leads a meditation session in the center’s first-floor zendo room in this archival photo. The room is no bigger today than when it was used as a living room in the early 20th century. Submitted photo
it without judgement,” she said. “You just notice, ‘I’m freaking out about something,’ and that gives you the space to understand what’s going on.” Jeremy Thotland attended a Tuesday night talk at the center in 2014 and soon after became a Buddhist. He said he was raised Catholic and became a born-again Christian in high school before he was overcome by doubt about “man’s ability to execute religion.” “I was anti-religious for the next couple decades,” he said. “Each religion has at its core this truth and people just lose that along the way and wind up full of abuse.” He said that Buddhism was “no different” and pointed to allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior leveled against Roshi, the Zen center’s founder, after his death. But Thotland said he found appealing the Zen center’s focus on community and its encouragement of open inquiry. “The ability to question dogma — the requirement to question it — is what drew me to Buddhism,” he said. He said he appreciated the opportunity to grapple with his questions about why the Zen center is “a community of mostly white people” in a class at the center called Unpacking Whiteness. “We want to be inclusive of others, we want diversity,” he said.
An expansive space encourages the mind to be expansive. — Ted O’Toole, co-guiding teacher, Minnesota Zen Meditation Center
“We explore our role in perpetuating white supremacy and racial inequities.” Introductory classes and daily meditation sessions at the Zen center are open to the public by donation. For fees starting at $40 for non-members, the center offers one- and multi-day meditation retreats and classes on topics like the Four Noble Truths, Creative Writing as Buddhist Practice and Zen and the Art of Public Speaking. O’Toole said the act of remodeling the building is in accord with the Buddhist faith’s aspiration to “joyfully enter into the world’s activity.” “We need to take care of this very old, beloved, decrepit building in keeping with our Zen principles of doing the work, taking care of what’s in front of you,” he said.
Ted O’Toole, a co-guiding teacher at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, bows to members during a June 30 public kickoff of a $730,000 capital campaign to expand the center’s building. Construction work could start by spring 2020. Photo by Zac Farber
southwestjournal.com / July 11–24, 2019 A19 FROM DAMOND / PAGE A1
Former officer Mohamed Noor was sentenced to 121/2 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. In May, the city of Minneapolis settled with the Ruszczyk family for $20 million. Damond, who was awarded $1 million, said he had no plans for the settlement to share at this time. Noor was the first Minnesota police officer ever convicted for an on-duty fatal shooting, according to the Star Tribune. But for Damond, justice is not yet served. “I think justice is a process, it’s not an event,” he said. “And I want to be part of that process.” Damond attended a day of cadet training in February. Sitting with a small group, he listened to one young cadet who recently experienced his first dead on arrival (DOA) incident in field training. Another had already seen 10 DOA cases. One cadet was stuck in an apartment at a scene with a cadaver— the smell was so bad he had to run out to his car and spray himself with cologne, the cadet said. “These guys aren’t even officers yet,” Damond said. “There’s no trauma-informed strategies in the department to be able to know how to navigate that, what to do with that, other than compartmentalize it, spray cologne on your system. And then we expect these guys to go out and meet our communities at their best.” Shortly after Medaria Arradondo became police chief, Damond started sending him articles on police reform related to mindfulness, meditation and trauma-informed strategies. That’s what Justine taught, he said. She was working on a meditation course when she died. At a community forum in 2018, Arradondo said that in years past, officers were expected to shrug off traumatic experiences and “suck it up and get back out there on the next call.” Since the shooting, police said, the department has increased supervisor check-ins and started offering yoga at the 5th Precinct. And this fall, officers will undergo training in mindfulness, trauma and breathwork to calm the system, Damond said. Unmanaged fear and stress can result in outof-control reactions for everyone, Damond said. “The difference is, we don’t carry guns,” he said. Brain imaging suggests that practicing mindfulness can lead to modest changes in brain structure and neural function, comparable to learning to play an instrument, according to a 2017 meta-analysis of mindfulness research published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. Some studies show the practice may reduce stress and boost attention to the present moment. The 2017 survey cautioned that mindfulness is challenging to study, however, and requires more research with attention to factors like the placebo effect, a meditator’s experience level and a clear definition of what mindfulness means. Damond said that if we’re aware of our emotional and mental states, we can manage them. He pointed to a recent New York Times story about mindfulness training “inching” into the military, with techniques that focus and calm the mind to avoid overreacting to sudden movements or surges of information from a device. “I knew that you wouldn’t shoot somebody unless you were scared. I didn’t learn anything in that courtroom, after all the evidence, all the
Don Damond installed a memorial bench at Minnehaha Creek near 54th & Xerxes. “It’s a beautiful spot for me,” Damond says. “I wanted to have something symbolic that represents our love, and our relationship, as opposed to the spot where she died.” Photos by Chris Juhn
body camera footage, that I didn’t know from day one,” Damond said. “That was the complete crux and the complete core of why this happened — because somebody was afraid.”
