- [Announcer 1] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, and the Citizens of Minnesota.

(bright music) (casual upbeat music) - "R-Town", the show about Rochester, kicks off the new year with the Pop's Art Theater as we learn about their new lineup this winter.

And we catch up with the Coalition for Rochester Area Housing as they share more about two new projects in the community.

We also hear about a silent book club at Little Thistle, and find the best winter activities.

All that coming up next on "R-Town", the show about Rochester.

(bright upbeat music) - [Announcer 2] Coming to you from 125 Live in Rochester, Minnesota.

"R-Town".

- Today we're joined by Nate Nelson of the Pop's Art Theater here to tell us more about the upcoming programming, and all the happenings at the theater.

Welcome, Nate.

- Thanks for having me.

- All right, share a little bit more about yourself, and what made you start the theater?

- Yeah, so I co-founded Treedome down on Winona, which is a music and arts organization, back in 2016, 2017, and we moved to Rochester in 2020.

But I actually went to school, not for music, but for film.

I graduated with a bachelor of arts in film studies from Winona State, and one of my dreams was always to open a theater.

I didn't actually think it would end up happening, but things just kind of fell in our lap, and we got going on it.

It's been a blast.

- So you started the theater, and what is the intention of Pop Arts?

- So, as a small single screen theater, our main goal is to showcase films that aren't necessarily shown at the other major cineplexes and multiplexes in town.

So that's like independent films, art house films, touring films, and documentaries, film festivals, repertory films, classics.

All that kinda jazz.

- Are those hard to obtain so that you can show them on the screen?

- Not really.

They're pretty easy, pretty cut and dry.

But it's mainly just how we intentionally book.

We could, of course, book your massive Disney and Marvel movies, but we choose instead to focus on smaller films that wouldn't necessarily get a run in town.

- Right, let's dig into that a little bit, because there is a niche in the community for those interested in those type of films.

You mentioned that you do specific kind of specialized independent or indie films different, are they different from each other, and what are the specific offerings when it comes to this type of theater?

- Right, well on the whole, most major film studios do a lot of franchise and IP work.

That's where you get "Star Wars", "Indiana Jones", all of that.

Independent films rarely have IPs.

They're mostly single film, single stories, and they're done on lower budgets with unknown directors, unknown actors, sometimes known actors, but they tend to have smaller screen runs, instead of playing on 3000, 4000 screens, they're playing on 500 or 600, or they're doing single screen tours and stuff.

So they tend to have different subject matter, either harder, or goofier subject matter.

But it's just been fun to kind of dig into that and showcasing different pieces of art.

- And what's interesting is that some independent or indie films that start out in theaters like this actually sometimes really get big hits, and kind of expand from there.

How do you think that happens?

- A lot of it's word of mouth, and then of course award season, which we're in the midst right now.

- Right, I totally watched the Golden Globes, by the way.

- So that always helps.

And sometimes it literally just like, it strikes a chord in audiences, and they really attach to the stories, or the visuals, or something, and then it just kind of balloons from there.

- What's some upcoming films you have planned?

- So we are, right now, we're in the midst of our retrospective on Akira Kurosawa, who's arguably the greatest Japanese director of all time.

We're doing a whole series of his samurai films.

And right now we're also playing "The Big Lebowski".

- Which- - Classic Coen Brothers.

- I mean, can you go wrong?

- Stellar.

- [Danielle] Yeah.

- But now that we're getting into the award seasons, you're gonna see a lot of foreign films, and a lot of these smaller run features.

Coming up, we have this film "The Settlers", which is a Chilean western film.

It's gorgeous, gorgeous 35 millimeter.

- [Danielle] "Past Lives" did get a nom for Golden Globes, right?

- It got seven.

- Seven nominations.

- [Nate] Seven nominations.

- And you're showing it?

- Yes.

- This would be a premium one to go take a look at.

'Cause I haven't seen it.

I'm looking forward to watching it at your theater.

- [Nate] Cool.

- Share a little bit more about that.

