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Photo by Jakey Weyer
Flowers lay outside Blackbird Café with a note that read, “May the blackbird rise from the ashes like a phoenix.”
By Jake Weyer
Business owners in limbo after 50th & Bryant fire receive swift support from the community
One week after a fire destroyed three boutiques and two restaurants at the corner of 50th Street and Bryant Avenue, stunned business owners were still reeling from the loss, uncertain of their future.
Restaurants Heidi’s and Blackbird Café and retailers Patina, Shoppe Local and Stacey Johnson Jewelry Design were all lost in a matter of hours Feb. 18 when a grease fire that started in Heidi’s spread to the shared building’s attic and refused to go out despite a massive effort from Minneapolis and Richfield fire crews.
“I haven’t stopped crying,” said Blackbird Café owner Gail Mollner, who said
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Venturing out on their own
By Journal staff
The Southwest Journal will be tracking 10 business startups throughout the year. For this first report in the ongoing series, Journal reporters have checked in with the entrepreneurs to get their economic outlook for 2010. (Note: We’ve included startups that have launched within the past year.)
Tamah Burke.
—Child-driven fashion
For as long as there have been clothes, parents have been choosing outfits for th
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Trekking with purpose
By Sarah McKenzie
Smile Network unveils Global Ventures program for mission-driven travelersSmile Network, a North Loop-based nonprofit, has launched a new international travel program matching adventure treks with charitable work. The Global Ventures initiative features five- to 10-day adventure travel experiences in Peru, Africa, India and Ecuador this year. The participants help raise money for the Smile Network, an organization that provides reconstructive surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lips or palates. The treks provide the organization with another important revenue stream, said Kim Valentini, founder of the Smile Network and a Kenwood resident. “Every adventure travel experience butts up against a
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Biz buzz // Inizio
By Jake Weyer and Lana Walker
Inizio moves to 50th & PennBoutique retailer Inizio Gifts, a staple in Calhoun Commons during the last decade, is moving this month into the former Birch Clothing space at 2309 W. 50th St. Owner Pat Hefferan said March 6 would be the store’s last day in its current location at 3070 Excelsior Blvd. She planned to reopen in the new space by March 19. “It was a goal of mine to get in kind of a neighborhood setting and close to home,” said Hefferan, who lives near the new location. Inizio’s clothing, jewelry, bath and body, baby gifts and other offerings will remain, but Hefferan hopes to introduce more handmade and fair-trade items. “I’m trying to put my energy into things that
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Parks update // Superintendent start date
By Cristof Traudes
Board eyes November as start date for superintendentThe Park Board has adopted a preliminary timeline for its upcoming search for a new superintendent. When commissioners hope to be all done: September. According to the timeline, included in a request for proposals for search firms sent out in February, the board would like to have its new superintendent begin Nov. 1, days after Minneapolis hosts a major national parks conference. Other deadlines in the timeline include hiring a search firm by the end of this month, holding public input sessions in April and formally opening up the position in May. Board President John Erwin said the dates aren’t strict — “this is not absolutely fixed,” he said — but
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Green digest // Saving energy on vending
By Dylan Thomas
Saving energy on vendingChances are you have one humming away right now in your school or office, cooling the Cokes or coddling Snickers bars in its spiral grip. Vending machines are everywhere, and many of them draw a steady stream of electricity from the grid even when the lunchroom is empty. The average vending machine uses 7 to 13 kilowatt-hours of energy per day, to the tune of about $300 per year. Those figures come from Clean Energy Resource Teams, or CERTs, a public-private partnership that promotes energy-saving projects across the state. In February, CERTs launched a campaign that aims to reduce the amount of electricity used by vending machines, while at the same time lowering the energy bills for the businesses and
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Crime reports
By Jake Weyer
Editor’s note: Alleged crimes against persons (assault, 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 CALHOUN
Feb. 24, between 8 a.m. and 3:20 p.m., 3148 Irving Ave. S.An unknown suspect broke into a home by smashing a back-door window and unlocking the door. The suspect stole some jewelry from an upstairs bedroom and ate a banana in the kitchen. The banana peel was found on the kitchen floor. No suspect information was available. ——— EAST HARRIET
Between 5 p.m. Feb. 26
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Special education on a new path
By Dylan Thomas
District plan to move classrooms surprised some parentsWHITTIER — While scores of anxious parents flocked to community meetings on a Minneapolis Public Schools restructuring plan last fall, Jennifer Bommentre thought she could relax. Like some other parents of special education students, Bommentre and her husband, Mark Reckin, were under the impression that their child would be spared the impact of sweeping changes planned for fall 2010 — at least for one school year. That wasn’t exactly true. Starting about one month before the restructuring plan, Changing School Options was approved by the School Board Sept. 22, and continuing into early January, officials in the district’s Special Education Department reworked the
