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 www.mplsobserver.com Vol. 2, No. 5 September 9, 2002
This is a preview issue of The Observer. To subscribe to the full-text version ($12/yr.), just hit 'reply' and state your intentions, and we'll set you up. Thanks. ********************************************************** THIS WEEK IN THE OBSERVER: * Understanding Spike Moss * Can the Schools Reach Indian Students? * McKinsey Gets Moving * Making Bus Stops Safer * Contaminated Lots a Boon to Developers * Convention Center Expansion Paying Off Plus: Criminal containment zones, Ethiopian journalism, a Culpepper siting, fall crop report, and memory and forgetting on 9/11. ********************************************************** UNDERSTANDING SPIKE MOSS The recent conflagration in the Jordan neighborhood may have set back police-community relations a bit, but it did shed some helpful light on Spike Moss's own relations with the cops. Moss, the omnipresent City Inc. activist who always seems to show up when racial tensions are simmering, actually is a longtime supporter of Police Chief Robert Olson and an ally of Deputy Police Chief Greg Hestness. "[Olson] has always been supportive, offering cooperation from the top," Moss tells Britt Robson in City Pages (www.citypage.com). "I knew he was a workable chief from our first meeting." Hestness says, "Spike and I go back a long ways. We had a similarly successful relationship back when Kevin Brewer was shot [in the Cottage Grove neighborhood in August 2000] and he did some street work that helped keep a lid on hostilities. His grapevine is very effective." Moss has even won over Third Ward Council Member Joe Biernat, who patrolled the streets with Moss and his crew one night after the fracas. Biernat had opposed the idea of citizen patrols prior to his evening stint on the street, but came away with a different view. "Having participated in the process, I have done an absolute about-face on this," Biernat says. "I think this sort of citizen participation is essential. . . . I'm not sure they should be called patrols, but whatever you call it, it is effective." All this mutual back-slapping, however, does not guarantee peace on the North Side, Moss tells Robson. "Right now, we are in the most dangerous time in the history of the black community in Minneapolis," he says. "And when it goes, it could last anywhere from a week to two weeks. And people like myself and others probably won't be able to do anything about it." DISTRICT STRUGGLING TO SERVE INDIAN STUDENTS Parents of Indian students are pressuring school superintendent Carol Johnson for answers to problems in the schools that have led to an Indian dropout rate of 85 percent. MOVING AHEAD WITH MCKINSEY Last month, the City Council's Community Development Committee voted 5-1 to set in motion the recommendations of the McKinsey Report overhauling the city's planning and development departments. Despite the vote, reports Kevin Featherly in the Skyway News (www.skywaynews.net), plenty of questions remain about the process. RESIDENTS WORK FOR SAFER NORTH SIDE BUS STOPS Responding to drug activities at a North Side intersection, a coalition of agencies, churches, and nonprofits is working together to make school bus stops a safe place for young students. EXPANDED CONVENTION CENTER PAYING OFF Despite concerns that the Minneapolis Convention Center's $200 million expansion is adding to an already glutted national convention center market, early returns show the move is paying dividends. ************************************************************** AND NOW WE'RE ON TELEVISION, TOO!!! See firsthand why none of us ever went into TV as a career. Tune in to The Minneapolis Observer on MTN cable channel 17 Sunday nights at 8:30 for news, weather, and sports with a Minneapolis perspective. ********************************************************* _________________________________________________________ RAVES, RANTS, AND OTHER CONSIDERED OPINIONS _________________________________________________________ IT'S JUST MY OPINION, BUT . . . The trouble with history is that it's so, well, historic. I'm reminded of this fact as we slouch toward 9/11, all full of gravitas and pathos in remembrance of that cloudless blue nightmare one year ago. The newspapers and TV news machines are already churning out various shades of gut-wrenching photographs, profiles, reports, and analysis, while our political leaders solemnly take their place in front of the flag for the emotional photo-op. All this is fine, of course. What happened a year ago Wednesday deeply affected millions of people around the country, people who still need to grieve, to mourn, to howl from the rooftops with rage and vengeance. Like Pearl Harbor before and the U.S.S. Maine before that and the Alamo before that, Americans need to remember. It's historic. But Wednesday may require some forgetting, as well. I wasn't in New York or Washington or Pennsylvania last September; I lost no loved ones. And on Wednesday, I'll need to overlook my own good fortune to fully appreciate the grief felt by others. I'll need to forget that weird combination of terror and thrill I felt that Tuesday morning watching the towers come down on TV. I'll need to file away the feeling I still have that what happened there can never happen here. And that what was supposed to have changed everything really changed nothing at all. So, come Wednesday, when the prayers and the speeches and the terrible crushing silences roll across the land, look for me in the back row, wearing that stupid half-grin and wiping away another ridiculous tear. --Craig Cox ********************************************************** The Minneapolis Observer is published 48 times/year by Independent Media, L.L.C. ©2002 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 Deputy Assistant Senior Managing Editor: Sharon Parker Contributing writers: Chris Dodge, Leo Mezzrow Online technical assistance: Christopher Pollard Equine consultant: Nora Cox Perspective: Martin Cox Thanks to: Dennis Shapiro ******************************************************* Fight media consolidation! Support the independent press! Pick up your neighborhood newspaper! ******************************************************* _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
