Enjoying A Nice, Juicy Camel Steak At My Home In North Minneapolis (Nomi)

Photo, blog post by John Hoff

I'm sure many people are enjoying barbeque of some kind this Labor Day Weekend, despite the heat. While some nice pork ribs, a beef steak or chicken are always welcome on my plate, my tastes tend toward the exotic.

So it was I recently had the opportunity to sample camel steak...

Dumpster Diving Mulch For NoMi Revitalization!

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

No doubt about it, the lifestyle of NoMi "revitalizers" is a frugal, green, and creative way of life. We do stuff like...

Dumpster dive garden mulch!

Yes, indeed, these bags of perfectly good garden mulch were...

...just thrown out as garbage at a garden supply store in an affluent southern suburb, I won't say which one. Each of the bags had a hole in it, but not a hole big enough to spill all the contents. In one instance, a MUSHROOM was growing out of a hole, and in another instance, some kind of green clover was growing out of a hole because, apparently, the bags had been sitting around with holes for quite a while. Most of the bags were high-quality cypress mulch, but there were also a couple bags of cow manure. (Heck of a thing, when you have to dumpster dive for manure)

The bags were set out BESIDE the dumpster, not INSIDE the dumpster, but it was still a case of dumpster diving. There were so many bags, it took two trips to get all the mulch.

The bags ended up back in NoMi where they will become part of our never-ending revitalization effort. Every day--seriously, EVERY DAY--frugal, green, artistic NoMi dwellers engage in these types of recyle, reuse, and RECOVERY efforts. But on this particular day I just happened to take a picture so guess what? It goes up on the blog.

Celebrating New Homeowners in NoMi!

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman unless noted otherwise.

NoMi Realtor extraordinaire Connie Nompelis organized a happy hour at Good Sports Bar and Grill this weekend to welcome new NoMi homeowners, (renters were welcome too!) and it was a resounding success. I arrived early, as the first order of business was to set up the Dinosaur. Or, as Bryan Thao Worra has coined it, the DiNoMisaur. We can even take it one step further and give it a second name depending on the neighborhood it's in. Since Good Sports is in my neck of the woods, on Sunday this was the DiNoMisaurus Hawthoraptor.

But the DiNoMisaur wasn't the only thing I was asked to help out with. I also brought along...

...this.



Astute JNS readers will recognize this rope as belonging to the post that tells the story about a swinger's bed. It turns out that we were able to hang signs inside and on the dinosaur without this rope. My repeated assurances that I washed the rope after each use strangely did nothing to encourage people to employ it for this event.

The owners of Good Sports know I can cook, and consider me one of their top food critics. So they brought out an item that wasn't even on the menu; the Rueben. Let me tell you something folks. This sandwich is phenomenal, and what you see below is only half. Pretty much everything at Good Sports is top notch, but I can't think of a single thing you could add or take away from this sandwich to make it any better. Five stars. It should be on the menu within the week, so make sure to look for it the next time you stop by.



Things got hopping pretty quickly, and a good mix of new residents (some of whom haven't even closed on their homes yet!) from a variety of neighborhoods, longer-term residents, and even some dedicated activists showed up. I even met people from Hawthorne that I hadn't known before. Like so many NoMi parties, there was a common refrain of, "Oh yeah! We're already facebook friends! It's so nice to meet you in person!"

I also got the occasional shout-out when I would tell people that I was the Hawthorne Hawkman on Johnny Northside. It's so nice to have an alter ego but NOT a secret identity.



After a while, a bunch of us went outside for impromptu pictures with the DiNoMisaur. First up is its creator, artist Ken Farkash.



Next up, I posed with Emily, a new Hawthorne resident, as we imitated the dinosaur's hands. This picture was taken, I believe by one of the Levey brothers, owners of Good Sports.



Finally, we decided to put baby Alex, another new NoMi resident, in one of the hands. These pictures are just so cute that they put those Anne Geddes abominations to shame. Frankly, I always found those pictures to be rather disturbing for some reason anyway.






