Star Tribune
Minneapolis is cracking down on chronically vacant buildings with new fines
“When you’ve got a lot of vacant buildings, the inability to be able to capture foot traffic is a big issue,” said Kristel Porter, executive director of the West Broadway Business and Area Coalition. “We’ve had a lot of businesses that were actually doing very well and have relied on a lot of pop-up activities that happen in our community … but we’ve lost them to Midtown Global Market, Central Avenue, Lake Street.”
Several owners of vacant buildings on West Broadway did not respond to questions from the Star Tribune. But over the years the city has interacted with owners overwhelmed by financial distress, those who inherited properties they never wanted, and those who won’t spend money on keeping up buildings from which they’ve squeezed all economic value. Some West Broadway boosters suspect these owners are holding out for eminent domain to make way for the light rail.
Council Member Jeremiah Ellison has heard a mix of excuses, none of which justifies perpetual neglect, he said.
“Look, if you’re a landlord who just got in over your head, city staff is willing to engage with you in order to activate your building,” he said. “If it’s, ‘I’m sitting on this because I think I can land a huge windfall down the line,’ well, we’re going to make that a lot tougher for you.”
Some of the loudest advocates for a stronger response to vacant homes are the people who live near the apartments of C. David George, Minneapolis’ most mysterious landlord.
In 2022, his 40-unit apartment in Loring Park caught fire after being condemned, boarded up and repeatedly broken into by squatters. Within a few months, another George building in the Wedge caught fire and was reduced to a giant pile of rubble that wasn’t cleared for another year.
DULUTH — A Duluth man who said he doesn’t remember killing his girlfriend pleaded guilty to second-degree murder without intent Tuesday in St. Louis County court — a plea deal that could land him in prison longer than sentencing guidelines would dictate.
Dale John Howard, 25, told Judge Theresa Neo that he doesn’t remember it but believes he caused the death of his girlfriend, Allisa Marie Vollan, 27, on March 22. Vollan, described on a fundraising site as a “bright young lady” with “an abundance of friends,” had a no-contact order against Howard at the time of her death. Howard could be sentenced to 20 years in prison — more than seven years longer than Minnesota’s presumptive guideline for the murder. According to the county attorney’s office, the longer sentence is legal because of the active domestic abuse no-contact order against him.
Howard’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 14.
According to court documents, officers responded to a morning call at Howard’s Central Hillside apartment and found him beneath a blanket with Vollan, who was dead. He told officers that he had hung out with Vollan late the previous night, then left to meet friends at a bar, and Vollan went to sleep in a guest room. When he tried to move her into his bedroom the next morning, she wasn’t breathing. He called his father, who was at the apartment when Duluth police arrived.
Neighbors in the upper level of the duplex told officers that, in the time before Howard would have left for the bar, they heard a woman crying and an angry male voice. They heard muffled moaning, thuds and the sound of something being dragged. They recorded it.
A preliminary autopsy by the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office found that Vollan had likely been smothered.
Earlier the same month, Howard had been arrested after neighbors saw him repeatedly slam Vollan’s head into a door. The no-contact was issued by a St. Louis County judge.
Minneapolis School Board Member Fathia Feerayarre, who represented District 3 in the city’s center since January 2023, has resigned effective immediately, the district announced Tuesday.
Her departure comes too late to add the seat to the November ballot, however, meaning her colleagues will have to appoint her successor in a process and under a timeline to be outlined next week.
Feerayarre ran unopposed in 2022 as part of a four-candidate slate endorsed by the Minneapolis DFL and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, and was set to serve until Jan. 4, 2027.
Board Chair Collin Beachy, who also was part of that four-person slate, said in a news release: “I thank Ms. Feerayarre for her service to the Minneapolis Public Schools community as a member of the school board. We all wish her the best in her future endeavors.”
Minneapolis School Board Member Fathia Feerayarre, who represented District 3 in the city’s center since January 2023, has resigned effective immediately, the district announced Tuesday.
Her departure comes too late to add the seat to the November ballot, however, meaning her colleagues will have to appoint her successor in a process and under a timeline to be outlined next week.
Feerayarre ran unopposed in 2022 as part of a four-candidate slate endorsed by the Minneapolis DFL and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, and was set to serve until Jan. 4, 2027.
Board Chair Collin Beachy, who also was part of that four-person slate, said in a news release: “I thank Ms. Feerayarre for her service to the Minneapolis Public Schools community as a member of the school board. We all wish her the best in her future endeavors.”
