Slarty's World

A small update on the Minneapolis airport noise front. The case has progressed to the point of closing arguments. The court was scheduled to hear these arguments on Friday, February 23rd. Unfortunately, the presentation of the evidence to the court took longer than expected. Closing arguments are now set for March 21st.

The snow finally hit this weekend and after the week long warnings of the Big Storm, it was strangely calm. Everyone was prepared and just did what they could do – shoveling and movie watching. We had a nice Sunday, walked up to The Chicago Deli and had breakfast. No one was there, so we talked to the family that owns it about the renovation that starts today – they are updating the menu and will be changing their name to a more Wine Bar and Bistro sort of flair. The guy shoveling the walk at the Parkway theater told me that the new place might eventually get a full bar. What a great thing, a bloody mary with brunch. (I have to tell my story of Sangrita sometime). I am eager to see how the new Turtle Bread Bistro competes with the new place.
Back to shoveling – what was neat is that the weather was really nice. So we had a fire going in our back yard and would take breaks in shoveling. I had a mason jar filled with Peppermint schnapps – another good thing. I got more skinny on our neighborhood this weekend than I have in a long time. I love it when the neighbors start talking to one another. (Of course, more than a few times the planes were too loud to hear.)

Just a neighborhood update. One of my regular stops, the Chicago Deli (on 48th and Chicago, Minneapolis) is closing for a month. The owner is gutting the public areas and re-doing it with an updated interior. He said that the place has not been updated in 60 years. I think it used to be owned by a Greek family, but now an Ecuadorian crew runs the place. If they update the menu – I hope they don’t sacrifice the ‘Chicago Run’ for cuy (Guinea Pig).

No updates that I can find on the airport noise lawsuit. I guess they were supposed to go to trial this week. If I find anything out, I will post an update.

There is an article in the Southwest Journal that has a summary of where we are in regards to the MAC Airport noise lawsuit.  For those of you who don’t know, the City of Minneapolis agreed to let the airport add an additional runway if they would agree to extend their home noise-proofing program to a larger ring of houses (including mine). The city has an email list that you can join to keep up to date.  Does not seems like too much is happening or being documented on the internet – even though I know the trial is happening.  Frustrating.  It is also frustrating to have the airport say that they don’t have the money to do the sound mitigation and then give Northwest Airlines a $300 million subsidy.  (Just read today that Northwest is projecting to be profitable at least until 2010, to figure that is more than double the MAC subsidy)

Gates vs. Jobs