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Random alley News
By LINDSEY FENNER Hennepin County Lead Paint Removal Funding Assistance: Hennepin County has a program to help eligible homeowners and landlords pay for lead paint removal, which includes a free home test and up to $12,000 for work, including new windows. Visit https://healthyhomes.hennepin.us/ to see if you qualify. Contact healthy-homes@hennepin.us Phone: 612-543-4182. In 2018, more than 200 children tested for lead in Hennepin County had blood lead levels high enough to damage their health.In young children lead ex-posure can cause: Brain and nervous system damageSlowed growth and devel-opmentLearning and behavior problemsHearing and speech prob-lems The government banned lead paint in 1978. Homes built before then likely have lead paint. Abbott Northwestern Parking Ramp Expansion Passes City Planning Commission: As part of their planned Allina/Abbott Northwestern campus renovation (see the February 2021 alley for project details) Allina has been granted [...]
RETURNING – Chapter 8: Sweet & Sour
By PATRICK CABELLO HANSEL As our little family walked towards Lake and Bloomington, two other forces started to move. On 17th, the evening crew began to disperse towards the corners that their regular customers knew well. And from a small house deep in the swale near 24th, an elderly woman wrapped a colorful shawl around her neck and stepped out into the night wind. Angel and Luz had met at the San Miguel Bakery six years before, when it was still located in the old People”™s Bakery spot near Bloomington. The People”™s Bakery had made the Guinness Book of World Records for making the World”™s Largest Dog Biscuit, and Luz”™ Uncle Jaime was running the bakery the day they met. St. Michael the Archangel of pan dulce and tres leches had moved two blocks east to a larger place, and on this cold night, the aroma given off caught little Angelito”™s nose. “Mami, papi,” he said. “Tengo hambre. Can I have a [...]
Movie Corner: Unhoused
By HOWARD MCQUITTER II Howard McQuitter II Adjust your eyes when you see director Chloe Zhao”™s superb road film Nomadland because it has a feel of a documentary and a feel of an arthouse film, yet it”™s a true narrative. The principal star is Fern, played by Frances McDormand, who has recently lost her husband; and the local gypsum and sheetrock factory in Empire, Nevada where she worked, closed shop. The town just disappears, even the zip code doesn”™t show up on the map. Fern decides she will not stay in Empire so she packs up some small possessions and puts them in her beat-up van and takes off on the road. But before she hits the road the townspeople offer her help, even places to stay. She smiles and quietly refuses the offers. What we learn early is Fern is fiercely independent and refuses any help from churches, social services, and charity. Now she”™s a nomad traveling from one nomad community to another meeting various [...]
