Run Minneapolis: Dupont and Emerson Ave N
I took down Dupont and Emerson Avenues in North Minneapolis from Olson Memorial Highway to Weber Parkway today.
My kick off spot was the Nice Ride location next to Summit Academy, because I considered winging it across the Camden bridge, so may have needed to pick up a bike in NE to get back around if I got too out of control on my loop.
In the end, I stuck to a straight N-S run. Summit Academy provided vocational training and have a green house on site that’s, I believe, used for training for green collar jobs.
Heading north, I passed through Sumner Field, which is looking great these days. This area has been transformed in recent years. Check out the link for more info.
And, park has free WiFi.
At Plymouth and Dupont, I noticed a fitness program sign. Is this unique to the area?
Entering the Old Highland neighborhood, I noticed that their public trash cans are well distributed and used as signage. The trash cans appear to be used as well, since there was a lot less trash on the streets in this part of my run than others.
Great Ciao, Inc is at the end of Dupont’s dead end to the south of Plymouth. This is one of the many food related warehouses in North Minneapolis. This business specializes in importing oils and cheeses for restaurants.
This is a good example of what well maintained or refurbished homes in Old Highland look like. Pretty awesome, eh?
I believe this is Ascension Catholic Elementary School, which is affiliate with Ascension Church.
Mt. Vernon Missionary Baptist Church’s service had just wrapped up as I was passing by.
Things were pretty quiet along Broadway at Dupont. Just over a month ago, a guy was shot multiple times at Dupont and 34th, but it was quiet when I passed by.
At 41st & Dupont is an old elementary school that has been converted into some sort of police establishment. Google describes it as Safe/Community Crime Prevention. The parking lot has police and inspections cars. Apparently, you get gated parking unless you’re handicapped.
The hoops are gone, and have been replaced with slam cams.
Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church is one of four congregations forming the Camden Lutheran Parish. A group of diverse Lutheran churches serving the community.
I ended up running into Webber Park, which looked beautiful on this fall day.
The bike paths are in fine shape in this part of town. Check them out, then grab a bite at Victory 44 or Papa’s Pizza.
At Emerson and 38th, I passed Sojourner Truth Academy, a charter elementary school that has been operating since 1999. Check out the demographics:
Our student population of 269 is 24% Hispanic and 75% African American with less than 2% Caucasian and Native American students. Twenty-three percent do not speak English as their primary language. Over 90% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch benefits.
That sounds like the type of school that could perform well and still not perform well on standardized tests.
St Bridget’s Church at Emerson and Dowling is a Catholic church in its 95th year. The current building was built in 1958.
I saw a lot of DFL candidate signs on this run, but this sign outside of a house with litter everywhere was the only one I saw for Joel Demos. Demos may have the hardest Republican job in the state of Minnesota: Running against Keith Ellison in the 5th District.
A few blocks further south was the site of a Habit for Humanity project. It’s great to see Habitat for Humanity refurbishing a property rather than building a new house from scratch. It seems like we currently have plenty of properties, but some are less than habitable, so investing resources into getting the current housing stock up to livable seems like a better option to me.
So Low Grocery Outlet is just that: an outlet for groceries. Things that don’t sell in regular grocery stores end up here for a variety of reasons. Johnny is a fan.
St. Olaf Lutheran Church, in the Jordan Neighborhood at 29th & Emerson, has a no-nonsense approach to Jesus’ teachings that is often missing from FOX News Christianity:
If you are looking for a church home that takes seriously the Christian mandate to serve the poor and seek social justice, then St. Olaf is for you.
THEMADONES M/C (Motorcycle Club) has been active since 1958, while calling a variety of bars around Minneapolis home. Their HQ is on Emerson.
The same block was home to two sets of shoefiti hanging from a mid-block powerline.
Kwanzaa Community Church‘s website is under construction, so I couldn’t find out what they’re all about.
The Upper Midwest American Indian Center, at Broadway and Emerson, started in 1937 to help American Indians moving to the Twin Cities find jobs. Their scope has expended to other human services over the years.
The Bean Scene is one of Broadway’s only coffee shops.
Emerson and Broadway is also home to some murals and trash can art, including this one.
Cross Connections is some sort of faith based meeting space with recording capabilities designed to “facilitate holistic reconciliation and transformation of North Minneapolis.” I think that means that they help get kids off the street by helping them record music.
