I feel at home on Lake Street -- especially around Minnehaha and Lake. This is a no-nonsense neighborhood with working class people, start-up businesses, and quiet neighborhoods. Recently I sat eating lunch in Los Portales, a Mexican cafe next door to a Japanese cafe as I looked out the window at two women in Moslem dress walk by.
I like to visit Lake Street during my lunch break. I enjoy watching people going about their business. Big red Minneapolis fire trucks, diesel engines idling, park outside Wendy's. Fast fire fighters -- fast food. I know all is well in the neighborhood if I see the usual group of Mexican women dressed in blue uniforms grabbing a smoke break in back of Dennys.
Today I spot a woman covered from head to ankle in a brown cloak of Moslem tradition walking through the parking lot outside a grocery store. She walks with her arms folded across her chest. Her destination turns out to be the East African Gift Shop, formerly a shore repair store.