Get to know your neighborhood business owners By Matt Perry Who does not feel a little pride when a business owner greets you like they would their best friend? Like referring to public figures by their first name, we weave local businesses into our lives in such way they come to define our sense of place. It is personal when the menu changes or a product or service is no longer available. A shuttered favorite business causes us to feel everything is a bit off kilter. A new opening trumps weather conversation. As I have gotten to know these business owners, I’ve found they are an integral part of our lives in a way that has come to define our sense of place — the fabric of our community. Here are a few of their stories. Full Article

Parks update // Park Board adding second fishing dock to Lake Calhoun By Nick Halter Shore anglers at Lake Calhoun will soon have a second dock to fish from. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board plans to have a new dock installed on the northwest corner of the lake by mid-July. According to the Park Board, the new dock will be located near where Dean Parkway meets the lake.  The new dock will be built similar to the existing dock at Calhoun’s southeast corner. According to a Park Board press release, the dock’s location will give anglers several depths that will allow them to catch muskie, northern pike, largemouth bass, walleye and panfish.  The Park Board is also installing a new fishing dock at Lake Hiawatha that will replace an Full Article

Green digest // New Park Board rules target invasive species By Dylan Thomas The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board will require inspections of every boat entering a city lake from a public boat launch starting July 13 in an effort to prevent the spread of invasive plant and animal species. Boaters will be able to enter city lakes from public launches only at times when Park Board or Department of Natural Resources inspectors are present. At least initially, those hours are 6 a.m.–10 a.m. and 5 p.m.–9 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 6 a.m.–9 p.m. Friday to Sunday. The public boat launches on lakes Calhoun, Harriet and Nokomis will be chained-off at times when inspectors are not present. The Park Board adopted the rules at an emergency meeting in June. Dozens of Full Article

Neighborhood notebook Fundraiser for Joyce Uptown Food Shelf All donations made in July to the Joyce Uptown Food Shelf, 3041 Fremont Ave. S., will be matched by Hunger Solutions of Minnesota, a statewide hunger relief organization. For more information on Joyce Uptown Food Shelf, go to joycefoodshelf.org.  Linden Hills Small Area Plan update The Linden Hills Neighborhood Council plans to announce the names of the recommended Small Area Plan (SAP) Steering Committee at a meeting July 17. Residents are encouraged to attend to give feedback on the recommendation. The meeting will be at the Linden Hills park building, 43rd & Upton, 7–9 p.m. Full Article

More art for Eat Street By Dylan Thomas This spring’s Whittier Artists in Storefronts project was enough of a success that a sequel is already in the works. Project coordinator and participating artist Joan Vorderbruggen announced a second run beginning July 21 that will feature new artists and more opportunities for community involvement. Just like the first time around, the exhibition will occupy vacant and underused storefronts and facades in and around Nicollet Avenue in Whittier, also known as Eat Street. Vorderbruggen’s plans to get more neighborhood residents and visitors involved in the project include hosting a community “yarn-bombing” event during the exhibition. Community members also will be invited to help create a mural with mosaic Full Article

Crime reports By Patrick Roche 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 HARRIET June 19, 11:30 a.m. Bryant & 38th An internal audit of a nursing home will be performed after a woman, 90, fell victim to a credit card thief, a police report said. The woman’s daughter was visiting her mother when the bank informed her that her mother’s credit card had been used at a Walmart in Brooklyn Park. The 90-year-old woman has not left the home since checking-in in late May. The card Full Article

Civic beat // Interchange project approved By Nick Halter Construction is expected to begin in mid-July on a $79.2 million project to completely renovate the north side of Target Field, where roughly 8,000 fans catch light rail trains.  On June 26, the Hennepin County Board, on a 5–1 vote, approved the project, picked Knutson Construction as the contractor and made about $22 million in county money available.  Hennepin County Project Manager Ed Hunter said the plan is for a two-year construction that would finish before the start of the 2014 Twins season as well as before the addition of Central Corridor Light Rail to the hub.  Between the Hiawatha light rail line and the North Star commuter line, about 250 trains leave or arrive the Full Article