Opened in 1915, the Sumner Community Library at Van White Memorial Boulevard and Olson Memorial Highway received its most recent renovation in 2004. It’s named after an abolitionist US Senator from Massachusetts, Charles Sumner.
Just to the south of Olson Memorial Highway on Van White Memorial Boulevard is an assisted living community called Heritage Commons at Ponds Edge, which includes this great new lake and trails.
By the way, Van White was Minneapolis’ first black city council member, serving from 1980-1989. His Wikipedia page could use some work.
Glendale Seventh-Day Adventist Church is just south of Heritage Commons. Their anti-caffeine stance is too hardcore for me.
I snapped this shot from Dupont just north of Glenwood, then headed back to my car.
Amazingly, I didn’t see any other runners, recreational bikers, roller bladers, etc., over the 9 miles of this run.
Overall, an excellent tour through north Minneapolis. My only issue was a kid on a dirt bike around 8 who asked me “Are you jogging?” No, little guy. I call this running. Can’t you tell from the Doppler effect as I pass you?
September 27th, 2010 at 8:19 am
Glad you enjoyed Sumner (Heritage Park). That’s one our company’s proudest accomplishments (before my time).
Last week I worked on one of the Habitat houses near the ones you ran by. President and Mrs. Carter will be working there next week.
Oh, and one small correction. Dowling Ave, not 38th. 38th is in Robbinsdale, Dowling is in Minneapolis.
September 27th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Great write-up! I love reading about your runs over north, come up here more often!
I’ve never seen those yellow fitness promotion signs – I’m gonna be on the look out now – cool.
The two pairs of shoes on the power lines on Emerson were written about here:
http://adventuresofjohnnynorthside.blogspot.com/2010/06/one-last-successful-shoe-patrol-mission.html
The shoes are in an odd place to get to, a chain link fence sits right underneath them, there is an odd embankment and on that particular night some thuggy domestic disturbance forced us to give up and get the H out of there.
Deets, if you got any ideas on how to get them down, you have until the end of October to figure it out, then I know a certain somebody would love to try and tackle the problem with you!
(I thought it was funny in a sad kind of way when the people living at those houses kept asking us “why are yall doing that” and I would reply, “it’s like picking up trash dangling in the sky”. They still didn’t get it.)
September 27th, 2010 at 10:29 am
Great pics! How you managed to not get a single pedestrian in any of those shots is a mystery to me.
Some off subject comments:
Who owns the clubhouse on 26th and Fremont?
That “art” on those trash cans may be iconic by now but it do nothing to promote the community or foster an atmosphere of hope or growth. Displays of public “art” such as these only validate anti-establishment stereotypes that prevent youth from seeing the potential of their own development. Please put this “art” in a museum and replace those trash cans with something that would actually encourage people to use them.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:14 am
Joel, there is no club house at 26th/Fremont. Did you mean this yellow one that Deets has pictured? That is on Emerson, around 27th or 29th, on the east side of Emerson.
Or did you mean the one on 26th and Girard?(which Deets does not feature here)
Let me know which one and I’ll try to get an answer for you.
BTW, I agree on the trash can art, I like the Old Highland stencils, but I don’t care much for the other art. However I do realize someone else cares for it and I’ll let them have their trash can art. We should just counter balance it with more trashcans with less controversial stuff on them. Or how about no painting, just the plain aggregate finish that it comes with.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Ya, I guess that is 26th and Girard. It’s a brown building that hosts some kind of biker group events occasionally. Just wondering who they are.
Well, the way I look at it there is less “art” and more political statement on those trash cans. These Garbage Cans seem to be public property to my knowledge and as such they should not be the venue for the artists veiled contempt for social norms.
The continued display and use as community funded infrastructure gives credence to the authors suggestions of collusion between the US Government and Big Business with the American people as a naive consumer forced to ingesting commodities to maintain the economy. Whether or not this is a valid assumption is not the point. The artist is certainly welcome to post this “art” on their own property but as a public it only adds to the climate of antisocial sentiment in this community.
Can’t we find some less obtrusive symbolism for public art that displays skill and workmanship without the ever present subliminal messages that we are a community in turmoil?
December 22nd, 2011 at 10:31 pm
The yellow and red house on emerson belongs to themadones mc. A white motorcycle club that has been around from 1958 to present