And then it was time to go back inside for more happy hour specials (for this event only!) and plenty of great socializing with the wonderful NoMi folk. Thanks Connie for putting this together, thanks to Good Sports for hosting, and thanks to all the people who make our community so much fun!

So-Low Watches, So-Low Calls...

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

Shortly before the army swearing-in ceremony for Peter Teachout, former Chair of the Hawthorne Neighborhood, I stopped by So-Low to pick up some "fake champagne" for the party at the (abstaining) Teachout residence. As always, So-Low had sparkling grape juice at a great low price, near the front of the store close by the meat and produce sections.

Walking inside the store, I noticed a new addition to the front entryway...

It was one of the "We Watch, We Call" signs which are popping up everywhere in NoMi.

As if super-cheap brie cheese wasn't a good enough reason to love So-Low, their commitment to improving the neighborhood is another good reason.

(Blogging from Balch Springs, Texas)

Even MORE NoMi Downpayment Assistance!

Guest post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman

The photo above is from a press conference in Hawthorne celebrating the success of the Minneapolis Advantage program. Piggybacking on that downpayment assistance is a whole slew of neighborhood incentives. I just received word that one such program is expanding...

The following appeared on Facebook from www.livemsp.org: The Pohlad Foundation just expanded the $8,000 Home Buyer Assistance to include both the 55411 Zip Code (Willard Hay, Near North, Hawthore and Jordan) & 55412 (Cleveland, Folwell and McKinley) This is $8,000 Down Payment Assistance - 0% Deferred Loan (no monthly payment) forgiven after 7 years of continued ownership & residency. Available through Neighborhood Housing Services of Minneapolis, Inc. @ 612-521-3581.

This is such good news that Chipper the Entrepreneurial Squirrel stopped gathering nuts momentarily to tell me how happy he is.

For those who may not know, Neighborhood Housing Services administers funds for many of the neighborhood assistance programs in NoMi. The ones NHS doesn't cover are housed at the Center for Energy and Environment (including Hawthorne's downpayment assistance and rehab assistance programs).

So we've got historically low home prices and interest rates here. The Minneapolis Advantage allows for up to $10,000 in assistance, many neighborhoods offer up to $5,000, the Pohlad Family Foundation is chipping in up to $8,000, and Obama's tax credits (which MIGHT expire in November) also help out with up to $8,000. That's as much as $31,000. What are you waiting for? Check out NoMi today!

416 30th Ave. N. Goes Down...3016 6th St. N. Faces Backhoe Of Doom...

Photos By John Hoff

Back from my road trip "east bound and down" to Kentucky, loaded with cargo and tales from the road, it was no surprise to me that my NoMi neighborhood didn't remain stagnant while I was away but kept changing while my back was turned.

Two of the most notable changes: 416 30th Ave. N. has become a vacant lot. This is the house which once stole my electricity when I owned 3016 6th St. N. As for 3016, which I sold to the City of Minneapolis to assist in the development of the Eco Village cluster project...

Now there is a backhoe parked in the front yard of 3016 6th St. N. and the demolition of the house can be measured in days at the most, but possibly mere hours and minutes. Both these properties are located in the Eco Village cluster project, which was once the most crime-ridden part of the Hawthorne Neighborhood. Now crime there has dropped to virtually nothing and numerous crappy properties have been demolished...a pattern replicated throughout North Minneapolis, a rapidly-revitalizing area recently named the city's hottest "gayborhood" by Lavender Magazine.

The photos above show 3016 6th St. N. awaiting demolition, and 416 30th Ave. N. as a field of gently-laid straw, ah.

From "Blighted" To "Rapidly Revitalizing," NoMi Turns The Corner!

Photo By John Hoff

In the relatively short span of time since I started this blog, so much has changed in NoMi that it makes my head spin. And sometimes the transformation of my neighborhood forces small changes on this blog. Change is good!

And here comes another change...

My blog announces its journalistic activist mission on the "banner" at the top, with words like "Being the amazing, true-to-life adventures, etc."

