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Articles by Iric Nathanson
Opinion | Saving our safety-net hospital
Opinion | Saving our safety-net hospital It happened in the 1960s and should happen again today. By Iric Nathanson and Thomas R. Mattison Guest contributor to the Minnesota Star Tribune The Hennepin County Medical Center emergency department is seen Jan. 30 in Minneapolis. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/The Associated Press) Comment Gift Share Listen Print Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of guest commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.
Minneapolis mayoral history has guidance for Omar Fateh
Opinion editor's note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of guest commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here. If he ousts Mayor Jacob Frey from Minneapolis City Hall in November, DFL-endorsed candidate state Sen. Omar Fateh, an avowed democratic socialist, will push Minneapolis politics to the left. But Fateh wouldn't be the city's first socialist mayor.
Overcoming homelessness at Restoring Waters - Longfellow Nokomis Messenger
Hillcrest Avenue in Highland Bridge separates Marvella, Presbyterian Homes’ senior housing development, from two affordable apartment buildings across the street, Restoring Waters and Nellie Frances Court, built by Project for Pride in Living. Bill Wernz, who lives at Marvella, can look out at the two PPL buildings across Hillcrest, knowing that he has played a role in improving their energy efficiency.
Becketwood seniors promote environmental awareness - Longfellow Nokomis Messenger
My biggest concern is for my grandchildren. When I am gone, I don’t want them to say to each other, what did grandma do to deal with the issues we are facing today. I want them to know that I did something.” With three grandchildren of their own, confronting climate change is more than a worldwide imperative for Jan and Richard Sutton, it is also a very personal family matter. “We are thinking ahead to the world that our grandchildren and future generations will inherit.
When a developer wanted to take away affordable housing, community members stepped up to save Seward Towers - Longfellow Nokomis Messenger
In early 1987, Caren Dewar, Redesign’s executive director, was in her Franklin Avenue office when she got a call from Kathy O’Brien, then Seward’s representative on the Minneapolis City Council. O’Brien was calling with disturbing news about Borson Towers, the twin apartment buildings serving more than 600 low-income Seward residents. The building’s managing partner, a developer named Tony Bernardi, was considering a plan to convert the towers to market-rate housing.
Dowling School celebrates 100 years - Longfellow Nokomis Messenger
Dowling Community School at 3900 West River Parkway will mark its 100th anniversary at a community-wide celebration on Saturday, May 18 from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The anniversary event will feature commemorative speeches, school tours music, dancing and a carnival sponsored by the Dowling PTO. The event is free and open to the public. Portraits of two distinguished gentlemen flank the main exit at Dowling Community School. Both are wearing high starched collars and bow ties.
OPINION EXCHANGE | Oppenheimer: The Minnesota connection
Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes a mix of national and local commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here. ••• While Universal Pictures' ambitious new biopic, "Oppenheimer," deals with the life and times of its title character, another member of the Oppenheimer family, J. Robert's younger brother Frank, was caught up in his own political drama that played out on the University of Minnesota campus and provided ammunition to J. Robert's critics.
The Minnesota gubernatorial election recount of 1962
Gov. Elmer L. Andersen, a member of the Independent-Republican Party, had been elected to the state’s highest office in 1960, at a time when the governor and the lieutenant governor were elected separately. That year, Karl Rolvaag, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), was also elected to his statewide post. Two years later, Rolvaag sought to unseat Andersen. In the weeks leading up to the election, public-opinion polls showed the governor with a small lead over his challenger.
Highland Bridge taking shape on former Ford site: New Lunds & Byerlys store opens Sept. 29
New Lunds & Byerlys store opens Sept. 29 Posted Thursday, September 29, 2022 6:39 pm By IRIC NATHANSON More than 10 years after Highland Park’s massive Ford assembly plant closed, a new planned community is taking shape on the former plant’s sprawling site overlooking the Mississippi River. Highland Bridge, as the site is now known, is still mainly a busy construction zone.
Breathing new life into 27th and Lake
@ LAKE STREET Posted Tuesday, June 21, 2022 9:50 pm Downtown Longfellow at 27th and Lake is one of Lake Street’s important cultural and economic hubs. We need to make sure that hub revives and flourishes.” Unencumbered by the need for a capital campaign, the U.S Post Office plans to begin building a new East Lake postal branch this summer. The new facility will occupy the site of the former East Lake Post Office at 31st and Minnehaha that was destroyed by fire during the civil unrest in 2020.
