Minneapolis, MN
Two NCAA Tournaments Coming To Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS (WJON News) — Minneapolis has been selected to host two NCAA Tournaments. U.S. Bank Stadium has been chosen to host the Division One Wrestling tourney in 2028 and Target Center has been picked to host the first and second rounds of the 2027 Division One Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The wrestling championship is expected to bring more than $45 million and over 110,000 attendees to the city. Chair of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority Michael Vekich says they are honored to be able to host the tournaments and help grow the events and look forward to hosting them.
The announcement comes on the heels of other major events coming to Minneapolis this summer including the 2024 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials, the 2024 Big Ten Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments, WWE Summer Slam, and the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup Tournament.
READ MORE FROM AUTHOR PAUL HABSTRITT:
16 Wildest Foods Sold in NFL Stadiums
Pizza Burgers? Cotton Candy Burritos? Cannoli Nachos? It must be football season!
Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening
LOOK: The best minigolf in every state
Gallery Credit: Madison Troyer
30 famous people you might not know were college athletes
Gallery Credit: Sophia Crisafulli
Minneapolis, MN
Changes coming to Minnehaha Dog Park to comply with standards
Pushback to proposed dog park changes
Minnesotans who use a popular dog park in Minneapolis will see changes this fall.
After the Minneapolis Park Board voted yes in a Tuesday meeting, the plan is to add fencing to Minnehaha Regional Dog Park because they explained it does not meet city dog park standards.
A woman, Michelle Garens, who’s been going to the dog park for decades had concerns about the proposal so she started a petition that garnered nearly thousand signatures.
Pet owners explained they found out about the proposal a week ago and said they feel blindsided about the plan.
It’s a sanctuary of solitude where the dogs call the shots, Minnehaha Dog Park is a beloved area for pet lovers.
“I’ve been coming here for 20 some years and it’s my favorite place in all of Minneapolis. I love it,” Garens, dog park user, said. “He’s [dog] normally off the leash here, so he’s behaving pretty well for us right now,”
Saint is one of many pups at Minnehaha Dog Park in Minneapolis running freely.
“I would take him to the other parks, and it was just too confined and a lot of dog fighting and just not a place where he could just run and play freely,” Garens said.
But soon dogs at this park will be met with some boundaries.
The Minneapolis Park Board said in a statement the current off-leash areas do not meet city dog park standards.
They added dogs running off-leash can cause environmental damage and a danger to themselves or others depending on where they roam.
The park board plans to add fencing that stretches the length of the path to the Mississippi river and other areas near the shoreline.
Park officials also want to expand off-leash areas by 10 acres.
“It seems like they’re spinning it as if we’re getting a gift of extra additional park, but really, what they’re doing is cutting us off access to a large like even a larger majority of the park,” Garens said. “This is such a naturally beautiful place as it is, and it has a lot of natural barriers to keep the dogs inside this particular place.”
On behalf of their loyal companions who can’t say much, owners explained the restrictions would change the landscape of this park, which they said was perfect from the start.
“She [dog] just would not appreciate the sort of closed off, smaller parcel of land,” John Steitz, dog owner, said. ”It would severely affect my quality of life. Her and I come here literally every day. We hike four or five miles a day just to keep her and myself in shape. There’s such a wonderful community of people here.”
The cost of this project is at least $65,000. The park board said it will be funded through the National Park Service Grant.
“Maybe we’re in too much of a rush to find a find some sort of solution that satisfies these demarcations that we’re losing sight of the fact that this might be one of the best dog parks in the country,” Steitz said.
The construction is set to be completed this fall.
Minneapolis, MN
City of Minneapolis awards nearly $700,000 in first-ever Cultural Districts Arts Fund
The city of Minneapolis’ Arts & Cultural Affairs Department announced the awardees of its first-ever community arts fund awards, totaling $690,000, on Tuesday at a news conference at the Midtown Global Market. Seven districts in the city will benefit from the awards: 38th Street, Cedar Avenue South, Central Avenue, E. Lake Street, Franklin Avenue E., Lowry Avenue N., and W. Broadway.
“We’ve got art all throughout the city, in seven different cultural districts,” Mayor Jacob Frey said. “If you are seeing something you’re impressed by, there’s beautiful art that pops up on the street or there’s suddenly people dancing, that is probably the work of our incredible city team.”
There are three categories of awards: Cultural District Ambassadors ($15,000 each); Festival and Cultural Spaces Activation Program Awards (ranging from $15,500-$16,700), and Pop-Up Art & Cultural Activations Program ($5,000 each). Each district receives almost $100,000 spread across the three types of awards.
The Cultural Districts Arts Fund is the brainchild of Ben Johnson, the first-ever Arts & Cultural Affairs director. He started the job in March 2023, and in a little over a year created this initiative and secured funding for it. His department also set up a separate fund of a quarter of a million dollars for artists to take over vacant storefronts. Recipients will be announced mid-October.
Ashely Koudou, founder and CEO of Mango Day, a collective that works with artists, small businesses and entrepreneurs on marketing and branding, became the first-ever cultural district ambassador for Central Av.
She has a background in advertising and design. After joining Public Functionary Studios, an organization that helps people of color and marginalized artists’ grow and cultivate their art, she was inspired to work with artists on cultivating their businesses.
“With this [cultural district ambassador] initiative, we are able to take it to a different level,” Koudou said. “How do these artists show up in the consumer market?”
Johnson sees the awards as just the beginning.
Minneapolis, MN
Bde Maka Ska sailing center, boat ramp could move across the lake
Elias said the path’s design may be determined by the final location of the parkway, and the park board is primarily focused on preventing pedestrian-vehicle collisions.
The board initially recommended relocating the Bde Maka Ska boat launch and Minneapolis Sailing Center in the 2016 Lake Harriet and Bde Maka Ska master plan. In 2021, the park board commissioners asked staff to begin envisioning a new facility, according to Elias. Draft plans were introduced earlier this year.
After receiving community feedback on this initial draft, MPRB will develop a preferred concept.
“We are basically at square zero of a very long project,” Elias said.
He added that plans for funding the project will be determined in the future, noting that there is no set timeline.
“I think it’s safe to say this will not be a cheap project,” Elias said. “It will require financial resources from the sailing center and public funding sources to get across the finish line.”
-
News1 week ago
Cross-Tabs: September 2024 Times/Siena Polls in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina
-
World1 week ago
Czech main opposition party dominates regional elections
-
News1 week ago
Election 2024 Polls: Texas
-
Culture1 week ago
Michigan proved it can win ugly against USC. That’s all that matters — for now
-
Politics1 week ago
Andrew Cuomo slams 'defund the police' movement in fiery church speech: 'Dumbest words ever uttered'
-
Politics1 week ago
Elon Musk’s pro-Trump super PAC launches website to increase canvassers in battleground states
-
Sports1 week ago
Payet, Bolasie and Depay — why are so many random European players heading to Brazil?
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago
Charles Band’s ‘DEATH STREAMER’ (2024) – Movie Review – PopHorror