Some parkland, a school, a church, a restaurant, and a whole bunch of single-family homes. That’s what I saw on my first day walking the Lynnhurst neighborhood. But also some fall colors, a statue, a solar-powered Little Free Library, and a whole bunch of pumpkins. The neighborhood is bounded by 46th and 54th Streets and […]
On a beautiful fall day, I walked all of the Lyndale neighborhood that I had missed on my prior walk. Actually, not quite all. Construction activity closed much of Stevens Avenue even for pedestrians, so those blocks appear in neither route. One indirect consequence is that this second route isn’t a closed loop; it starts under […]
The Lyndale neighborhood is named for the Lyndale School, which in turn was named for Lyndale Avenue. The original school was immediately east of the avenue, where Painter Park now is. The avenue was in turn named for William S. King’s Lyndale Farm, but that was to the west of the avenue. The neighborhood runs east from Lyndale Avenue […]
I was on 6th Street, carefully navigating three lanes of traffic and construction. I signaled my turn as I eased into the left lane, aware of drivers moving urgently around me. Suddenly I bounced, failed to reestablish grip, and tumbled. I rolled off my bike and onto concrete. Something hit my knee bad enough to […]
Public art was a larger part of what I photographed this day compared with my first day walking the Lowry Hill East (Wedge) neighborhood. That was just a coincidental result of the route, which was planned with the mundane purpose of filling in the blocks I had previously omitted, aside from a couple that were closed […]
Last night, I attended a listening session for Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis, focused on the serious safety issues between Lake Street and Franklin Avenue. The event was organized by the county commissioner for the area, Marion Greene. Dozens of neighbors spoke about their experiences walking, driving, and biking on Lyndale. The neighbors covered a lot […]
Only the northern tip of the Lowry Hill East neighborhood is east of Lowry Hill, which may explain why “The Wedge” is the more common name. Certainly it is more descriptive: the neighborhood occupies the wedge-shaped area between Hennepin and Lyndale Avenues north of Lake Street. I began and ultimately ended at the point marked […]
A glance at the map shows larger spaces between the streets in the northern part of Lowry Hill than in the grid-like southern portion I previously walked. This difference relates to the topography but also to the land uses: large institutions and mansions fit large spaces. I began at the intersection of Lyndale and Groveland Avenues […]
Last weekend, a car driver ran over a man trying to do what should have been the simplest of tasks: crossing the street. On Wednesday, the victim, Theodore J. Ferrara, died from his injuries. Ferrara is far from the first pedestrian seriously injured on Lyndale. The street is designed to accommodate cars to the detriment […]
“I think it’s brave, you living this social experiment with your family,” an acquaintance once told me. It wasn’t the first time someone from the outside had woven a conclusion about our life in North Minneapolis, and it wouldn’t be our last. “I see what you’re doing,” another well-meaning soul said. “Raising your girls on […]