Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Dangerous Man's Maple Lake Era
In May of 2022, Dangerous Man moved into a 9,000-square-foot production facility in Maple Lake, which was good news for beer lovers. “We’ll have the ability to can our beer and keg it up, so that part we’re really excited about—to have our product in distribution for the first time ever," co-owner/project manager Sarah Bonvallet told Racket later that year, though she added that a "pretty awful" quirk in Minnesota liquor law meant customer-facing service remained limited to the existing northeast Minneapolis taproom/brewery.
Of course, Dangerous Man announced the closure of that Northeast taproom in September, leaving the door open for some taproom talk up there in Maple Lake. And now, they've shared some news about their "next evolution"—plans to build an outdoor taproom and beer garden on the grassy two acres surrounding the production facility.
"We have put a lot of love into the community and now we need a bit of it back," the DM team writes on Instagram. "During the last 192 days without our beloved taproom, so many folks have reached out and shared lovely memories and hopes for something new."
If you were a taproom regular, it won't be the most convenient: Maple Lake is about an hour northwest of the brewery's original location, so this'll be more of a destination than a bike around and see where the day takes ya situation. But it's nice to see some action from one of the places that helped put the Minnesota craft beer on the map—even if you'll need a map to get to their new spot. You can learn more and donate to Dangerous Man's Givebutter fundraising campaign—which has already raised nearly $20,000 as of this writing—here.
'Initial Agreement' Reached Between U, Student Protesters
The Minnesota Daily reports that the University of Minnesota and pro-Palestine student protesters reached an agreement late Wednesday night. After nearly 10 days on campus, student leaders pledged to take down their encampment Thursday. Meanwhile, the U of M is reopening the buildings it closed along Northrop Mall.
As for what comes next? Sahan Journal's Hibah Ansari has a great thread breaking down the students' demands and the university's response to each point here:
I'm going to be breaking down the university's statement acknowledging the demands here in a 🧵
— Hibah Ansari (@AnsariHibah) May 2, 2024
1. DIVESTMENT: The U hasn't agreed to divest from companies profiting in Israel yet, but student protesters will get the chance to present divestment to the Board of Regents May 10
Bye-Bye, Skyscraper?
"Just because a building is big doesn't mean it's eternal." So writes James Lileks in his column today for the Star Tribune, which looks at the potential demolition of downtown Minneapolis's Ameriprise Financial Center.
The GHR Foundation, which owns the tower, has a problem. Its tenant's lease expires in 2025, and Ameriprise plans to consolidate its downtown offices in a different building a few blocks away. Renovating it to compete with other office towers like Baker Center would be pricey; converting it into housing would be costlier yet. But there's a secret third option: GHR could simply tear the building down.
Sound radical? Lileks anticipates your hesitance, writing, "We've been tearing down skyscrapers almost as soon as we started building them." He takes readers on a historical tour de torn-down buildings: the 47-story Singer Building in New York, once the world's tallest structure, dismantled roughly 60 years after it was completed in 1908, and the nearby 52-story Union Carbide Building, which met its maker when JP Morgan Chase decided to construct a new HQ on that spot. In Minneapolis, tear-downs have generally been smaller, but include the Jewelry Exchange, the Metropolitan Building, and a number of hotels.
"However sad the loss of a skyscraper may make some of us, employees have clearly demonstrated that they don't want to come downtown to work," Lileks concludes. "That may leave some towers standing like hollow trees, hoping the next wind doesn't push them over for good."
Flamin' Hot Cheeto Art? Flamin' Hot Cheeto Art!
We love the heck out of ya, KFAI, but this headline—Alondra Garza's Modern, Whimsical Take on Traditional Charcoal Drawings—really buries the lede. SHE'S MAKING ART WITH FLAMIN' HOT CHEETOS! The Cheetos are her charcoal! Ahem, anyway... please listen to Sheila Regan's story, it's great. And, of course, never stop listening to this locally made classic:
