Plans for a new apartment complex in Dinkytown have been moving quickly, but some businesses say the proposed building will disrupt the area’s urban environment.
Opus Group plans to build a 140-unit apartment complex where House of Hanson, Book House, Duffy’s Dinkytown Pizza and Casablanca Hair Design currently operate. But the Minneapolis City Council needs to rezone the area before Opus can begin construction.
Blurb:
Minneapolis City Council needs to approve a rezoning for a new apartment complex on 14th and 5th avenues southeast.
An undergraduate tuition freeze and the DREAM Act may soon become realities at the University of Minnesota.
The state Senate and House both passed the higher education omnibus bill on Friday, which allocated $42.6 million to the University for the tuition freeze and funding to give undocumented students in-state benefits.
Blurb:
The House and Senate both voted to fund a University of Minnesota tuition freeze and the DREAM Act.
Come August 1, same-sex couples will be able to get legally married in Minnesota.
Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill Tuesday to make Minnesota the 12th state to legalize same-sex marriages.
The bill legalizes civil marriages between two persons and provides exemptions based on religious association.
After hours of debate in both the House and Senate, the bill got to Dayton, who signed it in front of a packed crowd on the Capitol steps in the sweltering Tuesday evening heat.
Blurb:
Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill Tuesday that will allow same-sex couples to get married in Minnesota starting Aug. 1.
The state House of Representatives will vote Thursday whether to recognize same-sex marriages in Minnesota.
The DFL-controlled Legislature has heard arguments from both sides for months, and as the vote nears, supporters and opponents are still trying to influence undecided legislators.
If passed, the Senate will vote Monday. Gov. Mark Dayton has said he would sign the bill, making Minnesota the 12th state to legalize same-sex marriages.
Blurb:
Gov. Mark Dayton has said he would sign the bill if it gets to his desk.
Frank Vescio has been working at his family-owned restaurant for more than 40 years. His father, grandmother, son, mother and daughter have all worked there at some point, too.
He said he’d like to keep Vescio’s Italian Restaurant that way — that’s why whenever a developer approaches him interested in purchasing his property, he always declines.
“I like doing what I do,” he said. “We’ve had this business since 1956.”
Blurb:
202 apartments could be added to Dinkytown next year.
The Beez Kneez, owned by Kristy Allen and Erin Rupp, deliver honey to people's doors by bicycle, set up community beehives around Minneapolis and St. Paul, and teach the public about bees.
Jasmine Hardin is living away from home for the first time this year, and while she enjoys living closer to school, making rent can be difficult.
Hardin, a senior at the University of Minnesota, shares an apartment with two others and pays $600 per month, which she said is expensive for a full-time student.
“For $600 each, they are making a lot of money,” she said. “I’m struggling tremendously.”
Blurb:
Funding for renters’ credit has decreased since 2009.
The Gophers football team added a quality opponent to its 2014 and 2015 schedules Tuesday, nearly seven months after inciting public scrutiny for backing out of a home-and-home series with North Carolina.
Athletics director Norwood Teague announced Tuesday that the Gophers will play a home-and-home series with Texas Christian University in 2014 and 2015.
“It was time to add a stronger team into the mix for ’14 and ’15,” Teague said.
The addition effectively recoups the $800,000 the Gophers are paying to cancel their North Carolina series in 2013 and 2014. Teague said TCU will pay Minnesota $500,000 for the 2014 game in Texas, but Minnesota won’t have to pay TCU anything to host the Horned Frogs in 2015.
The 2015 TCU game will replace a home game against South Dakota State University, a Football Championship Subdivision school.
The Gophers would have had to pay SDSU $400,000 to play that game. The fee for the Gophers to cancel the game — also $400,000 — was waived because TCU and South Dakota State agreed to play in 2015.
The Gophers canceled the North Carolina series in October, prompting backlash from fans and media. Critics of the decision questioned the strength of the Gophers’ nonconference schedule, which has featured an FCS opponent four years in a row.
TCU went 7-6 last season, its first in the Big 12 Conference, after years of dominating inferior opponents in the Mountain West Conference. The Horned Frogs lost just 10 games from 2007-11 and competed in two Bowl Championship Series bowl games.
Gophers head coach Jerry Kill had previously expressed concern about playing a nonconference BCS opponent early in the team’s rebuilding process. Kill, entering his third season at Minnesota, had advocated for removing North Carolina from the schedule.
Teague said Kill was “on board” with Tuesday’s move.
“On board means he’s with us and ready to go and knows we’re playing the game and is ready to move forward,” Teague said.
The Gophers won’t play a nonconference BCS opponent in 2013. Before Tuesday, the Gophers were the only Big Ten team not to have a BCS opponent on their nonconference schedule for 2014 or 2015.
The 2014 game will fill an empty date on Minnesota’s schedule.
Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota is looking to increase number of male mentors.
Tommy Winter and Julio bonded over sports when they met in February.
The University of Minnesota junior meets the seventh-grader after school twice a week to participate in group activities with other youth as part of the Athletes Committed to Educating Students mentoring program.
Winter said he and Julio have a great relationship, but new numbers show their matchup is a bit of a commodity in the mentoring world.
The Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota found a significant gender gap in mentoring in the state.
Blurb:
Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota is looking to increase number of male mentors.
Entering Dinkytown’s the Book House is like entering a maze.
Follow the bend of ceiling-high bookshelves and there’s a corner table with a book on hair in African art and another one with 3-D landscapes of Israel.
In the next winding stretch of literature, plastic lawn chairs are waiting to be used, and books on everything from botany to Marxism are waiting to be read.
Soon, the Book House and its estimated 60,000 volumes will be packed up and moved to a new home in Prospect Park.
Blurb:
The Book House is in the process of signing a lease at a new location in Prospect Park.
Read "A history of evolving" by Marion Renault to understand some of the ways Dinkytown has changed over the decades. This map is a work in progress to allow the interactive exploration of Dinkytown past and present. Points that currently have historical data or media are marked in gray.
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