Minneapolis residents who have already ordered a tree from the city can pick them up from 7 a.m.–3 p.m. Saturday, May 10 at the former Franklin Middle School East, 1501 Aldrich Ave. N.

Sunday and Monday pickup times are also available.

As part of a citywide effort, 1,000 trees have been provided at low cost to Minneapolitans seeking plant new seeds in their neighborhoods.

The city already boasts more than 1 million trees.  

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board as well as nonprofit Tree Trust facilitate the tree program.

The Park Board has planted nearly 17,000 new trees on public land in the city since 2003, according to a city news release. Now in its third year, the trees program, has provided more
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In a move fitting with the Twin Cities’ focus on taking a “green” direction, mayors R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman at a news conference today unveiled an initiative to get people around without their cars during the Republican National Convention.

Developed and sponsored by health organization Humana, the program — called “Freewheelin” — will bring 1,000 bicycles to the cities for anyone to use for free.

Solar-powered kiosks will be stationed throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul during the convention, which will be Sept. 1-4. People will be able to take bikes from these kiosks, travel anywhere and drop them off when they’re done. The only requirements will be online registration and a credit card number — not to be
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Nearly 40 artists competed to design the city’s new public drinking fountains, and 10 have now been chosen for the task.

The exact locations are not yet determined, but city officials hope to install new fountains on Lake Street and in the Uptown area.

Artists were commissioned to design fountains that celebrate the story of water and Minneapolis.

Peter Morales, a stone sculptor based in Minneapolis, designed his fountain to look like a splash of water coming out of the ground. He expects to use smoky blue-colored stone that was quarried in Norway.

Artist Mayumi Amada designed a fountain with a long “stem,” a flower-shaped water jet, and flower imprints in a stainless steel basin.

And Sculptor Douglas Freeman created a design based
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The exit ramp from westbound 62 to Lyndale Avenue will close at 6 a.m. Monday to continue bridge work as part of the Crosstown Reconstruction.

The ramp is scheduled to reopen in the fall of 2009.

All other freeway ramps at Lyndale Avenue are closed, as well, according to a MnDOT release. Detours are posted.

For more information on the Crosstown project, go to Full Article

An annual report addressing city's leaders effort to make Minneapolis a more livable and sustainable city was presented to a City Council committee on Monday.

“Living Well,” the city’s 2008 sustainability report, presented to the City Council’s Health, Energy, and the Environment Committee, is the city’s third annual report addressing 24 “sustainability indicators,” including air quality, solar power and airport noise, among other things. The report tracks targets, trends, and recent activities.

Highlights from the report include a 27 percent decline in violent crime with juvenile suspects, an increase in number of block clubs (now totaling 1,801) and $5.72 million in grants to clean up brownfields.

The report called on all
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Kenwood and Jefferson students to plant trees

KENWOOD — When the city celebrates Arbor Day on Friday, May 9, students from two Southwest schools will be there to help.

Students from both Kenwood Community School and Jefferson Community School will participate in the planting of 125 trees on the north end of Lake of the Isles. The trees commemorate the 125th anniversary of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.

The Park Board estimated over 900 students and staff members would be on hand for the event. Students will perform in an 11:30 a.m. public ceremony near the intersection of East Lake of the Isles Parkway and West Franklin Avenue.

Two Princeton elms will be planted during the ceremony, one a memorial to former
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Como-Harriet streetcar celebrates 100 years on the rails

Minnesota Streetcar Museum’s streetcar number 1300 effortlessly lurched its 23-ton frame forward; its steel wheels clanking a familiar rhythm down the one mile of track between Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun.

City’s busiest clinic relocating three blocks north

WHITTIER — Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) plans to hopscotch over the Lake Street Kmart and the Midtown Greenway, moving its busy West Lake Street clinic three blocks north to Eat Street.

In late April, HCMC was still negotiating the purchase of nearly three and a half acres in Whittier, but HCMC Vice President Mike Harristhal said he was confident the sale of the former GFI America, Inc. meatpacking plant site would go through.

Harristhal said construction of a new primary care clinic would begin by fall, with the opening tentatively scheduled for fall 2009. The $30 million project would more than double the size of the current Family Medical Center, to 60,000 square feet from a
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Editor’s note: Alleged crimes against persons (assault, rape, murder, etc.) will feature the + symbol. Note, this compilation of crime reports provides highlights of area criminal activity. It’s not intended to be a comprehensive overview of Southwest crime.

