Free Public Wine Tasting At Broadway Liquor Outlet Takes Place Monthly, So Be Sure To "BLO Through!"

Photos by John Hoff

Megan Goodmundson of the JACC neighborhood literally drove me to drink, giving me a ride to a free wine tasting at Broadway Liquor Outlet, (BLO) which locals pronounce "Blow."

The wine tasting takes place monthly, with one or two beer tastings a year, as well. The events...

...are publicized via email notification, which customers can sign up for by stopping at BLO, click here for their website.

Dean Rose, the owner (pictured above, and also pictured with his wife) says BLO has spent 20 years in that location. Rose is a third-generation retailer, and his father grew up in "NoMi" before folks started calling it "NoMi."

In 2006, according to Dean, "we decided we weren't taking our store out of the hood, so we took the hood out of the store." Interior renovations were made to the floor, and the ticky-tacky "drop down ceiling" was removed to reveal the original tin ceiling, which received a copper-colored paint job. For the record, this is the most copper color I've seen on the entire North Side, combined!

Rose emphasizes how BLO is a neighborhood-oriented wine store. One of his major competitors, Rose says, is like "a grocery store for liquor" with a "different vibe."

Yeah. "Different vibe."

Rose is too kind to his fellow businesspeople. On the bright side, the world's largest YWCA is expected to totally revitalize that OTHER corner of the neighborhood with the OTHER liquor store.

According to Rose, BLO hopes to make the facade of their building nicer "when some money is available." He emphasizes that if you have some special liquor you're seeking, he can order it for you. In the picture above, Connie Nompelis (No-bell-iss) inquires about a Rosenblum Vintner's Cuvee' which is some kind of...Zamboni?

Or was it...Infidel?

No, wait, I know...ZINFINDEL!!!

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Preparing For Demolition At 3101 6th St. N., The Former "Apartment Complex Of Anarchy"

Photos By John Hoff

The apartment building at 3101 6th St. N., which I once dubbed "The Apartment Complex of Anarchy" and even police officials began using the name is...

...apparently going to be demolished soon.

A couple of workmen were there recently, and appeared to be taking stock of what needed to be done for demolition. I spoke to them; making sure they were legitimate workmen who belonged on the property and not just no-accounts making off with kitchen sinks.

Their noses wrinkled as they described the apartments as "full of trash" and said there were a lot of refrigerators inside. They said there would be a "big pile" of fridges, and didn't seem too happy with the prospect of hauling out those heavy, stinky items.

One item they scored was a metal shop cabinet festooned with automotive stickers, middle photo. Cool. Somebody who owned that cabinet once-upon-a-time shared my deep love of stickers.

The workmen had a pile of straw erosion barriers, pictured in the top photo. (I'm not sure what these items are actually called, but their purpose was obvious and, a day later, these were in position all around the apartment building)

I fully expect that one day soon I will drive around the corner of Lyndale Ave. N. and 31st Ave. N. and see "The Backhoe of Doom" doing its brutal work or possibly even a pile of fresh dirt, with no sign of The Backhoe but its distinctive tracks.

It seems like only a few months ago juveniles were dealing crack in the lobby, and one of them was hiding the drugs in his rectum.

Oh, wait. That WAS only a few months ago.

Yes, the corner of 6th and 31st used to be "ground zero" for prostitution and drug dealing, but now you hardly see anybody standing around. (Of course, the crackheads just furtively go inside 3020 6th St. N., but that house is in foreclosure--the clock is running down on redemption--and this nest of crackheads will, also, inevitably be cleaned out)

The times in North Minneapolis...they are a-changing.

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Incident At 2214 Lyndale Ave. N. (Follow Up Report)

Photos By John Hoff

Several days ago I blogged about the rough-looking characters I saw cleaning out the house at 2214 Lyndale Ave. N., and how I called the police because it didn't look right, and how one of the guys didn't cooperate as quickly as he should have, and found himself taken down to the ground. Click here to read that old blog post.

Well, here is (as Paul Harvey would say) THE REST OF THE STORY...

Some days ago I was driving around on 4th St. N. near Farview Park when I saw a couple guys on the porch of a long-vacant house, once again fooling around with the front door. I recognized the guys...the same two characters from the incident at 2214 Lyndale Ave. N.

Well, since they were running around loose and doing the same exact stuff, I figured maybe they really were doing some halfway legitimate work, even if they looked like a couple of no-account house thieves there to literally steal the kitchen sink.

So I figured this time, before calling the police, I'd manage to get the license plate of their vehicle...unlike before...and I'd stick my nose into matters even FURTHER because I'm like that.

So I cruised around the block, slowly, got the plate number, and then parked right behind their vehicle. I acted like I had just finished talking into my phone, maybe calling the police.

I could tell the one guy ("Fat Boy") had seen me. He was on his precious phone, again. Calling the person known as "honey," I figured.

I opened my van door and stood nearby, the vehicle still running, ready to get back inside if necessary. My vehicle is my best weapon. I've discussed this before.

"So are you putting a deadbolt in THIS ONE, too?" I asked.

