Join us as author James Eli Shiffer takes us into a time when the heart of downtown Minneapolis was a densely packed neighborhood of bars, flophouses, liquor stores, rescue missions and second-hand shops catering to the last generation of seasonal laborers that had been part of the city’s history from the beginning. It was all cleared away in a massive urban renewal project in the Gateway District that started in 1959 and ended in 1963. Shiffer has been a professional journalist for 25 years and is currently a columnist and editor at the Star Tribune. His book, The King of Skid Row, was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2016. NOTE: We've been given permission to park for free in the MS Society parking lot on 2nd St. S., just south of 11th Ave. S. The parking lot entry is almost directly across from the main entry to Stonebridge Condos. There are some double parking spaces in the lot; please do not park someone in if they're in a double parking space.