A protest concert and a rally against the immigration crackdown in Minnesota drew crowds braving single digit temperatures to downtown Minneapolis Friday.

The First Avenue protest concert kicked off at noon with fans gathered to see Tom Morello and a special guest, who turned out to be Bruce Springsteen. The show was scheduled to wrap up by 2 p.m. in time for a “day of action” protest march through downtown. Last Friday, tens of thousands turned for a rally across downtown and images of massive crowds drew global attention.

An hour before the concert, only a few protesters were on the street corner outside First Avenue, but they stood out. One wore a white bunny costume, with the sign “Some Bunny Hates ICE.” Another was in a green frog costume and held a sign with Neil Young lyrics on one side and words from Morello’s Rage Against the Machine on the other.

Dozens of fans braved below-zero windchills to see if extra tickets to the sold-out show would became available. One woman held up in fingerless glovers a purple Post-It note saying “one ticket.” One man had a message written on the medical mask he wore: “I need one. Can I be your guest?”

Extra tickets

Ryan Johnson from Mound arrived a half hour before the show with additional tickets and brought two older ladies, including one big Springsteen fan who was waiting in the cold since before 8 a.m. That woman, who didn’t want to be identified, said she came downtown after ensuring kids in her neighborhood weren’t bothered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on their way to school Friday morning.

Johnson heard how long she had been waiting outside First Ave. and said, “We need to get you out of the cold.”

Dozens of music fans waited for the small chance to get inside went from shivering to whooping when a few of them got rewarded. They cheered as if they had just won a prize on a TV game show.

One man in a Minnesota United jacket wasn’t able to bring his kids, so he gave extra tickets to some men in line, including one who said he drove up from Iowa City, Iowa, on the off chance he could get to the show.

“Wooo!” the Iowa man shouted as he strode inside the venue. “(Expletive) ICE!”

‘It’s just not right’

Tom Albers of St. Paul planned to attend the march after the concert.

“I just can’t believe that the government is behaving like they are,” Albers said. “It just flies in face of everything I thought this country was about. It’s just wrong. I can’t justify it in my brain. I’ve never done anything like this before. I just can’t sit still. It’s just not right.”

The most-upsetting thing to Albers is the federal government’s narrative. For instance, their description of Alex Pretti’s fatal shooting in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 did not align with actions seen in the witness videos.

“I can’t believe they lie about what is taking place,” Albers said. “That is the biggest offense to me. I can’t stomach what they are doing, but I really can’t stomach the boldface lies they are telling and want people to believe that is happening.”

Albers said he and his wife Jean have been delivering food for people in need. He said they have a Latino housekeeper who is documented, but won’t come to work. Albers understands her situation and is continuing to pay her.

“I think people are just afraid that their neighbors don’t look like them,” Albers said. “That is really upsetting. I think that is what Minnesota recognizes. I’ve heard a lot of talk about what makes Minnesota different and why we are reacting like we are. We care about people and that is what this is about.”

Meanwhile, organizers have called for a “nationwide day of action” Friday and officials from nearly 2,000 organizations have said they plan to participate, including labor, community and student organizations, as well as hundreds of small businesses, organizers say. The rally in Minneapolis was to take place in front of the Hennepin County Government Center.

Organizers also called for a general strike Friday, similar to the one a week ago in which they urged “no school, no work, no shopping.”

By MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard on Friday found debris and a body after launching a search for a fishing vessel in distress off Massachusetts.

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The search began after the Coast Guard said it received an emergency alert from the 72-foot fishing vessel Lily Jean early Friday located about 25 miles off Cape Ann. It is unclear how many people were on the vessel.

The Coast Guard said it tried unsuccessfully to contact the vessel and then launched a search that included an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew, a small boat crew and the Coast Guard Cutter Thunder Bay.

They found a debris field and recovered one person from the water who was unresponsive. They also found an empty life raft.

At the time of the emergency alert, the National Weather Service said wind speeds out at sea were around 27 mph (24 knots) with waves around four feet high. It was 12 degrees with water temperatures about 39 degrees.

Gloucester Council President Tony Gross, a retired fisherman, called it a “huge tragedy for this community.”

“The families are just devastated at this point,” Gross said. “They are half full of hope and half full of dread, I would imagine.”

Gross described conditions on the water as “fishable” but that it wouldn’t take much for ice to build up on the vessel.

“That is what people are thinking right now, that there was ice buildup and that made the boat unstable,” he said.

“Monitor Point is a win for everyone: the MTA gets a new facility, the community gains open space and housing, and the city moves forward with its promise to build more affordable homes.”

A rendering of the Monitor Point development proposed for the Greenpoint waterfront. (FXCollaborative Architects)

You don’t have to live long in Williamsburg or Greenpoint to know New York is becoming too expensive for working families. Rents are out of control, and far too many of our neighbors are being priced out of the communities they’ve called home for generations.

As president of the Cooper Park Residents Council, I see every day how the housing crisis affects seniors, parents, and young people who are just trying to stay in the city they love. That’s why I’m supporting the Monitor Point project. We need more deeply affordable housing, and we need it now.

