[Mpls] This Week in The Minneapolis Observer

[craig]

T H E M I N N E A P O L I S O B S E R V E R
Vol. 1, No. 6
September 17, 2001

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THIS WEEK IN THE OBSERVER:
* Reason for Hope in a Crazy World
* Parents Search for Options in the Wake of School Closings
* Decor Wars at City Hall
* The Brooklyn Center Twins?
* The Latest Poop on SW Dog Parks
* Child Abduction Scare on the North Side
* Local Wackos Threaten Muslims
* Plus: Homeschooled populists, Planting a peace garden, beefing up security for U president, the city's best murals, and America at war with itself.

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REASON FOR HOPE IN A CRAZY WORLD
In Tuesday's mayoral election, Mahamoud Wardere outpolled Larry Leininger of the White Working Man's Party 160 to 78.

PARENTS SEARCH FOR OPTIONS IN WAKE OF SCHOOL CLOSINGS
Last month's announcement by Minneapolis school officials that the district would close six schools after this year to cut costs has sent scores of parents across the city scurrying for options. At Bottineau Early Education Center in Northeast Minneapolis, parents want to transfer their program to a nearby school, against the district's wishes.


HOMESCHOOLING AS POPULIST REVOLUTION
Controversial educator and critic of compulsory schooling John Taylor Gatto got in a car in war-torn New York last week and drove to Minneapolis to address some 300 homeschoolers at a conference of the Minnesota Homeschoolers' Alliance. In an address at the University of Minnesota Law School on Saturday, Gatto declared that "Homeschooling is the greatest populist revolution in American history."


PLEA BARGAIN
The forward-thinking editors at Property, the monthly newspaper of local commercial property owners, have come up with an innovative take on the Brian Herron/Basim Sabri case: If Sabri is convicted of bribery, Herron should serve the time.

AND WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, WOULD YOU DO SOMETHING ABOUT THOSE SHOES?
With scandal and electoral chaos swirling through City Hall, City Council president Jackie Cherryhomes and vice president Joe Biernat have stepped forward to issue a bold new directive on . . . office decor.


40TH STREET GREENWAY TAKING SHAPE
The proposed greenway designed to connect bicyclists from Kingfield to the river has been presented to the affected neighborhoods for their review.

BROOKLYN CENTER JOINS TWINS BALLPARK DEBATE
Officials in the northwest suburb of Brooklyn Center are floating a proposal for a 40,000-seat baseball stadium as part of a central business district redevelopment plan, reports City Business (www.citybusiness.com).

SOUTHWEST DOG PARK INITIATIVE FLAGGING
Park Board plans for siting a new off-leash area for dogs in Southwest Minneapolis have bogged down for lack of input by--you guessed it--non-dog lovers.

MORE SECURITY FOR U PRESIDENT
Responding to last week's terrorists attacks, the University of Minnesota Board of Regents Thursday approved a $120,000 allocation to beef up security around Eastcliff, residence of university president Mark Yudof, according to The Minnesota Daily (www.mndaily.com).

BENEFIT FOR KEVIN KLING
While actor/playwright Kevin Kling continues to recover from injuries suffered in a recent motorcycle accident, Frank Theater and director Wendy Knox are holding a Sept. 30 benefit performance of Bertold Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Tickets are $25. Call 724-3760 for more information.

THE BIG PICTURE
The city's best murals, in no particular order, according to City Pages:
* La Llorna, 810 E. Franklin
* We Claim Our Lives, 10th Ave. S. and E. Franklin
* Peacemaker Center, 2300 Cedar Ave. S.
* Kemps/Marigold Building, 340 W. Broadway
* Untitled, 1890 Glenwood Ave. N.
* U Otter Stop Inn, 617 Central Ave. NE
* Celebration of Life, Olson Memorial Highway and Lyndale Ave. N.
* Garfield Aquarium, Fresh Fish, 3325 Garfield Ave. S.
* Merit Graffiti Mural, Merit Printing, 117 N. Second St.
* Pillsbury House Mural, Pillsbury House, 3500 Chicago Ave. S.
* Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Ave. S.
* Life Force, 1889 Glenwood Ave. N.
* Crossroads, 3013 Lyndale Ave. S.

