Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 10.21.05

[David Shove (shove001]

            P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R      10.21.05

1. Nonviolence training 10.22 10am

2. Atheist celebration  10.23 12noon
3. UN/peace convergence 10.23 12:30pm
4. NWA strike           10.23 2pm
5. Walkout planning     10.23 3pm
6. Fisch/holocaust      10.23 3pm
7. KFAI/Indian          10.23 4pm

8. GR Anderson     - Extreme makeover: Lake Street
9. Kenneth Rexroth - Autumn in California (poem)

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Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 13:36:19 -0500
From: Nukewatch <nukewatch [at] lakeland.ws>
Subject: Nonviolence training 10.22 10am

SATURDAY OCT 22 NONVIOLENCE TRAINING
10am-4pm
Room 160, Murray-Herrick Hall
University of St. Thomas, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul, Minn.
Includes history, principles, assets, role plays and discussion.
Bring a brown bag lunch.
Contact: Nukewatch - 715-472-4185 <www. nukewatch.com>

NUKEWATCH P.O. BOX 649 LUCK, WI 54853 Telephone: 715-472-4185 Fax:
715-472-4184 Cell: 715-491-3813 www.nukewatch.com


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From: Minnesota Atheists <info [at] mnatheists.org>
Subject: Atheist celebration 10.23 12noon

Minnesota Atheists sponsors first ever Atheist Pride celebration
October 23.

Minnesota Atheists, the state's oldest and largest atheist organization,
is sponsoring the first Atheist Pride celebration ever held in Minnesota.
The event will occur Sunday, October 23, 12noon-5:30pm, at the Four Points
Sheraton Hotel, 400 N Hamline Av StPaul.

The celebration, a fundraiser for Minnesota Atheists, will feature several
speakers, a debate, an open mike session, awards, camaraderie, and atheist
books and products for sale.

Special guest speaker Fred Whitehead, historian of the atheist movement
and author of Freethought on the American Frontier, will examine the
question "Is this a Christian Nation?" The last event of the day will be a
debate at 4:30pm on "Does God Exist?"  Debaters will be David Mallinder of
Minnesota Atheists and James Beilby of Bethel University.

The Atheist Pride celebration is open to the public.  Cost is $20 for the
entire event or $5 for just the debate.  For more information, contact
Minnesota Atheists, P.O. Box 6261, Minneapolis, MN 55406,
info [at] mnatheists.org, 612-588-7031.


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From: Nukewatch <nukewatch [at] lakeland.ws>
Subject: UN/peace convergence 10.23 12:30pm

2005 International United Nations Day
Rejoining the World Community
PEACE CONVERGENCE & DIRECT ACTION
Sunday, October 23 and Monday, October 24

FEATURING POLLY MANN and MARV DAVIDOV
with music by singer/songwriter Sara Thomsen

PEACE CONVERGENCE
SUNDAY  October 23 * 12:30-9pm
University of St. Thomas
Brady Education Center - Baumgartner Auditorium
St. Paul, Minnesota
http://www.stthomas.edu/campusmaps/stpaul/stpaul31.htm for a map*

12:30:  Registration  (FREE)
1:00: Welcome by Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer
1:30: Discover International Law
      Discuss the illegal weapons produced by AlliantTechsystems
      Learn about the effects of depleted uranium on soldiers * civilians
      and the land
3:00: Break
3:30: Participate in an exploration of nonviolence in action
5:00-6:30:  Supper break. As people wish - a list of local restaurants
      will be provided.

6:30: Regathering Ceremony
      Keynote addresses by veteran activists Polly Mann and Marv Davidov
      Music by Sara Thomsen

NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION
MONDAY *  October 24 *  Gather at 7am
Alliant Techsystems World Headquarters
5050 Lincoln Drive (Hwy 169 -- 5th Street exit)
Edina,  Minnesota

WHO PROFIT$? WHO DIES? WHO CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
Gather to condemn the illegal weapons - under international law - that are
produced by Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and sold through 44 international
sales offices worldwide. These weapon systems include cluster bombs,
landmines, depleted uranium munitions and all three rocket motors for the
first strike Trident II nuclear missile. ATK is the largest supplier of
all size munitions to the U.S. DoD. and sales include over 19 million
depleted uranium shells. Participate in or support an act of civil
resistance. Your support is needed! Need directions to Alliant? Map at
www.CircleVision.org

Download and Distribute! Convergence and Action flyer in .pdf - at
www.CircleVision.org.

Please pass this email along far and wide!
SPONSORED BY: AlliantACTION *  Anathoth Community:
www.CircleVision.org   www.nukewatch.org
For more information:  651-644-3118 or 715-472-4185
info [at] CircleVision.org   Nukewatch [at] lakeland.ws

PEACE CONVERGENCE COSPONSORS and ENDORSERS: Anti-War Committee * Campaign
Against Depleted Uranium - England * Casa Maria Catholic Worker *
Milwaukee * CircleVision.org * Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger *
Counter-Propaganda Coalition * Friends for a Nonviolent World * GAAA -
Nonviolent Action for Nuclear Abolition - Germany * Grassroots Action for
Peace * IPAC * Jonah House * Justice and Peace Studies Program - UST *
Merriam Park Neighbors for Peace * Military Toxics Project * Minnesota
Campaign to Ban Landmines * Nonviolent Peaceforce * Nuclear Energy
Information Service * Nuclear Resister * Nukewatch * Pandora DU Research
Project - England * Minnesota Pax Christi * Phil Berrigan Des Moines
Catholic Worker House * Phil Berrigan Depleted Uranium Coalition * Sisters
of St. Joseph of Carondelet Justice Commission * St. Joan of Arc/WAMM
Peacemakers * Twin Cities Peace Campaign - Focus on Iraq * Veterans for
Peace Chapters 27 and 80 * War Resisters League * Women Against Military
Madness * World Information Service on Energy - Amsterdam

* The Brady Education Center is located about half-way between Mississippi
River Blvd. and Cretin Avenues just off Goodrich Avenue in St. Paul.  For
driving directions, go the www.stthomas.edu and click on Campus Maps.
Visitors to the University of St. Thomas St. Paul campus should strongly
consider parking in Levels R2 or R3 of the Morrison Hall Parking Ramp
(located near the intersection of Cretin and Selby Avenues).

