Minneapolis residents who have already ordered a tree from the city can pick them up from 7 a.m.–3 p.m. Saturday, May 10 at the former Franklin Middle School East, 1501 Aldrich Ave. N.

Sunday and Monday pickup times are also available.

As part of a citywide effort, 1,000 trees have been provided at low cost to Minneapolitans seeking plant new seeds in their neighborhoods.

The city already boasts more than 1 million trees.  

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board as well as nonprofit Tree Trust facilitate the tree program.

The Park Board has planted nearly 17,000 new trees on public land in the city since 2003, according to a city news release. Now in its third year, the trees program, has provided more than 3,500 new trees to
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An annual report addressing city's leaders effort to make Minneapolis a more livable and sustainable city was presented to a City Council committee on Monday.

“Living Well,” the city’s 2008 sustainability report, presented to the City Council’s Health, Energy, and the Environment Committee, is the city’s third annual report addressing 24 “sustainability indicators,” including air quality, solar power and airport noise, among other things. The report tracks targets, trends, and recent activities.

Highlights from the report include a 27 percent decline in violent crime with juvenile suspects, an increase in number of block clubs (now totaling 1,801) and $5.72 million in grants to clean up brownfields.

The report called
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Nearly 40 artists competed to design the city’s new public drinking fountains, and 10 have now been chosen for the task.

The exact locations are not yet determined, but city officials hope to install new fountains Downtown at Nicollet Mall and Marquette & 2nd avenues.

Artists were commissioned to design fountains that celebrate the story of water and Minneapolis.

Peter Morales, a stone sculptor based in Minneapolis, designed his fountain to look like a splash of water coming out of the ground. He expects to use smoky blue-colored stone that was quarried in Norway.

Artist Mayumi Amada designed a fountain with a long “stem,” a flower-shaped water jet, and flower imprints in a stainless steel basin.

And Sculptor Douglas Freeman
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The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota named Peavey Plaza one of the 10 “most endangered historic places” today.

The Alliance cited two “real and imminent” threats to Peavey at 1111 Nicollet Mall. Renovations and neglect have altered the original design, according to the Alliance, and Orchestra Hall is raising money for a lobby expansion that would stretch out onto part of Peavey Plaza.

Orchestra Hall and the city of Minneapolis jointly own Peavey Plaza, and they have informally discussed modernizing the Plaza in the past.

Minneapolis officials opted not to pull the restaurant license of Sharing and Caring Hands on April 25, but will be taking a closer look in upcoming weeks.

Owners of Sharing and Caring Hands, at 7th Street & 5th Avenue, went before the city licensing division to explain why they should continue to operate despite reports of rampant drug dealing and other security concerns.

The shelter, operated for 20 years by Mary Jo and Richard Copeland, serves 4,000 meals a week and an estimated 240,000 each year to the poor and hungry, according to www.sharingandcaringhands.org.

Minneapolis Police have pieced together a fairly extensive amount of evidence, documenting numerous incidents of drug-related activity and arrests at and around the shelter.

Mary Jo Copeland
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Free parking Downtown?

As long as you carpool, the “A” and “B” Ramps near the Target Center will let vehicles in for free on Wednesdays during the month of May.

Carpoolers must use designated carpool lanes from 6:30–10 a.m. when entering Ramp A, located at 3rd Avenue North and 10th Street, or Ramp B, located at 3rd Avenue North and 5th Street. Carpools need to include two or more people upon entrance to the ramp.

The initiative is sponsored by the city of Minneapolis and the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
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Neighborhood groups band together to green Downtown

How hard is it to plant trees Downtown?

Just ask the staff at Spoonriver, who recently purchased some birch trees for the sidewalk café.

First, the restaurant at 750 S. 2nd St. needed to make sure the city would allow trees in the historic Mill District. Then Spoonriver owner Brenda Langton worried that her watering technique was killing the sickly looking trees last year. The nursery eventually admitted they were diseased, and Langton replaced the trees. Then the restaurant faced the windiest stretch of the year, encountered watering difficulties during the summer’s hot spells, and discovered that kids snapped some of the trees after the Fourth of July fireworks.

Fired up for 150

Minneapolis turns 150 this year. So, naturally, would much of her offspring.

Engine 11, Minneapolis oldest firefighting unit, celebrated its 150th birthday April 19.

Engine 11 is the oldest continually operated firefighting company serving Minneapolis, according to Minneapolis Firefighters Hall & Museum spokesman Ron Pearson.

Located in Southeast Minneapolis, Engine 11 began service in what was then the town of St. Anthony. The company was incorporated into the Minneapolis Fire Department after the two cities merged in 1872. After another reorganization in 1891, it was given its current name as part of Fire Station 11.

Engine 11, now stationed at 3rd Avenue SE & 6th Street SE, has seen plent
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125 trees for 125 years

KENWOOD — The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board turned 125 years old this year and planned to commemorate that anniversary with an Arbor Day tree planting celebration.

The Park Board will plant 125 trees May 9 on the north end of Lake of the Isles. An extensive renovation of Lake of the Isles began in 2001, and the shoreline plantings are part of the final phase of the project.

More than 900 students and staff members from Jefferson Community School and nearby Kenwood School were expected to participate in the event. They will work with Park Board forestry staff and volunteers to plant, water and mulch the new trees.

