American and Ukrainian flags whipped in a cold March wind above a packed parking lot in Northeast Minneapolis. Two other blue and yellow flags welcomed visitors to the entryway of the Ukrainian American Community Center. Inside, more than 300 ticket holders were gathered in a large utilitarian meeting space dressed with suspended ceiling drapes, colored accent lights and a stage. A regiment of round tables sparkled with glasses, favors, flatware and people. Bottles of wine and a soft Ukrainian rye beverage labeled KBAC were huddled together with vases of yellow tulips. Irina Fursman’s glass was irrigated with wine poured by…
Author: Jeff Strate
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Jeff Strate
An Eden Prairie resident since 1994, Jeff has served as an organizer for local open-space initiatives and get-out-the-vote parks referenda. He has also served on the Eden Prairie Human Rights and Diversity Commission, conservation area task forces, the Southwest Light Rail Community Advisory Committee and the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Land Trust. Jeff studied journalism and mass communication at the U of MN and has been a producer/writer and occasional on-camera figure in the Twin Cities, New York, Boston, and Trenton. Jeff has written for websites and magazines and has produced award-winning access programing through Southwest Community Television (SWTV).
Tom Anderson chuckled as he held up a stuffed, fake lion tail and honked a bicycle horn, props he sometimes uses during monthly meetings of the Eden Prairie Lions Club. Host Patti Wendling smiled and asked a few questions. The two appear on one of the inaugural episodes of the “Eden Prairie Lions Show,” a community access series on Comcast Channel 15. Sunday night, their competition was the 2023 Oscar telecast on ABC. The Eden Prairie Lions use the studio, video gear and training provided by partners Southwest Community Television (SWTV) and Bloomington Community Access Television (BCAT). SWTV schedules the…
A buried “impediment,” detected by Kenilworth Tunnel construction workers in Minneapolis, has turned out to be a large slab of concrete. As part of its ongoing coverage of the Metro Green Line project, the Star Tribune reported on Thursday, March 3, that the slab had been removed earlier the same day. Project spokesperson Trevor Roy explained in an email to EPLN on Monday that “It remains too early to say what impact if any the removal [of the slab] will have on tunnel construction.” The cut-and-cover light rail tunnel site, a bit north of the Lake Street bridge near Bde…
Editor’s note: The article originally published on Feb. 18 has been republished on Feb. 21 with updated information and corrections. Demolition crews and bulldozers began preparing the right-of-way for the Southwest Light Rail line from Eden Prairie to downtown Minneapolis in 2019. Through December, 3,957 construction workers have received paychecks for what is now branded the Metro Green Line Extension. Most of them — 3,208 — are Minnesotans. Of the project’s non-administrative/non-managerial workforce, 23.8% have been people of color and indigenous; 8.4% have been women. The Met Council’s “disaggregated,” ethnic breakdown of the workforce shows 2.8% are Asian, 6% Black,…
Comprehensive photo presentations of major LRT heavy construction sites during 2022 are now available for viewing courtesy of the Metro Green Line Extension Office and the Met Council. They provide more complete visual overviews than those provided by regional and community news outlets, including Eden Prairie Local News. Video presentation: 2022 Metro Green Line Extension Construction Highlights (3 minutes, 47 seconds). Click here. Slide presentation: Metro Green Line Extension Update. Click here. Both the video and slideshow include photos of major work sites from SouthWest Station through to Kenilworth Tunnel and downtown Minneapolis. The video features a number of paired…
Monday afternoon, Mark Weber, Jeff Strate and David Lindahl took a moment to have their picture taken for Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN). The trio had just set up EPLN’s holiday kiosk at Eden Prairie Center mall. They happen to be board members of your online newspaper and are known for their community work. EPLN staffers — reporters, editors, photographers and support staff — will be at EP Center mall through Friday, Dec. 23. Our kiosk is set on the second-level walkway between AMC Theatres and the food court. Photographer Gillian Holte hosted the kiosk Monday evening. She was there…
The platform of the Golden Triangle light rail station last Friday was flocked with snow. Work shoe impressions passed under signs that read: “to SouthWest Station” and “to Union Depot.” No passengers will board LRT cars here until, maybe, 2027. Two sets of rails cross adjacent West 70th Street to the south. To the north, those rails ascend a viaduct over Shady Oak Road and Highway 212. They will remain unused until traction power stations, catenary towers, power lines, signals and safety gates have been installed and tested. Only then will the line’s Siemens-built light rail cars cruise between Metro…
Eden Prairie is settling into the communal, family, feasting and sharing spirit of Thanksgiving this week. So, too, is our troubled nation. This is good. When in the slow lane, we rediscover the color, texture and genius of our families and neighbors. Mid-summer’s PeopleFest invited us to, similarly, take good measure of our Eden Prairie community; to discover its multicultural mojo. PeopleFest is a 10-day series of informing presentations that help reveal the cultural threads, abilities and talents common to EP residents through literature, dance, music, food and the plastic arts. Click here for details. On Sunday, July 31, PeopleFest…
The Graffiti Bridge made famous by rock legend Prince is long gone. But another graffiti bridge still stands in the same suburban community.
Wednesday morning, one of Eden Prairie’s smaller conservation areas boldly signaled that the color-saturated phase of autumn had begun. Around the turn of the previous century, humble Birch Island Woods was making statewide news. The Friends of Birch Island Woods had formed. Guided tours, Haunted Woods walks and the first of the Birch Island Woods Plant Sales at the Picha Heritage Farm had become elements of a campaign to rescue a Hennepin County swath of woods and wetlands from development. But on the morning of Oct. 5, 2022, there were no TV news crews or Eden Prairie News and Sun…