City hall update // Council kills Trader Joe’s proposal By Nick Halter Plans for a Trader Joe’s in the Lyn-Lake area are likely dead after the Minneapolis City Council rejected a developer’s rezoning request needed to build the grocery store.  Following a unanimous city panel rejection on June 21, the family who owns the properties at 27th & Lyndale said the project probably was dead.   “Most likely it is dead,” said Jeff Minea, who represents the family owning the parcels slated for the project. “There is very little that we anticipate that could happen differently. Part of it is there are complications with the people next door at Art Materials. We were going to buy their property and they can’t wait around forever.” Full Article

Biz buzz // Southwest gets a salt cave By By Southwest Journal staff TANGLETOWN — The state’s first therapeutic salt cave is opening at 48th & Nicollet mid-July.  The Salt Cave at 4811 Nicollet Ave. S. will use hand-mined Himalayan salt to help people with allergies, asthma and other respiratory conditions. It was designed by Margaret Smiechowski and built by Scott Wertkin who will run it with his wife Jenni Dorfsman, according to a news release. The couple got interested in salt caves when they visited one in Florida with their 12-year-old son who has asthma. “My goal in opening The Salt Cave is to improve the quality of life for people who are suffering from asthma, allergies, cystic fibrosis and other problems,” Dorfsman Full Article

Ackerberg group scoping out Sunrise Cyclery property By Maggie Kane CARAG — New retail and restaurant space could replace Sunrise Cyclery at the corner of Lake Street and Bryant Avenue. Local developer the Ackerberg Group presented plans to renovate the building that houses the used bicycle shop and an adjacent, unoccupied building to the CARAG neighborhood in June. The project, which is in its conceptual stages, will include the addition of new windows, improvements to the façade and a new roof, said Joanna Hicks, Ackerberg’s director of development. CARAG Executive Coordinator Scott Engel said the two buildings were “in relatively tough shape.” The Ackerberg Group and Sunrise Cyclery talked June 18 for the first time about the plans. Full Article

Planning as art, art as planning By Dylan Thomas THE WEDGE — As the city’s public arts administrator, Mary Altman spends a lot of her time working with both artists and city planners and, from her perspective, the two groups share much in common. Like art, planning can be as much about the process as the final product, Altman said. And artists often create work in response to what’s happening in their communities, something that’s always true of a city planner’s work. So, Altman’s prepared for creative sparks to fly later this year when four artists are “embedded” in the city’s community planning department, a yearlong project made possible by a $325,000 ArtPlace grant awarded to Intermedia Arts in June. Full Article

An authentic master By Dylan Thomas WHITTIER — At least since the Gilded Age, the wealthiest American art collectors have gobbled up the works of Rembrandt, sating a hunger for prestige with masterworks by one of Europe’s undisputed greats. That’s part of the story told by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ “Rembrandt in America,” now on the third and final leg of a yearlong tour. The exhibition includes 30 paintings by the 17th-century Dutch master, the largest-ever assemblage of the artist’s paintings in this country. While most are now part of museum collections, many first passed through private hands, including the likes of Pennsylvania steel magnate Charles M. Schwab, the German-American railroad baron Otto Kahn, Full Article

More apartments proposed near Midtown Greenway By Nick Halter WEST CALHOUN — A proposal to add a six-level apartment building to the Calhoun Greenway complex on the west side of Lake Calhoun gained approval from the Minneapolis Planning Commission on June 25, but not before the development team took barbs from the commission over landscaping and what some call an unattractive design. That Calhoun Greenway complex is tucked into a triangle of land in between the Midtown Greenway, Minikahda Golf Course and Whole Foods. The current complex is four stories tall with 151 units. The proposed addition, from developer Bigos, would add a six-floor building along the Midtown Greenway that would house another 185 units. The project has earned praise because it’s just feet from the Midtown Full Article

Small House, Big Struggle By Nick Halter LINDEN HILLS — Renalie Bailey lives in a small world. If her go-kart-sized Suzuki Swift isn’t evidence enough, look at the Linden Hills house it’s parked in front of. At 413 square feet, it’s one of the smallest houses in the city of Minneapolis.  The 1920 home appears to be smaller than the garages next to it. Bailey keeps her fresh foods in a college dorm room-sized fridge and her frozen goods in a small chest in the basement, which is considered by architectural terms to be a crawl space. While the 5-foot-4 fashion designer has done a good job keeping things in her life small, she’s suffering from a big headache these days brought on by navigating a difficult city Full Article

