Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
U Students Pan Moldy, Leaky Apartment Complex
Bad year for student housing near the University of Minnesota. Earlier this month we heard horror stories from students trapped in leases with Identity Dinkytown, the six-story new construction that failed to open on time for the school year. Now, via Jack O’Connor at the Minnesota Daily, we've got a new collection of aggrieved renters living in a much older complex called The Quad on Delaware. The nine-story, rinky-dink-looking Stadium Village building was constructed in 2002 as Melrose Apartments, and upkeep has apparently fallen far short. Mold, water leaks, mice, utility shutoffs, poor communication with management, and lackluster snow removal are just some of the gripes lobbed by students.
"I’d probably get woken up to a fire alarm and then when I go to make breakfast, I’d have to chase a cockroach out of the kitchen," reports third-year student Mario Valento, who says his apartment was flooded this past spring. "When I go throw the trash away, the chute would be clogged." Adds senior Grace Korpi, who says she unsuccessfully tried to break the lease to her moldy, leaky apartment, “I don’t want to spend the rest of my senior year being miserable and terrible living conditions and with mold in my unit.” Those anecdotes appear to be validated by abysmal online reviews, numerous Reddit threads warning about renting there, and even a dedicated watchdog Instagram account called The Fraud on Delaware.
MN Abortions on the Rise
The Minnesota Reformer's Christopher Ingraham has a story today on the whopping 40% increase in Minnesota-conducted abortions since the Dobbs decision was handed down in June of last year. Not that we should be surprised; our neighbors in Wisconsin and North Dakota are two of the 14 states that have outright banned abortion since the end of Roe, and as a result, Minnesota has seen a sizable increase in out-of-state abortion patients. Apparently Minnesota isn't the only state where this trend is unfolding—according to the Reformer, the total number of abortions around the U.S. increased roughly 5% in the second quarter of 2023, relative to that pre-Dobbs period the year prior. "While anti-abortion activists had hoped that the end of Roe would lead to a reduction in the overall abortion rate, if anything the opposite appears to be happening," Ingraham writes. To which those who've researched abortion rates could have told you years ago: no fucking duh.
Biz Journal Ranks Restaurants Based on Spendiest Menu Items
Readers love a list. So much so that The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal has released a mini-list teasing its megalist ranking all upscale restaurants in the metro area based on who has the most expensive entrées and experiences in town. Are you ready for some bullshit? Topping the ranking this year is Porzana, an Argentine woodfire steakhouse in the North Loop. Things you can order there (in theory, we don’t know your bank account) include a 44-ounce domestic Wagyu tomahawk for $295 and a $3,900 bottle of wine, a 1995 cabernet sauvignon autographed by Robert Mondavi. You might need to take out a loan to dine on the second most expensive location, 801 Chophouse, which slipped one spot to No. 2 this year. They also have a Wagyu tomahawk for $250 which you can wash down with a $5,500 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon. Third place goes to Gianni’s Steakhouse with lobster tails for $190 and a $4,200 pinot noir. The entire list can be found here, but you have to be a subscriber (or shell out $25) to download it.
Never Trust an Emu
In a way, you have to appreciate all that car insurance companies have done to prop up the streaming industry—if, like us, you’re too cheap to buy the ad free option, you know that 90% of the non-Kevin-Hart-related ads are for insurers. On the other hand, lord do those ads suck. Take, for instance, the Liberty Mutual spots, which center on an emu. Why an emu? Because it rhymes with LiMu, of course, as someone surely determined after a too-long pitch meeting from which everyone just wanted to go home already. Does this blurb have a point? Yes! Kind of! The Minnesota Department of Commerce investigated Liberty Mutual and determined that the insurer had overcharged Minnesotans for a variety of services, Bring Me the News reports. As a result, Liberty Mutual will pay out or credit $7.7 million to 86,506 auto and homeowner policyowners in Minnesota. You could rent a lot of months of ad-free Hulu with that money.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated The Quad on Delaware was built in the late 1960s. The year has been updated.
