Neighborhoodr : Minneapolis, Minnesota

tcdailyplanet:

According to a 2011 Nielsen consumers report, the U.S. Black population’s collective buying power is projected to be $1.1 trillion by 2015. Many community members, hearing that at least $4 billion is spent annually just by Black Minnesotans, are wondering aloud why economic inequalities in the Black community persist. The answer, some say, is in how and where Blacks are spending that money.
The report also found that Black households make more shopping trips annually than any other group — they spend more on basic food ingredients and beverages, fragrance and personal health, and beauty products.
Despite making more shopping trips overall, Blacks shop at grocery stores, super centers and warehouse stores less than other groups. As a result, Blacks frequent dollar stores, convenience stores, gas stations and drug stores more than non-Blacks. Where’s all that money going?
“This money goes one way — out of our pockets into someone else’s pocket,” says local resident Anthony Newby.
“How can we [as Blacks] use that money to contribute to savings, to investment — to create our own banks?” asks Tasha Byers, a member of the African American Leadership Forum.
Shawn V.T. Pearce of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an interfaith organization, points out that with such buying power, “I really encourage people to ‘Think Black, Shop Black.’”
St. Thomas Law Professor Nekima Levy-Pounds, who spoke at the African American Economic Solutions Summit at North High School in March, believes that a local “Buy Black” movement “should have started yesterday.”
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According to a 2011 Nielsen consumers report, the U.S. Black population’s collective buying power is projected to be $1.1 trillion by 2015. Many community members, hearing that at least $4 billion is spent annually just by Black Minnesotans, are wondering aloud why economic inequalities in the Black community persist. The answer, some say, is in how and where Blacks are spending that money.

The report also found that Black households make more shopping trips annually than any other group — they spend more on basic food ingredients and beverages, fragrance and personal health, and beauty products.

Despite making more shopping trips overall, Blacks shop at grocery stores, super centers and warehouse stores less than other groups. As a result, Blacks frequent dollar stores, convenience stores, gas stations and drug stores more than non-Blacks. Where’s all that money going?

“This money goes one way — out of our pockets into someone else’s pocket,” says local resident Anthony Newby.

“How can we [as Blacks] use that money to contribute to savings, to investment — to create our own banks?” asks Tasha Byers, a member of the African American Leadership Forum.

Shawn V.T. Pearce of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an interfaith organization, points out that with such buying power, “I really encourage people to ‘Think Black, Shop Black.’”

St. Thomas Law Professor Nekima Levy-Pounds, who spoke at the African American Economic Solutions Summit at North High School in March, believes that a local “Buy Black” movement “should have started yesterday.”

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12PM, May 16 2012

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2 notes

tcdailyplanet:

The Trylon Microcinema’s “Defenders” series is like the grab-bag of filmgoing: you pay first, then see what you got. That’s part of the fun, and you know you’re likely to fare better than I did one summer when I bought a grab-bag at a local store and ended up with a sack of old jelly beans, because what you do know in this series is who’s picking the movie. And who better to select a film for your viewing pleasure than me? You must trust my opinion, or else you wouldn’t be reading this…right?

On May 16 at the Trylon, I’ll presenting a film that I’ve been sworn not to disclose the title of, but series presenter Jim Brunzell (who’s also the Daily Planet’s film columnist) has said this much on the event’s Facebook invite: it’s a movie that even he has never seen, but “it is a considered a better film now then it was when it was released.” After the screening, I’ll stand up to “defend” my pick. If you need additional enticement, bear in mind that the series is a charitable fundrasiser, with half the ticket proceeds going to support the Daily Planet’s nonprofit publisher the Twin Cities Media Alliance.

- Jay Gabler

thomaslowrysghost:

“Longfellow Gardens, Minneapolis. Photograph Collection, Postcard ca. 1905”

A Minneapolis businessman and showman named Robert “Fish” Jones first bought a property near the edge of downtown Minneapolis in 1886.^[2] He converted the 3-acre (12,000 m²) property into a zoo for the animals which he had collected since his arrival in Minneapolis in 1876.^[3] These included lions, jaguars, leopards, bears, cattle and a camel.^[3] The amount of animals he kept, however, soon grew and Jones was forced to move from the property on Hennepin Avenue to an area in south Minneapolis.^[2] Then, in 1906, he opened the zoo to the public. He also built a house styled after the home of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, where he lived for the rest of his life.

In 1908, in a ceremony presided over by Minneota Representative Frank Nye, Jones and a group of others were honored by a letter from Alice M. Longfellow, the daughter of the poet, noting her wish to some day come and visit the gardens.^[1] She never came, however.

(Image via MHS Visual Resources Database. Text via Wikipedia)

mprnews:

If you’re homeless and living in Minneapolis, you probably spend a lot of time traveling from one social services agency to another. There’s the building where you apply for public housing, the clinic where you get your blood pressure checked, the welfare office where you drop off paperwork, the workforce center where you get help with a resume.

Navigating between all of those services can be exhausting, but twice a year, there’s another option — Project Homeless Connect.

The event opens today at 10:30 a.m. at the Minneapolis Convention Center. More than a thousand volunteers will be on hand to provide everything from dental exams to haircuts.

Organizers expect to serve nearly 2,000 people in less than six hours.

The last Project Homeless Connect event at the Minneapolis Convention Center attracted nearly 1,800 guests and more than 1,000 volunteers.

Read more from reporter Madeleine Baran.

(Photo courtesy of Project Homeless Connect.)

tcdailyplanet:

I know it’s petty, but as an editor, sometimes the name of an event is so obnoxious that you feel like you can hardly write about it and still take yourself seriously. Such has been the case with the Soap Factory’s exhibit named—sigh—FLO(we){u}R, an installation in which artists Amber Ginsberg and Joseph Madrigal recreate a WWI bomb factory to build seed bombs. (Sometimes a concept is just too hippie even for the Daily Planet.) But Allison Morse snared me with the TalkingImageConnection (speaking of awkward names, Pat, can I buy a space?) reading scheduled for May 12 with local luminaries including irreverent Fringe favorites May Lee-Yang and Brian Beatty as well as the happily ubiquitous Andy Sturdevant. Dig out those cut-offs and paisley and groove on down to Marcy-Holmes for this free event.

- Jay Gabler

Arts Orbit: WEDNESDAY PICK | Art 4 Shelter: Make a date with a mystery artist

artsorbit:

Anyone who’s been to the Soap Factory’s $99 sale knows the concept: you buy the art before you learn who the artist is (though you might be able to make a pretty good guess), and proceeds go to a good cause. The Soap Factory’s sale benefits the nonprofit gallery itself; the Art 4 Shelter…