NUKEWATCH P.O. BOX 649 LUCK, WI 54853 Telephone: 715-472-4185 Fax:
715-472-4184 Cell: 715-491-3813 www.nukewatch.com


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From: Solidarity Committee <nwasolidaritymsp [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: NWA strike 10.23 2pm

Sunday October 23, 2-4pm

The Solidarity Committee will host a public hearing on labor and safety
violations at Northwest Airlines.  Mechanics, cleaners, custodians, flight
attendants, baggage handlers, and other employees will present their
testimony to elected officials, community activists, and religious
leaders, documenting for the public both the indignities of working at
Northwest Airlines during the AMFA strike, and the dangers that both the
flying public and Twin Cities residents living under the flight path face
as a result of these injustices.

Please come and support Northwest workers in these difficult times.

PLACE: Macalester College Weyerhaeuser Chapel.  1600 Grand Avenue in Saint
Paul

Attached to this email is a flyer for the hearing.  Please download,
print, and distribute to your friends, family, and coworkers.  The more
faces in the audience, the greater the media spectacle and political
imperative.

REMEMBER - THE SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE MEETS THIS SATURDAY
TIME: 10am
PLACE: AMFA Office.  8101 34th Avenue South in Bloomington.  Exit I-494 at
34th Avenue South.  Turn left at Appletree.  Proceed across the light rail
tracks, and take your first right into the office building parking lot.
Follow the signs into the AMFA conference room.

Transit riders exit the 55-Hiawatha light rail at Bloomington Central.
Walk East to 34th Avenue South.  Turn Left, walk 1 block, and the building
will be on your right.


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From: ty <tytymo [at] gmail.com>
Subject: Walkout planning 2.23 3pm

Nov 2 Walkout Planning Meetings (EVERYONE welcome!)

Sunday, October 23
3 back-to-back walkout meetings

University of Minnesota
Coffman Student Union, Room 324

Three back-to-back meetings:
3pm: High School Metro-wide Meeting of Youth Against War and Racism
(see proposed agenda below)

4pm: U of M / Community Walkout mobilization planning meeting (see
proposed agenda below)

5:30-9pm: Sign/banner/flag making for Nov. 2 --- PLEASE come and help out!
We'll have many supplies, but please also bring your own poster board,
banner cloth, needles and thread, staple guns, duct tape, paint, brushes,
markers, banner/picket sticks, good ideas, etc. And bring some snacks for
the hardworking volunteers!

----- 3pm ----------------------------
High School / YAWR meeting proposed agenda
(this meeting is for YAWR members and community activists working closely
with high school students)

Please bring all filled out walkout pledge sheets, photocopies, from
your school to the meeting!
 1. Reports from your school's YAWR chapter (come with prepared 2-4 minute
reports on successes, problems, etc.)
 2. November 2 is a finals day! Working out a strategy to make our school
districts give students who walkout make-up tests instead of failing them.
 3. November 2 logistics (ideas to get maximum turnout from your school,
traveling from your school to the U, overcoming your administration's
attempt to lock you in school, what Nov. 2 day of activities will look
like).
 4. Other business? *** YAWR members are encouraged to stick around for
the U of M / Community planning meeting and sign/banner/flag making
meetings. We can potentially arrange rides home for you.

----- 4pm ----------------------------
U of M / Community Walkout planning meeting proposed agenda
(this meeting is open to everyone)

 1. Reports from sub-committees and from high school work
 2. 10 days to Nov.2! - Plan for mass leafletting, postering,
get-the-word-out effort
 3. Working out march route, discussion of police relations, and
marshalling plan
 4. Working out detailed plan and division of labor for November 2
(morning picket lines to call students out, helping to direct high school
students to rally, getting supplies to rally, afternoon event logistics,
etc.)

----- 5:30pm ----------------------------
Sign/banner/flag making PARTY

Just show up with your creativity hats on. Sombebody should bring a
boombox and music. We'll have many supplies, but please also bring your
own poster board, banner cloth, needles and thread, staple guns, duct
tape, paint, brushes, markers, banner/picket sticks, good ideas, etc. And
bring some snacks for the hardworking volunteers!

For more information, call Ty at 612-760-1980


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From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Fisch/holocaust 10.23 3pm

October 23 - Dear Dr. Fisch. 3pm.  Cost: $10.00.

A multimedia program in 2 parts:
  The first part of the program features readings by Dr. Fisch from his
first two books "The Light from the Yellow Star" and "The Metamorphosis to
Freedom" accompanied by the Health Sciences Orchestra.
  The second part of the program is based on his third book Dear Dr. Fisch
and will begin with an ethnic dance component before moving into readings
by students who have responded to his classroom presentations; the
readings will be accompanied by the orchestra.

Dr. Fisch's art work, his commentary, and the music of the orchestra set
against the background of experience are dramatically complemented with
the readings by the students.  Slides are used to illustrate the art work,
as well as to illustrate the diversity of the ethnic community in the Twin
Cities.  Ethnic dance is included to convey a visual cultural component.

Dr. Fisch s books describe his experience as a Holocaust survivor, his art
expresses his feelings, and his writing describes how he sees hope through
a process of metamorphosis and how this hope is conveyed to his audience.
In his presentation to students, Dr. Fisch describes his experiences in
concentration camps, along with his positive philosophy, the beauty of
love which survives in time, which together help meet his objective to
show how people learn and know from horror.  Many of the children of the
new immigrant population arriving in the Twin Cities are themselves
victims of abuse and torture and share experiences with Dr. Fisch.  The
students to be featured are from ESL/ELL programs in the metropolitan
area.

Robert O. Fisch is a native of Budapest, Hungary, and a survivor of a Nazi
concentration camp located in Austria.  After the war, Fisch returned to
Hungary and completed medical school.  In 1956, he participated in the
revolution and in 1957, he escaped to the United States and continued his
medical studies as a pediatric intern at the University of Minnesota.  He
stayed on at the University of Minnesota, where in 1987 he became a
Professor of Pediatrics.  Dr. Fisch is known world-wide for his research
in PKU (phenylketonuria) a genetic disease, in which he has made
innovative discoveries in the prevention of the disease.