Black-owned bank to open on E. Lake St.
Posted Monday, May 30, 2022 10:22 am By IRIC NATHANSON Damon Jenkins and his team at First Independence Bank know they face special challenges. “We are the new guys on the block, a new bank in town, so we have to work extra hard to gain the trust of our potential customers,” said Jenkins, First Independence’ Senior Vice President/Regional Director and a former Wells Fargo executive who grew up in south Minneapolis.
Building community for 40 years
40 YEAR ANNIVERSARY Posted Monday, May 30, 2022 9:49 am By IRIC NATHANSON “A newspaper to serve the people, institutions and business enterprises of the Longfellow neighborhood begins its circulation today.” With that front page announcement, Bill Milbrath and his wife Maureen launched their monthly paper in March 1983. Newly retired from the staff of the University’s Extension Service, Bill, with help from Maureen, had decided to make neighborhood journalism a post retirement career.
Uncle's bookstore finds new home in Longfellow: Don Blyly is moving science fiction and mystery bookstore to Glass Endeavors building
Don Blyly is moving science fiction and mystery bookstore to Glass Endeavors building Posted Thursday, April 28, 2022 10:50 pm By IRIC NATHANSON The civil unrest following George Floyd’s murder in 2020 delivered a double blow to Don Blyly, the longtime owner of the Chicago Avenue business with the double name: Uncle Edgar’s Mystery Book Store and Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Book Store.
How a battle over daylight saving time once made Minnesota the laughingstock of the nation | MinnPost
Daylight saving time, that fall-back/spring-forward annual ritual, is back in the spotlight now that the U.S. Senate has adopted the brightly named Sunshine Protection Act. The measure would eliminate those twice-yearly timepiece changes by making daylight saving time year-around and permanent. The bill now goes to an uncertain future in the House.
Twin Metals lease cancellation recalls earlier effort to preserve the BWCA | MinnPost
Canoeists in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in a photo from 1979. 3 hours ago Minnesota environmentalists are applauding the Biden administration’s recent action cancelling certain federal leases for the proposed Twin Metals copper nickel mine in Northeastern Minnesota. Twin Metals opponents maintain that the mine will seriously degrade the nearby Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) wilderness.
Greece, Nixon and the man who almost made Hubert Humphrey president
An ultimate political insider, Greek-born Elias Demetracopoulos never held public office but spent his long career operating in the shadows, working to influence those who did. Elias P. Demetracopoulos Collection/James H. Barron An undated photo of Elias P. Demetracopoulos, left, with Henry Kissinger, secretary of state and national security adviser under Presidents Nixon and Ford.
What (and who) is behind The Southwest Connector, Minneapolis’ newest community newspaper
Tesha Christensen started the Southwest Connector to cover the South Minneapolis neighborhoods that had been served by the now defunct Southwest Journal. MinnPost photo by Tom Nehil 21 seconds ago At the age of 10, Tesha Christensen launched her journalistic career when her letter to the editor was published in her hometown paper. Now, more than 40 years later, Christensen has parlayed a life-long interest in community journalism into a successful business venture.
Becketwood celebrates 35th anniversary with walk down parkway: Co-op living for 55+ members who enjoy community and Mississippi River location
AGING WELL Co-op living for 55+ members who enjoy community and Mississippi River location Posted Tuesday, November 30, 2021 8:09 pm By Iric Nathanson A month earlier, the West River Parkway had been filled with throngs of runners during the Twin Cities Marathon. But on a breezy November morning, another group of outdoor enthusiasts moved down the parkway at a much more leisurely pace. They were members of the Becketwood Cooperative on a 1 K walk to celebrate their co-op’s 35th anniversary.
Why it only took 120 years for Minneapolis to adopt a ‘strong mayor’ system
The plan developed by the Minneapolis Charter Commission was ambitious. In an effort to revamp the city’s fragmented governing system, the plan tilted the balance of power in City Hall away from the City Council and towards the mayor. But the complex proposal had its critics. In the end, it was rejected in a citywide referendum. The year was 1900. Following that year’s defeat, reformers tried again to push Minneapolis towards a strong mayor system in 1904, 1906, 1907 and 1913.
