Time doesn’t stand still for the Twin Cities skyline, nor for our distinctive neighborhoods. Back around 1000 BCE, the Woodland people built the first monuments in town; now most of those great burial mounds are gone. A few thousand years later, an entrepreneur dammed the Mississippi River at St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis; that collapsed and got a re-do. The Metropolitan Building: Gone. Met Stadium: Gone. Cooper Theater: Gone.

But so many good things have taken their place: The Minnesota History Center, Gold Medal Park, the Grand Rounds trail system, CHS Field. We’ve seen some great comebacks, too, like Union Depot and the Commodore in St. Paul. Since the very beginning — to the consternation of preservationists, and the delight of builders and architects — we’ve been building and rebuilding and revising and replacing non-stop in our two towns.

Right now, we’re in the midst of a redevelopment boom that has touched nearly every part of Minneapolis and St. Paul, from residential teardowns to re-envisioned riverfronts, from new stadia to new parks and trails. We have refreshed facades and lost landmarks. And the look of our cities continues to evolve in 2016. Here are our 10 favorite projects for this New Year.

1. Wirth Co-op, Minneapolis
A food co-operative is more than a grocery store. It’s a hub of community activity that brings together farmers, families and neighbors, and encourages people to cook better, eat better and live healthier lives. In recent years, we’ve seen new co-ops open and old co-ops expand across the metro area, but North Minneapolis has been left out — until now. Wirth Co-op opens in spring of 2016 in the Commons at Penn (which will also include 45 units of workforce housing and a host of community amenities, including the 4000-square-foot co-op) on the corner of Penn Avenue and Golden Valley Road, in easy reach of the Northside, Golden Valley and Robbinsdale.

“There was a vacant lot there for a long time, and now there will be affordable apartments and retail, which will serve the community far better,” says Miah Ulysse, Wirth Co-op’s general manager. “We’ll sell fresh, healthy foods and cater to the area’s diverse population from a cultural perspective, but we’ll also serve as an educational hub. For instance, we could offer classes on Vietnamese or East African cooking, and classes on tax preparation or financial planning.”

Ulysse adds that the co-op is just shy of its starting goal of 500 members. “Co-ops bring a sense of community and members have an actual ownership share. They can vote and have a say in what this business will really mean for their neighborhood.”

2. Utepils Brewing Company, Minneapolis
Good water is the heart of good beer. So we’re delighted that a brewery is bringing the historic Glenwood Inglewood site back to life on the edge of Bassett Creek. In the 1880s, travelers paid by the glass for pure water from the underground well here, which would eventually fill the Glenwood Inglewood Water Company’s bottles. That iconic business closed a couple years ago (the brand name lives on, bottled in Colorado). Meanwhile, this sweet site, surrounded by parkland and tucked away from the city’s bustle, is set to become a European-style craft brewery: Utepils (formerly Bryn Mawr Brewing Company).

“Part of the appeal of this site for us was the history,” says Dan Justesen, Utepils’ president. “It connects people with those who came before us. They can come together over a beer and tell stories in a place that has heard a lot of stories. That’s been going on with beer for 8,000 years.”
 
Utepils is taking over the former water company’s underground well and warehouse shell for its production facilities, and adding a highly anticipated beer garden and bar. The newly constructed bar, designed by LSE Architects, comes ready with a few old stories from across the river. “When the old Glockenspiel in St. Paul closed [in November 2015], we salvaged some great old woodwork and furnishings from their bar, so a little piece of German beer history from St. Paul will live on here,” Justesen says.

The Utepils site is a short walk or bike ride from Golden Valley, Wirth Park and Minneapolis’ Bryn Mawr and Harrison neighborhoods. It’s the latest in a string of projects that have transformed once-gritty Glenwood Avenue into a stretch of hip businesses and cutting-edge architecture. The redeveloped site, called @Glenwood, already houses several startup businesses, and the addition of craft beer will undoubtedly make it a driver of future change.
 
3. The Herbivorious Butcher, Minneapolis
The Twin Cities will grow by a whopping 824,000 residents by 2014, according to Metropolitan Council projections, and much of the change we are seeing in these Twin Cities is designed to house, transport, entertain and employ this population boom. But what about feeding them?

The brother-sister team behind the Herbivorious Butcher — the world’s first vegan “butcher shop” — would tell you that feeding more and more people more and more meat isn’t sustainable. And it’s not necessary, with tasty alternatives coming onto the scene, say Aubry Walch and Kale Walch.

The Herbivorious Butcher won a devoted following as a farmer’s market stand specializing in meat-free meats and cheese-free cheeses. The duo’s proper shop opens in Northeast Minneapolis on Jan. 23, in a renovated brick storefront that will expand ethical eating and further the neighborhood’s evolution into a greener shade of cool.

“We’re in the building that used to be City Salvage, next to the Red Stag. Sometime before that it was a Buick dealership. It’s a glorious space and it just called to us,” says Kale Walch. “We had a feng shui expert come in to see the space, and she said she felt like it was giving her a big hug.”
 
“And then she cried,” said Aubry Walch.

The new space will enable the duo to offer hot lunches to-go and take-home items, as well as allow them to expand production to reach a national audience. They are trying to get celebrities like Jon Stewart to sign up for their 30-day vegan challenge — and the cute, charismatic pair is hard to say no to.

4. Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis
Minneapolis has the largest skyway system in the world, which is a wonderful thing in the middle of January. But when we’re all up in the sky, the streets are empty, which is hard on downtown businesses and drains our city of opportunities to interact with each other and our environment. Rather than suffer the fate of becoming a drive-through downtown, Minneapolis has embarked on an ambitious project to bring life back to Nicollet Mall — in all seasons.

Plans include improved safety and access for pedestrians; refreshed landscaping and street elements; an art walk and reading area; the return of streetcars along this arterial route; and better connection to Loring Park. Also, a 12-block stretch of buildings along this iconic street will receive a face-lift, including a new entrance for the IDS Tower. The $50 million project is the first major renovation since the 1980s.

In the summer, we can count on such events as the farmer’s market and music outside at Orchestra Hall and Peavey Plaza to get us to walk the mall. But a pedestrian-centered design will get us out in all seasons: In December, for instance, a sauna parked outside of Westminster Presbyterian Church was a hit, proving that our sense of fun can withstand the elements.

5. T3, Minneapolis
We wince when we see great old buildings come down — the warmth of the old materials and the charm of the old architecture just can’t be recreated. Or can it?

The T3 office building rising amid the remaining old warehouses in the North Loop neighborhood should fit in just fine. Developed by Hines on a surface parking lot site, this seven-story office tower will be the first commercial property in the U.S. to use an engineered wood product on its exterior. That façade, combined with chic Cor-Ten steel and plenty of big, gorgeous modern windows, pays visual homage to the neighborhood’s history while showcasing new design and state-of-the-art systems.

“T3 is the first new, ground up multi-tenant office building to be built in the North Loop neighborhood,” says Robert Pfefferle, director at Hines. “It was conceived and designed to reflect the character and history of the area, but also to solve some unmet needs of companies looking to locate their companies in a highly connected, growing, transit oriented, cool and convenient part of the city.”

The three T’s stand for timber, transit and technology, according to the project’s website. Pfefferle says the timber-constructed building is more than a conversation piece: It provides “highly efficient, highly adaptable work space that caters to the employee, and can support the culture of any of the forward-thinking companies and their highly coveted knowledge workers located in the North Loop.”

T3 is Minneapolis’ first building to achieve a WiredScore certification, which means its tenants will enjoy best-in-class wireless connectivity. It’s also located on multiple transit lines and bike trails, placing the building squarely in the heart of the city’s virtual and actual circulation system. Scheduled to open in the fall of 2016, you can see how the project is coming along by peeking in on the live construction cam.

6. Palace Theatre, St. Paul
As First Avenue weathers rumors of its impending demise in Minneapolis (the collapsing ceiling didn’t help), its owners have quietly partnered with Jam Productions and the St. Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority to reopen the Palace Theatre. The 100-year-old classic vaudeville hall has been empty since 1984, when it served as a temporary home for “A Prairie Home Companion.” Not just Garrison Keillor, but also Charlie Chapman, George Burns and the Marx Brothers have stood on its stage.

When it opens this year, the Palace will host traveling acts that can draw crowds of 3,000 —  a little bigger than First Avenue can hold. The $12 million structural stabilization will refresh the venue and most of the theater’s seats will be removed, leaving a general-admission main floor and second story mezzanine, in a delightfully ornate space. Sounds like a prettier First Avenue.

7. Film Space, Metro State University, St. Paul
Last year, 12 of the Twin Cities’ 14 major film festivals were held in Minneapolis. That’s set to change, thanks to a Knight Arts Challenge Grant that gave Metropolitan State University in St. Paul seed money to transform an underutilized auditorium into a cutting-edge digital cinema space. The new theater will enhance the school’s screenwriting and filmmaking programs, and enable it to become a community resource as a host to film festivals and other events.

“Our intention is to make it one of the finest digital theaters in the Twin Cities, serve filmmakers and audiences, and have a big impact on film art in St. Paul,” said James Byrne, professor in the Metropolitan State University screenwriting program. The 300-seat auditorium will be outfitted with a new projector, screen, floor, speakers, acoustical panels, lighting and other technologies that will enable Film Space to play any digital film made anywhere in the world. Film Space is set to open in April with the Qhia Dab Neeg (Hmong Storytelling) Film Festival.

In addition to tremendous student enrichment possibilities, Byrne adds, “this transformation will allow us to become more deeply connected to the community at large. We are working with the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood and the Eastside Arts Council to become a resource everyone in the community can enjoy. MSU has always been an active part of the community. This just furthers that mission.”

8. Custom House, St. Paul
St. Paul is transitioning from a city with a functional river used by industry to an urban enclave that showcases its river as a scenic, historic recreational destination. Just talk a walk or bike ride along Warner Road: Those dramatic cliffs, bald eagles and Mark Twain riverboats illustrate why this area is where people are heading.

Custom House, a 202-unit residential project in the old downtown St. Paul Post Office, opens this year and will enable more people to live close to the river. Even better, an innovative, much-talked-about River Balcony will wind through the complex and continue into a public space where even more people can experience the river in all seasons. Other plans for the site include a restaurant, hotel and retail space.

9. Grand Round, St. Paul
A big step for St. Paul riders will be the completion of a proper downtown bike loop this year. Raymond Avenue received its upgrades over the summer. Soon, Jackson Street will get a makeover that includes a protected bikeway. The goal is to connect bicyclists to such trails as the Sam Morgan and Gateway, as well as the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, so commuters can bike more easily downtown from various east metro locations. In 2017, we’re looking forward to the renovation of the Old Cedar Bridge in Bloomington, which will link riders across the river valley to both downtowns. Piece by piece, we’re becoming great metro area with safe, scenic bikeways. 

10. OXBO, St. Paul
St. Paul’s slower pace of development has enabled the city to preserve a greater number of its old buildings. But when Seven Corners Hardware closed in 2014, a highly desirable piece of real estate opened up. This year, that corner will rise as Opus Development Company constructs OXBO, a luxury high rise that will include ground-floor retail and an upper-level set of hotel rooms.

“This type of mixed-use development brings a lot to community life because it is a work-play-live environment,” says Matt Rauenhorst, vice president, Opus. The project, he adds, will serve as a “gateway to a great entertainment district and a river amenity. We’re designing OXBO to strengthen connections to those resources.”

