Gene Hackman and a mime awkwardly share space in a San Fransisco park...
... in the opening sequence from Coppola's The Conversation (1974).
2010-02-16
Snow Morality
[This groundhog does not care about the weather.]My latest pet peeve has to do with the weather. I've become terribly annoyed by the way that meteorologists and reporters describe weather as either “good” or “bad.”
After enough repetition, you start to think that snow is the end of the world. Well isn't that a little presumptuous?
Maybe its my childhood memories of the great Halloween blizzard that left me “trapped” inside my house, not having to go to school, forced to play in my snowsuit, and clutching a pillowcase absolutely filled with candy, but I kind of like it when it snows.
News broadcasters take great liberties by assuming that certain kinds of weather are better than others. I distinctly remember getting annoyed at MPR describing an unseasonal November thaw (60 degrees) with something akin to Schadenfreude. It was as if Gary Eichten had personally warmed the Earth with his “folksy” Minnesotan accent.
The thing that got me stewing, though, was that the news broadcasters assumed that warm summer weather was a good thing in the middle of November. The assumed that warmth was good, cool temperatures were bad, and that all Minnesotans want to live in a mid-continental Los Angeles.
Au contraire!
Barring natural disasters, there is no such thing as “good” or “bad” weather. There is only weather that is “good for” certain things, and “bad for” other things.
There is weather that is good for jogging, and weather that is good for snowballs. There is weather that is good for skiing, and weather that is good for staying inside with a warm cup of tea and a book. There is weather that is good for growing corn, and weather that is good for long walks on the beach.
Instead of appreciating what different kinds of weather can be “good for”... Instead of liking snow for what it is (white, powdery, tree-accenting, slow-falling, gravity revealing, friction-undoing, unique, stratified, semi-solid water precipitation)... we focus on how it changes our commute on the Interstate. It's as if journalists have been replaced by a gaggle of transportation engineers describing the world through standard-issue petroleum-colored glasses. Every time a Minnesotan looks at the falling snow and thinks only of her commute to work, somewhere a small and beautiful bird is crushed to death.
Here in the upper Midwest, we have a rather unique climate that is marked by extremes. Far from the mollifying effect of warm, current-filled oceans, we have stark opposites. This time of year, after months of snow, its hard to remember what grass looks like, or whether or not trees ever were covered by leaves. But that doesn’t mean that summer is better than winter.
A few years ago I picked up a rather ravenous cross country ski habit, and ever since then I’ve been loving winter weather. I’m particularly fond of late February, with its powdery snow, warm days, and late afternoon sunshine.
[Snow is beautiful, and fun to play in. This is true even if you are an adult.]
2010-02-12
Reading the Highland Villager #10 (January 27 2010 Edition)
[Basically, the problem is that the best source of local streets & sidewalks news in Saint Paul is the Highland Villager. This wouldn't be a problem, except that its not available online. I'm reading the Highland Villager so that you don't have to. Until this newspaper goes online, sidewalk information must be set free.]Total # of articles about sidewalks: 7
Total # of articles about sidewalks written by Jane McClure: 7
Title: Remember Rondo! African-American groups threaten to sue Central Corridor planners to prevent light rail from harming the neighborhood the way I-94 did.
Author: Jane McClure
Short short version: This article could be re-titled: "Baseless Lawsuit Raises Legitimate Gripes". Essentially a report on the lawsuit from a coalition in the Black community between the StP NAACP and business owners. The list of complaints includes "failure to include three tnrasit stations" [ironic, given the next story. -Ed.], "violations of the NEPA and other laws meant to promote social justice, and "overlook[ing] the series of disruptions that have affected the adjacent neighborhood over the past half-century". [None of these seem like legitimate reasons for opposing the LRT, except for allegations of social injustice that are a lot more complicated than a transit project. -Ed.] Lots of quotes from community leaders. Key ideas here: MPR and the UMN started a feeding frenzy competition for limited gov't money. Buried at the end of the piece is this key concern: "[Plaintiffs] are also asking for mitigation funds to help businesses threatened by the lost parking during and after the light-rail line's construction". [This money is what the whole thing is about. -Ed.]
Title: Rule change raises hopes along Central Corridor. Prospects improve for three more University Ave. transit stations.
Author: Jane McClure
Short short version: As has been reported elsewhere, the Obama administration's change to the Cost Effectiveness Index (CEI) means that the three stations at Hamline, Victoria, and Western Avenues will be built. Quotes from bigwigs Coleman, Carter III, and Peter Bell.
Title: Streetscape assessment decision postponed
Author: Jane McClure
Short short version: StP city council delayed a vote on how to fund the [absolutely vital -Ed.] streetscape inprovements to University Avenue [Sidewalks, lampposts, etc. -Ed.] over concerns over tax assessments from business owners along the street. [The City has since passed this. -Ed.] The city is asking for property owners to chip in $2.9M for the project.
