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Dylan Thomas
Paul Stepnes, second from left, claimed Minneapolis police and a local reporter ruined his contest to give away an Irving Avenue house. Stepnes stood with attorney Jill Clark, center, and contestants who joined him in a lawsuit.
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Dream House owner sues police, WCCO
UPDATED October 1, 2008, 4:06pm
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By Dylan Thomas
Paul Stepnes seeks damages for disrupted contest
EAST ISLES — A new chapter was written Tuesday in the ongoing saga of 2857 Irving Ave. S., also known as the Dream House. Local builder Paul Stepnes filed a complaint in federal court seeking at least $75,000 in damages stemming from his May 28 arrest and the disruption of a contest that aimed to award the $1.8 million home to whoever could guess the number of nuts, bolts and other fasteners in a box. The two Minneapolis police officers that arrested Stepnes are listed as defendants, along with a WCCO television reporter who did a story on the contest. The complaint alleges Sgts. Peter Ritschel and Janet Moore violated Stepnes’ rights during the arrest, and that a story by reporter Esme Murphy hurt his reputation. It also alleges that their actions preventedStepnes from going forward with the contest, even a revived version of The Big Dream House Giveaway begun in July. At the time of Stepnes’ arrest, police spokesman Sgt. William Palmer said the contest amounted to an unlicensed raffle, a type of illegal gambling. Stepnes was never charged.
Participants in the original contest paid $20 to guess the contents of the box. The winner was to claim either the house or a cash prize of up to $1 million.
There were also weekly drawings for prizes. No entry fee was required to participate in the drawings, Stepnes has said. Stepnes also said he spoke with the state’s top gambling official prior to the launch of the contest. He was told the contest was not gambling because guessing the contents of the box involved skill, not chance.
In the complaint, attorney Jill Clark acknowledged Stepnes came up with the Dream House Giveaway only after the house he had built went into foreclosure. Stepnes passed on a $1.8 million offer before the housing market took a turn for the worse. The complaint states Stepnes hoped to sell enough tickets in the contest to pay off the mortgage and liens on the house. He also took some steps toward setting up a foundation that would distribute some contest profits to charity. According to the complaint, the original contest was ended after police seized evidence from the Dream House, disturbing the contents of the original box of fasteners.
Stepnes had a new box and a new contest going in July when WCCO aired its report on the Dream House Giveaway. The complaint alleges the report unfairly cast Stepnes in a negative light, making it impossible to carry on the second contest. The report appeared to have been removed from the WCCO website. Five contestants joined Stepnes in the lawsuit, including Pete and Jan Girard of Kingfield, Ray Neset and David Holland of Lyndale and Terry Yzaguirre, a local blogger who has written about the case online.
Pete Girard said he and his wife toured the house on the Fourth of July. They entered the contest that day with dreams of converting the house to a bed and breakfast if they won.
Police actions to end the contest seemed like “an abuse of power,” he said. That phrase was echoed by Neset, who gathered at 2857 Irving Ave. S. with the Girards, Yzaguirre, Stepnes and Clark on the morning the complaint was filed.
Clark said $75,000 was a “starting point” for calculating damages, and noted a similar house-giveaway contest in California brought in $5 million.
Both Palmer and WCCO spokeswoman Kiki Rosatti declined to comment on the lawsuit. The website for the contest (www.2857irving.com) was still up on Wednesday, but much of the site appeared to be deactivated. A message explained the contest had ended and assured contestants: “Your money will be refunded, for most of you, in the manner in which you paid.”
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East Isles neighborhood
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Newest development proposal: A courtyard with pool and movie screen in the heart of the Uptown nightlife scene
UPDATED August 31, 2010, 11:04am
By Nick Halter
A new development proposal in Uptown calls for the construction of a three-level restaurant with a rooftop patio, plus a private, ground-level courtyard with a pool and movie screen in the heart of the Uptown nightlife scene. The courtyard would go between Cowboy Slim’s and the new restaurant, which would be built directly across from the Lagoon Cinema on Lagoon Avenue, according to a plan submitted to the city of Minneapolis. The owner of the site is Uptown Gassen LLC, which is owned by Clark Gassen. Gassen is proposing a 3,000 square-foot, single-level retail building that would go along Girard Avenue between Lake Street and Lagoon. Underneath the proposed development would be a 125-car parking ramp. The restaurant’s three
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Harriet concession contract nears approval
UPDATED August 30, 2010, 1:00pm
By Jake Weyer
2 Comments
The board will decide this month whether to approve local restaurateur Kim Bartmann’s concept, Bread & Pickle.
After more than a year of community review and a selection process that narrowed a field of nearly a dozen applicants, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is scheduled to vote this month on a new Lake Harriet concession contract.
Staff recommended local restaurateur Kim Bartmann’s concept, Bread & Pickle, based on the suggestion of a community group that reviewed and interviewed the applicants. That group was made up of former members of a Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) the Park Board assembled last year after public outcry over a proposed concession change that would have required a new building. The CAC examined concession opportunities and drafted recommendations used to review applicants.
“The CAC was really a lengthy, drawn-out, long process,” said Park Board General Manager Don Siggelkow. “But it yielded the information and the understanding that I think brought this conclusion the way it needed to happen.”
