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Minneapolis, Especially South Minneapolis, Is Full of Car-Free Freaks
Hey, that’s me! I haven’t had a car since 2020 (this is Jessica, by the way). And while folks like me aren’t the norm, there are quite a few of us out there, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Data shows that 17.9% of Minneapolis households are living that car-free life—a way higher number than the U.S. household average of 8.5%. Folks living in the 55408 zip code (hey, that’s me!) are even more likely to be biking, busing, and ridesharing, as a whopping 16% of us don’t own cars.
For Streets MN, Conrad Zbikowski explores why cycling, one of the most popular alternative modes of transportation, is thriving in Minneapolis. “Minneapolis is different from many cities because Public Works plans pedestrian and bikeway improvements concurrently with needed street and utility improvements,” he writes.
One example is the Bryant Avenue conversion in south Minneapolis into a one-way street and bike path. Since the reno, it's seen bike traffic double, and the plan is to keep adding safety elements like curb protection and tactile lane edges throughout the city. So far, Minneapolis has added “30.8 miles of ‘low-stress bikeways’ as part of its All Ages and Abilities bikeway network," Zbikowski writes. "The city has a goal to reach 80 miles of new or upgraded low-stress bikeways by 2030.”
Closing Tiiiiime
Two bar/restaurants announced their sudden closures Friday.
The Gnome was in the news earlier this week after a burglar took about $1,300 in cash from Brian Ingram's Cathedral Hill restaurant and caused roughly $15,000 in damage (Jesus!) to the space. Today's update is reportedly not related to that incident, but nonetheless the bar is closed effective immediately. "The hardest part is our people: our team, their families, our guests, and our neighbors," a farewell post reads. "They carried this place through COVID, celebrations, hard days, and everything in between. They made The Gnome what it is."
After seven years, it's also the official end for Bar Brava, the Near North natural wine bar with rotating guest chefs in the kitchen, according to an Instagram post. (If you're getting déjà vu, that could be because Bar Brava briefly closed earlier in the year after anti-Somali posts from owner Dan Rice surfaced.) The Insta posts says there's a "great new tenant" heading for the space, though that tenant is not a restaurant.
Who the Hell Is Marc Stad and Why Does He Own Our Basketball Teams Now?
Remember how it took like a zillion years for Glen Taylor to sell the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Lynx to Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez? Well, ownership situations are changing a lot more quickly in the local basketball world nowadays.
Marc Stad, previously a minority owner of the teams, has purchased a controlling interest from Lore for $4.5 billion. That’s three times what Lore and Rodriguez initially shelled out. Perhaps Lore will pour his profits into the construction of Telosa, his futuristic utopian desert city.
That brings us to an important question: Who is Marc Stad?
Well, he’s a billionaire, obviously, and he’s the founder of Dragoneer Investment Group, which doesn’t tell us much. His wife Elsa, who’ll serve on the NBA Board of Governors for the Wolves, is the author of the book Mama's Love Language: Sometimes Love Tastes Like Hainan Chicken Rice. Stad donates to Democrats, doesn’t seem to have any pronounced Bond-villain tendencies, and hasn’t publicly espoused any freakish race pseudoscience. As billionaires go, I guess we could do worse.
State Fair Dreams Do Come True
“Forget Coachella. I'm trying to go to the Minnesota State Fair. They got brand deals for that?” New Jersey foodie influencer Sierra Nicole Reece pondered back in April on her socials.
Well, the Minnesota State Fair and a local tourism agency took note, and now Reece is set to attend our Great Minnesota Get-Together.
“I've known about Sweet Martha's forever. I probably watched a YouTube video on it a long, long, long time ago,” she tells MPR News. “That bucket of cookies has just lived rent free in my head for my entire adolescence.”
