With the Columbia Heights Library closed because of coronavirus precautions, there’s no telling when its community room will once again be open for meetings. However, the March 9 City Council meeting seemed to reveal two lines of thought on how the room should be managed.

Fields of slush turned to icy rivers at St. Anthony’s Central Park as residents gathered for the second annual Winterfest on March 7. Though the cold water may have penetrated their boots, it didn’t dampen their enthusiasm.

Jon Matsuo was just like every other American GI who returned home from World War II. He wanted to get on with his life, build a house and raise a family. He picked out a lot in Northeast’s Waite Park neighborhood. There was just one problem. He was of Japanese descent. A restrictive covenant on the property meant he could not purchase it. He decided to fight for his rights.

A house that began its life in the 19th century may yet see a good bit of the 21st century. The two-story brick structure at the corner of 18th Avenue and Tyler Street NE has stood for 120 years, almost all of that time in the hands of one family. The property has been in the sights of both developers and preservationists since its sale in 2014 by the last surviving Colberg family member.

A fire in a group of commercial buildings on the west side of the 2400 block of Central Avenue NE broke out around 5:30 pm Sunday, March 22. It was initially reported as a second-floor fire at 2412 Central Ave. NE, which houses El Taco Riendo restaurant.

In July 2019, Emily Norling was sitting in her back yard in Waite Park looking at a mountain of dirty kids’ clothes and noticed that all her kids’ clothing was dirty in two spots – the knees and the bottom. She wondered if there were children’s clothes out there that you could easily clean in those two areas. When she found nothing on Amazon to fill that void, a new kid’s clothing company was born – RubyScootz.

The Feb. 24 meeting of the Columbia Heights City Council was cruising to conclusion. The consent agenda items had passed, and the members had reported their civic activities for the past two weeks. Then Theresa Strike, a Heights resident and vice chair of the DFL District 41B’s communications committee, stepped up to the microphone during the public comment period. Why, she wanted to know, had the DFL been kicked out of the library?

Since the discovery of an emerald ash borer infestation near Detroit, Michigan, in 2002, the assault on ash forests has become an epidemic. Michigan alone has lost more than 30 million ash trees, and 35 states and five Canadian provinces have been affected. As the blight mounts, the financial, aesthetic and ecological consequences will be enormous.