@phmelody.bsky.social
Your friendly neighbor and community reporter. Currently at North News, KRSM, and Southwest Voices. I also cosplay as a weather reporter. CONTACT: melody.hoffmann@gmail.com and on Signal @phmelody.143 she/her, Minneapolis, Midwest
$3 not too high, do not add on for free.
I've always been curious how the voicemail thing works on Wait Wait.
Oh my lordy
50.1 billion in 5 days? Did I read that?
CCing @jasoncomix.bsky.social
Ope!
Good thing the newsletter comes out Mondays and Thursdays.
what time on Thursday? my newsletter would like to know.
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My response isn't answering your question/framing. I know why. Getting people to talk about it/admit to it on record is a challenge which will take some time. I appreciate your comment and agree it is a very important question to keep asking. Thank you.
Absolutely. The problem people are reporting is that when they ask for help, no help is showing up. So if people want resources for people, there is a lack of response. I know that conversation can lead down a slippery slope to crime prevention vs. resources for people. But I hear you.
OPE
The Midtown Greenway will be closed with a detour starting on March 11 for the removal of the 10th Ave Bridge deck. The detour goes from Park Ave, along 28th St, and to the Cepro Site park via 10th Ave. Thankfully a short detour for this bridge!
www.minneapolismn.gov/governm...
He was just mentioning it because City Council gave $1 million to that County fund
Also, I am not a Whiting apologist, I am just sharing that he does this/what he is saying. Reporting as a reporter.
Thank you for adding more information.
A story in the works since late November 2025. That's how long this problem has persisted.
Since his term started, Whiting has been posting "scorecards" online, which are detailed reports on how and why he votes during every City Council meeting. Regardless of whether you agree with him, he gives a lot of background info on what is going on and where he stands.
Another one from Whiting: "Council Members repeatedly pass through actions on narrow vote margins, blithely hoping the Mayor signs on to their initiatives without doing due diligence in
advance, the continued outcome will only bring about the absence of results and harm those that deserve action."
Minneapolis Council Member Jamison Whiting went deep on why he abstained from voting on the pre-eviction ordinance last week. It is worth a read. There are some facts in there to know, such as: "County program currently requires a tenant to have
an active eviction court filing" to get aid.
Ok fine the sun is not setting until 7:11 p.m. but I am grumpy about losing my 6:36 a.m. sunrise for a 7:36 a.m. one. We still get 11 hours and 35 minutes of daylight out of the deal.
Clarify: BCR response times have been slow, no reports of them being short staffed
If MPD wasn't intervening in ICE calls, how did they rack up all this overtime? In my reporting on Uptown, there has been very little/slow response times due to MPD being short staffed (including BCR). Even the chief said MPD's presence heightens the energy re: ICE. So where are they?
Keep the mitten
Data published by Star Tribune this week through People Over Papers:
Current state of affairs in Southwest Minneapolis: students are too scared to wait at bus stops and parents need help getting their kids to school. (This reflects crowdsourced data that show many ICE observations at bus stops)
A mayor in a snowstorm shoveling people out. Note: no PR cameras following.
There were clues along way (e.g. school shootings), but I never imagined so many Decemberists war songs would be relatable.
What a concept.
I can't get over this number: in 2007, there were 360,000 newspaper jobs. Now, there are 80,000. "My local paper sucked!" Sure. What sucks even more? The void. "I get all my news from the Guardian!" No, the Guardian doesn't report on your town council, your school board, local cops.