Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily noontime(ish) digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
Newly Danceable Duluth Mentioned Repeatedly on Network Television
You can finally dance in Duluth bars without glancing over your shoulder to see if The Law is watching, according to Bring Me the News. The Duluth City Council has repealed a Prohibition-era law requiring a special license to allow dancing in an establishment that serves alcohol. Before you get too snooty about our northern neighbors being behind the times, remember that Minnesota didn’t repeal a statewide version of this law till 1989. And lest the Coastal Elites chime in, lemme point out that New York City kept its similar “cabaret laws” until 2017, and that zoning ordinances still prohibit dancing in many NYC neighborhoods. And while most cities have ignored these laws as quaint, old-timey relics, America’s Mayor Rudy Giuilani used them to fuck over his city’s club scene in the ’90s. (And remember that the correct answer to “When did Giuliani get like this?” is “He was always like this.”)
In other major Duluth news, the Zenith City was mentioned four times in one minute on a recent episode of NCIS: Hawaii, Perfect Day Duluth reports.
Interim Police Chief Loves Minneapolis
The wholly, absolutely, totally unpredictable post-election retirement of Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, who was touted as our city’s last great hope for police reform in numerous quickly recycled “Vote No” flyers, has left the essentially ungovernable Minneapolis Police Department without a nominal leader. While Jacob Frey seeks out a suitably hide-behindable replacement, he has appointed Deputy Police Chief Amelia Huffman as interim police chief. Here’s a video where she says “I love my city,” which is certainly better than hating it, I’ll give her that. Over on Twitter, former officer Colleen Ryan, who was until recently the only MPD officer to be formally disciplined for misconduct during the uprising—for speaking to the press instead of shooting rubber bullets at them—recalls her not-so-great experience with Huffman.
The Deputy Chief at the heart of my MDHR complaint, who retaliated against me for my interview with @LEBassett by denying me the opportunity to promote to training officer, is now interim chief of the MPD. Glad I got out when I did. That dept never learns...@AndrewMannix https://t.co/7gmqrPc6lH
— @clryan5 (@clryan5) December 8, 2021
Heavy Table Offers Pandemic Dining Guide
Minneapolis and St. Paul are lawless towns where viral microbes are permitted to roam free from restaurant to restaurant. So if you’d like to drink and dine in a vaxxed and/or masked establishment around here, the matter is left up to customers and owners. What might be useful, then, is a list of bars, restaurants, and other establishments that require vaccinations and/or masks. Who has undertaken such a chore? Why, Heavy Table has. The list of spots with COVID safety requirements was originally posted on Monday and is being regularly updated.
RIP Jack Riebel
Chef Jack Riebel's long public journey with a rare cancer has come to an end. After announcing his diagnosis in 2019, the beloved Twin Cities chef—who only handed over his culinary director duties at The Lexington last month—passed away Monday, surrounded by his loved ones. His 40-year career in local food touched so many people, and you can read lovely remembrances of him from Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, the Star Tribune, and in this obituary, which announces the Jack Riebel Memorial Culinary Scholarship. Or, just scroll social media for a while. You'll find Ann Kim, Jon Wipfli, Sameh Wadi, Justin Sutherland, and dozens of other notable personalities in and out of the food world remembering their friend and thanking him for the memories.
