Carbucks! #2

Here's another episode of Carbucks! The Web Series. It's a short but sweet morality tale.

Enjoy!

Carbucks! #1

Nothing beats the smell of frustrated coffee consumers in the morning, and so I have taken to watching the state's worst Starbucks drive-thru in my spare time.

Here's a taste of the action. Enjoy!

Signs of the Times #166

PLEASE

DON'T BLOCK

WALKWAY

[Boulevard. Hamline-Midway, Saint Paul.]

WE [heart]

OUR 

MAILMEN

[Window. Hamline-Midway, Saint Paul.]

MAKE A POM POM

TO DECORATE OUR

COFFEEHOUSE and GET

A FREE COUPON FOR

ICE CREAM!

[Door. Snelling Avenue, Saint Paul.]

FREE SCRAP

METAL [hand sign]

[Cardboard. West Midway, Saint Paul.]

WET

PAINT!

[Porch. Hamline-Midway, Saint Paul.]

DUCT

TAPE

BANDIT

[Bench. Selby Avenue, Saint Paul.]

 Tape!

[Beg button. University Avenue, Saint Paul.]

ATC

FOR

OUR

Ch DR N

[Alley. Frogtown, Saint Paul.]

Join me for a Virtual Book Talk on "Closing Time" Next Wednesday

My co-author Andy Sturdevant and I will be doing a virtual book talk next Wednesday, discussing our book Closing Time, a history of Twin Cities bars. We'll be streaming it live on Facebook, and you are welcome to join and watch and even leave comments about how horrible we are. I think we'll be discussing our hopes and fears for bars in the age of COVID.

[Event is here.]

Join us live on Minnesota Historical Society's Facebook page for an evening with one or both of the authors of "Closing Time: Saloons, Taverns, Dives, and Watering Holes of the Twin Cities".https://www.facebook.com/minnesotahistoricalsociety/live 

The book is an entertaining journey into the highs, lows, bright spots, and dark corners of the Twin Cities’ most famous and infamous drinking establishments—history viewed from the barstool.
http://www.mnhs.org/event/8478

If you have questions you'd like to ask, please leave them in the comments!

Signs of the Times: COVID Edition #1

 HAVE THESE?

IF SO, PLEASE 

WEAR THEM

[Express Bike Shop, Saint Paul.]

HATE is ALSO a VIRUS

TOASTED stands with U, just 6ft apart

COVID-19

IS SOME

REAL SH•T!

Cover ur fricken mouth

LOVE U BUT, BUY YR STUFF & LEAVE

NO SOCK or DIRTY $$

STAND BACK 6FT, PLAYA

U COUGHT, U DIE

Drink responsibly, YOLO!

BE NICE or GET OUT

[Toasted Wine and Spirits, Saint Paul.]

COVID 19 CAUSING YOUR FAMILY

FINANCIAL HARDSHIP? IF SO ASK YOUR

CASHIER AND HE OR SHE MAY BE ABLE TO

HELP. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DONATE TO 

THIS EFFORT TO HELP OUR NEIGHBORS

SUFFERING HARDSHIP, YOU CAN DONATE

TO YOUR CASHIER

[Cooper's Foods, Saint Paul.]

Minimum Guidelines at cash Counter

(to cope with Covid-19)

1. Keep distance a little more than usual.

2. Less talk than you like to.

Thank you for your help.

[Kim's Asian Market, Saint Paul.]

 One Party at

A Time for Your

Safety and ours.

-thank-

[SugaRush Donuts, Saint Paul.]

Hand Sanitizer

on the table

Please help yourself

when you open the door.

Thanks.

[Cha Yes Bubble Tea, Saint Paul.]

 2 POR FAMILIA

Max 20 People in Store

Face Masks Encouraged

Please keep 6' Distance

Respect Door Atteendant

[El Burrito Mercado, Saint Paul.]

In light of COVID-19

for everyone's safety:

please remain behind the pickup

table and keep a distance of at

least 6 feet from others

We will be with you shortly

Thank You!!

[Regina's Fine Candies, Saint Paul.]

Minneapolis Neighborhoods Ranked by Scrabble Score

By popular demand, here are the highest scoring Minneapolis Neighborhoods according to Scrabble score.

