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A Mile of Music?
We’re often critical of the city of Minneapolis’s cultural revitalization projects, which can have the same disconnect from public taste that an overly earnest student council’s idea of fun does from your average teen’s. But what’s set to happen on August 19 seems like it could be a genuine party and not just a display of publicly funded good intentions.
Last week, the city announced that it was transferring $500,000 from the Small Business Resiliency Fund, established to help businesses impacted by Operation Metro Surge, to its Arts and Cultural Affairs team for events designed to boost live music venues in town.
First up is the Minneapolis Mile of Music. On August 19, venues along two stretches of Minneapolis—Main Street in northeast and Nicollet Avenue from Eat Street to downtown—will be presenting live music as part of a special event. You can check out a full schedule of free performances here. And over the course of the fall, eight different venues will host concerts and dance nights.
In a press release, Mayor Jacob Frey took the opportunity to explain the effects of “music” in a way that didn’t seem at all weird or stilted: “It’s how we celebrate, connect with one another, and showcase the creativity that makes our city unlike anywhere else.”
ICE Makes Itself at Home in MN
CoreCivic, one of the largest private prison companies in the country, announced Tuesday that it signed a contract with ICE to reopen the former Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minnesota, as an immigration detention center. The prison has been dormant since 2010; the newly launched concentration camp will begin housing detainees as soon as this fall.
“The geographic location of this facility, similar to our other recent contract awards, improves our ability to support our government partner throughout the United States," says CoreCivic CEO Patrick—and I swear I am not making this up—Swindle.
CoreCivic expects to make $75 million a year off the misery of detained immigrants. The facility will have 1,600 beds. Appleton has fewer than 1,400 residents.
Anyway, a lot of people are running for statewide office in Minnesota right now. Be nice to hear what some of them think about this development.
Mayor Her Rages on
St. Paul-based Racket members: “I wish Racket would write about St. Paul more often.” And a finger on the monkey’s paw closes.
Mayor Kaohly Her, who we can safely consider well into “embattled” territory, is in the news again these days for negative reasons. Axios Twin Cites is reporting that a call between Her and officials from the state, city, and county regarding the planned sweep of the Pig's Eye Park homeless encampment on Monday went badly.
Her reportedly bristled at requests to delay the action, blaming the "fuckery that's on the news about me" for her short temper. Rep. Leigh Finke (DFL-St. Paul) left the call early in frustration. “Many attendees left the meeting concerned that the mayor had done lasting damage to her relationships with St. Paul's legislative delegation,” Kyle Stokes reports.
Personally, I’d hold off buying tickets to this event.
Volunteers Flood Into DFL
“A sprawling volunteer network that sprang up almost overnight to help immigrant families is now feeding people into the state’s DFL political infrastructure as precinct chairs, convention delegates, campaign volunteers, and even candidates for office,” Briana Bierschbach writes in the Star Tribune.
Bierschbach speaks to several Minnesotans who were activated politically during the ICE occupation, people who’d never caucused before but are now doing party work. DFL organizers are saying they’ve been looking for ways to channel bursts of activism into party activity for years, and their efforts are finally paying off. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Amanda Otero of TakeAction Minnesota tells the Strib.
And all the new energy will be dedicated to electing… Amy Klobuchar.