‘I felt fear’ Justine Ruszczyk Damond called police on July 15, 2017, when she heard sex noises and thought she heard a woman yell for help. Responding to the call, officer Matthew Harrity drove down the alley with Noor, shining a spotlight to look for people, Harrity later told investigators. Finding nothing, the officers prepared to respond to another call when Harrity said he was startled by a muffled voice, a thump somewhere behind him on the squad and a person about two feet away. Harrity said he unholstered his gun, then saw a flash and Noor’s extended arm next to him. “The moment I pulled the trigger, I felt fear,” Noor said in a statement in court, explaining that he thought he was protecting his partner’s life. “When I walked around, I saw Ms. Ruszczyk dying on the ground, I felt horror.” Noor said in court that he’s wished for two years that he could sit down with Damond to apologize, explain what happened and share his condolences. Serving as an officer had been the most rewarding thing he’d ever done, he said. Noor’s friends and family wrote about Noor’s character in letters to the court. While briefly working as a rental manager, Noor went beyond his job duties to find temporary housing for an evicted resident, according to his brother-inlaw Hassan Nurie. When Nurie urged him to consider a career in rental management, Noor insisted on becoming a police officer, where he could help more people. Fadumo Mohamed Yahye wrote of Noor’s kindness during her car accident, when he found a Somali-speaking
Don Damond attended a rally in July 2017 with Valerie Castile, mother of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop in 2016.
driver to tow the car and take her home. Coach Ahmed wrote about Noor volunteering with youth at the West Bank Athletic Club and others wrote about Noor’s 8-year-old son. “I caused this tragedy, and it is my burden,” Noor said in a court statement. “I wish, though, that I could relieve that burden others feel from the loss that I caused. I cannot, and that is a troubling reality for me. I will think about Ms. Ruszczyk and her family forever. The only thing I can do is try to live my life in a good way going forward.” Damond said he is not considering meeting with Noor at the moment. He said it’s hard to imagine that Noor received proper training in de-escalation, or to understand how he could have acted so far outside such training. In this case, he said, there was zero assessment of a threat. “There’s no words said, there’s no, ‘Get your hands up,’ there’s no command saying, ‘Back up.’ Nothing said. Just shoot and then ask questions,” he said. Damond was surprised to hear Harrity say in court that he perceives everyone as a threat until they are no longer a threat. That state of mind is a fearful survival mode, Damond said. “You’re not going to meet the community in a positive way,” he said.
‘Fully seen’ Shortly before Noor’s sentencing, Damond asked Arradondo and Mayor Jacob Frey for a complete case review that yields a plan to prevent something like this from ever happening again. The Minneapolis Police Department said the Internal Affairs division is currently reviewing the case. “Policing in Minneapolis was on display in that court case. I think the culture was on display, I think the training was on display, I believe the leadership was on display, or lack thereof. I believe that it all was there to be seen. Fully seen. You can’t change something until you really see it,” he said. Damond recently attended a three-year memorial for Philando Castile, a black man who was shot and killed by a St. Anthony officer during a traffic stop in 2016. He’s in contact with Valerie Castile, Philando’s mother, and he’s in regular contact with friends at Justice for Justine, a social justice advocacy group that has emphasized how police violence disproportionately impacts people of color, although Damond said he doesn’t work closely with the group. “It’s not a black or white issue, it’s a blue issue,” Damond said. He hopes Minneapolis follows the example of Toronto, which overhauled the way police meet people in crisis, operating under the
I knew that you wouldn’t shoot somebody unless you were scared. I didn’t learn anything in that courtroom, after all the evidence, all the body camera footage, that I didn’t know from day one. — Don Damond
premise that police should see zero deaths in public interaction. Toronto’s independent review culminated in 84 recommendations that are tracked through implementation. “I’ll keep asking for that until I see that happen. I won’t stop,” Damond said. “As a community, we should all expect a full account of what happened. … It doesn’t feel like an obligation, it feels like I’m compelled to do this. This is about Justine.”
‘Love is never lost’ On July 15, Damond might ask a few friends to visit a bench along Minnehaha Creek he dedicated in her honor, inscribed with the words: “Love is never lost.” “It’s a beautiful spot for me. I wanted to have something symbolic that represents our love, and our relationship, as opposed to the spot where she died,” he said. The bench commemorates a moment from Aug. 5, 2014. As Damond walked down Washburn, he knew this was it — he was going to tell Justine how he felt about her. He came to the end of the street, walked down to the creek and sat on a swing north of 54th Street and east of Xerxes Avenue, a place he had never been before. “That was the spot where I first told her that I loved her,” he said. Damond occasionally visits the bench, a quiet oasis in the middle of a busy city. As part of their meditation practice, Damond and Justine acknowledged their feelings without judging or reacting, saying: “This is how it is now.” “The grief is just expressed love,” he said. “She still lives in my heart, she really does.” Now that the trial is over, he said there is space to move forward. “I don’t think you move on from this. I think you just move forward, carrying it. I guess my hope is that we’ll look back five, 10 years from now and say these [changes] happened because of Justine’s legacy. … I’ll keep working for those.”
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Southwest Journal July 11–24, 2019
Architect artist Aaron Wittkamper follows his bliss
T
he course of modern history altered irrevocably on Aaron Wittkamper’s first day of graduate school. While listening attentively to the inaugural lecture at MIT’s prestigious School of Architecture, a classmate leaned in to whisper that an airplane had just struck one of the towers of New York’s World Trade Center. The date was Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. The news was too surreal for Wittkamper to comprehend: an entire day of classes would pass before the reality of that life-altering incident could sink in.
By Susan Schaefer
The 9/11 attacks portended a global tenuousness that uncannily paralleled Wittkamper’s own subsequent years — years where arduous hours of coursework combined with the complexity and heartbreak of his core romantic relationship — producing a period of elevated exhilaration and emotional exhaustion. Though trying, those years proved to be a fertile crucible — one that forged this Minneapolis architect, designer and studio artist’s current, admired and desired creative sensibilities.
Since his junior year at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Wittkamper has been an oil painter. In fact, it was painting that galvanized his then blossoming interest in design and architecture, eventually drawing him away from his declared psychology and neuroscience studies. Infected by an immediate love of the visual and spatial, Wittkamper was smitten with the intangibles that emerge when a primal, pre-thought consciousness applies color and texture to a blank canvas.
