Bike Lanes on the Lowry Bridge

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, images from the Lowry Avenue Bridge website.

One of the bright spots (of which there are many) on the redesigned Lowry Avenue is the ample space provided for bike lanes.  Last week some cyclists and I had a very wonkish discussion about how those lanes would be incorporated into the shiny new Lowry Bridge.  If you'll notice from the design specs above, there don't seem to be any marked bike lanes.  If the bridge is built exactly like this, I see three possible prospects, all of them unappealing in their own right:  bicyclists will have to share the road with high-speed traffic, bikers will share the walkways with pedestrian traffic, or bikers will be required to get off of their bikes and walk with pedestrians if they're not willing to brave traffic conditions.

In an email exchange with some cycling activists and staff from County Commissioner Mark Stenglein's office, it's unclear how bicycling will be supported on the bridge.  A biker claims there will be no marked lanes while a staffer says there will be two 11-foot lanes of traffic and two 4-foot marked bike lanes in each direction.  For the record, the Minneapolis Bicycle Master Plan, passed in 2001, calls for the entirety of Lowry Avenue to have bike lanes.  Readers of both this blog and the Irving Inquisition will know how much I want to see the Lowry Bridge adhere to master plans.

With the formal public comment period over and done, and construction underway, changing the actual width of the bridge is out of the question.  But if the lane configuration needs to be tweaked, perhaps that can be done.  For instance, I'm told that...

Broadway Pizza Doesn't Deliver on Broadway

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

This weekend at a social gathering at a friend's place just off of Broadway Avenue, folks were getting pretty hungry.  My salsa had already been devoured, and that just wasn't cutting it.  So we pulled out a phone book (sorry, Ed Kohler) and called a few local places.  We settled on Broadway Pizza, but encountered a significant barrier.  They don't deliver on Broadway.  The address on the box above, right under the part that says "delivery," is only two miles away from where we were, and the Robbinsdale location is right on County Rd. 81.  Two miles in the other direction is the Broadway Pizza on the river in Hawthorne.

Look, I get it.  It's not easy to convince every business to do deliveries in NoMi.  But Olympic Cafe delivers, and so do other places in our neighborhood.  Broadway Pizza proudly states that they got their start in north Minneapolis.  Their website goes on to say that when they had to move because of I-94 construction, they stayed in the community.  I'm thrilled about that, and this neighborhood institution should be applauded for that commitment.  Back before Donny Dirk's or Good Sports opened up, Broadway Pizza was the only sit-down restaurant in our neighborhood.  John Hoff, other neighborhood revitalizers, and I would frequently hold informal "policy booth" sessions there to discuss neighborhood concerns.

But that's precisely why in my opinion the bar is set higher for Broadway Pizza.  They have at least a dozen metro area locations, and they got their start right here in NoMi.  Boasting of a community connection should cut both ways, and I think we should see more on their end.  Furthermore, their restaurant on the Mississippi River has one of the best views of downtown Minneapolis - a view so amazing that nearby residents pay $350,000 for condominiums with the same view.  Yet Broadway doesn't even have a patio or outdoor dining area.

Broadway Pizza ought to know that neighborhood residents are dissatisfied with this lack of service.  So I'm asking readers, the next time you want pizza or other food delivered, or this summer before enjoying what will certainly be a breathtaking view of downtown at Psycho Suzi's, take two minutes and call Broadway Pizza (612-529-4475) first.  Let them know that your dollars are being spent elsewhere because of what they aren't offering for NoMi.

The Hawkman's Famous Lychee Mint Salsa

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

I've brought my lychee mint salsa to a variety of social events in NoMi, from fundraisers for Don Samuels to art parties for Ken Farkash, and often just regular evenings where friends meet up.  Every time I bring this dish over, I leave with an empty container.  Friends have bugged me incessantly for the recipe - which I don't really have handy because I am not that structured of a chef.  The base recipe was something I found in my favorite cookbook, "Miami Spice," and I've added to it.

