Star Tribune
Upper Harbor Terminal project announces new partnerships for performance center
Planners behind a future performing arts center with an outdoor amphitheater along the Mississippi River north of downtown Minneapolis have lined up two major groups to help lead its public programming and raise private funds.
The African American Community Development Corp. (AACDC) and the Minnesota Orchestra have signed on to help establish and operate the Community Performing Arts Center, organizers announced this week. They join the First Ave. group of music venues as development partners.
Upper Harbor Terminal is a 48-acre site on the Mississippi River in north Minneapolis. It formerly housed a barge shipping terminal that ceased operations in 2014, and is largely unused. United Properties, another partner in the development, first responded to a request for proposal for the project in 2016.
The Minnesota Orchestra will serve as the center’s strategic business partner, handling private fundraising, according to the Thursday news release from First Avenue.
The orchestra will remain at its current location in downtown Minneapolis, but could perform at a new, completed amphitheater. The orchestra will receive a portion of the revenue when the project is operational, the release states.
The design work has not been completed, but the operators anticipate the center will be completed by spring 2025.
The AACDC will serve as the “community entity” for the project, overseeing public programming. It also will manage economic development opportunityfunds that would accumulate from a $3 fee on every ticket sold at performances. It’s estimated that will come to about $500,000 annually.
AACDC, created in 2021, works to convert African American ideas, capital and action into lasting benefits for the community. The hope is that partnering with AACDC will help to engage with the area’s African American community and get Black Minnesotans involved with the center’s future.
“They are going to make sure there’s meaningful programming for the community and African American community,” said Ashley Ryan, First Ave.’s vice president of marketing. “There have been hundreds of community outreach meetings, and the groups behind the project are very explicitly seeking input from the neighborhood.”
The funds also will go to exploring local vendor and entrepreneur opportunities and a youth jobs program, the release states. Mayor Jacob Frey called the project a “game-changer for the North Side” in the release.
“The local partnerships forming around this development project will prove to be good, not only for the Northside, but for the entire arts community in Minneapolis, leading to a final, community-minded space,” he said.
More about the Upper Harbor Terminal development can be found at upperharbormpls.com.
When the Minnesota Supreme Court this week declined to hear an appeal by the University of St. Thomas regarding the environmental impact of its new hockey/basketball arena under construction, neighbor and arena foe Dan Kennedy said the “ethical” thing for the university to do was stop construction until neighbor concerns are addressed.
Not going to happen, university officials said Thursday.
While a public review of a revised Environmental Assessment Worksheet continues through Nov. 7, construction of the 5,000-seat Lee and Penny Anderson Arena continues. In an e-mail Thursday, a university spokesman said the arena is expected to be completed in fall 2025.
“The University of St. Thomas is aware of the Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision to deny its petition to appeal and is reviewing the potential impacts of this decision,” an emailed statement from St. Thomas said. “Last week, the City of St. Paul published an updated EAW for public comment, and that process will continue. Construction of the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena will also continue, as permitted by law.”
But Kennedy said he believes that decision is not only wrong, but illegal. Because the state Court of Appeals this summer ruled the project’s first environmental review was inadequate, its site plans and building permits are invalid, said the president of Advocates for Responsible Development.
“We need somebody to specifically tell the University of St. Thomas that they must comply with the law,” Kennedy said. “This is an institution of higher learning, with a law school. They should comply with the law.”
Kennedy said he thought the Minnesota Court of Appeals had insisted on exactly that. In August, the appellate court ordered the city and university to conduct a new Environmental Assessment Worksheet. The previous assessment didn’t do enough to study the arena’s potential harm to the neighborhood’s parking, traffic and air quality, the court ruled.
“The reason why is that more sunlight in the morning time helps reinforce waking up, and having less light in the evening is less stimulation,” he said. “So when we’re winding down, preparing for sleep, having fewer hours of sunlight in the evening can help promote that process of falling asleep.”
Akingbola acknowledges that it can be sad to walk out of work or school when it’s already dark out, but in the long run, standard time is the way to go.
The U.S. already tried daylight savings year round in 1974
Despite the medical advice, there have been calls in recent years to make daylight savings time permanent.
Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, tried to pass a bill as recently as 2021 to make daylight savings time permanent, but it did not pass the Legislature.
The U.S. tried once before. According to Minnesota Star Tribune archives, due to an energy crisis, President Richard Nixon passed a law in January 1974 that made daylight savings a year-round thing.
A month into it, the Minneapolis Tribune ran an article saying there were calls to reverse the decision because there were more accidents in the pre-dawn darkness, particularly involving school children waiting for the bus. Under daylight savings time in January, sunrise wasn’t until well after 8 a.m. in Minnesota.
Karl-Anthony Towns may be in New York City, but his heart is in Minnesota.
On Wednesday night, Towns had some sweet seats for a Billie Eilish show at Madison Square Garden with his partner, Jordyn Woods, when she caught him watching the Timberwolves play the Chicago Bulls in a preseason game on his phone. Her video, posted to her Instagram story, made rounds on social media Thursday.
In the video, flames are literally spewing out from Eilish’s stage, lights are flashing all around and others in the crowd are head bobbing. And there is Towns, holding his phone in both hands and muttering to himself as the Timberwolves are down 88-75 late in the third quarter in a meaningless game.
“I promise he was enjoying the concert,” Woods wrote in the video’s caption.
The Wolves would go on to lose that game, 125-123. A nail-biter.
Towns’ trade to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle and others stunned the NBA world and all of Minnesota, where he was a beloved player for nine seasons and a leader on a team rapidly ascending toward championship contention.
“It was a lot of emotions,” Towns said. “Some amazing moments and times in nine years of my life in Minnesota, a place that I’ve called home. Guys who are not just teammates to me but brothers. We were like brothers. It definitely was a wild day, definitely coming to work.”
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