A fan of the austere abstraction of artists such as Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly, Clyfford Still and Richard Diebenkorn, Wittkamper’s work echoes their abstract expressionism, which he calls “a form of deeply concealed truth telling known only by the artist, but sensed on the surface by the viewer.” Each stroke of Wittkamper’s brush is spare and decisive. His early, large canvases radiate vast, gleaming white spaces, suggesting a bird’s-eye view often rendered by urban designers where much of the surface is left bare, “the negative white space being as much a part of the expression as the brushstroke.” Viewers can observe an almost contradictory blend of the mystic and the professional designer arising from Wittkamper’s art. Hanging directly over my bed, a large untitled Wittkamper anchors the space, creating a dramatic yet peaceful focal point — a calm SEE ARCHITECT ARTIST / PAGE B3
Aaron Wittkamper’s Untitled 4, 2019. Submitted image
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southwestjournal.com / July 11–24, 2019 B3 FROM ARCHITECT ARTIST / PAGE B1
oasis for a sleeping room. Wittkamper reflects on his “Untitled Series,” to which my canvas belongs, explaining that the “necessarily incomplete, nuanced forms seem to emerge from the ether.” His “awkward mark-making,” as he terms it, is “sinuous and seductive,” suggesting that “a potentiality is about to happen, like that beautiful, luminous state between the dream world and waking reality when your consciousness has not fully humanized. It’s what we enter into with deep meditation, entheogens and other visionary and ecstatic states,” he reflects. His work embodies this primal, pre-thought state to which he devotes a lot of attention. In fact, Wittkamper has been meditating regularly since college. He is drawn to these states of consciousness that conjure how the world is constructed from a quantum level and how humans operate within it — equating Eastern mysticism and quantum theory, which he believes basically express a similar
truth in different languages. Accordingly, he’s recently shifted his paintings away from expressionism and into the realm of sacred geometry. The resulting works are large-scale, slightly abstracted mandala paintings on 5-by-5-foot canvases that he regards as “evolving forms” — his creation journey is an “eye-opening exercise,” where the works remain a little “clunky, yet coherent.” “Painting,” Wittkamper stresses, “like anything, requires tuning, practice and many iterations, but the evolution is very rewarding.”
Aaron Wittkamper poses with his oil painting, Untitled 3, 2018. Photo by Susan Schaefer
The mindful architect Painting has been a constant alongside Wittkamper’s design career. He describes the immediacy of brush to canvas “as being the true content, the product, if you will, that has been an appreciated departure from the endless process of design and architecture ultimately built and fabricated by someone else.” The practice of architecture entails a hive mentality. It is where art meets business.
The middle panel of a Wittkamper triptych hangs above the author’s bed. Photo by Susan Schaefer
By nature, the client’s vision must occupy center ground in an architectural project; the designers, architects and countless project managers serve as the professional conduits who shape the abstraction of the vision through the alchemy of art and technical knowledge with, one hopes, fiscal prudence. Ultimately, engineers and building contractors bring the vision to a concrete reality — a space and place that meets the rigors of budget, location and materials. Wittkamper bridges the creative split between what I term the “singular authorship” of painting with the collaborative provenance of architecture by contentedly practicing on both sides of aisle. His studio is a nexus. As is his personality. Though Wittkamper’s quiet, highly contemplative character marks him as an introvert, he believes he’s an extrovert at his core. He gains energy being around people and enjoys a vibrant social life, much of it spent in the pubs, bars, cafes, breweries and distilleries he designs. His work in the
hospitality world resides at the confluence of his many creative interests — not just in art, architecture and design, but also in creating an environment for social interactions. Doubtless, this harkens back to his university roots studying psychology. He envisions his designs as settings for memorable dinners, animated happy hours or quiet liaisons — as places where humans can make deep connections. Wittkamper finds the vitality of life resides at these junctions, and he strives to create spaces where patrons’ perspectives are redirected — places where they are surprised and inspired. One such space is Windom’s Wild Mind Artisan Ales, where Wittkamper’s handiwork offers a bright and airy gallery vibe, perfectly befitting a brewery that specializes in European-crafted sour ales. Referencing the wild, offbeat flavors in their brews, Wittkamper transformed this former commercial car wash into an unconventional-yet-cozy communal SEE ARCHITECT ARTIST / PAGE B4
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B4 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com FROM ARCHITECT ARTIST / PAGE B3 Wittkamper designed the interior spaces of Windom’s Wild Mind Artisan Ales. Photo courtesy of Wittkamper /Reiff
environment — a haven in what was once an industrial hub. Here both the space and the taste surprise and inspire! Another well-known Wittkamper hospitality project is Tattersall Distillery, which is tucked into a former manufacturing/event space down a bumpy dirt road behind the Thorp Building in Northeast Minneapolis. The opportunity to work with his good friend, a Tattersall co-owner, was a turning point in his career, opening an avenue of exploration that continues to unfold into his current projects. In collaboration with his former partner Amy Reiff, Wittkamper unearthed the hidden potential of the cavernous room that once hosted light manufacturing, fashion shows and art sales, flooding the raw space with natural light by uncovering banks of clerestory windows. Another new space he recently completed is La Dona Cerveceria, a vibrant Latin-inspired brewery just west of Downtown Minneapolis. Here his colorful “mark-making” strokes playfully pattern stark concrete walls. Keep an eye out for his latest project, a restaurant called Heather’s, set to launch at 52nd & Chicago in late July.
and beyond. Though they didn’t travel far, they encouraged Wittkamper’s imagination, opening him to the world of experience. “I recall watching a Native American drumming ceremony at Grand Portage,” he reminisces, and “looking through a telescope in the Badlands of South Dakota on a clear night and seeing the rings of Saturn.” Those ephemeral hoops of cosmic dust seem to inhabit Wittkamper’s images and designs. Upon his return from MIT, Wittkamper had the great fortune of landing a position at the office of the late Jim Dayton, whose practice, James Dayton Design, earned a stellar national reputation for its modern Minnesotan architec-
ture. Dayton’s work benefited from, and some say surpassed, his foundational collaboration with his mentor, Frank Gehry. In this creative cauldron, Wittkamper, too, found a mentor whose “positive energy, patience and excellence played a significant role in his appreciation and awareness of the delicate boundaries between architecture, interior design and art.”
