Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
South Minneapolis Flood Fallout
When fire crews responded to alarms at 50th & Penn in south Minneapolis Thursday morning, they didn’t find fire. They found water—lots of it. A water main had burst, and the flooding on the streets was nothing compared to what was going on inside nearby buildings. That included The Paperback Exchange, an indie bookstore that has been open for 50 years and specializes in rare, second-hand, and new books.
Owner Andrew Hersey says the basement flooded up to the ceiling and onto the first floor. “Water and books don’t mix, so it’s hard to say what’s going to happen here,” Hersey tells KSTP. “We had about six inches of water on the main floor, it looks like.” As you can see by these photos sent to Racket, taken by a friend helping with clean up, the damage is staggering.
“A warm thank you for the words of support and concern we’ve received since the flood,” begins a Paperback Exchange Facebook update from earlier today. “Many of you have asked how you can help. We’re grateful to you and will keep you posted on ways the community can lend a hand.”
Other businesses currently closed and/or impacted by the flood include Italian restaurant Terzo, coffeeshop Sparrow Cafe, and Lake Harriet Florist.
Who Will Interrupt the Violence Interrupters?
The Minneapolis City Council agreed Thursday to shelve a proposal that would have shifted violence prevention funding from the city to Hennepin County, capping off a wild and unpleasant week of debate that brought about… actual threats of violence.
The situation began Monday with a proposal from Second Ward Council Member Robin Wonsley to temporarily allow the county to take over the city’s violence prevention programs, passing along already allocated city funds for that purpose.
For more than a year, there have been complaints that these programs have been mismanaged, with allegations of favoritism in handing out contracts and groups claiming to have gone unpaid. Then Luana Nelson-Brown, the head of the Neighborhood Safety Department, who had drawn much of the heat on these matters, resigned in January.
In response, the Rev. Jerry McAfee, a North Side pastor, interrupted a Wednesday council meeting with a five-minute rant (or, as Fox 9 would have it, “Minneapolis pastor calls out city council”). Among his other heated comments, McAfee said Ninth Ward Council Member Jason Chavez (who is gay) was acting like a girl; when told this was homophobic he said the council was “heterophobic.” Following further complaints from council members of his conduct, McAfee said on Facebook Live that evening, “I ain’t shot nobody. However I will if I have to. I don’t want to.”
This led to an acrimonious meeting yesterday during which the council voted to abandon the proposal. Absent from this discussion? Mayor Jacob Frey, who let Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette run interference for him, allowing TV news to frame this (as usual) as a conflict between extremist council and the hard-working people in the mayor’s office. Winter Keefer has more details on this messy week at MinnPost.
No Charges in Winston Smith Killing Following Long, Seemingly Inept Investigation
The federal task force agents who shot and killed Winston "Boogie" Smith almost four years in an Uptown parking ramp won't face charges, Hennepin County prosecutors announced Friday.
Smith, 32, was killed as U.S. Marshals, none of them wearing body cams, swarmed his Maserati in Minneapolis. Prosecutors insist he was "assassinated," though after a long-delayed review of cellphone video, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty concluded today that the use of deadly force was "lawful" yet "tragic."
About that video: The Star Tribune reported on its existence way back in 2023. But the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), the agency conducting the investigation, claimed it "wasn't aware" of the clip, despite having seized Smith's phone.
It gets weirder. Two years later, a private forensic expert working a civil suit found the footage, according to anonymous Strib sources; the BCA wouldn't access it until late last November. Here's where the Strib throws a little shade, per the story from Jeff Day and Andy Mannix…
With over $100 million in public funding per year and more than 500 employees, the BCA is the most technologically advanced law enforcement agency in Minnesota, home to the state‘s only crime lab accredited by the American National Standards Institute. Over the past 18 months, the agency has rebuffed multiple requests from the Star Tribune for interviews or more information about why they couldn’t extricate a video off a cell phone when a private expert did so with far fewer resources. They refused to acknowledge the video existed until last November.
“We simply have been unable to retrieve it in our accredited digital media evidence laboratory using the technology we have available,” BCA spokesperson Bonney Bowman said last year, adding that her agency never even asked that private forensic expert, Mark Lanterman, to see the damn tape. Makes ya wonder what else they can't get right…
The BCA is expected to release the video sometime today.
Wanna Buy "the Finest Home in the City"?
Frankly? Yes, yes we do. The Minneapolis home in question is located at 424 Fifth St. SE, and it's known as the Woodbury Fisk House. Built in 1869 by a business partner of John S. Pillsbury, the 7-bedroom, 5-bathroom, 7,367-square-foot Chaska brick stunner is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
And now the Italian villa-style masterpiece can be yours for a cool $1 million. "Welcome to the finest home in the city... the cultural center of Marcy Holmes Neighborhood for more than a quarter century," reads the listing from Matthew Spector of Edina Realty. "This home awaits those that live to revive the elegant life of centuries past." Take a photo tour here.