In Hungary and in Minnesota, Dr Fisch studied art and created a second
career for himself as a visual artist.  He has written and illustrated
three books related to the Holocaust.  The books have been featured in
exhibits in the United States, Europe and Israel.  Dr. Fisch has traveled
throughout the United States and Europe giving presentations on his
Holocaust experience.  Dr. Fisch states What I would like to be remembered
is not the horror but the beauty created by human virtue and enlightened
by the spirit created by suffering The message that I would like to send
is:  Remain human even in inhuman circumstances .

Sponsored by the Center for Austrian Studies and the Human Rights Center
Location: Ted Mann Concert Hall, University of Minnesota West Bank, Twin
Cities Campus, Minneapolis, MN 55455

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From: Chris Spotted Eagle <chris [at] SPOTTEDEAGLE.ORG>
Subject: KFAI/Indian 10.23 4pm

KFAI's Indian Uprising for Oct. 23rd

AMERICAN INDIAN COMMUNITY MEMBERS EXPRESS OUTRAGE over what happened to a
man taken into police custody last week, Duluth Tribune, Oct. 18, 2005,
Associated Press.  David Croud was placed on life support after police
tried to take him to a detoxification center, allegedly for his own
safety. The officers have said Croud became belligerent and resisted
arrest.
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/12935703.htm?temp
late=contentModules/printstory.jsp

POLICE BRUTALITY "FALSE" REPORTING LAW, Community United Against Police
Brutality E-mail Newsletter, Oct. 19, 2005.  The MN legislature passed a
new law during the last session that criminalizes so-called "false"
reporting of police brutality incidents. This law is so vague and poorly
worded that even a journalist who reports on a police brutality case that
isn't later proven could be subject to prosecution.  Moreover, there is no
indication of who decides what's a "false" report--is it the very cops the
person complained about?  Complaining about police conduct is First
Amendment protected speech.  The cops are a branch of the government and
we get to criticize the government and even petition the government for
redress.

CUAPB of Minneapolis has an online petition you can sign at
http://www.petitiononline.com/cuapb02/petition.html.  They will also be
holding a community forum on this new law and what it means to you at
Community Forum on "False Reporting" Law, Thursday, November 3rd, 7:00
p.m., Walker Church, 3104 16th Ave S, Minneapolis.  CUAPB is looking for
people who would report police brutality or misconduct but are afraid to
because of this new law.  If you fit this description, please call our
hotline at 612-874-7867.  See law:
http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H0001.5&session=ls84
<http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H0001.5&amp;session=ls8
4> line 323.28 (Article 17, Section 30).

THE POLICE STATE IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK by Paul Craig Roberts,
CounterPunch, October 10, 2005.  Police states are easier to acquire than
Americans appreciate. The hysterical aftermath of September 11 has put
into place the main components of a police state.  Habeas corpus is the
greatest protection Americans have against a police state. Habeas corpus
ensures that Americans can only be detained by law.  They must be charged
with offenses, given access to attorneys, and brought to trial.  Habeas
corpus prevents the despotic practice of picking up a person and holding
him indefinitely.  http://www.counterpunch.com/roberts10102005.html

KFAI RADIO PLEDGE CAMPAIGN IN ITS SECOND WEEK.  Support KFAI by Calling
612-375-9030 and make a pledge.  KFAI's goal is $106,700.00.
 Contributions support KFAI's basic operating costs.  There are twelve
non-English speaking and music programs you won't hear anywhere else,
broadcasting 24/7.

* * * *
Indian Uprising is a one-half hour Public & Cultural Affairs radio program
for, by, and about Indigenous people & all their relations, broadcast each
Sunday at 4:00 p.m. over KFAI 90.3 FM Minneapolis and 106.7 FM St. Paul.
Current programs are archived online after broadcast at www.kfai.org, for
two weeks.  Click Program Archives and scroll to Indian Uprising.


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Extreme Makeover: Lake Street
by G.R. Anderson Jr.
City Pages

Hennepin County and Minneapolis are spending millions to rebuild south
Minneapolis's main east-west thoroughfare in a new image. But whose vision
is it?

The evening rush hour on Lake Street is different these days. Traffic
still jams deep at red lights, as it has for ages, but only on the south
side of the street. There's one lane of traffic going east and one going
west, but levels have dipped in recent months, for good reason: The north
side of the street is demolished for some 12 blocks, from 5th Avenue South
to 15th Avenue South. There's a near-mile stretch of dirt, old concrete,
cables, and pipes. Cement trucks, Bobcats, cranes, and other
heavy-construction gear sit scattered through the area, though by this
time of day they are idle. In fact, Lake Street is oddly placid.

But there's not much rest in the relative peace and quiet. Miguel
Hernandez, for one, is hustling bottles of Mexican soda pop into a
storefront cooler. He's on the 13th hour of his workday, which started at
a car wash near his home in Crystal. After rising each day at 2:30 a.m.,
he picks up cars from auto auctions in Minneapolis, spends the day
cleaning them, and waits for the new owners to come.

Even so, here he is, before the last sunset of August, prepping for an
evening dinner crowd that won't show tonight. It's been 15 days since
Hernandez took control of Marisquera El Nayarita, an eatery near the
northwest corner of Lake Street and Chicago Avenue, which he bought from
an acquaintance who was originally from his hometown of Nayarit, on the
central west coast of Mexico. Hernandez paid $65,000 for the business.
Rent, including the 500 or so square feet of storefront, along with
kitchen space, an awning and a sidewalk, is $1,650 a month--better than
the usual $3,000 in this area.

Hernandez came to the states by way of Ontario, California, 10 years ago.
Four years later, he came to the Twin Cities. Upon arriving, the
45-year-old recalls, "It was my dream to own a restaurant on Lake Street."

But Hernandez obtained a loan to purchase Marisquera El Nayarita without
knowing that Lake Street would be torn up, and business is bad. The
original owner told him he could count on $500 worth of business a day,
maybe three times that on Saturdays. But that was before the
groundbreaking for the new Lake Street, a three-phase, $31 million project
that won't be finished until 2008. Hernandez has been seeing about $100 a
day in receipts - $50 more on the weekends, $50 less some weekdays.