Part of those words mention my son, now age 12. Twice now, I have changed the age of my son since he was 10 when I started the blog. But I have never changed the part about his dream of studying math and robotics at MIT for one simple reason: he never lets go of that idea. My son is far more focused than I was at his age. And, I might add, much better looking.

But enough about my son. The words in my banner also made reference to the "North Side" of Minneapolis and to this neighborhood being "arguably blighted."

Well, somewhere we turned the corner and reached a tipping point, the kind of rapid movement toward positive change some residents have struggled to achieve for DECADES, and god bless them.

Maybe that turning point came when Lavender Magazine announced it will be naming NoMi the hot "gayborhood" of Minneapolis. Maybe it was all the hard police work and the resulting rapid drop in crime. It might have something to do with all the new residents with fresh energy and affordable new homes they want to protect and improve, rather like reinforcements arriving to back the tired, muddied and bloodied revitalization troops; longtime residents who have fought this wretched battle for years, their deeds often unsung.

In any case...something has changed. And I can't look at this neighborhood and call it "arguably blighted" anymore when the term "rapidly revitalizing" seems to fit better. So I'm changing the words on my banner. And I'm also adding the word NoMi, because that's what this place is called, now.

The handle I use is "Johnny Northside" but, for the record, my alias has a middle name, too, and it's "NoMi."

Lavender Magazine Will Highlight NoMi "Gayborhood" Trend..

Photos By John Hoff

Word comes via Facebook discussion that, in mid-August, Lavender Magazine will have an extensive write-up about North Minneapolis and how this rapidly-revitalizing neighborhood is becoming a "gayborhood." (A neighborhood known for having a large number of gay people; a gay neighborhood)

Lavender Magazine has already featured one great write-up about demographic changes in North Minneapolis and how NoMi is becoming increasingly attractive to gay home buyers, click here, but this coming article will apparently declare the trend to be deep and permanent.

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Twin Cities Daily Planet Picks Up Johnny Northside Dot Com...

Photo By John Hoff

Certain stories from this blog are now being picked up on the Twin Cities Daily Planet, the first of which was about how to turn your computer into a police scanner quickly and for free.

I thought I should say something about this...just so I'd have an excuse to publish another picture of my son, this time wearing what USED TO BE my "Geek Squad" t-shirt, which he has now claimed. Note NoMi sticker on the computer. 

Did I mention where those stickers can be obtained? It seems to me I did, click here.

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Where To Get Your NoMi Sticker...

Photo By John Hoff

Since I often talk about the NoMi branding effort in North Minneapolis, I'm sometimes asked where to get a NoMi sticker. Until recently, I had to admit I didn't know. Fortunately, when I made the inquiry through Facebook, Realtor and historical home preservationist Connie Nompelis (No-buhl-iss, it's Greek) came through.

If you want a NoMi sticker, just email mynewneighbor@gmail.com.

You can also make contact through http://glbtnorthsiders.blogspot.com/

Of course, if you do either of these things, you'll be told the following: send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to J. Breeggeman, 3900 Dupont Ave. Mpls, MN 55412. Say how many stickers you want, but limit 3. 

In the photo above, Brian "Thong Master" Mondl of the band "WATSON" holds up the NoMi sticker which now adorns one of the band's drums.

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Drummer Of The Band "Watson" Goes NoMi...

Photo By John Hoff

Brian Mondl of the band "Watson," also known as the "Thong Master," appreciated the recent props from this blog. Yesterday he picked up a NoMi sticker which he vowed to display on his basehead drum to promote our rapidly-revitalizing neighborhood.

Click here for a link which gives info on a July 2 appearance by Watson. 

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NoMi's "Goddess Of Glass" Makes Front Page Of STrib During Gay Pride Week...

Photos by John Hoff

Artist Connie Beckers and her partner, Tracy Allen, well-known North Minneapolis residents, were effectively the "faces of Minneapolis gay pride" today in the Star Tribune's coverage of Pride Week.

