SexWorld Minneapolis Coming to an End

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

SexWorld Headed to Sex Shop Heaven

It's the end of a horny era for the North Loop (née Warehouse District). SexWorld, the landmark Minneapolis sex shop that opened there in 1993, will close for good this Sunday, employee Jay Limbacher confirmed to Racket earlier today.

"In recent months, it has been observed that SexWorld has been struggling to maintain stock and keep customers coming back," Limbacher wrote Monday night on Facebook. "So for those who have been regulars at the shop for late night cigarettes or sex-focused fun, it has been clear the end was coming sooner rather than later."

Racket contributor Patrick Strait authored this 2016 history of SexWorld for Thrillist, in which he documents: its founding by Dennis Buchanan and Robert Bonynge, the Dollhouse peepshows, the giant/saddled golden dong that once greeted visitors, the $5.9 million building sale that forced it to downsize nine years ago, and the generations of giddy smuttiness that defined its run. (SexWorld's home at 241 Second Ave. N. was sold yet again three years ago for $14.9 million.)

Now, as North Loop's yupster gentrification nears completion, only Runyon's, Deja Vu, Cuzzy's, the Monte Carlo, Bunker's, and Acme remain. Or, as one Racket tipster eulogized via email: "RIP, no more 3 a.m. dildos for the masses." Amen.

RIP Mikayla Raines, Founder of MN-Based Save a Fox Rescue

Launched in 2019, Faribault-based Save a Fox Rescue attracted millions of social media followers over the years through videos and photos of founder Mikayla Raines rehabilitating foxes and other furry critters on its sanctuary grounds. In a deeply emotional 11-minute video posted yesterday, Mikayla's husband, Ethan, confirmed that his wife recently died by suicide. She was 29. He blames "rude words, accusations, and name calling" that "went too far."

"She was so sensitive to everything, which is a double-edged sword because on one hand it allowed her endless empathy for those in her care, but it also means that she took everything negative to heart," he says of her struggles with autism, depression, borderline personality disorder, and other issues.

Before first responders arrived, Ethan says he unsuccessfully performed CPR on Mikayla for 15 minutes. Her death has inspired a wave of national and international headlines. He vows to honor her legacy of animal-rights activism by keeping Save a Fox afloat alongside their daughter, Freya.

"From a young age she dedicated every waking moment of her life to helping them, whether it was helping a snapping turtle cross the road, or saving 500 foxes from a terrible fur farm," Ethan says. "She was truly one of the most selfless people I have ever known."

Leonard Peltier Is Finally Home

Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, who had been imprisoned since 1977 for the highly contested murders of two FBI agents at South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, received last-minute clemency this past January as President Joe Biden prepared to leave the White House. Throughout the decades, members of U.S. Congress, Marlon Brando, Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, and dozens of Native-rights groups demanded freedom for Peltier, whose activism began as a member of the Minneapolis-launched American Indian Movement (AIM).

Now, finally, Peltier is back home on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa reservation near Belcourt, North Dakota. “Coming from that cell to this is like, I guess what heaven must feel like, the Great Spirit, the happy hunting ground must feel like,” the 81-year-old political prisoner tells MPR News in one of his first longform interviews after being released. MPR's Allison Herrera observes Peltier's soft smile, quick jokes, and grandfatherly appearance, but it's clear there's surplus resentment boiling over the nearly 50 years that were taken from him.

“Goddamn right I’m bitter,” Peltier says. “Otherwise, I would have been guilty. Only the guilty would not be bitter.”  

Regrets? He doesn't have any.

“Hell no!" Peltier declares. "I would stand up for them again today, if it cost me the rest of my life. I don’t care. I believe what we were fighting for.”  

We recommend reading Herrera's full profile, which is decorated with incredible portraits and scenes from photographer Kerem Yücel.

Bike Rankings: Brooklyn Overtakes Minneapolis, Inspiring Beef We're Determined to Indignantly Manufacture

"Just to clarify," our buddies at Streets.mn wrote today on Bluesky, "there is no bike culture beef between Minneapolis and Brooklyn!"

...You sure about that?

The Street.mn account had just linked to a new report from Streetsblog USA, and noted the language that site used while teeing up the new bike-friendly city rankings form PeopleForBikes...

"Brooklyn nabbed the title of the highest-rated large city..." Streetsblog USA writes, "following the organization's decision to treat New York City's five boroughs as separate entrants for the first time..."

What. The. Fuck.

Minneapolis came in at No. 2 in this year's rankings, though it stands to reason we woulda topped the list, as we did last year, if not for 2025's methodological skullduggery.

To Brooklyn, we say: You're total bike frauds, and despite years of North Loopy gentrification, you still play backwater second fiddle to Manhattan, as the Sex and the City gals outlined in horror when Miranda moved there in the '00s.

In barely related news: Give 'em hell, Zohran Mamdani! Here's onetime Racket interview subject Sarah Sherman endorsing the lefty New York City mayoral candidate, who's poised to topple sex pest grandma killer Andrew Cuomo in today's Democratic primary. Maybe Mamdani's NYC will one day rightfully snatch our bike crown (don't count on it).