Among the trees slated for the north shore of Lake of the Isles are two
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A glass door in the Lumber Exchange building on Hennepin & 5th leads to a red-carpeted stairway that winds into the basement. This is where two nightclub concepts were born and buried in the past two years, and where new owners will try again to launch a nightclub this spring.

In the past year and a half, at least 10 new nightspots opened in the Warehouse District. Many of those bars are reinvented concepts in former club venues like Tonic, Fahr
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In an early morning deal, state lawmakers agreed to $38 million in compensation for the hundreds of families affected by the Aug. 1 collapse of the I-35W bridge.

State legislators were expected to approve the creation of the Minnesota's Survivor Compensation Fund Monday and send it to Gov. Tim Pawlenty who is expected to sign it into law.

Read more stories about: 35W Bridge Collapse

Construction three months ahead of schedule

Work on the new I-35W bridge was about 65 percent complete by early May, putting construction about three months ahead of schedule, Minnesota Department of Transportation spokesman Kevin Gutknecht said.

Gutknecht cautioned, however, that there was no guarantee the bridge would open three months early, in September instead of December.

“I would tell you we are very happy with the schedule and the way things are going on the job,” he said. “Sixty-five percent is done. However, there is still a great deal of work to do.”

MnDOT’s contract with Flatiron Constructors called for a Dec. 24 ribbon-cutting ceremony. Flatiron can earn up to $20 million for early completion of the work.

Read more stories about: 35W Bridge Collapse

Lupe Development Partners has dropped plans for the Pacific, a hotel and condo project surrounding the Monte Carlo at the 200 block of Washington Avenue North.

The city approved plans last summer for an 11-story hotel in the rehabbed Northwestern Building at 2nd Street and 3rd Avenue North, as well as a new 11-story office and condo building on Washington.

Two other aging buildings on the block were slated to be restored and renovated as part of the project.

In a move fitting with the Twin Cities’ focus on taking a “green” direction, mayors R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman at a news conference today unveiled an initiative to get people around without their cars during the Republican National Convention.

Developed and sponsored by health organization Humana, the program — called “Freewheelin” — will bring 1,000 bicycles to the cities for anyone to use for free.

Solar-powered kiosks will be stationed throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul during the convention, which will be Sept. 1-4. People will be able to take bikes from these kiosks, travel anywhere and drop them off when they’re done. The only requirements will be online registration and a credit card number — not to be charged, but to hold people accountable when bikes are damaged or go missing.

Amber Severtson, executive chef at Bellanotte, recently sat down with the Journal's Sarah McKenzie to talk about life as a chef at one of Downtown's top restaurants.

Severtson, a Mendota Heights resident, has a demanding job. She works an average of 70 hours a week. When asked what she does for fun after work, she quipped: "laundry." To listen to highlights of the interview, click here.

A closer look at the city’s Bridge Maintenance and Inspection Unit  

In a city dotted with lakes and bound by waterways, traveling over a bridge had, for a long time, been commonplace — something taken for granted.

That is until the failure of one last August led Minneapolitans to note the importance of the other 649 in the city.

The Minneapolis Bridge Maintenance and Inspection Unit’s (BMIU) is responsible for more than half of them. The system used by city inspectors to inspect and maintain bridges is small in scale, relatively small in funding, but nonetheless efficient.

“It’s better than OK,” said the city’s Transportation and Maintenance Inspection Engineer Mike Kennedy.
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Eisley runs a tremendous risk with every sweet-as-soda harmony purred by sisters Sherri and Stacy DuPree; it flagrantly courts disaster with the snappy interplay of Chauntelle DuPree’s rhythm guitar and bass lines of Garron DuPree; and just to up the ante, Weston DuPree keeps the music propelled with a Ringo-worthy drum stomp.

After all, the grotesque specter of the Partridge Family still haunts any “family” band that attempts pop music. Fortunately, Eisley lacks a dedicated tambourine player, a 4-year-old drummer, and a precocious redheaded bass player whose greatest talent is having red hair.

But, it must be said, Eisley’s 2005 debut album, “Room Noises,” does occasionally soar like a Partridge. Although nowhere near as patholo
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If you have a unique or interesting workspace, or know of someone who does, contact us at dtjournal@mnpubs.com or 1115 Hennepin Ave. S. Minneapolis, 55403.

Metal Sculptor Heather Doyle teaches blacksmithing at Minneapolis Community & Technical College, but her work doesn’t stop there. She is part of an effort to convert the old Nokomis Theater in South Minneapolis into the Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center. The center at 3749 Chicago Ave. S. would have a storefront gallery space, and instructors would teach classes ranging from sculptural welding to glasswork. Doyle also created the SPEAK project, a program for youth to create public artwork each summer.

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Notes from an ‘ambassador of fashionable biking’

As flattering as spandex bodysuits can be on the right curves, I can’t say my closet has anything of the sort.

Besides my messenger bag, I don’t own customized clothing for biking, mostly because I’m only a part-time rider. While pedaling around the lakes or crossing neighborhoods, I’m likely to don whatever it is I’d also wear while walking, skateboarding or driving. Of course, certain parts of my war
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