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Schools notebook // Madden and Costain out
By Dylan Thomas
Madden and Costain
done after one termMinneapolis School Board Chair Tom Madden and Board Member Pam Costain both announced in February they would not seek re-election this fall after each serving one term on the board. The announcements ensured that when a new School Board is seated in early 2011, it would look very different from the current board. Three members of the class of 2007, all first-time board candidates seated that year, will not run again. Board Member Chris Stewart announced earlier in the month he would step down at the end of his term to pursue other community projects. Board Member T. Williams, who also took office in 2007, was the only one who said he planned to run for re-election. That leaves three o
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Development update // Building approved on Emerson
By Jake Weyer
New restaurant building approved on EmersonAn Uptown parking lot is slated to become a new restaurant following the Minneapolis Planning Commission’s approval of plans at its Feb. 22 meeting. The commission approved four variances — three for setback reductions and one eliminating off-street parking requirements — for a two-story, 4,500-square-foot building at 3005 Emerson Ave. S. The structure’s second story would consist of a mezzanine level for dining. Other features include an outdoor patio, full kitchen, bar and main-floor dining area. No tenant has been named and construction isn’t scheduled to begin until that is finalized. Leading the project is area developer Clark
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Minneapolis looks
to avoid bike-sharing mistakes made in other cities
By Gregory J. Scott
Sure, the bikes are on their way. But what about the broken locks, the busted kiosks and the bankrupting expense of theft and repair? Are we getting those, too? The recent announcement that Minneapolis would adopt Montreal’s BIXI system for the city’s bike-sharing program triggered a wave of enthusiasm. Not only were we getting a taste of European-style transit here in the Twin Cities, but we had hired the best in the bike-sharing business to bring it here. The BIXI system — with its beefed-up bikes and its computer-chip based, solar-powered, WiFi-enabled parking stations — was named one of the top inventions of 2008 by Time magazine. It has been a hit in Montreal, where it accommodated more than 1 million riders in its first six months of operation.
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Lynnhurst’s 50th & Bryant: Once a streetcar corner
By By Deborah Morse Kahn
1 Comment
The charming brick building lost to fire in the past weeks had many stories — and many tenants — over the years since its building during World War I. The streetcar line had continued to be extended south down Bryant Avenue from Lake Street, stopping for many years in the 1860s at West 46th Street to serve The Colony residential development along Fremont and Emerson Avenues from West 46th to West 48th Streets. Beyond these scattered residences were open tracts of land: entire blocks of land were in the hands of sole owners. Fogg’s Motor Line Addition covered three blocks beyond West 50th Street near the creek in anticipation of the city’s growth and the right to extend track through the residential district across the creek and south to the
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Fire sparks outpouring of support for lost businesses
By Jake Weyer
Business owners in limbo after 50th & Bryant fire receive swift support from the communityOne week after a fire destroyed three boutiques and two restaurants at the corner of 50th Street and Bryant Avenue, stunned business owners were still reeling from the loss, uncertain of their future. Restaurants Heidi’s and Blackbird Café and retailers Patina, Shoppe Local and Stacey Johnson Jewelry Design were all lost in a matter of hours Feb. 18 when a grease fire that started in Heidi’s spread to the shared building’s attic and refused to go out despite a massive effort from Minneapolis and Richfield fire crews. “I haven’t stopped crying,” said Blackbird Café owner Gail Mollner, who said
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Civic beat // Proposed cut to LGA
By Cristof Traudes
City’s share of proposed cut to LGA: $29 millionAnother bad economic year for the state, another cut to local-government aid. Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Feb. 15 unveiled his proposal for filling in a $1.2 billion gap in the state’s budget, tightening spending on health care and higher education. In his announcement, Pawlenty put extra emphasis on a number of tax cuts that he said would benefit small businesses and corporations and thus stimulate statewide job growth. For Minneapolis, more pressing was the governor’s suggestion that another $250 million be trimmed from aid to cities and counties, a move that would translate to a $29 million hit for the city. About $3.4 million of that would be cut from the Minneapolis Park and
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City council actions // Zoning study
By Cristof Traudes
Feb. 26 meeting One-third of zoning study passes council committee
After making several pages’ worth of modifications, a City Council committee has given preliminary approval to the first of three portions of the Midtown Greenway Rezoning Study.
