Monday, September 28, 2015

9 Revealing Moments from John Champe's Whittier Alliance Book

Lisa Goodman went to war with an inflatable Godzilla over these apartments.

Last week, I read the first two chapters from a forthcoming book about the Whittier Alliance. As it turns out, this stuff from 2015 goes back a quarter century, including bylaws shenanigans and reacting to criticism with rules against "defamation."

The author is John Champe, who is an anthropology professor at the University of Minnesota. Instead of lost tribes of the Amazon, he decided to study the far less civilized world of Minneapolis neighborhood associations. I especially appreciated the insanity of Chapter 2. And if you like giant inflatable Godzilla-based protests against affordable housing, give Chapter 1 a look.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

"The Planning Commission" Pre-Show Panel

We're minutes away from tonight's Planning Commission (view the trailer). Linden Hills is on the agenda. It's Nick Magrino's first meeting as a commissioner. There's probably at least one Sabri on the agenda. Let's go to our panel!