Everyone keeps waiting for a monster run out of the Timberwolves to surge up the Western Conference standings and grab a top-three seed. Surely, it’s right around the corner.

Now seemed like a good time for one. Minnesota went into the All-Star break with two consecutive wins and emerged post-break with a win over the banged-up Mavericks. Trade deadline acquisition Ayo Dosunmu had a few days to better acclimate himself to his teammates and surroundings. Anthony Edwards noted he could play more consistent defense the rest of the way.

The stage was set for sustained success. And then came another egg Sunday against the 76ers. The the Wolves were loose defensively and careless on offense, and the result was a blowout loss.

Still waiting.

Edwards was quick to note that Minnesota was without two of its top six players on Sunday, suspended Rudy Gobert and injured Naz Reid. Both players figure to be back in uniform Tuesday night in Portland.

But Philadelphia was also down two starters, Paul George and Joel Embiid. That’s the reality for most teams. Frankly, the Wolves have been one of the healthiest teams in the NBA this season. Many of their wins in 2026 have come against teams severely worse off on the injury report.

Which has made it all the more flummoxing as to why Minnesota hasn’t been able to find its gear and shoot up the standings. Instead, the Timberwolves remains locked in a tight quarrel with the likes of Denver, Houston, Phoenix and the Lakers. All of those teams have been without key players for large chunks of the season.

Austin Reaves has missed 26 games for the Lakers, Luka Doncic has missed 12. Aaron Gordon has missed 35 games for Denver, and counting, while Nikola Jokic has missed 16.

Meanwhile, Minnesota’s top six players have missed 16 games … combined.

That a testament to the Timberwolves’s training staff and their players’ willingness and ability to suit up each night. But such availability has yet to lead to consistently positive results. There’s been no elongated stretch of results to demonstrate the team’s high-end ceiling, only mere blips of a game here or there against the league’s best.

It all raises the question for these Wolves: Is excellence in there?

They currently sport the NBA’s ninth-best defensive rating, 10th-best offensive rating and ninth-best net rating. All good, nothing great.

Keep in mind, the 2022-23 Denver Nuggets were the only NBA champion since 2012 to lift the trophy with a regular season net rating south of +5.5. Minnesota’s is currently +4.1.

And there’s no excuse, no injuries or preseason roster reshuffling to help explain it. It’s simply a team that struggles to string together excellent performances.

The depth doesn’t appear to be there, nor is the consistency — at the collective and individual levels.

Minnesota has reached the Western Conference Finals the past two seasons. That recent history allots the team a certain level of cachet, a belief that things will get better.

There is still nearly a third of the season remaining to figure things out. But it’s possible the truth is staring us all in the face. Maybe this simply isn’t a title contender, which would fly directly in the face of this team’s stated aspirations.

There are two months left to prove otherwise. This three-game road trip is a good place to start.

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Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos has been named the Minnesota Orchestra’s principal guest conductor, the first person to hold that position in 40 years.

“As a young music student still forming a musical identity, I was deeply inspired by the Minnesota Orchestra’s recordings with the legendary Dimitri Mitropoulos,” Kavakos said in a news release. “The orchestra produces a sound of rare warmth and flexibility, an element that has impressed me since my debut as a soloist in the 1990s.”

A native of Athens, Kavakos has been a regular soloist since 1995. He first conducted the orchestra in a May 2023 program featuring Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 and Bach’s Violin Concerto No. 1. His most recent appearance, in October, saw him leading Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15.

Beginning in fall 2027, the three-year appointment will feature Kavakos in three weeks of subscription concerts each season, including conducting the orchestra at least twice a season. He’ll also appear in additional concerts and artistic projects as soloist or chamber music collaborator.

Kavakos has performed with and led orchestras around the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony and Barcelona Symphony. In 2022, he founded the ApollΩn Ensemble, a chamber group of Greek musicians.