Title: St Paul to lobby legislature with 15 pages of bonding requests
Author: Jane McClure
Short short version: Not much sidewalk related info here other than a $10M request from the state to help pay for the aforementioned streestscape improvements. Sidewalk-related requests also mentioned: extension of the TIF-district that funded the Snelling and University "Spruce Tree Center" [The most god-awful building in Saint Paul! -Ed.], $25M for a lowertown StP Saints stadium, and $3M for rebuilding pedestrian bridges over I-94 at Aldine and Mackubin Streets.
Title: County's wish list supports holding onto what it already gets from state.
Author: Jane McClure
Short short version: Similar to above article, except for Ramsey County. Prominently mentions the $10M for University Ave streetscaping.
Title: Planning commissioners postpoint Walgreens vote. Highland Village site plan is hung up over questions about the Snyders next door.
Author: Jane McClure
Short short version: Hopefully the last in the comical story of the Ford Parkway drugstores. Apparently, even though Walgreens bought Snyders, they still want to go ahead and build a new drugstore on the corner (across the street from the old drugstore, which they also now control). [This perfectly illustrates the idea of 'cannibal retail', that new retail construction only cannibalizes the old retail. Shopping malls, chain restaurants, and Super Targets are all eating each other at the expense of consumers, real estate, and construction waste. -Ed.]
Title: Grand Old Day 2010. Stage set for return of -on-street imbibing.
Author: Jane McClure
Short short version: Somehow, Grand Old Day organizers got neighbors around Dale and St. Albans streets to agree to have an outdoor "festival garden" on a block of Grand Avenue next year. ["Festival Garden"? Because nothing says "garden" like endless piles of greasy, beery paper trash. Who are they kidding with that branding? What about "Vomitorium"? or "Frat Boy Holding Pen"? -Ed.] This would include a stage and beer consumption in massive quantities. [I just wish the music at GOD didn't suck so much. -Ed. ]
2010-02-09
Twin Cites Shovelers #2
[A woman just finishing her 2nd Street sidewalk shovel. NE Minneapolis.]
[A woman shoveling her Western Avenue driveway. North End Saint Paul.]
[A triumphant man, post-shovel. North End Saint Paul.]
[A man works on his steps. North End Saint Paul.]
[A man demonstrates the 'hook shovel' toss on his walkway. North End Saint Paul.]
[A woman clears off the co-op entryway. Selby-Dale Saint Paul.]
[A man trimming his steps. North End Saint Paul.]
[A snow-suited man clears off his Maryland Avenue driveway. North End Saint Paul.]
[A man takes it to the next level, with a jackhammer. Como-Front Saint Paul.]
2010-02-08
This post will change your life!
[No matter how much you shovel, this is bound to happen eventually.]
Q: Are you a Minnesotan planning to move to Tuscon, Arizona? Fort Meyers, Florida? Buying a timeshare in Mexico?
A: If so, you are not alone. Thousands of Minnesotans of a certain age flock to warmer climes in the winter, seeking the sun, searching for escape from the extremes of climactic variation.
But what makes them go? Is it the cold? The darkness? The lack of flowers or green things?
I’d be willing to guess that the #1 reason people flee the tundra is that the ice makes you feel like a hampster in a wok. If you’re of a certain age, you’re justifiably terrified of slipping and falling on icy sidewalks. That’s the kind of accident that can dramatically, and irreversibly change your life. And, as this winter’s quick freeze/thaw cycles prove, its almost impossible to keep streets and sidewalks free of ice and snow. For many Minnesotans, the choices is clear: stay inside or risk certain death.
Well, into this dark void comes a shining hero, ready to step in and clamp down on winter’s slippery slope. Yes, I am talking about Yak Trax.
I was talking with my mother the other day and she started gushing about this new invention. She got a pair, and all of a sudden winter was her playground once again. She could walk down the driveway to get the mail. She could go into and out of her car without fear. No longer confined to the indoor parking garage, she was giddily describing how many sidewalks and snowbanks she had successfully escalated. YakTrax had changed her life!I’m kind of a luddite, but could this be one of those rare cases of true technological liberation?
Particularly during the winter, technology has a very subtle role to play in our daily lives. We wear clothes that give keep our warmth. Insulation and furnaces, fires and long-distance fruit shipments keep linked to warmer worlds. Cell phones, those magical memory machines, keep us from our cabin fever. TVs offer antidotes to loneliness. Imagine what it would be like to live without electric lights? Our days would be shorter indeed.
But there’s a way that the best kinds of technology end up becoming invisible changing our ways of life from the closest possible distance. In a way, the glasses on our noses are far beyond the horizon. We take them for granted. They escape our notice. Technology is too close.
So its about time that technology stepped in and saved Minnesota winter. So instead of running away to the desert or the swamp, strap on a pair of YakTrax and start living the icy high life.
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