Beckers is called the "Goddess of Glass" for her amazing work with stained glass windows. She is also involved in the ad hoc NoMi group which is rebranding North Minneapolis.

In the pictures above, Connie is at North United Methodist where photos were taken for a NoMi-themed calendar. Connie is to the right, in green. "Sara" (spelling unknown) is to the left. She is Connie's "personal tattoo artist and glass apprentice."

In the bottom image, Connie shows off her Emerald City "Wizard of Oz" tattoo.

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Chilling At Home In Affordable NoMi, Fixing The Lawn Furniture...(Summer Visitation 2009)

Photo By John Hoff

Some lawn furniture came into my hands recently, rather like aircraft used to come into the hands of Great Britain under the "Lend Lease Program." Who knows how long the furniture will remain? Could be "for the duration," as they say.

It seems to me I've never actually possessed lawn furniture before, except maybe for a random metal chair or two I may have owned while residing on the bleak, desolate plains of North Dakota. (Shudder) I decided the lawn furniture needed a new paint job. But as much as I enjoy spray painting, I delegated most of the task to my son, Alex.

It's probably not the FIRST time my son has used spray paint...I think he probably used some paint while we were involved in volunteer graffiti abatement...but it was the first time he'd used spray paint so extensively. The paint went on the furniture, mostly.

But if some spray paint should happen to get on the grass, who will complain? My LANDLORD?

HA!!!! I don't HAVE a landlord. Here in "Divorced Daddyville" life is good, the living is easy, and I have lawn furniture on my very own lawn. THIS IS THE LIFE!!!

A friend of mine came to visit yesterday from North Dakota (shudder) and he brought along his Chinese stepson. When I gave the young man a root beer, he informed me he'd never tasted "root beer" before in his life. It wasn't what he expected. It didn't taste like beer at all.

This was the first social gathering which used the new lawn furniture, and it seemed like a great beginning.

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Taking A Mental Break From Urban Dystopia... (Summer Visitation 2009)

Photo By John Hoff

So maybe I let my son play any kind of video games he wants, especially the ones rated "M for Mature," precisely because he's NOT allowed to play these games at his mother's house where he spends most of his life.

I believe in moderation....which, in this case, means during summer visitation my son is allowed to exterminate zombies, kill gang members in cold blood, repeatedly jack cars, and generally create mayhem in the video world. Sometimes my son and I go through a little verbal ritual after he gets done with his gaming.

"What would happen if you did that kind of thing in the REAL world?" I ask.

He answers...

"I'd probably get killed. No replays in real life, you're just dead. That or the police would lock me up and throw away the key."

So, I figure, he's fine. He can go back to killing rival gangs, now.

But often enough video games have to stop in favor of (as I put it) "doing something real" like watching the Lowry Bridge blow up, watering newly-planted flowers, or (as pictured above) taking a break on the front porch to enjoy cookies and milk together.

"OK, Alex," I say, insistently. "Time to take a mental break from that urban dystopia s**t." (By which I mean the infamous "Saints Row Two.") 

Later, I asked him, "Alex, what does 'urban' mean?"

"Like...in the city," he answered.

"Good," I said. "What does 'dystopia' mean?"

"Is it like the opposite of utopia?" he asked.

"Yes, very good!" I told him. I reviewed the definition of "utopia" with him, then started to describe dystopia. Buildings boarded up. Graffiti. Rampant crime on the streets. Everything just falling apart.

"Kind of like the world in your video game," I explained. "That's dystopia."

So, yeah, I let him enjoy his video games, maybe even a little too much. But he can't spend FOREVER in the urban dystopia world of Saints Row Two. Sometimes my son has to hang out on my front porch in NoMi (North Minneapolis) and enjoy cookies and milk.

Ah, NoMi, where the housing is ultra-affordable for a divorced daddy, the living is easy, and every day we move closer to urban utopia.

