The Park Board voted last night to restore its relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department. Susan Du does a good job of covering the nuances of the issue here, but the short version is that this change would allow the police, the board, and the Park Police to collaborate on more incidents and events like they did before the Board voted to change the relationship in June 2020 (though there has been a fair amount of collaboration happening as is).The vote from the administration committee last night 4-1 in favor of the change, and it will still have to go in front of the full board for approval.
An exciting new project is coming to The Mall between Bde Maka Ska and Hennepin Ave S. First, a section of Humboldt Avenue S and The Mall will get new sewer systems, which are intended to reduce flooding on Humboldt. Then, a chunk of The Mall will be converted into a woonerf, which is the Dutch way to say "living street." The area will be paved in bricks. No word yet if they will be yellow. Here's some background on woonerfs, which very simply are roads that are shared by walkers, bikers, and drivers.
Have you tried Jabá Noodles yet? They make Taiwanese cold noodles and beef noodle soup out of their home base at 5750 Lyndale Ave S. in the Windom neighborhood.They also host a series of pop-ups, including Wooden Ship last weekend and Arbeiter Brewing this weekend. They're also available at Lowry Hill Meats. Here's a bit more about the team behind the noodles, and a heartwarming story about Jennifer Shaffer, who moved to Minneapolis from Taiwan to mentor and teach her son how it's done.
LINK ROUNDUP
Good luck to the Southwest Robotics team at the 2022 World Championship in Houston this weekend. If you want to support them, check out this page. (Southwest Robotics)
Afropunk Festival Coming to Minneapolis this June. Tickets went on sale this morning at 8 a.m. (Afropunk)
Sooki and Mimi is ditching its prix fixe menu for an ala carte (aka "normal") menu on May 1. (Pioneer Press)
Cafe Meow is hiring a purrista. (Cafe Meow)
MPS selected eight community organizations to provide programming for students over the summer. They'll be announcing another round of these soon. (Fox9)
The first-ever girls baseball tournament in Minnesota is coming to the state in June. (KSTP)
After an Open Streets organizing campaign, they will be getting $20,000 of in-kind support from the city. They had requested $100,000 in direct funding. (Open Streets)
Hennepin County allocated $5 million on Tuesday to convert two hotels into permanent affordable housing. It’s anticipated that the new housing will open in late 2022 or early 2023. The units will be affordable to households earning under 30% area median income. This is part of the county’s larger $46 million affordable housing investment to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. (Hennepin County)
COMMUNITY ACTION
The Kingfield Neighborhood Association is hosting a walk and learn on Grand Avenue tonight with members of the city's Public Works Department to talk about the ongoing reconstruction project. The walk will begin at the corner of 40th & Grand at 7 p.m. and finish at 46th & Grand at about 8:15 p.m. Contact Chris DesRoches, KFNA Board President with questions at chris.desroches@gmail.com.
The Kenny Neighborhood Association's Annual Meeting is tonight at 7 p.m.
Comment on the draft 2022 Consolidated Plan Action Plan, a plan describing the City’s housing and community development strategies for low- & moderate-income residents at or below 80% of the area median income level.
The Tangletown Neighborhood Association is hosting an "Explore Solar Virtual Panel" at 7 p.m.
The Cedar-Isles Master Plan Committee will be hosting another meeting tonight about water quality from 6-8 p.m. They'll be covering Limnology 101: drivers that influence lake character, how lakes are evaluated, and an analysis of water quality for Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles. Here's more info and the Zoom link to join.
OUT & ABOUT
The Minnesota Orchestra is playing live music for Star Wars: Return of the Jedi tonight through Sunday.
Join “Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art” exhibiting artists Chris Pappan, John Jota Leaños, and Chholing Taha discussing their work in relation to time, the Spirit world, and Indigeneity with moderator Andrea Carlson at Mia at 5:30.