The six-story building, slated to open late 2016 or early 2017, will enjoy river views, including those from a rooftop deck. Sidewalks will link to river trails. Retail space is undetermined at this point, but Rauenhorst hasn’t ruled out a new hardware store.

“I know it was sad to see the old hardware store go,” he says. “But they were going to close anyway, so we’re happy we can bring new things to the neighborhood.”
 
According to Rauenhorst, Opus worked closely with the community on a design that fits in with the neighborhood’s Victorian architecture, as well as the contemporary Xcel Energy Center. “We think it links those two nicely,” he says. “We’re not trying to be ultra-modern, like so many new buildings you see, because this is a neighborhood with a lot of history. We hope we can help more people enjoy everything this area has to offer.”

This article is reprinted in partnership with The Line, an online chronicle of Twin Cities creativity in entrepreneurship, culture, retail, placemaking, the arts, and other elements of the new creative economy. Amy Goetzman is a Twin Cities writer and editor; she covers books for MinnPost.

 They keep meaning to meet for lunch. University of Minnesota grads Natalie Darwitz and Kelly Roysland work near each other, coaching at colleges a few blocks apart on St. Paul’s Snelling Avenue. But making time can be tricky for young coaches building programs, especially Darwitz, a first-time mom with a six-month-old baby at home.

“Life is busy, but it’s a good busy,” said Darwitz, a three-time U.S. Olympian in hockey and the first-year women’s hockey coach at Division III Hamline University. “Some days, I’m going to bed exhausted. But I’m doing things I love to do.” 

Darwitz and Roysland, in her second year as women’s basketball coach at Macalester College, represent what has become a rare commodity in college sports: Women coaching women. 

Though more women play scholastic and intercollegiate sports than ever, research by the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center showed only about 40 percent of NCAA Division 1 women’s teams listed women as head coaches in 2014-15, down from more than 90 percent in 1974. The numbers are worse in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), to which both Macalester and Hamline belong: 38.1 percent in 2013-14, the last academic year studied.

What’s the problem? Women’s sports coaching jobs pay well enough now that experienced men flood to apply. Most athletic directors are men, and they tend to hire men, according to Tucker Center co-director Nicole LaVoi. Conversely, LaVoi said, talented women coaches with young children are getting out because the demands of coaching, recruiting and motherhood overwhelm them.   

“There is a maternity bias in all professions, and coaching is no exception,” LaVoi said. “As soon as a woman has a child, she’s perceived as less committed, less competent. It’s like there’s a maternity penalty that doesn’t apply to men.”

That’s not the case at Macalester and Hamline. 

Seven of Macalester’s ten head coaches in women’s sports are women, as is the athletics director, Kim Chandler, who hired Roysland to replace Ellen Thompson in 2014. (Mac was the only MIAC school that received an “A” for women’s staffing in the Tucker Center report.)

Natalie Darwitz

Hamline athletics director Jason Verdugo was so eager to hire the eight-months-pregnant Darwitz that he told her she could telecommute and stay home with her baby when not at practice. That swayed Darwitz, who rebuffed earlier overtures from Division I Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota State. Hamline’s three previous head coaches were men.

“We wanted to be cognizant of why the NCAA is not figuring out a way to attract good female coaches and keep them,” Verdugo said. “They may be trying to start families, like Natalie’s situation. Why not offer them the flexibility to work from home? She can do the same things she does in the office. She’s so driven and organized, it took maybe five minutes for me to feel really comfortable about her getting her work done.

“I want her to be happy,” said Verdugo, who understands the need for parental flexibility because his 15-year-old son is autistic. “Being home, she’ll be happy. For me, it was a no-brainer. I’m really surprised other athletic directors haven’t figured that one out.”

Darwitz and Roysland are just the kind of coaching prospects the NCAA should be attracting and nurturing.

Kelly Roysland

Daughters of successful men’s coaches, both were terrific players at Minnesota. Darwitz held Minnesota’s all-time hockey scoring record until Hannah Brandt broke it this season, and Roysland scored more than 1,000 points in a basketball career that began with the Lindsay Whalen-led Final Four run in 2004.

Both had a taste of Division I coaching at Minnesota but left under different circumstances – Darwitz by choice in 2011, and Roysland when athletic director Norwood Teague fired Pam Borton and her staff in 2014. Teague kept Roysland briefly as interim head coach for recruiting continuity, but the newly-hired Marlene Stollings let her go within seconds of accepting the job. 

Engaged to Sun Country executive and college basketball referee Eric Curry, Roysland declined to pursue jobs out of state. “I didn’t want to live somewhere else half the year and try to make that work,” she said. “I didn’t want to start my marriage off on that foot.”

Then the Macalester job opened up. “I had a really good feeling about it,” Roysland said in her office earlier this week. “I had been over here before to do a few speaking things. I knew Kim, the athletic director. I thought the facilities were great. The league is great; a lot of Division 1 coaches have come back to this league. And it was in the Twin Cities, where I could still live with my husband and coach at a very high level.”

Roysland interviewed two days before her wedding in August 2014 (as if she didn’t have enough stress). Chandler offered the job the next day, calling as Roysland was changing to go to her wedding rehearsal.

Recruiting to a college with $60,000 annual tuition, no athletic scholarships (a Division III-wide practice) and rigorous academic standards has its challenges. For most of Roysland’s players, schoolwork, not basketball, takes priority. Macalester’s last winning season came in 2009-10, and Roysland inherited a 5-20 team that graduated seven seniors. Her debut season was a disaster. The Scots won their first two games, then collapsed, finishing 3-22 overall and 0-18 in the MIAC, with 10- and 12-game losing streaks.

“That was hard, especially when got to January and February,” Roysland said. “They worked very hard and continued to get better, but it wasn’t quite enough.”

REUTERS/Eric Miller

Kelly Roysland driving to the basket against University of Virginia forward Tiffany Sardin during the NCAA second round division one Women's Basketball Championship game in Williams Arena in 2005.

This season the Scots started 5-2 before hitting a rough patch, losing five of six, the latest 70-36 at St. Olaf. Still, the 6-7 Scots (2-5 in conference) already have more victories than the past three seasons, with improved scoring, shooting and defense.

“Last year was a big building year, everyone getting used to a new system, the coaches getting used to us as players,” said senior guard Katelyn Kack of Minneota, one of only two Scots from Minnesota. “This year we’ve kind of gotten a flow together. We understand what each person brings to the team, and what our roles are. We’ve kind of jelled together.”

REUTERS/Andy Clark

Natalie Darwitz holding the trophy after winning the gold medal game at the Hockey Canada Cup in 2009.

For Darwitz, two years as Minnesota’s assistant coach and recruiting coordinator soured her on Division I hockey. Too many days in airports and nights in hotels, not enough time for the lake and family. So she walked away and coached four years at Lakeville South High, leading the Cougars last season to a 24-6-1 mark and their first Class 2A state tournament. 

Soon after, Darwitz found herself in demand. Like Roysland, Darwitz abhorred leaving the Twin Cities. Darwitz’s husband Chris Arseneau works as a respiratory therapist at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. 

Courtesy of Hamline University

Natalie Darwitz coaching her team.

“The D1 schedule, relocation, wasn’t in my future,” Darwitz said. “People think I’m crazy, but the balance of home and the passion of hockey has to even out. It’s non-negotiable for me. I’m all in because I can’t stand not doing my best. In that situation, I wouldn’t be doing my best on the rink or at home. That doesn’t jive with me.”

Verdugo’s work-at-home offer intrigued her. So did the opportunity to breath life into a dead program. While Gustavus and St. Thomas dominated MIAC women’s hockey, Hamline posted two winning seasons out of 15, none since in 2007-08. Last season’s finish: 6-17-2.

Already, things are turning. The 6-5-2 Pipers matched last season’s victory total and sit tied for fifth in the MIAC (3-2-1, seven points). The top five teams make the conference tournament. Darwitz’s practices are demanding but fun; she usually brings her dog, Oakley, a cheerful brown-and-white English springer spaniel who can’t chase a tennis ball enough.

“I’m loving my time here,” Darwitz said after practice earlier this week, in the trailer that serves as Hamline’s locker room (the men have one too). “It allows me that freedom to find what so many people are craving – that balance between work and home life. I’m able to do both.” 

It shouldn’t be that hard.

Supporters of the batch of workplace proposals that began life as Mayor Betsy Hodges’ Working Families Agenda figured removing the most-controversial proposal would reduce opposition to what remained.

In October, intense opposition from small businesses caused the city council to table a controversial scheduling provision. What was left of that once-ambitious agenda — mandatory paid sick leave for all employees — was handed off to a task force charged with presenting a proposal by the end of February.

But while setting aside the scheduling provision may have lessened the loudest and most-emotional opposition, complaints remain. As the Workplace Partnership Group begins a series of what members are calling “listening sessions” — including Thursday's, aimed at small business — there remains suspicion, confusion and apprehension over any proposal that requires all employers to allow workers to accumulate sick leave or personal time off.

Interest in the issue is still high, however, as shown by the packed theater room during the midday meeting at Bryant Lake Bowl.

Jim Welna, who owns two hardware stores with his brother, asked the work group members to recognize the difference between small businesses with a lot of hourly workers and larger businesses with salaried employees. He said most existing workers in Minneapolis with paid sick leave fall into the salaried category. “Most of those workers are in positions that if they’re not there that day the work can wait,” Welna said. “Many of us in this room are in businesses where if the person is not there, somebody else has to step in to do that.”

Other owners described their employees as being like family and objected to the city inserted itself in that relationship. Stephanie Covart Meyerring, who co-owns the Electric Fetus, said she offers paid sick leave and vacation to some of the employees.

“We are so unique in what we offer our employees which is why they want to be employed with us,” she said, in urging the city to allow flexibility in any ordinance. “If someone were to call in sick, we work with everyone because we are part of a family. Our company isn’t just employing people, we are employing our families.”

KB Brown owns a very small business — it has one employee — called Wolfpack Promotionals. He said he sees the need for paid sick leave as a way to protect workers from being pressured to work while sick or being fired for not working. Brown said he once managed a Chipotle restaurant and wouldn’t let workers come in sick, but that they were sometimes fired for missing too much work even though it was unpaid.

But Brown said any ordinance should provide employers with protections to prevent workers from abusing the benefit.

Dick Henke, who has owned the Malt Shop restaurant on 50th Street for 40 years, said he didn’t think the city should mandate paid sick leave.

“We’ve crafted policies for our business that fit our business,” Henke said. “We rely on our employees. We have to take care of them. If we don’t take care of them, we don’t have them.” Henke also said the ordinance would create a cost that would require an increase in prices.

“Our employees are not asking for this,” Henke said. “Most people are happy with small business environments managed by people who care about the business and care about their employees and I have a real problem with the city getting involved in more labor laws that we have to adapt our businesses to.”

Although the work group members were supposed to be listening, a few offered comments. Brian Elliott, a group member who serves as the executive director of the SEIU state council, said that while ordinances from other cities are being used to start discussions, no decisions about the makeup of a Minneapolis ordinance have been made.

And Chris Pennock, representing workers, said that while most of the owners in the room treat their employees well, others in the city do not. “I would urge people to remember that not all employer-employee relationships in the city are as good as what you guys have,” Pennock said.

