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.
LAFAYETTE, Wis. — About 25 children and adults were injured Wednesday when a wagon carrying them overturned at a western Wisconsin apple orchard.
The children, parents and chaperones were on a field trip to the orchard in Lafayette when one of two wagons being pulled by a tractor turned sideways and rolled over, Chippewa County Sheriff Travis Hakes told reporters. Hakes said the tractor was traveling at a low speed when the wagon rolled over while going downhill.
Three people suffered critical injuries, while injuries to five others were considered serious. Authorities didn’t say how many of the injured were children.
The elementary school-age children attend a school in Eau Claire. Lafayette is northeast of Eau Claire.
After about five minutes and several warnings that students participating in the protest would be suspended,, the protesters exited Northrop and Cunningham continued her speech. They later gathered outside on the mall afterwards to shout, “Cunningham, you will see, Palestine will be free.”
Cunningham recounted the story of Norman Borlaug, the U alumnus and agronomist whose research in wheat saved millions from starvation, and said she would prioritize keeping a college education affordable for students.
Cunningham actually took over presidential duties on July 1, replacing Interim President Jeff Ettinger. She oversees a budget of more than $4 billion to run the university’s five campuses, which enrolled more than 68,000 students and employed 27,000 people during the last academic year.
She was chosen for the job last winter over two other candidates: Laura Bloomberg, president of Cleveland State University and former dean of the U’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and James Holloway, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of New Mexico. She is the U’s second woman president, following Joan Gabel who held the office from 2019 to 2023.
Cunningham will be paid more than $1 million per year — about $975,000 in base pay and an additional $120,000 in retirement contributions. The compensation puts her in the top quarter of Big Ten university presidents.
Sgt. Gordon Blackey, once a security guard to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, allegedly admitted to tracking the woman’s movements in her vehicle, according to a criminal complaint.
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