- So "Past Lives", we actually played "Past Lives" last summer, and it did spectacularly.

We only had it for about six days.

But we had some 300 people come and see it, which for us is big numbers.

But now is a good chance, with it coming into the award season, getting all this good press, to bring it back to the screen, because there's a lot of people who missed it.

- Absolutely, like me.

- Exactly.

- Yeah.

- When films have these shorter runs, which is a necessary thing for us, because we're such a small theater, we don't have the real estate to run six, seven films at a time.

- Right.

- So we can only really have things for a week or two, so bringing things back, especially right now, which we're bringing over "Valentine's Day".

It's a nice romance.

It's a good film to see with your loved ones, or by yourself, it doesn't really matter.

But it is a gorgeous film that people will now have a chance to see on the big screen one more time.

- Very cool.

Tell us a little bit more how community members can find out more about you, and where they can get tickets.

- So you can find out about us on our website.

PopsArtTheater.com, as well as on all of our social media pages.

Tickets can be purchased either online or at the door.

- Very cool.

Thank you so much for being on the show.

- Yeah, thanks for having me.

- Appreciate you.

(casual upbeat music) (casual upbeat music continues) (soft piano music) - I'm Kevin Torgerson, and I am the director of the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics and Law Enforcement Rochester.

This is our 23rd year.

They had one up in the Twin Cities, and a former police officer with Rochester PD and I were coming back from a meeting about this stuff, plunges and raising money for Special Olympics.

Minnesota was needing more activities, and yet they couldn't fund it.

And we needed to find something where we could raise the funds to help the athletes, and we said, you know what?

We can do this.

So boom.

Two weeks later, we had a plunge.

It started with 35 plungers who raised $660.

So in the 22 previous years, we've raised $3,719,000 just by plungers alone.

(bright inspiring music) I don't know the exact number of plungers, but it's around 13,000.

We tell people all the time, our water is always 32 degrees, because it's not frozen.

It's just the elements around it.

When we first started out, each plunger had to raise, I think it was $50.

Now it's $75, and people, I think our average is somewhere around $300.

We had a guy a few years ago raise $30,000.

There's only two people in the world at this point in time during plunge season, and those are pledgers and plungers.

So if you're not plunging, you gotta be pledging.

Here in Rochester, we have over 300 athletes on this team, and it's one of the, if not the biggest team in the state.

So the team raises money too, so lots of our athletes plunge, lots of our coaches, and volunteers, and parents do the plunge as part of the Rochester Flyers team, so half of that money that that team raises goes directly to the team to help them do some local things.

The rest of the money goes to Special Olympics Minnesota, which then comes back to the local area to put on the competitions, and then Special Olympics uses the money again and state-wide to support all the athletes across the state, and there's over 8000, 8500 athletes across the state.

They always wanna know how many heart attacks have you had, and we've never had one.

The only medical, knock on wood, that we've had was one year the ice was so thick, and we had a couple of ladies skin their knees coming up out of the ice, on the edge of the ice, and that's our worst injury that we've ever had.

My favorite thing about it is really just seeing the people so excited, some people literally are scared, and not shaking because of the cold, but shaking because they're scared, to do something that just looks so out of the ordinary, yet they get out there, and they're having so much fun.

They come with their friends, their colleagues from work, family members, and creating teams, and dressing up in costumes.

There's so many things about it, but just seeing their faces, and seeing the excitement, is probably the best thing every year.

As they're hitting the water, coming out of the water, it's all about the water.

It's all of those parts all at once.

And we have photographers that capture those moments, and they get the pictures, and the plungers can have those photos to share on Facebook, and share with their friends to prove they actually did it.

Some are laughing, some are screaming, some are so proud and so excited.

I mean, it clearly is an adrenaline rush like none other.

I mean, it really is.

- [Announcer 3] For more information about this story and other "R-Town" features, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter @ksmq #RTown, or ksmq.org/RTown.

(casual upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Danielle Teal here with the R-Town Spotlight where we feature happenings, organizations, and business across Rochester.

