[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
A Weekly Digest of All Things Minneapolitan
Vol. 1, No. 14
November 19, 2001

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THIS WEEK IN THE OBSERVER:
* Can R.T. Let Bygones be Bygones Downtown?
* Swimming with Housing Sharks
* Artful CIA Agents
* Race Colors Post-Election Blues
* Trojan Horses and Mismatched Socks
Plus: U lawyers before the Supremes, Minneapolitans inside the Beltway, remembering a Republican Council, and saving Target Center.

(This is a preview edition of The Observer. To subscribe the full-text edition ($12/yr.), e-mail your request to [EMAIL PROTECTED])

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TIFF WITH DOWNTOWN BUSINESS LEADERS MAY HINDER RYBAK'S AGENDA
A post-election salvo fired by Mayor-elect R.T. Rybak at two downtown business leaders who supported Sharon Sayles Belton may prove damaging to the new mayor's legislative work.
As David Brauer reports in Skyway News (www.skywaynews.net), Rybak criticized Downtown Council president Sam Grabarski and Greater Minneapolis Convention and Visitors Asociation CEO Greg Ortale for their fundraising work on behalf of Sayles Belton. "I think the Downtown Council and GMCVA made a big mistake in being actively partisan," Rybak said. "They should be above reproach and play a policy role. Choosing sides makes it harder to build those [post-election] bridges."
Grabarski defended the right of the business community to say "thanks" to an incumbent mayor and warned that Rybak may have difficulty at the legislature if he holds a grudge against business leaders. "At the state capitol, we will have to put our political capital on the line to help him succeed in the city," he said. "The state capitol doesn't give mayors from the central cities an automatic welcome."
Rybak said he wouldn't hold a grudge, but added that he hoped Grabarski and his allies downtown would stay out of the political fundraising business next time around--"even if it's for me."
"Perhaps in four years his opinion may change," said Grabarski.

NEW REPORT TARGETS PREDATORY LENDING
A new report by Minnesota ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) shows that Minneapolis is home to three of the top four neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of predatory lending practices in the Twin Cities.

NEW ARTS GROUP WILL HELP EMERGING ARTISTS
Minneapolis is home to a plethora of arts groups, but the founders of the Center for Independent Artists (CIA) believe they have a constituency no one else serves: the less-ambitious.

RACE QUESTIONS COLOR POST-ELECTION BLUES
Leaders in the black community are at odds over the upset victory of Natalie Johnson Lee over City Council President Jackie Cherryhomes in the 5th Ward. As Mel Reeves writes in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (www.spokesman-recorder.com), black leaders opposing Johnson Lee, who is black, are showing their allegiance to the elite rather than to the working class. "One of the problems the election highlighted was that the leadership and much of the black community--which is overwhelmingly working class--have different agendas, or at the very least the working class agenda isn't attended to as vigorously as it should be."

U WILL ARGUE AGE DISCRIMINATION CASE BEFORE SUPREME COURT
University of Minnesota attorneys will defend the U in an age discrimination case before the Supreme Court on November 26. It will be the university's first appearance before the high court.

THE GUTHRIE'S GROUNDSWELL
Number of people signing a petition asking the City Council to delay its decision on demolishing the Guthrie Theater: 128

LOCAL ACTIVIST NAMED 'MAD DAD' OF THE YEAR AT NATIONAL CONFERENCE
The president of the Minneapolis MAD DADS organization (Men Against Destruction Defending Against Drugs and Social Disorder), was named national MAD DAD of the year at a conference in Jacksonville, Florida, in October.

NEIGHBORHOOD NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER AMONG LOCAL HEROES
Among the 14 individuals honored at the recent 2001 Minneapolis Awards was Northeaster/North News publisher Margo Fluegel Ashmore, who besides helping to run two of the best neighborhood papers in the city also puts together the annual Art-A-Whirl studio crawl and finds time to chip in on various Central Avenue revitalization projects.

IT'S JUST MY OPINION, BUT . . .
There's no sweeter irony during these days of Twins contraction fever to hear that the city-owned Target Center is a million bucks short of meeting its debt obligations this year.
It's not just the specter of similar difficulties with a new publicly owned Twins stadium down the road that makes this little news item so delicious. It's the marvelous juxtaposition of Strib editorialists calling for "leadership" from the politicians to save the Twins (as if saying "no" to a public bailout of Carl Pohlad doesn't qualify as leadership), while ignoring the bleeding on the Target Center bottom line.
Where's the impassioned call to the Harvey Mackays and the Vance Oppermans to save the arena? Where's the heartwarming personal narrative about taking your youngster to see those plucky Timberwolves pull out another unlikely victory? Where's the whining editorial about how the Warehouse District will collapse if we don't prop up the ailing Target Center?
Don't hold your collective breath, folks, because the Target Center hemorrage couldn't have come at a worse time for that tiny contingent of power brokers eager to bail out Brother Carl at any cost. It shows the risks inherent in any publicly funded stadium scheme and the folly of knuckling under to extortionists.
Indeed, if there's any mention of the Target Center crisis at all, don't be surprised if it takes the form of a dire warning: The 12-year-old facility can no longer compete as a viable revenue-producing facility, and it's time to build a new one--before we lose those Wolves.

BACKTALK
I appreciated the sentiment behind Nora Cox's commentary in the November 11 edition regarding police officers who work with horses and dogs not being involved in shootings of innocent people or animals. She shared her sense that these officers feel safer and are less likely to do something rash. However, it was my impression that officers on horseback may face very different situations than those working with dogs. Perhaps these two groups should be considered separately. Also, it appears that officers on horseback are often in more a ceremonial, window-dressing role that would preclude a lot of the situations that may give rise to accidental shootings. Keep up the interesting reports!
--John Manning
St. Paul

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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
Associate Editor: Sharon Parker
Contributing writers: Mark Engebretson, Leo Mezzrow.
Research assistance: Martin and Nora Cox
Thanks to: Phyllis Kahn, Timothy Mady, and Andy Steiner