Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily midday digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
Flyover Country? More Like Fartover Country.
Tweets asking why Minneapolis smells like shit have become a stinky, stinky mid-October ritual. This morning was no exception. The reason never changes: It’s the odor of literal feces wafting from unfrozen farmland to your doorstep. “This time of year it is common to experience the smell of manure and fertilizer originating from farm fields across southern Minnesota and northern Iowa,” the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s David Brown told Bring Me the News in 2020. “With harvest ongoing, these smells may be present until late fall when the ground freezes.” If you'd like to watch three newswomen in dresses discussing today's stench specifically, Fox 9's morning program addressed the issue for three entire minutes this morning. "There's no need to panic," the station's website promises, which, honestly, kinda has us feeling panicky. You have to wonder: What do coastal elites think when us agrarian-adjacent folk become entombed in farm smells? We know the answer...
Portrait of a Slumlord
There's some great reporting from occasional Racket contributor Henry Pan in Southwest Voices this week regarding a local landlord whose properties have become a dangerous nuisance for their neighborhoods. C. David George owns a number of Minneapolis buildings, including 200 Oak Grove, 2621 Pillsbury, 2515 Blaisdell, and 2312 Lyndale Ave. S. He started buying buildings in 1969, and signs of neglect started showing up across his mini empire just over 20 years later: deterioration, vermin, broken appliances, gas leaks. At this point, the single landlord has amassed hundreds of violations at his properties, some of which are now abandoned, occupied by squatters, or condemned. Pan spoke with former tenants to learn about the effects of this neglect, and though George (unsurprisingly) wouldn't respond to inquiries, the story paints a compelling portrait of a slumlord who currently has 212 vacant units in the city.
So, How Are Ryan Adams Tickets Selling for Tonight's Show?
Clues that Ryan Adams was a dipshit were never in short supply. More disturbing insights into the alt-country star's personal life emerged in early 2019, when ex-wife Mandy Moore, ex-girlfriend Phoebe Bridgers, and other accusers came to the New York Times with claims that Adams had been psychologically controlling, sexually manipulative, and generally sketchy. Adams, now 47, began attempting a comeback almost immediately. The always-prolific rocker has quietly issued five albums since getting #MeToo'd; he sold out Carnegie Hall this past May, prompting Variety to recently ask: "Can Ryan Adams Be a Rock Star Again?" Not in Minneapolis. With just hours until showtime, Adams's State Theatre gig is looking like it'll be extremely intimate, as pictured below. You can get in the door for $25, but not financially supporting a creep with a hit-or-miss discography remains free—and fun!
Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign
Ever wonder how Minneapolis manages its street signs? This MinnPost piece by Bill Lindeke is all about how the city makes and maintains its 110,000-ish signs. A few fun facts from the story: Parking signs vastly outnumber other types of signs; we’re slowly moving away from being a language-based sign country to a symbol-based one (apparently this is very European of us—ooo la la!); and “deer crossing” signs are being phased out because drivers tend to not “see” them. Be sure to click the link to see a pic of my neighborhood sign, which gets hit several times a year. (It looks rough, but I promise you the cars always look worse).
