By: Kia Farhang

Marcy-Holmes officials are planning the neighborhood’s next 10 years.

The Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association is looking for a middle ground between traditional single-family homes and new student apartment complexes that have divided public opinion, focusing on what they call “gentle density.”

At a public hearing on Tuesday, residents expressed a desire to build housing for students, young families and seniors.

“They don’t want to become a monoculture of just students,” said Pierre Willette, economic and community development manager at the University of Minnesota Foundation.

Willette is part of a steering committee tasked with updating the neighborhood’s Master Plan, which Minneapolis City Council last updated a decade ago. He said Marcy-Holmes needs to keep working on being a neighborhood for everybody.

The old plan focused on keeping high-density housing on the neighborhood’s edges while maintaining a “solid core” of single-family homes on Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth streets southeast.

Willette said the recent swell of student housing has changed the neighborhood dramatically.

“The neighborhood needs to figure out how to deal with that change,” he said.

He added the University — and its students — are major stakeholders in the neighborhood’s future.

For more on what the Master Plan could change, pick up Wednesday’s Minnesota Daily. 

By: Kia Farhang

After a full day of speeches and voting, the Minneapolis DFL ended its convention Saturday night without endorsing a candidate for the city’s mayoral race.

Six candidates entered the convention hoping to secure the endorsement — and the access to DFL files and resources that come with it.

Since there was no formal endorsement, all six DFL candidates who were seeking endorsement will continue to run.

At the last count, former Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Andrew had the most votes, with Minneapolis City Council member Betsy Hodges in second.

Hodges’ supporters walked out after the fourth round of voting, so there weren’t enough delegates left at the convention to authorize a nomination.

“We came from nowhere and we stormed the city,” Andrew said after the last vote. His supporters pointed out Andrew’s share of the vote rose steadily in each successive round of balloting.

The convention didn’t use the ranked choice voting method that Minneapolis voters will encounter when they choose a mayor in November.

Candidates at the convention needed 60 percent of the votes to secure the nomination. Andrew came closest with half of the votes in the last official ballot.

Hodges peaked at 47 percent then lost steam. Her delegates walked out shortly after it seemed no one would secure the votes necessary for endorsement.

City Council member Gary Schiff, who was seen as a top contender, withdrew his name earlier in the afternoon and urged his supporters to back Hodges. Critics called it a move to block the endorsement process.

Minneapolis DFL Chair Dan McConnell said he’s seen endorsement processes get blocked before, and an endorsement is still possible.

In situations where the convention proves fruitless, a central committee consisting of about 130 members can go through the same voting process and pick a candidate on behalf of the larger organization.

“People have tried it,” McConnell said, but currently has no plans to call the committee.

The bottom three candidates — City Council member Don Samuels, former City Council President Jackie Cherryhomes and Minneapolis teacher Jim Thomas — were all cut from the ballot after the first round, when they failed to capture 10 percent of the vote from nearly 1,400 delegates.

Similar platforms

Candidates focused most of their speaking time explaining how they would combat the gap between white and non-white city residents.

Schiff called himself a "classic American success story," attributing his rise to City Council to a good education and his father's union job.

"For far too many Americans," he said, "that dream is no longer possible." Schiff said he would invest in early childhood education to dismantle the “school to prison pipeline.”

Thomas questioned the long-term viability of the city’s public school system and said it needed more funding to stay competitive.

Hodges stressed the importance of not moving "back to the 90s," when she said city officials attracted developers with subsidies.

She said she wants to expand the city's transit system, which would attract more people to Minneapolis and increase the city's tax base.

George Washington University sophomore and DFL intern Hannah Flom said Hodges’ support for transit is what makes her the best candidate.

Flom, a Minnesota native, said going to school in Washington, D.C. made her realize how much Minneapolis could improve.

"Minneapolis is a big city,” she said, “but we don't always have the best way of getting around."

Andrew touted his role in implementing the light rail system, adding he founded the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group while he was a University of Minnesota student in the early 1970s.

"None of these things were done by me alone," he said.

His business experience taught Andrew how to bring competing interests and ideas together, he said, which would be essential to running a city.

Cherryhomes said she would restore basic city services like the police and fire departments.

Samuels, who immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica, said he made a point not to move out of North Minneapolis.

"If you want to truly solve a problem," he said, "You have to put yourself right in the middle of it."

Students at the convention said they got involved in city affairs because it’s easier to reach politicians on a local level.

Political science senior Heather Fithian said she became an intern for Schiff because of his pledge to rewrite the city code and working in local politics is rewarding.

"I can see the impacts," she said. 

By: Elizabeth Ryan

The University of Minnesota opened a new Cancer and Cardiovascular Research Building on Friday, after over two years of construction.

