🧊 Mid-January rundown: ICE activity intensifies

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Federal immigration activity continues to intensify this week throughout the neighborhood.

On Tuesday afternoon, a large group of observers gathered around agents detaining a man outside of Viking Cleaners at 37th and Lake Street, captured on video. A staff member from Francis Burger Joint who was part of the crowd was also tackled and detained. The restaurant says he has since been released.

Another video shows agents pulling a young man from a pickup truck on Lake Street in front of Target on Wednesday, leaving the truck in the middle of the street. Another person was taken Tuesday afternoon at 35th Street and 32nd Avenue.

Lynette reported that one of their staff members, who they say has legal U.S. status, was taken this weekend. The restaurant has begun collecting nonperishable food donations and distributing them to families at neighborhood schools.

One LW subscriber and neighborhood resident, a U.S. citizen, says he was arrested while observing ICE activity in Richfield.

On Tuesday afternoon, agents entered an apartment on the north side of Longfellow Park, but did not leave with anyone. ICE vehicles were also spotted driving around Sanford Middle School several times, trailed by a group of honking cars, though without apparent action.

Bystanders remain visible at many locations throughout the neighborhood, especially during pickup and dropoff times at most neighborhood schools and daycares. Check out Tuesday's newsletter for resources and opportunities to get involved.

Etc.

🥣 Minneapolis-based celebrity chef and TV star Andrew Zimmern will be the guest chef at Soup For You Cafe on January 22, making his grandmother's split pea soup recipe for the neighborhood soup kitchen.

Soup For You serves free gourmet meals out of Holy Trinity Church near 31st and Minnehaha every weekday, and also runs the neighborhood's most robust food pantry. The volunteer-run kitchen has hosted a series of guest chefs that has included people from Francis, Sonora, Mr. Momo, Hi-Lo, Lynette, and All Square. A group of Roosevelt High School students will make a bison chili on February 10.

The cafe is open Monday through Friday from noon to 1, though you can arrive as early as 11:30. Anyone can attend, whether or not they're in need. Meals are free with an optional donation. Interested volunteers can learn more and sign up here. They also take donations of food, including garden produce, and money.

• Read more: Soup for You! brings gourmet approach to free community meals (Oct. 2024)

🐿️ Squirrel Haus Arts at 35th and Snelling has closed. Owners Spidie and Michael Meyer purchased the building and opened it as an art and events space in 2015, willfully operating at a loss and providing inexpensive or free space for gallery shows, theater rehearsals, and community meetings. Now, they say they're sunsetting that project and converting it into a "modern industrial style home" for themselves that will host Spidie's art studio, Michael's woodshop, and space for occasional gallery events.

🚲 One on One Bicycle Studio, the last bike shop in the neighborhood, has moved from 45th and Minnehaha to the former Farmstead Bike Shop near Lake Harriet. Owners and neighborhood residents Jennifer and Gene Oberpriller opened One on One in the North Loop in 2003, where it became an early incubator of the burgeoning Minneapolis bike culture. They moved the shop to a former garden center on 45th and Minnehaha in 2018, but never fully realized their hopes for the expansive property. The duo sold the building this summer but continued to operate there until December 23. Stay tuned for more details on plans for that property.

• Read more: One on One: The last bike shop in the neighborhood (Nov. 2024)

🪧 In November, a pair of houses on adjoining lots at 37th and Minnehaha were torn down. At the time, Longfellow Whatever reported that developer Alex Brogle, who built the Laurel & Olive apartments at 31st and Minnehaha, had undertaken the demolition but was looking for another developer to take over the project.

Now, he's listed the three adjoining properties for sale for $750,000, noting that the site's zoning has "the potential for an apartment building in excess of 55,000 sq. ft." The listing includes a series of renderings of what had been planned for the site, at least conceptually.

🗳️ The city is going back to the drawing board for the 8,000-square-feet of community space it has reserved for its planned Minneapolis Democracy Center, in the former Third Precinct Building at Lake and Minnehaha.

In September the city heard proposals from two finalists for the space: the workforce development nonprofit Change Inc., and the restaurant Mama Sheila's House of Soul. Now, the city says it hasn't chosen either option, and instead will reissue the call for proposals later this year, which it says is "based on timing and evolving design context, not the quality of their submissions."

• Read more: Choosing the community tenant for 3000 Minnehaha (September 2025)

📖 The Longfellow Business Association's 2026 Longfellow Business Directory is out now, featuring an impressively comprehensive list of every business operating in the neighborhood. The publication dates back to the 1990s, and has been printed and distributed by the Longfellow-Nokomis Messenger since 2004. For the first time, this year's directory also includes Seward businesses.

💻 The nonprofit developer Redesign has opened a coworking space on the sunny top floor of the Historic Coliseum building. Dubbed the Longfellow Collaboration Hub, the space offers shared or dedicated desks and 24/7 access to the building. It joins the Coven East Lake as the neighborhood's second coworking space.

🥖 Laune Bread is the subject of a performance art piece, off/on another tangent, coming to the Southern Theater on January 22-25. The duo MADROSA, made up of neighborhood resident Rosa Raarup and Laune's designer Mad Lenaburg, features interviews with Laune's founders Chris MacLeod and Tiff Ri, and "explores Minnesota foodways by amplifying initiatives of two local urban businesses and two regional rural farmers."

🥪 Blue Door Pub has extended its popular "$5 chicken sandwiches on Sundays" deal to also include Wednesdays. The pub also offers $5 cheeseburgers on Mondays. Check out the full extent of neighborhood happy hours and food deals in the Longfellow Happy Hour rundown.

⛄️ Shawna Wolf, a.k.a. the Dorman Avenue window painter, has her January motif up at 29th and Dorman.