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Annual Meeting Brings Change, Raises Questions

Council Member Lisa Bender speaks at LHENA’s 2015 annual meeting.

Last week, in an effort to get others elected to LHENA’s Board of Directors, I failed miserably and got myself elected instead. Turnout was surprisingly high. I thought we were doomed, but strange new faces began arriving later in the evening, closer to the advertised election time, providing hope.

A lady in the front row was moved to ask if candidates would be required to announce their homeowner/renter status (that was weird). The composition of the room affected one incumbent, whose speech turned into a concession, with a reference to her age being a political handicap. But in the end, we were still kind of doomed. Demographics weren’t favorable enough. I blame baseball, amazing weather, and cool kids with better things to do.

In an attempt to bring the neighborhood together, new LHENA Board Member @johneapolis has asked to be sworn in on Healy’s copy of the Koran.
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) April 17, 2015

Last week’s election also raises some questions.

1. Why? I ask myself the same question.

2. Was Meg giving you dirty looks the whole evening? You’re just paranoid.

3. What do you consider to be your campaign’s “Game Change” moment? Had to be when a group of older gentlemen got a hold of our slate of candidates and started passing around a handwritten list of names. It probably didn’t cost us any votes, but it was funny.

4. What happens to your social media empire? Financial managers have placed my entire stake in wedgelive.com and @WedgeLIVE into a blind trust. While I will continue to own 100% of this blogspot, I will have no idea that this is the case.

5. Will you continue to live-tweet LHENA Board meetings? My new circumstances likely make high-volume live-tweeting a thing of the past. That doesn’t mean there won’t be breaking news to report from time to time.

6. When are you moving to Whittier? My lease is up in September… Just kidding. I pledge to serve my entire term, and grow enough gray hairs by the end of those two stress-filled years to pass for a long-time resident.

7. Your political role model? Marco Rubio. I’m prepared to be the young-ish, mediocre, political hotshot on the receiving end of overly generous descriptions, such as “good looking” and “articulate” and “has hair” and “makes words with his mouth.”

8. What details are important to preserve for historians looking back 45 years from now?

Seven LHENA Board seats were up for grabs in 2015. They included seats held by the following: Michael Roden, Sara Romanishan, Sue Bode, Paul Ryan, Kyle Kilbourn, Shae Walker, and Burt Coffin. There were roughly 15 candidates to fill those seats.

Re-elected were Sara Romanishan and Paul Ryan. Sue Bode came up short. Michael Roden was lost to transiency. Kyle, Shae and Burt retired to become lobbyists probably. LHENA’s five new Board Members are: Michael Friedman, Frank Brown, Beth Harrington, Katie Jones-Schmitt, and John Edwards. They join Leslie Foreman, Tim Dray, Bill Neumann, and Becky Dernbach on the 11 member Board. Those four will be up for re-election in 2016, along with the seat of Frank Brown, who was elected to a one-year term.

Update: “New Winner Declared After LHENA Election Recount”

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Yard Sign Report: The Forgotten South Wedge Transient District

One of 11 LHENA yard signs.
As part of our non-stop, team coverage of the upcoming LHENA election and annual meeting, I hopped on a bike to map the location of promotional yard signs.

Analysis: The North Wedge Historic District has a whole lotta yard signs. Meanwhile, in the South Wedge Transient District there are many fewer yard signs. Experts say this could lead to fewer people of South Wedge descent being aware of the annual meeting, or knowing that LHENA exists in the first place. I’ve met more than a few South Wedge residents who thought they lived in Whittier or CARAG. Stay tuned to @WedgeLIVE to see how this impacts Wednesday’s results.

Yard sign data collected on April 11.
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The Historic Wedge Newspaper

Two of the early hand-drawn front pages.

Last fall, the @WedgeLIVE news team spent an insane number of hours in the remarkably luxurious and well-equipped Special Collections room of the Minneapolis Central Library, doing what no one else thought possible or necessary: scanning nearly 40 years of the Wedge neighborhood newspaper going back to 1970.

