Phillips Unites on Pool and Gym Use & Defeat of MPRB Burying Pool under Concrete
Olympic size pool built with Model City money in 1974 that”'s future is in the throes of budgetary/politico squalor. The question remains; “Will it all be money down the drain?”.
A Commentary by Robert Albee
Two words went out over the internet the evening of March 25th: “We won!” The truth of the matter is that the Phillips Community has only secured a delay in the destruction of the swimming pool at the Phillips Community Center. The April 1st “destruction day” was announced earlier in a telephone call from Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board (MPRB) Commissioner Scott Vreeland. He confirmed a March 11th email sent from Park Board staff member Andrew Lesch to a Mid Town Phillips resident and neighborhood association board member.
In that email, Lesch wrote: “I”'m the project manager for the current renovations at Phillips Community Center. This phase involves replacement of the heating, cooling and ventilation system with new roof top units, roof replacement of the upper roof and in fill of the former pool shell for re-use in the future.”
Those were the words that began a cascade of emails and telephone calls to the MPRB from Phillips Community residents and others upset with that decision.… Read the rest “Phillips Unites on Pool and Gym Use & Defeat of MPRB Burying Pool under Concrete”
“For little fellers, not the Rockefellers”¦the improvement of people”'s lives”¦the cause of peace and justice.” ”“Paul Wellstone
Gera Pobuda artist, teacher and organizer created this acrylic paint enhanced screen print of Senator Paul Wellstone and donated it to be hung in the Community Center of Hope Community on the NE corner of the Franklin and Portland Avenues intersection.
“I”'m for the little fellers, not the Rockefellers. Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people”'s lives. It”'s about advancing the cause of peace and justice in our country and the world. Politics is about doing well for the people.” Paul Wellstone”'s voice and life that spoke and lived those words was silenced seven and one-half years ago in a plane crash that killed him, Sheila, his wife, Marcia, his daughter, and five others.*
On Friday, March 19th, Gera Pobuda, artist, organizer, and teacher, unveiled the stunning screen-print portrait she had made of him and is donating to Hope Community. It will be hung on the wall of the Community Center in their newest building on the northeast corner of Franklin and Portland and named for Sheila and Paul Wellstone.
Fittingly, she seems to have been “commissioned” to paint this as a grassroots organizer would be so inspired to do.… Read the rest ““For little fellers, not the Rockefellers”¦the improvement of people”'s lives”¦the cause of peace and justice.” ”“Paul Wellstone”
SEARCHING ”“ a Serial Novelle CHAPTER 13: Stories in the Storeroom
By Patrick Cabello Hansel
How long Angel and Luz sat in the storerooms of masks and puppets no one knows. No daylight entered their hiding place, just a few small bulbs in the ceiling lit the long hallway. It did not matter to them. They told stories of their youth: growing up amid the mangoes and papayas and alamos of their little villages in Mexico, discovering that they had been in some of the same Holy Week processions and harvest festivals. Angel laughed at some of Luz”'s stories, and realized he hadn”'t laughed in a long, long time.
As the night came on, their talk became deeper and sadder. In that crowded space, they shared””as if bread””the story of the death of Luz”' mother in a desert crossing, the estrangement Angel felt from his father multiplied recently by Angel”'s absence, the wandering spirits both of them held like a stolen treasure deep within.
Angel told Luz all he knew about the owl, the strange words, the healing of his body, the slender knowledge””cut short by the immigration raid still coursing beneath them on the street””of his ancestry. The strange lineage of the Hidalgos, how he was coming to believe that it was the ghost of Mateo Hidalgo talking to him, that he himself””Angel Augusto Cruz Rojas””was descendant of Spanish nobles and Irish mercenaries, and Aztec warriors, all rolled up in his 19 years of walking on the earth
They talked of their dreams and their defeats, their vision of the future, and the pain of today.… Read the rest “SEARCHING ”“ a Serial Novelle CHAPTER 13: Stories in the Storeroom”
