Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Bye-Bye, Wild Mind
Well this is a shame: Wild Mind Ales will close "in the near future," according to a social media post this afternoon.
"It’s hard to put into words what this place has meant to us and, we hope, to you. From early morning coffee conversations to late-night beers with friends, this space has been alive because of the people who’ve walked through its doors—staff and patrons," reads the farewell note from the south Minneapolis brewery. "We’ve celebrated, learned, grown, and connected here, and we’re grateful for every single moment."
Wild Mind opened in 2016 with a focus on wild-fermented beers made with local yeasts. The Windom neighborhood taproom was innovative from the start thanks to its emphasis on sour/wild/farmhouse beers and remained an innovator until the end; head brewer Austin Myhran is largely to thank for the Kölsch service trend spreading through the U.S., as we learned in this 2023 story.
The building and brands are both for sale. "We’d love to find a buyer who will keep this space as an asset for the community," the Wild Mind team writes, encouraging any interested parties to reach out directly via their website. You can also look at the property listing via commercial real estate site LoopNet.
Who Is Vance Boelter?
We may never understand what led Vance Boelter to allegedly stalk and murder Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark last month. But three New York Times reporters—Dan Barry, Ernesto Londoño, and Ruth Graham—have done their best, corresponding with Boelter's friends and acquaintances and with the man himself to give us the most complete portrait of Boelter yet.
Which is not to say that the portrait is exactly clear...
His cryptic messages to The Times, which also referred to a mysterious military operation, seemed disconnected from reality and in keeping with various handwritten notes of his recovered by law enforcement. They suggest a man in the throes of grandiose delusion, one who saw himself as somehow chosen to save the country by taking extreme action.
“Doing what most people know needs to be done,” he wrote to himself, “but are not willing to do it themselves.”
The trouble with these types of profiles is, of course, that they can humanize monsters, the whole "he was always such a nice, quiet young man" of it all. But while some of Boelter's acquaintances do speak fondly of him, the picture that emerges from the Times' reporting is of a religious zealot. He once burned all of his belongings and began proselytizing from a tent in a park, and we learn that he named his son after David Emerson, a St. Cloud religious fantastic who radicalized Boelter in the mid-'80s shortly before being murdered in Zimbabwe. Boelter never quite found his footing, always moving from place to place and job to job, most recently collecting bodies for two area funeral homes.
And then there's this:
But Mr. Boelter’s private life was bleaker than what his public persona might have suggested. Because he was on call to collect dead bodies in the Minneapolis area, he began renting space in a run-down house in the city that was occupied by three other men, including his childhood friend, Mr. Carlson. And because all the bedrooms were taken, he erected plywood walls in the living room, installed a door and secured the makeshift bedroom with a lock.
As for what led to the shooting, all we learn is that in recent months ("it is unclear precisely when, or why") Boelter's mental state and mood darkened. “More serious and not as cheerful,” that friend, Dan Carlson, tells the Times. Then, the planning began.
Read it yourself via this gift link.
The DFL Convention Kerfuffle, Explained to the Best of Our Ability
This Saturday, the Minneapolis DFL endorsed state Sen. Omar Fateh (DFL-Minneapolis) for mayor over incumbent Jacob Frey.
OR DID IT???
Here's the simplest explanation of what happened, as we—people who were not present at Target Center during the convention—understand it. In the first ballot, Fateh got 43% of votes while Frey got 31%. (You need at least 60% of the Minneapolis DFL delegate vote to be endorsed.) Counting the votes took a long time; this first round wasn't completed until 7:45 p.m., reports the Strib's Susan Du.
Frey campaign spokesperson Darwin Forsyth responded to these results in the way of all gracious losers: by attempting to void the results of the first ballot. And then, before another round of voting could take place, Frey’s supporters left the convention. Those who stayed behind voted again, by a show of hands, which gave Fateh the W.
As Du notes, the DFL hasn’t agreed on a mayoral endorsement since 2009, when R.T. Rybak got the nod. Frey’s campaign has said it plans to appeal Fateh’s victory, soooo I guess we'll all wait and see what happens next.
RIP to the Tulip Lady
Lisa Ann Stortz died on June 18, according to an obituary spotted by Axios Twin Cities. If that name doesn't ring a bell, maybe you know her as "the tulip lady"—Stortz planted 20,000 bulbs in the front yard of her Minneapolis home near Lake of the Isles, making the house a destination for photos when they bloomed in all of their colorful glory each spring.
"Each spring hundreds of people lined up for blocks to view and admire her tulip garden, and little children especially enjoyed her squirrel tableaus," her obituary reads. "She truly loved her neighbors and her neighborhood. It is said, 'Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy. They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.'”
