Star Tribune
A grocery store was supposed to make a neighborhood near the Mall of America. It closed in less than four months.
The recent, sudden closure of a supermarket near a Bloomington light rail stop dealt a blow to the city’s efforts to build a dense, walkable neighborhood near the Mall of America.
Bloomington leaders have hoped the area on the grounds of the old Metropolitan Stadium could become an urban neighborhood where people might choose to drive less — walking to the store or a coffee shop, and catching the light rail to work. Bloomington subsidized development with tax-increment financing and tried to push developer McGough to build mixed-use buildings as part of that vision.
Oxendale’s Market, the small Minneapolis-based chain of neighborhood supermarkets, was supposed to anchor the new neighborhood. The grocer opened its doors in November, but closed abruptly this month.
“Despite our best efforts and initial optimism, Oxendale’s has made the difficult decision to cease operations,” McGough officials said in an emailed statement. “While we are disappointed by this turn of events, we remain committed to the success of our development … We are actively exploring opportunities to fill the vacant space with a new tenant that will complement the vibrant atmosphere of the neighborhood.”
The owner of Oxendale’s did not respond to an email asking what led to the store’s closure.
Even though the grocery store failed, Bloomington still hopes for a walkable neighborhood near its light rail station, Port Authority Administrator Holly Masek said in an email. Bloomington will keep supporting projects that bring more residents and future businesses, and will keep planning events in the area to bring people in, Masek said.
The grocery story isn’t the only retail space to shutter recently: nearby coffee shop Fiddlehead closed late last year.
Then last month, just before Oxendale’s closed, McGough scaled back what was supposed to be another apartment building with a shop or restaurant on the ground floor, instead proposing senior housing without any shops.
Planning commissioners were frustrated with the change that chipped away at their vision for the neighborhood, but saw no way to make McGough to stick to its original plan to build a store or restaurant space.
Now, the sole restaurant left in the immediate area of Bloomington Central Station is in a hotel, with another restaurant about an eight-minute walk across six-lane Old Shakopee Road. The next-closest businesses are in the Mall of America.
In an email, McGough said the ground floor space briefly occupied by Oxendale’s might become another kind of business like a brewery, a restaurant or a gym. Masek said the developer would be required to come before the Port Authority Commission to get approval for something other than a grocery store.
The city subsidized the cost of land, and built streets, sidewalks and a parking ramp for the building. In return, the developers agreed to keep rent lower for 36 of the more than 400 apartments for 20 years, and the building had to rent its commercial space to a grocery store.
Anti-police brutality activists interrupted a Minneapolis City Council meeting Thursday to call for Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s firing, saying his department failed a Black man who begged police for help for months, to no avail, before he was finally shot in the neck by his white neighbor.
John Sawchak, 54, is charged with shooting Davis Moturi, 34, even though three warrants had been issued for his arrest in connection with threats to Moturi and other neighbors.
Activists showed up at the council meeting and asked for time to talk about the case. Instead, the council recessed and activists took the podium and castigated the city for failing Black people, even as state and federal officials are forcing the police department into court-sanctioned monitoring because of past civil rights violations.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, founder of the Racial Justice Network, said O’Hara needs to be held accountable.
“This is not the first time instance where the community has raised concerns about his poor judgment, poor leadership, blaming the community and excuses. It’s completely unacceptable for him to get away with it,” she said. “How many Black people’s doors have they kicked in for less?”
On Thursday the council voted to request the city auditor review the city’s involvement in and response to the matters between Moturi and Sawchak.
Mayor Jacob Frey released a statement in response saying he supports the council’s call for an independent review of the case, but O’Hara “will continue to be the Minneapolis police chief.”
Protesters also questioned why the public hadn’t heard from Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette, who called a news conference within hours to say he’s not going to fire O’Hara and the city leadership supports him.
A Girl Scout from Troop 58068 told the Woodbury City Council recently that they should allow backyard chickens in the city: They cheer people up, she said.
It turned out that chickens were on an upcoming agenda and, perhaps pushed a bit by the scout’s lobbying, the Woodbury City Council at their next meeting passed a new ordinance allowing for backyard hens.
The new ordinance went into effect on Oct. 23, the night of the council meeting, and will allow people who live on property zoned R-2, a “rural estate” district, to have backyard chickens. A typical city lot is zoned R-4 and those areas still cannot have chickens, the council said.
The city has received requests “here and there” for the last several years about backyard chickens, City Council Member Andrea Date said.
Backyard chickens come have home to roost — and never leave — in a host of other Minnesota cities that allow them, from Hopkins to Thief River Falls. It’s long been allowed in both St. Paul and Minneapolis, and new cities started approving backyard coops during the pandemic, when interest spiked.
In Woodbury, it wasn’t until the question was included on the city’s biannual survey that city staff knew how people felt. The survey found less support for chickens on a typical city lot — just 13% of respondents said they strongly approve of the idea while 43% percent strongly disapproved — but a majority approved of backyard chickens on lots of 1 acre or more.
The city’s rules until recently only allowed chickens on “rural estate” properties of five or more acres.
The new ordinance allows up to six hens, but no roosters, on property less than four acres that meets the zoning requirements. Larger properties can have an additional two chickens per acre above four acres. The ordinance also sets a height limit for chicken coops of 7 feet. No license or permit is required in Woodbury for backyard chickens.
Star Tribune
Anonymous donor pays overdue bill for Fergus Falls home where town’s first Black resident lived
A $10,000 overdue special assessment bill threatening tax forfeiture of a historic Fergus Falls home was paid off this week thanks to an anonymous donor.
Prince Albert Honeycutt lived at 612 Summit Avenue East, renamed Honeycutt Memorial Drive in 2021. Not only was Honeycutt the town’s first Black resident — settling there in 1872 from Tennessee — he was the state’s first Black professional baseball player, first Black firefighter and first Black mayoral candidate.
He was an early pioneer and prominent businessman who owned a barbershop in town. Missy Hermes, with the Otter Tail County Historical Society, said Honeycutt and his wife were likely the first Black people in Minnesota to testify in a capital murder trial of a man who was convicted and hanged in Fergus Falls.
“In other places, you would never have a Black person testifying against a white person, especially a woman, too, before women could vote even,” Hermes said. “Obviously he was respected enough.”
Nancy Ann and Prince Albert Honeycutt with their children inside the now-historic Honeycutt house in 1914. Photo from the collections of the Otter Tail County Historical Society.
When dozens of people from Kentucky moved to Fergus Falls in April 1898, known as “the first 85,” Honeycutt helped integrate them into the community.
He died in 1924 at age 71 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fergus Falls.
Up until 2016, several owners lived in the Honeycutt home. But the city bought and sold the house to nonprofit Flowingbrook Ministry for $1 to take over the tax-exempt property and operate the ministry.
Ministry founder Lynette Higgins-Orr, who previously lived in Fergus Falls, moved to Florida several years ago and little activity has been going on in the historic home since. But she said there are plans to make it into a museum.
