The 2021 NEighbors Garage Sale info from the Northeaster Newspaper is now available! It's complete with locations and sale descriptions, and is all set to print or download! Click https://bit.ly/2Sre7Ux to download directly.

Mostly along the Central Avenue Northeast corridor spanning Minneapolis, Hilltop, and Columbia Heights, there is a variety of small grocers whose foods concentrate on the diverse ethnicity and culture that encompasses the Twin Cities. I visited 11 of these stores and explored various items that made each store different. Here is a list of grocers and the unique items you may find when you visit and shop:

While the nation of Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) lobbed bombs and missiles at each other on May 15, hundreds of protesters gathered at the corner of 43rd and Central Avenue in Columbia Heights to commemorate Al Nakba (“The Catastrophe”), the day in 1948 when Israel pushed more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes.

The heads of a $13-plus million rehab project for a one-mile stretch of 37th Avenue NE, from Central Avenue to Stinson Blvd., held a final “Open House” virtual meeting for its preliminary design. As reported in the Northeaster’s Feb. 24 edition, the project aims to correct several existing issues with the road (heaving concrete slabs, parking difficulties, rail crossing signals, etc.) while adding state-of-the-art traffic and pedestrian practices. And it’s not just the street itself that will be renewed; besides narrowing the traffic lanes to one in each direction, sidewalks, curbs and an asphalt trail will be included or enhanced. Traffic intersections will be transformed into 21st-century versions of their present counterparts; no more “You go first! – No, you go first!”

For one who grumbled “don’t call it Art-A-Whirl if it’s not in person,” encounters on May 14 and 15 renewed my spirit and opened eyes to new possibilities. While the Northeast arts landscape is too wide and varied to make sweeping proclamations, people at the places I went were SO happy to see humans, and some remarked that sales were up per capita.

At five months in to the job, Amáda Márquez Simula doesn’t want the fact that she’s Mayor of Columbia Heights to change who she is, though she said she’s learning patience and working on saying no or “not now” to some things she finds interesting.

A clash is nearing between renters who are behind on their rent payments or have other lease issues and landlords who have been prevented from sending eviction notices. While Gov. Tim Walz considers an extension on the eviction moratorium, in place for almost 15 months, Minneapolis City Council members are seeking ways to soften the blow when the moratorium ends.

When new residents rent an apartment at the new Huxley at 657 22nd Ave. (near Jefferson Street NE), they’ll get their choice of artwork to decorate their abodes, thanks to Art to Change the World (ACW). Twenty-five of the 112 units have already been rented.

This is a true story. The son of a wealthy Irish landowner falls in love with a poor country lass. She gets pregnant. They marry, and move to America. The young couple work hard, and become fabulously wealthy.The young man was John Sullivan, born June 2, 1819 in Newmarket, County Cork, Ireland. The young woman was Margaret Grainy, born February 3, 1826 in nearby Kiskeam. “He was ‘lace curtain Irish’ and she was ‘shanty Irish,’” said their great-great grandson, Thomas L. Sullivan. They were among the first settlers of what is now Columbia Heights.

Northeast Athletic Field Park is getting postponed upgrades in 2021, including a new ballfield on the west side of Fillmore Street and a new playground just southwest of the recreation center and behind the Lupient Water Park. In addition, an adjacent field will be renovated. The fields will include new lighting and irrigation, if funding allows. The maintenance-access drive will be relocated from railroad property onto Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) property, and the small parking lot at the south end will be removed to allow for maintenance access only.