Leonard Slatkin held the principal guest conductor role from 1975 to 1979, followed by Klaus Tennstedt from 1979 to 1982 and Charles Dutoit from 1983 to 1986.

“We are very happy to welcome Leonidas Kavakos into this new role,” said music director Thomas Søndergård. “He is an artist of great integrity and creativity who will bring conviction, passion and interesting projects to our orchestra and audiences.”

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City Limits rounds up the latest housing and land use-related events and public hearings, plus affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani at an apartment building in the Bronx last month announcing his planned Rental Ripoff hearings, the first of which kick off Thursday. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Welcome to City Limits’ NYC Housing Calendar, a weekly feature where we round up the latest housing and land use-related events and hearings, as well as affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.

Know of an event we should include in next week’s calendar? Email us.

Upcoming housing and land use-related events:

Monday, Feb. 23 at 6 p.m.: The Department of City Planning will host an online webinar explaining the recent housing-related City Charter revisions passed by city voters in November. More here.

Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 9:30 a.m.: The Landmarks Preservation Commission will meet. More here.

Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 6 p.m.: Neighbors Helping Neighbors and the Fair Housing Justice Center will present an online workshop about housing discrimination for homebuyers. More here.

Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 9 a.m.: The State Senate’s Housing, Construction and Community Development Committee will meet. More here.

Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 2 p.m.: The State Senate and State Assembly will hold a public hearing on housing in the governor’s 2026 Executive Budget. More here.

Thursday, Feb, 26 at 10 a.m.: The City Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings will hold an oversight hearing on preserving affordable housing in distressed properties, including through the city’s Third-Party Transfer Program. More here.

Thursday, Feb. 26, 5:30 to 7 p.m. or 7 to 8:30 p.m.: The Mamdani administration will hold its first Rental Ripoff hearings in Downtown Brooklyn for tenants to testify about issues they face as renters. Advanced registration is required and space is limited. More here.

Monday, March 2 at 1 p.m.: The City Planning Commission will hold a public review session. More here.

NYC Affordable Housing Lotteries: The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) will close lotteries on the following subsidized buildings this week.

183-03 Hillside Avenue Apartments, Queens, for households earning between $99,875 – $189,540 (last day to apply is 2/24)

Aura, Queens, for households earning between $104,023 – $189,540 (last day to apply is 2/25)

36 India Street Apartments, Brooklyn, for households earning between $131,898 – $227,500 (last day to apply is 2/25)

Willets Point Commons, for households earning between $20,469 – $301,350 (last day to apply is 2/25)

827 Sterling Place, Brooklyn, for households earning between $96,960 – $189,540 (last day to apply is 2/26)

779 East 181 Street Apartments, Bronx, for households earning between $81,326 – $116,640 (last day to apply is 2/26)

Belle Eden Apartments, Bronx, for households earning between $4,320 – $210,000 (last day to apply is 2/27)

815 Kings Highway Apartments, Brooklyn, for households earning between $143,898 – $227,500 (last day to apply is 3/2)

To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post NYC Housing Calendar, Feb. 23-March 2 appeared first on City Limits.

Liz Templin, a retired University of Minnesota Extension educator, arrived in Puerto Vallarta in mid-January for her 12th trip to the Mexican resort community she considers a second home. Restaurants were mostly closed or unusually short on customers on Sunday morning, and Templin and her husband Mike Robertson hadn’t checked email or social media before sitting down toward noon at the popular but strangely empty Coco’s Kitchen, where a visibly frightened server showed them the news.

The Mexican government had killed the infamous boss of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel in a massive shoot-out that claimed the lives of some 25 soldiers. In retaliation, gangsters took to the streets to light vehicles and businesses on fire, carjack cars and buses, and cause mayhem across multiple states.

Within minutes, Coco’s Kitchen had shuttered, with restaurant staff planning on spending the night because they lived far away and streets were closing, said Templin, in a phone interview on Monday afternoon. The Stillwater couple, who are in their 70s, returned to their hotel, following orders by the U.S. State Department for Americans to shelter in place.