Notes: Ranking includes one-word neighborhood names only.

1. McKinley 19
2. [tied] Hawthorne 18
2. [tied] Kingfield 18
4. Longfellow 17
5. [tied] Bancroft 15
5. [tied] Cleveland 15
5. [tied] Kenwood 15
5. [tied] Lynnhurst 15
5. [tied] Victory 15
10. [tied] Jordan 14
10. [tied] Tangletown 14
10. [tied] Whittier 14
13. Folwell 13
14. [tied] Beltrami 12
14. [tied] Corcoran 12
14. [tied] Kenny 12
14. [tied] Sheridan 12
14. [tied] Windom 12
19. [tied] Armatage 11
19. [tied] Bottineau 11
19. [tied] Bryant 11
19. [tied] Harrison 11
19. [tied] Holland 11
19. [tied] Lyndale 11
25. Seward 10
26. [tied] Central 9
26. [tied] Fulton 9

[See also, Metro Area Cities Ranked by Scrabble Score.]

Metro Area Cities Ranked by Scrabble Score

By popular request, here are the highest scoring Metro Area Cities according to Scrabble score.

Notes: Ranking only includes 16-point names and higher. This includes one-word city names only.


1. Wayzata  22
2. [tied] Chanhassen 18
2. [tied] Deephaven 18
2. [tied] Excelsior 18
2. [tied] Independence 18
2. [tied] Richfield 18
7. [tied] Mahtomedi 17
7. [tied] Shakopee 17
7. [tied] Woodbury 17
10. [tied] Bloomington 16
10. [tied] Hopkins 16
10. [tied] Robbinsdale 16
10. [tied] Shorewood 16

[See also, Minneapolis Neighborhoods Ranked by Scrabble Score.]

My Letter to the City Council on the 9th/10th Street Bikeway in Downtown Saint Paul

[A great project for downtown Saint Paul.]

I was on the public committee that worked with the consultant on this project. We met a handful of times to go over critical decisions like "what color should the logo be" and "do you like biking past an on-ramp." All in all, it was one of the less meaningful public engagement experiences of my life, somewhere in the "tokenism" rungs of Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation. But at least I got to learn a lot about the challenges of creating an off-street bike network in downtown Saint Paul, one of which is certainly parochial businesspeople who freak out about on-street parking in a walkable downtown.

[Typical downtown Saint Paul sidewalk experience.]

The key point is that downtown Saint Paul has two big urban design problems, and lack of parking is not one of them. First, while the downtown has some wonderful pockets of lively streets, shops, and parks, in between these hot spots sits a bleak landscape of blank walls, parking ramps, and empty asphalt. There are very few places to walk or bike comfortably through the skyway-centric hostile parts of downtown, and nowhere to do so in a comfortable, urban, engaging way. (4th Street is one of the few east-west streets with any promise on this front.) So people view downtown as fragmented and fractured, with Lowertown seeming like its miles away from Rice Park, which in fact they're quite close. (Trust me, I drove a pedicab in downtown Saint Paul for a year.)

[Does for downtown what Midwest nitrogen does for the Gulf shrimp industry.]

The other big problem is that downtown Saint Paul is separated from the neighborhoods on nearly every side by a large, almost impenetrable moat of dangerous high-speed roads. Though you can see downtown Saint Paul from the Cathedral steps or the West Side Bluffs or Mounds Park or the State Capitol, you can't get there from here, at least not very comfortably. (West 7th Street is the one, vibrant exception that proves the rule.) Connecting downtown to all the wonderful neighborhoods that surround it with safe, comfortable bike paths is a wonderful goal. If done well, these links will certainly help the downtown economy.

Thus, the Capital City Bikeway. Jackson Street was a great beginning to this effort, but the city really needs to do something while it waits for more funding for the rest of the project. That's why it's great to see the City Council vote unanimously to support an interim route east-west along 9th and 10th Streets. More importantly, they did it despite the dunder-headed opposition of a handful of restaurants and even a brewery (!).

Despite what the Key's Café lady will tell you, rules for businesses downtown differ from those in Roseville strip malls. People come downtown because it's a vibrant, unique place. Nobody comes downtown for convenient parking.