East Isles

April 18, 12:01–8 a.m., 1000 block of W. Franklin Ave.

Unknown suspect(s) burglarized the apartment of a 25-year-old woman and a 20-year-old woman. No forced entry was found, but multiple items were missing from inside the residence. Some of the victims’ property was later recovered by another person and inventoried, along with pictures of the crime scene.

Kenwood

April 20, 1–4 a.m., 2500 block
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A look at how bridge maintenance and inspections compare at city, county and state levels

It’s not something anyone wants to dwell on, especially bridge engineers. The collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge last August apparently hasn’t meant sweeping changes in the way bridges are inspected in Minneapolis. However, state-owned, fracture-critical bridges must now be inspected annually. With the arrival of nicer weather, inspection crews may become more visible around the city’s 650 bridges. Every inspector goes
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Norm Coleman is about as laid back as a Republican can get. Maybe that is what years as a Democrat will do to you.

Republican, Democrat, independent Republican, or any way you pin him, Coleman, does not have a lot of free time.

“Like [Al] Franken said, ‘I don’t do a lot of hanging out,’” Coleman said referencing an earlier interview with the Senate hopeful in the Southwest Journal. “But that’s the price you pay.”

The first-term, Republican senator is usually in Washington, D.C. during the workweek, putting in 20-hour days. He then opts to hop a late Friday afternoon commercial flight back home to St
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Read more stories about: Election 2008

The Lake Street and Excelsior Boulevard condo project is in foreclosure; sale closings and construction have been delayed.
 

Loop Calhoun, a 122-unit condominium project at 3104 W. Lake St., is in foreclosure and has been entangled for months in a dispute involving the developer, the contractor and the lending bank.

Developer Mathwig Development defaulted on its roughly $32 million loan in early March, nearly a year after firing general contractor Dew Corporation, of St. Paul, which in turn imposed an $8.6 million mechanics’ lien on the property in June for completed work. Wary of shaky financing, Dew halted construction on the project before getting the boot, and little has happened to the development since.

CARAG
SUPER SALE: The CARAG Super Sale, the neighborhood’s annual garage sale, is scheduled for May 17 from 8 a.m.–4 p.m. The deadline for registration is May 14. For more information or to register, visit www.carag.org or call 823-2520.

KINGFIELD
BOARD ELECTIONS: New Kingfield Neighborhood Association (KFNA) board members were elected at the organization’s annual meeting April 21, including Marie Wolf, Chris DeParde, Jeff Shaw, David Buchanan, David Potosky, Dave Sadoris and Mark Brandow. Arthur Knowles, Niki Stavrou, Mary Hunter and Ben Kristensen are no longer on the board.

GARAGE SALE: Kingfield’s neighborhood garage sale was schedule for May 3 from 9 a.m.–3 p.m. Registration for reside
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LYNNHURST — Fixing up the closed pedestrian bridge over Minnehaha Creek has been put on the fast track.

At a May 8 neighborhood meeting, City Council Member Betsy Hodges (13th Ward) brought with her the news that money had been found for a feasibility study, the first step in repairing the bridge.

The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board had closed the 230-foot, 78-year-old structure by Bryant Ave. in early April after neighborhood residents raised concerns about its stability. At an April 29 public information meeting, members of the city’s bridge department told about 50 neighborhood residents that repairing the structure would cost at least $200,000. It would be cheaper to simply take down the bridge: $20,000.

Event kicks-off Bike Walk Week

Mayor R.T. Rybak pedaled up to the Minneapolis Central Library plaza at about 8:15 a.m. Monday to win the Great Commuter Challenge, a kick off event to Twin Cities Bike Walk Week.

The race from St. Paul to Minneapolis pitted Rybak on his bicycle against Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter, who walked and rode public transit, and Star Tribune reporter Jim Foti, who drove. Carter finished second, followed by Foti.

“I had so much fun this morning I may never drive to work again, which is a good thing because I may never be able to drive to work again,” Rybak joked, referencing the driver’s license suspension for an unpaid speeding ticket that got him in mildly hot water last week.

Instant runoff voting

The City Council gave the go ahead April 18 to instant runoff voting (IRV) in all city elections. It is unclear when the process will first be used, however, because specialized equipment will be needed.

