Category: Northside News

Join your neighbors this summer for the second of our quarterly 2013 North First social events. This is a great opportunity to get to know other residents, neighborhood organizations and community, enjoy some delicious food catered by Avenue Eatery, have fun with some great name tags from Give & Take, stop by the Information Exchange, and hear some brief presentations about a variety of topics of interest to neighborhoods. Our first event was a great success, and we wouldn’t want you to miss out on the fun the second time around. Come for a bite and stay for some conversation. Just make sure you reserve your spot today!

6:00-6:45pm Social hour
6:45-7:15 Presentations
7:15-8:30pm Networking and information sharing

If your looking for something to do this weekend and are into visiting historic homes, be sure to check out the Minneapolis and St. Paul Home Tour. There’s even a house in the Cleveland Neighborhood on the tour! Here’s the description of this magnificent home from the tour brochure:

This home is a perfect example of a classic with great bones but victimized by neglect and bad remodeling decisions. The exterior had great appeal, with stucco and Tudor architectural features, but the second floor was falling apart, uninhabitable; the “octopus” gravity furnace, broken and inefficient, consumed the entire basement; and the kitchen was unusable. We salvaged carpet-hidden maple floors, as well as fantastic cove-mouldings. We brought this beauty back to life by remodeling the second floor into a spacious bedroom, with skylights, bamboo floors, plenty of storage, and spray-foam insulation. A designer gourmet kitchen fit into a modest space, and the basement is now comfortable, warm, and dry, with a spa-like bathroom, full bedroom, and family room. Now boasting infloor radiant heat that’s 97 percent-plus energy-efficient, this is the perfect house!

Take a visit on Saturday or Sunday!

Don’t forget about this exciting opportunity to join with your Cleveland Neighbors for a conversation around what you’re vision for your community is. This community dinner is for Cleveland residents, you’re whole family is welcome, pizza dinner will be provided by The Lowry Cafe, and you’ll have a great time meeting neighbors, discussing what your passionate about and what you’d like to see your neighborhood become. We’ll be continuing with the theme that was used for our community gatherings last year: “I Want ________ In My Neighborhood”

To help us ensure we have enough pizza and space for everyone, please RSVP today:

And if you can’t make it in April (and even if you can), join us in June for our second Neighborhood Conversation:

Some questions regarding this event were raised on our Facebook page, so we’ve taken the time to answer questions and concerns below. If you have any more questions, please contact the office, 588-1155 or on the contact page. Thanks!

Why a Conversation?

As a Neighborhood organization, our job is to engage with and listen to our residents. We do this by hosting three  general community meetings per year (according to our bylaws). These two neighborhood conversation events are two of the three events we will host this year (the third is our annual meeting). These Conversations also serve to fulfill to specific goals we are charged with by the Community Participation Program, were we get the majority of our funding for the organization:

-As a CPP funded organization we are charged with identifying Neighborhood Priorities, this event will help us gather feedback from residents about what those should be.

-As a CPP funded organization we are charged with Increasing Involvement in the organization, this event is an attempt to do that as well. (CPP Guidelines)

Where is the funding for the event coming from?

The funding we receive from the city of Minneapolis can not be used for food, but that is something we often like to provide to residents when we ask you to take time out of your busy schedule to spend an evening giving your input on neighborhood issues. This winter, we applied for and were awarded a grant specifically for hosting gatherings like the ones we’ll have in April and June.

The Bush Foundation (which ran a program called inCommons) has been providing small “facilitation grants”. Through their organization they’ve trained hundreds of facilitators in a program called The Art of Hosting. These grants provide funds for smaller organizations like CNA to not only host a high quality event (by providing funding for food and venue), but also use their facilitators to ensure the outcomes of our time are the best they can be. (link to pdf about grant). The facilitators were recommended by the staff of inCommons who notified us of our grant award.

Are paid Facilitators necessary?

Hiring outside facilitators for an organization such as CNA with a small budget and a community focus, might come across as a mismanagement of funds. Hopefully the facts clarify that is not the case. The hiring of facilitators for this event is specifically coming from the grant we received which is specifically for hiring facilitators from the Art of Hosting program, and through which we also received funds to support a local business (The Lowry Cafe) but hosting the event in their space. As a small organization with limited staff and volunteer capacity, we welcome the opportunity for facilitators not only to help us run a smooth event, but ensure we come away with a tangible set of data from community residents that we can act on.

We hope this adequately answers any questions you might have. If you need more details regarding the events, please contact the office, 588-1155 or via the contact page.

Join your neighbors this spring for the first of our quarterly 2013 North First social events. This is a great opportunity to get to know other residents and neighborhood organizations and community, enjoy some delicious food catered by Avenue Eatery, and hear some brief presentations about a variety of topics of interest to neighborhoods. Come for a bite and stay for some conversation. Just make sure you reserve your spot today!

6:00-6:30pm Social hour
6:30-7:15 Presentations
7:15-8:00pm Networking and information sharing

Many people have heard rumors that the flu shot can cause the flu. Is this true?

No. The influenza vaccine is a “killed” vaccine, so all of the virus is killed and it cannot cause live infection. Therefore, the flu shot cannot cause you to get influenza. However, you may be already getting another virus at the same time (cold, stomach bug) or you may have mild side effects from the shot. Side effects are usually a sore arm, mild nausea and muscle aches.

Influenza is a really bad infection, usually causing severe fever, sweats, chills, and cough. The cough can last for weeks after the rest of the symptoms are gone. Usually, people feel like it has a sudden onset, like they were “hit by a truck” or are knocked “flat on their back.” It is very
different from the mild aches and mild increased temperature that can occur as side effects from the flu shot.

Influenza can be a serious infection that causes patients to end up in the hospital or even die. People who are particularly at risk for bad inluenza infections are those with asthma, the young, the old, or anyone with a chronic infection like diabetes or high blood pressure.

Please get your flu shot! It can protect your life and the lives of those you love!

Call your doctor’s office to schedule an appointment for a flu shot, or go to your local pharmacy. Broadway Family Medicine does offer flu shots, usually covered by health insurance. If you don’t have insurance, they are generally available at local pharmacies like Cub, Target and Walgreen’s.

By Dr. Tricia Hall, family physician and faculty at University of Minnesota Physicians, Broadway Family Medicine Clinic