Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Two Local Photogs Share Their Collections
Last weekend marked the five-year anniversary of the police murder of George Floyd, and the protests that ensued. While Racket and other publications around town published a variety of stories last week, including pieces on George Floyd Square’s volunteers, the artists of the movement, and corporate accountability, today we’ve got two photography collections to share.
First there’s photographer Chad Davis, who has been photographing Minneapolis on a daily basis since 2020. His collection, “Minneapolis Uprising: The murder of George Floyd,” features thousands of images, organized by date and year, taking us through the eerily quiet days of the COVID-19 lockdown through the blazing fires of the Third Precinct to last week’s memorial celebration at George Floyd Square. It’s an incredible piece of documentation.
“It’s my hope these photos, in chronological order, will provide historical context and provide some depth to the Minneapolis Uprising,” Davis writes. “These photos are not meant to be a complete history of any event, situation or from a specific viewpoint.”
MPR News photojournalist Ben Hovland, who lives a few blocks from George Floyd Square, has been snapping pics of his neighborhood for the past five years. His images capture the quiet, often joyful, day-to-day happenings at 38th & Chicago: friends making art together, a volunteer changing out the sign at the People’s Way, folks clearing the sidewalk of snow during a blizzard.
“When neighbors needed a break, they turned to water gun battles and double Dutch tournaments at the People’s Way,” Hovland writes. “Documenting these lighter moments of joy and communion felt necessary when much of what the outside world saw at the memorial was protest and mourning.”
Report: 1 in 3 Minnesotans May Be Poorer Than They Think
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a family of four needs to make less than $32,150 to be considered below the poverty line. After some number crunching, however, the nonprofit United Ways of Minnesota found that a family of four living in Minnesota would need to pull in $81,216 just to cover the essentials.
This huge discrepancy doesn’t mean it’s vastly more expensive to live in Minnesota than the rest of the U.S.; most national reports rank us somewhere in the middle. Instead, it suggests that federal guidelines for measuring poverty are failing to convey how many employed people are struggling but still manage to—barely!—get by. From the report compiled by United Way spinoff org UNITED For ALICE...
While 9% of all households in the state earned at or below the Federal Poverty Level in 2023, the new research shows that 25% of households – nearly three times as many – were ALICE® (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, and above the Federal Poverty Level). Combined, 34% of Minnesota’s households fell below the ALICE Threshold of Financial Survival in 2023.
The report notes that while most households in the ALICE range eke out a living (often while taking on debt), natural disasters, job loss, health problems, and just about any other life stressor can lead to critical financial hardship.
“When we underestimate how many households are struggling, we underestimate what it truly takes to build thriving communities,” UWMN’s Executive Director Doris Pagelkopf says of the findings. “This means entire families and essential workers may be overlooked for support, left without the resources they need.”
Local Pharmacy to Close After 110 Years
In 1915, the Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat, Typhoid Mary went into quarantine, and Babe Ruth hit his first career home run. It was also the year that West Seventh Pharmacy opened its doors in St. Paul.
Over the years it has remained independently owned; since 1999 it has been run by husband-and-wife team, Jeff and Lucy Johnson. But after trying to sell the business for years, the duo will be closing up shop at the end of June.
“It’s been a good run,” Jeff tells Frederick Melo at the Pioneer Press. “It was like Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. We knew the mailman. We knew the bar owners. We knew the people who worked in the gas station.”
Drugstores across the nation, especially independently owned ones, have struggled to make ends meet over the past decade. “Since 2013, 61% of independently owned and 39% of chain pharmacies have closed, according to the Minnesota Pharmacists Association,” Melo writes. Johnson says challenges he has faced in recent years at West Seventh include pharmaceuticals setting non-negotiable drug prices, labor shortages, and the rise of Amazon services.
Birds on a Plane!
We’ve heard of snakes on a plane... but pigeons?! Earlier this week not one but two majestic sky rats were caught freeloading a ride on a Delta flight headed to Madison via MSP International.
The first pigeon appeared as the flight was taxiing for the runway; it was removed after the plane returned to the gate. Then, once back in line for takeoff, a second pigeon began flying around the main cabin, causing a few folks to scream while a noble dude attempted to catch it in his coat. Thankfully, a passenger named—we shit you not—Tom Caw captured the hilarity and shared it on Instagram.
“Pilot said when he radioed the control tower about us coming back due to a pigeon, the guy said that was a first for him,” Caw writes. “Pilot told him it was the second time for him—the first being half an hour earlier.”