The next city election is 2009. However, it is not clear whether the equipment, extensive certification process will be shored up in time for the next election.

The complex ranked choice, or IRV process, works somewhat like this:

Voters rank their top three candidates. Ballots are counted. Those for whom it is mathematically impossible to win are eliminated. Once out of contention, their ranking is the added to the next most popular candidate until one candidate receives a majority.

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When my son was 4, he used to go “consploring” and have “inventures.” Made exploring and having adventures all the more interesting-sounding. As I recall (the kid’s much taller than I, now), most everything became an inventure: grocery shopping, a trip to the dry cleaners, a stroll to the mailbox. The difference between an inventure and just running an errand was all in one’s consplorable attitude. You had to be constantly on the lookout for new discoveries. They’re there, all right — if you’re willing to look for them.

I’ve been living in Whittier now for a dozen years, and my paths have
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Don’t tell a soul, but I just got done practicing Miley Cyrus’s “To See You Again,” a terrific love-lust-lost song I want to learn for the Hoot tonight. In part, I want to sing it so I can continue in my ongoing quest to embarrass my kids at every possible turn, because the way I see it, being embarrassing is a father’s most basic job in the teen and preteen years. So they may not hear it now, running out of the room as they may do and continue to do whenever I open my mouth, but I hope someday they’ll listen to me on this one.

Brad Zellar’s magnificent book, “Suburban World: The Norling Photos,” and its attendant exhibit at the Minnesota Historical Society got me fired up about Minneapolis, the city I grew up in.
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Click here for an audio slideshow about this story.

Notes from an ‘ambassador of fashionable biking’

As flattering as spandex bodysuits can be on the right curves, I can’t say my closet has anything of the sort.

Besides my messenger bag, I don’t own customized clothing for biking, mostly because I’m only a part-time rider. While pedaling around the lakes or crossing neighborhoods, I’m likely to don whatever it is I’d also wear while walking, skateboarding or driving. Of course, certain parts of my wardro
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Uptown salon owner writes beauty manual for women over 45

Christopher Hopkins spent his childhood styling the hair of his sister’s Barbie dolls.

Now, the 44-year-old Bryn Mawr resident is a nationally recognized makeover expert and the owner of reVamp! salonspa, located at 2910 Hennepin Ave. S.

In Hopkins’ 20 years of makeover experience, he has styled KSTP-TV’s on-air talent, managed his own Twin Cities salons, worked with high-profile names and made appearances on national television.

Hopkins recently released his new book “Staging Your Comeback: A Complete Beauty Revival for Women over 45.” The book aims to help middle-aged women who may have lost touch with their good looks recapture their own sense of b
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Richard Rock and Abinadi Meza interpret the MIA

WHITTIER — The Doryphoros, an idealized male figure posed in the classic, relaxed contrapposto, is one artwork nearly everyone who ever set foot inside the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) will remember.

The 2,000-year-old Greek statue stands alone in the second-floor rotunda and is the first thing visitors see after climbing the steps to the museum’s 24th Street entrance. Ancient, weathered, cracked and broken, the marble figure is still imposing, still dynamic, as if it’s ready to step right off its pedestal.

Both painter Richard Rock and audio-visual artist Abinadi Meza were drawn to the Doryphoros in their explorations of the MIA. Their dual exhibition offers very differe
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Maybe you know the feeling: You walk into a Chinese restaurant and open the menu. If it’s rich with favorites from the homeland — rather than the bastardized, “let’s not scare off the locals” cream cheese wontons and such — what do you order? You make a stab, but somehow, the dishes flowing to nearby tables of Asian families look a lot more enticing than the chicken stir-fry warming your plate.

From its spot on Eat Street, back before that stretch of Nicollet became a trendy dining destination, Rainbow Café has been serving dishes that native-born Chinese crave. But for those of us who cannot boast palates formed across the ocean, the battle of winnowing the options is enough to bring on post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Sly Peoples puts his pants on one leg at a time like everyone else. But he picks out his shoes first.

If shoes were ice cream, Sly Peoples’ Uptown boutique would be flavor central — the place to go for something different, something that would leave you with a bright tongue and some serious brain freeze.

Peoples, 28, often uses an ice cream analogy to describe how his Calhoun Square store, Status, came on to the Minneapolis sneaker scene.

“A lot of stores were just giving people chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, not wanting to take a chance on Rocky Road or something else like that,” Peoples said.