Strib Pages

Once upon a time in the Twin Cities (and maybe your town), alternative weekly newspapers roamed the Earth.  Copies of the Twin Cities Reader, Sweet Potato and others were available for free on college campuses, record stores, newsstands and libraries.  In those pages you could learn about government corruption, alternative lifestyles (usually from a liberal perspective), hard-hitting reviews of movies and restaurants, and the latest band coming to town that for some reason don't get radio airplay.  It was nothing you'd ever find in your typical local daily.

Now it's 2015.  Alternative papers are still around, though they're fewer in number.  Sweet Potato has since become City Pages, which after the demise of other weeklies ended up cornering the local market on alternative journalism.  And Voice Media, which currently owns CP, has chosen to sell it to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. 

The Strib, which was recently purchased by businessman Glen Taylor, has vowed to keep CP editorially independent.  To that end, they're shutting down Vita.mn, an entertainment-based weekly.

It's hard to believe there won't be some tweaking to the point where "alternative" is all but meaningless.  Those hard-hitting articles we talked about?  They'll start resembling those long pieces you usually find in the Sunday newspaper, devoid of any real point of view.  Oh, and the language in the articles should be cleaned up too.

City Pages usually likes to point out the shortcomings of the Star Tribune and the other media in town when it comes to local news coverage.  Any bets on whether that continues?

And we mustn't forget the amount of advertising CP accepts for "gentlemen's clubs", massage parlors, tattoo shops and other businesses not normally found in a daily newspaper intended for general audiences.  Again, how long do you think this is going to last?

You might say this is the beginning of the end for alternative journalism, though some might say the end came a long time ago.  Maybe it's too much to ask in the age of the Internet and declining interest in printed media, but could there possibly be somebody out there willing to provide an alternative to the "alternative"?

Baltimore: Charmless City

Baltimore, Maryland Skyline from the Inner Harbor (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here's where we stand from the latest American city to burst into flames, caused by a young African-American male who paid the price for messing with a police officer who allegedly did something stupid.  This time, it was Baltimore, Maryland.

(1)  Six police officers are charged in connection with the death of Freddie Grey, who after being arrested, had died of spinal injuries while in custody.

(2)  Since the incident, protests in Baltimore and elsewhere had been relatively peaceful until they turned violent last week.  Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested, some businesses were destroyed and/or looted.  A 10 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew was imposed on the city, and a state of emergency was declared by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, allowing National Guard troops to patrol the streets.

You could compare all of this to what happened in Ferguson, Missouri a few months ago, but the issues are slightly different here.  Baltimore has had a history of racial violence, stemming from the apparent lack of opportunities that has caused hopelessness and frustration among African-American residents.  (Heck, that happens in every city.)  Yet who's running the show?  African-Americans from Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on down.  How could they not have seen this happening?

(3) There is a widely-viewed video of an African-American mother forcefully hitting her teenaged son for attempting to participate in one of the demonstrations.  Most everyone applauded the mother, because they seemed to think that's the way parents should react if their kids were caught doing something like this.

Uh, let's see.  Ray Rice and Floyd Mayweather have been accused of beating up their significant others.  Adrian Peterson has been accused of using a switch on one of his sons.  So let's not make this woman Parent of the Year, OK?

(4)  The Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox, because of the unrest, played a baseball game at Camden Yards that was closed to spectators.  Elsewhere in the city, tourism is down and some conventions were canceled.

Considering the other times of crisis in American history (World War II and 9/11/01 come to mind), you wonder why nobody else had ever thought of teams playing in empty stadiums before.  While we agree that playing games sometimes has to take a back seat to real life, there's no need to be heavy-handed and patronizing about it.  So what's going to happen to the Preakness Stakes?  An empty Pimlico race track, anyone?

As for skipping Fort McHenry or any eatery that serves crab cakes, seeing images on TV of violence on the city streets tends to change one's travel plans, don't you think? 

(5)  After the charges against the six police officers were announced, the tone of the demonstrations changed to mostly peaceful and positive.  Because of that, the city of Baltimore has dropped its overnight curfew.

Ah, but what will happen when the trial begins?  If recent history is any guide, most (if not all) of those officers will be exonerated due to lack of evidence and laws that favor them and not the victim.  Then Baltimore will be on edge again.

The cycle continues.  Who's the next city to buckle under the weight of police mistakes and lack of opportunities for its citizens?