My guest today is Dawn Finne from Little Thistle Brewery.

Thank you so much for being here.

- Thanks for having me.

- We're gonna be talking about some fun stuff.

I was browsing the internet, and I noticed a silent book club, and I know you have a lot of community happenings at Little Thistle.

Share a little bit more about this silent book club.

I don't know if I would be able to fit in.

- Well, everybody would fit in, so a silent book club is really an opportunity for people to, maybe you're an introvert, maybe you're an extrovert, or maybe you just wanna be around people, but you don't really wanna interact with people, so- - But I wanna interact!

(laughing) - It's optional.

You can do either.

- Okay.

- So silent book club is really, people come at 5:30, this is January 25th, get a drink, find a spot to sit, bring their book or their Kindle or whatever they read on, read for an hour, and then there'll be time afterward for mingling, maybe you wanna, maybe you see something that's interesting that someone else is reading and you wanna chat about it.

There'll also be an opportunity for a book swap, so if you have a couple books that you've read, and you wanna pass them on to someone else.

It's just an opportunity for people to be out and about, and interact as little or as much as they want.

- I love it.

And connection is such a key thing.

In the community, people are really coming out, and getting active in Rochester.

I love seeing all the events happening.

You all are busy with these community events.

There's a kids club, and then you mentioned curling.

Share a little bit more about both those activities.

- Yeah, so once a month we host a kids club.

So that is an opportunity on a Saturday morning.

We open at 11 instead of 12 for folks who have kids, and we always have an activity.

This month, it's a book swap.

So again, you bring your books that maybe your kids have read a few times, or your kids have outgrown, and then you pass those onto somebody else, and collect something new.

And that's just an opportunity for parents to get out of the house and socialize with other parents.

- And the kids play?

- And the kids can play.

And it's a brewery, so you don't have to worry about being loud, or maybe spilling a drink.

We're used to that.

And opening the hour early just gives people a chance to kind of socialize with other families and friends.

- Very cool.

And you mentioned curling?

- Yes, so we have, the curling rink is up.

We work with Rochester Curling Club.

You can go out to the internet and find information on popups that'll be starting hopefully next week with the weather being cold now.

And then we have a bonspiel that's starting, it'll be January 19th and 20th.

So if you're interested in curling, you just wanna come have a beer and watch it, you can come out and watch it, and there'll be a league going on all day.

- Very cool.

I saw the rink, it looks really neat.

Share how people can find out more information about these community happenings.

- Sure, Facebook, Instagram, the websites for Little Thistle Brewing Company, and for curling, you can find that on the Rochester Curling Club, so follow them as well.

- Very cool.

I think I'm gonna take up curling.

(laughing) - Yeah, it's really fun.

It's something to do in the winter.

- That's right.

Nice activity.

Thank you so much for being here.

- Yeah, thanks for having me.

- Thank you.

This is Danielle Teal with R-Town Spotlight.

(casual upbeat music) - Hello, again.

This is Michael Wojick with your R-Town Rundown.

We made it to 2024.

Let's celebrate with some good food.

Going on through January 21st is Rochester Restaurant Week.

Now if you listen to the NRA, not that one, the National Restaurant Association, what they say is that 60% of restaurants will fail in their first year, and after five years, only 20% are still going.

What does that mean?

Well first of all, we're blessed here in Rochester because we have a much higher success rate than that, but it's a very challenging industry, and this is the time of year that if you really have a local venue that you care about, it's a good time to go visit them.

That first quarter after the holidays can be particularly tough.

That's why Rochester Restaurant Week is a thing, and all these different restaurants that are participating, you can check out the website below to see who's offering different deals.

They're having different set menus at special prices where you can go and try a lot of things from your favorite restaurant, or try something new.

This is the time of year to get out there and support those local restaurants.

Now, going on January 27th, even though it's the middle of the winter, we still have a farmer's market, and that goes on at Graham Park.

It's every other Saturday in the winter.

The next one again is January 27th, and that's going to be from 9:00 to 12.

