2020-04-30

Signs of the Times #164

 BEE NICE
BOULEVARD

[Tree. Lexington Parkway, Saint Paul.]

 HI
JACK!
LOVE
YOU!

[Bridge railing. Hamline-Midway, Saint Paul.]

 I MISS OUR COLLECTIVE
LAUGHTER

[Brick wall. Lowertown, Saint Paul.]

 CLOSED
CHIMENY//roof
REPAIRS

HOPE TO 
OPEN
MAY 15

[Door. Lowertown, Saint Paul.]

 ANTSY

[Yard. Prospect Park, Minneapolis.]

 PLEASE
DO NOT
BLOCK
WALKWAY

[Boulevard. Frogtown, Saint Paul.]

 Piano
Lessons

[Window. Frogtown, Saint Paul.]

 99.7% - 99.9%
Survival Rate
End the Shutdown!

[Fence. Summit Avenue, Saint Paul.]

 We will be Closed
for next few weeks

THANK YOU!

for your Patronage
we will be back
with great things
in store.

[Door. Snelby, Saint Paul.]

CALL ###-####
TO KEEP
AYD MILL ROAD
4 LANES

[Yard. Grand Avenue, Saint Paul.]

2020-04-29

John Forester Was Still Around?

[This book did far more harm than good.]
Wow. John Forester? I did not know he was still alive. I hate to be in poor form, but Damn if that guy did not epitomize toxic white male mansplaining class privilege.

I first came across Forester in graduate school the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis, researching my dissertation on bicycle planning. I well remember the shock of paging through Forester's book, Effective Cycling, for the first time. The giant, smug tome was in its 7th (!) edition at that point back in the early 2000s, and I remain astonished that his misguided opus became the bible of bicycling in the United States.

Well, it shouldn't be that surprising, because if Forester's ideology did one thing really well, it was to further empower the hegemony of automobiles.

Sure, there's some good advice in there about riding a bicycle in traffic. But the key problem, as I explore in my dissertation (see below), is that Forester presumed everyone on a bicycle had the same concerns, abilities, and desires that he did. In other words, everyone is going to want to ride a bicycle like an aggressive, athletic, technologically-equipped, wealthy, culturally-empowered, white male. Any other kind of attitude about riding a bicycle, Forester considered to be childish and irresponsible. Forester believed that planners, advocates, and traffic engineers should never encourage alternatives styles of bicycling, and to do so would be tantamount to malpractice.

(Like many faulty ideas in transportation engineering, he had one poorly-done study to prove it.)

Forester's wide-spread beliefs dominated US bicycle planning from the 1960s well into the 2000s, and formed a bicycling ideology that fit perfectly into the problematic and inhumane automobile-dominant approach to traffic engineering that still reigns supreme in our country. Forester's advocacy and acolytes made it very difficult for cities and advocates to design bike infrastructure for people who did not want to -- or could not -- embrace his aggressive and privileged attitude. Most importantly, the Forester approach completely ignored the elephant in the room for bicycle planning: reducing the danger posed by automobiles in cities.

Though the tide has certainly turned against his inflexible ideology, his damaging legacy lives on in the minds of thousands of influential transportation officials in DOTs around the country. Fighting that approach is very difficult, but after years of shifting the conversation away from "vehicular cycling", some cities have begun to do the hard work of shifting our streets away from the culturally suicidal path that privileges driving and allowing everyday bicycling to survive.

So, yeah. Good bye, John Forester. I don't know anything about him personally, other than his dad wrote books bout war. But given how callously he disregarded others in his "advocacy" for  bicycling, it's difficult for me to imagine he was a good person. Thank goodness his fundamentally misguided perspective is almost entirely forgotten.

All that said, I'm attaching the section from my dissertation that discuss John Forester's work and legacy.  For some necessary context, the term "affect" can be understood as one's emotional attitude. If you'd like to read the entire dissertation, it's available here.

Enjoy!

[from Chapter 3: Historic Bicycling Bifurcations] 

The crucial difference between these egalitarian bike planners and the “vehicular” plans that would soon dominate the planning conversation was a question of audience and affect: Who was riding bicycles, and why were they doing so? The answers to these questions shaped how bicycle infrastructures were designed, and the kinds of places that were built. For the egalitarian “bikeway” planners, the needs and desires of “experienced and competent individuals” were not important. On the contrary, designing a bicycle facility meant “crimp[ing] the style” of this group in favor of spaces that would accommodate slower-moving, younger, and less well-to-do people riding for necessity and transportation (Sommer, quoted in Epperson 2013 36).