Located in the Biomedical Discovery District, the 120,000-square-foot building houses the Lillehei Heart Institute and Masonic Cancer Center labs, as well as other research facilities.

President Eric Kaler, vice president for health sciences and Medical School dean Aaron Friedman, and Regent Linda Cohen were among the speakers at the event.

Three of the Big Ten schools have similar programs on cardiovascular research, said Dan Garry, director of the Lillehei Heart Institute.

The building cost upwards of $100 million to build, with funding from the state and University.

After final construction is finished in August, the center will be fully ready for use. 

By: Kia Farhang

Two men were assaulted within five minutes of each other early Sunday morning in the Southeast Como neighborhood, according to Minneapolis police reports.

The suspect in the first incident escaped on a bike after punching the victim in the face on 16th Avenue Southeast, one report said. The victim hit his head on the ground and was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center.

A few minutes later, University of Minnesota psychology and human resource development junior Kayla Casias said she heard someone talking outside her house on Como Avenue Southeast.

She heard a thud, looked outside and saw one man standing over another in the road.

“This kid just got his face slammed,” she said, adding there was blood in the street.

An ambulance took the victim to the hospital shortly after, another report said.

Police arrested a man after he punched a University student at the Library Bar and Grill early Saturday morning, according to a Minneapolis police report

The suspect had misdemeanor warrants out for his arrest. He was booked at the Hennepin County jail.

Home burglaries

Neighborhoods surrounding the University saw several home burglaries over the weekend, according to Minneapolis police reports.

Someone entered a University student’s unlocked front porch on 18th Avenue Southeast between Saturday and Sunday and stole two bikes, one report said. Several other bikes on the porch were left alone.

On Saturday morning, Police responded to an apartment burglary on Sixth Street Southeast while the residents were sleeping, according to another report.

Cassandra Snow said she and her roommate had forgotten to close the windows.

“It was so late that I thought it would be OK,” she said.

When they woke up Saturday morning, they noticed one of their window screens was missing, the report said.

Two backpacks, a purse and a laptop were taken from the living room. Police checked a neighboring yard and found the purse, but the wallet inside it was gone.

DWI

University police cited three women for driving while intoxicated in separate incidents last week, according to reports.

Deputy Chief Chick Miner said all of the suspects were committing other traffic violations when police stopped them.

A University alumna was speeding on the 10th Avenue Bridge early Friday morning when an officer pulled her over, according to a University police report.

Miner said the woman told police she’d had “a couple of drinks” but she tested above the legal alcohol limit.

Another woman was speeding on 15th Avenue Southeast early Saturday morning, a report said.

Miner said the officer noticed an open bottle of rum in the car. Both the driver and her passenger are under age 21 and were arrested for DWI and underage consumption, respectively.

Police stopped a woman early Sunday morning as she was trying to drive out of the Dinkytown Parking Facility, according to another report.

Miner said the woman, who is not affiliated with the University, was honking her horn while stuck behind the parking gate arm.

She was also cited for driving under the influence. 

Thefts from cars

Two Marcy-Holmes residents had belongings stolen from their cars this week, according to Minneapolis police reports.

Across the Minneapolis Police Department’s 2nd Precinct, which includes the University of Minnesota and its surrounding neighborhoods, 14 thefts from motor vehicles were reported last week.

Hennepin Technical College junior Paul Fure walked back to his house on Eighth Street Southeast early Wednesday morning to find three people standing near his car in the parking lot, according to a Minneapolis police report.

The next morning, Fure said he noticed someone had taken his sweatshirt, gym bag and car title from the vehicle.

“It’s kind of a little eye-opener to what’s actually going down in Dinkytown,” Fure said, who moved in two weeks ago.  

A University student had his credit cards stolen from his car early Sunday morning, another police report said.

The student had parked his car behind his apartment on University Avenue Southeast. After noticing the car had been broken into, he got several calls from his credit card companies about fraudulent charges on the cards.

Someone tried to break in to another University student’s car Wednesday, a Minneapolis police report said.

The student parked his car near the intersection of 18th Avenue Southeast and Rollins Avenue Southeast before walking to work. Later that day, he noticed someone had forced in the lock of his driver-side door.

Office thefts

A University staff member had his laptop stolen Tuesday when he stepped away from his office in the Regis Center for Art, according to a University police report.

University police recorded 145 thefts in the first five months of the year. That’s down from 208 thefts in the same period last year.

Another University staff member may have had her credit cards stolen from her office Monday in the 717 Delaware Building.

A University police report said the theft may have occurred at a movie theater the night before, but the victim didn’t start getting charges on her debit card until Wednesday afternoon.

