Uncategorized Archives » Page 7 of 17 » The Wedge Times-Picayune

June 6, 2019June 6, 2019

A Fair Housing Proposal in Minneapolis

Nationally 30% of adults have an arrest or criminal record. That can make it much harder to find housing. And to the degree there are racial disparities in our criminal justice system (as of 2012, black people were arrested by Minneapolis police at 6.5 times the rate of the non-black population), this results in disparities in who is eligible for housing.

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued legal guidance that “where a policy or practice that restricts access to housing on the basis of criminal history has a disparate impact on individuals of a particular race, national origin, or other protected class” could violate the Fair Housing Act.

June 4, 2019June 4, 2019

Met Council: We Still Need More Housing

Researchers at the Metropolitan Council have produced a slide show titled “We still need more housing.” The numbers come from permit data collected across the 7-county Minneapolis-St. Paul region. Below are some of the slides, capturing the scale of our regional housing shortage. View the whole thing here.

May 10, 2019May 10, 2019

Grocery and 130 apartments planned for 47th and Cedar Ave S

[This local news coverage made possible by readers like you.]

Dallas-based developer High Street Residential has plans for a grocery store and 130 apartments at 47th and Cedar Ave near Lake Nokomis in South Minneapolis. The site’s existing grocery store, Bergan’s, would be replaced with a Lunds and Byerly’s.

April 18, 2019April 26, 2019

Star Tribune makes embarrassing false equivalence between Ilhan Omar and Donald Trump

“Some people did something.”

That’s as far as the Star Tribune is willing to quote Ilhan Omar — speaking about 9/11 — in their editorial painting the Muslim Congresswoman as an equally guilty combatant in a “war of words” with Donald Trump. They found Omar’s words to be lacking in reverence: “the seeming nonchalance of the phrase stings.”

Here’s just slightly more context for Omar’s quote:

February 11, 2019February 11, 2019

After history of anti-basketball racism, sport could make comeback at Mueller Park

In 1998 Mueller Park’s basketball court was cut in half after decades of racist complaints about basketball in the park. Over the years, neighbors made connections between basketball and crime; basketball and drug dealing; basketball and discomfort with strangers in the neighborhood. Concerned residents were quoted in the neighborhood newspaper saying things like: “ruffians”… “many of whom I do not recognize”… “descending on our park by the carload”… “music on full blast.”

A Park Board representative in the early 1980s admitted the obvious: “I do think some racism is involved.”

December 21, 2018December 21, 2018

Worst of Wedge LIVE 2018: A Year of “Disarray”

We saw a noticeable uptick in local gaffes in 2018. Some would attribute this disarray to the fact Minneapolis elected five new members to the City Council in 2017. Personally, I happen to subscribe to the old adage: “to bloop is human.” These bloopers served as the basis for Wedge LIVE’s least popular new segment in 2018.

December 16, 2018December 16, 2018

2018: A Look Back at the Year that Was

2018 was a big year. The year of Minneapolis 2040. The year of the Red Yard Sign. The year Wedge LIVE was declared “Best Website in the Twin Cities.” The year that an elected official tried to shut down this website by attempting to trademark the name “Wedge Live.” The year that same elected official couldn’t stop barking “Balls!” during meetings at city hall.

Let’s take a look back at some of 2018’s top local moments.

December 13, 2018March 17, 2019

The Whole Story on Minneapolis 2040

We’re being flooded with national takes about what happened in our city last week. Esquire magazine is writing about zoning in Minneapolis. The New York Times says the city has taken a “bold move to address its affordable-housing crisis and confront a history of racist housing practices.” Coastal elites are saying we’ve made “zoning history,” becoming the first major American city to abolish single-family zoning — and the third major US city to eliminate minimum parking requirements. Or, maybe we haven’t done anything very radical at all: Minneapolis is just “welcoming back historic, modest housing types: duplexes and triplexes.”

The truth about what happened last week is that it was six years in the making. How did we get here? Who is responsible? Where will we park? Like nearly all stories worth telling, this one begins in the Wedge neighborhood of Minneapolis.

December 12, 2018March 17, 2019

Wedge LIVE prevails in legal action

The legal effort to defend Wedge LIVE from Carol Becker has ended in victory. In a settlement reached late Monday, and fully executed yesterday, Becker has acknowledged my ownership of the name “Wedge LIVE.” Additionally, Becker has agreed that she will “never assert any claim to these marks in the future.” Other details of the settlement agreement must be kept confidential.

As a result, I have dismissed my lawsuit against Becker that was previously pending in Hennepin County District Court.

December 7, 2018December 7, 2018

FINAL: Mpls 2040 passes on 12-1 Council vote

After years of engagement across two City Council terms and a lively, often contentious debate, the final vote on the Minneapolis 2040 plan showed remarkable consensus. The margin was 12-1 in favor of a plan with ambitious goals to eliminate racial disparities, combat climate change, and roll back decades of exclusionary zoning.

Category: Uncategorized