Work group member Molly Glasgow was able to direct the conversation into specifics. Shannon Leach, the general manager of Izzy’s Ice Cream, said it should consider businesses that hire a lot of young people. A woman who owns a hair salon said she has both employees and contractors who rent chairs in her shop. Restaurant owner Molly Broder said she thinks a policy should require workers to be at a job for at least six months before being able to take paid leave. Leach, who is also an actor, wondered how a paid leave policy could be applied to arts groups. Brown wanted a cap on the number of hours an employee could accrue. Welna suggested being able to buy out an employee’s unused leave at year end as an incentive for workers to use it only when necessary. Bookseller Mary Magers said businesses like hers that compete with big stores as well as Amazon have little room to raise prices.

“Which means we’ll have to sell a heck of a lot more books than we do now,” she said, taking the opportunity to say that those politicians and others who support the paid leave ordinance need to also shop local.

Welna even suggested an incentive-based program, which he compared to LEED certification for environmentally sustainable buildings. Businesses with good benefits could be designated a gold standard employer and could display that designation.

And several business owners questioned why the city appeared to be rushing the work of the task force, which is charged with conducting sessions and public hearings, deliberating the policy, and agreeing on a recommendation — all by the end of February.

Not all of those who spoke were opposed to a paid-leave ordinance. Several who spoke in support are members of the Main Street Alliance of Minnesota, an affiliate of a national organization that supports progressive issues such as higher minimum wages, health care and leave. The local group has proposed what it terms “a modest floor” for sick leave accrual of one hour for each 30 hours of paid work. The alliance proposed that any employer with an existing paid time off policy would be deemed to be in compliance as long as the policy met the one-hour-every-30-days minimum.

Earlier in the week, the alliance had a conference call with small business owners in other states and cities that currently have paid-leave laws in place. Shaun Sieren, who owns a nightclub in Portland, said the leave law there has caused little disruption to his business. “Employees only use it when they really need it,” Sieren said. That was echoed by Dan Stenton-Klatt, who owns Butter Bakery Cafe in Minneapolis. When he gave paid sick leave to his 20 employees, only five sick days were used in the first six months after the policy was implemented.  

The alliance, in conjunction with the National Partnership for Women & Families, also released a compilation of studies on leave policies. One, conducted by the University of Washington for the Seattle city auditor, found that 70 percent of businesses supported the leave ordinance a year after it took effect.

The work group is engaging in a somewhat unusual method of taking public testimony. Each of the listening sessions is organized by different members of the task force and focuses on the groups that are represented by that member. For example, Glasgow was appointed to a slot set aside for small business owners, so she organized the small business listening session. Four business owners were selected to be on stage as “discussants,” but anyone in the room was allowed to comment or ask questions.

Watching Thursday were other members of the sick leave work group who will report back to the council with a proposal for a sick-leave policy in the city. While the group could recommend no formal ordinance, that is unlikely given the makeup of the group and the charge from the council.

Also attending the meeting: four members of the council, which will have to take the report and decide whether to become the 27th political jurisdiction in the country — mostly cities — to adopt a local leave mandate.  

St. Paul officials are looking for a new police chief and have now scheduled dates for two forums that will give citizens a chance to meet and question the candidates.

Chief Tom Smith is stepping down after a six-year term; a 32-member selection committee will help narrow the applicants down to five finalists before the citizen forums.

Those will be:

• Mar. 29, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Central High School Auditorium, 275 Lexington Pkwy. N.
• Mar. 31, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Johnson High School Auditorium, 1349 Arcade St.

Residents can also comment on the chief selection process by responding online to these questions: “What characteristics and experiences do you believe are most important for Saint Paul’s next Police Chief and why?”

The goal is to have a new chief inn place by June 1.

City Council President Russ Stark said: “The council is looking for a candidate with integrity, approachability and a commitment to serve the diverse community that is St. Paul. I believe that this process, which relies heavily on input from the community itself, will produce a top candidate.”

So much for rumors, apparently. Rachel Stassen-Berger of the PiPress reports, “Gov. Mark Dayton insists that anyone who believes or even suggests he may quit the job before 2019 lacks a basic understanding of his character. ‘This is the finale of my career, and if they think I'm going to walk away or they think they're going to drive me out, they just fundamentally don't know who I am,’ the Democratic-Farmer-Labor governor told the Pioneer Press. ‘The notion that ... I would just sort of turn tail and slink out the door to finish my political career is just insulting.' For years, Dayton has been dogged by speculation that he will not continue in politics.” It’s not like he’s got a celebrity pundit gig at FoxNews waiting for him.

The free market solution. More insurance to insure your insurance. Says Christopher Snowbeck in the Strib: “As deductibles get bigger, insurers are pushing extra coverage that can help people with certain serious health problems cover out-of-pocket costs. These ‘critical illness’ policies have been around for years, but Minnetonka-based UnitedHealthcare and St. Paul-based Securian Financial Group are among the insurers making recent moves in the growing market.” I’ll pay anything, just keep me away from that Socialism stuff.

The cold is a short-term thing.Says WCCO-TV,“Tuesday will start off with negative temperatures, before warming up into the single digits. From there, the warm-up will continue, and by next weekend, Minnesota will be feeling balmy. Saturday’s highs are expected to be in the mid-30s. That means that in the span of a week, some Minnesotans could see a temperature change of nearly 60 degrees.”

But even with highs below zero there’s this: The AP says, “Organizers of the annual Brainerd Jaycees $150,000 Ice Fishing Extravaganza are postponing the contest for two weeks because of inconsistent ice conditions. Contest officials and the Crow Wing County Sheriff's Office said Friday the charitable ice-fishing contest on Gull Lake is being delayed until Feb. 6 for safety reasons. The event had been scheduled for Jan. 23. Sheriff's Lt. Scott Goddard says warm weather has resulted in inconsistent ice thickness throughout Brainerd area lakes.”

In one of his final pieces for the AP before moving over to MPR, Brian Bakst says: “The scenarios are grim: A pandemic influenza swamps the availability of hospital ventilators. A chemical spill exhausts antidote supplies and decontamination abilities. A terror attack overwhelms ambulances and trauma centers. A big earthquake, wildfire or hurricane throws emergency rooms into crisis. At the prodding of the federal government, state health departments nationwide are hurrying to complete ‘Crisis Standards of Care’ plans to guide medical professionals in such catastrophes and determine what should trigger them.”

Archie Ingersoll of the Forum News Service says: “During the past decade, the number of people with a permit to carry a concealed handgun has increased more than fivefold in North Dakota and Minnesota, with both states reaching record highs in 2015. As of Dec. 31, there were 40,872 active handgun permits in North Dakota, and that figure was 207,045 in Minnesota, according to each state's crime bureau.” Goin’ to be a lot of “bullets going the other way” as Trump was saying the other night.

The Saudis’ strategy appears to be working. Says Dave Shaffer in the Strib, “Oil industry experts have been making dire predictions of $20 per barrel oil. In North Dakota, they’re now reality, prompting warnings of more bankruptcies and less drilling in 2016. Although the U.S. domestic crude oil benchmark is higher — $29.64 per barrel — Bakken producers must sell at a discount because of the region’s limited oil pipelines and the higher cost of alternate shipping methods. On Friday, North Dakota light sweet crude dropped to $20 per barrel at the wellhead, the lowest price since 2002 … .”

Art at MSP. MPR’s Elizabeth Dunbar says, “A new public art display at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is aimed at challenging people to think about where their energy comes from. Local artist Arlene Birt installed motion sensors over certain tables in the airport's food court that correspond to a lighting display on the wall. When people sit at certain tables, parts of the display light up, such as washing machines and other appliances. She says it also shows people how the appliance is powered.” Did she think of rigging one in the Larry Craig Memorial Stall?

Remind me, is Mickey Rourke still popular? In the Strib, Kevyn Burger writes, “[Emily] Charais is part of the growing no-shampoo (or ‘no-poo’) movement, made up of women and men who’ve given up the daily lather-rinse-repeat ritual. Their reasons vary, from concern about chemical ingredients and a desire to reduce the use of plastic containers to wanting to save money on hair care. While some who make a clean break with shampoo just rinse their hair, most mix up alternatives from kitchen staples. A widely used method replaces shampoo and conditioner with a squirt bottle filled with baking soda mixed with water to remove the dirt, oil and smell. That’s followed by dabbing diluted apple cider vinegar on the ends of the hair.” My preferred ingredients are bacon fat, garlic and tannis root.

A counter view on Wisconsin prisoner Steven Avery, central figure of the “Making of a Murderer” mania. Local PR guy Chris Duffy writes: “January 2006. It was my first week on the job as a reporter for WBAY-TV (ABC) in Green Bay, Wis. My news director gave me an assignment that made my stomach churn. I was told to go to Steven Avery’s property and ask his family members for their reaction to a new development: that the burned remains found on the Averys’ property belonged to Teresa Halbach. … Some people might confuse the term ‘documentary’ with ‘journalism.’ ‘Making a Murderer’ is a documentary. The filmmakers did not — and were not required to — follow journalistic standards.”

During Sunday night’s Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina, Bernie Sanders made one basic argument for why America needs to put him in the Oval Office. Not quite this explicitly, but almost, Sanders asserts:

The game is rigged by the Big Money. Millionaires and billionaires and Wall Street banks and Fortune 500 corporations and Chatsworth Osborne Jr. (that’s a Dobie Gillis reference) own American politics in ways that guarantee they cannot lose and almost always win, which means ordinary Americans almost always lose. The Big Money guys are too big to fail and too big to jail, so even if they collude in a way that crashes the U.S. economy, they don’t go broke and they don’t go to prison.

Wall Street controls not only the Republican Party (the semi-official party of fat cats) but has also bought insurance by corrupting important elements of the Democratic Party, including Hillary Clinton, at least according to Sanders (and I don’t mean to imply by that phrasing that I find his argument absurd).

In case you think I’m exaggerating the fundamental nature of this argument, here’s one of several quotes from the debate, starting with a question from NBC moderator Lester Holt:

HOLT: Senator Sanders, you released a tough new ad last week in which, without mentioning Secretary Clinton by name, you talk about two Democratic visions for regulating Wall Street. “One says it's OK to take millions from big banks and tell them what to do. My plan, break up the big banks, close the tax loopholes and make them pay their fair share.” What do you see as the difference between what you would do about the banks and what Secretary Clinton would do?

SANDERS: Well, the first difference is I don't take money from big banks. I don't get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs.

What I would do is understand that when you have three out of the four largest banks today, bigger than they were when we bailed them out because they were too big to fail, when you have the six largest financial institutions having assets of 60 percent of the GDP of America, it is very clear to me what you have to do.

You've got to bring back the 21st century Glass-Steagall legislation and you've got to break up these huge financial institutions. They have too much economic power and they have too much financial power over our entire economy. If Teddy Roosevelt were alive today, the old Republican trust-buster, what he would say is these guys are too powerful. Break them up. I believe that's what the American people want to see. That's my view.

Buying elections

Over the course of the evening, Sanders made several references to the SuperPAC and Citizens United-bedeviled campaign finance structure, like this one: “We have a corrupt campaign finance system where millionaires and billionaires are spending extraordinary amounts of money to buy elections."

And when he says that his campaign “is about a political revolution to not only elect the president, but to transform this country,” he means quite clearly that the kind of change he recommends, the kind that would help the lower and working and middle classes, cannot be enacted by political leaders who are indebted to Wall Street.