By: Meghan Holden

The University of Minnesota plans to spend $3.3 million on energy-conserving light fixtures for all campus parking structures.

After assessing 13 campus parking structures, Parking and Transportation Services chose to install LED fixtures and daylight- and motion- sensing lights to reduce energy use and costs.

Five parking garages exceeded more than 110 percent of the state Energy Code targets in 2012-2013, according to Facilities Management data.

PTS estimates the project will save $350,000 per year in energy costs.

All lighting updates are expected to be completed by 2015.

Pick up Wednesday’s Minnesota Daily for more on this project and University energy use. 

By: Branden Largent

The Bisexual Organizing Project’s conference on bisexuality is coming back to the Twin Cities this weekend at Augsburg College.

Focusing on the empowerment of the bisexual community, the 21st annual BECAUSE conference will feature workshops, keynote speeches, films and performances.

The conference is the nation’s largest and longest running conference on bisexuality.

This year’s conference will also have an academic research component for the first time, which kicked off Friday morning.

Saturday night’s cabaret will feature burlesque, drag, dance and musical performances starting at 7:30 p.m.

The cabaret will be open to the public for $5 a ticket at the Augsburg’s Sateren Auditorium. The show is free for conference participants.

BECAUSE will also feature the Gadfly Theatre’s world premiere of “QUEER!” on Sunday at 1 p.m.

QUEER! is a performance art piece of monologues and short scenes showing the marginalization the queer community faces.

For more details about the conference, pick up Wednesday’s Minnesota Daily.

By: Kia Farhang

The University of Minnesota is in talks with Minneapolis officials to reconstruct Eighth Street Southeast — with the University covering part of the cost.

The University doesn’t yet have an estimate for the project’s cost, which is adjacent to the newly reconstructed Siebert Field and other University athletics complexes.

“We’re working with the city to enter into a cooperative agreement to start designing what the new road will look like,” said Sandy Cullen, transportation systems design manager for University Parking and Transportation Services. “We hope to have [the design] set this year.”

If the Minneapolis City Council approves the redevelopment, it won’t be the first time the University has paid for city reconstruction. Last year, the University spent more than $550,000 to help redo sections of Talmage and Riverside Avenues near University property.

In the next few weeks, Cullen said the city will sign off on a conceptual design for the project.

“This initial agreement is only covering the design,” she said. “Then we’ll get the cost estimate and we’ll work on a subsequent agreement that we’ll be paying for our share of the construction.”

Bob Carlson, principal professional engineer for the City’s Public Works department, said development may begin as soon as this year.

At this stage, it’s still unclear exactly how far along Eighth Street the new road would go, but Carlson said it will definitely stretch past the three housing complexes on the north side of the street.

“We would try to keep access open for the majority of the time,” he said. “It isn’t the intent just to say, ‘Okay, we’re starting up, you people go away and don’t drive on this thing until we’re all done.’’”

The street may be closed a few times, Carlson said, like when new asphalt needs time to cool.

Eighth Street, which tapers off into a dirt road past University recreational fields, has drawn complaints from nearby property owners.

Greg Jansma, building manager for the two Northstar at Seibert Field apartments on Eighth Street, said the development is long overdue.

“I’ve been waiting for it to get done for eight years,” he said.

A number of Jansma’s residents have complained about the street, he said.

“We go into a rainy stretch like we have recently; those big holes literally never dry up,” he said. “And even when they do, they’re still dealing with the rough road.”

Jansma said he’s hopeful the University’s contribution will move the project along swiftly.

“That [funding] would get them over the hump,” he said, “and hopefully move us to the front of the line, road construction-wise.”

Pick up Wednesday’s Minnesota Daily for more on the project and where its funding could come from. 

By: Elizabeth Ryan

Growing food uses more water than any other human activity. Millions of people could be fed and more than a billion could have enough water for their day to day needs with small changes in land and water usage.

University of Minnesota research published last month investigated the connection between water sustainability and food security.

Kate Brauman, a postdoctoral fellow with the University’s Institute on the Environment and lead author of the study, said the focus of the research was on how much food could be produced from each drop of water.

“If we’re using water in agriculture,” she said, “are we getting enough food bang for our water buck? If we’re making tradeoffs, are we making good tradeoffs?”

The research took a theoretical approach to isolate the lowest performing crops and see what raising their level of performance slightly would do. These low performers are crops that use a lot of water for little caloric gain — like growing rice in a dry climate.

Brauman said the total impact of improving just the bottom level crops could use less water and produce more crops.

For rain fed croplands, the research showed 110 million people could be fed without using additional water every year by adjusting the low performers.

