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Sorry for Uptownposting
First, some personal news, as they say: I, a lifetime renter, have succumbed to the lure of private property and bought a lil condo in Uptown (technically, one block outside it, if you’re a stickler). I now live the farthest north of any Racket staffer, and Uptown is no longer dead. You’re welcome.
Lovin’ the new hood. Last Sunday I walked a short three blocks from my place to enjoy Open Streets Lyndale. Earlier last week, I attempted to engage with my new community at the VFW, where the Uptown Association gave business owners a forum to complain about the upcoming Lyndale Avenue reconstruction while their adversaries in the crowd jeered. Let me just say it was hard to root for anyone in that room, whether I agreed with them or not.
But yes, Uptown! What will happen with Uptown? I’m so worried about Uptown! Uptowwwwwn! Here’s an interesting development in the battle for Minneapolis’s most overdiscussed not-exactly-a-neighborhood: On Thursday resident Ethan Knight published an opinion piece in Southwest Voices announcing the first Uptown People’s Assembly, to be held at he First Universalist Church at 1 p.m. this coming Saturday.
The goal is to offer a counterbalance to the biz-first Uptown Alliance “where residents and local workers will gather to envision a livable future for their neighborhood,” Knight writes. “By building a space for neighbors to make communal demands of Uptown’s leaders, they can amplify community voices that are individually easier for [Mayor Jacob] Frey and his staff to ignore.”
Will I attend on Saturday? Will I be as annoyed as I was at the VFW? Will Uptown survive? Stay tuned to find out.
An Insurgent Press in Minneapolis
The folks at Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop just launched a new imprint to help them carry on their mission, LitHub tells us.
This year, Lost Kite Editions will be publishing two books: B Batchelor’s poetry collection Disfigured Hours and Kennedy Amenya Gisege’s extended essay Twenty-One Birthdays. Earlier this year, Lost Kite announced a chapbook prize, to be awarded by non-Minnesotan but avid Wolves fan Hanif Abdurraqib, and the press already has plans to publish four new titles in 2027.
“The people most often kept outside publishing’s institutions should help shape its future,” is how editor Mike Alberti sums up the org’s credo. As for the press’s name? A kite is a folded-up message that’s passed between cells.
Russian Refugee Roulette
Want to win an asylum claim in Minnesota? The statistics show that it helps to be from Russia, Shadi Bushra reports for MinnPost today. Historically, the immigration court at Fort Snelling has approved about three-quarters of all Russian asylum cases; that’s compared to an 11% approval rate in general. (As you might expect, that has recently declined as the Trump administration places a chokehold on all immigration to the U.S.)
The disparity is owing to the structure of asylum law, Bushra explains. There are several justifications for asylum, and most Russian refugees lay claim to the most direct: political persecution. In contrast, refugees from South and Central America argue that they are persecuted because they belong to a specific social group, and that can be a harder argument to make.
Bushra also offers a nice look at the Minnesota Russian community, which numbers about 10,000 Russian-born people, and talks with Maria Zavialova, the curator at the Russian Museum of Art, who shares her own experience as a refugee.
Wisconsin Restau-Rant Sexist: “I Don’t Think I Said Nothing Bad”
An Onalaska, Wisconsin, restaurant owner recently went viral for a 10-minute tirade about how women make worse employees. Along with some pals, Tony Angelini, the owner of Angelini's Ristorante, rehashed all the usual stereotypical complaints: periods, too emotional, blah, blah, blah.
"I don't think I said nothing bad in that video, I only said what I prefer," Angelini told WKBT-TV News 8 in La Crosse on Wednesday. "What is wrong with that?" He added that, despite his prejudices, he might even hire some lucky lady. There’s been a backlash against Angelini’s comments, which means he’ll probably get a personal invite to the big America First UFC party in Washington, D.C., by the end of the week.
We don't put up with this sorta (probably alcohol-influenced) crap across the border in La Crescent!