Because of this, his wife Maria runs the joint by herself pretty much all
day. There's no money, and no need, for help. Visit Maria for lunch on any
given weekday, and there's usually a couple of customers - construction
workers - at most. "I work for free," she says, in broken English, smiling
wanly toward her husband. The couple's two sons, Miguel, 8, and Michal, 4,
scurry about the store after eating a modest dinner plate of fried eggs
and red beans. Miguel Sr. surveys the scene and gestures to a white van
parked in a lot across the street. It's emblazoned with a "Fiestas
Latinas" logo. This is the name of a weekend business he's launched to
cater backyard parties in the neighborhood. "I'll make it through this,"
he maintains. "I have to say this. I can't say that I won't make it."

Miguel Hernandez's story is not one that anyone associated with the Lake
Street project will readily acknowledge, but anyone who frequents
businesses along the torn-up stretch of road has likely heard similar
tales. Even so, plans are in motion to rebuild nearly all of Lake Street,
from Dupont Avenue near Uptown all the way east to the Mississippi River.
The scope of the project - some five miles of concrete and asphalt
reconstructed over a period of more than three years - is not widely
publicized, but has been forged and debated over a period of years.
Hennepin County, which took control of Lake Street from the city of
Minneapolis in 1993, has spearheaded the project and will foot most of the
bill. And the county plan has been heralded by a host of public officials
and private partners who have had their sights set on revamping the city's
main corridor for a decade.

There's little doubt that most of the impetus for the Lake Street plan
came from a confluence of corporate interests in south Minneapolis. When
Honeywell operations based there were sold to a New Jersey-based company
in 1999, the company departed its headquarters on 28th Street, touching
off a crisis in the eyes of city leaders. Honeywell had been an anchor
employer in the Lake Street area for 114 years. Without companies like it
in the vicinity, officials feared both for the city's tax base and the
character of the surrounding neighborhoods. Around this time,
"public-private" foundations and organizations whose boards were stocked
with executives of major local businesses - groups such as the Phillips
Partnership - began working in earnest to fortify the corporate presence
in the area.

Norwest Mortgage, which became Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, purchased and
moved into the old Honeywell building shortly after it was abandoned. The
move brought 3,500 employees. By 2000, Wells Fargo and Abbott-Northwestern
Hospitals were working with the Phillips Partnership to invest some $400
million in the neighborhood and create as many as 4,000 new jobs. Both
companies either rehabbed offices or built new ones in the area.
Additionally, it was long-rumored that Allina Hospitals and Clinics wanted
to consolidate several offices around town and move into the Sears
building, which had gone dark in 1994.

Allina, a system of hospitals, clinics, and other health care services in
Minnesota and Wisconsin, counts some 23,000 employees and 5,000 physicians
on its payroll. It's the state's largest health care nonprofit and has
seen remarkable growth and expansion, with annual revenues of roughly $2
billion. In 2004, Allina - which is the parent company of
Abbott-Northwestern - agreed to move into the Sears building, paying some
$5.2 million to headquarter as many as 1,500 employees in the Sears site.
"It's one of the great success stories of the city today," Minneapolis
Mayor R.T. Rybak told the Star Tribune at the time. "This is a decision
that transforms a community." And with that, the rush to re-create the
street for a new corporate community that had come together under the
Phillips Partnership was underway.

"I envision a Lake Street for the 21st century," says Hennepin County
Commissioner and Minneapolis mayoral candidate Peter McLaughlin, who has
played a significant role in bringing the project to fruition. One popular
refrain surrounding the project is that Lake Street hasn't been touched in
a half century, since the city's widely admired streetcar system was torn
up in 1954. And if it's true that Lake Street may be, as McLaughlin says,
"pretty tired out, physically," it is also true that the reconstruction
has little to do with transit or traffic issues.

Countless advisory committees, neighborhood groups, and business
representatives have haggled over the future of the six-mile stretch of
road, which runs through every conceivable sort of demographic enclave in
the city. By the time final plans emerged 18 months ago, it became clear
that, save for a couple of tricked-out intersections and medians alive
with shrubs and bushes, little about the road itself would change. There
will still be two lanes of traffic in each direction. Sidewalks will not
be expanded or receded. Mass transit opportunities will largely be
overlooked. Storefronts will not be demolished - at least not for now.

Instead, the renovation is mainly about what some proponents call
"beautifying" the street. Detractors call it gentrification tailored to
corporate interests, an upscaling that shows little regard for the
character of the businesses and residents who have toughed it out through
thick and thin for decades. Many believe the remaking of Lake Street will
serve to drive them out once and for all.

Just 10 years ago, the stretch of Lake Street that was torn up this past
May abutted some of the most crime- and poverty-stricken neighborhoods
anywhere in Minneapolis. Then a wave of new arrivals - most of them
Mexican and Somali immigrants - took hold of long-abandoned storefronts
and breathed life back into them. Vacant houses were rehabbed and filled
with working-class families. A lot of people along Lake Street referred to
it as a renaissance.

The portion of Lake Street that's presently torn up, which runs through
the Central, Powderhorn, and Phillips neighborhoods of south Minneapolis,
saw a twofold increase in Latino population between 1990 and 2000,
according to Census data. Thanks in part to the businesses they launched,
the heart of Lake Street was bringing in some $160 million in total tax
revenue annually by 2002, by some estimates, nearly 40 percent more than
in the previous decade.

Not surprisingly, though, this street-level revival was of less
consequence to city leaders than the happiness and stability of the
southside corporate community, which had grown to include Allina,
Abbott-Northwestern, the Phillips Eye Institute, and the Children's Heart
Clinic. In fact, the $190 million plan to rehab the Sears tower into
offices for Allina, million-dollar lofts, a hotel, and a "global market"
was one important catalyst for the Lake Street reconstruction.