A look back at the history of the Coliseum Building
By Iric Nathanson The letters painted on the side of the Coliseum Building have pretty much faded away. When they were still legible the letters spelled, “Freeman’s,” the name of the department store that occupied the Coliseum’s first floor during the building’s first 50 years. Lake Street’s answer to Dayton’s, Freeman’s was the creation of Elmer Freeman, known as E.B., a Minnesota-born entrepreneur who opened the store in the newly-built Coliseum in 1917.
Reviving Lake Street: Nonprofit community groups spearheading recovery
For Allison Sharkey, the traumatic events following the death of George Floyd were immediate and personal. As the executive director of the Lake Street Council (LSC), the nonprofit organization representing Lake Street businesses, Sharkey had promoted a decades-long effort to revitalize the aging south Minneapolis commercial corridor.
Redesign saves Coliseum from wrecking ball
By IRIC NATHANSON et’s iconic Coliseum Building from the wrecking ball, Redesign Inc. is purchasing the three-story brick building that has anchored the 27th and Lake intersection since 1917. Redesign is paying $2 million to the building’s out-of-state owners who had intended to demolish the Longfellow landmark and sell off the land to the highest bidder. Redesign’s action represents the second time in 25 years that a South Minneapolis community organization has stepped in to preserve the Coliseum.
Remembering the Uptown Theatre’s early days
The current marquee on the Uptown Theater in Uptown Minneapolis MinnPost photo by Iric Nathanson 15 seconds ago Minneapolis’ beleaguered Uptown received another blow with the news that the Uptown Theatre is being evicted from its 105-year-old home on the corner of Hennepin and Lagoon avenues. The Twin Cities’ last remaining link to the silent movie era, the Uptown began life as the Lagoon Theatre when it opened in 1916.
Stronger mayor? Reviving the charter wars in Minneapolis
The Minneapolis Charter Commission’s plan to revamp City Hall decision-making, unveiled earlier this month, is “probably the most important charter amendment that has come before the city in 100 years,” according to Commission Chair Barry Clegg. “If somebody has 14 bosses, things don’t get done, conflicts don’t get resolved and that’s what we learned when we talked to our department heads. Hopefully, this will make a difference,” Clegg told the Star Tribune’s Liz Navratil.
Talk of overhauling Minneapolis city government recalls a 120-year history of debate
The Minneapolis Charter Commission has reignited an issue that has roiled City Hall for 120 years now that the commission has signaled its interest in overhauling Minneapolis city government. The commission is considering charter changes that could substantially enhance the powers of the mayor while redefining the role of the 13-member City Council.
OPINION EXCHANGE | Minneapolis charter reformers should study the history ... of St. Paul
The Union Advocate was irate. The charter reform plan, scheduled to come before voters in a few weeks, would "turn the entire administration of the city over to a hired agent … who is removed from popular influence," the labor paper warned its readers. The year was 1929. The city was St. Paul. That year, the Advocate's ire was aimed at a charter plan to establish a city manager for Minnesota's capital city.
Minneapolis council approves temporary site for Third Precinct police headquarters
In the Star Tribune, Libor Jany says, “The Third Precinct may soon move to a temporary site just a few blocks from its burned-out former home on Minneapolis’ South Side. A City Council committee on Thursday signed off on a $1.2 million-a-year lease with Lothenbach Properties II and Imagine Express for a building to house Third Precinct officers, who for the past few months have been working out of the Minneapolis Convention Center, among other sites.
Minnesota helped build momentum for women’s suffrage
“A milestone has been passed — a new era dawned for American women,” gushed the Minneapolis Tribune’s Lilian Taaffe, when the 19th Amendment giving U.S. women the right to vote was adopted on Aug. 18, 1920. “To the snow-haired veterans, who have seen in suffrage a cause to die for, if need be, the hour was a supreme one, the one for which they have waiting for, dreaming for,” declared Taaffe.
