A few weeks ago, we asked our readers what they wanted to know about the candidates for Hennepin County Attorney. We sent your questions to each of the campaigns.

Here's what the candidates told us about where they stand. The questions covered a lot of ground, from how each of them plan to make the community safer to fighting gun violence to their relationship with the police department to abortion and everything in between. Voting is open now and closes on Aug. 9. Our post contains information on how to check your voter registration and where and how to vote.

The Business, Inspections, Housing, and Zoning Committee meets today at 1:30 p.m. (agenda here). You can watch on the City's YouTube channel then.

Common Roots will be looking to add 40 seats to its patio, the committee will vote on approving members of the Housing/Rent Stabilization Work Group and waiving residency requirements for eight of the new members (all of their applications are here if you want to read them), and discussing a report on the city's liquor license process.

A couple weeks ago, the Park Board released its preferred plan for the Cedar - Isles Master Plan to guide the design of the lakes in the years to come. We wrote up a piece with a few of the notable details here and readers shared their thoughts on the plan as well.

There are three opportunities this week to hear more about the plan and tell the Park Board how you feel:

  • Tonight from 6 - 8 p.m., water quality experts will present what they found about water quality in both lakes and how they informed this concept on Zoom (link to join here).
  • On Thursday from 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. Park Board staff is hosting an open house at Cedar Lake South Beach.
  • On Saturday from 9 - 11 a.m., they'll be hosting another open house at Lake of the Isles Parkway and Euclid Place.

If you can't make the meetings, you can always tell them what you think using the online survey here.

LINK ROUNDUP

Becky Dernbach covered the stories of three Minnesota teachers of color, including one from Ella Baker (called by its old name, Jefferson, in the article) and one from Bryn Mawr, talking about why they're leaving the profession. (Sahan Journal)

Congratulations to Eat Street's own Rainbow Chinese and the Black Forest Inn for being awarded Backing Historic Small Restaurants grants from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. From Rainbow: "This grant will allow us to make some updates so we can continue to be an Eat Street icon for years to come!" (Instagram)

An Uptown resident was looking for some new sober meetups, and lots of people had helpful advice. (Reddit)

A story about Hard in the Paint Hoops, a basketball camp run for young people by Minneapolis-native Ibrahim Oduniyi. (KARE 11)

The Star Tribune reviews Sooki and Mimi. (Star Tribune)

Here's a cool map of walkability in Uptown. (Reddit)

COMMUNITY RESOURCES

The newest Story Stroll at Pershing Park is up now. The theme is My Heart Fills With Happiness. Stop into Pershing Park by July 14 to experience the stroll and grab a reading guide & crossword puzzle.

The Hennepin County board meets today tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. Their meetings can be watched live via Microsoft Teams and meetings recordings are available here after they happen.

The Lyndale neighborhood's Education Program is still looking for volunteers to help with their Digital Literacy/ESL class located at Horn Towers.

The pop-up skate park is now open in the Bde Maka Ska North parking lot. Skaters – what do you think about the new space? Melody will be out there early tomorrow morning to experience it for herself.

OUT & ABOUT

Purple Queen will be playing "Beautiful, spirit-lifting and healing music" tonight at Bryant Square Park. The show kicks off at 6:30.

St. Dominic's Trio has their regular Tuesday show at 7 p.m. at Driftwood Char Bar tonight.

Your regular reminder that the Lagoon Theatre in Uptown has the best movie deal in town – $7 tickets every Monday and Tuesday.