Art-worthy conversation Much of what Wittkamper designs relies, he says, “on making the unnecessary elements fade into the background to become unconscious to the inhabitant, while the primary elements, the stuff
that raises your temperature and tickles awareness, steps forward and presents itself.” This is accomplished through a dialogue between architecture, interior design, graphics, branding and art. He understands fully that it is wonderful to participate in this art-worthy conversation, as long as “an active discernment and critique is in play.” It appears that he adequately engages this discernment. His unique vision and talents are in demand, both as an architect and an artist. Wittkamper’s artwork has appeared in various group shows in Boston, New York and Minneapolis. In 2015, Studio Visit Magazine, a juried publication, published his work. Last year, he had paintings shown at the 801 Washington Atrium Gallery. He enjoys avid collectors as well. And an exciting exhibit is on the horizon. Wittkamper is creating new works for a show at trendy Artifact Gallery in New York’s Lower East Side in January 2020. Wittkamper believes he has always been a mystic who abounds with endless curiosity about our intelligent, complex multi-verse. “I don’t feel like I have a job,” he comments, “just a day-to-day involvement in good things with good people.” As is evident in the success of both his two- and three-dimensional work, he has followed his bliss. To paraphrase Joseph Campbell, it seems that Wittkamper has put himself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for him, and the life he ought to be living is the one he is living. Susan Schaefer is a freelance communications consultant and writer who can be reached at insights@lifeintrans.com.
Untitled 1, 2018. Submitted image
Childhood idyll/career ideal Wittkamper grew up in the old part of Anoka, near the Mississippi and Rum rivers, in a charming little neighborhood with houses dating back to 1852. The carefree and innocent boy, along with his mates, rode his bike in a kind of endless summer, much like Elliott and his friends in the film E.T. And like Elliott, Wittkamper’s imagination was lifted heavenward. His parents instilled a great sense of adventure in the young child, taking the family on many road trips out to the Black Hills, up to the North Shore
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7:30 pm Minneapolis Pops Orchestra Live, dynamic orchestra
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B6 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
Moments in Minneapolis
By Karen Cooper
Lives touched by banditry in gangster era
O
ver the course of the 1930s, the house at 5006 Colfax Ave. S. was home to at least four families. Some of them were realtors, some were salesmen, but most of the turnover was due to living through a turbulent decade. In the Great Depression of the 1930s, the economy was in tatters. There were pitched battles in the streets of Minneapolis over workers’ rights. The illegal liquor trade ignored the laws of Prohibition. It was a time when gangsters and criminals ran free in the Twin Cities. John Dillinger lived at 3253 Girard for a few weeks while trying to stay a step ahead of the FBI. Robberies and “stick-ups” were commonplace, even in Southwest Minneapolis. Throughout the 1930s, desperate people were doing desperate things.
Vernon Orcutt lived at 5006 Colfax in 1932. One evening, he walked into Evenson’s drugstore at 50th & Bryant. At nearly the same moment, two bandits came in to rob the place. They got $200 from the till and $50 from Charles Evenson’s pockets. But they got nothing from Orcutt. He tossed his cash into a dark corner and retrieved it after the stick-up. He was 6 feet tall and 190 pounds and maybe those bandits didn’t feel like asking why he was in the store if he had no money with him. They got away and were never caught. The crime rate stayed high throughout the 1930s, and Southwest was not exempted from gunpoint robberies. In February 1939, a different resident of 5006 Colfax found
himself face-to-face with armed bandits. Joseph Pickett, a jewelry salesman, was returning home at nearly 2 a.m. and parking his car in the garage. He was robbed of $4 by a group of young opportunistic criminals known as the Alley Gang, which had been robbing people all over the city for weeks. The gang got away in a stolen automobile that they had taken from John Cowles, the newspaper publisher. These bandits were caught and convicted that year. They confessed to dozens of robberies, “house prowls” and auto thefts. The crime rate went down dramatically in the 1940s as World War II put every idle hand to work. In the case of the Alley Gang, they spent the war in the St. Cloud Reformatory.