"It's not about [transportation] at all," contends Wizard Marks, who has
lived in the area for more than 30 years. "There's a hope of reviving Lake
Street to some kind of yuppie standard that it's running afoul of right
now." Marks, who spent eight years driving the 21 bus route for Metro
Transit along Lake, goes on: "Nobody will admit to this, but it's a great
deal about yuppifying the street to increase the tax base. It's about
'We'll use you poor folks, thanks for what you've done, but now it's our
turn.'"

Now that advisory committees have been dissolved, resolutions have been
passed, funding has been procured, and ground has been broken, it's still
not entirely clear what the future holds for Lake Street. Will it look
like the Lake Street of old? No. But will it look like Uptown? Will it
look like Southdale Mall? There are conflicting answers.

In early May, a ceremony to launch the Lake Street reconstruction was held
at Plaza Verde, which sits near the northwest corner of Lake and
Bloomington Avenue, a long-troubled area that used to be rife with
street-level crack dealing and prostitution. In just the last few years,
some 20 single-family units of affordable housing have been built nearby,
and there's generally been a sort of triumphal spirit about the
neighborhood. Earlier, in April, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak gave his
annual state of the city address at Plaza Verde.

Rybak was also there for the May media event, along with a number of
neighborhood activists and politicos, all of whom had apparently had one
belief in common: This was the best thing that ever happened to Lake
Street. Rybak and his foe in the current mayoral reelection contest, Peter
McLaughlin, sat elbow to elbow at a table in the middle of a shop that
sold cowboy boots, Latin music CDs, and jewelry. Both men claimed no small
part in bringing a transformation to Lake Street.

When it came time for questions from reporters and a handful of area
business people, the two mayoral candidates turned over the proceedings to
a number of community members who had been on various advisory committees
surrounding the project. Questions followed: How much would the project
cost? Who was paying for it? How long would it take? At one point, a
Somali man who ran a shop in Plaza Verde spoke up. "This is all news to
me," he said. "I knew about the street being torn up, but I didn't know
about the cost." He trailed off, and then added: "I just got a bill saying
I would be assessed for this, thousands of dollars, something I knew
nothing about. Who do I talk to about this?" Blank stares and silence met
his question.

Hanging around the perimeter of the assembly was a man named Tom Johnson.
Johnson is portly and unassuming, but by all accounts he's played the
point role in shepherding the Lake Street plan. Johnson didn't speak at
the unveiling in May. He is not an employee of the city, county, or state.
Instead, he works for a Minneapolis law firm called Smith Parker, whose
role in the Lake Street deal has been irksome to critics. Smith Parker
bills itself as a "small practice chosen to represent some of the largest
interests in Minnesota," according to its website. "Yet we're not just a
firm for 'the big guys.'"

Still, they have done very well by the big guys. The website boasts that
"our clients have given us the opportunity to address some of the great
challenges in law and public policy." Smith Parker has been involved in
"successful representation of the Metropolitan Council to assure the
construction of light rail transit; counseling America's largest urban
lake restoration; ... and formation of award-winning public-private
partnerships to revitalize urban neighborhoods and guide sustainable
growth in the Twin Cities' transportation corridors."

Johnson himself is not a lawyer, though he is listed as the firm's
transportation consultant. His CV lists such posts as deputy chair of the
Minnesota Waste Management Board, assistant chief administrator at the
Metropolitan Transit Commission, director of marketing and public affairs
for MnDOT's Office of Minnesota Road Research, and unit chief of MnDOT's
Office of Environmental Affairs. The presence of Johnson and Smith Parker
in the project would seem to indicate that Lake Street is in the hands of
an accomplished public-private negotiator - and a deft legal team ready to
fend off any potential lawsuits.

Ken Avidor, an agitator who was asked to join the Lake Street "Project
Advisory Committee" (PAC) three years ago, then was asked to resign after
four months because of his protests over lack of mass-transit planning,
still wonders at Smith Parker's involvement. "They have no urban planning
experience," he notes. "They talk about public-private partnerships in
order to get things done. But what happens to the community and the
democratic process when these guys are involved? They do an end around,
because they represent very powerful interests. They see themselves as
power brokers."

Louis Smith, one of the partners at Smith Parker, serves as counsel for an
entity called the Midtown Community Works partnership. Formed in 1998, the
MCW has played a significant role in the Lake Street rehab. It acts, in
effect, as a one-stop shop for planning, promoting, and consulting on the
project. The notion came up, according to the organization's website,
because "while a renaissance of south Minneapolis was underway, a largely
neglected yet extremely valuable area of the city had been overlooked."
The website also notes that "the MCW Partnership is comprised of top
executives of prominent corporations and non-profit institutions" who
"realize that in order to sustain this renaissance, they must create a
path for targeted public and private investment within the Lake Street
Midtown Greenway Corridor.

"As discussion among these influential leaders progressed," the primer
continues, "a vision of an economically, socially, and environmentally
revitalized corridor emerged."

While community involvement and betterment are among the nominal goals to
which MCW is dedicated, there are relatively few community folks
overseeing what it does. Its board includes McLaughlin, the Hennepin
County commissioner representing the area, Mayor R.T. Rybak, and a handful
of City Council members. The board is chaired by Nate Garvis, vice
president of government affairs for Target Corp, and its other members are
Met Council head Peter Bell, Abbott-Northwestern hospitals president
Richard Sturgeon, Wells Fargo executive Kelly Gosz, Xcel Energy's Dan
Pfeiffer, and Rick Collins, vice president of the developer Ryan
Companies.

Ryan has had a hand in several high-level projects around Minneapolis,
including the Target on Nicollet Mall and the renovation of the Grain Belt
Brewery. Its revenues in recent years have been in the $500-$700 million
range. Ryan is also redoing the million-square-foot Sears tower. The
revamped 77-year-old building will house some 1,500 employees of Allina.

In a flourish of commerce-speak, the Sears building has been renamed the
"Midtown Exchange." It's part of a larger Smith Parker-led marketing
campaign to rename this stretch of Lake Street "Midtown," in an obvious
nod to the success of Uptown on its west. The marketing campaign's cost is
projected to be $500,000. As part of the May launch event, a new logo was
unveiled. It's vaguely multicultural - a sandstone-colored background,
lettered in various colors to represent "diversity," and a slogan:
"Midtown: Color. Flavor. Rhythm."