Now that I’ve mined it for all the blog material it was worth (and used up all the old unredeemed coupons for Tuthill’s General Store), we’re releasing it to the neighborhood. Check out the archive. It’s more historic than a Healy house.

Print it out. Denny may still be legally bound to honor this coupon.

Many talented and dedicated people put a lot of work into this paper over the last 45 years. It’s an amazing resource. But if you’re too lazy to lift a finger to browse the full archive (I’m looking at you, renters), I’ve condensed decades of accumulated neighborhood knowledge to a manageable number of bullet points.

Alright “Ken”–you say your last name ends in a chant of “USA”? We’re not buying it.

  • “The Wedgies” was a cartoon featuring a Wedge-shaped married couple (unfortunately, not a continuing series).
Next panel: “That’s not a hotel, it’s a former boarding house you converted to single-family. You owe me $200 for historic repairs.”

  • This old political ad fills me with transient pride. Who needs a wife and kids when you can tout your amazing “roommate”? This goes both for euphemistic and platonic roommates. 

Recycle this into a historic Christmas card.

The Wedge newspaper archive is brought to you by Homemade Soups™.
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LHENA Loans: The Ongoing Saga

For the previous installment of the LHENA Loans Saga see this post.

Here’s the new proposal from last month’s board meeting, which completely disregards the spirit of what was done in November. All the “free” money (0%, forgivable), and the resistance of some folks to placing income restrictions on that free money, is something I have always found puzzling. It occurred to me today to do the math on the distribution of housing money broken down by building size.
Houshold data from mncompass.org.


I often point out that we’re an 80%-plus renter neighborhood. Of course, some of those renters live in 1-4 unit buildings (duplexes, triplexes, etc). But 68% of people in Lowry Hill East live in buildings containing more than four units, and that number includes a lot of homeowners living in condos. Despite this, only 21% of housing money is going specifically to buildings larger than four units.

Here’s another odd number: among the funds ($500,814) devoted to 1-4 unit buildings, $166,943 is forgivable. Even this smaller slice of forgivable money is more (by $8) than the total amount ($166,935) set aside for buildings larger than four units.
In addition to the problem of unbalanced allocation, I still say owners of historic, half-million-dollar Healy mansions should have to pay the money back at 3% like the rest of the neighborhood. If you agree, come to tonight’s LHENA meeting: 7 PM, Jefferson media center.
Post-Meeting Update: “Historic Preservation Loans” were changed to reflect November’s community vote. They will be paid back over 10 years at 0% interest.
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Press Conference Addressing Screenshotghazi

See the City Pages coverage of last weekend’s controversy.

Allow me to livetweet the @WedgeLIVE press conference, already in progress…
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) March 2, 2015

First of all let me say, I’m proud to announce that our ratings have gone from a core audience 40 viewers to over 13,000 views since Friday.
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) March 2, 2015

Of course, this success invites added scrutiny. We are prepared for this. As of this afternoon, we have backed up all the comments to PDF.
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) March 2, 2015

Furthermore, Nicole Curtis has finally picked an opponent that suits her. A goofball neighborhood blogger with 163 followers on Twitter.
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) March 2, 2015

Before I leave the podium, I’d just like to say: to all the haters, Healy fans, Nicole’s Facebook friends…
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) March 2, 2015

Houses are not people. They do not feel pain. I’m happy to see many of them preserved. But you guys need to stop losing your shit over this.
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) March 2, 2015

You can disagree with the City Council’s vote (11-2) to allow demolition. You can disagree with a judge who ruled against you twice…
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) March 2, 2015

But for those of us who aren’t a part of the Rehab Addict subculture, we demand proof. Corruption. Bribes. “Disturbing” emails. Prove it.
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) March 2, 2015

Thank you all for coming out. I’m happy to take any questions.
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) March 2, 2015

Yes, you, the disheveled man in the front row, what’s your question? RT @anton612: @WedgeLIVE why do you hate america?
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) March 2, 2015