A new era for the American Swedish Institute By Sarah McKenzie A single tree stands in the center of the courtyard next to the new wing of the American Swedish Institute.  It’s known as a “Vårdträd” in Swedish — a special guardian tree. As part of Scandinavian tradition, the trees are often placed in the center of a yard on a farm, paying tribute to the family’s ancestors.  The tree is visible from the historic mansion that has been home to the American Swedish Institute since 1929 and its new addition — the Carl and Leslie Nelson Cultural Center. The institute on Park Avenue just south of downtown had a grand opening celebration June 30 for the new 34,000-square-foot addition.  “We are thrilled to Full Article

Wild city // Happy Louie’s Day By Mary Jean Port On the Fourth of July each year my husband and I throw a party. We grill brats and eat outdoors, but otherwise pay little mind to Independence Day traditions. Instead we celebrate Louis Armstrong’s birthday.  Part of the fun is fielding the question that always comes up: “Is the Fourth of July really his birthday?” The answer is, “No, it’s not.” But he always said it was, and that is good enough for us. My husband is a jazz and blues aficionado, so we come by our party theme honestly. I’m more of a folkie, but I happily tag along. This will be the 17th time he and I have thrown this party together. He and his ex started it, and for some reason it didn’t bother me to step in and Full Article

Linden Hills Farmers Market: Helping a village heal a village By Steven Brown A new farmers market opened in Linden Hills recently. It’s been a rousing success, offering a mix of familiar vendors along with newbies making their first foray into selling directly to the public. More than 1,400 people have turned out each Sunday to enjoy the food, the artisan goods and the community. So, great — a happy business story. But to fully appreciate this success, it helps to know the story behind the story. Let me tell you why I believe this farmers market is so important to Linden Hills. In the fall of 2010, the Linden Hills Co-op decamped from its location in “downtown” Linden Hills for the greener pastures of nearby Sunnyside Avenue, just half a block off the busy arterial France Full Article

County fairs showcase best of Minnesota By Linda Koutsky My friend Roz loves the State Fair so much that she actually does warm-up exercises to be ready for it. Mostly she likes drawing animals so that means getting her art supplies gathered, pencils sharpened, and making sure her fanny pack and portable stool are in working order. And it doesn’t hurt to have a corn dog or cheese curds somewhere in advance. So in the spirit of friendship I decided to help her “train” this summer by hitting several regional county fairs.   Minnesotans love their fairs. We have 87 counties and 95 county fairs! Every county has a fair and a few have more than one. It’s the place where we show off our gardening and craft skills, hoot and holler at grandstand shows, size up animals, and spin around and try Full Article

Bicycling is great for transportation, not just recreation By Hilary Reeves When you hear the word “bicycling,” do you think of a weekend ride around the lakes or about grabbing your bike to go meet friends for breakfast or to make a run for a few things at the store?  An increasing number of local residents are using their bikes for getting around, aka, transportation, but for some, it’s still a leap to think of the bike you ride on weekends as the bike you could ride more often: to work, running errands or simply to get from point A to B. Around the nation, there are more people using their bikes to commute. A 2011 survey of 55 major U.S. cities found that on average, the number of regular bicycle commuters increased by 70 percent between 2000 and 2009, according to The Atlantic Full Article

Gardening by text By Pamela Hill Nettleton I live in Whittier, but I also have a gig that puts me in Milwaukee during key moments of the growing season. This matters because I have a garden that my children laughingly refer to as “Versailles.” It is not Versailles, which is orderly, well-kept and at least 799 hectares larger than my Minneapolis corner lot. In its youth, Versailles was likely tended by hordes of proletariats who, after ceaselessly weeding 200,000 flowers in unrelenting sun, might be forgiven for deadheading not only the roses but the royals. These days, Versailles requires a full-time staff of master gardeners, landscapers and guys who snip errant bits of yew with manicure scissors while muttering “Mon Dieu!” at the nerve of evergreens that dare to violate Full Article

Children Crossing By Jim Walsh Bryant Avenue in Minneapolis was named for William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), the romantic poet, journalist, editor, lawyer and homeopath quoted by Martin Luther King Jr. in an early civil rights speech (“Truth crushed to earth will rise again”), and whose poem, “The Yellow Violet,” reminds, So they, who climb to wealth, forget The friends in darker fortunes tired I copied them — but I regret That I should ape the ways of pride Saturday afternoon, the 4500 block of South Bryant was in full reverie, with cyclists and cars comically negotiating the street’s new bike Full Article