The residents of this home at 5006 Colfax Ave. S. changed frequently in the turbulent 1930s, and at least two of them had run-ins with bandits. Submitted photo
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Edward Toohey, Jr. (top) was a member of the Alley Gang of bandits in the 1930s. He once jumped out of a window in his pajamas to evade police and later asked for a comb before newspapermen took his photo. Jewelry salesman Joseph Pickett (bottom), a resident of 5006 Colfax, was a victim of the Alley Gang. Submitted photo
southwestjournal.com / July 11–24, 2019 B7
Normandy 2.0 T
he Normandy Kitchen’s been around longer than I have, and that’s saying something. When I was a kid growing up in St. Paul, my dad would undertake the trek to treat me to a Henry VIII burger and steaming popovers, a wondrous new food discovery which, in junior high Home Ec, I consistently failed to replicate. I’ve checked back at the hotel’s dining room occasionally over the years. That signature burger never left the kitchen. Nor have the popovers. But the chef has. The under-the-radar turnaround occurred a while back, when Patrick Anatalian left the stove he’d helmed forever at Sanctuary (and, before forever, at the dearly departed Loring and New French cafes). He’s turned the Normandy Kitchen into perhaps the premier go-to for French culinary classics in town. Who knew? Not moi. So, along with that famous burger, you’ll now find steak au poivre, French onion soup and salade nicoise. French olives and French cheeses as cocktail bites. Bistro staples like beef bourguignon, steak tartare, and moules (mussels) steamed in cider. There’s even roasted bone marrow, hard to find on the banks of the Mississippi rather than the Seine, but Patrick assured me that it sells well, here in the former home of meatloaf and roast turkey. To start, we summoned the first item I seek when hitting the streets of Paris — a frisee salad studded with lardons and poached egg. The bacon-y
By Carla Waldemar
cubes proved ideally moist and meaty, the soft-cooked egg just begging for a poke to dress the abundant greens. (Starters run $8–$15.) With it we shared (of course) a buttery, crunchy-crusted popover the size of a basketball ($3). Next, a pair of bruschette topped (a first for me) with escargot — bouncy, chewy, tasty snails. They rest on a painting of velvety goat-cheese mousse, sweetened with slices of pears poached in red wine. Unusual bedfellows (or, excuse me, breadfellows) but a marriage that works well. We proceeded to share two entrees, starting with duck breast from Wild Acres, sliced to reveal a lovely pink center, flavored with a (too) sweet Calvados sauce — like pears on steroids — which moistened its cushion of milk-cooked rice. Good but not as intricate nor unique as our second choice, the fish special. Pearly halibut, timed to retain a moist and nubile texture, arrived on a bed of wild rice strewn with chewy chanterelles and translucent radish moons, all bathed in a luscious, lick-your-fingers basil cream (entrees $16 for aforementioned classics; $27–$44 for most others). Next time: scallops in lavender honey syrup and pureed parsnips; pork tenderloin in lobster veloute; or — who knows what Patrick will be up to? Trust him. The dessert list ($7–$9) reads like a French cookbook (with the exception of shakes and malts, which sound good with that burger). Try to decide between profiteroles, chocolate mousse, tarte tatin, beignets with dipping sauce or the item to which we eagerly succumbed, a champagne floating island. When’s the last time you saw that classic on a local menu? From a pond of wine-enhanced creme anglaise, smooth as liquid custard, rose that island of soft meringue. It’s enticingly light and delicious. With the bill came a plate of madeleines, chocolate truffles and macarons. C’est la vie, right?
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B8 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
Unsung Architecture
By Wynne Yelland
A stroll through Lakewood Cemetery “Don’t mourn yet,” Julia Gillis, Lakewood Cemetery’s community engagement and events consultant, said soothingly. Was I already pouting? I had come to Lakewood to take a tour with Gillis, who I hoped would show me hidden gems of funerary modernism in the spirit of Lakewood’s two garden-court mausoleums in the northwest quadrant of the grounds.
So why shouldn’t I have anticipated that at least a handful of private family mausoleums, monuments and markers would also be crafted out of stone, sculpted bronze and etched glass in the modern style? “Hmm,” she said, “There are a few unusual items here that might interest you, but tradition is the norm for many of our more design-heavy monuments —mostly Neoclassical and Egyptian Revival. Let’s start with Rudy Perpich.” About halfway down the east side of Lakewood, the Perpich monument (to the Minnesota governor and his wife, Lola) shimmered in the overhead sun. Gloria Tew, a Twin Citiesbased sculptor and friend of late modernist
The Perpich monument (left) honors former Minnesota Gov. Rudy Perpich and his wife, Lola. The Dudley-Trask monument (right) loosely follows gothic forms. Photos by Wynne Yelland
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architect Ralph Rapson, sculpted the modern monument: two gleaming shapes that bend to a glancing, stainless kiss 15 feet above the manicured lawn. Tew also designed another abstract stainless memorial here, a curiously unnamed monument overlooking Bde Maka Ska, a few steps from Paul Wellstone’s boulder monument. After seeing both Tew pieces, there wasn’t much else we found in the modern/ abstract funerary category at Lakewood. Gillis and I drove through the mausoleum sections, where families have erected small buildings for interred remains, including the Mars family (of candy fame; mausoleum and contents moved to Lakewood from rural Tennessee), the Lowry family (unusual for its time, designed for cremated remains) and the Wood family (Egyptian Revival in a quirky pyramid motif). While all tastefully designed, nothing floored me like the exquisite Louis Sullivan mausoleums in St. Louis and Chicago. I returned over Memorial Day weekend with my wife, Linda, and we unearthed a few gems. A short walk from Perpich’s monument is a post-modern monument for the state historical architect Charles W. Nelson. The quartered red granite column, with its bronze intersecting cube form, is no doubt symbolic of something — the Knights Templar are referenced on the monument — though its meaning was inscrutable to us. But after visiting some other monuments, we could appreciate how beautifully different it was from the sarcophagus, square and stele designs prevalent on the grounds.
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On our circuitous stroll, we saw hundreds of Egyptian obelisks. In the heyday of large family monuments, the late 19th and early 20th century, Egyptian tomb archaeology fueled public interest in pyramids and other Egyptian iconography. This interest is definitely reflected in Lakewood’s monuments. Most of the obelisks here follow the recognizable proportions of the Washington Monument in D.C., but the singular Oberhoffer obelisk follows a different tune. Oberhoffer’s monument is less angular, more obviously slender and delicately detailed at the top and bottom. Perhaps Emil Johann Oberhoffer, a violinist and the conductor of the first Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, leaned towards Egypt but wanted a more lyrical version of the obelisk form. If you know your classical oeuvre, you’ll instantly identify the opening bars of the third movement of Brahms’ first symphony at the obelisk base. Two of my favorite monuments are architectural miniatures. Larger than most monuments, these two paid tribute to architectural shapes, but they are not big enough to occupy an interior space like their mausoleum cousins. Loosely following gothic forms, the DudleyTrask monument reminded me of a rural French church. With a mature tree canopy overhead, it was almost Impressionist (if you squinted a bit). If you visit no other monument at Lakewood, find the Wyman-Partridge monument in Section 27. The classical proportions have been manipulated in an unusual manner, and the relief work and detailing are worthy of sketching. If you are a fan of those miniature die-cast historical buildings, you will adore this. For a leisurely afternoon stroll on a sunny day, Lakewood is a quiet, history-studded respite from the more crowded paths around the Chain of Lakes.
