Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Uptown's Ol' Juut Address Might Go Green
If you’ve been in Uptown lately, you might have noticed that the former Juut Salon at 2947 Hennepin Ave. S. has gotten a new paint job, its dusty blue accents replaced with a bright green. Turns out that color change was a hint for what the prominent Minneapolis building's next iteration will be. A business named Stumpybudz is registered at that address, according to the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management website.
Beyond that, info is sparse, with no opening date or official announcement out yet. But the space, located at the highly covetable intersection of Hennepin Avenue and Lake Street, has been empty since Juut left in June of 2021 due to an “escalation of crime and violence” in the area. So at this point anything moving to the neighborhood is good news.
Stumpybudz does have an intriguing website, offering early '00s vibes, a message encouraging folks to seek help in times of despair, and a video embed featuring Texas rapper/singer Teezo Touchdown.
Surgeons Describe Medical Aftermath of Annunciation Shooting
The script for covering mass shootings is, horrifically, pretty boilerplate in our news coverage: alarm over an active shooter, initial body counts, the shooter's fate and profile, and then scenes of community mourning. Less visible are the health-care heroes (term not used lightly) who literally stitch our communities back together.
So thanks to Cathy Wurzer and Gracie Stockton at MPR News for shining a light this morning on two Hennepin Healthcare surgeons, Dr. Chad Richardson and Dr. Derek Lumbard, whose Minneapolis hospital treated many of the victims of last month's deadly shooting rampage at Annunciation Church. Two Level 1 trauma centers, Children’s Minnesota and Hennepin Healthcare, worked in tandem as 17 victims were rushed in during the immediate aftermath; two children remain hospitalized, MPR reports.
Some of the details shared are deeply disturbing. "With their organs occupying a small amount of space, one bullet can do a lot of damage to a pediatric patient," Richardson says. But in a country determined to do nothing about about gun violence, they're details we should be forced to reckon with—bullets, and the gore they create, aren't abstractions.
"I think one of the things is trauma is the leading cause of death for all people, all Americans aged 1 to 44, and even up to 54; and gunshot wounds are the leading cause of death in children up to 18," Richardson concludes. "It’s really critical to support your local trauma centers."
Nearly 6% of MN Kindergarteners Are "Conscientious Objectors" to Measles Vax
If the recent news that Florida plans to end vaccine mandates had you thinking, "Sure glad I don't live there!" please restrain your Minnesotan smugness as you take in this news: More than one in 20 Minnesota kindergarteners last year was not vaccinated against measles. As Shadi Bushra reports for MinnPost, though a measles shot is "mandated" for children before beginning school, parents may exempt their kids if they have “conscientiously held beliefs” against vaccination.
That rate of non-medically exempt kindergarteners has risen from 2.9% to 5.7% over the past decade, the 11th-highest rate in the U.S. “Since the incorrect association of the measles vaccine with autism, about 25 years ago, parents have questioned vaccines a lot more and have sought to not have their kids vaccinated,” says Dr. Rebecca Wurst of the U of M School of Public Health. Having a deranged eugenicist crackpot at the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services? Probably not helping matters!
No, No! Momo Sushi Damaged in Fire.
In other news we hate: The owners of Momo Sushi at 1839 Central Ave. NE announced Sunday their restaurant will be closed until further notice. The culprit? A late-night fire that started this past Saturday.
“While we are incredibly grateful that no one was hurt, the damage is extensive, leaving the restaurant's reopening timeline unknown and its wonderful staff without a source of income,” write friends of the Minneapolis business who have set up a GoFundMe to help staff pay bills while they figure out employment. So far that campaign is about halfway to its $11K goal. Pictures on the page show that while the front end of the space seems to be mostly OK, the work/prep area is in a dire state.
In the meantime, the restaurant encourages folks to stop by their other spots for our “coffee, momo, and sushi needs.” (We have many!) That includes the cozy cute Momo Cafe down the street (read our review here) and Ama Sushi at 50th & France.
