The Print Edition of Wedge LIVE!
We’ve had a lot of time on our hands over the last month and a half. Many of us have spent more time with our electronic devices. Some people have picked up other hobbies. Instead of growing virtual fruit trees in the smash hit life-simulation video game Animal Crossing, Minneapolis City Council Member Cam Gordon has grown a beard.
Continue reading “Minneapolis City Council Member Cam Gordon is Growing a Beard”
People are coming to conclusions about what a pandemic means for cities, transportation, public spaces, and other hot button issues. Turns out they’re drawing the same conclusions as before. Density is deadly. Transit is a petri dish for disease. Bikes are in the way.
Continue reading “Pandemic Teaching Us What We Already Knew About Cities”
Mayor Frey announced Friday that Minneapolis has 81 confirmed cases of Covid-19. When compared to total confirmed infections in Hennepin County (235 at the time the Mayor spoke Friday morning), the city’s rate of positive test results is proportional to the city’s share of the county population.
Continue reading “Minneapolis Has 81 Cases of Covid-19; City Budget Shortfall Projected at $100 to $200 Million”
In a sign of how bizarrely partisan the response to a pandemic has become, Minnesota GOP Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan called the Minneapolis Park Board communists for closing the city’s beaches through August.
Continue reading “Mpls Park Board Responds to Pandemic; MN GOP Chair Accuses Them of “Extreme Communist” Plot”
Some highlights from the Covid-19 update given to the Minneapolis City Council’s Public Safety & Emergency Management Committee on Wednesday.
Continue reading “Minneapolis Police, Fire, and Public Works Departments Adjust to Covid-19 Emergency”
With piles of data backing up the idea that slower is safer, Minneapolis and St. Paul are implementing lower speed limits. Both cities are setting lower speed limits using authority newly granted by the state legislature.
In Minneapolis, limits of 25 mph on arterial streets will take effect as the new signs are installed. Streets considered “residential” will have limits of 20 mph limits, but won’t get their own signage. The 20 mph limits will take effect once gateway signs for drivers entering the city are installed in the fall. County and state controlled streets will remain unchanged at 30 mph or greater.
Continue reading “New Speed Limits, Signage, & Traffic Signal Timing Arriving in Minneapolis”
Before voting to approve the city’s acquisition of the Nicollet Kmart site on Friday, Council President Bender affirmed her promise to former Council Member Robert Lilligren that “he would be the person cutting the ribbon.” This was meant as recognition for his past work on the project. Lilligren was first elected in 2001, and represented the area until 2013, when it was in Ward 6.
Do we do demolition ribbon cuttings?
Continue reading “Robert Lilligren to swing first sledgehammer at Kmart demolition”
Start washing your hands, stop touching your face. Handshakes have been replaced with elbow bumps. Avoid close contact with other humans. While the young and healthy are not at great personal risk once infected, experts are recommending social distancing to slow the spread of the coronavirus known as COVID-19. There’s no reason to hoard toilet paper or bottled water. I reacted to the increasingly dire news of a global pandemic by buying three boxes of macaroni (there were four left — you’re welcome, humanity).
Continue reading “Minneapolis Gears Up for COVID-19”
Last year, in the midst of deciding what future funding of neighborhood associations would look like, the City Council commissioned an equity analysis of how these groups function. The report concludes that various funding schemes overseen by the city for the last 30 years reveal “a system of institutional racism.” And, “it’s reasonable to conclude that equity has not been realized or advanced in neighborhood organization work to date.”
The report was presented to the City Council last week by C. Terrence Anderson of the University’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA). Council Member Lisa Goodman had the most colorful reaction, repeatedly telling Anderson that the results make “neighborhood folks” in her ward feel like they “suck.”
Continue reading “Equity Analysis Makes Some Neighborhood Groups Feel Like They “Suck””
It’s difficult to sort out what’s true about public housing in Minneapolis. Even if you’re a person who keeps up with the news. Just look at all the corrections issued to articles written about the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority over the course of a few weeks last year.
You could sense some frustration about this public confusion from Tracey Scott, MPHA’s interim director, when she came to the City Council’s Housing Policy & Development Committee last week. The committee was about to vote on whether to ask MPHA to delay an action that Scott felt was necessary to bring in millions of dollars a year in desperately needed funding for public housing. Scott spoke forcefully against it. She said the resolution was based on a “deliberate campaign of fear and misinformation.”
Though the resolution failed in committee 5-1, it sparked an important conversation.
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