Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
Horrific Punk House Shooting Rocks DIY Community
Six were injured, and one person was killed, in a mass shooting at the Phillips house venue Nudieland in south Minneapolis Saturday night. “I can’t even conceptualize something like that happening at a punk show,” Quinn McClurg, who was at the show, told MPR. “I was making sure all my friends are okay and making sure people are getting the help they needed.” McClurg added that the show was full of LGBTQ+ folks, and there are concerns that this was a targeted attack. During a news conference Saturday, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said his department believes "one of the persons was being targeted by a shooter,” and that two suspects fled from the scene.
Friends and loved ones have identified the victim as August Golden, a "beautiful human," Alex Stillman told MPR's Cathy Wurzer. "He was one of my favorite songwriters. Talented," Bryan May, August's bandmate in the local group Scrounger, told the Star Tribune. "He was one of the most inviting people. He made things happen. He was dedicated to the subcultural world we live in. He wasn't just a spectator."
Locally, Ward 9 Council Member Jason Chavez is calling on the mayor to take gun violence prevention seriously. But it's a tragedy that has reverberated beyond Minneapolis, with Pitchfork, NME, and Brooklyn Vegan reporting on the shooting; people including Steve Albini and Speedy Ortiz's Sadie Dupuis have shared their support. You can donate here to support the victims of the Nudieland shooting, and here to support Golden's partner, Caitlin.
Postin’ Politician Faceplants
Kate Mortenson is challenging incumbent Linea Palmisano for her Minneapolis City Council seat representing tony Ward 13. She bills herself, paradoxically, as a “moderate-progressive” who, commendably, wants to “send a message of higher expectations” for the city. First, Mortenson may want to implement higher expectations for her own Twitter feed. Over the weekend, in response to the horrific Nudieland mass shooting, the aspirational politician issued this since-deleted tweet: “Too many guns. What about an amnesty or buyback?" she began. Good start! But then, an unforced error of mind-boggling proportions. “A concert with 50Cent,” she continued, “only available to orgs or individuals who decommission x number of guns?"
Ooooof. Mortenson’s mind jumping from “gun violence” to 'Black ‘00s rapper” elicited predictable blowback, and she deleted the tweet within hours. “I deleted a post that was offensive, hurtful, tone deaf. Sarcasm, irony; these don’t translate on Twitter,” she later tweeted. “I’m sorry, you’all. I’m not as naive as you might think, but also not as knowledgeable as I’d truly like to be on the answer to gun violence in Mpls.” (Help us pinpoint the intended irony and/or sarcasm… we’re really struggling to meet her halfway here.)
If there’s a lesson here, and we’re not saying there is one, it might just be to never tweet. Or, as Wyoming-based independent journalist Tony Webster put it: “Minneapolis politicians getting a (well-deserved) Twitter pile-on is a rite of passage/canon event. When will they learn the only proper way to use this website for campaigning is to just post cute animal photos with replies disabled.”
Report: Zoo’s New Treetop Trail is Zapping Folks Left and Right
If you’re anything like the author of this blurb (Jay), you’re old enough to remember the Minnesota Zoo monorail zipping around the grounds before it sank into a decade of dormancy. Much like your carefree childhood, it’s never coming back, but its track has recently being put to good use—or so it seemed. With the 1.25-mile Treetop Trail, the zoo repurposed it into the world’s longest elevated walkway loop, a $37.4-million project that debuted last month. Think NYC’s High Line, but with tigers instead of Manhattanites.
Via this Reddit thread, the early Treetop Trail reviews are in, and folks? They’re not great! Among the top Redditor complaints: that the pathway is much too narrow, especially for strollers and wheelchairs; that the walk is much too hot, with precious little shade above and dark decking below; and, crucially, “Perhaps a bigger issue is that the material used for the decking,” writes the original poster, “along with the metal railings create a static shock after 3-4 steps if you touch the railing.” Yowza! Writes another user: “A zoo employee told me yesterday, after I got shocked, that they spray the railings down every morning with anti-static spray, but it wears off by the afternoon 😅.”
Elsewhere on the thread, you’ll see some defenders of the Treetop Trail, including this playful married person: “My husband and I had a blast shocking each other during our Treetop walk." The couple that sparks together, stays together.
Local Man’s TikTok Casino Shut Down
Online gambling may be a big money maker, but you can’t just set up shop at a casino and start placing bets on behalf of people online. Yet that’s exactly what a 40-year-old man from Edina did, heading to places like Treasure Island or Mystic Lake to gamble with other people's money. Hundreds of participants would send him money via Venmo or CashApp, and, when he called a player’s name during the TikTok stream, the user would then tell him which slot machine they wanted him to drop their money into. It was a lucrative business; Scott County reports that he made $65,103.50 over two months in 2022, collecting a membership fee and taking a cut of wagering amounts and winnings. But the jig was up when the Minnesota Alcohol & Gambling Enforcement Division got a few anonymous tips. Bring Me the News says he's been charged with three gross misdemeanors, and could face up to three years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines if convicted.
