Free COVID-19 tests available Thursdays at Columbia Golf Course

The City of Minneapolis is offering free COVID-19 saliva testing at Columbia Golf Course.

The testing will take place at the Columbia Manor reception hall from 4-7 p.m. on March 25 and April 1, 8, and 15. You can expect to get test results in about 24 hours.

Testing is encouraged and available to everyone, whether or not you have symptoms. It’s one of the best ways to stop the spread of COVID-19 and help prevent exposing your loved ones to the virus along with wearing masks correctly, keeping 6 feet from anyone you don’t live with and hand-washing.

Testing is especially important now with people going back to school and because some of the recently found variants seem to spread more easily than the original strain — up to 70% more.

Do not eat, drink or use tobacco products for 30 minutes before taking a COVID-19 saliva test.

Find information about other free COVID-19 testing location on the city's website.

Just Deeds Project helps homeowners remove racial covenants

The City of Minneapolis has launched a new initiative providing Minneapolis homeowners with the opportunity to learn about, acknowledge and discharge racial covenants recorded against their properties. The City’s Just Deeds Project, led by the City Attorney’s Office, will allow people to reclaim their homes as equitable spaces.

Racial covenants were binding documents recorded against a property’s title, which prohibited all future owners of the property from selling it, renting it, or allowing it to be used by people of certain races or ethnicities. Racial covenants were recorded on residential properties in Minneapolis by developers and homeowners beginning in the 1910s to prevent the sale and use of these properties to non-white Minneapolitans. 

Mapping Prejudice, a research project based in the Borchert Map Library at the University of Minnesota, has compiled a map of over 8,000 properties in Minneapolis with racial covenants, including more than 200 homes in the Waite Park neighborhood.

Through the City’s Just Deeds Project, Minneapolis homeowners can acknowledge and disclaim the racial covenants recorded against their properties by recording a discharge form against their property title. The City Attorney’s Office staff will assist homeowners in completing this process free of charge. Hennepin County has also waived its typical fees associated with this process. Participation in the City’s program will be first-come, first-serve, subject to staffing availability. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.

Learn more about the Just Deeds Project by visiting the City’s website or by emailing JustDeedsProject@minneapolismn.gov. —via the City of Minneapolis

Major transit upgrade recommended for Central Avenue

Central Avenue is slated for a major transit upgrade this decade as part of Metro Transit's next round of bus rapid transit projects.

The regional transit agency finalized a recommendation last month to add a bus rapid transit line called the METRO F Line that would run between downtown Minneapolis and Northtown Mall via Central and University avenues.

Bus rapid transit (BRT) blends bus service with infrastructure similar to a light rail line. Riders pay fares at ticket machines before boarding. Buses make fewer stops, significantly speeding up travel time time. They also receive signal priority at traffic lights.

The estimated $81 million project includes funding for "enhanced shelters," which would be located on average 0.43 miles apart, including stops adjacent to the Waite Park neighborhood at 37th Avenue and 33rd Avenue. Service would run every 10 minutes for most of the day, seven days per week.

Route 10 would continue to operate approximately every 30 minutes along a path similar to the existing Route 10N, which runs through Spring Lake Park and Fridley along Central and Monroe avenues north of 53rd. Route 59 would be eliminated.

Metro Transit already provides BRT service along three corridors, including the METRO A Line along Snelling Avenue and the METRO C Line between downtown and Brooklyn Center. Five more BRT lines are set to open in the next few years.

Pending full funding, construction would begin on the Central Avenue line in 2025 with service starting the following year. A Johnson Street BRT line to replace the existing Route 4 is also under consideration between 2030 and 2040. —Dan Haugen

Riding the bus today? Here’s what you need to know.

A map of the proposed METRO F Line Bus Rapid Transit route along Central and University avenues. Pending full funding, construction on the project would start in 2025.