Separated At Birth?! Vacant Lots At Big Stop And Wafana's "Inconvenience Stores"

Former "Big Stop" store, Jordan Neighborhood, above
Former Wafana's Store, Hawthorne Neighborhood, below

Photos and blog post by John Hoff

I wrote recently about how the "inconvenience store" at Wafana's disappeared off the face of the earth while I wasn't looking, but I didn't have an AFTER photo to show the glorious transformation. Click here for that blog post.

Well, here's yer AFTER photo and I can't help but be struck by the "family resemblance" between the vacant lot at the former "Big Stop" store in Jordan, top photo, and the Wafana's store, bottom photo. Except for the fact children have built snowmen on the Big Stop lot, there is VIRTUALLY NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO LOTS.

Amazing. Another North Minneapolis instance of "separated at birth?"

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Community Energy Services: A Bright Idea

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman. This post originally appeared on the Hawthorne Voices Blog, and is reprinted here at the request of CEE.


Earlier this year, the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council and Community Energy Services jointly sponsored two workshops to get residents energy-efficient and environmentally friendly home upgrades. The home visit and materials are valued at $400, and require a $20 co-pay. But the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council has offered to cover the co-pay for the first 150 residents who sign up. There's still plenty of space left for the materials and visits to be completely free to you!

Here's the catch: to qualify, you must be an owner-occupant of the Hawthorne neighborhood, and you must attend a CES workshop. The next workshop is set to take place on Tuesday, June 29th, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. (they usually finish earlier) at Farview Park. If you are interested in attending, contact Kyle Boehm at 612-219-7334 or kboehm@mncee.org.

Pictured above are some photos from the home visit done with Hawthorne board member and blogger John Hoff.

Do not click "read more," but do contact Kyle to sign up!

An Interesting Historical Remnant In The Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Headquarters...

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

I actually took this picture several weeks ago, but there's one great thing about historical writing...

History isn't going anywhere. What's the hurry?

In the attic of the building Hawthorne Neighborhood Council uses as its headquarters (2944 Emerson Ave. N.) there are some words painted on the wall, apparently in German or some Scandinavian language.

The words--what's left of them--appear to be Bible verses. Naturally, we know this house is associated with the church next door and I assume at one time it was a rectory or a parsonage.

I figure at some point in the not-so-distant future the wall will get patched up, so I took pictures to make a record of what was up there.

The Jim Wentzell Special: A Steak and Manhattan on West Broadway!

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman, with minor editorial revisions by John Hoff.

A version of this post originally appeared on the Hawthorne Voices blog. John Hoff and Pat Carney were in attendance and took more and better photos as well.

Several months ago, while writing about the Delisi's/KMOJ groundbreaking, I made a promise to longtime Hawthorne board member Jim Wentzell. He'd get a steak and Manhattan on West Broadway and he wouldn't have to pay a dime for it. You see, we can point to all kinds of economic indicators like dollars invested or business occupancy rates, but Jim has always had a beautifully simple way to measure success in NoMi. For years he's said we'll know we've turned the corner when he can sit down at a good restaurant and have a steak and a Manhattan on Broadway Avenue. Last night, plenty of people including myself did just that.

Last night, Hawthorne members, NoMi residents and activists, and plenty of other wonderful people working to revitalize our community made good on that promise.

The fun started at Good Sports Bar and Grill...

...located in the Hawthorne neighborhood on 2nd and Broadway. Good Sports serves both steaks and Manhattans, and does them both amazingly well. Mike Christenson of CPED helped put this together by getting Jim to attend, but we kept the scope of how many people would be there a secret. Actually, it was such a good secret that even Alexandra Jasicki and I were surprised by the turnout. I'm told that the count at one point was 82 people, and it was estimated that 65-70 of them were there for this event.

The attendees were a veritable who's-who of NoMi revitalizers. Hawthorne residents, board members, city officials, neighborhood activists and all three NoMi city council representatives made an appearance. Pictured above is Bob Miller of NRP, Ed Anderson of Cub on Broadway, and Jim, with Mike Christenson in the background. Jim's birthday is about a month away, but with this many people gathered, we had to celebrate that too. With this many passionate people in a room together, we're bound to have differences of opinion, but the only arguments I overheard were among those competing for the honor of picking up the tab for Jim that night.

