What Goes Around Comes Around in the Snowmageddon

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman, final image from flickr.com.

Earlier in the day, I wound up helping several folks get their cars out of the snowbank, and even though I think "Pay it Forward" is a terrible, terrible movie (nice IDEA, poorly executed), those karmic points came in handy later on.  My car was parked on the even side of the street, meaning at 8 a.m. tomorrow it would be tagged or towed.  But merely hopping in and driving it around the block wasn't really an option.  So...

Step 1:  shovel out enough room to drive off.

Step 2:  shovel away enough room across the street from step 1 so I could do a 3-point turn.

Step 3:  shovel enough of a space on the odd side of the street where I could park.

But even that wasn't enough, because after all that work, it turns out my car wouldn't start.  I called the roadside assistance on my cell phone, as they offer free towing, jumpstarts, and tire changing.  But they told me that due to the weather and the high demand for such services, there was a 12-hour delay for anyone who was not actually stranded out in the cold.  If I couldn't find someone to help me out, my only other option would be to wake up at 8 a.m. and plead my case with the tow truck drivers as they hauled my car off to the impound lot.  And tow truck drivers and traffic control officers aren't generally noted for their sympathy.

So, I went to my neighbors and asked if they could try giving my car a jump.  So much snow had gotten under the hood of my car, it looked more or less like this:

Except it was harder to tell there was an engine under there somewhere.

So we had to repeat steps 1 through 3 for HIS vehicle so that he could get out and close enough to jumpstart my car.  Thankfully, it worked out and I'll avoid the $300+ towing/impound fee.  Now everyone else, go and do what you can to help your neighbors too.

Stay Inside and Avoid the Horsemen of the Snowpocalypse

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman

"I watched as the Hawkman opened the first of the seven storm doors.  Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, 'Brrrr!'  I looked and there before me was a white Chevrolet Suburban!  Its rider held a plow, and was given a shovel.  And he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest."

Look, people, it really is that bad out there.  Don't drive, except to move your car to the correct side of the street for our snow emergency so that you don't get towed.  I woke up this morning and the snow at my front door was already up to my knees.  Instead of being so foolish as to think my car was going anywhere, I walked over to the Holiday gas station a few blocks away to pick up the day's Strib.

On my way back, I saw a car stuck in the snow at 26th and 4th, went to get my shovel, and helped shovel and push them out.  Then, as I was walking back to my place, I saw another vehicle stuck at 26th and Washington, across the freeway.  And THEN, once those folks got a Hawkman push, there was a THIRD car stuck at the alley entrance on 26th between 3rd and 4th.  Seriously folks, who even TRIES to drive in an unplowed alley in this weather?

An hour and a half later, my neighborly venture was complete, and my eyebrows were gathering icicles.  If you must go outside today, spend that time walking around and looking for people who need help getting out of a snowbank.  Otherwise, weather like this is perfect for at least one thing:  spending time with your loved ones, watching The Empire Strikes Back.

Former Pamiko Property Open to Trespass

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.  Second-to-last image from the Johnny Northside blog.  Final image from www.cracked.com.

One of the nice parts about fresh snow is that when we have vacant properties on a block, it's far easier to tell when somebody's been snooping around.  On my way home for lunch today, I happened to drive past 621 26th Ave N, a property I know well.  Tracks in the snow clearly indicated somebody had been scoping the property out, so I followed suit.  I went around to the back and I found...

Buying Into NoMi - One Month In

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.  Editorial note:  the purchases in this post were made between 10/22/10 and 11/22/10.

I'd been meaning to give more frequent updates on my experiment of intentionally spending money within or related to north Minneapolis.  But some rather detailed posts, such as saving North High and the property tax lawsuit got on the front burner.  Plus, I've found it surprisingly difficult to write about two of the most personal ways that I relate to my community - financially and spiritually.  (Interestingly enough, the spiritual aspect seems harder to articulate and I'm not satisfied at all with that post.  I expect it to become easier as time goes on.)

So how am I doing in my quest to spend as much of my discretionary income as possible in NoMi?  Well, I broke down the first month's expenses and found that...

Northside Arts Collective to Close

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, image from the NAC homepage.

The most recent newsletter for the Northside Arts Collective announces that it will begin the process of legally dissolving the organization.  The full letter from the board chair can be found here.  It's a sad day for the arts in NoMi.

New NXNS Twitter Capabilities!

Post and photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

I've been quite pleased with my new phone as of late.  Admittedly, I didn't buy it in NoMi, but we'll get to why that was okay in an upcoming post.  One of the things my old phone just didn't do well was upload photos onto Twitter - twitpics is what I think the kids are calling that.  So at a meeting earlier in the evening, I tried that function on this phone and it worked quite well.  Just click on the "twitpic" link in the Twitter feed and you'll see the image I uploaded  (although not rotated the way it needed to be; still working out all the kinks).  But if there is a demolition or something similarly noteworthy, I plan on using this function to get images distributed as quickly as possible. 

A NoMi Church Conversation

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, photo from the Salem ELCA website.

Back in college, I read a book by Dr. John Perkins called "Rebuilding Communities, Doing it Together and Doing it Right," which made me want to get into community organizing work.  Dr. Perkins wrote about transforming communities not just as an organizer from the outside, but by relocating into that community.  Even before graduation, I had a chance to put his ideas to the test as a founding member of the Project Neighborhood program, which has expanded and is still going strong in Grand Rapids, MI today.

Since beginning my work in Hawthorne, I have moved here and sought out a place of worship at River of Life Lutheran Church on 22nd and Fremont.  And while I was excited to see what ROL has had to offer the community (the Loaves and Fishes program, a new rainwater garden, and a small gym are some examples), I often felt like "the church" as a larger body was not sufficiently engaged with north Minneapolis.  Or if the church was so engaged, then at least I wasn't plugged into that in the way I wanted.

So when my pastor sent out an email inviting me to a "NoMi Churches Conversation" with several other denominations, I knew I had to go.  Plus, she used "NoMi" without me even having to prompt her.  I'm not going to lie; that scored points with me BIG TIME.  This was certainly not the first time that multiple denominations came together to talk about our collective place in the community, and what God wants us to do about it, but it was my first such engagement in NoMi.   We met at Salem Lutheran and Pastor Dave Wangaard facilitated.  The notes that Pastor Lee Ann Pomrenke took are after the jump...