How Heritage Park Became a Squalid, Failed Experiment in Minneapolis Public Housing

Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.

Heritage Park: “I Don’t Know Who Could Live There for So Long and Still Be Sane"

A few weeks ago Minneapolis City Council Member Pearll Warren posted disturbing footage from inside Heritage Park, a 25-year-old north Minneapolis housing project that was once touted as the future of affordable housing. She found mold, exposed wiring, and trash. And now the Star Tribune's great Susan Du is here with a full report on how Heritage Park descended into a squalor that threatens the safety of the few residents who still live there.

Plans for Heritage Park, which consists of 440 low-rise rental units, emerged from a landmark 1992 civil rights lawsuit that challenged high-rise superblock public housing. “When I first got here [in 2014], we used to have concerts in the park,” resident Eddie Robinson, 76, tells Du. “This was nice. We had actual grass and not weeds. We had sprinkler systems that were working.”

Minneapolis Public Housing Authority owned the land, but private development firm McCormack Baron Salazar built and maintained ownership over the network of low-density housing; it's the only Minneapolis project with that sort of public-private arrangement.

It didn't work. McCormack Baron Salazar allegedly mismanaged the properties to the "brink of decrepitude" (nice turn of phrase, Susan), while the city failed to hold its partner accountable. (MBS ignored the Strib's requests for comment.) The place didn't even maintain a rental license from 2019 to mid-2025, according to city officials. Hundreds of violations began mounting.

“The situation at Heritage Park is the result of publicly owned land being used by a for-profit developer under the guise that private enterprise knows how to operate affordable housing better,” MPHA Executive Director Abdi Warsame said in a statement.

In late 2025 a court-appointed receiver, Certus Financial, assumed control of Heritage Park and hired a new property management company, Property Solutions and Services. The city and MPHA are also working to stabilize the failed experiment in public housing. “I don’t know who could live there for so long and still be sane,” says former resident Kao Yang, whose family was recently relocated to a single-family home in south Minneapolis.

Other residents aren't so fortunate. Robinson, the guy from up top, is being evicted by a creditor linked to Ian McCormack—the VP of McCormack Baron Salazar.

“Now y’all taking him to court, a victim,” his wife, Alecia Howard Robinson, tells Du. “This is crazy, and it’s all retaliation, because the city got involved.”

Klobuchar Proposes K-12 Mobile Phone Ban

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) isn't known as a crusader for big, bold ideas; she seems most animated around bipartisan measures to, I don't know, incrementally mandate seatbelt effectiveness over 25 year periods by 3.2%, to make up just one example. But gubernatorial candidate Klobuchar? She has at least one sweeping proposal: banning mobile phones in all Minnesota classrooms from kindergarten through 12th grade.

"When I'm Governor, we'll ban cell phones and other mobile devices in all K-12 classrooms and work with school districts to set screen-time limits," Klobuchar said Sunday via social media. "We'll bring proven curricula to Minnesota—phonics-based reading and quality math instruction. Because Minnesota's kids deserve nothing but the best."

Earlier this year a bipartisan coalition of Minnesota lawmakers introduced legislation that would ban cellphones and smartwatches through eighth grade. "We are currently in a battle for student attention against a clear villain, and that is Big Tech," Eagan parent and teacher Grant Eustice said in support of the bill. Similar bans are becoming a global trend, according to UNESCO. As Racket's lone parent, I offer an emphatic hell yeah—ban away! And while we're at it? How about zero classroom screen time until middle school?

Flanagan vs. Craig Endorsement Roundup

Surprising few, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced his endorsement early Monday of centrist U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Angie Craig (DFL, nominally-MN). Y'all know the rap on Craig by now—once supported the draconian Laken Riley Act, darling of the crypto lobby, showered in AIPAC cash. But none of that's enough to stop Frey from reflexively punching left, which is why he's backing Craig over the progressive DFL-endorsed candidate, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. “Angie is relentless. She’s tough, she’s tested and she is exactly who we need in Washington,” Frey said in a statement. (Personally, I need someone in D.C. who'll champion Medicare For All as my insurance premiums skyrocket, but cool that she's "tough.")

To the extent endorsements matter at all in 2026, we decided to roundup prominent Craig vs. Flanagan co-signs in the interest of your entertainment. Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar have so far declined to weigh in, due to their persistent refusals to stand for much of anything.

Craig endorsements of note: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, and Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt; ex-U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin, Elissa Slotkin, and Chris Coons; labor unions Minnesota Professional Fire Fighters Association and Teamsters Joint Council 32.

Flanagan endorsements of note: U.S. Sens. Tina Smith, Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Bernie Sanders, and Al Franken; U.S. Reps. Betty McCollum, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Ro Khanna; Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota State Auditor Julie Blaha; labor unions SEUI, UFCW Local 663, National Nurses United, MAPE, and Unite Here Local 17.

MN Sports Shame Roundup: Love Boat for Sale; Ex-Wolf Indicted in DOJ Sports Gambling Probe

First up: You can own one of the yachts that hosted the infamous Minnesota Vikings "love boat" scandal, Bring Me the News reports. Miss Chievious, a 58-foot 1994 Skipperliner 5800, is one of two vessels members of the 2005 Vikes loaded with out-of-state sex workers for a watery fuck-a-thon that scandalized Lake Minnetonka, and it can now be yours for $150,000. Currently located Okoboji, Iowa, the ol' boat even comes with framed Bryant McKinney and Daunte Culpepper jerseys, per the listing. Our favorite detail from that Mike Tice-era incident, which resulted in four players receiving misdemeanors? The reveal that cornerback Fred Smoot calls cunnilingus “runnin through the okra patch.”

Elsewhere in the shameful world of local sports: Two ex-Timberwolves, Malik Beasley and Ed Davis, were indicted Monday alongside four other defendants on federal charges related to a sports-betting scheme. Beasley wagered away millions during his nine-year NBA career, according to the indictment, and he agreed to alter his stats to enrich his prop-betting coconspirators before at least four games during the 2023-24 season. Prosecutors allege that Davis was Beasley's "gatekeeper." "Only way you can beat Vegas is sports betting. Everything else they got the edge," Davis texted Beasley in 2024, per court docs. "Well yea my n[****]… Trying to find like 2k," Beasley texted back.

The two players were Timberwolves teammates through the 2020-21 season, which might explain plays like this one from 2021...