11th Bloggaversary Post

[The 11th floor of the Saint Paul City Hall.]

The blog turned 11 years old last week, one of my favorite numbers. I want to thank everyone for continuing to read and support the blog!


Where to Find my Work

I put most of the content closest to my heart here on the site, including photos of my sidewalk meandering, links to things I've been reading, occasional essays, lists, maps, or urban miscellany.  (This is not to mention fortnightly re-capulets of a certain print-only local newspaper.)

Over the last year, it's been about 190 separate posts, about 3.5 per week. That's a pretty high average for for this blog, though still off the record-setting pace from a few years ago.

Part of the reason is that I've been writing elsewhere. It's been over a year since I finished my PhD, and I've been spending more time on writing both here and in various other publications These days you can find my work in the following places:

• At Minnpost, the weekly Cityscape column, aimed at reporting on various slices through the often-unconsidered urban landscape

• At streets.mn, semi-weekly policy-focused essays, plus more regular maps and charts that catch my eye

• Also at streets.mn, a rebooted podcast, almost weekly conversations with interesting people working on urban policy

• In the Park Bugle, occasional community news reporting, about one story a month

• In actually corporeal paper, six (6) self-published Guide Books available for purchase online, covering semi-historical "tours" of places of local interest in Minneapolis and Saint Paul

So I guess that's a lot of ways to keep up with my Twin Cities urban geography work. I'm hoping to focus this winter on publishing my bicycle planning research before it becomes too out-of-date. So, fair warning, the pace of my other writing might fall off for a few months.

Walking and Biking Tours

[A Saint Paul tour with the Minnesota History Center.]

In addition to the writing, I've offered a lot of walking and biking tours over the last year, including ten (10) free-to-the-public tours of everything from Coney Dogs to parking lots to secret lakes to dive bars of every stripe. That's almost one per month, and I aim to continue that pace, beginning this Thursday on the East Side.

(A great way to stay in the loop with these events is to "like" my Facebook page.)

Plus I've landed a few real tour guide gigs, including a series of "river history history and high bridge power plant" tours with the Minnesota History Center, a downtown Minneapolis skyway tour with the Hennepin History Museum, a history tour of the West Side Flats with the West Side Community Organization, a couple bus tours for the local chapter of the Road Scholar program, and a Northfield sidewalk tour with Carleton College. If anyone would be interested in connecting for future walking or bicycling tours, let me know! I really enjoy it.

(I also gave a talk at the TEDxMinneapolis event earlier this year, which was a lot of work. The video should be available online any day now.)

Stay tuned for more walking and exploring opportunities. Once winter comes, I'm planning a Saint Paul skyway tour, dive bar walking tours of the West Side and Frogtown, and maybe some surprises.

[My other Ted talk was held here.]

Support my Work

[The Patreon Page.]

Out of necessity, I've been spending some time this year figuring out how to translate my interests and passions into an actual career. That kind of alchemy involves asking for money, or coming up with other ways to transform sidewalks into gold.

For example, I've sold over fifty Saint Paul flags, which is a great way to support my work, connect with history, and celebrate the capital city at the same time. You can order a small 2' x 3' flag today at a new low price, and I'll bike it over to your mailbox later this week.

At the urging of some smart friends, I also launched a "Patreon page" back in July. Patreon is a system where you can sign up to be a "patron" of people (often artists) who are trying to do creative work. Amazingly, over the last few months (with far-too-minimal prompting) twenty people (20) have signed up to be a patron! Believe it or not, the monthly financial and moral support really means a lot to me. If you are comfortable with this kind of thing and have the means, please consider it.

Or you can also simply drop a few bucks into the Paypal tip jar. Thank you kindly.

Also, a big thank you for eleven years of attention. To my mind, the blog is better than ever, though some of the writing could use a bit more work.

Yrs,
Bill