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B10 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
Community Calendar.
WALKIN’ AROUND CHECKIN’ STUFF OUT Southwest Journal’s longtime illustrator WACSO creates graphically driven illustrations depicting iconic landmarks, classically historic sites, everyday folks, dive bars and more.
When: July 13–Aug. 11
Where: Gallery 360, 3011 W. 50th St.
Cost: Free
Info: gallery360mpls.com
By Ed Dykhuizen
FILM SCREENING: JIM CROW OF THE NORTH
RED HOT ART FESTIVAL
Learn about the spread of racist, restrictive real estate covenants in the early 20th century in this film based on the Mapping Prejudice research project. Following the film, producer Daniel Pierce Bergin and Mapping Prejudice project director Kirsten Delegard will participate in a panel discussion.
Including performances by Gully Boys, Mayda, Shamble Town Rebels, Open Eye Figure Theatre and many more, this annual festival is known for embracing emerging local artists and the DIY heart and soul of Minneapolis culture.
When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 11 Where: Linden Hills Park Building, 3100 43rd St. Cost: Free Info: hclib.bibliocommons.com
MIDWEST MIXED CONFERENCE This three-day experience will provide spaces designated for the exploration of mixed, multiracial and transracial adoptee experiences through art, activities and conversations.
When: Friday–Sunday, July 12–14 Where: First Universalist Church, 3400 Dupont Ave. S. Cost: $75–$250, plus a pay-what-you-can option Info: midwestmixed.com
MIDSUMMER MIDSUMMER MEMORY MEMORYMANDALAS*** MANDALAS
Watch artist Day Schildkret use natural materials he Watch artist Day Schildkret use natural materials he has gathered from the cemetery and its surroundings to has gathered from the cemetery and its surroundings create a large-scale tribute to love and loss. to create a large-scale tribute to love and loss. When: July 12, 13 When: Friday and Saturday, July 12 and 13 Where: Lakewood Cemetery, 3600 Hennepin Ave. Where: Lakewood Cemetery, 3600 Hennepin Ave. Cost: Free Info: lakewoodcemetery.org Cost: Free Info: lakewoodcemetery.org
When: Saturday–Sunday, July 13–14 Where: Stevens Square Park, 1801 Stevens Ave. Cost: Free Info: stevenssquare.org
LESLIE RICH RECORDING LIVE Celtic singer/songwriter Leslie Rich’s solo acoustic performance of The Rocket Soul Choir’s third album, Idlerich, will be recorded for a future release.
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, July 13 Where: The Warming House, 4001 Bryant Ave. Cost: $5–$12 Info: thewarminghouse.net
LA SERVA PADRONA Mill City Summer Opera presents a comic baroque opera of mistaken identity and unexpected matchmaking.
When: Monday, July 15, and Wednesday, July 17 Where: Icehouse, 2528 Nicollet Ave. Cost: $15–$25 cover Info: icehousempls.com
CANTUS: UNREQUITED The third installment of Cantus’ popular chamber music explores what it’s like to feel passionately about someone. Featured is Robert Schumann’s most famous song cycle, Dichterliebe (Op. 48).
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, July 18 Where: The Museum of Russian Art, 5500 Stevens Ave. Cost: $32 adults, $10 students Info: cantussings.org
MINI PLAYS FOR MINNEAPOLIS (AND ST. PAUL) This showcase of new works from young, emerging playwrights takes on where the Twin Cities are, where they’re going and what they need to hear.
When: Friday–Sunday, July 19–21 Where: Bryant Lake Bowl, 801 W. Lake St. Cost: $10 Info: bryantlakebowl.com/cabaret-theater
CITY OF LAKES TRI-LOPPET The Tri-Loppet is a point-to-point triathlon — paddle 7K, run 5.5K and mountain bike 13K — using the Chain of Lakes and trails in Theodore Wirth Park.
When: Saturday, July 20 Where: Start at Bde Maka Ska Cost: $20–$140 to participate
Info: loppet.org
JAZZAT ATTHE THEJUNGLE JUNGLE JAZZ WITHCONNIE CONNIEEVINGSON*** EVINGSON WITH Evingson Evingson will will perform perform the the entirety entirety ofof her her 2012 2012 album Sweet album Happy Sweet Life, Happy featuring Life, featuring Girl from Girl Ipanema, from Meditation, Ipanema, Meditation, Agua de Beber, Killing Agua de Beber, Killing Me Softly with MeHis Song, Softly Watch withWhat His Song, Happens, WatchI Will WhatWait Happens, for YouI Will and more. Wait for You and more. When: 4 p.m. Sunday, July 21 Where: Ave S. When:Jungle 4 p.m.Theater, Sunday,2951 JulyLyndale 21 Cost: $30Jungle Info: Theater, jungletheater.org Where: 2951 Lyndale Ave. S. Cost: $30 Info: jungletheater.org
southwestjournal.com / July 11–24, 2019 B11
IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T GOTTEN THE UPDATE: Minnesota isn’t just Norwegians. Our state has connections and friendships with people all over the world, through people from elsewhere who make their home here, our rich immigrant history and the general support for globalism in our institutions, businesses and organizations. Celebrate being a citizen of the world at these local events.