My family and I have called Williamsburg home for decades. This is where I was raised, and it’s where I chose to raise my family. I’ve fought for years to make sure public housing residents have heat in the winter, safe homes, and a voice in what happens in our neighborhoods. But as rents rise and affordable homes disappear, too many longtime New Yorkers are being left behind. Monitor Point offers a real opportunity to change that.

The proposal would bring 1,150 new homes to Greenpoint, with 40 percent permanently affordable, including units affordable to families earning 40 to 60 percent of the area median income. Those are the rent levels working people, teachers, home health aides, transit workers, and seniors on fixed incomes can actually afford.

Just as important, Monitor Point would create hundreds of good jobs during construction and afterward. It would restore and connect waterfront park space, opening up new access for local residents. The developer is also covering the cost to relocate and modernize an outdated MTA facility, freeing up public land for public good.

The redevelopment provides affordable housing designed for accessibility, creating an inclusive, accessible environment for residents and visitors of all ages and abilities. This ensures that families like mine, with members who use wheelchairs, can fully enjoy Monitor Point’s new amenities.

This project represents what we’ve been asking for: development that benefits the community, protects our environment, and invests in affordability. It will include $15 million in environmental remediation and shoreline stabilization, making the waterfront safer and more resilient.

Monitor Point is a win for everyone: the MTA gets a new facility, the community gains open space and housing, and the city moves forward with its promise to build more affordable homes.

Public land should serve the public good. If we want a fairer, more livable city, we need to support projects like this one. 

Debra Benders is the residents council president at NYCHA’s Cooper Park Houses.

The post Opinion: Why I Support the Monitor Point Project appeared first on City Limits.

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents voted 12-0 on Friday to approve a preliminary agreement that sets the framework for a new 10-year partnership with Fairview Health Services and the M Physicians faculty practice.

The three-way settlement agreement, hashed out over the course of seven weeks with the assistance of a team of mediators, preserves the 30-year partnership between the three institutions, while sunsetting the six-year-old “M Health Fairview” brand.

Rebecca Cunningham. (Courtesy of the University of Minnesota)

“There is a win for our health and healthcare practitioners … and it’s a win for Minnesota,” said U president Rebecca Cunningham. “The news around health and healthcare affects so many across the university and across the state.”

“This agreement is a milestone and now we have clarity and stability, and with clarity and stability, we can serve Minnesota better … and grow in our national competitiveness,” she added.

‘Strategic pivot’

Key roles will change, said Cunningham, who called the preliminary agreement “a strategic pivot, instead of a joint venture like the current model.”

Fairview will be more firmly in charge of hospital operations, while dedicating $1 billion in funding to update medical facilities on the U campus over the course of the decade. Fairview will also provide $50 million in annual funding for the medical school, with the “potential for additional funding based on system performance,” according to a joint announcement.

At the same time, the framework “clarifies our non-exclusive relationship with Fairview,” allowing for “additional and expanded partnerships to advance high-quality care across Minnesota,” Cunningham said.

Leadership council

A new leadership council aims to improve collaboration between the university, Fairview and M Physicians, and a future program will help residents of rural Minnesota access specialized care, backed by an initial commitment of $10 million from Fairview.

University officials have noted that the M Health Fairview brand provides medical services for 1.2 million people annually and trains 70% of Minnesota doctors, and they scrambled last year to preserve its core components after being initially shut out of negotiations between Fairview and the M Physicians group.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office, which regulates charities, became involved in discussions and assisted with finding mediators.

The new framework sets the stage for three separate “definitive agreements,” which have yet to be finalized. They include the academic affiliation agreement between the U and Fairview, the master agreement between M Physicians and the U, and an amendment to the Fairview/M Physicians “stability agreement” that was agreed upon last November, as well as a new lease for the U’s Clinics and Surgery Center in Minneapolis.

Medical school dean departs

Also Friday, the Board of Regents bid farewell after nine years to University of Minnesota Medical School Dean Jakub Tolar, who has been named the new president, chief executive officer and executive dean of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

In his place, the regents on Friday unanimously approved a two-year appointment for Dr. Carol Bradford to serve as both dean of the medical school and interim executive vice president for Health Affairs.

Bradford has been dean of the Ohio State University College of Medicine and vice president for Health Sciences at its Wexner Medical Center since September 2020.

She is a past president of the American Academy of Otolaryngology and former executive vice dean for academic affairs at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Moment of silence

Regent Joel Bergstrom closed Friday’s meeting with a moment of silence in memory of University of Minnesota alum Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse, and Renee Good, two protesters killed by federal agents this month.

Bergstrom also made a personal plea for an end to Operation Metro Surge, the federal Department of Homeland Security initiative that has sent as many as 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota, most of them concentrated in the Twin Cities.

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“As the university community, we continue grieving for the loss of life, which includes one of our own,” said Cunningham, at the outset of the meeting, while praising the ways in which university students, faculty and staff were supporting each other.

“It gives me hope,” she said. “We can be a light in this time.”