Talking about Minneapolis Skyways for 99 Percent Invisible

[Minneapolis alley skyway.]

99 Percent Invisible has long been one of my favorite podcasts, and its founder and host, Roman Mars, even shares my love of city flags.  (Get yours today!) 

Needless to say, I was pretty thrilled when the wonderful Katie Thornton, who crafted the excellent radio documentaries on the South Minneapolis preemie hospital and women in bars (among other work), reached out to discuss Minneapolis skyways for the show. We blabbed about it for hours during the pandemic, recording in my closet buried in sound-muffling blankets, and she somehow managed to turn all that audio into a very compelling story about architecture, segregation, and urban life in downtown Minneapolis. I remain wowed with her skill at editing and storytelling. 

So check it out! Hear Roman Mars say my name way too many times, including the best quip: "the lonely life of Bill Lindeke." 

(BRB, turn that into my ringtone.)

I've written about skyways more times than I can count, given a half-dozen second-story tours, and realize by now that it's a very difficult story to tell. Check these out if you want to learn more:

• Happy 50th Birthday to the Minneapolis Skyway
• Four Skyway Improvements
• Stuck with the Skyways
• Minneapolis, St Paul Separating on Skyways
• Climate as Proxy for Capital in the Minneapolis Skyway System
• Minnpost: Nicollet Mall: As in the 80s, redo saw a need for skyway-street connection...
• Minnpost: Skyway arrest video leads to talk about race...
• Minnpost: St. Paul's skyway issues are ongoing and unsolved 

Thanks so much to Katie for this amazing thing! 

Oh my. I think, I'm going to listen to it again... 

[Here's the link.]

PS. I've got the blog on hold these days, as the pandemic has gutted my usual urban flâneurie. C'est dommage. I'll get back to it someday soon, when the sidewalks fill once more with action and coffee shops come back to life.