Lest there be any doubt, the person to whom he was alluding, who does get money from big banks and speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, is Hillary Clinton, who in 2013 — the year she left her position as secretary of state — was paid $675,000 by Goldman Sachs for three speeches (part of a total of $2.9 million she received as personal income for giving 12 speeches to Wall Street banks).

And, according to the same article linked to above, Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, earned $17 million in talks to banks, insurance companies, hedge funds, real-estate businesses and other financial firms. Altogether, the couple is estimated to have made more than $139 million from paid speeches in an eight-year period.

Maybe you believe Wall Street pays all that money just to hear good speeches. Maybe you don’t. Sanders at least wants you to wonder about it.

The race between Sanders and Clinton has been civil. They generally do not make personal attacks on each other and frequently express respect and friendship. Compared to the all-out war for the Republican nomination, the race on the Dem side — including last night’s debate — is a model of substance, civility and factual accuracy.

And yet, it is not possible avoid the conclusion that Sanders believes Hillary Clinton is too corrupted or compromised by the Wall Street money she and her husband have been paid to be the person who would govern in the interest of what the Occupy Wall Street movement used to call “the 99 percent,” or whom Sanders likes to address as “brothers and sisters.”

There were, of course, a lot more subjects discussed last night, most of them worthy of discussion and many of them worth considering for Democrats trying to decide whom to support for the nomination.

There is the question of which Democrat would be most likely to win in November and which candidate would have the skills to smuggle some of their policy preferences past the gridlock in Washington.

But I’m determined to keep this piece fairly short and, to me, the most interesting, slightly-below-the-surface argument made by candidates is Sanders’ claim that Clinton has been bought and he is unbought.

The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. 

— The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in a speech given to the Illinois State AFL-CIO, Springfield, Illinois, Oct. 7, 1965

Brahim Kone

As we celebrate the life of The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. today, thousands of janitors around the Twin Cities are taking King’s words and putting them into action.

We are united as members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 26, and we are fighting for fair wages and benefits for working people across the metro so we can begin to turn back the tide on our state’s awful economic and racial disparities.

Over 95% are people of color

How does this connect to King, you ask? Well, of the over 4,000 janitors in our union, over 95 percent are people of color. Our bargaining sessions are translated into three languages and our membership reflects the rich diversity of Minnesota today. We work for contractors to clean office buildings for some of the largest and most powerful corporations in the country, yet like many Minnesotans we are being pushed to do more and more while still fighting tooth and nail just to provide a better life for our children. While corporate profits continue to climb and average CEO pay now over 300 times what their employees makes, hard work is not being rewarded for far too many Minnesotans.  

Many janitors in the Twin Cities clean the equivalent of over 20 homes per night, every single night. We work incredibly hard, doing work that often goes unnoticed in keeping the buildings of some of the largest corporations clean, yet we find ourselves fighting for pay and benefits that fairly reflect our hard work.

Like many jobs in our society over the last 30 years, productivity by workers has gone up while pay and benefits have dropped. In the janitor’s 1982 union contract, most workers were employed directly by the buildings — not sub-contractors — and earned $6.27 per hour ($15.42 in today’s dollars). They also had fair workloads, pensions (!) and good health-care benefits. Most of the janitors were white, and these were considered “good” jobs, but as buildings began subcontracting cleaning, real wages took a dive and employers recruited immigrants and people of color to take these jobs. There has been a corporate-led race to the bottom that allows people to imply janitorial, and many other formerly working-class jobs, are no longer jobs that deserve wages and benefits to support a family. This has been a national trend that has hurt working people of all races.

We know that raising the wage floor for all janitors in our union to $15 would pump tens of millions of dollars of spending into our communities. With almost all of our janitorial members from communities that have been directly impacted by the system that created our state's racial and economic disparities, these millions would be an important step in our fight to close the racial and economic gaps plaguing our state.

A good place to start addressing disparities

If we want an immediate, private sector solution to take action addressing our racial and economic disparities, this would be a good place to start. As Dr. King said, we can begin to find “hope and progress.”

 Our needs are identical with labor’s needs: decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old-age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children, and respect in the community. 

— The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in speech given to the AFL-CIO Miami Beach, Fl Dec. II, 1961

King knew that you couldn’t fully fight racial disparities without addressing the economic reality facing families. He understood that we have many areas to fight to make our country more equal and just, but that when people come together in a union to fight for dignity, it moves the needle toward a fairer and more just society for everyone. In our fight for a new contract, we are rallying all people in our state to “Reclaim Your Dreams.”

We know that not only would better wages and benefits pump much needed resources into the community, it would help build momentum for the larger fight to create better lives for all working people in our state. It is hard to imagine that if King were still alive he would not be marching with the workers of every race who are fighting, and winning, the fight for $15 all across our country.

Bigger than one contract

We have been so thankful for the outpouring of support from the community as we’ve fought for a fair contract over the last few months. We know our fight is bigger than just winning a contract. It is a fight to change the reality facing too many people in our state, especially underpaid workers and people of color. Soon we will be taking a strike vote in light of our employer’s refusal to bargain in good faith to find a solution that moves our state in a better direction.

I want a brighter future for my children. I want a brighter future for all working people in our state. I want Minnesota to be a great place to live for everyone, and for us to finally close our painful racial and economic disparities. As we honor The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. today, let’s remember his deep commitment to racial and economic justice, and let’s commit to continuing the fight for which he gave his life.   

Brahim Kone works as a janitor in St. Paul. He is a member of SEIU Local 26 and serves on the union’s executive board. 

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If you're interested in joining the discussion, add your voice to the Comment section below — or consider writing a letter or a longer-form Community Voices commentary. (For more information about Community Voices, email Susan Albright at salbright@minnpost.com.)

Providing women on Medicaid with doula support during pregnancy and childbirth can help lower the rate of premature births — and the high costs associated with them, suggests a new study by University of Minnesota researchers.

A doula is someone (almost always a woman) specially trained to provide physical and emotional support to mothers during pregnancy, labor and delivery. (Doulas should not be confused with midwives, who provide medical care during childbirth.) 

Earlier research by the same team of U of M researchers reported a strong association between doula support and lower Caesarean rates among Medicaid recipients. The new study is, however, the first to find that doula support also reduces the risk of premature birth among Medicaid recipients — by 22 percent, according to the U of M’s analysis. 

The new study is also the first to put a cost-savings figure to those findings. It estimates that the amount of money spent by Medicaid programs on doula services would be offset by an average of $986 per birth due to decreases in the costs associated with preterm and Caesarean births.

“One of the neat things about this study is it provides a missing piece of the puzzle,” said Katy Kozhimannil, lead author of the study and an associate professor in the U of M’s School of Public Health, in an interview with MinnPost. “We know that doula care has benefits. We know that doctors recommend that women have doulas in order to generally prevent unnecessary use of Caesareans. So doctors recommend it. The health benefits are clear. What has really been missing is the translational policy piece, the cost-benefit piece.”

Details and implications

For their study, which was published online last week in the journal Birth, Kozhimannil and her colleagues gathered data on preterm and Caesarean births among doula-supported Medicaid recipients in Minnesota and then compared it to data on preterm and cesarean rates for a 20 percent sample (more than 67,000 women in all) of non-doula-supported Medicaid recipients in Minnesota and 11 other Midwestern states.

Minnesota is one of only two states (the other is Oregon) that require their Medicaid programs to cover doula services.

The doula-related benefits found in the U of M study are significant — and potentially very important. As background information in the study points out, one in nine babies in the United States is born preterm (before 37 weeks’ gestation). These babies are at greater risk than full-term babies of developing a wide range of medical problems, including include lung damage, brain hemorrhages, infections, vision loss and cerebral palsy.

About one-third of all infant deaths are from preterm-related causes.

In addition to greater health risks, preterm births are associated with much greater medical costs. During their first year, babies born prematurely incur medical expenses that are 10 times higher than those for full-term babies. The cost to the U.S. health-care system of preterm births has been estimated at $26 billion a year. A significant amount of that money is spent by Medicaid, which pays for about half of all births in the U.S.

The U of M study estimates that in just the 12 states used in its analysis, doula-supported Medicaid births could reduce the number of premature births by 3,200 each year, for an annual savings to Medicaid of $58 million.

‘An unmet need’

Here in Minnesota, about 5,000 babies are born prematurely each year, according to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). As is true across the country, racial and economic disparities are reflected in these births. Preterm births in Minnesota are more common among non-Hispanic black and Native American mothers than among white mothers. Low-income mothers are also more likely to have premature babies.

Katy Kozhimannil

Interestingly, research by Kozhimannil has shown that these are some of the same groups of women who express a high interest in having the support of a doula during pregnancy and childbirth.

“There is actually an unmet need and a desire for doula support among those who stand to benefit the most,” said Kozhimannil.

Yet the barriers to accessing doula services — even in Minnesota, where Medicaid covers such services — are many.

“We have a very active doula community,” explained Kozhimmanil. “We’re one of only two states where Medicaid pays for doula services. But even under the best of conditions, on the ground, it’s really hard to get a doula if you’re a Medicaid beneficiary — and for that doula to get paid.”

Many customer service representatives for health plans are unaware that their plans cover such services — or even what a doula is, she said. In addition, the process for becoming a certified doula with state and managed care providers is complicated and costly — barriers that are particularly problematic for low-income women who want to become doulas.

Reimbursement rates for doulas are also quite low — an average of about $400 per birth in Minnesota.

Breaking down the barriers

Kozhimmanil hopes that this latest study’s findings will help persuade policymakers to make it easier for Medicaid recipients to access doula services — and for doulas to receive adequate reimbursement for their services.

“I understand the reticence on the part of Medicaid programs or any health plan to add a covered service for birth,” she said. “Birth is really common. Medicaid is the most frequent payer for birth, and you have to be really judicious when you’re adding new things to pay for.”

But, as the findings from this latest study show, “there is really no good reason for Medicaid programs and health plans not to really seriously consider how to expand benefits to include doula services,” said Kozhimmanil.

You’ll find an abstract of the study on the website for the journal Birth, but, unfortunately, the study itself is behind a paywall. 

One evening in early summer 2014, a group of young men approached a 17-year-old near the corner of Queen and 30_th avenues north in Minneapolis, looking to buy some marijuana. They agreed on a small amount — a mere $15 worth — but the slightly older group of teens didn't want to pay. 

“This is mine,” said one of them, 19-year-old Michael Lashone Ferguson, after taking the bag, according to court records. 

The exchange turned into a fistfight, and then escalated into something worse. Ferguson produced a Smith & Wesson handgun and began to open fire, missing his target but spraying nearby houses with bullets.

Before anyone called 911, a series of nearby microphones picked up the frequency of the shots and triangulated the location of the incident. The audio traveled 2,000 miles to Newark, California, where a sound engineer analyzed the feed and confirmed it was gunfire, and then sent a report to 911 operators back in Minneapolis so the department could dispatch officers to the scene. The whole exchange usually takes less than a minute. Later that evening, with the help of witnesses, Minneapolis police took Ferguson and two of his accomplices into custody. They found the bag of weed and the handgun nearby and Ferguson was convicted of first-degree aiding and abetting aggravated robbery. 