The study, controversial upon its arrival because of its large size — 1,500 parcels that stretch from city boundaries west to east — has been described as the literal translation of changes recommended by previously approved land-use plans. The parcels mostly pertain to land surrounding the Midtown Greenway.
The approved portion of the study stretches from Lyndale Avenue west. Council Member Meg Tuthill (10th Ward), who represents much of that area,
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Art beat // 4,699 feet in the door
By Dylan Thomas
An overwhelming open-submission exhibit at the MIA
WHITTIER — After moving your eyes over the walls of three gallery rooms chockablock with art for an hour, you may find it’s the oddball pieces that linger in your memory.
Like the painting of a woman with an octopus tentacle for a tongue, slyly peering from beneath her red bangs. Or the fantastically tacky male nude, its subject prone on a beach, sandals dangling from upraised feet.
Those were just two among the 4,699 pieces featured in the fourth “Foot in the Door” exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, a once-a-decade, open-submission event. Anything that fit in a one-cubic-foot box (cutely labeled “curator”) was accepted.
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Flavor // Deep in the heart of Uptown
By Carla Waldemar
Note to suburbanites: If you can’t stand the heat — well, there goes your kitchen. A few months ago, Tejas, that ever-lovin’ Southwestern café that put chilies even in the chocolate cake, went out of business in Edina. But the hi-ho-silver lining is, its hot chef, Drew Wilson, now parks his chuck wagon at Bar Abilene. Brought a few trusted recipes with him, too, and already is busy creating some brand-new signature items. Meaning, it’s safe to come back to Bar Ab. In fact, it should be a residence requirement, now that Drew has stemmed the slump and brightened the quality once more. He hails from Louisville, where they know a thing or two about cooking, and honed his skills riding the range at New York’s esteemed Union Square Café.
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Rants & Raves
By Journal readers
This new feature gives you a chance to tell us what you love and what irks you in Southwest. Send your rants and raves to Journal editor Sarah McKenzie at smckenzie@mnpubs.com. Or go online to southwestjournal.com and post your comments on the R&R link. Here are some thoughts from a couple Southwest folks. Rave: Luminaries To the organizers of the Luminary Loppet who have lit our lives with a magical winter evening event which brings together our community of winter loving young & old.
— Leslie Hale Rant and Rave: Dress to impress This is both a rave & a rant. The rave is about Minneapolis’ fabulous restaurants and the indoor smoking ban (I wish
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Check it out // Haiti benefit
By Sarah McKenzie
Grand Café to host Haiti benefitThe Grand Café is hosting a benefit dinner, “Le Grand Pikliz,” to support the relief work of the American Refugee Committee on March 8. Grand Café chefs Jon Radle and Ben Pichler will be making Caribbean cuisine, including pulled pork, Haitian chicken, pikliz, rice, beans and dessert. The world music trio Mariameu will perform at the event. “By hosting this benefit, the Grand Café is bringing together the local community to help earthquake survivors,” said Daniel Wordsworth, president of the American Refugee Committee, which is based in the Loring Park neighborhood. “We are deeply grateful for this support, as it directly enables us to
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Neighborhood notebook
By Jake Weyer
ARMATAGEAnnual meeting this monthThe Armatage Neighborhood Association’s (ANA) annual meeting is set for March 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the Armatage Park building, 2500 W. 57th St. The neighborhood’s quarterly safety meeting will take place at 6 p.m. The meeting will feature a guest speaker and board elections. All neighborhood residents are welcome. For more information about ANA or serving on the board, call 929-5915 or visit armatage.org. ——— KINGFIELDCommunity garden application deadline coming up Applications for plots in either of Kingfield’s two community gardens planned to open this spring are due March 15. One of the gardens is
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The bold and the beautiful
By Tricia Cornell
Talking interior design with Southwest’s own Cy Winship