A couple they had dinner with the night before had rented a hotel room above a convenience store that was firebombed.

“Their unit is basically uninhabitable,” said Robertson, a former city manager in Isanti, Oak Park Heights, Otsego and North Oaks. “The hotel is full and had no rooms for them. Last we heard, they were going to lay down on the beach and wrap themselves in beach towels.”

Then came word that a man had been stepping out of the hotel’s front door when a motorcycle drove by. The driver reportedly motioned for him to go back inside before throwing an incendiary device into the nearby OXXO convenience store, setting it ablaze. Those behind the mayhem apparently took pains to avoid loss of life in tourist areas, even as they maximized fear and confusion.

Similar scenes played out for hours Sunday across the Mexican state of Jalisco and bordering communities. However, American travelers who had been told to shelter in place during the unrest reported signs of normalcy returning to Puerto Vallarta early Monday afternoon. Stores reopened even as flights from the U.S. remained canceled 24 hours after the killing of the cartel boss known as “El Mencho” by the Mexican government drew retaliatory street violence.

Locals and tourists live in the same area

Located about a 24-hour drive directly south of Los Angeles, the resort town and port community on Jalisco’s Pacific Coast has developed a reputation among U.S. travelers as a more low-key and family-friendly alternative to Cancun.

Its town-based economy and cultural vibe span street vendors who sell mementos year-round paying homage to famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and the Day of the Dead, and themed boat tours that host pirate shows by day and shoot fireworks that light up the bay at night.

“This is an area where the locals and the tourists live in the same area,” Robertson said. “It’s not like one of those U-shaped resorts designed to keep locals out. There’s an elementary school two blocks away. We’ve gotten to know locals, and the weather is near-perfect. It’s in the 80s every single day. A lot of the restaurants have great music at night. There’s craft classes that Liz likes to take.”

Many Americans have long considered Puerto Vallarta a safe and even idyllic destination, even as cartel violence has impacted neighboring states. Robertson acknowledged that the violence had pierced that sense of calm and given him some pause about returning.

“I was watching the hockey game and heard some bangs,” wrote Jay Baer, a Bloomington, Ind., man who owns vacation property in Puerto Vallarta and edits an online digest about tequilas, on Facebook on Sunday afternoon. “Went outside and saw smoke. More and more vehicles were burned, all around the bay. … Around two hours ago, it progressed to property fires. Gas stations and convenience stores, mostly.”

“The (convenience) store just down from my house was firebombed about noon,” Baer went on to write. “A taxi on our corner was also lit on fire… There are cartel members on motorcycles zipping around with guns, setting fires. Police and the army are pursuing, although mostly in the Versailles neighborhood, and near the airport. Very little vehicle traffic here … because all the roads in/out are blocked. There is a military troop ship circling in the ocean, in front of our house.”

By early Monday afternoon, Baer was pleased to report the atmosphere was “very calm today. Stores and shops are reopening. Streets are very deserted compared to usual. School is closed. All flights canceled. But things are slowly returning to normal. Hopefully nothing else happens today.”

Robertson ventured a walk near his hotel around noon Monday, and for the first time ever saw no swimmers at the pier. Police cars were visible, but soldiers were not, and there were no street vendors in the seaside promenade.

“This morning, two restaurants were open for takeout food,” Templin said. “They both have very long lines.”

Despite the unrest, Templin and Robertson — who were scheduled to return to Minnesota toward the end of this week — said they hoped to come back to Puerto Vallarta a year from now for their annual five-week vacation, provided both the U.S. State Department and their local contacts can vouch that things have returned to normal.

Templin said she gotten to know the family behind her favorite breakfast location and would keep in touch.

“I really hope tourists do come back, because so many businesses are based on that,” she said. “So many families, their whole life is based on that.”

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