The technology that assisted in the timely arrest is called ShotSpotter. In 2007, then-Third Precinct Minneapolis Police Commander Scott Gerlicher helped bring this little-known crime-fighting technology to his South Side district. The next year, Minneapolis installed more microphones on the North Side, another area of the city also troubled by frequent gun violence.

Nine years later, ShotSpotter monitors 90 U.S. cities, as well as some locations internationally — it recently helped bust rhinoceros poachers in South Africa — and Minneapolis law enforcement counts it as a vital tool in helping catch shooters.

“[ShotSpotter] allows us a much more rapid response,” says Gerlicher, now commander of the police department’s Strategic Information and Crime Analysis Division. “Cops are able to get there much more quickly, and thus the chances of making an apprehension or finding victims are much greater than by traditional means.”

But ShotSpotter also serves another, perhaps equally important function: It provides a macro look at how and where shootings occur in the city — particularly those incidents that don’t lead to arrests, which account for the vast majority of shots fired across the city.

“We know gun violence better than anyone in the world,” says ShotSpotter CEO Ralph Clark.

MinnPost analyzed five years of ShotSpotter data, beginning in January 2009. In that time, the system has dispatched officers to more than 5,000 shooting incidents in Minneapolis.

The data don't provide a perfect picture of shootings. For one thing, ShotSpotter can only provide data for the areas where its microphones are installed. Although the city has added more mics since first installing ShotSpotter in '07, they are still only used in high-shooting areas in North and South Side neighborhoods. It also doesn't pick up shots fired inside a home or building, and there’s still the occasional false positive.

But Clark says the company guarantees to detect at least 80 percent of shots fired in these areas, and usually hits closer to 90-95 percent — far more accurate than relying only on 911 callers.

“Although it’s not perfect, it’s very, very, very good,” he says.

With those caveats in mind, here’s what six years — from 2009 through 2015 — of ShotSpotter data tell us:

1. The number of gunshots fired in the city each year has been trending down

First, some good news: the number of shots fired appears to be dropping. As illustrated in the chart below, ShotSpotter detected 1,169 shots in 2009. In 2014, there were 697. Police note that ShotSpotter technology has gotten better over this time period, meaning there haven't been as many false-positives, which could contribute somewhat to the decline.

2. Shootings are largely concentrated in just a few neighborhoods

Neighborhoods in north Minneapolis see the most shooting incidents. Out of 5,029 shootings detected by ShotSpotter, about 64 percent took place in Camden or Near North. Jordan — a Near North community bound by Lowry Avenue to the north, Emerson Avenue to the east and West Broadway to the south and west — saw the highest concentration of ShotSpotter activations, with 1,378 in the six-year period, or about 27 percent of all shooting incidents. The Hawthorne community, also part of Near North, came in second with 773 incidents. The Central community saw the most shootings in South, with 461 incidents, followed by Midtown Phillips (266), Ventura Village (236) and East Phillips (234).

Use the heat map below to explore shooting incident concentrations in different areas of the city, or type an address into the search bar to zoom to a specific area.

These trends have been pretty stable over the last six years, too. While specific areas of concentrated gunshots vary from year to year, the Jordan and Hawthorne neighborhoods consistently see the most gunfire.

Minneapolis shooting incident concentration, by year

Areas in dark red represent higher concentrations of shooting incidents. Note: the concentration of shootings varies from year to year so concentrations of the same color do not represent the same raw number of shots across years.

3. Most shootings occur after dark

If the next six years look like the last, the safest time to walk around in Minneapolis is around 9 on a February morning.

Unsurprisingly, most shots occur at night, ramping up around 5 p.m. The highest frequency occurred between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m; in the six-year period MinnPost studied, 2,890 incidents took place during these nighttime hours, or about 57 percent of shots fired. That still leaves a significant number of shootings for the daytime, however. ShotSpotter recorded more than 600 incidents between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. over these years.

Shootings also pick up during the warmer months. About 60 percent of shooting incidents took place between May and October. The highest-frequency months were June and July, which collectively saw 1,316 — or about 26 percent — of total shootings recorded by ShotSpotter. January and February, usually the coldest months of the year, had the least amount of incidents, with 307 and 253 shootings, respectively.

4. It’s extremely rare for shootings to result in immediate arrests

Tracking shootings doesn’t always mean officers get to the scene in time to make an arrest. Out of the 5,029 dispatches to ShotSpotter activations, a mere 51 resulted in bookings in the six-year period, according to the data. Most commonly, the officers arrive to an empty street corner or address. About 575 cases were canceled or deemed unfounded or false, meaning there likely was no shooting. Here's the breakdown of dispatch outcomes:

The low booking count doesn’t necessarily mean ShotSpotter didn’t eventually lead to an arrest. Gerlicher says investigators frequently follow up on ShotSpotter incidents and use the information to track down suspects in days or weeks after the shooting. In other cases, investigators use ShotSpotter to prove or disprove details of an incident, such as how many shooters were involved.

Also not measured in these statistics is how effectively the technology acts as a deterrent to would-be shooters. Police purposely don't disclose the exact locations of the microphones to make criminals think twice about firing a gun, says Gerlicher.

“If you’re a criminal out there and you go to fire a gunshot outside in the city of Minneapolis, we want you to believe ... Shotspotter will be listening,” he says.

Library of Congress

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Highlights of today's Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday include a sold-out breakfast in Minneapolis and a family celebration in St. Paul.

The Minneapolis breakfast included a keynote speech by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. And honors were bestowed on retiring judges Alan Page and Michael Davis.

St. Paul's event at the Ordway Center, present by the Governor's Council on MLK Day, featured music and dance and a speech by Talila Lewis, founder of Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of the Deaf.

Other events today include:

• 11 a.m: Family celebration at Powderhorn Park Community Center, 3400 15th Av. S., Minneapolis
• 1 p.m.: "Race, Rap & Reality" convocation at Hoversten Chapel, Augsburg College
• 6:30 p.m.: Celebration, Martin Luther King Park, 4055 Nicollet Av. S., where the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board will present the annual MLK Award.
• Day of events at Luther Seminary, Olson Campus Center, 1490 Fulham St., St. Paul, with keynote speaker Nekima Levy-Pounds, and an 11 a.m. worship service.

Richelle Wahi

Gov. Mark Dayton has appointed Richelle Wahi as a new judge in the 1st District, based in Hastings.

She replaces Judge Mary Theisen, who has retired.

Wahi has been a partner at Lindquist & Vennum, handling family law and general litigation cases. She is chair of the firm’s Diversity Committee and is a Conciliation Court Referee in Dakota County.

She earned her B.A. from the College of St. Catherine and her J.D. with honors from William Mitchell College of Law. 

The mania over “Making a Murderer,” Netflix’s hit documentary of Wisconsin justice jumping the tracks, brings the fever to Minneapolis on Jan. 27. That’s when one of Steven Avery’s defense attorneys, Dean Strang — who has become something of a folk hero — will join a forum at ​Sisyphus Brewing​ in downtown Minneapolis.

Local attorneys and best buddies Joe Friedberg and Ron Rosenbaum have given the case of benighted Avery — the convicted, imprisoned, released and convicted “murderer” — plenty of attention on Rosenbaum’s ​“Holding Court” podcast (co­hosted by Lucy Quinlivan). When Paul Nolan, a Sisyphus patron, brainstormed the idea of an event to kick around the legal twists and malfeasance of the the case, he approached Rosenbaum, asking if he and Friedberg  were interested. Rosenbaum encouraged him to at least check with Strang’s people over in Wisconsin to see if they would make the slog over. “The worst they can say is, ‘No.’ ”

To everyone’s surprise, Strang himself said, “Yes,” having been tipped off to the Friedberg-Rosenbaum podcast conversations, which are — as you might imagine — somewhat better informed on the legal proprieties than your average, well, brewpub blather. Tickets sold out almost immediately, leaving Nolan talking with Sisyphus owners Catherine Cuddy and Sam Harriman about hooking up a closed-circuit feed from their 90­-person performance room into the much larger brew pub space.

As of Friday, Cuddy was “still working on it.” If they can get it rigged, there’s a possibility they’ll put another 60 or so tickets up for sale. All the proceeds go to the Wisconsin Innocence Project.

On Friday, Strang showed up on "CBS This Morning," which Gawker hyped with a headline screaming, “Steven Avery’s Defense Attorney ‘Absolutely’ Doubts Avery’s Innocence,” which was more than a little over the top.

One of many good pieces on the 10-­part series and case is by ​Bronwen Dickey at Slate​. Sample quote: “If an innocent man can be railroaded by law enforcement twice in one lifetime, I thought, then Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, must be where virtue goes to die. Even the sky that hangs over the place looks like a steel door waiting to slam shut. And that, of course, is exactly how the directors of ​ Making a Murderer, ​Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, want me to feel. They have constructed every frame to extract from me a sense of moral outrage that is predicated — whether the directors admit it or not — on Avery’s innocence in the murder of 25­-year-­old Teresa Halbach. Which is why, days later, I am as frustrated with the series as I am compelled by it.”

***

Speaking of Rosenbaum, his on­-then-­off TV show on KMSP-TV (Fox 9) with KFAN radio personality Dan Barreiro, “Enough Said,” is back on. This time for good, or at least as permanently as anything in TV ever is. Fox and iHeart Radio, which holds Barreiro’s contract, ironed out their issues, although not to the point where either gentleman is allowed to speak to the press without an executive OK from company headquarters.

The show, which will run at 9:30 Fridays (beginning this week), is a blatant rip­off of ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption,” which I say as a good thing, since both Rosenbaum and Barreiro have a habit of talking about things they know something about.

***

Also worth mentioning: A couple of significant hires over at MPR. Brian Bakst, one of the AP’s best local reporters, is officially signing on as Tom Scheck’s replacement, with politics/government as his primary focus. Scheck  is moving to MPR's still­-forming investigative team, about which MPR has said very little.

Also coming aboard at MPR, to cover education, is Solvejg Wastvedt, a St. Olaf grad coming in from upstate New York.

We object to the “frozen Minneapolis” characterization, but otherwise this story in the Des Moines Register provides an interesting outsider’s take on Minneapolis’ success as a bike-friendly city. Timothy Meinch writes, “It’s no accident that Minneapolis, despite its frigid winters, has surged to the top of national rankings for urban biking and was the only U.S. city included last year on a global index of bike-friendly communities. Since 2000, the percentage of bike commuters here has jumped 170 percent, with an estimated 10,500 at the latest count in 2014. … Minneapolis' bike-friendly reputation advanced on the saddle of key elected officials, grassroots advocates and critical investments that over the past decade helped transform it into a mecca for biking. And community leaders say their success can — and should — be replicated in cities such as Des Moines.” 

An even greater Great Minnesota Get-together?The Star Tribune’s Tim Harlow reports on the fair’s governing board’s big plans:“The Great Minnesota Get Together is planning its next great act. … Minnesota State Fair officials are considering building an amphitheater to showcase performance arts or a climate-controlled venue that would promote the future of agriculture and could host major traveling exhibits. … Nothing is imminent, said State Fair spokeswoman Brienna Schuette, but over the weekend the fair’s governing board shared its dreams for a new attraction and a spiffed up entrance on the north end of the fairgrounds during its annual meeting.”

