Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
First Ave Workers Make It Rain for Themselves
Unite Here Local 17 has lots to celebrate this week, as around 230 workers at First Avenue, 7th St Entry, Depot Tavern, Turf Club, Fine Line, Palace Theatre, and Fitzgerald Theater voted over the weekend to ratify their very first three-year contract. According to a press release sent out late Monday, this means “big raises” for staff, longevity-based pay, more control over scheduling, and enhanced LGBTQ+ employee protections.
While the First Ave employees' struggle hasn’t been decades in the making like the U of M grad student one, this hasn’t been a completely smooth process—first union contracts rarely are. In late 2023, First Avenue bosses announced they would voluntarily recognize the freshly unionized staff (yay!), but by last September, workers were picketing outside over disagreements on seniority and non-tip employee pay (boo!). Now things are looking up again.
“I’ve watched a lot of my best friends leave the club because the job wasn’t sustainable or they didn’t feel respected,” says First Ave staffer Kyle Tappe via press release. “This contract makes a lot of steps to change that.”
Is Westopolis Getting a Food Hall?
Westopolis: It’s a thing! Or, at least, that is what civic tourism org Discover St. Louis Park rebranded to in 2024. And, according to this scoop from Dan Niepow for Twin Cities Business, The Market at Malcolm Yards operator/owner Patty Wall is looking to open up a food hall in the inner-ring ‘burb, and has teamed up with Hempel Real Estate for the project.
While they haven’t confirmed a location—or even where they’re hoping to find space—Niepow points out that the company owns Westopolis’s (increasingly vacant) Shops at West End and there’s an empty Anthropologie store right there. Hmm! “There are certain things that will make a food hall successful and certain things that will make it tank,” Wall says. “You need dedicated parking, you need event space, and you need density.” Hmmm! That sure sounds like West End, unless they have plans to take over a Target.
Meanwhile, MMY sent out a release this morning that Lyn-Lake neighborhood’s World Street Kitchen is opening a spot in the Minneapolis food hall this month. Delicious burritos and fries near a college campus? Sounds like a no-brainer.
The Current Pops Up In Spin
Minnesota’s indie radio station turned 20 this year, so we’re expecting some (well-deserved) spotlights, both local and national. For example: This piece published today by Brendan Hay at Spin, which includes some nice Prince lore and a few funny stories of the station's early days.
“It was literally DJs bringing their music in and us ripping CDs, day in and day out, to build up the library,” says program director Lindsay Kimball, who worked as a Current intern the station's first year. “We were building the plane as we were flying it.”
Locally, Star Tribune music critic Chris Riemenschneider thoughtfully examines the Current’s enduring popularity with a bittersweetness befitting the... current state of radio.
"The nonprofit station hasn’t saved radio, whose audience has dwindled amid the rise of streaming and podcasting,” he wrote last month. “But for many of us… it’s the biggest reason we still know how to pre-save a station on our car stereo.”
Nascar on Ice? Nascar on Ice!
In perhaps the most Minnesotan story you’ll see this week, Dan Gunderson recently took a trip up to Itasca County for MPR News, where folks have been ice racing on Bass Lake for about 30 years.
At these events drivers reach speeds between 30 and 80 mph (it all depends on the tires), and, as long as they have their parent’s permission, entrants can be as young as seven years old. On a typical Sunday there’s a food stand selling hot dogs and around 50 drivers show up to take the top prize of $30.
“We’re all out here having fun. We’re pretty decent guys,” says race official Dave Holmgren. “Pretty much everybody here is a volunteer. It’s kind of a whole community thing. It’s been that way for a long time."