WACKOS FOREVER
On Wednesday my kids and I ate lunch at the Crescent Moon bakery and caf� on Central Avenue NE. We admired the interior decor modeled after a courtyard in Afghanistan and listened to the cheerful singing of a small white bird in a cage as I read a pamphlet about Islam and we ate our gyros and hallal pizzas. I was concerned about a possible backlash against our Mulsim immigrants and asked the man behind the counter if he had received any threats or negative comments since the dreadful incidents of the day before. "Only a couple of calls from wackos," he replied. "There are always the wackos."
-Sharon Parker

MORE OBSERVING
We are heartened to learn of a new free weekly poking its head out of the University of Minnesota campus. The Campus Observer launched its premier issue Sept. 10 with news, analysis, a photo of a newly collapsed ceiling in Northrop Auditorium, and--gulp--no ads. Though no relative of this e-rag, we wish publisher/executive editor Bryan Anthony Keogh and his staff a long and prosperous publishing life.

DOWNTOWN PRAYER SERVICES SET IN RESPONSE TO TERRORIST ATTACK
Downtown churches will hold worship services every day this week for parishoners coping with the cataclysmic events of last week. The schedule:
Monday, Sept. 17
12 noon: Cathedral Church of St. Mark
6 p.m.: Basilica of St. Mary

Tuesday, Sept. 18
12 noon: Augustana Lutheran Church
6 p.m.: Church of Gethsemane

Wednesday, Sept. 19
12 noon: Westminster Presbyterian Church
6 p.m.: First Unitarian Society of Minnesota

Thursday, Sept. 20
12 noon: Wesley United Methodist Church
6 p.m.: Plymouth Congregational Church

Friday, Sept. 21
12 noon: Central Lutheran Church
6 p.m.: Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church

POLICE BLOTTER
North Minneapolis:
Two recent incidents of a stranger approaching young boys, the first on Aug. 19, when a 9-year-old boy was grabbed from behind at the insection of 6th St. and 52nd Ave. N. and forced beneath a nearby pine tree. The suspect threatened the boy, then gave him $10 and let him go. The boy was unhurt. The suspect was described as a white male, 35-45 years old, with a medium build, collar-length brown hair, balding, with a mustache and beard. He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and blue shorts.
On Sept. 3 around 3:30 p.m., three boys were lured under the 49th Ave. bridge over Shingle Creek. The suspect offered $120 to any of them who would pull down their pants. The suspect fled between two apartment buildings at 49th and Knox. The suspect was described as a white male, 35-40 years old, 5-10 or 5-11, with medium build and short brown straight hair and a goatee. He was wearing a white T-shirt and green shorts.

AN EIGHTH OF AN ACRE: PLANTING A PEACE GARDEN
By Sharon Parker
I ordered bulbs from a Connecticut nursery to plant this fall. They haven't arrived yet. I expect they were to be shipped by air and will be delayed a bit. I can wait. As I wait I am thinking about the bulbs I ordered and realize that they will take on a different meaning for me than they had when I ordered them. My children and I will plant them in remembrance of September 11, 2001, a date which I told my son and daughter they will never forget.

BACK IN THE DAY
"It's like the high school I went to. It has the same thoughtful atmosphere."
--Visitor at the open house celebrating the completion of the Lowry Hill tunnel
Minneapolis Star
September 23, 1971


IT'S JUST MY OPINION, BUT . . .
In the wake of last Tuesday's catastrophe, there is now a certain consensus gathering behind the notion of waging an all-out war on terrorism, a campaign designed to eradicate Osama bin Laden and his ilk by placing pressure on those countries that support and harbor them. Certainly this approach has some merit, but like America's spectacularly flawed war on drugs, this sweeping attack on bad guys and their offenses against civilization will do little to address the core reasons why terrorism exists in the world.
To do that would mean the U.S.-and much of the Western world-would have to set about reassessing pretty much everything they believe in: stuff like progress, modernity, independence, the pursuit of happiness. These are the ideas we live by, the products we export happily to the so-called developing world in the not-altogether-misguided notion that if it works so well for us, why won't it work for everyone else. It's why Baywatch is the most watched TV show on the planet, why the McDonald's in Moscow is the busiest fast food joint in the world. It is our great gift to civilization-and part of the reason so many people around the globe hate us with such intensity.



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The Minneapolis Observer is published 48 times/year by Independent Media, L.L.C. �2001 Independent Media, 4152 Snelling Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55406; www.mplsobserver.com. No part of this publication may be reprinted without the permission of Independent Media. Subscriptions: $12/yr. To unsubscribe, send us an e-mail ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) and we'll get you off the list and refund the unused portion of your subscription.

Editor: Craig Cox
Contributing writers: Mark Engebretson, Leo Mezzrow, Sharon Parker.
Research assistance: Martin Cox
Thanks to: Kristin and Ernie Batson, Michael Bethke, Donna and Mark Cassutt, and Gene Martinez.

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