Inside the Minnesota DNR’s war on beavers. The Duluth News Tribune’s Sam Cook reports from the front lines:“Every fall, residents in the Knife River valley northeast of Duluth see the helicopter. It flies low over their land. Some of them wonder why a helicopter would be flying so close to the ground and so slowly. They might wonder if it’s on some military mission, sniffing out potential trouble perhaps. … But that isn’t the case. … Inside the helicopter, along with a pilot, is a fisheries biologist looking for beaver dams. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conducts the flight one day each fall in the name of fisheries management on main branches of the Knife River on the North Shore.”

We haven’t listened to Huffington Post’s Candidate Confessional podcast featuring former Rep. Michele Bachmann yet, but we can hardly wait.Here’s a tidbit:“… Though she spoke out recently in defense of Donald Trump against charges of sexism, she also had an unexpectedly empathetic take on Clinton's presidential campaign. Their politics are diametrically different — Bachmann, who left Congress in 2014, was one of the most controversial conservatives in the House — but they shared, as Bachman put it, the burden of being a woman running for office. … ‘I really do have great empathy for what Mrs. Clinton is going through, because the hill that she has to climb on — appearance — it’s just a different hill than men have to climb,’ Bachmann said. ‘I'm not whining about it. It's just reality. It is what it is.’ ”

In other news…

Cold day for a protest:“Black Lives Matter planning to rally at Lake Street bridge Monday” [Pioneer Press]

Uh oh:“Minnesotan among 12 Marines missing after helicopter crash” [Pioneer Press]

Here’s an article you can republish each winter:“No, Minneapolis doesn’t make money when it tows your car” [City Pages]

Go figure:“Mankato becomes destination for refugees” [AP via MPR]

Here’s Sen. Amy Klobuchar in what looks like a heated debate over proper pancake flipping technique. [Facebook]

It wouldn’t be winter in Minnesota without people shooting SuperSoakers outside in subzero temperatures. [WeatherNation on Facebook]

Dr. Deborah Swackhamer

Tickets are now on sale for “Land of 10,000 Lakes: Can We Achieve Water Sustainability?” on Monday, Feb. 22, 5:30 to 7:30 pm, at Hell's Kitchen in downtown Minneapolis.

This is the fourth annual event presented by MinnPost’s Earth Journal Circle. Dr. Deborah Swackhamer is this year's featured speaker. 

Swackhamer, former director of the University of Minnesota’s Water Resources Center, will discuss issues threatening regional water quality and quantity. Earth Journal writer Ron Meador will moderate the Q&A session. In May 2015, Earth Journal was named Best Independent Blog (on any subject) by the MN Society of Professional Journalists. 

Swackhamer led the effort to produce the massive Minnesota Water Sustainability Framework – commissioned with funds from the Legacy Amendment to provide policy guidance for decision-making over the next 25 years – and has served in leadership roles on scientific panels advising the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the International Joint Commission. Because of her scholarship on chemical pollution of water sources, she now serves on a National Academy of Sciences panel focused on environmental science and toxicology.

Tickets including dinner, soft drinks, tax and gratuity are $28 for MinnPost Silver, Gold and Platinum members and $38 for others. To verify your membership status, contact Claire Radomski, our new development director, at cradomski@minnpost.com or 612-455-6954. 

Dinner will be served at tables during the program. Dinner choices are mac & cheese, BBQ pulled pork sandwich, walleye fish & chips, Greek salad with chicken, and classic beef burger. Registration deadline is Feb. 15. 

The two landmark bills that President Obama signed into law — the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act— both happened during the first two years of Obama’s tenure, when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Since then big ideas requiring big laws to achieve big goals have been stalled by partisan gridlock.

So it comes as a surprise to see University of Minnesota political scientist Larry Jacobs argue in an article in the Huffington Post that Obama has had a more consequential second term than any president since FDR.

Part of that is the competition for that distinction. JFK, Carter and the first Bush didn’t serve a second term. LBJ served a term and a half but wasn’t reelected so the landmark bills he signed are scored as part of his first term. Nixon and Clinton and to some degree Reagan were distracted by second-term scandals. George W. Bush’s second term was hobbled by disasters of his first term, like the war in Iraq. Eisenhower was a caretaker president. And so on.

But, Jacobs argues, building on expansions of presidential power that he inherited from Nixon and Reagan, Obama has used executive authority to put a surprising number of big things on his list of second-term accomplishments. Writes Jacobs:

Obama's policies and actions since his second inauguration have reshaped or initiated new developments of enormous consequence for the U.S. domestic and foreign policy. America now has a climate change policy for the first time. In a sharp departure, the Obama administration launched a broad crackdown on the drivers of global warming by issuing new regulations to cut the emission of methane by the gas and oil industry and carbon dioxide. The international agreement in Paris is not legally binding, but it creates global expectations that will target global scrutiny on countries that fail to comply. Much remains uncertain, but these and other changes in policy are meshing with new expectations among businesses and consumers that are likely to persist and evolve…

Venomous relations with Iran and Cuba existed for decades until Obama intervened. Cuba had been a regional irritation that remained trapped in the time warp of the Cold War. The president's normalizing of relations swept that away. New U.S.-Cuba relations are gaining broad acceptance and will affect U.S. relations in the Caribbean and Latin America for years to come.

The treaty with Iran will remain contentious and uncertain for some time. The deal may lead to a more aggressive and threatening Iran as showcased by its expanding ballistic missile program. Yet Iran has also taken steps to abide by the treaty, including its shipment to Russia of nearly all of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium. The implementation of the treaty later this year, which appears more likely, may gradually coax Iran back into the circle of nations and lead to significant changes in U.S. diplomacy and national security in the Middle East and more broadly. Obama drew the enmity of labor for winning fast-track trade authority on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but he may use it this year to help reestablish the U.S. as a dominant power in the Pacific at a time of growing Chinese sway.

The Affordable Care Act was passed, of course, during Obama’s first-term. But the rollout and implementation were part of the Obama second-term story. And, Jacobs suggests, that whatever happens in the future with Republican goals of repealing Obamacare, many of the key features — like the guarantee that even those with pre-existing condition can still get coverage, like the requirement that insurers allow kids to stay covered under their parents’ plans until age 26, and several other features — will never be taken away.

Obviously, Obama has not accomplished all his goals. “Far from it,” Jacobs writes. “He failed to ‘contain’ the self-proclaimed Islamic State, close Guantanamo and coax a peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis. He made starts on immigration and helping America transition toward its future as a multi-racial country, but the results are uneven… Even where Obama's impact is clear, debates will rage for years on the merits — whether his second term advanced or set back America. The verdict is likely to offer a mix and change with time. What is clear already is that Obama has transformed the policy landscape.”

Says Chao Xiong in the Star Tribune, “A St. Paul police officer is on administrative leave in connection with a Facebook post urging drivers to run over marchers on Martin Luther King Day. Sgt. Jeff Rothecker was identified by Andrew Henderson, a community activist who monitors police behavior. Henderson alleged in a YouTube video that Rothecker, who posted under the name ‘JM Roth,’ wrote the comment under a Pioneer Press article about the Martin Luther King Jr. Day march in St. Paul. ‘Run them over,’ the Facebook comment said. ‘Keep traffic flowing and don't slow down for any of these idiots who try and block the street.'" 

In the Pioneer Press, Mara Gottfried reports, “Rothecker could not be reached for comment Monday. The St. Paul Police Federation, the union for St. Paul officers, is representing Rothecker. Chris Wachtler, the union's attorney, said in a statement Monday, ‘There is an investigation under way. We will let the process play out. I can't comment on an active investigation until it is complete.’ On Monday, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman issued a statement saying he is ‘outraged and disgusted by the post and (I) have directed the SPPD to investigate.'"

We’re  No. 50! List factory Wallethub.com says (via WCCO-TV): “Minnesota lags behind all other states in the country for racial integration and racial progress, according to a new report. The personal finance website … ranked all 50 states and D.C. on integration levels of whites and blacks. Minnesota ranked among the worst for racial gaps in these categories:

– Median Annual Income (50th)

– Homeownership Rate (50th)

– Poverty Rate (49th)

– Percentage of Residents with at Least a High School Degree (51st)

– NAEP Test Scores (MN Ranked 44th)

– Voter-Turnout Rate: Full Weight (30th)

For racial progress, Minnesota didn’t do much better. The state ranked 50th with Maine being the worst.”

We’re No. 1 … again! KMSP-TV’s Rachel Chazin reports, “The University of Minnesota Dance Team took home their 7th consecutive national championship on Sunday for their pom routine. The team has won 1st place in Division 1A Pom every year since the category was created in 2009.… Minnesota's dance team is also 9-time National Champions in the Division 1A Jazz category. They placed 2nd this year with a powerful jazz routine choreographed to the song ‘Glory’ from the film Selma.”

Another reason to never subject the kiddies to nature and quiet. Kristen Leigh Painter of the Strib tells us, “A Minnesota development group and Sony Pictures Consumer Products are teaming up to build a Hollywood-themed family destination that is to include a mini indoor amusement park — filled with activities and experiences based on Sony's movie characters and themes such as ‘Smurfs’ and ‘Men in Black.’ It also will include a Marriott hotel and a large indoor water park. The project, estimated to cost $115 million and create 2,000 jobs in Minnesota, has initial support from elected officials, including Albertville Mayor Jillian Hendrickson and Gov. Mark Dayton.”

Interesting piece from Richard Chin in the PiPress on a more or less professional searcher.“Deanna Villella has had a mission to find missing people ever since her brother disappeared in August 2014. The fragmentary remains of Christopher Rossing, Villella's 25-year-old brother, eventually were found in a fire pit on a farm near Hutchinson in October 2014. He died by homicide. But even after a Hutchinson man was convicted and sentenced in that case, Villella has continued to be a searcher, quitting her job in Las Vegas and moving back to Minnesota to set up a nonprofit group, United Legacy, that organizes volunteers to do ground searches for people missing in Minnesota.”

Dang but this Lake Elmo City Council is entertaining. In the PiPress, Bob Shaw tells us, “The Washington County sheriff's office has been asked to find out who leaked a confidential report that called the Lake Elmo City Council ‘dysfunctional.’ The report was given to the Stillwater Gazette, which used it as the basis of a front-page story Friday. The newspaper said the report was written by a lawyer hired by the city to investigate a personnel complaint. The report found no basis for that complaint, but it did say council member Anne Smith was largely to blame for City Hall's failure to operate smoothly.

She likes our refinance plan. Says Allison Sherry for the Strib, “Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton on Monday lauded Minnesota's new student loan refinancing program unveiled last week. Under the program, administered by the state's Office of Higher Education, a borrower who owes $40,000 at an 8 percent, or higher, interest rate, the new refinancing option could lower monthly payments between $200 and $300. … In a statement Monday, Clinton said: ‘I applaud Minnesota for taking bold steps towards ensuring that debt won't hold Minnesotans back. If you can refinance your mortgage or your car loan, you should be able to refinance your student loan, too.'"

Did they write him a ticket, too?Jacob Tellers of the Fergus Falls Journal reports, “An Otter Tail County judge dismissed a lawsuit against two Fergus Falls police officers accused of wrongfully detaining a man and preventing him from witnessing the birth of his child. Dennis Fronning of Battle Lake filed a lawsuit in 2014 against Officer Robb Foreman, Sgt. Andrew Miller, the Fergus Falls Police Department and the City of Fergus Falls claiming he had been wrongfully detained — once while he was on the way to the hospital with his pregnant wife and again at the hospital.”

