There’s a new vintage ride making weekend rounds across the city. Launched earlier this month, Minneapolis Trolley Tours offers service every Friday and Saturday from 4 p.m. to midnight. For $15, riders can hop on/hop off the historically restored trolley car from one of nine locations throughout Minneapolis.

Ticket holders have trolley access for the entire evening, and can get on or off at any of its nine stops that, at present, traverse through Loring Park, downtown and into Northeast.

MWMO and the Minneapo­lis Parks and Recreation Board (MPRB) have begun the final phase of the stormwater infra­structure project at Columbia Park Golf Course. This last phase, due to be complete in June, will con­vert the northwest stormwater ba­sin to an ecologically enhanced stormwater pond with new native plantings.

According to MPRB, residents can expect to see an increase in truck traffic in and out of the basin from approximately mid-May to mid-June. Roads will all remain open during construction; howev­er, temporary lane closures on 5th Street NE may be necessary as crews bring in heavy equipment. Workers will be on hand to direct traffic. The bike trail and pedes­trian path along 5th Street NE will detour to the west side of the street for a portion of the project. Golfing won’t be affected.

Students at Webster Elementary School became paint drop­lets the afternoon of May 4 when artist-in-residence Daniel Dancer lined them up for an unusual pho­to.

Dancer, who hails from Mosier, Ore., was in Minneapolis to work with Webster students on a sky art project. He began creating im­ages visible from the sky after a 1980s trip to Peru, where he saw the Nasca Lines.

After working with the kids to determine what they should depict (the kids decided on the school’s wolf mascot, the entire school — students, staff and families — assembled on the field behind the school, where Dancer, working from a firetruck, directed people wearing different colors of cloth­ing to stand. When he had them all assembled, he asked them to kneel on the ground. It was an im­age literally built on the backs of children.

The bad news is Mike Iacarella is retiring in June as a business teacher at Edison High School.

The good news is that he isn’t retiring from his volunteer work including the Edison Community and Sports Foundation (ECSF) and the Edison Alumni Band.

His retirement, set for June 9, will end a career that started as a banker, evolved into helping run a winery in California, evolved further into teaching elementary students at a Catholic school, and finally resulted in 29 years as a business teacher at Edison.

“Ike bleeds blue and gold. He is incredibly committed to Edison and to this community. He loves all our kids and is always in pur­suit of expanding excellence at Edison on behalf of our students, staff and community,” said Edi­son Principal Eryn Warne.

After a winter that brutalized streets, Hennepin County has be­gun two road repair projects in the area.

Work along New Brighton Boulevard has started south of the 29th Ave. NE (County Road 94) intersection. Work on the sec­tion north of 29th Ave. NE is an­ticipated to begin around May 15. The intersection will remain open at a reduced capacity while work is completed. Crews will work along the outside lanes on either side of the road, guiding traffic to the inside lanes.

Work along Stinson Boule­vard has started between New Brighton Boulevard and Hennepin Avenue East (County Road 52). Crews started repair work on the inside lanes, guiding traffic to the outside lanes.

On Mondays in the afterschool program at Webster school, superheroes abound. There’s Zoe Dragonbite, a rescuer of drag­on eggs (because dragons are in danger of becoming extinct). Mysterious Malaysia has supersight, to see what’s going on and help people be kind to each other and do the right thing. I’ve Got No Money’s super­power is to change all the price tags in the world to zero, “to pay for the stuff that peo­ple need to live.”

Each young superhero has a sidekick: an adult volunteer who hangs out with them every week, helping them decide on their mission, imagine the possibilities for their superhero outfit and translate their designs into a costume, complete with shoes and gloves and accessories.

“Our mission is to make the art accessi­ble, to help children feel creative confidence and a connection to themselves and their community,” said Heidi Rich, the executive director of Art Buddies, a nonprofit that for almost 30 years has been connecting ele­mentary school students with mentors.

It would be easy to say that actor Monty Hays is carrying the family torch.

“I’m a little conflicted,” said Monty, thinking out loud. “If I’m carrying the torch, does that mean it was already lit and just passed on to me? I would say that I am carrying it in my own way.”

Monty (they/them) is both lighting and carrying a flame of their own, starring as Emma Nolan, the lead in Chanhassen Dinner Theater’s “The Prom,” a musical production running through June 10. 

This Broadway hit won a Tony for best musical score and is now a Netflix film. At Chanhassen, the non-binary Monty plays Emma, a lesbian in a small Indiana town who only wants to take her girlfriend to prom. A troupe of self-absorbed Broadway stars arrive to rally behind the cause. Reactions, good and bad, ensue.

What does the song of Northeast sound like to you?

Neighbors and friends of the Logan Park Neighborhood Association mused together on what they thought it might be. One spoke of being smitten by the sound of church bells ringing through the streets every Sun­day when she came into the neighborhood for singing lessons. Others discussed the different languages spoken by communi­ties that all coexist here: Ukrainian, Span­ish, Somali, Hmong and many others. For a couple of hours, the neighbors of Logan Park just talked and reminisced about their neighborhood, spinning up context for the songwriter seeking to tell their story.
A performance of Moya’s work is sched­uled for Saturday, May 20 at 3 p.m. at the Logan Park Pavilion. Bring your lawn chairs and blankets.

During the height of COVID, Northeast artist Ellie Kidder was feeling disconnected and isolated. Then one day during the pandemic, while watching legislators on TV, she saw how many were men and noted the absence of women’s points of view. “At that second, I realized we don’t know how to take advantage of our voices,” Kidder said. That realization, and her desire for connection, led to the project “Northeast Women as Changemakers,” which culminated in an afternoon of six Northeast women, including Kidder, telling their stories on the afternoon of April 22.

The event was held in Charles Thompson Memorial Hall in St. Paul, a historic building that has served as a social club for the deaf community in the Twin Cities. Kidder, who is deaf, has her studio in the building. Sign language interpreters were provided.

For nearly six decades, Marvin Simon­son, known affectionately as “Marv the barber,” wield­ed his scis­sors in sever­al Columbia Heights shops. He also wield­ed his generosity, sense of humor, and the fellowship he created to help others. At his funeral on April 20, First Lutheran Church Asso­ciate Pastor Jill Bergman said, in her eulogy, “Marvin was always trying to make safe and welcom­ing dwelling places wherever he landed.”