Letters January 2021

Loving where I live
To the Editor:
I just read this great book about loving your city: "This Is Where You Belong: the Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live" by Melody Warnick. Each chapter is about things you can do to feel more connected to your neighborhood (buy local, walk rather than drive, say hi to a neighbor, eat local, etc.). It reminded me of the many reasons I love living in Minneapolis.
It inspired me to look at my Target list and figure out what I could buy locally. I ended up at Hudson Hardware and Repair Lair on Lake St. I had nice conversations with the staff at both places, and enjoyed keeping the dollars in the community, especially after the double whammy of COVID-19 and the civil unrest. I knew Repair Lair did alterations, but I had no idea they sold secondhand winter and outdoor gear until I was trying to find a place to source kids' gloves locally.
Fittingly, I came across this book in one of the many little free lending libraries in my neighborhood. Yet another reason I love living in Longfellow!
Maybe other people would enjoy the book, too, and get ideas about staying connected in Mpls. I highly recommend it.
Sincerely,
Hannah Sheu
Longfellow

Governor should halt Line 3 construction
To the Editor:
At the beginning of December, Minnesota state regulators approved all the permits for the construction of Line 3, a tar sands pipeline that will run 337 miles across northern Minnesota, crossing 200 water bodies and 78 miles of wetlands.
The decision to grant the permits was premature. There are several pending lawsuits challenging the construction of Line 3 brought by Native nations, grassroots groups, and the Minnesota Department of Commerce. The Commerce Department lawsuit, which the Governor allowed to proceed in August, stated that “Enbridge did not introduce, and the commission did not evaluate the accuracy of, a long-range demand forecast for the type of energy that would be supplied by the proposed facility.” Enbridge’s plan is to complete Line 3 before these lawsuits go to court in the spring of 2021.
The reality is that we must reduce our use of fossil fuels if we want our legacy to be a livable climate for the children growing up today. To ensure that future, we need to invest in renewable energy sources, not chain ourselves to fossil fuel infrastructure like Line 3 which is projected to add the carbon equivalent of building 50 new coal-fired power plants.
And then there’s the pandemic. Governor Walz, who has rightfully spent the past nine months urging us to limit our gatherings to stop the spread of COVID-19, quickly gave final approval for the project even though Enbridge Energy will be hiring at least 2000 out-ofstate workers who will be placed in temporary housing in already under-resourced and vulnerable rural and tribal communities that are now being hit hard by COVID-19.
Governor Walz must order a halt to construction on Line 3 to stop a potential COVID super-spreader event and to allow a fair hearing for the objections to Line 3 of Native Americans, environmentalists, and young people that so far have been ignored.
Sincerely,
Jay Lieberman
Longfellow