Exactly what the world needs most right now. Says the AP, “Connie Weigel spent six years searching for a compostable, stemless wine glass. The director of purchasing for the catering company that serves the Minneapolis Convention Center finally found the perfect product in August. That's when Weigel saw a video featuring a champagne flute made by SelfEco, a Stillwater-based company that makes high-end industrial compostable dinnerware and flatware. ‘It was, like, oh my gosh, where have you been?’ said Weigel, who works for Kelber Catering. ‘I'd been looking for a compostable wine glass since 2009 — that's when we went green over here in the convention center.’"

Good connecting-the-dots effort from Sally Jo Sorensen on her Bluestem Prairie blog. “Bluestem had heard rumors that an anti-Muslim speaker had appeared at Cragun's Resort on Gull Lake in Brainerd on Saturday, January 9, 2016, but only learned that it was John Guandolo while we were working on our last post … . Understanding the Threat is a webpage kept by John Guandolo. The event marked the second occasion within a week that an anti-Muslim speaker appeared in the Brainerd area. The first was California Minuteman Ron Branstner in Baxter that Tuesday.” You never know, though, there might an “existential threat” to our resort areas.

Ditzy, big-hearted and borderline surreal, Ten Thousand Things’ “Dear World” is an antidote to despair. A mostly forgotten Broadway musical from 1969 – it closed in just under four months – TTT’s version has been dusted off, pared down and tweaked by Sarah Rasmussen, who signed on to direct long before taking her new job as the Jungle’s artistic director. Unburdened by the trappings of a big Broadway production, its essential sweetness shines through.

If you’ve never seen a TTT show, here’s what to know going in. Productions are performed first in prisons, low-income centers, shelters and schools before playing to the public, usually in the un-fancy performance hall at Open Book. Cast members take on multiple roles, quickly changing costumes just out of sight (and sometimes in sight). The audience is seated in two or three rows of chairs that surround the play, and the house lights stay on the whole time. Everyone can see everyone else, and you’re much closer to the action than you are in a regular theater. Sets are suggested by simple pieces of furniture, a few props and the occasional sign.

For “Dear World,” the orchestra is one man, Peter Vitale, who plays a multitude of instruments, often several at a time. It’s an unusually intimate theater experience, and while you might not be used to people breaking into song three feet in front of you, it’s actually pretty thrilling.

In “Dear World,” based on Jean Giraudoux’ play “The Madwoman of Chaillot,” Janet Paone is Countess Aurelia (the Madwoman), proprietress of a small café in Paris and a diehard optimist, despite having had her heart broken years before. Three hugely wealthy but still rapacious “presidents” — Fred Wagner, Thomasina Petrus and Christina Baldwin — plot to blow up the café and drill for oil under the city’s streets. The Countess and her equally screwball friends Madame Constance and Madame Gabrielle (Petrus and Baldwin), with help from the sprite-like Sewer Man (Kris Nelson, who also plays an oil prospector), hatch a plan to save the day, the city and the world, all fully believing they can.

Meanwhile, love blooms between café server Nina (Sheena Nelson) and Julian (JuCoby Johnson), who works for the presidents. There’s an invisible dog named Dickie, a hot-water bottle where Constance hears voices, and a mysterious door that proves pivotal to the somewhat patchy plot, which caroms from a tea party to a trial. The whole thing lasts about an hour and 45 minutes, including an intermission. You’ll leave smiling.

“Dear World” doesn’t make much sense, but it doesn’t have to. It’s entertainment with a message – even one person can make a difference – but it doesn’t get preachy or hit you over the head. Think of it as a fable, loosely spun and set to music. The performances are spot-on; Paone is wonderful as the Countess, bringing a sort of earth-mother dignity to the role, and Baldwin is sublimely over-the-top as Madame Gabrielle, squeaking and cooing to Dickie the dog. The singing is lovely and the songs by Jerry Herman (who also composed the scores for “Hello, Dolly!,” “Mame” and “La Cage aux Folles”) are melodic and delightful. Tip: If you sit too close to Vitale, you might miss some of the more rapid-fire lyrics.

We particularly love what Rasmussen did with the previously minor role of the character known as the Deaf-Mute. She cast a deaf actor, Shawn Vriezen, and featured him so prominently that the title song begins with Vriezen signing the words. Then Paone begins to sing and they all join in, with everyone singing and signing: “Let’s show the whole human race, world/You’re not a terminal case/world … Be a dear world, and get well soon.” And, while you’re at it, someone please cast Vriezen in another play. He’s a powerful presence, and we often found our eyes going to him even when the main action was somewhere else.

“Dear World” continues through Jan. 24 at Open Book, moves to Bedlam Lowertown Jan. 28-31, then returns to Open Book for its final four performances (Feb. 4-7). FMI and tickets ($30; pay-what-you-can option for under 30).

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Photo by Rebecca J. Lawrence

Scott Artley

Like almost every other arts organization these days, it seems, Patrick’s Cabaret has a new executive artistic director. Scott Artley steps up from his previous position as the Cabaret’s performing arts curator under Amy Hero Jones, who resigned in December after nine years as executive director.

Before joining Patrick’s in 2014, Artley worked at Mixed Blood, the Walker, the Fringe Festival and the Southern and ran his own independent arts consulting practice. Over the years, he has developed his own multidisciplinary creative practice grounded in a Queer perspective, producing visual and performance art in underground spaces, theaters and galleries in the Twin Cities.

Founded by Patrick Scully, now in its 30th anniversary season, Patrick’s Cabaret produces work by hundreds of artists each year, with a particular focus on making space for artists of color, with disabilities, and on the LGBT/Queer spectrum to tell their stories.

Artley also turns 30 in 2016. And his last name starts with “Art.”

In a statement, board chair Peter Foster praised Artley as representing “a new generation of arts leaders thinking deeply about what it means to be an arts organization in our time.” Artley pledged to continue the Patrick’s tradition of “bringing together a community of people to share an experience, to breathe the same air.”

***

If you have tickets to Dave Eggers & Marlon James in Conversation on Feb. 4, you should know that the event has been moved from Hamline Church United Methodist to Central Presbyterian Church in St. Paul because of high ticket demand. All proceeds support Mid-Continent Oceanographic Institute’s creative writing and academic programs for kids. Doors at 7:30, starts at 8. FMI and tickets ($25 general admission, with VIP and post-party options available).

The picks

Reginald Edmund

Tonight (Tuesday, Jan. 19) in the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio: “Black Lives, Black Words: Twin Cities.” Initiated, curated and produced by playwright Reginald Edmund (“The City of the Bayou Collection”), this event is part of a shared project with Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, and London that explores the question “Do black lives matter today?” Local black artists including E.G. Bailey, Carlyle Brown, Sha Cage, Laurie Carlos, James Austin Williams, Idris Goodwin, ShaVunda Horsley, Kyra Calvert, Abdi Phenomenal, Harrison David Rivers, and Toki Wright will each present original 10-minute plays. Run time 2 hrs 15 min. 7:30 p.m. FMI. Sold out; contact the box office (612-377-2224) about availability.

Wednesday at the Amsterdam: “Music in the Making: Derek Bermel.” Composer, conductor and clarinetist Bermel, whose “Murmurations for Strings” will be performed by the SPCO in four concerts starting Friday morning, speaks with Classical MPR’s Steve Seel about his music, process, background and influences. “Murmurations” was inspired by the flocking movements of starlings; Bermel’s background includes the study of folkloric music traditions. 7 p.m. Free, but reservations are required. Bermel’s piece is part of the “Veronika Eberle Plays Mozart” concerts taking place in the Ordway Concert Hall (Friday-Saturday) and Benson Great Hall (Sunday). FMI and tickets ($13-$53).

Thursday at the Fitzgerald Theater: “This Is Spinal Tap.” Celebrating its 11th birthday, The Current turns it up to 11 with a free screening of Rob Reiner’s mockumentary about one of England’s loudest bands. New Current DJ Brian Oake will be there, and the group Little Man will perform, and the bar will be open, and you’re welcome to recite your favorite lines, sing along, tweet and whatever. Doors at 6, film at 7. FMI. Free, but registration is required.

Courtesy of the American Swedish Institute

A watercolor by Lars Lerin

Friday at the American Swedish Institute: “Akvarell Bash: The Watercolor Worlds of Lars Lerin Exhibit Opening.” Especially if you think that watercolor is mostly about pretty flowers, autumn leaves and misty landscapes, this show will make your head explode. The famously shy Swedish artist creates monumental works of depth and often darkness – massive cityscapes and landscapes, scenes from his world travels, ships at sea, walls of books. A now-typical ASI party, the opener will include live music by Improvestra, art-inspired cocktails and treats from FIKA, a cash bar, guided tours and excellent people-watching. 7 p.m. Opening remarks at 7:30 by Bera Nordal, curator at Nordiska Akvarellmuset (Nordic Watercolor Museum). FMI and tickets ($35/$30 members). The exhibition stays up in the Osher Gallery and throughout the Turnblad Mansion until May 22.

Too often big business is written off as an environmental problem, without exploring its potential as a tool for progress. Agribusiness must be part of the solution for climate-change adaptation, especially for smallholder farmers in the global south. Right now, the fields in Minnesota may be covered with snow, but according to social responsibility reports, corporations like Cargill and General Mills are helping farmers in developing countries improve their livelihoods. Conscious consumers should demand more information about these programs to determine if they are creating the social impact they claim to generate. 

The author at the United Nations climate negotiations in Paris

Last month, I attended the United Nations climate negotiations in Paris to research debates about agriculture and climate change. I talked to a representative of ActionAid International who works with rural communities in southeastern Zimbabwe. She told me about devastating floods and horrible droughts that have damaged fields and taken lives. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, 1.5 billion people live in smallholder households. Agriculturalists in the United States will suffer from climate change, but as a main carbon emitter, we are morally obligated to assist more vulnerable farmers in other countries.   

Smallholder farmers need access to markets to ensure they earn income for their food and prevent spoilage. A report launched by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in Paris, titled "Climate Change, Global Food Security, and the US Food System," [PDF] explains that without adaptation measures, climate change will increase stress on the systems that deliver safe food. Floods could prevent river navigation and global trade through ports. High temperatures could increase food loss without proper storage or processing capabilities, many of which developing regions already lack. Corporations that rely on farmers in the global south have the unique capability and responsibility to support their welfare.

At the climate negotiations, corporate associates touted sustainability as both good for humanity and business. Francesco Tramontin, a representative of the multinational food company Mondelez International, spoke on a panel about collaboration within supply chains. In 2012, the company launched the Cocoa Life program to invest $400 million in the livelihoods of 200,000 cocoa farmers by 2022. A stable cocoa supply chain is also good for Mondelez. One of Cocoa Life’s partners is Cargill.

According to its 2015 Corporate Social Responsibility Report, Cargill is investing in smallholder farmers too. The company opened a maize milling plant in Zambia to provide a reliable market for farmers and works with CARE International in India to train farmers on market functions. Reading this report, I was surprised that Cargill is supporting the specific kinds of interventions that many academics have recommended. General Mills’ 2015 Global Responsibility Report shows the company funded CARE to build a rice storage warehouse in Madagascar, where they source vanilla and train farmers on curing the product.