Time To Unpack, Settle Down In NoMi, Bring Surplus Stuff To Goodwill... (Summer Visitation 2009)

Photos By John Hoff


I have boxes which have not been unpacked since January of 2000, when I left my highly-established life in Seattle to be near my baby son in (shudder) dreary, flat, desolate North Dakota. A lot of moving around happened between then and this moment, a great deal of carting possessions and much pushing at the perimeter of heaven and earth to be near my son, who now lives (quite firmly established, finally) in an affluent southern suburb of the Twin Cities. (shudder)

Finally, I am able to put down roots again. I choose to put those roots down in North Minneapolis (NoMi). The very thought of living in the stale, boring suburbs gives me the willies. That's fine for some people but...not me. I prefer North Minneapolis a.k.a. Divorced Daddyville where the living is easy and the home ownership is highly affordable.

Bit by bit, opportunities come to deal with the old boxes of possessions, which are full of memories, crammed with ghosts...

I had a box of my son's stuffed animals from his previous career as a baby, plus many toys which just kept getting added through his childhood. It was finally time to deal with the box by giving that stuff to charity. My son picked out five stuffed animals which still held some attachment. Most of the rest he couldn't even remember. No, not even the red Teletubby.

Ah, Teletubbies! How innocent that show was before Tinkie Winkie was forced out of the closet by the Reverend Jerry Falwell. At some level, we all knew...the skirt, the deep voice, the affinity for a woman's purse, his penchant for lavender. Even the name: Tinkie Winkie. But the mommies and daddies watching the show along with their children accepted Tinkie for himself and didn't really care.

But then Jerry Falwell had to butt in and everything went so, so wrong. How I loved watching Teletubbies with my little son, and reruns of Emergency.

Ah, Emergency.

For my little son, the entire show was filler except for the part when the fire alarm went off and the big red trucks came out of the station. To him, THAT was the whole point of the show.

We took the old box of toys to the Goodwill in St. Paul for two reasons: good citizenship and environmentalism. Plus, well, the sentiment contained in the toys. Who can bear to throw away their children's toys? Nobody I want to drink with, that's for sure. I prefer the thought of some other child loving those old toys to death. That's how a toy should die: hugged to rags, then accidentally left in a sand pile out in the rain.

Looking around inside Goodwill, we found the place where hundreds of stuffed animals sat waiting to be adopted by little children.

"Look," I told my son. "They'll have lots of friends."

He's 12 years old, so this comment made him groan and roll his eyes, kind of like when I tell baby stories about him.

But I still felt the need to say that.

The Ice Cream Man Cometh In North Minneapolis (Summer Visitation 2009)

Photos By John Hoff

Ice cream trucks do not work the streets in my son's affluent suburb. During our first few days of summer visitation in North Minneapolis, when an ice cream truck cruised past, slowly, my son watched with confusion and just a little bit of trepidation. 

Was this one of those adult predators he'd heard about in health class?

I said to my son, "Oh, it's the ice cream man! Let's get ice cream."

My son informed me that he wasn't in the mood for ice cream and, really, why would I buy something BEING SOLD OUT OF A VAN?

I blinked at my son, confused. I informed him he had been raised by suburban space aliens. THAT'S THE ICE CREAM MAN! I said. Don't you get it? THE ICE CREAM MAN!!! You're supposed to freak out and beg me for a dollar...

I bought an ice cream bar shaped like Batman's head, with two white gum balls for eyes. My son didn't want it, so I ate it, but he did pose for a picture.

A few days later, I was at Peter Teachout's house--chair of the Hawthorne Neighborhood--doing nine hours of pulling out staples from an old stairwell. My son came running up to me.

"THE ICE CREAM MAN IS OUTSIDE!!!!" he said, and he wanted a Push-Up bar, immediately.

Thank god, I thought. My son is normal, after all.

Where Does North Minneapolis Begin? (Summer Visitation 2009)

Photos By John Hoff

When I picked up my son on Friday for extended summer visitation, we went to Pizza Luce in the Warehouse District. The food there was both good and affordable. The place seemed very popular with bike messengers. One of the messengers was wearing a pair of dress pants, hacked off with a scissor just above the knees to make a pair of shorts. Bike messengers are so cool, I thought.