The Leveys, who own Good Sports, said that their supply of steaks was "raided" by the time we were done. I had a Manhattan perfect, and I didn't have to specify that the steak be perfect; it just came that way.

Also in attendance were Peter Teachout, former Hawthorne board chair (with his four kids in tow) and Kip Browne of Jordan, who brought along his newborn. Val and Mike Levey mentioned their neices, ages 3 and 11, and said they want to run an establishment that they know they can bring their entire family to.

As excited as we all were to thank Jim for his many years of service in NoMi, this event wasn't just about him. This was a chance to show off. Here in NoMi, we're proud of the economic development we're seeing, we're proud of businesses like Good Sports, proud of dedicated volunteers like Jim Wentzell, and proud of the vibrant and supportive community we've got in Hawthorne and throughout north Minneapolis. A heartfelt thanks goes out to everyone who contributes to the success in our community!

Hawthorne Huddle Celebrates Neighborhood Achievements!

Guest post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, video by a Hawthorne neighbor

On Thursday, December 3rd, the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council celebrated many achievements in our community at the Hawthorne Huddle, sponsored by the General Mills Foundation. Every first Thursday of the month, community leaders and residents gather at Farview Park at the crack of dawn (7:30, to be precise). A continental breakfast is served (catered by the Sunnyside Deli), and we get to hear about and discuss what many of our partners are doing in and around Hawthorne.

But once a year, we roll out the red carpet...

At the end of the year, a full break fast, including omelets, sausage, and hash browns, is served. Neighborhood partners, many of whom receive support from the General Mills Foundation, share their successes from the past year and their goals for the next.

The video above is of yours truly, Hawkman alter-ego Jeff Skrenes, discussing some of the many accomplishments of the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council over the past year. My normal camera was out of juice, but luckily I carry a Blackberry in my utility belt, and used the video feature there for the first time.

In case folks don't watch the full video, I want to repeat my closing remarks: What we have accomplished would not have been possible without the vision and resolve of our residents, as well as the support of many of our partners in the room. So I sincerely thank all of you for making our neighborhood a success.

Also, I should point out that I specifically had the South Hawthorne Community Garden in my notes to talk about how great that and our residents who made it happen are. As SOON as I was done, I realized I'd forgotten to bring that up. I started thinking to myself, "Please, PLEASE let one of our neighbors bring this up," and sure enough Carey Joe Howell did. In some ways it's more appropriate that a resident brought up the garden, since the work was driven much more by the community itself than Hawthorne staff.

Paul Yeager from Farview Park also spoke about how the sports teams for our park fill up faster than those at other north and northeast parks. Obviously working with kids presents a special sort of challenge, but it's also incredibly rewarding and Paul is a tremendous asset to our community. He finished his remarks by saying to General Mills and the community, "Thank you for making my job fun." No, Paul, THANK YOU for what you give to our community.

Ellen Luger of General Mills made sure that the first people to present their accomplishments for 2009 were local youth who worked on a "Visuals in Peace" project. These were youth whose lives were touched by gang and other youth violence and got together to do what they could to counter that. They were inspired by Desmond Tutu last year and worked with many institutions to put up the banners we see along West Broadway.

I have heard both positive and negative things about how those banners look. But I think we can all agree that the spirit and collaboration behind those banners is exactly what our community needs. This is especially true knowing that the project was driven by our own youth.

So from Jeff Skrenes, the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council, and the johnnynorthside blog, a sincere thank you goes out to the General Mills Foundation, our community partners and our strong and committed residents for all that you have do for Hawthorne and NoMi!

Sharing Thanksgiving With Minneapolis Police...

Photos By John Hoff, and contributed photos xoxo

The tradition is not quite as old as Thanksgiving itself, but for several years residents of the Fourth Precinct have been putting on a meal for the police officers as a show of gratitude. Joan Thom, head of the Public Safety Committee in the Hawthorne Neighborhood, and her husband, Len Lewis, as well as "Buzzy" Bohn have been the ones to take the lead in putting on the annual dinner.

