the alley Newspaper | News & Views of Phillips Since 1976

Feature alley Articles: Then and Now

Written by the alley on 02 May 2026

Block 5

Needs of news guides what will appear in each alley newspaper. That news takes different forms. One form is Feature articles that are more in depth than a brief news story. Features may be written by people that are part of the story or more objective, but never totally unbiased…

Featured articles during 50 years of alley issues have been about the American Indian Movement, Arsenic Pollution, Child Abuse, Brutality by Police, Crime, the Garbage Transfer Station Campaign, Little Earth of United Tribes Housing, Phillips Jr. HS, Phillips Works, Phillips Pool and Gym, Redlining, the Rise & Fall of PNIA, POP, PCDC, PNHT, and SMC, other organizations, and more.

The Loss and Light essay on page 12 is a Feature story by a writer who is part of the story.
Within that story, Block 5 is mentioned. Block 5 has been a Feature story in several issues.

What is Block 5? An agreement was made by two hospitals and Phillips neighbors to define and limit what healthcare expansion would be. A Multi-Block Land Use Covenant was agreed upon. The city blocks included around Abbott-Northwestern and Children’s MN Hospitals were numbered and labeled for residential or hospital development. Block 5 was agreed upon to remain residential.… Read the rest “Feature alley Articles: Then and Now”

Gallery of Light and Loss

Written by the alley on 02 May 2026

Part 7

By HARVEY WINJE

Positive-Sum
Post-Tenion
This 7 chapter essay on connections and loss of connections between people, places, and events also explains times of loss of trust. Those losses have occasionally led to enlightenment and inspiration moving forward. It has been a welcome experience even to have that transformation happen even as I have written this.
I am a novice to loss having lived for only eighty-five and one half years on this land stolen centuries ago.
Indigenous people lost land and trust, but their connection to ancestors, soul of culture, language, and the essence of the tangible world survived.
I have rich memories. I struggle to learn from them and bring light into my life from the crystalized gems that can outshine the darkness of losses.

“The whole was greater than the sum of the parts.”

It wasn’t called Block 5 when my family moved there in 1941. It was an unusual block including several duplex houses, four single family houses, five stores, two churches, a gas station, two blocks from the ‘golden-mile’ of Park Ave. mansions, and a slight mix of people including the millionaires on Park Avenue. Five blocks away on Lake St. was Sears department store and catalog sales regional warehouse, many car dealerships, Grapes Our Own Hardware, and Ingebretsen’s eight blocks further.… Read the rest “Gallery of Light and Loss”