One thing you will not find there is Aubrey II, the plant that is the star of "Little Shop of Horrors", which will be going on at Chateau Theater, and they're gonna be putting on that production from February 8th to the 17th.

Also going on in the theater world, "Typhoid Mary" is being put on by the Rochester Repertory Theater, and that is going to be from January 18th to 28th.

Coming up at the civic theater is "Hedwig and the Angry Inch", which they call the greatest rock musical of all time.

We can go and judge for ourselves.

And another thing that might interest you is the Rochester Grizzlies are playing here.

They're having a fantastic season.

The next two weekends, they're gonna be home at the Rec Center.

You can catch their games on Friday and Saturday nights at seven p.m.

This has been Michael Wojick and that's just a little bit of what's going on in Rochester.

(playful music) (kids shouting) (wind rustling) - Taking the kids for our first time ever sledding.

We just moved here from Vegas, so.

I'm not enjoying the cold, but it's worth it for the kids.

(laughing) It's pretty fun, actually.

It's really, you get going a lot faster than you think, so.

- Just having fun with my family, and doing some sledding, and just a fun day.

It's a little cold, but minus that, it's fun.

I would say it's the best place in town, I don't know maybe Kellogg, but this is definitely the best place to sled in town.

My favorite thing about sledding here is definitely getting to spend time with family, and seeing all the smiling faces.

- We've been out here about a half an hour, and honestly, the trips up the hill, I'm plenty warm.

(laughing) Listen, I'm just a big kid.

I never grew up.

- That's true.

- So this is just as fun for me as the kids.

Whoa!

Maybe the ears are a little bit chilly, but- - I'm an educator, in RPS, and so I got a snow day, along with my son, and so we decided to come out and spend time as a family, and just spend quality time together, and just kind of make some special memories in the snow.

It's great to be outside with the kids.

Just, it feels like being a kid, reliving your childhood.

- Turn left, turn left!

- [Christina] But also just having a snow day, spending quality time with the kids as a family it always the best part of a snow day.

- [Sledder 1] Ready?

Go!

(bright music) - JoMarie Morris, executive director of Coalition for Rochester Area Housing, is here with us today, and the Coalition does work to advance affordable housing priorities in the community.

We're looking forward to hearing more about that.

Welcome to "R-Town", JoMarie.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- I'm so glad to have you.

So tell us a little bit more about your work with this coalition.

- So the Coalition for Rochester Area Housing is really unique.

It's a cross-sector community organization.

The leadership partners include the Mayo Clinic, Rochester Area Foundation, the City of Rochester, Olmsted County, and Destination Medical Center, and our mission really is to collaborate, invest, and lead on innovative solutions around our community's housing needs.

- And we know that there is a desperate need in the community.

I know there's been conversations about not enough units available in the community for affordable housing.

And sometimes you need funding for that, right?

So what is the State Housing Tax Credit and Contribution fund, which is abbreviated SHTC, and how will it support the work of the Coalition?

- So I really see it as another tool in our toolbox, right?

So for collective impact, this is gonna be a great additional tool for us in our toolbox.

The State Housing Tax Credit is a new initiative.

It was really spearheaded by Senator Carla Nelson a couple of years ago, and what it does is any folks in the state of Minnesota who have a tax obligation, that tax obligation can be put towards affordable housing, in their own community, or throughout the state.

- Is this filling a gap?

I mean, you mentioned that this was a new kind of funding source.

Is this addressing a gap of funding that just hasn't been available now and can be targeted?

- Absolutely.

It's one more, again, layer of funding that we could utilize, because many of these projects take many layers of different types of funding to make them happen.

And the program was modeled after a program that was very successful in North Dakota.

The program allows, if you have a tax obligation anywhere from $1000 up into $2 million, you can say I want that tax obligation to go towards affordable housing, and you can either do that in a general fund for anywhere in the state of Minnesota, or you can designate it for a specific project.

- That's amazing.

I know we're gonna talk about two programs that are gonna be happening, but what I wanted to better understand is how do you identify and prioritize the projects that will happen?

