SuperWeed

I’ve been home for a few days, so let me tell you more about Minneapolis before I forget. I’ve always been curious about the Twin Cities, because my father grew up in St. Paul and I’ve got many unknown uncles and cousins there, so I didn’t mind at all when the old man at the bus stop inadvertently sent me on an accidental walking tour by setting me off in exactly the opposite direction that I needed to go to get from the light rail station to my hotel. Along the way, I was mystified by this building:

From a distance, the lettering looked almost as old as the building and I wondered, “What have we here? Another mad miscegenation of the American mania for club-forming and white misappropriation of racial identity, like the “Improved Order of Redman” in Fruitland, Maryland?” I’ve seen some arcane aspects of local history in my activist travels (speaking at the ornate Masonic lodge in Salt Lake City was a surreal experience) and I figured this might be one more.

Turns out, Mixed Blood is a multiracial theatre company founded in 1976. As I knew they must be, the seventies were also responsible for these apartment buildings:

A modernist apartment complex built in the brutalist mode and decorated with 70s-style colored panels, Riverside Plaza was part of a project intended to revitalize a dilapidated part of town into the kind of mixed-class neighborhood that creates opportunities for people to pull themselves out of poverty. But, because the community wasn’t consulted, the project — which called for demolition of most neighborhood buildings — met with grassroots resistance including a rent strike against the development company, which defaulted on its HUD loan two years after the apartment complex went up. Today, with half of the units providing sorely needed subsidized housing, the complex is shunned by higher income folks and often called by the derisive nickname “slum in the sky.” I’d like to know what kind of tenant organizing is going on there now.

Also on my accidental walking tour, I happened upon a literary arts center, with a bookstore and coffee shop right next door to a comics store. As the weekend went on, I noticed what seemed to me an unusually high number of people on bicycles, even at night. A local activist told me that the city is especially friendly to bicycle commuters.

Here’s a reason to move to Minneapolis: Vegan pizza delivered by bicyclists dressed as superheroes. I’m not making that up. Several local activists excitedly told me the story of the time one of the superheroes intercepted a mugger after he snatched an elderly lady’s purse.

Minneapolis also is home to the Fast and Furless vegan boutique, at which local activist Dallas Rising kindly organized a book signing event for me, Gene Baur, Karen Dawn, and Hillary Rettig on the night before the conference. Since we come at animal activism from different albeit often complementary directions, the ensuing discussion was lively and productive. Local vegan chef Meagan Holtgrewe catered the event deliciously.

All of which is to say: I was intrigued by Minneapolis and (hint to next year’s conference organizers) hope to have the opportunity to explore it more.

June 14th, 2008 | Category: Travel | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL