Recent changes in city and state ordinances have made craft beer one of the most rapidly growing industries around, and a new event in April will celebrate the latest batch of upstart brewers. Spring Ale Fest will be held on April 7th at The Ritz Theater and will highlight 10 young brewing companies from Minnesota (and Wisconsin).

“We’re all big fans of local beer, but the big guys like Surly don’t need marketing,” said Spring Ale Fest co-founder Conner O’Meara. “This is a platform for small brewers to introduce themselves to the public.”

O’Meara and co-founders Bryan Dallman and Kate Heilman conceived of a small, all-local craft beer fest aft
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A 66-year-old Bloomington man was sentenced today to 50 months in prison for his involvement in a $2.5 million mortgage fraud scheme at the Sexton Lofts.

Gerald James Greenfield was sentenced at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis on one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and fined $10,000, according to a news release from United States Attorney B. Todd Jones’ office.

In a plea agreement, Greenfield admitted to his involvement in the mortgage fraud scheme with Brett Thielen, among others.  Thielen sold condos at the Sexton, 521 S. 7th St., to financially unqualified buyers and fraudulently got mortgage lenders to lend those buyers money for the condos.

Thielen also artificially inflated the condo prices. Greenfield helped him hide
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Minnesota’s three largest local Chambers of Commerce — the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce, the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce and the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce —  have jointly voiced their support for Gov. Mark Dayton’s inclusion of $25 million in state funding for the Southwest Light Rail Transit line in his Jan. 17 bonding proposal.

The proposed Southwest LRT would connect the southwest suburbs with downtown Minneapolis and the region’s three rail lines — the Central Corridor, Hiawatha and Northstar Commuter.

 “As the economy edges toward improvement, major Twin Cities employers will be looking to expand — either in our area or elsewhere — in the coming years,” said
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WAREHOUSE DISTRICT — The former Club 3 Degrees space, 113 N. 5th St., will reopen as The Brick this spring — a new concert venue run by live entertainment production company AEG Live.

According to AEG, the 15,500 square-foot-space will feature a restaurant and bar, but its main focus will be live entertainment. AEG sees the space as a potential home for concerts, live comedy, corporate events and more. The club will have a general admission capacity of 2,000 people. Nearby First Avenue’s mainroom capacity is roughly 1,400.

Los Angeles-based AEG owns several similarly sized clubs in other cities, including Los Angeles’ El Rey Theatre and the Bluebird Theater in Denver. AEG also operates the Target Center.

The venue will
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Gov. Mark Dayton says the Metrodome is only viable site for a new Vikings stadium that could pass during the 2012 legislative session.

Dayton, in an analysis of several stadium site proposals, had narrowed in on two Minneapolis sites, the other one being at Linden Avenue near the Basilica of St. Mary. But Dayton said threats by the Basilica of a lawsuit have made that site unworkable.

Dayton said he hopes a stadium deal can get done early in the 2012 session, which began Jan. 24, but he knows it may take longer than that.

In his analysis, Dayton said the Metrodome site does lacks opportunity for surrounding economic development, but said Mayor R.T. Rybak’s plan to partially finance the stadium through diverting existing sales and hospitality taxes
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Veteran developer Ray Harris imagines what an ideal community would look like in his new book, ‘Welcome to Wynott’

Change is inevitable, but if Ray Harris had his way we would do a much better job at managing change in our communities for the greater good.

In his new book, Harris has created a mythical utopia called Wynott — a place where people live and work in smart and sustainable ways. They walk more, drive less and spend more time with one another socializing in common spaces.

Harris, 82, is a long-time resident of downtown Minneapolis and developer behind Calhoun Square, Greenway Gables and the Loring Park dog park.

The impetus for “Welcome to Wynott” came when Harris’ children
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Northeast Dinner Bell expanding meal delivery program

Volunteers from Northeast Dinner Bell bring more than 100 meals to the homebound every weekday, and the service is expanding into Southeast Minneapolis to replace the shuttered Meals on Wheels branch there.

“It’s just as easy to send an extra 10 or 20 meals,” said Executive Director Eileen Hafften. “And we want to find more people who need help.”

The organization is taking on more delivery routes at a time when its own future base is uncertain. The Trinity United Methodist Church building at 2511 Taylor St. NE, where the Dinner Bell has been headquartered for 38 years, is for sale. The declining Trinity congregation merged with another church last year, and Dinner
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It’s crazy to think that an NBA team playing in a state-of-the-art arena in downtown Minneapolis with all the media-hyping amenities of the modern world could be described as the town’s best-kept secret, but that is how it has felt the first two months of this lockout-shortened basketball season — even though there is something undeniably and unprecedentedly special happening with this young and ravenous new Wolves team.

Um, seriously?

Check the wins-losses column, and it’s the same old story: More Minnesota Mediocrity. Couple the team’s record (well under .500 at press time) with the sad fact that the notoriously reticent Minnesota sports fan’s patience has been tested of late with bland and boring losing streaks from its
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Taxicab drivers in Minneapolis will be forced to accept credit cards, but they won’t have any way to pass costly fees onto their customers.

On an 11–2 vote, the City Council voted that by June 1 every cab operating in Minneapolis must have a credit card machine installed and its driver cannot turn down passengers wishing to use a credit card.

Council Member Gary Schiff authored the ordinance, saying it puts Minneapolis in line with other big cities and serves both residents and visitors who might find themselves in a pinch when looking for transportation but have no cash.

But taxicab drivers say they’re being forced into public service at their own cost. The city regulates how much they can charge for a fare using a taxicab cost index a
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The vision of a vibrant, burgeoning downtown Minneapolis that consciously plans and works to encompass culture, nurture green space, develop transit, combat homelessness and sustain wise residential growth is embraced in the new Downtown 2025 Plan.   

Recently summarized in The Journal, Downtown 2025 is an initiative led by the Minneapolis Downtown Council that includes input from a cadre of talented business and community leaders and sets bold goals for the city to achieve in the next 13 years. The plan connects downtown’s assets, such as the historic and new theatres, museums and galleries, educational institutions, the riverfront, businesses, sports venues, restaurants and transportation hubs, to create a flourishing 21st-century city. Once this vision is
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Layne Kennedy’s Hipstamatic iPhone shots on display at Mpls Photo Center

Veteran photographer Layne Kennedy captured an image of a ship in Bar Harbor, Maine that looked like it could have graced the pages of “Moby Dick.”

The seascape has an eerie, old-world quality and a gritty frame. He shot the picture using the iPhone Hipstamatic app — a tool he has fallen in love with to capture vivid scenes he comes across on his travels.

“If I had shot [the ship] with a regular camera it would have been too clean, too perfect — less spontaneous,” he said. “I think that is one of the beauties of that particular app — it allows the spontaneity to really come through because it looks that way.
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