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Minneapolis restaurant Owamni to close for days or weeks following electrical fire

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Owamni, the popular riverfront restaurant in downtown Minneapolis, will be closed in the coming days and possibly weeks after an electrical fire broke out there Wednesday.

The electricity went out about 2:30 p.m., co-owner Dana Thompson said, preceded by a power surge of some sort. She said staff smelled electrical wires burning.

“It got really serious, so we evacuated the building and called 911, and there were a lot of fire trucks there,” Thompson said. She said in an interview late Wednesday that it’s been difficult so far to get a full survey of damages because the electricity was out and it was hard to see.

Owamni, which specializes in Indigenous food, received a James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2022. The building is along the east bank of the Mississippi River near the Stone Arch Bridge and is owned by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.

Thompson, who co-owns Owamni with chef Sean Sherman, said she wasn’t sure how long it could take to reopen the restaurant. Wait times are long for equipment at the moment, and it could be as long as a couple of weeks, she said, but the hope is to reopen sooner.

“We’re doing everything in our power and working with the Park Board to make sure we can get a solution to get back up and running in a couple days if possible,” Thompson said.

Xcel Energy was brought in to evaluate what happened, and Thompson said the building’s advanced age means issues are bound to pop up from time to time.



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St. Paul City Council bucks Mayor Carter in passing lower tax increase

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“You’ve got to be able to say, ‘Here’s how much we want to spend, and here’s what we want the impact to be,’” Carter said.

During the council meeting, Johnson, the Ward 7 council member, alluded to those statements, saying people have used such language to try to discredit women in leadership, especially young women. This is the first budget from St. Paul’s new all-women council.

Staff writer James Walsh contributed to this report.



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Downtown St. Paul’s Lowry Apartments condemned, displacing tenants

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After months of maintenance problems and safety concerns in downtown St. Paul’s Lowry Apartments, city officials condemned the building, forcing dozens of tenants to abruptly relocate to hotels this week.

On Monday afternoon, city staff responded to a plumbing leak in the 11-story building at 345 Wabasha St. N. Officials reported significant damage and signs of vandalism, including copper wire theft that left electrical systems exposed. The leak also raised concerns about mold.

To make repairs, the building’s water must be shut off — a move that would leave tenants without boiler heat and fire sprinklers, Deputy Mayor Jaime Tincher said in a Tuesday email to state Rep. Maria Isa Pérez-Vega and City Council Member Rebecca Noecker, who represent the area.

After determining heat and water could not be restored quickly, Tincher wrote: “There was no other option than to conclude the building was not safe for residents to stay.”

Property manager Halverson and Blaiser Group (HBG) agreed to provide alternative housing for tenants for up to 30 days, Tincher said. City staff worked with Ramsey County’s Housing Stability team and Metro Transit to help 71 residents pack and move.

Before then, the building belonged to downtown St. Paul’s largest property owner, Madison Equities. After the January death of the company’s founder and longtime principal, Jim Crockarell, the dire state of the group’s real estate portfolio became apparent.

The Lowry Apartments, the sole property with a high concentration of low-income housing, quickly became the most troubled. Residents reported frequent break-ins, pest infestations, inoperable elevators and more, to no avail.



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Metro Transit allocated $12 million to boost security, cleanliness on Twin Cities light rail and buses

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They will be soon. With more money to spend, Metro Transit plans to bring on 40 more this year. With their ranks growing, TRIP agents, clad in blue, have recently started covering the Metro C and D rapid transit lines between Brooklyn Center and downtown Minneapolis.

The big investment in public safety initiatives comes as Metro Transit is seeing an uptick in ridership that plunged dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been slow to recover. This year ridership has been a bright spot, the agency said.

Through October, the agency has provided 40.1 million rides, up 7% compared with the first 10 months of 2023. In September, the agency saw its highest monthly ridership in four years, averaging nearly 157,000 rides on weekdays, agency data shows.

At the same time, crime is down 8.4% during the first three quarters of 2024 compared to the same time period last year, according to Metro Transit Interim Police Chief Joe Dotseth. However, problems still persist.

On Nov. 29, Sharif Darryl Walker-El, Jr., 33, was fatally shot on a Green Line train in St. Paul. Just a week earlier, a woman was shot in the leg while on the train and taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Earlier this year, a robbery attempt on the Green Line in St. Paul left a passenger shot and wounded.

“Our officers are spending time on the system and sending a clear message to everyone: Crime will not be tolerated on transit,” Dotseth said. “And we will work to ensure those commit those crimes are held accountable.”



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