I invite you to inspect my PDFs, sir. Next question! RT @anton612: @WedgeLIVE I should rephrase that. Why do you slander patriots?
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) March 2, 2015

Transient, through and through. Proud of it. RT @MrFesser: @WedgeLIVE Are you one of those…renter types?
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) March 2, 2015

.@MattyLangMSP I aboslutely deny it. I tried a beard once. Didn’t like it. And I’m older than you’d think based on the nonsense I tweet.
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) March 2, 2015

OK, folks, that’s it. @WedgeLIVE has some more screenshotting to do. Thanks, everyone.
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) March 2, 2015

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Getting Out of Hand

It’s usually not reasonable to expect celebrities to be responsible for the actions of their fans, or for anyone to be held responsible for a few crazies in their comment section. But I think the demonization of Lisa Bender is getting out of hand. Seriously.

UPDATE: Comments taken from these posts (from Feb 25, 26): 1, 2, 3.


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#Girard

Nearly 16 days after dropping hints about “disturbing emails” allegedly written by Minneapolis Council Member Andrew Johnson (an unlikely suspect when you consider he is the Council’s foremost advocate for open data, and therefore likeliest to be aware of the public nature of his email correspondence), Nicole Curtis is promoting her new, very mysterious scandal-hashtag #Girard. Details won’t be forthcoming.

What is “Girard”? Curtis’s HGTV colleagues (rivals?) at Renovate to Rent have proposed a new development for 2811 Girard. The plan, which fits within current zoning, was met with enthusiastic support from the neighborhood association. Scandal seems unlikely, but maybe the home improvement icon has a trail of emails up her sleeve.

 @NickHannula No we are calling out @lisabendermpls for not being honest & for secretly meeting w developers off the record #girard
— Nicole Curtis (@nicolecurtis) February 26, 2015

@NickHannula no why don’t you ask @lisabendermpls about her meetings off the record regarding #girard ?
— Nicole Curtis (@nicolecurtis) February 26, 2015

@WedgeLIVE I guess I don’t even know what the complaint is this time around. The three houses coming down/being moved?
— Dylan Thomas (@DthomasJournals) February 26, 2015

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The Desire for a More Expansive Historic District

Preserve our historic priorities.

Last September, Council Member Lisa Bender’s office held an informational meeting regarding a proposed Lowry Hill East historic district. It was a homeowners-only affair, intended for those whose properties would be included, though there were plenty of party crashers: eager homeowners from outside the proposed boundaries, a guy from Kingfield, and at least two renters.

I showed up late, right about the time it devolved into a sort of call and response routine; people were slapping each other on the back over their very, very historic properties (Hey Joe, I don’t see your house on this map, it’s pretty historic… Yeah and what about Bill, his beautiful home isn’t on here either). Our former Council Member was there to suggest that City Planner John Smoley take a historic drive-by on the 2400 block of Aldrich. It was an amazing scene (in 2017, this publication will be endorsing whichever Council candidate promises to hold the greatest number of wildly entertaining historic district info sessions).

Earlier this month, Bender officially nominated the Lowry Hill East Residential Historic District. This was followed late last week by an article in which former Council Member Tuthill says it would have been preferable to put the historic district in areas with many fewer historic homes: “I’m much, much more concerned about the protection of the housing stock north of 24th Street and south of 26th.”

In the same article, former Tuthill aide and current LHENA President Leslie Foreman describes the desire of some neighborhood residents to expand the historic district as far south as 28th Street. I can confirm the accuracy of this statement because the guy directly behind me at the September meeting was muttering “the whole damn Wedge” in response to Smoley’s question about the preferred composition of the historic district.

[As long as we have the recently departed Tuthill campaign weighing in, it would be nice to hear why they didn’t historicize and/or rezone the neighborhood during their term (has anyone been able to figure out what they were working on from 2010 to 2014?). All the talk over the last year gives the impression of a neighborhood on the brink; you’d think these guys never had a friend at City Hall.]

Some of the dissatisfaction with this proposal has to do with the fact that the included properties, while certainly the most deserving of historic status, are already zoned R2 (low density, two-family district). New development isn’t a threat in this area. For the anti-density folks, this historic designation won’t solve their problem; it just means a bunch of regulatory headaches for homeowners, without any of the desired downzoning-like side-effects.

The blocks contained within this historic district were rezoned to low-density in 1975; this is true of most of the neighborhood south of 24th Street. LHENA, which was formed in 1970 to advance the cause of downzoning, declared victory. The northern part of the neighborhood, however, remains an area of high density zoning, which explains the current obsession with the idea of a North Wedge Historic District (Save the apex from R6!). Rezoning the north Wedge is the final piece of unfinished business in a 45-year battle against apartment buildings (and their resident dealers, pimps, prostitutes, and motorcycle gangs).

November 1975.
Everything was so explicit back then.
R6 zoning (dark green) dominates the north Wedge. Kitty cats added for effect.

Aside from zoning-related geography, there’s a strategic reason for the anti-development crowd to be skeptical of this historic district: putting all your nicest old homes in one basket could mean losing the leverage to cram a bunch of undeserving properties into some future Super-Sized Wedge Historic District. That dynamic helps explain why a nearly identical historic district plan died in 2008 amid neighborhood concerns, reported in the Wedge newspaper, “that acceptance of this proposal could limit future possibilities for expansion.”

This is not to say the proposed district doesn’t have its share of fans. Council Member Bender has indicated the response from affected homeowners has been largely positive. And despite the desire of some residents for a far larger historic district, the LHENA Board put their symbolic weight behind the nomination last week. The organization has also formed a “historic” committee, which will no doubt have expansion on its agenda long into the future.

Related:

Check out my For NIMBYs series on Amazon.

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Bikers and Pedestrians are the New “Vulnerable Adults”

Last week, former Council Member Meg Tuthill pushed back against new development with an interesting theory:

Tuthill and her husband, Dennis, moved to the Wedge over 40 years ago, a time when older homes were being demolished and replaced by two-and-a-half story walkup apartment buildings. Now, she’s concerned redevelopment could make the neighborhood less bike and pedestrian friendly.*

This may just be a pandering attempt to round up some unwitting allies, in the vein of Anders Christensen’s pretend defense of “vulnerable adults.” But let’s take the argument at face value.

As a non-driver who walks to quite a few public meetings, my long-time neighbors tell me that traffic and parking in Lowry Hill East is a nightmare (and I believe them, because their calves appear dangerously atrophied from hours of sitting in traffic and waiting for a prime spot to open up). On the other hand, everyone can agree that it’s a great neighborhood for biking and walking. It’s the kind of place that tends to repel the car-centric, while attracting quite a few avid pedestrians and cyclists. It’s a major neighborhood selling point.

Contrary to Meg’s theory, this dynamic is good for safety. Studies show that drivers are “less likely to collide with a person walking and bicycling when there are more people walking or bicycling.” This is attributed to “behavior modification by motorists when they expect or experience people walking and bicycling.” As a result, I’m pretty enthusiastic about how my new neighbors will impact my personal well-being.

Sponsored Content: Let’s reinforce this positive dynamic by ditching parking minimums. The City should allow new apartment buildings in neighborhoods like ours to cater to residents who’d rather forego the expense of parking the car they don’t own. I hope Meg reconsiders her position on strict parking minimums when she understands the effect it will have on cyclists and pedestrians.

*Meg’s bike/ped advocacy reminded me of two things:
1. Nicole Curtis’s pre-election warning that candidates like Lisa Bender would lead to children “getting ran over because they are preaching prodensity and packing as many rental units in one square block as they can.”
2. A story I heard recently from a source close to the Minneapolis biking community. During the 2013 campaign, Meg bragged about a bike rack she installed at her old store on Hennepin Ave. She left out the part where it was installed for her children, and removed when they got older and no longer had use for it.