Anyway, here's my letter to the City Council:

Dear City Council: 

I'm writing today to let you know that the Transportation Committee of the Planning Commission passed a resolution yesterday unanimously in support of the interim bikeway treatments along 9th and 10th Streets downtown. We are on the record as being very excited about this project, that fulfills the commitments and ideals laid out in many of our long-standing city plans. 

Speaking for myself, I believe that connecting downtown Saint Paul in ways that make it more walkable and bikeable will only boost the downtown economy, which has been uneven, fragmented, and struggling for as long as I can remember.  

In my opinion, one of downtown Saint Paul's big problems is that it has long been isolated from the rest of the city around it. The freeways and dangerous, high-speed roadways that ring our downtown form a kind of asphalt moat that prevents people from easily walking, biking, or accessing the downtown from anywhere else in the city. This harms local businesses and prevents downtown Saint Paul from being the economic and tax base asset that it can and should be.  

The Capital City Bikeway is intended to help fix this problem by linking all parts of downtown. This connection is both an internal one within the thriving pockets of downtown, and external one with the neighborhoods around it. The 9th/10th leg is a critical connection that will bring people into the city and alleviate perceived and actual tensions around parking for drivers. I am very enthusiastic about the future of a downtown Saint Paul that is gracefully and safely connected to the east, west, north and south. 

Please support the 9th/10th bikeway by voting to lay out a welcome mat for people to easily get into and out of downtown, and help downtown Saint Paul streets, businesses, and communities thrive. 

Thanks for your support, and I hope you are staying safe and healthy.

It's worth pointing out that debating this project during the stay-at-home shut down triggered by COVID-19 adds an extra layer of tension here. As CM Prince stated, she was worried about the loss of parking "further stressing these businesses" during the pandemic.

But I would suggest that the pandemic actually shows the critical importance of biking and walking infrastructure. When restaurants do re-open, the ones that are linked to biking and walking paths will be the most successful. This goes double for breweries, which have long thrived when they invest in bike parking and locate near bike trails. Here's hoping downtown Saint Paul comes out of this crisis better than ever.

Signs of the Times #165

BE CALM.

BE KIND.

BE SAFE

[Boulevard. Grand Avenue, Saint Paul.] 

 MY HOME

IS NOT FOR PROFIT

[Car window. Midway, Saint Paul.]

FOOD

PANTRY

[Little Free Library. Frogtown, Saint Paul.]

PLEASE

HELP YOURSELF

TO SEEDS IN THE

LITTLE FREE

LIBRARY

COMPLEMENTS OF

A NEIGHBOR

[Little Free Library. Hamline-Midway, Saint Paul.]

Due to the short supply

of disinfectants and

cleaning supplies, dirty

deeds will no longer be

done dirt cheap.

[Yard cardboard. Hamline-Midway, Saint Paul.]

 WE 

MISS

YOU!

[Flowerpot. Hamline-Midway, Saint Paul.]

Thank you!

Stay safe!

[Mailbox. Newell Park, Saint Paul.]

THANK

YOU!

[Yard. Como, Saint Paul.]

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. Thich Nhat Hahn

[Wall. South Como, Saint Paul.] 

The Cabrini-Green Comment and the Ramsey Hill Association Testimony at the Heritage Preservation Commission

[The rejected proposal that reminded a Commissioner of Cabrini-Green in Chicago.]

Intrigued by the reporting in the Villager of the March 9th Heritage Preservation Commission meeting, the one where a demolition request for a 1920s auto garage -- a.k.a., according to the Commission, "an elegant rectangle with a lot of potential, a “nondescript building, [that] has historic merit [and] its own style without being overly stylish", and one that is "simple [and] utilitarian but [that] has some elegant brick detailing to it that goes beyond ordinary" -- was denied.

[The "elegant rectangle" garage in question.]

Intrigued, I requested the recording of the March 9th meeting and listened to it. I was particularly interested in the Cabrini-Green remark, which seemed at the time, and still today, absurd.