The older guy took one look at me and went ambling down the sidewalk, leaving. The other guy (Fat Boy) walked over, carefully, cell phone in hand.

"We're winterizing," he explained. "Who are you?"

I told him who I was. I told him this was my neighborhood, and we watch the houses around here "like hawks," and so when we see somebody going up to a house, cleaning it out, we want to know what's up.

We had an intense discussion, at times both of us speaking over the other. He handed me the cell phone and told me to talk to the guy on the other end, who identified himself as a local real estate agent named "Johnson." (Yes, he gave me a first name, too)

Johnson complimented me on my determination to protect the neighborhood--after all, this very house had the pipes stolen, he said, making the "winterizing" task of the crew he sent rather besides the point, but all the same. Johnson said the mortgage company in possession of the house was "breaking (his) balls" to get the "damn place winterized." So that's why he'd sent the crew over on short notice, to get it done.

I told Johnson his "winterizing crew" didn't look like much; they had no company vehicle, no jackets or hats identifying them as...anything. What were we in the neighborhood supposed to do or think when we saw such rough-looking individuals pull up to a vacant house and pry on the front door with--for god's sake--a Phillips screw driver? Should we take the word of a guy on a cell phone?

I said, "Tell you what. I'll make a deal with you." I said I'd take a picture of his crew. That way, if there were any questions, well, I'd have some documentation about who was at the house. Paul agreed. Fair enough. I snapped the picture. The other guy had, as I said, toddled off the minute he saw me coming.

After that, me and "Fat Boy" got into a discussion, again. He was rather incensed about what he'd endured from the police. I told him if he'd stopped talking on the phone when the officer gave him directions, things would have happened a lot differently. "Fat Boy" then told me the officer had called him a "white peckerwood." He said he'd "get paid" for what had happened.

"I was standing right there," I said. "I don't remember anything like that being said."

"I thought you said you were a block away when you called!" he snapped.

"When I called 911, yes," I clarified. "But when the cop took you down, I was standing right there. Heck, I saw your belly pop out of your t-shirt. No such thing was said. I'll be that officer's witness."

I told "Fat Boy" he should get something identifying himself as a workman doing legitimate work. Some kind of jacket, perhaps. I pointed to my own jacket which says "CRI Remodels, Inc." I didn't bother to mention I'd literally found it on the street a year ago, but that would only drive home my point: if I can get a jacket which (accidentally) makes me look "workmanlike" by scrounging one off the street, "Fat Boy" could easily make himself look more legitimate.

I also learned there really had been a couple guys with a truck, cleaning the place out. "Fat Boy" said they didn't do a good job, and he made them come back later.

Decent enough work if you can get it: getting paid to clean out the house, then making more profit by selling the items you "clean out" of the house. Twice I've worked for "affordable housing" rental property companies, and I always enjoyed "cleaning out" apartments, particularly the freezers where steaks and shrimp were, often enough, simply abandoned. I abhor waste, and I value conservation of the earth's resources over black-and-white lines about who owns what. Sometimes, I assert, ownership is gray.

But, all the same, some of these "winterization" crews clearly are a rough bunch, and legal lines get crossed. Jeff Skrenes sent me a story about THAT, which I'll share in the next blog post.

In any case, despite their rough appearance, and something of an attitude problem dealing with police trying to protect our homes, these guys apparently are some kind of freelance, seat-of-the -pants, won't-break-your-budget "winterization crew." Calling 911 on them was what you might call "friendly fire."

I admit it. It was the wrong call. People tell me I made the right call and what was I supposed to do? There were, all told, FOUR OF THEM AT LEAST cleaning out that house at 2214 Lyndale Ave. N. Was I supposed to saunter up and ask "What the heck?"

I hate it when that happens. But what can I do? I have to shake it off. I'm not going to let North Minneapolis houses get robbed of copper if I'm standing right there with a cell phone. And the story Jeff told me a few days ago (next blog post) confirms some of these "winterization crews" aren't completely honest.

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Metal Scrappers Descend On 3119 4th St. N.

Photo By John Hoff

Word comes from "Patty Cake" that metal scrappers with a pickup truck descended....

...on 3119 4th St. N. I had noticed a lot of salvageable metal within the tangled wreckage; copper wire, part of a rain gutter, and some appliances--stoves and fridges--so ripped up by the backhoe that fairly decent pieces of metal could be pulled from the useless, bulky parts. Frankly, I'm surprised it took the scrappers this long to arrive. 

The scrappers are regarded with a mixture of perceptions: on the one hand, they are doing hard and gritty work which is arguably environmentalist. On the other hand, many of them are suspected of drug addictions and criminal records, and a few are not adverse to stealing copper pipes and pulling metal siding right off houses if nobody is looking. How do you know the "honest" scrappers from the rest? You don't. However, if they're using a licensed vehicle instead of a baby buggy, then they seem to be better-quality scrappers. But not always. 

"Patty" was hoping to have a little party when the privacy fence was completed, but with the fence now delayed until spring she's contemplating a "putting plastic over the northern windows" party.

(Do not click "Read More") 

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