Star Tribune
St. Paul’s Rondo Days is a no-go this year
For the fourth year in a row, there will be no Rondo Days celebration in St. Paul.
But Gayle Smaller, chairman of the board of Rondo Avenue Inc., said the festival isn’t going away permanently. It’s coming back bigger and better, over several days and at several sites, in 2024.
While the festival has been derailed by a number of factors — from the pandemic to the murder of George Floyd to the rising cost of security — Smaller said the focus now is creating an event that appeals to a younger and more diverse demographic.
“Really just broaden it out, while keeping the underlying history and significance in place,” Smaller said Wednesday. “We really had no intention of doing it this year. The goal was to bring it back in 2024, while filling the generational gap.”
Rondo Days was started in 1983 by Floyd Smaller, Gayle Smaller’s father, and Marvin Anderson to remember and celebrate what had once been St. Paul’s vibrant, predominantly Black neighborhood surrounding the former Rondo Avenue. In the late 1950s and 1960s, planning and construction of Interstate 94 cut that community geographically in half while removing hundreds of homes and businesses.
Rondo Days’ founding board members are now in their 80s and are finding it harder to stay involved, Gayle Smaller said, but the surrounding neighborhood looks very different demographically. Future Rondo Days need to have broader appeal, he said.
Rather than a large, single-day event in a park with a parade, Smaller said the idea moving forward is to host a variety of events at area parks and businesses — from a brunch honoring the neighborhood’s history to performances and parades appealing to the present.
“The community that was once here doesn’t exist anymore,” he said. “But we’re building an even bigger event. It’s really going to be about, what does the celebration look like now? We’re excited.”
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, who grew up in Rondo, said in a statement Wednesday that he “cherished” Rondo Days growing up and was “disappointed to see it canceled” this year.
“We stand ready to partner with the organizers as they rethink and re-establish this beloved community gathering,” Carter said.
In a letter to the community confirming that there will be no festival this year, Smaller said the work now will be to reflect the demographics and interests of Rondo’s new residents, while still honoring its past.
“In regards to next steps, we will be adding new board members starting [Aug. 1], and have begun building a solid foundation to ensure that the Legacy of our founders and the community that raised them continues,” he wrote, “and is held in the brightest of light as we honor one of the country’s brightest historically Black communities.”
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings