‘Cover Stories’ Archives
Phillips Community is focus of syringe disposal pilot program
By LINDSEY FENNER The City of Minneapolis is piloting a project for syringe litter clean up and disposal, centered around the Phillips Community. The project is in response to the concerning amount of syringe litter Phillips residents encounter on a daily basis. The City began doing syringe litter sweeps in July and August along Bloomington Avenue, the Greenway, and adjacent alleys. Most recently, in November, the City installed ten Syringe Drop Boxes in and near Phillips to continue to address the issue. The boxes will be emptied weekly and can be easily reinstalled if the location needs to be adjusted. According to a city spokesperson, 800 syringes have been collected from the Drop Boxes between November 6 and November 27, with the majority collected at 25th and Bloomington. In addition, there will be a pilot of 30 syringe disposal buckets for use by businesses and non-profits. The project is currently funded by a grant from the National Association of County and City Health [...]
Two lives well lived together
By LAURA WATERMAN WITTSTOCK It is often said of two people who have been together for many years that they give great gifts to one another beyond the gifts of love and caring. That and much more was true of David and Linda Back McKay, married for thirty-five years before her untimely death. Linda was a young and published poet when she went to KFAI in the Phillips Neighborhood, drawn to its volunteer strength and driven by her own desire to learn prose writing in the hot atmosphere of news deadlines rather than in a cool, dry academic classroom. There she met David McKay in about 1983. David taught her how to meet deadlines by selecting and re-writing the latest news items that would be of interest to KFAI listeners. COURTESY OF THE McKAY FAMILY David McKay and Linda Back KcKay (April 21, 1947 - September 17, 2019) In the early 80s the radio station was a primary news source, tuned into by thousands of listeners in the pre-internet and pre-cellphone days. News was [...]
”˜This is our Rondo – we just don”™t know it yet”™
Historians collecting stories from people who lived in path of I-35W in South Minneapolis TESHA M. CHRISTENSENHistorians Denise Pike (far left) and Greg Donofrio (far right) of the University of Minnesota lead a walking tour of Interstate 35W, traveling on both sides of the freeway to talk about how the interstate cut through a neighborhood. They are working to collect stories of people displaced by the interstate construction. Email donofrio@umn.edu or pikex063@umn.edu. Public meeting on history set for Oct. 10 at Hope Community. by Tesha M. Christensen Does Minneapolis have its own Rondo? Some believe that the more they dig into how Interstate 35W was planned and built through South Minneapolis that they will discover a missing neighborhood, similar to the one destroyed when Interstate 94 cut through St. Paul”™s Rondo neighborhood. “This is our Rondo,” said Shawn Lewis who grew up in South Minneapolis. “We just don”™t know it [...]
