News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Wednesday March 19th 2025
First Anniversary, New Director, Commission on Health
Good food, stories, discussion and debate have characterized the first full year of Backyard Initiative gatherings like this one at the Cultural Wellness Center, 1527 East Lake Street.
by Janice Barbee
The Backyard Initiative, a partnership between Allina and the surrounding community, will be celebrating its first anniversary on January 30, 2010. Come to the Cultural Wellness Center to hear about the accomplishments of the past year and plans for 2010.
The Backyard Initiative”'s assessment process is already producing a great deal of knowledge. Community residents have conducted 21 Listening Circles, the notes from which are now being analyzed by residents. They will create a report for the community and Allina that will be presented at the January meeting.
The walk-around is now over 1/3 completed. Community residents hired by Wilder Research are walking around the Powderhorn Park, Central, and Corcoran and the four Phillips neighborhoods to ask people about their health and the health of the community. Residents designed the questions and they will be interpreting the results. The great majority of residents have been interested in participating, especially as they learn that other residents are asking the questions.
New BYI Project Director
Allina hired a new project director for the Backyard Initiative in early November.… Read the rest “First Anniversary, New Director, Commission on Health”
Thanks to YOU, The Alley Is Bound for the Future!
60 people attended the Oct 23rd Bound for the Future event. Here a third of them are pictured listening to Cathy Strobel describe the project.
by Susan Gust
Neighbors, friends, advertisers, writers, cartoonists, delivery people, volunteers, young and old, new and well-heeled,—–gathered at the Cultural Wellness Center for a terrific Annual Meeting celebrating 34 years of The Alley Newspaper. This important event also served as a fundraiser for our Bound for the Future Project.
Cathy Strobel, President of Alley Communications”' Board of Directors announced at the meeting that the Hennepin County Library has generously decided to contribute the cost of printing and binding two sets of the 17 volumes holding 30 years worth of history, photos and stories contained in over 4,000 pages of The Alley Newspaper. One of these two sets will be located at the Downtown Library and the other set will be available in our own community at the Franklin Library. The Board and volunteers of Alley Communications, the community owned, non-profit publisher of The Alley Newspaper, are so very grateful for the efforts of the staff of the Hennepin County Library and Commissioner Peter McLaughlin”'s office that helped to make this project successful.
The printing of these two sets has been completed and now the volumes are being bound.… Read the rest “Thanks to YOU, The Alley Is Bound for the Future!”
With Necessity as the Mother of Invention, Brothers “Rack-Up” Success
The infamous Seward racks at the Co-op
by Megan Sheridan
It all started at the University of Minnesota”'s Campus Security. As Rolf Scholtz and his brother Derk used to patrol the Twin Cities CamÂpus, they would notice how unappealing and dysfunctional the bike racks were ”“ as far as they could tell, the market for aesthetically appealing, U-lock compatible bike racks was wide open. After spending some time out of college in an ecoÂnomic development position, Rolf, along with his artistically inclined brother started Dero Bike Racks, now at 2657 32nd Ave S. And since 1995, they have been producing racks that are shipped all across the country as well as other parts of the world.
The foundation of Dero”'s work is based on functionality and artistic appeal: all Dero racks are U-lock compatible, so users are assured that their bikes are safe; and all Dero racks are aesthetically attractive, so architects and planners can integrate them as visible aspects of their designs.
Dero Bike Racks is also firmly rooted in the community. The original office was located at Seven Corners, directly above Bullwinkle”'s Saloon and warehousing located in Phillips. The company”'s first real break was when they worked with Uptown to do one of the nation”'s first large-scale artistic bike rack installation.… Read the rest “With Necessity as the Mother of Invention, Brothers “Rack-Up” Success”
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