Minnesota helped build momentum for women’s suffrage
“A milestone has been passed — a new era dawned for American women,” gushed the Minneapolis Tribune’s Lilian Taaffe, when the 19th Amendment giving U.S. women the right to vote was adopted on Aug. 18, 1920. “To the snow-haired veterans, who have seen in suffrage a cause to die for, if need be, the hour was a supreme one, the one for which they have waiting for, dreaming for,” declared Taaffe.
As 1918 showed, pathogens do not respect school calendars
Community Voices features opinion pieces from a wide variety of authors and perspectives. (Submission Guidelines) A 1918 influenza awareness poster showing a Red Cross nurse with a gauze mask over her nose and mouth. U.S. National Library of Medicine 19 seconds ago Sign up here to get our daily updates on coronavirus in Minnesota delivered straight to your inbox each afternoon. And go here to see all of MinnPost’s COVID-19 coverage.
To eliminate injustices, look to America’s foundational ideals and our shared beliefs
Community Voices features opinion pieces from a wide variety of authors and perspectives. (Submission Guidelines) REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs 17 seconds ago America’s principles are our strength. It’s time to live up to them. Healing and making progress on needed reforms in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer begins with listening to one another so we can work together for change. But we must move beyond the rhetoric to get to the real.
Recurring debate: How the Minneapolis City Council’s public safety plan would alter the balance of power in City Hall
As the Minneapolis City Council moves ahead with its plan to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department, the controversy swirling around the effort has overshadowed a key feature of the plan, a shift in power and authority away from the mayor and toward the 13-member council. The City Council plan would strip the mayor of much of his authority to oversee public safety functions, a role granted to him by the Minneapolis City Charter.
Looking back at the 1878 Washburn A Mill explosion
MinnPost’s Minnesota History articles are produced in partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society and its MNopedia project, which is made possible by the Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. The twisted girders and jagged brick walls that form the back of Minneapolis’ Mill City Museum provide a vivid reminder of the site’s dramatic history. In February 1991, fire swept through what was then the Washburn Crosby Mill, reducing the mill to smoldering ruins.
Exploring the rich history of 27th and Lake
Neighbors who live around 27th Avenue and Lake Street are now finding themselves at the edge what looks like a war zone of burned out and boarded buildings. Their commercial district encompasses the Third Precinct police station, the Minneapolis site that made national news when it was torched during protests in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. This once thriving district, now the scene of so much devastation, has a rich history extending back to the final decades of the 19th century.
The caucus that changed history: 1948’s battle for control of the DFL
Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society Hubert Humphrey At 7 p.m. on Tuesday night, thousands of activists in both major political parties will gather at neighborhood meetings all across the state.
The history of the ‘Nicollet Wall’ and a hamstrung City Hall
MinnPost photo by Iric Nathanson 36 years after it was built, city planners have drafted a new development blueprint that could lead to the removal of the wall blocking Nicollet Avenue at 29th Street. Peter Feider was not at all impressed with the new addition to his neighborhood. “Downtown has its Nicollet Mall. Now, we have the Nicollet Wall,” Feider remarked in 1977, soon after the massive wall was built at 29th Street, just beyond his Town Crier Pancake House.
A look back at the 1918 flu pandemic and its impact on Minnesota
The new warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the expanding spread of the coronavirus have Minnesota officials scrambling to combat the likely spread of the disease into this state. These efforts are being underscored by Gov.
Another Minnesotan at the political starting gate in Iowa: Mondale in 1984
United States Library of Congress Walter Mondale shown after his victory in the Iowa Democratic Caucus, Feb. 21, 1984. The throng of Minnesotans that descended on Des Moines, Waterloo and Mason City included the state’s DFL governor and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The Minnesota notables were spending their January weekend knocking on Iowa doors to boost the chances of a fellow Minnesotan who was running for the Democratic presidential nomination in the first-in-the nation Iowa caucuses.
The 1940 Marlborough Hotel fire: ‘There was nothing that escaped the flames’
MinnPost’s Minnesota History articles are produced in partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society and its MNopedia project, which is made possible by the Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical SocietyNear-zero temperatures impeded rescue efforts by the city’s fire department and left the Marlborough Hotel’s charred remains an icy ruin.
A look back at the Minnesota delegation in Clinton’s impeachment
On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to take a historic vote to impeach President Donald Trump. Twenty-one years ago, almost to the day, the U.S. House voted to impeach another U.S. president, Bill Clinton. Then, as now, the Minnesota delegation was split on this momentous congressional action.
