News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Saturday March 8th 2025
Open Letter to the Community Historic Community Protection Legislation is studied locally by North Mpls. and nationally by CA”“Re-Elect Responsible Lawmakers
With regard to a post on Mpls.e-democracy forum suggesting we sweep all the incumbents from the legislature, I just received a note from a friend in north Mpls. telling me to hang on to Rep. Karen Clark and Sen. Berglin. My friend”'s neighborhood is facing exposure to becoming host to a hazardous waste site and is aware of what Rep. Clark, Sen. Berglin and many neighborhood folks have accomplished together to bring about a first-in-the-nation environmental justice zone protective of the Phillips”' population through a bill in the legislature. The legislation requires far stricter guidelines than currently exist to protect a large section of the urban core neighborhood of Phillips, based on poverty statistics, already existing area pollution, health challenges and intense diversity. Phillips and Clark/Berglin”'s high profile protective bill are being watched from as far away as California for implications and responses. The bill is historic on the environmental justice scene.
Related Images:
Alley”'s Gallery of Loss-August
Sideyard of 2512-14 Chicago Avenue looking East that is now the approximate location of the Skyway Connecting the east building of Children”'s Hospital to the new 800 car Parking ramp on the west side of Chicago Av.
Foreground: Wooden apple crate from the National Tea Grocery Store at corner of 25th St. and Chicago Av, Harvey Winje with family dog Tipper and his red J.C. Higgins bike from Sears Roebuck 5 blocks away. Back ground: A Chicago-Fremont route Twin City Rapid Transit streetcar passing by on Chicago Av. Behind the street car: the block of housing demolished in 1968 for the building of the first portion of Children”'s Hospital in 1969 by Bor-Son Construction Company under a new concept called “Turn-Key” Project in which it was all financed, designed, and built by the contractor and then paid for at the end. A new structural concept called post-tension cable construction was used which had been used locally near Loring by Bor-Son Construction for the first time in the Midwest on two, tall apartment buildings. It was a structural concept that strengthened floors subsequent to hardening of concrete and eliminated heavy beams thus minimizing the total exterior height of each floor. It resulted in minimizing the use of many building materials that extended the height of the building; i.e.… Read the rest “Alley”'s Gallery of Loss-August”
Keep citizen journalism alive!
The Great Extinction
by Peter Molenaar
July 17, 2010, a storm is brewing”¦
In the past 540 million years there have been five major events during which over 50% of animal species died. The most recent occurred 65 million years ago with the extinction of nearly all dinosaurs. What an incredible bonanza this was for the tiny ancestral shrew-like mamaliform whose gene pool was to explode and then radiate in every direction.
As for the birds, they descend from that line of dinosaurs which included T. Rex. Surprisingly, the more archaic of present day birds have existed unchanged in form for merely one million years. The cormorants residing at Powderhorn Lake appear more ancient than that.
From their island perch, our cormorants display horizontally spread wings bent vertically at the joint to declare: here I am. Their oil-drenched cousin, that iconic pelican, posed similarly before the camera.
Moreover, elements of the old hadrosaur culture have been revived by our Powderhorn geese. Some stand watch via graceful movements of head and neck, while others feed upon fresh grass or submit to tranquility. Why would a howling 20-something all-night raver ride his dirt bike directly through their midst?
And so”¦
Shrew ascended the trees and assumed a myriad of forms.… Read the rest “The Great Extinction”