I avoided directing my impressionable son's attention toward the bike messenger with the hacked off pants. It looks like a fun and addicting lifestyle, but will you become well-to-do like that? I don't think so.

While my son was eating his hot fudge sundae, I noticed the address for Pizza Luce had the word "North" in it. I sat there eating a salad (of course) and thought, "My son and I are in the Warehouse District. We are ALREADY in North Minneapolis. Where does North Minneapolis actually BEGIN?"

A friend tells me Hennepin Avenue is "Avenue Zero." Beyond that is First Avenue North. From downtown, this is where NoMi begins, geographically. However, when people say "North Minneapolis" usually they mean...


...something a lot different than north of Hennepin Avenue. One resident of North Minneapolis tells me Glenwood Avenue is the first place where people think "I have crossed into North Minneapolis." But when the media do their little media framing thing, virtually "marketing" North Minneapolis as an urban dystopia theme park, they appear to be describing a rather narrowly restricted area-within-an-area.

Even that area is, however, turning around by leaps and bounds as the foreclosure crisis presents opportunities to completely remake our neighborhood. NoMi is a wonderful, exciting, rapidly-changing place...and my son will be right in the middle of it for the next five weeks.

Living The Good Life In NoMi, Creating The Trend...

Photos By John Hoff

Here's a couple pictures I snapped in the home of Collier White, the guy who came up with "Huggable North" as a branding idea. Collier asserts NoMi is going to be a hot trend over the next couple years, but right now there are people who are creating the trend for others to follow.

Well, speaking of trends...I sure love what Collier has done with his spectacular antique buffet. Buffets like this can be found in MOST of the fairly good-sized houses of North Minneapolis. And, as I've noticed in the past few months, "revitalizers" tend to drink high-quality booze instead of cheap crap like "Steel Reserve."

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NoMi, Land Of A Thousand Catalpa Trees...

Photo By John Hoff

Catalpa trees have spectacular, almost orchid-like flowers in the spring. They have long, inedible, bean-like pods when make them quite a messy tree, but I would assert the flowers are so incredible that it's worth putting up with the mess.

Catalpa trees are everywhere in North Minneapolis, and it kind of makes me wonder how THAT happened. They are an unusual tree and, as far as I can tell, they don't just spring up on their own but require a deliberate effort to plant. So how did NoMi come to have so many large, mature catalpa trees? Was there a "Johnny Catalpa" who (like Johnny Appleseed) went around planting catalwa seedlings, and learning the culture of the Native Americans?

When there is some kind of odd pattern of trees, I always want to know the how and the why. For example, I'm still trying to figure out why Dinkytown near the U of M has so many gingko trees. I wrote an opinion column about it, once, but I didn't really manage to solve THAT mystery.

http://www.mndaily.com/2009/02/22/battle-dinkytown-lives

This photo of a catalpa tree was taken in the yard of Collier White, during his "Huggable North Minneapolis" event.

(Do not click "Read More")

A Little Pre-Tour NoMi Home Tour...

Photos By John Hoff

A couple of times I've asked Hawthorne resident Mike Klick when I will have a chance to see the house he shares with his boyfriend, Brian Cheese. Klick tells me he prefers to wait until the garden is in its full glory, and THEN he will see about giving me a tour for blogging purposes. Maybe. 

However, a couple days ago I arrived at the Cheese/Klick residence along with Hawthorne Housing Director Jeff Skrenes, and the two Hmong organizers. (Subject of a previous post) I managed to get a little "pre-tour home tour" and snap a few photos. I'm told Cheese and Klick redecorated the interior quite a bit, picking out colors they found more pleasing.

The energy and activism of this couple is at the heart of ongoing revitalization in their particular corner of Hawthorne. I hope to celebrate their lovely house in a more extensive future post and, well, everybody knows Johnny Northside is always up for a good dinner.

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