Improving the bottom level crops for irrigated croplands could meet the annual household water demands of about 1.4 billion people.

“Obviously, you couldn’t necessarily get all of these gains,” Brauman said. But these small ‘crop per drop’ changes could still make a big difference, she said.

Making models a reality

The next step in making these gains a reality lies in work that researchers are doing on the ground.

Brauman’s study looked at 16 different crops, including wheat, legumes and some of the other biggest staple foods around the world.

Stefan Siebert, a study co-author from the University of Bonn in Germany, calculated how much water different crops need to be using. Brauman combined this data with information on crop yields from the University’s Global Landscapes Initiative to create the ‘crop per drop’ models.

The next step is to find out how to actually increase the yields, said IonE program director Paul West.

“We help … identify which crops in which places are having the biggest effect on water, on climate, on habitats,” he said.

By: Kia Farhang

Three Marcy-Holmes residents had their valuables stolen from multiple parties last weekend after strangers showed up, according to Minneapolis police reports.

University of Minnesota alumna Kaila Narum was at a party on 14th Avenue Southeast when her friends let a man into the house on Friday, one report said .

“He was the only one we didn’t know,” Narum said. “He said he was locked out of his apartment.”

Narum’s mother texted her early Saturday morning to tell her someone had used her credit card to buy food and pay for a taxi, the report said. Narum said she then canceled all of her credit cards.

In a second incident, a University student had his wallet stolen Friday night from a party on 11th Avenue Southeast, a Minneapolis police report said.

After hearing a laptop had been stolen from the party, the student went inside to check on his belongings, the report said. He saw people running away from the party and noticed his wallet and phone missing.

Jimmy Notto’s l aptop went missing early Saturday after his roommate had friends and family over to their Stadium View apartment on Delaware Street Southeast, according to a Minneapolis police report .

“I had arranged for one of my friends to pick up my laptop,” the Art Institutes International Minnesota student said. When the friend came by early Saturday morning, the laptop was still there.

Later that day, Notto’s friend returned and the laptop was gone. Notto’s roommate told him he didn’t know one of the people who had been at the house the night before.

“We do see a fair amount of that ‘uninvited guest’ or … ‘friend of a friend’ type of thing,” said University police Deputy Chief Chuck Miner . “First rule of thumb would be not to allow people you don’t know into your residence.”

Assault at Fairview

A University of Minnesota Medical Center patient assaulted two emergency room staff Wednesday, according to a University police report .

Miner said the patient, who is not affiliated with the University, was violently pushing staff and swearing at them.

“The patient was intoxicated and under the influence of some narcotics,” Miner said.

Public urination

A man and woman, both unaffiliated with the University, were cited for public urination in separate incidents over the weekend, according to University police reports.

University police saw a man urinating near the Franklin Avenue light rail station Saturday night, according to one report . The man was having trouble keeping his balance, the report said.

An officer observed a 61-year-old woman squatting in the grass Sunday night near the Donhowe Building on 15th Avenue SE, another report said .

“That’s not too common that we would deal with somebody of that age in that situation,” Miner said.

By: Kia Farhang

Several cars near the University of Minnesota campus were broken into late Friday night and early Saturday morning, according to Minneapolis police reports.

None of the cars appeared to be locked, the reports said. The group of suspects seemed to be walking around the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood checking for open vehicles.

Only one of the victims — a University of Minnesota Duluth student — is affiliated with the University.

The Minneapolis Police Department’s 2nd Precinct, which includes the University of Minnesota and its surrounding neighborhoods, has seen 210 thefts from motor vehicles this year, according to police data. That’s up from 193 thefts over the same period last year.

“The people who do this for a living,” said Minneapolis police Sgt. Bill Palmer, “are going to be looking for cars with something in them.”

Palmer said the best way to avoid theft from your car is to make sure to keep your valuables — “a gold mine” for thieves — out of sight.

Robbery on University Avenue

Three men took a University student’s cellphone early Saturday morning, ripping it out of his hand, Palmer said.

Minneapolis police arrived to find the victim’s friend injured, according to the police report. Palmer said the friend, who is unaffiliated with the University, refused medical treatment and was uncooperative with police.

Palmer added that alcohol was involved in the incident.

“You’re less likely to be victimized if you’re aware of your surroundings,” he said.

Disorderly conduct

A man was cited for disorderly conduct early Sunday morning outside Maxwell’s Café and Grill on 4th Street Southeast, according to a Minneapolis police report.

The man was involved in a large fight inside the restaurant. Palmer said tables and chairs were broken and several people sustained minor injuries.

Police broke up the fight, but arrested the suspect after he continued yelling and arguing with others in the middle of the street, Palmer said.