The dinner doesn't happen just once on Thanksgiving, but serves all three shifts. Numerous Northside residents contribute items to the dinner and are involved in its preparation. I don't have a list of all the different residents and their contributions, but off the top of my head I know Housing Director Jeff Skrenes made an incredible fruit salad and Jordan resident Megan Goodmundson contributed pumpkin pies. Oh, do I know about those pies. For two days, I had to transport those pies around, careful not to crumble the crust in the slightest bit. Megan called them her "police pies" and reminded me not to commit (even by accident) "police pie brutality."

Megan was preparing to make homemade pies, but when she saw pies for $2.88 at Cub Foods on West Broadway, she was all, like, "I can't MAKE pies that cheap." So, being a frugal Nomi homie, she bought the pies instead. This was Megan's first year at the dinner, and she says she wants to go every year from now on.

This was also the first year I attended, along with my 12-year-old son, during the "mid-shift" dinner...

Two of the officers at mid-shift were not from the Fourth Precinct, but with a K9 unit that sees action all over the city. Here's video from YouTube of one of these officers in action, click here to see Officer Edwards and her four-legged partner, Chief.

One Fourth Precinct officer was a former member of a SWAT unit and not only chatted with us at length, but also posed for a photo with my son. Another officer had a lot of stripes and medals on his uniform, which he jokingly referred to as "bling."

My son took note of an interesting display case, full of old and unusual weapons taken off suspects.

In chatting with the officers, two themes emerged. The Fourth Precinct appreciated the show of gratitude (or, to put it another way, they were grateful for the show of appreciation) and, secondly, there was common agreement things have really turned around in North Minneapolis.

The officers were there long enough to eat a meal and chat a bit, but then they went right back out on the street to keep everybody else safe as citizens enjoyed their own Thanksgiving. One young officer remarked to his partner that he was going to hit the "stair climber" machine before leaving, so he could work off part of the dinner.

That's part of the reason why he's a police officer, and I'm just a blogger.

JNS BLOG EXCLUSIVE: Neighborhood Organizations Set To Lose Director's And Officer's Board Insurance Coverage, Wanna Guess WHY?

Stock photo by John Hoff, neighborhood organization meeting

According to a memo from Robert "Bob" Miller of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program, "NRP has been informed by the insurance company carrying our Director's & Officer's (D & O) Insurance that they will not be renewing our coverage when the current policy year ends in March 2010."

The memo (a public document distributed recently at an open meeting of the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Board of Directors) goes on to state that "The company has indicated that...

...they are concerned that the coverage they provided was too broad, the management and employee controls used by neighborhood organizations are too varied, and the risks are disproportionate to the premium."

Though the memo makes no mention of the pointless, never-ending lawsuit by the "Old Majority" JACC faction, the source of the concern by the insurance carrier almost certainly stems from this expensive and never-ending frivolous litigation.  

Good ol' Bob Miller is taking steps to remedy the situation as well as it can be remedied, scheduling a working session with NRP's insurance agents (R.J. Ahman) for Thursday, October 29 and having all neighborhood organizations complete questionnaires.

That is my summary of the situation, but for the reader who needs to know more of the nitty-gritty, here is the memo itself:

October 1, 2009

To: Neighborhood Leaders and Neighborhood Staff

From: Robert D. Miller, NRP Director

Subject: Director's & Officer's Insurance

NRP has been informed by the insurance company carrying our Director's & Officer's (D & O) Insurance that they will not be renewing our coverage when the current policy year ends in March 2010.

The company has indicated that they are concerned that the coverage they provided was too broad, the management and employee controls used by the neighborhood organizations are too varied, and the risks are disproportionate to the premium. As a result, we are now trying to find another insurance company to underwrite and issue a master D & O Policy that will cover all of our neighborhoods. If we cannot find a carrier willing to underwrite such a policy, each neighborhood will have to determine its need for coverage, find a carrier for their own organization, and pay for the premium from their operating funds.