The walls of Cy Winship’s Kingfield design studio are draped with wallpaper samples in big, bold florals — lots of silver and charcoal, as well as pops of acid green and hot pink. Shag rug samples with pile easily six inches deep, with lush, loopy coils of wool, lay against iridescent tiles on the tables and floors. The walls themselves, where you can see them, are a screaming red-orange. It’s enough to make cautious homeowners turn on their heels and march right back out under his huge sign saying, simply, “Design.” But Cy Winship is ready for them, with a winning smile, an infectious enthusiasm for the colors and textures around him, and a
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Home selling theatrics
By Monica Wright
What a home stager can do for you When trying to sell a home in today’s strained economy, homeowners easily check their egos at the door just to get their properties sold. That is why Beth Hawkins barely blinked when her realtor suggested employing a home stager to spruce up the Kingfield home Hawkins was trying to sell. “I think she thought I might be affronted that some of my things weren’t showable, and I totally wasn’t; I have old ratty furniture because I have small children,” says Hawkins. “I thought that given the slowdown in the housing market it was probably a worthwhile investment in showing my house to its best advantage.” Enter expert home stager Jay Nuhring, owner of ReSee in New
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Color pros
By Monica Wright
Flipping through a stack of paint color chips, it’s hard not to focus on the names: What color is “Carolina Parakeet?” Can you describe the particular shade “Mesmerize” is meant to represent? Could you live with “Warm Muffin” walls? “I think they must have wine parties where they come up with the paint color names,” says Christine Frisk, owner of In Unison Design in Minneapolis when she talks about the often ridiculous monikers paint companies assign their hundreds of hues. “I hesitate to give clients the color names because of how they misrepresent the color, and I want them to enjoy it for what it is, not what it’s named.” Silly names are just one way people get tripped up when it comes to
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Kitchen confidential
By Monica Wright
A chef’s home kitchen has got to be serious business, right? Southwest chef Steven Brown goes for bright but basic.Steven Brown, a popular local chef whose resume includes stints at Porter & Frye, Cafe Levain and the Loring Café, had a trick to cooking in the dark, dated kitchen of the Kingfield home he shares with his wife and daughter. “I would open up the refrigerator door just to make it brighter,” he says. “It drove me crazy that there was no light.” Throw in the death of Brown’s vintage yellow range and it was clear his kitchen was sending a message. “We thought about just replacing the oven but one thing led to another and eventually we got the idea to take it all
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Dude, where’s my car?
By Karen Locke
If it’s not in the garage, maybe you need some decluttering help If the memory of parking your car in the garage is a distant one, could it be that the current assemblage of gardening tools, bicycles and recycling bins is the problem?
Many older homes in Southwest Minneapolis do not have a lot of storage space, making the garage a catchall for clutter. With the right organization and some decluttering, your garage can have a whole new use, or even shelter your car once again.
Rosemary Mitlyng, owner of Clean & Organize, has been bringing order to untidy homes in Minneapolis and St. Paul since 1988. She suggests first sorting everything into piles as the best way to begin.
Mitlyng advises sorting clutter into three categories:
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Snug as a bug, with a few extra bucks
By Karen Locke
Contractors, retailers and manufacturers urge homeowners to take advantage of the weatherization tax creditThe 2009 federal stimulus added $132 million to Minnesota’s Weatherization Assistance Program. The question is, are homeowners taking advantage of it? Barb McMickle, general manager at Scherer Window and Door Consultants, says yes. Businesses like Hopkins-based Scherer Window and Door Consultants have run advertisements that encourage homeowners to take advantage of this credit, and McMickle says people are definitely calling about the weatherization act. “I would say about 70 percent of people who call are calling about weatherization and are aware of [the stimulus money],” she said.