- You know what, that's a great question, and because it's a newer program and it's being rolled out, some of that is being figured out.

But there's an organization called Minnesota Housing Partnership.

It's MHPonline.org.

That has been putting up these projects, so people, throughout the state, you can go onto their website and say okay, I wanna look at any projects that are interested in funding through this new program in any part of the state of Minnesota.

And they'll show you a little bit about the project, tell you who the contact is and how to connect with them, and then the other way is to really look at the Minnesota Housing, MinnesotaHousing.gov website.

And that's where you would apply to find out more.

- That's awesome.

Okay, so I know that there are two programs seeking contributions from SHTC.

The New Infill Home for Any Generation project, and the East Side Apartments.

So can we talk a little bit about both of those, and your thoughts around that?

- Yes, they are both great projects.

And very different projects, so that's what's really exciting too.

So the New Infill Project is a first homes community land trust project, so it's home ownership.

It's a great new project where we've got, it's a single family home, a smaller home, but it's a slab on grade, it's got accessibility, no step entry, larger doors, so if someone is in a wheelchair, they could accommodate that.

And what's really exciting about that project is that it's being built mostly, most of the labor is being done by the RCTC carpentry program.

- Oh, that's cool.

What a great collaboration.

- Isn't it?

- Yeah.

- It's a great collaboration.

So the funding that is contributed will go through to the, really, the gap of affordability, and keeping it in the community land trust, and preserve that in perpetuity as affordable in the community.

- You mentioned this was first homes.

Are these first generational home owners potentially?

Or I mean is it- - It absolutely could be.

- Okay.

- It could be anyone.

But absolutely, it would be a great fit for a first generation home owner.

- Very cool.

The East Side Apartments, can you expand on that a little bit more?

- Yes.

That is also a great project, but again, very different.

It's a multi-family project.

48 unit, 48 homes for folks, apartment complex.

Right near the government center, right on 4th Street.

It's a project Three Rivers has been trying to get off the ground for a really long time.

It's workforce housing, so folks that make 60% or below area median income.

- Okay.

- So a lot of supportive staff, people just starting out, teachers, police officers.

But a great project, and really, it's in the new TOD zone, for transit oriented district.

So it's very walkable, walkable to Mayo, walkable to many locations for employment.

So again, also a really good project.

- What are the timelines for both of these?

Because my understanding is that they're seeking the contributions, so it's in the initial kickoff of this.

What are the phases for it?

- Okay, so each project is kind of at a different place right now.

The single family home project by First Homes is really well underway.

And so they're hoping that that will be completed early this year sometime.

The apartment project hasn't been started yet.

It's taking more time to raise the funds for that.

I should say too, one of the requirements for this program is that the projects be ready to go to close to get started within two years.

- Okay.

- And so there's kind of a timeline running.

So that's why the more we can get the word out about the program, and the more people can start making contributions, and the quicker, sooner some of these programs can move forward.

- There's a great need in Rochester for these type of options.

What makes you so focused and motivated to keep moving this forward?

What is your reason?

- Well, I have to tell you, it's really exciting right now, I mean, I think we're at a really transformational time for our city, and county, and it's a time when all of us kind of have different things that we can bring to the table, but the needs are just astronomical.

We know that we have workforce needs.

We know that we have needs for the whole continuum of housing in our community.

So that's really what keeps me going everyday, knowing that, again, there's gonna be first generation families that are looking for homes, that are people that are excited to move to our community.

We wanna be ready for that.

- JoMarie, thank you so much for being on the show.

- Yes, nice to be here.

- It is always so good to see.

Thank you for your work.

- It's really good to see you, too.

Thank you.

- Thank you for joining us today.

I hope you learned as much as I did about all that's going on in our city and the people making it happen.

For more wonderful content produced right here in Rochester, please be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter at #RTown.

I'm Danielle Teal, guest host of "R-Town", the show about Rochester.

We'll see you next week.

(bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music continues) (bright upbeat music continues) (bright music) - [Announcer 1] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, and the Citizens of Minnesota.