Star Tribune
MSP Airport to build ‘sensory rooms’ to alleviate travel stress
Two “sensory rooms” are planned for the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport — “calming spaces” for stressed-out travelers who may be experiencing “sensory overload.”
The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), which owns and operates MSP, announced the new rooms on Tuesday and said in a news release that it will partner with Fraser, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit, to design the sensory rooms as part of two terminal expansion projects slated for completion by 2028.
“This is another major step to create a more accessible and inclusive airport experience, to help passengers with sensory sensitivities, or those who just need a quieter space to decompress before a flight,” MAC CEO Brian Ryks said in a statement.
Sensory or quiet rooms are an increasingly popular amenity at airports. More than a dozen airports across the country feature them as air travel surges post-pandemic. Condé Nast Travel called the sensory room at Houston’s George Bush International Airport an “airport dreamscape, complete with plush lounge chairs, calming teas, and neck warmers to melt away any tension from the TSA line.”
At MSP, one of the new sensory rooms will be part of the Terminal 2 North Expansion project opening in early 2027. A second sensory room will be added the following year during the renovation of Concourse G at Terminal 1, between gates G8 and G18.
The MAC said the sensory rooms will feature dimmable lighting, comfy seating and “sensory-friendly furnishings.” The MAC didn’t specify how much the rooms would cost to build.
Fraser already works with MAC as a partner of the Navigating MSP program, which aids travelers with special needs, and the organization participates on the airport’s Travelers with Disabilities Advisory Committee.
“We are so honored to partner with MSP Airport to bring sensory friendly spaces to individuals who need a different experience at the airport in order to travel,” Fraser President and CEO Diane Cross said in a statement.
Selling bikes is interesting, but being in the woods in spring, gathering maple sap, is addictive, a distinction Mark and Melinda Spinler know well.
The Spinlers live about 7 miles outside of Grand Marais, the small town on the North Shore that was more quaint than trendy when the couple moved there in 1984.
Mountain biking wasn’t yet a thing when the Spinlers arrived in Grand Marais. But they were into it, and opened the town’s first bike shop, which they operated for about 30 years before selling it.
Now, instead of two-wheelers, they peddle wood-burning stoves. Also, Mark has a chimney-cleaning business. And together, come March, he and Melinda, both 65, decamp to two relatively small stands of maple trees — one they own and one the state owns — to begin a process that will produce about 270 gallons of syrup, which they market to local businesses.
“Northern Minnesota is a wonderful place to live,” Melinda said. “But a hard place to make a living.”
Mark Spinler returns his chain saw to the sugar shack on his Grand Marais, Minn., property after trimming some downed limbs that had fallen on the network of tubing he uses to collect sap from maple trees. (Jeff Wheeler/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
It’s the syrup business that has embroiled the Spinlers in a standoff with the Department of Natural Resources that speaks to a larger debate about public lands and their proper use. Similar issues have affected northeast Minnesota residents since at least 1926, when the border region that would become the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness was first established as a roadless area.
But the Spinlers’ brouhaha has nothing to do with paddling or camping.
At issue instead is a 13-acre tract of relatively isolated state land adjoining their property that they have leased from the DNR for about 25 years.
A Richfield man said he was mad at being targeted by thieves when he shot at a pickup truck and killed a woman in the fleeing vehicle, according to a criminal complaint.
Luke Joshua Cain was charged Thursday in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting of Sofia Rose O’Hotto, 26, of Minneapolis, outside his home in the 6200 block of 5th Avenue S.
O’Hotto was shot in the back of the head of 3:30 a.m. and found in the pickup about a half-hour later after a 911 call sent Minneapolis police to the 4500 block of Hiawatha Avenue S.
According to the complaint:
A report of gunfire sent officers to Cain’s home, where he told police that he saw several people appearing to steal items from his van that was parked out front.
Cain said he confronted the people, who got in the pickup and drove off. He did not say anything about shooting at them.
Police interviewed Cain again on Wednesday and identified some of the items officers had recovered from the pickup, when they found the vehicle soon after the shooting.
Cain acknowledged that no one in the pickup had a weapon or threatened him in any manner. He then admitted firing two shots at the pickup as it left.
A man was fatally shot late at night in north Minneapolis, and police are looking for the gunman, officials said Friday.
Gunfire detection technology alerted police to the shooting shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday, and officers went to the 3500 block of Penn Avenue N., where they found the wounded man, police said.
The officers gave the man immediate medical attention before he was taken by emergency medical responders to North Memorial Health Hospital, where he died, according to police. The man’s identity has yet to be released.
Police have announced no arrests in connection with the killing, nor have yet addressed a possible motive.
“This man’s loved ones will be dealing with an incredible loss during the holiday season,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a statement. “I urge anyone who may know information about what happened to contact our investigators.”
There have been 77 homicides in the city this year, according to a Star Tribune database. That compares to 79 at this time in Minneapolis last year.
Anyone with information about Thursday’s shooting is being urged by police to contact them by email at policetips@minneapolismn.gov or by calling 612-673-5845. Tips can also be submitted anonymously by calling CrimeStoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477) or at www.CrimeStoppersMN.org.
