Crews will start working on a green roof project atop the couryard roof at City Hall and the Hennepin County Courthouse this weekend.

At 11 a.m. Saturday, crews will begin covering the roof surface with black dirt. Soil will be blown in through large tubes that will "snake through the building and into the courtyard," according to a city news release.

About 4 inches of soil will be installed on the 5,000-square-foot roof, as well as an irrigation system. The dirt layer includes a “special soil fungi to enhance the plant roots’ growth and function,” the news release said.

Green roofs have many benefits, including reducing a building's heating and cooling costs, trapping stormwater runoff and reducing the urban heat island effect.
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A small part of the omnibus tax bill that will soon be in front of Gov. Tim Pawlenty includes provisions to fund something similar to Minneapolis' Neighborhood Revitalization Program, but slightly different.

"[State legislators] haven't specified a program, they have specified a purpose for which the dollars would be spent for neighborhoods," said Council Member Betsy Hodges (13th Ward).

Under the proposal, neighborhood revitalization programming would be funded by "transformation districts," which used the same properties as a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district. The city currently funds NRP via 15 TIF districts known as the Common Project. Incremental yearly increases in property taxes are currently captured and distributed to neighborhoods to fund
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The shakeout in the condo market continued last week, with one developer announcing the end of a North Loop project and another developer giving up its foreclosed land to a bank.

Lupe Development Partners has dropped plans for the Pacific, a hotel and condo project surrounding the Monte Carlo at the 200 block of Washington Avenue North.

Businesses on block slated for Nicollet tower might be forced to look for new homes

Retailers in the 56-story shadow of an unbuilt condo tower are accustomed to living in uncertainty, and they’re getting another dose of it this summer.

The developer of The Nicollet project is starting to implement month-to-month leases for some retailers along South 10th Street and Marquette Avenue. Retailers said they didn’t realize until recently that the project might require them to leave the block, and if they must move, they will now have about two months advance notice.

Dan Hunt, a member of The Nicollet’s development team, said the project would launch as soon as they find a major office tenant for the tower. Participants have shuffled

Small business spotlight

For the 10th straight year, the Minnesota Small Business Expo & Conference will be held in a large fashion. The Minneapolis Convention Center, 1301 2nd Ave. S., will again host the event in ballrooms A & B, Thursday, May 15. Registration begins at 8 a.m.

Keynote speakers will address specific small business topics from 8:45–10 a.m. At that time, 86 exhibits will be open. Speakers will be talking about items of interest for the small-business and entrepreneurial community. Eight workshops round out the business curriculum.

Contaminated ballpark dirt being moved from flood plain

Thousands of cubic yards of contaminated dirt removed from the future Minnesota Twins ballpark site are being transported to a location they’d been expected to be almost a year ago: inside a lined landfill. The soil instead was being used to expand a flood levee outside of the Burnsville Sanitary Landfill, about a half-mile away from the Minnesota River.

Read more stories about: Twins Ballpark

Event kicks-off Bike Walk Week

Mayor R.T. Rybak pedaled up to the Minneapolis Central Library plaza at about 8:15 a.m. Monday to win the Great Commuter Challenge, a kick off event to Twin Cities Bike Walk Week.

The race from St. Paul to Minneapolis pitted Rybak on his bicycle against Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter, who walked and rode public transit, and Star Tribune reporter Jim Foti, who drove. Carter finished second, followed by Foti.

“I had so much fun this morning I may never drive to work again, which is a good thing because I may never be able to drive to work again,” Rybak joked, referencing the driver’s license suspension for an unpaid speeding ticket that got him in mildly hot water last week.

Read more stories about: 35W Bridge Collapse

The sale of the Nate’s Clothing building was finalized this week, according to the prior owner, and tenants say they now need to move out in the next 60 days.

The family that owns the Nate’s Clothing store, which has operated at 27 N. 4th St. for 20 years, hopes to be up and running in a new location around June 7. Owner Alan Witebsky said they would likely move near South Minneapolis and Edina, but the new site is not yet settled.

Greetings from the Downtown Network, an official committee of the Minneapolis Downtown Council. The Downtown Network welcomes the membership of anyone who lives, works or plays Downtown.

In my last column in the March 31–April 13 issue, I reported on a worthy and fun annual activity of the Downtown Network, the Skyway Golf Tournament. In this column, I report on a principal and fun monthly activity, the Downtown Network’s Happy Hour, which occurs (nearly always) on the third Thursday of each month in the amazingly varied and wonderful restaurants and lounges of downtown Minneapolis. For some of our members, this monthly event is the core activity of their membership.

A firsthand account of volunteering at Project Homeless Connect


Along with 1,300 other volunteers, I waited for the Minneapolis Convention Center doors to open on April 28 and usher in hundreds of people experiencing homelessness.

Somewhere outside were the people I would assist that day: a teenage couple engaged to be married, a hardened veteran of the streets, and an articulate college student. (Note: At the request of project organizers, the names of people interviewed for this story have been changed to project their identities.)

City officials working with Sharing and Caring Hands to boost security 

Two city licensing officials and a Minneapolis Police officer inspected Sharing and Caring Hands food shelf April 29 and came away with a better understanding of the operation and its security.

“We observed the operation for about five hours and are pleased to see a lot of the components of the security plan are in place,” Minneapolis Licensing and Consumer Services Director Ricardo Cervantes said.

To Sharing and Caring Hands founder Mary Jo Copeland, that signaled an end to the disputes over security concerns at the well-known homeless shelter.

“It’s done,” Copeland said. “They left a little embarrassed.”

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Norm Coleman is about as laid back as a Republican can get. Maybe that is what years as a Democrat will do to you.

Republican, Democrat, independent Republican, or any way you pin him, Coleman, does not have a lot of free time.

“Like [Al] Franken said, ‘I don’t do a lot of hanging out,’” Coleman said referencing an earlier interview with the Senate hopeful in the Southwest Journal. “But that’s the price you pay.”

Richard Rock and Abinadi Meza interpret the MIA

The Doryphoros, an idealized male figure posed in the classic, relaxed contrapposto, is one artwork nearly everyone who ever set foot inside the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) will remember.

The 2,000-year-old Greek statue stands alone in the second-floor rotunda and is the first thing visitors see after climbing the steps to the museum’s 24th Street entrance. Ancient, weathered, cracked and broken, the marble figure is still imposing, still dynamic, as if it’s ready to step right off its pedestal.

A car pulls up. A guy gets out, sprints to a doorway, runs back with a small parcel, stuffing bills back into his wallet: Clearly, somebody is in desperate need of a fix.

Relax, it’s only Steve, An Nguyen’s husband. Nguyen runs Rice Paper restaurant and knows a good thing to eat when it comes across her path. On a weekly basis, she sends hubby Steve to score her stash of mushroom pâté from the Spoonriver restaurant.

If you have a unique or interesting workspace, or know of someone who does, contact us at dtjournal@mnpubs.com or 1115 Hennepin Ave. S. Minneapolis, 55403.

The Eagle Magic and Joke Store at 301 4th Ave. S. — touted as the country’s oldest magic shop — dates back to about 1899, and this desk has been with the shop since the very beginning.

Jennifer Wold

Date: April 14, 2008
Time: 11:48 a.m.
Location: Stone Arch Bridge

“I still work full-time in Richfield, and I come down to the bridge and walk every now and then,” Wold said. “My youngest son Issac has just moved out, and it’s hard to accept at this point. That’s the transition I am going through in my life. He just moved to an apartment with a couple other boys in Richfield.”

Editor's note: “Transitions” is a new portrait series by photographer Robb Long that highlights people passing through Downtown and shares insights on their lives.
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