Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Tornado Terror or Al Capone's Vault?
The Twin Cities weather-watching community has been in high-alert mode since Sunday, when forecasts of severe thunderstorms and potential tornados began swirling. The opening salvo of the predicted two-round Monday event? A lightly rainy bust, at least here in the Twin Cities, though Rock County did endure some asymmetrical hail.
The local branch of the National Weather Service swears scary storms are encroaching from South Dakota, and at around 3:30 p.m. a tornado watch was issued for a wide swath of southeastern Minnesota, including the Twin Cities, that'll last until 11 p.m. (The NWS Storm Prediction Center has tornado impact zone deets here.) "Widespread hail up to apple size likely," the agency predicts, making no additional references to the hit song from Charli XCX, who just performed here—Raihala hated it, Riemenschneider liked it. Tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings (i.e., worse than watches) were issued at 3:45 in two pockets west of the Twin Cities.
And don't let our cavalier and extremely timely Al Capone reference get your guard down: School districts around the state are canceling afternoon activities in anticipation of nasty weather, and the better-safe-than-sorry approach is more agreeable than meteorologist skepticism. Visit the rolling weather blog at MPR News for the latest updates; watch the livestreaming storm chasers below for some IRL Twister thrills.
Mercado Central Can't Catch a Break
Mercado Central has been holding it down on Lake Street since 1977, making it one of Minneapolis's oldest Latino markets. But, as Alfonzo Galvan reports for Sahan Journal, the immigrant-owned business hasn't had it easy of late, having endured the pandemic and the rioting after George Floyd's murder. And now, Galvan writes, "Rumors of immigration crackdowns have slowed traffic, but it still fills at lunchtime with students, families and workers looking for aguas frescas, fresh conchas from the panaderia, tacos and tamales."
The city of Minneapolis is helping Mercado Central, which is cooperatively owned by its merchants. Just this year Council Member Jason Chavez secured the place a $250,000 grant, and the city forgave a $276,500 loan. “It’s a central hub and such a historic and important asset to us on Lake Street,” Chavez says.
Read the whole Sahan piece for a deep dive into how Mercado Central revived a blighted stretch of Lake Street, the industriousness of its tenants, and the seemingly innumerable financial hurdlers of staying in business. “Any visitor that comes to Minnesota, they come to see the Mall of America, then we say, ‘Okay, how about another mall—a cultural mall—come and visit Mercado Central on Lake Street,’” says Mercado Central co-founder Juan Linares.
Publishers Weekly Highlights "Absolute Magic" of Independent Bookstore Day
Damn the constraints of impartial, objective journalism! We'll come right out and say it: Indie bookstores rock. More than 1,600 of those shops celebrated Independent Bookstore Day this past Saturday, and Publisher's Weekly highlighted a handful of the 40 that participated in Minnesota. Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis clocked sales at 50% above last year's IBD, co-owner Jamie Schwesnedl tells PW.
Publishers Weekly touched on two comeback stories, both of 'em in Moon Palace's orbit. There's south Minneapolis's Paperback Exchange, who threw a pop-up event at Moon Palace as it recovers from a February flood; MPB is storing PE's undamaged inventory—nice! And there's Uncle Edgar’s and Uncle Hugo’s, the twin bookstores who reopened near Moon Palace after burning down in the unrest that followed George Floyd's murder.
“There’s so much good bookselling going on here,” Schwesnedl says. “Today, we are in the bookstore district.”
"Over at Boneshaker Books, a few blocks away from Moon Palace, we had our best sales day ever on Indie Bookstore Day on Saturday. Shit absolutely rocked. Our shelves are bare," reports Boneshaker volunteer and Racket contributor Dan Samorodnitsky. "Last year's Indie Bookstore Saturday was our previous record holder. This year we nearly DOUBLED IT."
Love to see it.
Speaking of Stuff You Love to See: WOLVES BACK
Target Center was reportedly the loudest it has ever been during Sunday's thrilling 116-113 Timberwolves playoff victory over the Lakers. The game, which gave the Wolves a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, well, it had it all: Anthony Edwards, en route to 43 points, springing back to life after an apparent knee injury; the dazzling erasure of a 10-point fourth quarter deficit; and, like sweet manna from the basketball gods, the fruitless whining and flopping of Luka Dončić. (Lakers fans are doing great!)
First-year Lakers coach JJ Redick played his starters—including one 40-year-old superstar and one fleshy superstar—for the final 12 minutes, a backfiring desperation move that inspired the Strib's Chip Scoggins to write...
JJ Redick employed a fifth-grade AAU basketball strategy Sunday. The one where a coach picks his five best players and only plays them, hoping to win a B bracket championship. Except Redick unveiled his no-reserves lineup in an NBA playoff game.
According to statistician Keerthika Uthayakumar, Redick is the first NBA head coach to try the ol' AAU gambit since 1997. Now, his Lakers face an elimination game at home that tips off this Wednesday at 9 p.m.—awooooooo! For much, much, much more on the current playoff run, we'll have T-Wolves podcaster Dane Moore on our podcast this coming Friday. In the meantime: Tell 'em, Stephen A.!