Lake Street has vexed city fathers and urban planners from the beginning.
By the mid-1940s, it was a major urban thoroughfare, but the genesis of
Lake Street goes back to the early 1860s, when it was simply a dividing
line between the farms just shy of downtown Minneapolis and the further
expanses of farmland that stretched south uninterrupted for miles. By no
real design, covered wagons began using this route to cross town, and at
some peril: Many got stuck in the lowlands and swamp--and, according to
one newspaper account, "much horse dung"--at either the Mississippi or
Lake Calhoun ends of the trail.

In 1919, Major Edward Falk, who owned a harness shop on Lake, reminisced
about the early years of the "finest boulevard in town" to the Minneapolis
Tribune. "[H]e used to sit in front of his shop and watch the throngs of
bicycle riders, men, women and boys, going in both directions," the paper
recounted. "Pedestrians had to wait for 15 to 20 minutes waiting for a
chance to cross." Falk went on to recall that "in 1885, Lake Street had no
business houses at all. There were only a few scattered houses. At that
time the intersection of Nicollet Avenue and Lake Street was the only
corner that showed any promise."

Beginning around 1890, a "steam motor line" was built from 12th Street to
Nicollet Avenue, then to 31st Street and out to Lake Calhoun. "Part of
this trip was through prairie grain fields," according to a newspaper
account. Around the same time, a streetcar line was built on Fourth Avenue
from downtown to Lake Street. It was the first in the city to be
"electrified." A "Selby-Lake interurban line" was added in 1905, according
to the Tribune. Aside from connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul across the
river, it created a great commercial interest in Lake Street. It was paved
by 1910, with streetcar tracks running down the middle of the boulevard.

Lake Street's growing pains have periodically distressed the city ever
since. In June 1927, for example, the Minneapolis Tribune reported an
effort to repave Lake Street. There was, predictably, a fight on the
Minneapolis City Council over money for the project. But in August 1927,
according to the Minneapolis Star, the repaving of Lake Street from
Hennepin to 29th Avenue was approved at a cost of $237,850.50. A year
later, the mammoth Sears tower was built. For several years it remained
the largest retail complex west of the Mississippi River. Over the next
three decades, Lake Street flourished for blocks near the intersection of
Chicago Avenue and Lake, thanks almost solely to the Sears complex and the
streetcar lines - from both Minneapolis and St. Paul downtowns, all the
way to Excelsior on Lake Minnetonka - that led to it. Commercial
development boomed.

This changed almost overnight in 1954, when the legendary Minneapolis-St.
Paul streetcar line was torn up. The General Motors Company gave money to
municipalities across the nation for major road reconstruction and offered
discounts to cities for buses the company had built. The end of the
streetcar was the beginning of the era of the automobile. (The head of the
local company that ran the streetcars had once worked for the bus division
started by General Motors.) And with it came urban decay. Lake Street was
a notable victim.

A September 1954 story from the Minneapolis Tribune heralded a project
called "Lake of Light." According to the clipping, 335 light fixtures were
to be installed between Hennepin and 29th Avenues, over a six-month
period. The project was to cost $237,000, and was part of a million-dollar
effort to revitalize and widen Lake Street. "Transition of Lake Street
from a 'boulevard of shadows' into the longest stretch of fluorescent
lighting in the world will begin next week," the clip says. "The street
will be bathed in an almost glareless bluish gray light which will make
details of traffic, pedestrians and buildings sharp and clear. There will
be nothing else like it."

Before-and-after photos published in the Minneapolis Star in May 1955 show
cobblestones, rail tracks, and streetlamps replaced by glistening pavement
and towering fluorescent lights. The "after" picture, notably, features no
traffic and no pedestrians. It was the last time anyone tinkered with Lake
Street, until now.

By the late 1960s, Lake Street had slipped into a haze of empty
storefronts, struggling auto dealerships, and petty crime. In 1968,
students at the University of Minnesota undertook a study of Lake Street
and came to the conclusion it was "ugly." "Lake Street looks like Reno,
Nevada," one student told a group of businessmen, citing bumper-to-bumper
traffic, empty sidewalks and boarded-up windows. "You have to have a
drawing card if you want people to come here, and aesthetic harmony is a
good one." According to the Minneapolis Star, the business gathering gave
the students applause and $500 for their efforts.

So began a protracted battle to get a grip on Lake Street. In 1969,
something called the Greater Lake Street Council was formed to "halt the
deterioration some businessmen felt was afflicting Lake Street." By 1972,
newspapers reported that Lake Street's "'dollar volume per square foot"
was $30, compared to $56 in downtown Minneapolis and $100 at Southdale
Mall in Edina - the country's first enclosed shopping mall, built in 1962.

Linda Berglin, then a 28-year-old candidate to represent the area in the
state Legislature, told the Star, "It's not a very attractive street. It's
too cluttered and too junky." The newspaper counted 78 vacant storefronts
between Garfield and Cedar Avenues alone. "Though aging," the paper
concluded, "Lake Street still ranks as [the] 6th-largest retail trade area
in the Twin Cities." Photos from the era depict record stores, head shops,
motorcycle shops, and hippies drinking 16-ounce cans of Grain Belt on the
street. It was a far cry from the retail frenzy after World War II.

Through the years, a series of grand plans and revitalization schemes has
followed. One that took hold was Calhoun Square, which solicited tenants
with a 1979 pamphlet that bragged about how many cars idled at Hennepin
and Lake each day. (The mall didn't open for another five years.) In 1982,
something called the Greater Minneapolis Metropolitan Corporation offered
$2 million in loans to area business owners to spruce up the place.
Despite optimism that this signaled a rebirth, the money was disbursed
with no discernible result.

Businesses continued to leave the area. The most notable was
Minneapolis-Moline, a farming-equipment factory that had provided all
sorts of labor jobs around town - and the Midwest - for years; the company
was gone by the early 1970s. In its absence, a 26-acre plot near Lake and
Hiawatha Avenue was left to go to seed until 1975, when a $7 million
project brought a Target store and a strip mall anchored by a Super Valu.
(The developer was Ryan Companies.) On the whole, however, Lake Street's
decline continued. The final blow came in 1994, when the enormous Sears
tower closed for good. Ray Harris, the man who conceived the Calhoun
Square project, promised to do the same for the vacant structure. But
that, too, fell by the wayside. All through the 1990s, it seemed that no
one with serious money wanted to touch Lake Street.