SteppingStone Theatre to put its building up for sale; five Sound Unseen films to see
The first time we went to SteppingStone Theatre, we thought we had the wrong address. How could this imposing building – a former Methodist Church in the Summit-University neighborhood, built in 1908 in Greek Revival style – be a children’s theater? But it was, with an equally surprising 430-seat performance space inside. The company moved into the building in 2007 after extensive renovations. Now it wants to move on.
‘It Can’t Happen Here’: Sinclair Lewis’ message reverberates
The New York Times and much of the U.S. press had opposed his election, but their constant attacks had only served to enhance his electoral prospects. Now, during his second year in office, the president wanted “louder, more convincing Yeses from everybody around him,” according to the nationally known writer who chronicled his rise to power.
Retracing Kate Noonan’s path up and down Nicollet on a fateful day in 1877
Courtesy of the James K. Hosmer Special Collections, Hennepin County Library The suspension bridge shortly after its completion in 1877. The view is from Bridge Square. I have been spending an absurd amount of time with a young woman named Kate Noonan. I relive the same day — Feb. 16, 1877 — over and over, following her as she wanders up and down Nicollet Avenue. It’s like Groundhog Day; only the outcome never changes, it just becomes more minutely detailed every time I retrace the path with her.
How Minnesota Republicans came around on impeaching Nixon
Al Quie was “on the fence.” So were his House colleagues, Bill Frenzel and John Zwach, according to Frank Wright. Wright, the Minneapolis Tribune’s Washington Bureau Chief, had interviewed the three Minnesota Republicans on August 3, 1974, just days after the House Judiciary Committee voted to bring articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon to the full House. Now, the three members of the president’s party faced the prospect of an uncomfortable impeachment vote on the House floor.
Don Fraser laid the groundwork on human rights, with longstanding impacts
Community Voices features opinion pieces from a wide variety of authors and perspectives. (Submission Guidelines) Many remember Don Fraser for his domestic policy work as the longest-serving mayor in Minneapolis, or his efforts in Congress to protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Less well known, perhaps, is the iconic nature of Fraser’s leadership in the field of international human rights.
OPINION EXCHANGE | Remembering Don Fraser: An activist and a steward — no contradiction
Don Fraser, who died on Sunday at 95, left a legacy of public service stretching over four decades, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Fraser’s launched his political career when he was a struggling 30-year-old attorney with a wife and with three children under the age of 4 at home. He won his first election in 1954, when he ousted a well-established incumbent in the Minnesota Senate.
Don Fraser’s most enduring legacy: his innate strength of character
I first encountered Don Fraser when I was summoned to Washington in 1967 by his wife, Arvonne, to serve as a staff assistant in his congressional office. I had expected to find an imposing figure who strode through the halls of Congress with overpowering confidence. But Fraser did not look and act the way I thought a U.S. congressman was supposed to look and act.
Stones lore: Jagger and Mr. Jimmy in Excelsior
Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society A 1949 photo of the Excelsior Amusement Park. In the summer of 1964, a fledgling British band rolled into town for a one-night stand at a suburban dance hall. Not yet the international rock icons they would later become, the Rolling Stones played to an unimpressed group of fewer than 300 concertgoers at the Danceland Ballroom at Excelsior Amusement Park.
At Minnehaha Falls you can see LBJ, Little Crow and Jorge Luis Borges
One of the best parts of early spring is taking the first trip on the Hiawatha light rail — which we may now appropriately refer to as “the blue line” — down to Minnehaha Falls for an afternoon of beer and fried fish and walking around in the outdoors. This past Sunday was Easter, and although it wasn’t even particularly pleasant out (hovering around 50 degrees), I had an out-of-town visitor in for the weekend, and got it in my head that she ought to see the falls on that holy day.
Minneapolis’ Neighborhoods 2020 plan, explained
With Neighborhoods 2020, the city of Minneapolis is on track to change how it gives money to neighborhood organizations, which are often the guiding voices for the city’s policies on development, public safety and more. Here is a guide to better understand the plan — and what it could mean for different parts of Minneapolis. Why are neighborhood organizations so important in Minneapolis?
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