New Winner Declared After LHENA Election Recount

A series of email requests for vote totals from a @WedgeLIVE Senior Producer was followed by an official recount, bringing a change in results from April 15th's LHENA Board election. Jono Cowgill, who had previously trailed by two votes for the final two-year term, gained enough votes in a recount process to be declared a winner on Sunday.

Annual Meeting Brings Change, Raises Questions

Council Member Lisa Bender speaks at LHENA's 2015 annual meeting.

Last week, in an effort to get others elected to LHENA's Board of Directors, I failed miserably and got myself elected instead. Turnout was surprisingly high. I thought we were doomed, but strange new faces began arriving later in the evening, closer to the advertised election time, providing hope.

Yard Sign Report: The Forgotten South Wedge Transient District

One of 11 LHENA yard signs.

As part of our non-stop, team coverage of the upcoming LHENA election and annual meeting, I hopped on a bike to map the location of promotional yard signs.

The Historic Wedge Newspaper

Two of the early hand-drawn front pages.

Last fall, the @WedgeLIVE news team spent an insane number of hours in the remarkably luxurious and well-equipped Special Collections room of the Minneapolis Central Library, doing what no one else thought possible or necessary: scanning nearly 40 years of the Wedge neighborhood newspaper going back to 1970.

LHENA Loans: The Ongoing Saga

For the previous installment of the LHENA Loans Saga see this post.

Here's the new proposal from last month's board meeting, which completely disregards the spirit of what was done in November. All the "free" money (0%, forgivable), and the resistance of some folks to placing income restrictions on that free money, is something I have always found puzzling. It occurred to me today to do the math on the distribution of housing money broken down by building size.

Houshold data from mncompass.org.