Around this time, a group dedicated to changing that was formed. Hatched
in 1997, the Phillips Partnership today boasts of having "leveraged and
guided institutional investment to improve the long-term livability of the
Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis," according to its website and many
promotional newsletters. "The organization has set national precedents for
strategic cooperation between the public and private sectors."

While some of its initiatives have been heralded for bringing jobs and
office space to south central Minneapolis, the Partnership's interests
have been largely political and professional. In some respects the
Phillips Partnership looks a lot like the Midtown Community Works. Its
current board includes McLaughlin and Rybak, along with Richard Sturgeon,
the president of Abbott-Northwestern hospitals, Susan Davis, senior vice
president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Alan Goldbloom, CEO of Children's
Hospitals and Clinics, and Rick Collins, vice president of Ryan Companies.
Finally, Tom Johnson of Smith Parker oversees the partnership's
"transportation initiative."

A notable Phillips alum is Mike Christenson, who now has a job with the
city's department of Planning and Economic Development (CPED). Christenson
represented Allina's interests in the Phillips Partnership and, according
to his bio on the city's website, served as an attorney for Smith Parker.
"The agreement behind the partnership," Christenson says, "brought a lot
to the table."

By late 2003, plans for the long-vacant Sears tower were at last moving
forward. Ryan had signed up to renovate the building, and Allina had
committed to putting a lot of employees there by consolidating other
scattered-site offices. This was spurred in no small part by the presence
of the Wells Fargo and the hospitals in the neighborhood - it suddenly
looked like an economically viable corridor. The refilling of the Sears
tower created a buzz. Most of the newfound momentum was chalked up to the
role that that the Phillips Partnership, Midtown Community Works, and
Smith Parker had played in creating the business consortium. The fact that
Allina committed to stay was, for Ryan and other entities, "decisive,"
Christenson says.

There had been so much struggle over Lake Street in recent years, though,
that many failed to notice one minor detail. For years, the city of
Minneapolis had been in charge of Lake Street. But the Minnesota
Department of Transportation plays a significant role in determining which
government entities oversee what roads, and in 1993, it determined that
Hennepin County should be responsible for Lake Street. From then on, the
county board would take the leading role in any major projects concerning
the street.

Smith Parker has three contracts with Hennepin County. The first one,
dated October 2, 2001, calls upon the law firm to, among other things,
"provide staff resources for overall Project management," "designate and
provide a Project Manager to communicate and work directly with the County
and City, and to serve as Project spokesperson," and to "develop and
implement a program to engage the public, through direct participation in
Project development and decision making." The cost of these services, the
contract notes, shall not exceed $300,000.

By July 22, 2004, another contract had been signed to raise that figure to
$555,000. A still later revision, as yet unsigned, amends that to
$655,000. This is one of the sorest points in the whole affair to some
opponents of the plan. By several accounts, Smith Parker had little
interest in the community process at any point. The Project Advisory
Committee meetings were often contentious, and a host of community
volunteers quit in disgust. It still leaves a bad taste.

"They were beholden to lobbyists from day one," Ken Avidor claims. "They
had Allina representatives in the room with them. They think they can't do
any of this stuff without corporations. The immigrants have brought so
much to Lake Street, but it's not the kind of thing that they get to be a
part of, now that there's corporate value in the project."

Projections as to the cost and scope of the Lake Street revamp have been
ever-changing, but the first phase, from roughly east of I-35W to 21st
Avenue, will cost the county $10.1 million. This is to be completed in the
fall of 2006, according to the latest county records. The next phase, from
Dupont Avenue to 35W, will start next year, and is supposed to cost the
county $7.5 million. The final phase, from 27th Avenue South to West River
Parkway, will start in 2007 and run through the next year, to the tune of
$9 million. Additional costs to be borne by the city of Minneapolis are
projected at $1.5 million for each phase.

Then there is the so-called "Access Project," a plan that would further
transform Lake Street by putting freeway entrance and exit ramps at Lake.
Though the project will be funded federally in large part, the county has
to foot the bill for all sorts of "streetscaping." Plans have ground to a
halt, but estimates put the cost of the Access Project at more than $200
million in federal, state, and local dollars. Smith Parker also holds the
contract for the Hennepin County portion of that. "That might be finished
by 2010," Smith Parker's Tom Johnson notes. "But nobody knows for sure."

That said, there will be no change in traffic flow or transit. One report
shows that car traffic on Lake Street has waxed and waned without changing
much overall since the 1960s. A report from the McKnight Foundation,
heavily critical of the redesign, notes that there will be 25,000 daily
car trips at the intersection of Chicago and Lake when the project is
completed. This is roughly the same as it's been for the past 20 years.

So what's the point of the project? "It's going to be a good, safe,
comfortable place to have fun," says Smith Parker's Tom Johnson, citing
Uptown as an example. "Property along Lake Street is going to emerge into
housing, restaurants, and retail." There's little doubt that the leaders
behind this project want a place where employees of Wells Fargo, Allina,
and the hospitals can feel welcome. They also want it to be, as CPED's
Christenson says, "a regional retail destination." If a Starbucks replaces
a Mexican boot shop, so be it.

Johnson, McLaughlin, and Christenson all point out that one of the major
renovations of the "Midtown Exchange" will be a 78,000-square-foot "global
market" for immigrant shop owners on the ground level of the old Sears
tower. (The city just approved a loan to fund part of it in mid-August.)
"Is it a concern that we might lose these immigrant businesses?"
McLaughlin asks. "Sure. But we're doing what we can to preserve it. It has
a unique character and we're trying to build on it."

But others, like Wizard Marks, wonder how much of the current-day Lake
Street will survive. "They're trying to redo the economic engine of the
city," Marks offers, saying she's not entirely opposed to simply
rebuilding the street. "It's like they want to run us out of town. This
neighborhood is working-class and always will be. We were born here and
raised here, or we came here to contribute to the street as immigrants,
and this is how you treat us?"