The key to lychee mint salsa is the combination of the spicy and the sweet.  Hot peppers slam into the taste buds and almost knock you off of your feet.  But before the heat builds up too much, the coolness of the mint and the sweetness of the lychee fruit kick in.  That's got to trigger some serious endorphins in the brain because almost nobody can stop eating this stuff.  It's like there's a party in your mouth and everyone's invited.  Instead of bottling this and selling it, I'm providing the recipe here.  Bear in mind though, that I have a higher tolerance for hot and spicy foods than most people do.  The Hawkman's lychee mint salsa recipe contains...

Recycling Problems

Property across alley from me

A Bashir Moghul property around the corner.

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman

My first post of any substance on NXNS revolved around John Hoff finally convincing me to begin recycling, and since then I've been watching a few Hawthorne dynamics out of the corner of my eye.  One issue that I keep on seeing is nearby landlord-owned multi-family housing with the maximum number of recycling bins out back.  This is great in theory, except that often the bins are never used.  I can tell you with a relative degree of certainty that the bins pictured above have never moved from their respective spots.  That got me wondering how many other landlords were doing the same thing.  I have made a few passes through the alleys near my place and found properties owned by Robert Serr that have the same thing going on.

Just so everyone is aware, garbage isn't even collected from where these bins are placed.  There is no alley at the property and bins are out front.

Wot's this then gents?  More bins stored nowhere near the garbage/recycling pickup!

Once is an annoyance, twice is a coincidence, and three (technically four) times on three consecutive blocks starts to look like a pattern to me.  Which begs a series of questions...

Rachel's Club 46

Post and photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman

A fellow Hawthornite wanted to touch base with me this week and discuss neighborhood issues over a burger and beverages somewhere around town.  I wanted to try out a place I'd never patronized before, so we settled on Rachel's on 46th and Lyndale.  Like Good Sports or Donny Dirk's, Rachel's operated under different names and different ownership and was a problem spot for the neighborhood.  In talking to a few patrons, the buzz is that although there are occasional issues that may rise up with any pub, the new owners are doing a pretty good job.

The first thing I noticed when I walked in was that the bartender area is HUGE.  We're talking Death Star "Look at the size of that thing" big.  The bar itself would be rather spacious if the center island were cut in half.  Instead, the bar extends almost to the edges of the entire dining area, leaving little room for pool tables and sit-down space.  As I was pointing this out to my friend, I looked over at the video games and dart board.  "They're too crammed together.  Who can play a decent game of darts when anyone at the video games is going to be in their way?"  Seconds later, a few diners went over and started playing one of the arcade games, and there was literally no room for darts at that point.

If the bartender center island were cut in half, the place could give the game area a little more room, and maybe even add a pool table.  More on the pool table later; my food had arrived...

And the Minnwest v. Koenig Verdict IS...

Post and stock photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

The Minnwest v. Paul Koenig, Aaron & Mary Durkop, Komo Group LLC, and Kaizen Property Solutions LLC is over.  Judge Susan Burke granted the Minnwest Bank request for summary judgment, and Minnwest is now the owner of the six properties at issue in this case.  There was a court hearing scheduled for Monday March 21, 2011, but that apparently has been canceled.  I showed the final documents to a real estate attorney, who confirmed they contain the final ruling, unless of course Koenig or any other defendant wishes to appeal.

In the last post regarding this trial, I mentioned that I was missing some previous documents, such as Paul Koenig's affidavit and the Defendants' Memorandum in opposition to summary judgment.  The defendants do make some interesting, although ultimately fruitless, claims.  Such as...

Don Allen, ibnn.org, and the Way Back Machine

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, image is a screen shot from searching ibnn.org posts on the Way Back Machine website, and has been edited only to crop off unrelated images/data.

For people following the Jerry Moore v. John Hoff court case, one of the dramatic twists was that Don Allen was once a co-defendant with Hoff, and then he later settled with Moore and took the stand against his former collaborator.  I was curious about what Don Allen had written on this topic, and I also remember repeated posts on his former blog about calling for various people to either be fired or step down from their positions.  The Way Back Machine isn't comprehensive, so not much from those posts are available.  But on the new site Allen has made similar attempts at various people within the Minneapolis Civil Rights department.

Reconciling these two opposing views (calls for people to be fired vs. celebrating the current Moore/Hoff verdict of interference with a contract; switching positions within the same trial) demonstrates an impressive capacity for doublethink.  How does Don Allen manage this?  The answer may be below, but first, the post written about Jerry Moore...