Unfortunately, this information is very vague.  If you are critical like me, you’re probably wondering if that rice storage facility actually gets used or what happens when the mill breaks down. Do these projects have real effects on people’s lives? Do they help them adapt to climate change? We cannot trust that corporations support farmers in the developing world simply because they say they do in their social responsibility reports.

Measuring social impact is tricky. As Tramontin explained, social responsibility is not about checking off a list of actions; it’s about the effect of those actions. A highly respected method to assess the impact of a development program is a control-randomized trial. A trial compares the effect of an intervention in one village to another village that did not receive the intervention. According to Tramontin, Mondelez used third-party Harvard researchers to evaluate its Cocoa Life program. Corporations like Cargill and General Mills should conduct control-randomized trials and make the evaluations of their initiatives readily available. Land O’Lakes International Development, for example, publishes reports with USAID on their programs that support farmers with market access, food safety and crop micro-insurance.

Of course, corporate social responsibility is not a silver bullet. Not all smallholder farmers produce goods demanded by international companies. Farmers are vulnerable to world economic trends when their livelihood depends on cash crops for global trade. Smallholders, especially women farmers, also need more social capital to be resilient.

Agribusiness is a leading contributor to climate change. The industry and lawmakers should do more to address this issue and support the farmers most affected by our carbon-intensive lifestyles. Minnesota agribusiness seems to be taking small steps toward this goal. We need to demand more of this effort and more transparency. I am not convinced Cargill and General Mills are improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and their ability to adapt to climate change because I have not seen impartial, rigorous reviews. But I am hopeful for this possibility. 

Jessica Timerman, an economics major, is a junior at Macalester College. She attended COP21 with a student research delegation from Macalester. 

WANT TO ADD YOUR VOICE?

If you're interested in joining the discussion, add your voice to the Comment section below — or consider writing a letter or a longer-form Community Voices commentary. (For more information about Community Voices, email Susan Albright at salbright@minnpost.com.)

Located near Hibbing, Mesaba Co-op Park is one of the few remaining continuously operated cooperative parks in the country. A gathering place of the Finnish cooperative movement, the park served the ethnic political radicals who energized the Iron Range labor movement and Minnesota’s Farmer-Labor party.

In late 1928, the Mesaba Range Co-operative Federation began securing land for a park to accommodate large Finnish gatherings. One hundred and sixty acres, including a fifty-two-acre lake not shown on lumber company maps, were purchased for $2000. Forty Finnish American organizations purchased membership shares. Volunteers cleared land for a road, grounds, and building sites.

The period of the park’s founding was one of anti-Finnish sentiment. Signs across the Range read, “No Indians or Finns allowed.” The Finns’ prominent role in the 1907 and 1916 Mesaba Range strikes had led to blacklisting. The Finnish cooperative movement was, in part, a response to this discrimination. In June 1929, as work progressed, an article in the Finnish-language newspaper Työmies (The Workman) announced that local Finns would celebrate in Chisholm for the last time without a progressive venue of their own.

The park opened on September 22, 1929. In the spring of 1930, construction began on a caretaker’s residence and a children’s school. The park’s centerpiece, a dance pavilion, was completed in June 1930.

Early festivals featured plays, track and field events, swimming, and dances. In addition to sports, students at the North Star children’s camp were given an introduction to working-class thought.

The park became a gathering place for members of the Farmer-Labor party, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and the Communist Party of America. As a boy, Iron Ranger Gus Hall, a four-time Communist Party candidate for president, helped his father and others build the dance pavilion.

Between eight and ten thousand people attended the park’s 1936 summer festival. They heard speeches from Elmer Benson and John T. Bernard, Farmer-Labor candidates for governor and congressman, respectively. A dance that summer, featuring accordionist Viola Turpeinen, packed over one thousand people onto the dance floor in alternating shifts.

In 1938, the creation of the House Un-American Activities Committee initiated the era of communist “witch-hunts,” blacklisting, and guilt-by-association persecution. During this period of fear, intimidation, and surveillance, whipped into a near-frenzy by the committees of Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s, it was difficult to belong to the park.

FBI agents stationed outside the park collected the license plate numbers of those who entered. The park was stigmatized as the “Commie Park” and the “Red Park.” This “red-baiting” atmosphere, combined with the increasing Americanization of Finnish children and post-World War II patriotism, led to a decline in membership that seriously threatened the park’s survival. Opening membership to individuals as well as groups in 1959 was a necessary response.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, young people spurred the park’s revival. Many had no Finnish heritage and came from the anti-war, environmentalist, and feminist movements. Younger members affiliated with the respected Työmies newspaper, like Weikko Jarvi and Timo and Belinda Poropudas, helped bridge the generational, cultural, and trust gaps between the aging Finns and the diverse newcomers.

The original socialist and communist politics of Mesaba Co-op Park have largely faded, replaced by a general spirit of progressivism. Additional land was acquired, bringing the park’s total size to 240 acres. The main annual event remains the Juhannes, or Midsummer, festival. It features folk dancing, guest speakers, music, a Maypole, late-night bonfire, Finnish American mojakka stew, and an arts camp for children.

The park also stands as a reminder of the many small Finn halls once dotting the Iron Range. As those halls closed, their contents, including lumber, chairs, a barrel stove, and stage drops and scenery, often found a new home at Mesaba Park.

For more information on this topic, check out the original entry on MNopedia.

In the cold light of morning on MLK Day I asked Google News to serve up a selection of articles on “environmental justice” and got results that made it easy to postpone breakfast until afternoon.

Of course the leading horrific example, at the moment, of the environmental burdens borne unfairly by people of color, or poverty, or both comes from Flint, Michigan.

Atop all the other problems endured by this beleaguered former capital of General Motors, local and state officials have managed to supply the residents with extraordinarily high levels of lead in their drinking water since April of 2014.

Having made the initial error to draw water from the Flint River, whose corrosive properties leach lead from old pipes, officials then issued a stream of reassuring lies about the safety of drinking water that residents could tell by sight and smell was grossly impure.

It’s looking likely that significant responsibility will eventually attach to the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder and some of it personally to the governor, who says he wasn’t aware the situation was so dire until last October, just before Flint resumed buying water from Detroit.

But the elevated lead levels continue, and as Snyder prepares for his state of the state address tonight, the Michigan press is preparing to draw unwelcome parallels to last year’s speech, in which Snyder promised that a “river of opportunity” would be lifting all boats across the state.

Not so much in Flint. As of Saturday, the White House had declared a state of emergency for the city of 425,000 – at Snyder’s request, following by a few days his deployment of National Guard troops to help distribute potable water – and the state health department was pleading with residents to keep testing the water from their taps, because the extent of ongoing contamination remains uncertain.

Mark Grudt, a construction worker from Livonia, made the obvious point in a comment to the Detroit Free Press – that it’s no coincidence this massive poisoning occurred in a city where 56 percent of the population is African-American and 40 percent live on incomes below the federal poverty line.

We've known there's a problem in Flint for over a year. Had this been an affluent community, it wouldn't have gotten this far.

The burdens of coal ash

If Flint is an egregious example of environmental injustice, it is exceptional only in degree.

This Friday, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission will convene a hearing intended, in the words of its chairman, Michael Castro, to “to shine a light on the civil rights implications of toxic coal ash, as well as other environmental conditions, on communities most in need of protection.”

Specifically, it will be looking at the extent to which policies and enforcement actions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have or have not protected communities where coal-fired industrial plants deposit the ash that remains after combustion, laden not only with lead but mercury, cadmium and chromium.

According to editor Brian Bienkowski, writing in Environmental Health News,

There are about 200 sites nationwide where coal ash pollution has tainted air and water. The most recent disaster was in 2014 at Duke Energy’s Dan River Steam Station in North Carolina where 39,000 tons of coal ash and 27 million gallons of wastewater gushed into the Dan River. ...

Waste disposal rules for coal ash were unchanged for more than 30 years until Earthjustice filed a lawsuit in 2012 forcing the EPA’s hand. The agency finalized new rules in December 2014 and began phasing them in last October — requiring ash ponds to monitor groundwater for harmful pollutants, bolster the ponds that hold the ash, and set limits on the levels of coal ash discharged into rivers.

The cities living with coal ash are typically smaller, more rural and more Southern than, say, Flint.

Take Uniontown, Alabama. Of its 1,600 people, Bienkowski writes, about nine in 10 are black;  three in four live in households with incomes below the national median; half live below the federal poverty line.

To Uniontown, it looked like economic opportunity to provide a home for a coal-ash landfill that now holds 3 million cubic yards of the stuff. No doubt the calculus was similar in other places where, according to EPA estimates, 1.5 million Americans of color live within the “catchment” zones of potential leaks and spills from ash disposal.

Methane and liquefied gas

Coal and its residues are of course an issue in Kentucky, too, but not the only affliction on the poorer sides of towns.

From Louisville’s West End, a historic  center of bourbon production, I see news of a citywide gathering to celebrate cancellation of a project that would have extracted methane from distillery waste.

In Rhode Island, the battle lines are drawn over a proposal to saddle South Providence with another unwelcome facility, this one devoted to liquefying natural gas from the fracking fields of the Northeast.

Getting a lot of attention this week is an interactive map from the Center for Effective Government, which looks at more than 12,000 industrial facilities that handle chemicals in ways considered by the EPA  to present substantial risk to surrounding communities.

Examining the demographics of communities within a one-mile radius of these sites, researchers found that people of color make up half the population within these so-called “fenceline” zones, and children of color make up nearly two-thirds of the 5.7 million children there. (By the way, Wisconsin is among the states where these concentrations are highest.)

For a more historical take, the New Yorker’s News Desk can take you to Afton, North Carolina, which writer Vann R. Newkirk II says could be considered the birthplace of the environmental justice movement in America– the not-so-blessed event concerning the siting of a particularly noxious landfill in a poor, black district in exchange for a community center, recreation area and other municipal amenities that aw, gee, never got built.

But that was 1972. Surely we have come a long way since then?

Lead toxicity's long shadow

You could think, for example, of childhood lead poisoning as something we fixed over the last couple of generations by getting it out of auto exhaust, smokestack emissions, housepaint and other ubiquitous sources.

According to a report by Public Radio International, Flint’s temporary switch to river water was sufficient to double the number of children with above-average blood lead levels in the city. 

Twenty-five percent of homes whose water was tested showed levels far above the federal drinking water limit of 15 parts per billion; in some homes, the water tested at 13,200 ppb. And lots of homes haven’t been tested as yet.

Remember, too, that 15 ppb can’t be considered a “safe” level of exposure; our modern medical understanding is that no blood level of lead is safe, especially in respect to the developing brains of infants and children. For the vast range of neurological harm, immune system disruption and learning deficits it causes, the damage is permanent because there is no cure.

This was willful, people – a switch in water sources justified by a cost savings of $5 million over two years.

And as the lead investigator, Marc Edwards of Virginia Tech, said to PRI in discussing officials’ responses to the problem, “the extent to which they went  to cover this up exposes a new level of arrogance and uncaring that I have never encountered.”

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MinnPost event: On Monday, Feb. 22, MinnPost’s Earth Journal Circle will present its fourth annual event focusing on substantive discussion of critical issues in the environment. This year’s topic is “Land of 10,000 Lakes: Can We Achieve Water Sustainability?” The speaker is Deborah Swackhamer, former director of the University of Minnesota’s Water Resources Center, who will discuss issues threatening regional water quality and quantity. Earth Journal writer Ron Meador will moderate the Q&A session.