the alley Newspaper | News & Views of Phillips Since 1976

Cedar-Riverside: A Sketch of Displacement and Resistance

Written by the alley on 01 August 2023

By JESSIE MERRIAM, Public History student working on a mobile museum for Our Streets Minneapolis.

Originally published in local punk-adjacent newsletter zine, Restless Legs Inquirer. Re-printed with permission.

Cartoon of the forces shaping Cedar Riverside, for community listening sessions in May 2022. By Jessie Merriam.

The wavy-crusted pie slice that is now called Cedar Riverside was once a continuous neighborhood with Seward and Phillips. Also known over the years as Riverside, Seven Corners, Bohemian Flats, Snoose Boulevard (Snus = Swedish snuff), “The Haight Ashbury of the Midwest,” and “Little Mogadishu,” Cedar Riverside has always been a place of intersections. “There were no neighborhoods before Urban Renewal–we lived in South Minneapolis! They needed clever labels. Our speech had nothing to do with neighborhoods,” reported a Seward neighborhood elder historian over coffee this January. “Block groups! That’s the basic foundation–come on now! Organizing neighbors to support each other in small groups.”

MANY GROUPS HAVE SHAPED THE CHARACTER OF CEDAR-RIVERSIDE:
1805: A small group negotiates “Pike’s Purchase” that will displace the Dakota from their pathways between the two falls, Owamniyamni and Minnehaha.
1920: The city’s first Black congregation, St. James AME, moves to an old synagogue on 15th Ave (demolished for I-35).
1956: The Federal Highway Act funds the interstate system, and the University of Minnesota is granted eminent domain by the legislature.… Read the rest “Cedar-Riverside: A Sketch of Displacement and Resistance”

Don’t Miss Out on Medicare Benefits

Written by the alley on 01 August 2023

By JETTA WIEDEMEIER BOWER for the Senior LinkAge Line

Barbara B. lives in Minneapolis, and she got a chair for her husband that helps him stand up after sitting in it and a button to wear around his neck to call for help if he needs it. She got these things because she called the Senior Linkage Line® to ask for help with getting Medicare benefits. “There are people out there who just don’t know what’s available to them,” Barbara says. “Older people worked hard for years, and we deserve these benefits.”

Janice H., also of Minneapolis, says there are a lot of people in her African American community who don’t know about Medicare. “They assume it’s not for them because they don’t quite understand it,” she says. “And they don’t realize that a lot of services and benefits are available at no cost.”

As the volunteer and outreach manager for the Senior LinkAge Line, I can tell you that Barbara and Janice are right. And that’s why we work to get Medicare information out to people who could be getting the benefits they need and deserve. We can help you get your benefits.

Medicare is federal health insurance that began in 1965 for people 65 and older.… Read the rest “Don’t Miss Out on Medicare Benefits”

Be An Informed Voter: Understanding Ranked-Choice Voting

Written by the alley on 01 August 2023

By LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS MINNEAPOLIS

Number 4 in a Series

Since November of 2009, Minneapolis has employed ranked-choice voting in all municipal elections, and will do so again this year.

Ranked-choice voting (RCV) is a method of voting where you can choose up to three candidates in the order of your preference. You are given the opportunity to ‘rank’ your vote – first choice, second choice, and third choice. The identical roster of candidates will be listed in three columns on your ballot, one column for each choice. This voting method allows your vote to count toward another candidate if your favorite (first choice) candidate loses on the first ballot.

For example, if your first-choice candidate doesn’t win, your vote is transferred to your second choice. Then, if your second choice is eliminated, your vote is transferred to your third choice. It is important to understand that you are not required to vote for more than one candidate – the second and third choice candidates are optional. But the advantage to ranking three candidates is that it potentially gives you more of a say in selecting a candidate of your choice.

HOW TO MARK YOUR RCV BALLOT