Each neighborhood organization is required to have a General Liability Insurance policy and you may want to check with your insurance agent to see if they have access to a D & O insurance provider and the coverage and premiums that would be available to you. If you identify a possible source for your D & O coverage, please let me know so that NRP can pursue the possibility of a master contract with your carrier.

The one good thing about this cancellation is that the carrier has given us a good amount of lead-time to try and find another option.

(JNS editorial comment: why do people say "try and" instead of "try to?" It drives me nuts)

As the first step in pursuing another underwriter, we need to update the material that you have previously submitted to us and have you complete a new questionnaire that is widely used as a preliminary step in the underwriting process. Your previously submitted information and the new questionnaire are attached. Please give this your prompt attention and return the updated material for your organization and the completed questionnaire by Friday, November 6. Only organizations that provide the updated and completed questionnaires will be considered for coverage under any new policy.

We have scheduled a working session with our insurance agents (R.J. Ahman) for Tuesday, October 29 for organizations that may want to help with completing the questionnaire. The session will be held 7 p.m. in CPED Conference Room 3 on the 2nd floor of the Crown Roller Mill Building. Please bring with you financial reports and organizational policies that will help you and our advisors complete the forms at the meeting.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this important matter.

LAST ONE! I PROMISE! More Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Annual Dinner TALENT SHOW VIDEO!

Here's the very last video from the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Annual Meeting TALENT SHOW, featuring singers and actors from the Lundstrum Center for the Performing Arts, click here for their website.

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Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Annual Meeting, Yet More Talent Show Video...

More video! More great talent at the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Annual Meeting and Dinner!

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Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Annual Meeting, More Talent Show Video...

Here's more video of the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Annual Meeting TALENT SHOW, put on by the Lundstrum Center for the Performing Arts.

I made a point of inserting the post below this one so, well, these nice little children wouldn't be near a post about (druggie) Mayoral Candidate Al Flowers.

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More Images, Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Annual Dinner And Meeting...

Photos by John Hoff and Contributed Photos, xoxo

Here, belatedly, are some images from the recent Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Annual Meeting and Dinner, which included delicious food from Bangkok Market and great performances by some thespians from the Lundstrom Center for the Performing Arts.

The first step was getting registered to vote in the neighborhood election, which is much different than regular voter registration. Instead of precincts, we have quadrants, and...



The voting process is relatively informal.





Food at the dinner was provided by Bangkok Market, just like it was the year before. When something works so well, why go changing it?


One notable moment in this year's meeting was the election of Mohammed Agoubi to the board as a business rep. Agoubi is the branch manager for US Bank in the Hawthorn Crossings strip mall.

And, actually, I made a point of talking to Agoubi about how crime-ridden that mall is, and how it really needs to be cleaned up. Hopefully, Agoubi will bring some much-needed progress to this issue which, in the past couple days, has become as pressing as it's ever been.

Agoubi is in the middle, another US Bank employee is on the left, and of course Hawthorne's Housing Director, Jeff Skrenes, is on the right.



Here are the US Bank guys with one of the actors from the talent show, dressed up as "Raymond In Space."



In these two photos, below, the business reps in Hawthorne vote, and Agoubi gets elected.





Here are some pictures of the talent show I mentioned earlier. I mostly have photos of "set changes" because I was shooting video the rest of the time. One of the videos is already posted, click here, and I really will get the others posted at some point. The actor/singers were terrific and put a positive spin on the whole annual meeting.





Here's another picture of the board election. I am in the middle, in a purple shirt from Northside Art FLOW. I won a 1-year seat on the board, promising to "ask the tough questions" when, for example, wannabe slumlords come to our board and try to pass themselves off as respectable members of the community.



Here is a photo of the actual voting, below.



Here, members of the League of Women Voters count the ballots and ensure the election went fairly.


Treasurer Brian Cheese (left) and Executive Director Laban Ohito (right) stand near a list of candidate names. The board meeting featured some tough questions about where Hawthorne will get money to keep the neighborhood office running as some official funding sources dry up.



Below is a photo of outgoing board chair Peter Teachout. Peter recently converted his house in the Eco Village into a high-quality rental for a three-generation Hmong family, and got himself a bigger house in the McKinley neighborhood, actually living right near the chair of THAT neighborhood.