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Silent invader
By Megan Hussong
Southwest Minneapolis is a hot spot for indoor radon levels; the Minnesota Department of Health offers helpIt is colorless, odorless, and tasteless — undetectable to human senses. Yet according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, radon kills an average of 21,000 people per year and is the leading cause of lung cancer in the United States for nonsmokers. “Obviously this is a terrible thing to happen to somebody who is thirty, never smoked and diagnosed with one of the most terminal forms of cancers,” says Walt Fitzmaurice, owner of the Minneapolis-based professional mitigation service Advanced Radon Services. He gets calls every year from lung cancer patients who attribute their illness to radon. “It hits home on a gut level a
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Ask the experts
By Tricia Cornell
You’ve got home improvement questions and the Southwest Journal knows who can give you the answers. Welcome to the first in an occasional series in which we ask the experts about building, remodeling, decorating and gardening.
Which green building techniques and materials are the best investment?Homeowners looking to do the right thing for the environment may find that their good intentions stretch only as far as their wallets. While green home building techniques and materials don’t always add to a project’s bottom line, there are still some tough choices that have to be made when funds are limited (and aren’t they always?). Tristan Roberts, editor of buildinggreen.com, reminds us that energy
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The desert blooms indoors
By Meleah Maynard
Growing cacti and other succulentsI grew up in Phoenix, so I thought I’d had my fill of cactus. (Picture being a Girl Scout and taking camping trips in a desert filled with inhospitable plants covered with spines and barbs.) But this past year I’ve really gotten into growing cacti and succulents indoors. Maybe that’s partially due to the fact that the mere sight of them makes me think of warmth and vacations. If you’ve always wanted try growing houseplants but needed something incredibly easy to care for, these are the plants for you. Before I jump into how to care for cacti and succulents, let me first explain what these plants are. Simply put, succulents are plants that are good at storing moisture in their stems, leaves and/or
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Letters to the editor
By Journal readers
Call for spring poetry“Oh to be in England, now that spring is there!” gushed Robert Browning. Actually he said, “Oh to be in England/now that April’s there...” I’m sure he would have said the same about Minnesota had he been a Twins fan. This is good, since our Spring Poetry Project issue will appear in April, which, as you, I and Browning know, is National Poetry Month. The deadline for submissions is March 15 — the Ides. Please send your best work to me at wilhide@skypoints.com. If you know people who write poetry, please spread the word. You can find out more at wilhide.com/site.
Doug Wilhide
Southwest Journal,
contributing poetry
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Heartbroken over 50th & Bryant blaze
By Betsy Hodges
We are mourning with and for the owners and patrons of the 50th & Bryant businesses. When I talked to the Fire Chief, I expressed appreciation for the firefighters who worked hard to contain the blaze and keep people safe. The two firefighters who were injured get our special thanks, and while it is regrettable they were hurt at all I am glad they didn’t suffer life-threatening injuries. This corner has been at the heart of our community for generations, and the current occupants Blackbird, Heidi’s, Patina, Shoppe Local and Stacey Johnson Jewelry Design, as well as the Malt Shop next door, are each special and treasured places owned by special and treasured people. Mayor Rybak and I are already working with the city’s Community
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Keep Southwest special by shopping local
By Terre Thomas
About two years ago I dreamed up a publicity campaign called “Shop local; it matters!” It was a short, catchy phrase that would look good on buttons and posters. It captured a lot of things near and dear to me— supporting local businesses that contribute uniquely to the fabric of our community, encouraging people to be more “intentional” about how they spend their money, and it tickled me to properly use my favorite nuanced punctuation mark, the semicolon. There were enthusiastic meetings and a plan and a budget written, a generous graphic designer created a logo for it, gratis, but alas, the campaign never took off. Then the recession really seemed to dig in and a climate of consumer anxiety and self-preservation
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An ambulance chaser is born
By Jim Walsh
1 Comment
I come from a long line of ambulance chasers. My paternal grandmother, Norine Walsh, lived most of her adult life at 509 W. 53rd Street behind the Boulevard Theater, and was known to drop everything at the sound of a siren. “She used to say, ‘If there’s a fire, we should go,’” said my dad, Jerry Walsh. “One day she was sick with a cold, so she begged off going shopping at SuperValu, which was where the O.I. Borton car dealership is now on Lyndale. But when SuperValu went up in flames later that day, she jumped up and shot out the door.” Norine’s gawker impulse spread to her children. When my dad was 17, he heard the siren call and snuck out his bedroom window to go have a look at a house fire near the
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