Get Out Guide. By Sheila Regan
BASTILLE DAY BLOCK PARTY Ooh la la! Nothing says summer like Barbette’s annual homage to French culture. This free festival has got it all: great bands like Mark Mallman, the Brass Messengers and Sweet J.A.P., burlesque performers Foxy Tann and Nadine DuBois, and performances by aerial groups and the “Picnic Operetta” company Mixed Precipitation. There’s also an artist market, tons of food and great people watching.
When: 2 p.m.– 9 p.m. Sunday, July 14 Where: Barbette, 1600 W. Lake St. Cost: Free Info: barbette.com
TWIN CITIES WORLD REFUGEE DAY With dance, music, spoken word and food vendors from all parts of the world, World Refugee Day highlights the Twin Cities’ diverse refugee cultures. It’s a chance to find out about the many different cultural groups that make up our community and gain a better appreciation of our rich array of people from all over the globe.
Since 1961, when Minneapolis became a sister city of Santiago, Chile, Minneapolis has been a part of the Sisters Cities program, which connects our city to other places around the world. Bosaso, Somalia; Cuernavaca, Mexico; Harbin, China; and Uppsala, Sweden, are just a few of Minneapolis’ 12 sister cities. For “Minneapolis Sister Cities Day,” Meet Minneapolis is celebrating all dozen sister cities with free ice cream, music, performances and children’s activities. There will also be a special program honoring the 10th anniversary of sister city Najaf, Iraq.
When: 2 p.m.– 7 p.m. Sunday, July 14 Where: Loring Park, 1382 Willow St. Cost: Free, but you may donate at URL below Info: tinyurl.com/tc-refugee-day
When: 1 p.m.– 5 p.m. Sunday, July 21 Where: Nicollet Island Pavilion, 40 Power St. Cost: Free Info: tinyurl.com/mpls-sister-city
CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1 Settle for leftovers 6 “A revolution is not a dinner party” statesman 9 Additions to the staff 14 Petting zoo critter 15 Wayfarer’s stop 16 Lexus rival 17 Meets unexpectedly 19 Connecting waterway 20 Rock band need 21 Board game with rooms 22 Woo with a tune 23 Works with one’s private tutor, say 25 Emily Dickinson’s hometown 28 Longtime nighttime host 29 Bread brushed with ghee 30 Zipped 31 Feathery wrap 34 Emergency runthrough opening 39 Tennis’ Andy Murray’s title 40 Bud 41 Sign of holiness 42 Facial tissue? 43 Opposite of engagement 46 Utah’s state tree 50 When many workdays start 51 Said, “The dog ate my homework,” probably 52 Notable period 55 Church offering 56 Income-reducing inequity, or what can be found in the four other longest puzzle answers
58 Fake handle 59 Many a Monopoly sq. 60 “Live at the Acropolis” keyboardist 61 Takes it easy 62 “Let’s do it!” 63 Mild oath
DOWN 1 Idris of “Luther” 2 College benefactor 3 Pack (down) 4 Little dickens 5 Brickyard 400 acronym 6 Courtly dance 7 Pays for a hand 8 Middle name adopted by John Lennon 9 Mexicali mansion
Crossword Puzzle SWJ 071119 4.indd 1
SISTER CITIES DAY
10 “Just you watch me” 11 Steps up a ladder 12 Poetry Muse 13 Place for a makeover 18 Sorts 22 Icy forecast 23 Change for a 50 24 “Heidi” setting 25 Armadillo meal 26 When repeated, fish on a menu 27 Tresses 30 Dim __: traditional Chinese food 31 Spot on a sweater? 32 Peace Prize city 33 Minute matter 35 Gross quality 36 Stand out 37 Freud contemporary 38 If so
42 Schusser’s topper 43 They’re usually not hits 44 Columnist’s page 45 Overnight flight 46 Saudi Arabia’s neighbor 47 Of practical value 48 Voices against 49 Vibrant 52 Italian peak 53 McNally’s mapmaking partner 54 Geometric reference line 56 __ fever 57 Scraggly horse
Crossword answers on page B12
7/2/19 4:10 PM
MNUFC VS. ASTON VILLA The new Allianz Field soccer stadium is a dream, and the Loons’ upcoming match against the British Aston Villa soccer team will allow you to partake in a friendly rivalry with a team from across the pond.
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 17 Where: Allianz Field, 400 Snelling Ave. N., St. Paul Cost: $23 and up Info: mnufc.com
B12 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
GINGER RHUBARB POP TARTS Recipe courtesy of Elizabeth Bonhert
By Sarah Woutat
Market bake-off season
W
e’re a third of the way through the outdoor market season, and each week just seems to get better at the markets! We have events scheduled every week, but one of the most popular is the bake-off. Over the course of the season, we have two bake-offs at each of our markets. These are great opportunities for our neighbors to show off their baking skills, and for those who aren’t bakers, to help out the markets by buying a tasting plate and judging. Plates cost $5 and are a tasty way to help raise funds to support the market. Our first bake-off of the season was in June at Kingfield. Elizabeth Bonhert shared her winning recipe for Ginger Rhubarb Pop Tarts
and told us a little bit about herself and why she loves the market. “I’m a middle school science teacher and mother of two young girls,” she said. “I love baking for my friends and family and do it whenever I have time; summer break is when I get to do most of my baking! “I live here in Minneapolis and have been coming to the Kingfield market for seven years. These days we come to the market every Sunday; it’s a huge part of our summertime routine. On top of the wonderful produce and foods available, we love coming to the market because of the relationships we have formed with the vendors.”