Marks, who lives on a fixed income, says flatly, "I won't be here by the
time it's all done." She notes that she will be assessed $22,500 in the
next 15 years for the reconstruction.

Tom Johnson denies that Wells Fargo, Allina, or anyone else drove the
project, but there's no doubt it's designed to facilitate what Christenson
refers to as "campus expansion" for the corporations in the neighborhood.
Johnson seems perplexed when asked about the desire to drive out the
immigrant population: "I haven't heard that at all."

But how will the businesses, and the cultures, that have grown up along
Lake Street in the past decade survive? "You've got the wrong source on
that," he answers. "You'd have to ask them."

Since May, there have been marketing campaigns for shop owners to put
signs in windows, declaring in various languages that the businesses are
open and that "Lake Street will never close" during the construction. And
community and city leaders note that there are loans available - with 18.5
percent interest rates - to get shopkeepers through tough times. A host of
business owners, immigrant and native merchants alike, believe they'll
make it through the reconstruction, but they have to believe so. The truth
of the matter is, no one knows for sure.

Mark Simon, whose family has owned Roberts Shoes, on the corner of Chicago
and Lake, in the shadow of the Sears tower, since 1937, offers that the
reconstruction has been "very difficult." His sales are down 40 percent.
But he remains "very optimistic." John Wolf, who has owned the
Chicago-Lake Liquors store that has sat kitty-corner from Roberts since
1973, allows that the project has been "shitty. And you can quote me on
that." He sits in the expansive basement of his store and grins when the
foundation rumbles from the trenching equipment at work outside. "There
are two factors here," Wolf continues. "One, you are killing my business.
And, two, you are assessing me for it." Wolf figures that he'll be
assessed "hundreds of thousands of dollars," over the next 15 years for
the remaking of Lake Street.

Still, he welcomes the project. "You only do this once every 50 years, so
you survive," he says. "It will not look like Southdale. It will not look
like Calhoun Square. This will look like a neighborhood that has wonderful
businesses serving Allina, Wells Fargo, and shoppers from all around.
There has been this perception that Lake Street is a dangerous place, and
we want to change that, pull people from the Mall of America."

Across the street, the Midtown Exchange is selling million-dollar lofts.
"The genesis of this project was that we wanted to make traffic flow
better," says Wolf, who has sat on a number of "subcommittees" regarding
the project. "Now maybe it is about upscaling. But nobody wants it the way
it was." Wolf concedes that he can afford to think that way. His has a big
enough business to weather the economic storm. Many merchants in the
neighborhood, he knows, are about to get pushed out. "As far as the
immigrant community, what are the county and Smith Parker supposed to
say?" he asks. "They care? Of course they care. Is it lip service? Maybe.
But how can they show they care beyond lip service?"

Just across the street, Miguel Hernandez would settle for lip service. No
one, he says, has come to offer him assurances that Marisquera El Nayarita
will make it through the long spell of construction. The thought of 18.5
percent loans leaves him shaking his head. The project will go on hold
after November, when winter comes, then pick up again in the spring.
Hernandez knows now that Lake Street, the main route to his business, will
be torn up for the next three years.

"This is not business for me," he says, looking out the window. "I
believed this was an opportunity, but this is not it. My landlord says the
rents will go up when it's all done. I guess you could say that got me
kind of down, because I was just hoping to make it through, and that's it.
But sometimes I wonder: Who is this all for?"

Vol 26  Issue 1298  PUBLISHED 10/19/2005
URL: www.citypages.com/databank/26/1298/article13781.asp
HOME: www.citypages.com
City Pages is the Online News and Arts Weekly of the Twin Cities


--------9 of 9--------

 Kenneth Rexroth, 1938
 AUTUMN IN CALIFORNIA

 Autumn in California is a mild
 And anonymous season, hills and valleys
 Are colorless then, only the sooty green
 Eucalyptus, the conifers and oaks sink deep
 Into the haze; the fields are plowed, bare, waiting;
 The steep pastures are tracked deep by the cattle;
 There are no flowers, the herbage is brittle.
 All night along the coast and the mountain crests
 Birds go by, murmurous, high in the warm air.
 Only in the mountain meadows the aspens
 Glitter like goldfish moving up swift water;
 Only in the desert villages the leaves
 Of the cottonwoods descend in smoky air.
       Once more I wander in the warm evening
 Calling the heart to order and the stiff brain
 To passion. I should be thinking of dreaming, loving, dying,
 Beauty wasting through time like draining blood,
 And me alone in all the world with pictures
 Of pretty women and the constellations.
 But I hear the clocks in Barcelona strike at dawn
 And the whistles blowing for noon in Nanking.
 I hear the drone, the snapping high in the air
 Of planes fighting, the deep reverberant
 Grunts of bombardment, the hasty clamor
 Of anti-aircraft.
                        In Nanking at the first bomb,
 A moon-faced, willowy young girl runs into the street,
 Leaves her rice bowl spilled and her children crying,
 And stands stiff, cursing quietly, her face raised to the sky.
 Suddenly she bursts like a bag of water,
 And then as the blossom of smoke and dust diffuses,
 The walls topple slowly over her.
                                                   I hear the voices
 Young, fatigued and excited, of two comrades
 In a closed room in Madrid. They have been up
 All night, talking of trout in the Pyrenees,
 Spinoza, old nights full of riot and sherry,
 Women they might have had or almost had,
 Picasso, Velasquez, relativity.
 The candlelight reddens, blue bars appear
 In the cracks of the shutters, the bombardment
 Begins again as though it had never stopped,
 The morning wind is cold and dusty,
 Their furloughs are over. They are shock troopers,
 They may not meet again. The dead light holds
 In impersonal focus the patched uniforms,
 The dog-eared copy of Lenin.s Imperialism,
 The heavy cartridge belt, holster and black revolver butt.
       The moon rises late over Mt. Diablo,
 Huge, gibbous, warm; the wind goes out,
 Brown fog spreads over the bay from the marshes,
 And overhead the cry of birds is suddenly
 Loud, wiry, and tremulous.

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