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What's it like in Uptown?

For all the news around Uptown, Minneapolis, over the last few years, how about an update? Let me describe my recent Saturday morning. After sleeping in, I went about doing Saturday chores. That involved walking the three blocks to the Wedge Coop. You see, when my husband was in grad school, I realized that all of our money was going to two places: his schooling and our housing. Being the sole income earner, I thought, "How can I reduce our monthly housing costs?" As a result, we bought and live in a triplex. Because we share the cost of the mortgage, taxes and maintenance with our tenants, we have spending money that makes it easy to shop at places like the Wedge. It's a grocery store that may not be known for its bargain prices, but it is cooperatively owned, supports local and organic farms and is vested in the community.

Back to my shopping trip. While taking a cheese sample, I ran into my neighbor. We joked that it's not a good shopping trip if it doesn't involve cheese. When exiting the store, I ran into a friend and her partner out dog walking and caught up a bit. On my walk home, I heard the joyful bells, chatter and cries of "Good morning!" from a 30-person bike ride on Bryant Ave S. Among the group, I saw another handful of friends and learned that the ride was a tour of the greater Nicollet Kmart area as part of the neighborhood's engagement ahead of the Kmart site's redevelopment. An acquaintance, who I had just met a few days prior, stopped and introduced me to his partner. We conveyed our collective excitement about the upcoming Lyndale Open Streets.

In how many other places in Minnesota can one have this experience? The walkability, bikeability and general proximity of homes and businesses makes this possible. It requires less financial investment from each individual, and the social capital dividends are huge. This is the community-centric Uptown that I live and enjoy every day.

Katie Jones, Minneapolis

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This is a quick note regarding the upcoming Lyndale Avenue reconstruction.

I live and bike in Uptown and am a founder/employee of the nonprofit HUGE Theater on Lyndale Avenue at 27th Street.

Jill Bernard, Minneapolis

I am so disheartened by the article regarding the Hennepin County Attorney's Office reporting that it will "take at least another year to work through the backlog of nearly 1,700 untested rape kits that Minneapolis police identified in 2019" ("Hennepin rape kits still a year behind," front page, Oct. 5). It is egregious that this has occurred at all, and now to have this extremely sensitive issue kicked down the road, again, is beyond belief.

I cannot imagine that there is any good reason this problem exists except now these women are being victimized a second time by a system of coldhearted and callous indifference.

Any social worker or psychologist knows that rape is the psychological equivalent of becoming a victim of warfare in the military. One study reports the effects of rape are actually worse, as the crime is personal and done in violation of a person's body. The results are a woman feeling terrified, unsafe and unprotected. These feelings can last years and even decades. Unfortunately this lack of follow-through only prolongs a victim's sense of closure and, possibly, resolution.

Please, Hennepin County, find some extra money and hire some extra people to help expedite this extremely important issue. I cannot think of anything more dire than helping these women find peace and serenity after such trauma.

Carol F. Wichers, Minneapolis

Bruce Ledewitz, in his Oct. 3 Star Tribune commentary "Klobuchar to the rescue?" (Opinion Exchange), is spot on. Joe Biden has been a good president, but no one in their 80s should be in that job. At his stage of life, Biden doesn't need that job in order to achieve one of his highest aspirations — to unite the American public. In fact, his greatest opportunity to achieve this would be for him to step back from the possibility of a second term and promote a candidate who will carry on his agenda. The candidate most qualified for this role would be Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

As Ledewitz points out, Klobuchar does have national name recognition, and while many Americans may not be wowed by her stage presence, she does project an aura of a levelheadedness, a steady hand and someone who can speak to the majority of Americans who long for someone who offers commonsense (rather than ideological) approaches to the problems we all face today. Rather than view her candidacy as one that could split the party, it should rather be viewed as just the opposite, especially if her running mate were someone with a demonstrated track record of winning votes (Gavin Newsom of California, Raphael Warnock of Georgia or Jared Polis from Colorado) — and especially if Biden were to put his support behind them. Let's bring it on!

Gregory P. Olson, Eden Prairie

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Ledewitz's commentary suggests that Klobuchar should volunteer to oppose Biden's renomination to save the party. He feels that this would be a service to the Democratic Party. He cites the 1968 election where Eugene McCarthy ran against Lyndon Johnson. LBJ decided not to run for re-election. In the end, our native son Hubert Humphrey was the candidate. As Ledewitz noted in passing, Richard Nixon won that election, so in the end McCarthy helped the Republicans, not the Democrats.

Incumbent presidents have a huge advantage over other candidates. A movement to replace Biden as our candidate is likely to help elect Donald Trump. Somehow, I cannot see Klobuchar falling for that scheme. She is valuable as our senator, and she should stay there.

We should be spending our time looking at Biden's accomplishments. He has been the most effective president for a long time. The liberal press has not been kind to Biden, just as it was not kind to Hillary Clinton.

Martin Urberg, Edina

I couldn't agree more with the recent letter to the editor "Better music or silence, please!" To celebrate my 95th birthday, my family took me to dinner at Mancini's in St. Paul and friends took me to Lindey's in Arden Hills. In both restaurants, which were at capacity with guests, I could hear myself think and converse. Why? There was no overwhelming music. What a wonderful experience! Hopefully, some restaurant owners may read this letter and act on it.

Florian Lauer, St. Paul