Volunteers make sample plates at the Kingfield bake-off in June. Submitted photo
Pie crust ingredients:
directions:
315 grams all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons sugar 1 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon cardamom 1 stick butter, frozen, grated ½ cup vegetable shortening, frozen, cubed ½ cup water
Mix dry ingredients. Then mix in fats (use your fingers to pinch the fat into the dry ingredients). Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time until dough sticks together in a smooth ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour. Roll flat to an eighth-inch thickness and cut into three-inch squares. Chill until ready to use.
Jam ingredients:
directions:
1 pound rhubarb, sliced to half-inch thickness 45 grams fresh ginger, minced 7 ½ tablespoons sugar ¼ cup water ⅛ teaspoon salt
Mix all ingredients in Method medium saucepan. Simmer Mix all ingredients in medium saucepan. over medium heat until Simmer over medium heat until rhubarb rhubarb is broken down and is broken down and mixture is quite mixture is quite thickened. thickened. Refrigerate until cold. Refrigerate until cold.
Cardamom glaze
Rhubarb glaze
1 cup powdered sugar 2 tablespoons milk ¼ teaspoon cardamom ½ teaspoon vanilla extract Pinch of salt 1 teaspoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice Zest of half a lemon
¼ cup rhubarb ginger jam, pureed ½ cup powdered sugar ½ teaspoon lemon juice 3 drops of red food dye (optional, makes glaze more pink) Add water, ½ teaspoon at a time until glaze flows
Assembly On one square of pie dough drop 1 ½ teaspoons of jam, spread toward edges. Wet edges completely with water. Place another square on top and press edges together. Seal edges with a fork. Poke holes in the top to vent. Freeze for at least 30 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 35—40 minutes until crust is lightly browned and bottom is crisp. Cool completely before glazing. Dip tops of cooled tarts in cardamom glaze and allow them to drip a few moments. Flip over and allow to set. (Decorate with rhubarb glaze if desired before cardamom glaze sets.) Pour rhubarb glaze into sandwich baggie, snip very small tip. Decorate tops of glazed tarts.
BAKE-OFF SCHEDULE Fulton: July 14, Sept. 21
Kingfield: Sept. 15
Nokomis: July 24, Sept. 18
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Crossword on page B11
YOU CAN HE L P MAK E I T HA P PEN. VOL UNTE YOU CAN HE L P MAK E I T HA P PEN. VOL UNTE I NEFR O @ L E O N A R D O S B A S E M EA NT T. O R G O R C A L L 6 1 2 - 8 2 I NEFR O @ L E O N A R D O S B A S E M EA NT T. O R G O R C A L L 6 1 2 - 8 2 4-4394 4-4394
Leonardos Basement SWJ 071119 V12.indd 1
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7/2/19 4:10 PM
southwestjournal.com / July 11–24, 2019 B13
Classifieds CONCRETE, ASPHALT
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•
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3:26 PM
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B14 July 11–24, 2019 / southwestjournal.com
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10/22/18 12:47 PM
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Certain trademarks used under license from The Procter & Gamble Company or its affiliates.
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southwestjournal.com / July 11–24, 2019 B15
PAINTING EXTERIOR • INTERIOR
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(612) 390-5911 612.360.2019
call today!
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we build it
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www.fusionhomeimprovement.com MN License #BC451256
4/29/19 5:17 PM
Fusion Home Improvement SWJ 021314 2cx3.indd 1
Install a new kitchen or bathroom faucet Garbage disposal repairs & installation Leaky sinks, faucets, showers, toilets & pipe repair
1/31/14 10:44 AM
We need a remodeler who’ll finish what they start.
Cross off all your plumbing checklist items
That’s why we depend on NARI.
Hot water heaters Fix low water pressure
Visit narimn.org or call 612-332-6274 to find a NARI-certified professional for your next remodeling project or to become a NARI member.
Sinks that drain slow Toilets that are always running Faucet that drips
Your Sign of Satisfaction
CallHero.com • (612) 424-9349 Call today and SAVE
46.50 OFF
$
The NARI logo is a registered trademark of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. ©2015 NARI of Minnesota.
Your NEXT plumbing service
952-512-0110
www.roelofsremodeling.com
12/28/17 12:45 PM TO PLACE AN AD CALL 612.825.9205
NARI SWJ 2010 NR3 2cx3.indd 1
SWJ 071119 Classifieds.indd 3 Hero Heating SWJ 051718 2cx4.indd 1
7/9/19 2:33 PM Roelofs Remodeling SWJ 073015 2cx2.indd 2 5/15/18 11:58 AM
7/28/15 3:01 PM
– FOR 12 MONTHS –
CALIBRATE FOR EFFICIENCY
We adjust your system with precision to minimize your utility bills & your impact on the environment
MECHANICAL INSPECTION
Our 21 point inspection identifies concerns before they become problems
SYSTEM EVALUATION REPORT
Upon completion you will be emailed a detailed, full color report, educating you on the condition of your equipment
MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
If your system stops working for any reason after our tune-up services, we’ll credit the cost of the tune-up towards a repair
OR
IT’S FREE!
CLOG FREE GUARANTEE We will restore flow to any main drain or it’s free!
4 HOUR SERVICE - OR IT’S FREE!
CLEAN HOUSE GUARANTEE - OR IT’S FREE!
INCLUDES VIDEO INSPECTION - PREVENTS FUTURE ISSUES
FRIENDLY TECHS
- BACKGROUND CHECKED FOR YOUR SAFETY
Hero Plumbing Heating & Cooling SWJ 062719 FP.indd 1
6/25/19 4:30 PM