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Urban fashion store and art gallery opens on Hennepin
UPDATED August 26, 2010, 10:14am
By Nick Halter
With rare Michael Jordan sneakers dating back to 1985, local art work, a DJ table and pinewood floors, Moh Habib on Aug. 21 unveiled Studiiyo 23, an urban fashion store and art gallery at 2319 Hennepin Ave. Everything about Studiiyo 23, from the name to the design to the merchandise, is a reflection of Habib, a 34-year-old world traveler who spent his high school and college years in Minnesota. “In those travels — I’ve been to 30 countries and 169 cities so far — I picked up the best of what I like from all those spots, and what I did was try to merge everything I love in life into one space,” he said. Habib has spent the last eight years working in Japan and Switzerland, first for Northwest Airlines and later as a
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Bryant Lake Bowl operator plans to buy Casey’s Bar and Grill
UPDATED August 25, 2010, 2:12pm
By Nick Halter
Kim Bartmann, who runs popular Lake Street establishments Bryant Lake Bowl and Barbette, said she has a purchase agreement for Casey’s Bar and Grill, 3510 Nicollet Ave. Bartmann wouldn’t offer specifics on what she will do with the space. She is asking to present to the Kingfield and Lyndale neighborhood groups soon to show them her plans. She said the renovation will last a couple weeks and said work will be done on the kitchen and dining area. Casey’s has a very limited food menu. “We’re a very food-focused company, so I think that will be a major change,” she said. Bartmann said Casey’s current owner has taken good care of the place and kept it clean. “It has a lot of potential,&rdq
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Neighborhood notebook
By Dylan Thomas, Nick Halter and Sarah McKenzie
THE WEDGELHENA hires new newspaper editorLowry Hill East Neighborhood Association hired a new editor for its monthly newspaper, The Wedge. Wedge resident Quentin Skinner took over with the July issues of The Wedge. Best known as the theater critic for City Pages, Skinner also has written two novels set in the Wedge, where he has lived for 15 years, according to an announcement posted Aug. 2 on thewedge.org. ——— WHITTIER Rex Hardware demolishedWrecking crews in early August demolished the former Rex Hardware building at 2601 Lyndale Ave. S. The demolition came 11 weeks after the Minneapolis City Council overturned a Heritage
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Parks update // Lake Harriet health
By jake weyer
Park Board applies for grant to study Lake Harriet healthThe Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board has decided it’s time for Lake Harriet to get a checkup. The board frequently receives complaints about the lake’s smells and surface algae and is hoping to perform a diagnostic study — funded by a $55,000 matching grant from the state — to see just how healthy the popular body of water is. “These grants are specifically being put out to prevent lakes from being designated as impaired lakes,” said the board’s Environmental and Field Services Director Debra Lynn Pilger. Pilger presented the details of the “clean water partnership grant” to the board at its Aug. 4 meeting. A
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Green digest // More mini markets
By Dylan Thomas
Farmers market season is at its late-summer peak, and more neighborhoods this year have easy access to fresh tomatoes and sweet corn thanks to an expansion of mini farmers markets sites. The number of mini farmers markets located mainly in low-income neighborhoods has tripled between 2008 and 2010, reported the Whittier-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), which established the market program in collaboration with the city. The Walker Place Farmers Market in the East Harriet neighborhood near a senior housing facility was one of the mini farmers markets to debut this summer. The Stevens Square Farmers Market, Southwest’s only other mini farmers market site, opened in 2008. The mini farmers markets are limited to five or fewer
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Wine may flow, after all
By Dylan Thomas
Uptown wine tasting was in question this springStart working on your swirl, sniff and slurp technique: The annual wine tasting sponsored by Hennepin Lake Liquors may go on this year, after all. This spring it appeared the wine tasting, an important fundraiser for Uptown-area neighborhoods, might not return for its 28th year. In mid-August, though, event organizer Pat Fleetham said he was nearly ready to announce a fall wine tasting. Fleetham said he was “tentatively proposing” a date in October for the tasting but still needed to finalize agreements with event sponsors before he could announce a time and location. The event in recent years had been held in early June. In March, though, Fleetham wrote in an email to
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Biz buzz // New improv theater
By Nick Halter
New Lyn-Lake improv theater will focus on long-formA new improv theater is coming to Lyn-Lake this fall, leasing the space formerly held by Lava Lounge clothing store at 3037 Lyndale Ave. Huge Improve Theater, the nonprofit company that is leasing the space, plans to have a roughly 100-seat theater open in late October and is pursuing a beer and wine license from the city. While Minneapolis already has improv theaters like Comedy Sportz and Brave New Workshop, HUGE Executive Director Butch Roy said the Lyn-Lake theater will be dedicated to a unique form of improv — long-form. No theater in the Twin Cities is devoted to the form. Most know improv in its short form through the “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” TV
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Schools notebook // Southwest steady on AYP
By Dylan Thomas
Six Minneapolis Public Schools in Southwest met goals for student proficiency in reading and math this year, down from eight schools in 2009. The district as a whole saw slightly fewer schools making AYP, or Adequate Yearly Progress, toward student achievement goals. About 14 percent of district schools met benchmarks on state standardized tests, down from nearly 19 percent in 2009. The slide means more district schools will face escalating sanctions under the federal No Child Left Behind law, although many in education say the law sets an unachievable goal. Approved by Congress in 2001, No Child Left Behind set a goal of 100 percent proficiency on math and reading assessments by 2014. But the ever-rising benchmarks mean more schools every year are
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Park Board organizing LRT advisory group
By jake weyer
Adding another facet to the ongoing Southwest light rail discussion, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board voted last month to organize a citizens advisory committee (CAC) to mitigate the impact of the route on parkland. Park Board commissioners, City Council members, neighborhood associations, Mayor R.T. Rybak and County Commissioner Gail Dorfman will appoint the 17-member CAC. The group will consider historical, cultural, visual, social, and safety issues associated with the 14-mile Southwest Light Rail Transit line (LRT). The route will start Downtown, travel along the Kenilworth trail between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles, then stretch through St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Minnetonka, ending in Eden Prairie. Along the way, it will intersect or run
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