When I listened to the actual comment, it seems fairly innocent, if deeply out-of-touch. Here is the remark, made by Commissioner Barbara Bezat:

“The massing seems much bigger than surrounding structures, standard Saint Paul streetcorner stores. What seems glaring from the renderings are the top hat. It really reminds me of Cabrini-Green, only shorter. I don’t know if you… but its quite visible even from your own drawings and particularly given you’ve clad it in the light-colored siding, the fiber cement. It stands out as, a not fitting sort of thing. And if i would get to play with the design, I would set the thing back, and turn it in the other direction, so it doesn’t it isn’t such an overbearing thing at the top.”

At the very least, invoking a famous, now-demolished Chicago public housing project, even for architectural purposes, is tone-deaf given the history of race and public housing in America. It's also worth pointing out that this project is right on the edge of historic Rondo, where the Selby Avenue racial sundown line existed in Saint Paul.

The other thing mentioned in the Villager article was how, at the end of the meeting, there was some unsolicited testimony by Mason Riddle, Heritage Preservation Chair of the Ramsey Hill Association. According to the Villager anyway, this testimony was out of place given that the public hearing had already been closed by this point in the meeting.

HPC Chair: Any old business? New business? 

Mason Riddle: Can I say something? 

HPC: Sure 

Riddle: Hi I’m Mason Riddle. I’ve spoken to you before. I’m the heritage preservation chair for Ramsey Hill Association.

Until just a very few years ago, I used to drive a 1993 Mercedes, and on perhaps… it was an E320…  and on perhaps the worst day in January, in terms of temperature and ice and blizzards and da da da da, I’m at Mississippi Market thinking I’m going to park my car, and the axle breaks. And so my car completely dominated one whole aisle of the Mississippi Market, so nobody could get in or out. And this lasted for about four hours. 

My point is that I went across the street to the garage. It was January of 2015. They had tow trucks and things, and I said “can you come over here and just get my car across the street so other people can drive? And they said “no.” So they were open til at least then. 

I agree with your decision as [to the garage] not being demolished. I just respected all the comments here, and I’ll pass that on at our next board meeting. 

With the other development at Selby Avenue, I agreed with most of your comments. I’m not, I don’t have that packet. I’m less familiar with some of those details. But I would like to reinforce the point that there is that, let’s say, a massing height drift that goes on. Because every new building is just 8 feet taller than the one before it. 

And if you drive… if you’re very familiar with Lyndale Avenue between Franklin and Lake Street? What has happened there with all of these 6-, 8-, 10-story apartments that are… 

I used to once upon a time patron The CC Club…  

HPC member: Probably the CC Tap! 

[The Aberdeen, at Western and Marshall.]

Riddle: [laughs] … and the wonderful hardware store that used to be across the street from it is now 8-story building. These buildings are all so generic, they look so much alike. I’m just saying I really think this height issue needs to be looked at very seriously. And I am for large windows because of daylight, and i’m very conscious of this. I live on Holly Avenue, 3-4 blocks from all of this activity. And I know how horrible it is to drive down Selby in the wintertime, not that the height of the building is going to to improve driving down Selby.  

I just think [of] everything closing in, if the building is too tall. And lastly, there’s one other building that is on my little device here. I'm trying to find the name of it, at Western and Marshall. Condos that were built. People started moving in 2004, 2005. They are horseshoe shaped. it starts with a C. It’s all brick and the 5th floor of it is stepped back a bit. That’s the other building in the hood that is slightly higher.  

HPC: The Aberdeen.  

Riddle: Yes. [laughs] As I said, it starts with a C. 

I think that’s all I have to say. I think we should wait a little bit longer on the demolition of the garage, and a point which didn’t come up here at all, as one of the most environmentally lousy things is the demolition of buildings, that and just flying and airplanes. They are the two bad things.

Again, nothing really damning here, except for the factual errors [see below] and a healthy dose of melodrama. 

I'm sure the folks involved in this discussion members are nice and care, as I do, about Saint Paul history. But the way the conversation proceeded here captures a general disregard for facts and a general dislike of new housing that, during a prolonged harmful housing shortage, seems misguided.

[All the new apartment buildings on Lyndale, between Franklin Avenue and Lake Street; aesthetics aside, they are four, five, and six stories tall.]