Any afternoon rush hour, Gwen Engelbert can look out the front window and see traffic cops wildly waving drivers past her E. Hennepin Avenue boutique.

The patrols are needed to help manage a surge of traffic congestion in the East Bank and Marcy Holmes neighborhoods in Minneapolis since the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed Aug. 1.

But it doesn’t exactly help a business trying to catch a few drivers’ eyes with window displays and sale banners. MORE »

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Filed under: Audubon Park, Business, Central Avenue, East Bank, Government, Marcy Holmes, Shopping

Melissa Slachetka
Northeast Beat Contributor

More than a decade ago, the Audubon Neighborhood Association set aside money to help renovate and restore the historic Hollywood Theater. The hope was that the building could add vital atmosphere to the Johnson Street.

Tonight, the neighborhood association will meet to, among other things, vote on whether to spend the $115,000 on something else. The money could stay in the Hollywood Theater fund and wait for the renovation to start or it could be taken out and used in the Audubon neighborhood.

“Personally, I’d like [the money] to stay in the Hollywood,” Cindy Schulte said. She admitted, though, “It’s been not going anywhere for 20 years.”

Schulte is part of the Audubon Neighborhood Association and she spoke about an issue that is at the heart of the neighborhood.

Because the theater is classified as historic, it cannot be torn down. Without a restoration, it is just an old, abandoned building.

“We still own the building. The city will continue to own the building until there is a viable proposal for reuse,” said Sharrin Miller-Bassi, a senior project coordinator with Minneapolis’s Community Planning and Economic Development department.

Voting to remove the money from the Hollywood fund would open it up to new uses in the neighborhood. The money could be used for business or housing loans.

Loans instead of grants would allow the money to come back to the neighborhood association and possibly help the Hollywood Theater later, Schulte said.

Some people want to keep the money strictly for the Hollywood Theater, and Royce Jackson is one of them.

Jackson states on his Hollywood Theater website “we have just recently learned that the Audubon Neighborhood Association is contemplating taking away the allotted money that has been specifically set aside for the Hollywood Theater. We cannot afford [to] let this happen. The outcome of this decision could make or break the theater.”

Jackson is attempting to take ownership of the Hollywood Theater, but at this point he does not own it.

If the neighborhood votes to consider other uses for the money, it will discuss what those are at a future meeting.

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Filed under: Audubon Park, Development, NRP

Windom Park Citizens in Action will discuss the Quarry on Tuesday at its monthly neighborhood meeting.

The shopping center was built a decade ago on a polluted site overseen by the state’s pollution control agency. The development involved several agreements with the state, city and neighborhood, but over the years the neighborhood lost track of the details, board co-president Doron Clark said.

Windom Park Citizens in Action hired a University of Minnesota intern this summer to research the various agreements reached before the Quarry’s was built. The results of that research will be unveiled and discussed at Tuesday’s meeting.

It shows some of the neighbor’s assumptions are not true, but also that some committments to the neighborhood have not been followed through on, Clark said.

The meeting is Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. at the Windom Park Addition at Pillsbury School, 2251 Hayes St. NE.

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Filed under: Development, Windom Park

 

Painter Lauri Svedberg celebrates the opening of her first solo show this Saturday at Artistic Indulgence. “Mineral-apolis” was inspired by a recent winter getaway to Arizona, where Svedberg started painting minerals she encountered there. The show combines those images with scenes from her favorite subject, the Twin Cities.

The artist and former art teacher is probably best known for her eclectic home in the Waite Park neighborhood, where she operated an art gallery between 1998 and 2006. She continues to use the space on 34th Avenue and Tyler Street as her studio and residence.

“Mineral-apolis” opens with a reception from 7-10 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 20, at Artistic Indulgence, 302 E. Hennepin Ave. The show runs through Nov. 17. For more info, look for my article in the current issue of the Northeaster.  Dan Haugen

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Filed under: Art, East Bank, Waite Park