Hawthorne/Jordan "Clean Sweep" Was A Whole Lot Of Garbage! Photos of Neighborhood Revitalization Footsoldiers, MORE!

Photos By John Hoff, Jeff Skrenes 

The 2009 Hawthorne/Jordan Neighborhood Clean Sweep had new faces as well as some very familiar long-time participants. (Standard stock sentence true of most neighborhood events, too early in the morning for literary creativity, possibly revise later, etc. etc.)

In the top photo, a declassified photo of the S.S. Minneapolis, the vessel used by the elite "Let's Roll" tire recovery unit. In the second photo... 

Housing Director Jeff Skrenes unloads beverages provided by the Pohlad Foundation, something like ten cases. The beverages were some kind of nutritional soda, and it was pretty good. The beverages had names like "Calm" and "Flex." In the next photo, Jeff poses with a can of the "Flex."

Next, another photo of SiSi Mitchell with her garbage grabber thingie. Below SiSi, one of the volunteers clowns around with a plastic bag, wearing it like a skirt. In the photo at the bottom, some participants in the Jordan cleanup. So many members of the "New Majority" Jordan board arrived to volunteer, I imagine somebody must have worried at some point about having an accidental quorum.

I'm sure Chairman Kip Browne didn't allow that to happen.

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North Minneapolis Social Network Activated, Fourth Precinct Gets Its Man

Photo By John Hoff 

Late yesterday evening, I was at the Mall of America with my 11-year-old, getting in line to buy tickets to "Battle For Terra," when Hawthorne Housing Director Jeff Skrenes called my cell phone. He'd seen a police officer with an assault rifle and at least one police dog "descending" on the property directly behind the offices of the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council...

Immediately, I pointed out to Jeff that an assault rifle can "spit out a lot of bullets" and if he heard gunfire, best to get down as low as possible. The space under his thick, old-fashioned wooden desk was probably the safest spot in his office. Of course, knowing Jeff, he'd be throwing himself in front of the television so he wouldn't miss the end of the Red Wings hockey game.

Jeff wanted me to make some calls. We don't actually need to say the words "activate the social network" and it's not like there's a formal phone tree. We just all know when to start calling each other. This was clearly one of those times.

Contractor Anderson Mitchell--old army, just like me--got to the office and checked on Jeff. Apparently, all was well because a short while later Jeff sent me the following text message: Guy with a gun was firing shots in the area. Cops were responding and got him.

I assume it was the Fourth Precinct.

Good job, Fourth Precinct! And THANK YOU for your dedication and hard work.

By the way, those "shot spotter" devices are a wonder! When there is the sound of gunfire, "servo motors" rotate cameras in the direction of the gunfire. Heavily armed police DESCEND on the area where the shots were fired. (Many or all the officers have assault rifles at the ready, what look to be Colt AR-15s, the civilian version of the army M-16)

Any civilian who fires a gun in North Minneapolis for any reason other than fending off an attack has to be either very desperate, very stupid, or some fatal combination of both.

Almost as notable as the high tech shot spotters is our neighborly social network. When decent people buy vacant, ultra-affordable homes in this area, they quickly form social networks thanks to the secret "decent people handshake" and not-so- secret rituals like picking up litter and walking on SIDEWALKS instead of DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET.

Going to events sponsored by the neighborhood association is the quickest, surest way to form these networks.

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