During his term of service as chair of our neighborhood association, Peter helped guide Hawthorne through big challenges, and paid the price for fighting hookers and drug dealers who set up shop right across from his house, where he lived with his wife and small children. Now the drug and hooker house is vacant and on its way to being demolished, eventually, and the Eco Village is racking up incredibly low crime stats, including two months with no reported crime at all.

In this photo, Peter jokes that with four children (so far) he is "creating his own neighborhood." Peter's shirt features a British bulldog and the words "because he can."



This final photo shows some of the talent show performers taking a bow. In a sense, they are taking a bow for the whole neighborhood and its achievements in the past year.



Looking at all the events and progress which have taken place in the past year, it makes your head spin. This blog can't keep up with, for example, the demolitions of crappy buildings which really, truly needed to go. The crime stats have plummeted, despite periodic setbacks.

We have come far, but we have far to go. And THE SHOW MUST GO ON!

Talent Show At The Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Annual Meeting...

This year's Hawthorne Neighborhood Council annual dinner and board election featured a talent show by the Lundstrum Center for the Performing Arts.

I managed to videotape all the talent show segments and I'll be putting the video on this blog for the proud teachers, parents and others who helped make the event such a success.

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Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Annual Meeting, Elections...

Contributed Photo, xoxo

The Hawthorne Neighborhood Association had its annual meeting and board of directors election tonight at Farview Park.

The meeting--which was carefully planned to avoid unnecessary expenses in these tight economic times--featured food from Bangkok Market and a lively talent show by Lundstrom Center For The Arts.

Board elections went relatively smoothly, and included...

...yours truly, Johnny Northside, getting re-elected to the board of directors for a one-year term, hooray.

Many more details and VIDEO OF THE TALENT SHOW will follow in the next few days.

Crack House At 3020 6th Street N. Finally Emptied, Chairman Peter Teachout's Wife Goes Into Labor...

See below for photo credits

Today was a memorable day in the Hawthorne Eco Village cluster project, as the infamous pill house/ crack house / whore house at 3020 6th St. N. was finally evacuated and boarded up. Within several hours, right across the street at the Teachout residence, JoyAnne Teachout (wife of Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Board Chair Peter Teachout) went into labor with her fourth child, known to be a boy.

This news was first broken by Hawthorne Housing Director Jeff Skrenes on his Facebook profile. Jeff also said, "This is not just victory, this is conquest."

God Himself appears to bless our efforts as evidenced by this incredible not-quite-a-coincidence of a major end and a major beginning on the same day. Let us send thoughts and prayers to JoyAnne Teachout for a safe delivery of the youngest Teachout child, quite possibly any minute, now. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Top photo by Jeff Skrenes. Photos of the Teachout family were taken by the two oldest Teachout children, Peter and Rose. Note the serious expression on JoyAnne's face. While Peter works in the foreground, crackheads were openly doing business across the street.

But no more.

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John Hoff a.k.a. "Johnny Northside" Appointed To Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Executive Board...

Photo By John Hoff 

Word comes by phone from Board Member Jim Wenzel that yours truly was appointed to a vacancy on the Hawthorne Executive Board last night, and that "elder statesman" Jim Wentzel himself made the nomination, which went through without opposition.

Of course, I knew this last night...but best to wait for the official call.

I am happy and proud. Beyond that, there is precious little time to dwell upon oneself with so much important material "back blogged" and needing to hit the internet ASAP.

Pictured above is my 11-year-old son, Alex, who can go up against a computer in a chess game and wipe the floor with its electronic guts. Playng chess, Alex also killed everybody in two classes of 6th graders in an elimination tournament. Board Chair Peter Teachout has felt the wrath of Alex in games of Halo, where Alex favors "plasma grenades" as his weapon of choice. Why do I bring this up?

The whole reason I am in North Minneapolis is to be near my son, and to be a meaningful part of his life, and make this neighborhood a fit place for Alex to visit or even to live. Everything that happens on this blog happens because this 11-year-old child exists, a child who dreams of attending MIT and learning how to make robots that will "help people."

Or take over the world. One of those two things.

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