Longfellow Whatever is a reader-funded news project focused on the fine-grained details of life in the Longfellow communities of Minneapolis (Longfellow, Cooper, Howe, and Hiawatha).
Subscribers get frequent, brief updates delivered to their inbox in a tone somewhere between a local newspaper and dispatches from a plugged-in friend: How’s construction coming along on that new restaurant? What does that business in the tiny corner space actually do? What's the plan for that vacant building? Who's behind that iconic holiday lights display or landscaping oddity? How’s business lately at your favorite cafe, movie theater, grocer, or auto shop?
More about how it works: Frequently asked questions.
🙋 Frequently asked questions
More about this whole deal.
🏗️ New development planned for small lot at 28th and Lake
The planned "Lola Lofts" include 16 units of market-rate apartments and two ground-floor retail spaces.
🗓 Whenever Wherever: June events calendar
A roundup of hundreds of events in Longfellow this month.
🌼 May roundup
George Floyd retrospectives, poetry on 41st, a neighborhood angle on the Timberwolves series, summer movies, and much more.
🎪 Wonderland Amusement Park opened 120 years ago today
A detailed look at the 10-acre destination for high-tech merriment that once stood at 31st and Lake.
⚜️ Lagniappe and Du Nord Cocktail Room are closing
The closure marks the end of an eight-month run for the conjoined eateries that anchored the Historic Coliseum Building at 27th and Lake.
💃 Exploring the Minnehaha Dance District
The four studios clustered on Minnehaha Avenue are coming together for a joint daylong dance party May 31.
⚽️ Soccer field coming to former Odd Fellows site while it awaits redevelopment
Construction is underway on a soccer field at 27th and Lake Street, bringing some life to a prominent vacant lot that is still at least two years away from redevelopment. The semi-public field and event area is scheduled to open next month, one of several bursts of programming on vacant
☕️ Specialty coffee shop opening inside Okome House next week
Red Coral Coffee will open inside Okome House next week, operating during the daytime hours when the Japanese cafe is closed.
🌼 Mid-May Misc: Arya Cafe moving into former Cafe Ceres space
A new coffee shop on the way, a unique compound on the market, a full summer on the Lynette patio, DFL endorsements for city council, and much more.
🍺 Hop growing season is underway at 38th and Cheatham
The team of volunteers will meet weekly through the rest of the summer to tend the plot — and, just as much or moreso, hang out and drink beer.
👕 This year's East Lake Liquor t-shirt color is...
An exclusive sneak peek at this year's variation of the unofficial neighborhood uniform.
🥐 Laune Bread wants to buy your rhubarb
The locally-sourced bakery just finished using up the 1,007 pounds of rhubarb it bought from neighbors last spring.
🗓 Whenever Wherever: May events calendar
A roundup of hundreds of events in Longfellow this month.
🌷 April Miscellanea
A cats-only salon, traffic calming projects, construction at Minnehaha Academy, explaining the extra plane traffic, and much more.
🏡 Strolling the suburban-style "Luella A. Anderson" neighborhood, with Andy Sturdevant
The "Luella A. Anderson" development stands out to anyone who wanders the southern reaches of Longfellow, even if they don't know it by name. It's a place where the neatly-gridded, bungalow-lined streets are suddenly interrupted by curving roads of postwar homes, often architecturally ambitious,
🥬 Chard Your Yard kicking off its annual garden building spree
Nobody can accuse Chard Your Yard of mission creep. For 13 years, the grassroots group has maintained a singular focus: Building raised garden beds for people in Longfellow, filled with high-quality soil, in order to spread the good gospel of growing your own food. All done by volunteers, once per
☔ Mid-month miscellanea: April
A jam-packed rundown of mid-April neighborhood happenings.
🚦 46th and Hiawatha intersection will be reworked next year
The changes will remove lanes from 46th Street and add a new pedestrian stoplight.
🛶 A new canoe take-out trail is coming to the south end of the river gorge
The new trail will traverse a gully just south of the Horace W.S. Cleveland Overlook at 44th Street.
🌷 Spring is almost sprung at Northerly Flora
As we speak, some of the 15,000 tulips planted behind Northerly Flora's 42nd Avenue studio are beginning to poke out of the soil.
🗓 Whenever Wherever: April events calendar
A roundup of hundreds of events in Longfellow this month.
🍀 March Whatevers: Monthly miscellanea
Heroic Goods is closing for happy reasons, lean times at Turquoise Vintage, Asian Duck reopens, mysterious lightpole art, and more.
🏘️ Push to rename Edmund Boulevard gaining momentum
The idyllic street is named for a land developer who pioneered the use of racially restrictive deeds in Minneapolis.
⛪️ The Longfellow church that redefined modern religious architecture
The unusual case of the Saarinens at Christ Church Lutheran.
📚 MPS eyeing vacant Cooper School for new home of Anishinabe Academy
A task force recommended the site as the permanent home for the academy, which has shared a building with Sullivan STEAM School since 2009.
Longfellow Whatever Newsletter
Subscribe to Longfellow Whatever for access to news about the fine-grained details of life in Longfellow.