Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Yurts So Good
The left-urbanist site Next City took a look at Minneapolis’s Autonomous Yurt Union, an organization that’s building yurts for the homeless residents of Camp Nenookaasi. (The camp has moved to several sites in south Minneapolis after sweeps by city crews.) Well, the structures are more appropriately called “yurt-inspired,” but they’re homey enough to include wood-burning stoves for the wintry months. The story even includes DIY instructions from the AYU.
The org has so far constructed 20 yurts at $400 apiece, and while these shelters may not provide a long-term solution, they're definitely a very budget-friendly temporary fix. “When we set up a yurt, that allows us to connect [evicted people] with some of our harm reduction organizations, or with their caseworkers,” says one of the group’s members. “There’s now a consistent place that they can stay—sort of an anchor.”
Kim Potter’s Second Act
Turns out the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board will not enlist former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter to speak at a presentation called “Remorse to Redemption: Lessons Learned” after all. Potter killed motorist Daunte Wright in 2021, saying she mistook her gun for a taser. She was sentenced to two years in prison for manslaughter, and served 16 months. After leaving prison, Potter entered into a partnership of sorts with Imran Ali, the prosecutor who originally charged her and is now a consultant advising police departments on use-of-force laws. I suppose that following “it takes a thief” logic, an officer who criminally misused force would be some kind of “expert” in that field.
Among the critics of Potter’s booking was Daunte Wright’s mother, Katie, who said she felt like she’d “been punched in the stomach." However, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is all for it. “Kim Potter is doing something courageous and something that we need more people to do,” Ellison tells the New York Times. “If we do not, we relegate ourselves to repeat the pain and the sorrow, and we are locked into this sort of cycle forever.”
Should Racket Buy a Downtown Office Tower?
Considering how devalued downtown Minneapolis real estate is these days, we’d be losing money if we didn’t! Yes, folks, they’re practically giving office towers away—two buildings valued at $73.7 million 2019 sold last week for $6.5 million, Caitlin Anderson at the Business Journal reports. That’s a 91% decrease. The properties in question are the 634,000-square-foot Forum buildings (formerly International Centre and Oracle Centre), located across the road from the Foshay Tower; current tenants include a Ruth’s Chris Steak House (I hate that name), Surescripts, and Special Olympics Minnesota.
The buyers are all connected with Namdar Realty Group, based in Great Neck, New York. Why the fire sale pricing? Anderson names the usual suspects: “tenant downsizing, heightened interest rates, loan maturities and falling values.” That’s bad news for the moneybags who bought high, but great news for the owners of a certain scrappy little local website who are soon to become real estate titans. Look for our Kickstarter in the coming months.
Creep Targets Paige Bueckers
Behind every successful woman there’s a creepy, obsessed guy convinced she’s in love with him. The latest prominent woman to become a stalker’s target is Hopkins-bred baller Paige Bueckers, who now plays for the very un-Minnesotan UConn Huskies. The pest is one Robert Parmalee, an Oregon guy who first contacted the university claiming he was a member of the royal family and that he wanted to marry a member of the women's basketball team. You know, normal stuff.
Parmalee’s social media accounts showcased his obsession with Bueckers. Sample TikTok: "And if I cannot live with a woman of my choosing, [Bueckers], then I will choose to die, and I will choose to take all of you that [op]pose me, oppose us, to hell, and return, king..." He began sending videos to Bueckers in February. Police arrested Parmalee last week and he is being held on $100,000 bond, charged with stalking and harassment.