Perhaps understandably, this philosophy provoked a negative reaction by influential bicycling advocates, who at the time were focused on working through some early attempts at guides for bicycling safety and bicyclist education. For example, one influential bicycle engineer described “transportation and utility aspects” of cycling as being “only offsprings” of recreational riding and competitive racing (Konski, quoted in Epperson 2013 31). Konski was emphatic about the need for competitive bicycle racing to serve as a model for riding. In 1973, he wrote:

Why is it important to advance the sport of racing if we are to provide bike routes and bike paths? Because if the public understands the sport and learns why the serious cyclist does the things that he does, the individual, though he may not be interested or capable of racing, will be better able to apply this knowledge to his own riding.
(Konski 1973)

According to this philosophy, competitive male bicycle racing was a model for everyday riders throughout the nation. For example, correct posture of the “world’s great bicyclists,” and riding using aggressive speeds was deemed safer for everyone. Similarly, in a series of safety columns in Bicycling magazine (of which he was an editor), an influential advocate for the League of American Wheelmen described cyclists without professional training as “over-aged child cyclists” with “unsafe bicycles” (Delong 1970, 1971, 1972). For Delong, proper bicycling involved an attitude of intensity and competition, either with others or with one’s self. The fundamental affect of cycling was one of increasing skills:

Bicycling is a sport of skill – a skill that increases throughout your life. Take every opportunity to test yourself. Then when an emergency comes, your reactions will be correct and automatic.
(Delong 1970)

Delong’s columns attempted to shape how cyclists ride, performing critiques of their spacing, posture, and attitude towards riding on the roadway [See Figure 3.5.].

Figure 3.5. Educational bicycling illustration depicting good and bad riding placement (Delong 1971).

During this era, advocates used safety as a frame around which to construct a narrative and gradually developed professional courses intended to instruct riders in bicycle skills. Unfortunately, particularly once state governments focused on legislating cycling, separate safety regulations set in motion heated battles over how to ride properly, and derailed the momentum behind the construction of off-street bicycle paths. Most of these arguments centered on John Forester, a prominent bicycle safety advocate and the self-proclaimed leader of the “vehicular cycling” movement. The way that Forester played a role in the history of bicycle planning illustrates how differing understandings of skilled riding, combined with a restrictive notion of the affective concerns of bicyclists, limited the field of bicycle advocacy in important ways for years to come.

Any history of US bicycle planning is bound to include John Forester, likely the individual who has most influenced 20th century bicycle debates in the US. The British-born Forester, son of the military novelist  C.S. Forester, was a bicycle advocate and safety instructor during the 60s who was launched into national prominence after a series of legal fights at different levels of government over bicycle safety regulations. For example, Forester challenged the “mandatory sidepath” law in his hometown of Palo Alto, losing in a series of court battles where he elected to serve as his own lawyer. These kinds of laws, passed in many cities around the US during this period, declared riding on city streets to be illegal if there was an off-street bicycle path in the area (Epperson 2013). Based on safety grounds, Forester’s ultimately unsuccessful series of challenges of court decisions about the law were well-publicized. The popularity of his position led him to sue the Federal Consumer Product and Safety Commission, which was developing safety regulations for both children’s and adult bicycles, on the grounds that the rules would prohibit importation of high-end European road bikes. Drawing on the publicity he had garnered from these legal fights, Forester’s subsequent advocacy against off-street and separated bicycle infrastructure placed him at the center bicycling debates during the 70s and 80s. Particularly through his later roles as the president of the California
Association of Bicycling Organizations and the League of American Wheelmen (the oldest advocacy group in the US, now named the League of American Bicyclists), Forester’s thoughts on the social and safety benefits of off-street bicycle infrastructure made him the de facto leader of the influential “vehicular cyclist” movement.

The simplest definition of Forester’s vehicular cyclist approach, of which DeLong and Konski were also key players, is that “bicycles fare best when they act and are treated as [motor] vehicles” (Furth 2012). This concept, which is still repeated like a mantra by many bicycling safety instructors, resists attempts to develop separate sets of rules, regulations, or infrastructures for bicycles and cars. In its most dogmatic form, vehicular cycling will even argue that bike lanes do more harm than good, and should not be installed within city streets. Apart from his legal battles, Forester’s main influence over cycling policy stemmed from his widely available bicycling manual, Effective Cycling, first (self) published in 1975 and now in its seventh edition (Forester 2012). Some of Forester’s sprawling book can be easily dismissed: for example, his claims that bicycle planning is a massive conspiracy to “deliberately discourage safe and competent cycling”, his ad hominem attacks on advocacy groups, or his frequent use of condescending name-calling (e.g. the “safety freaks” or planners derided as “mistaught children”) (Forester 2012 664). It’s also necessary to point out that Forester is simply incorrect about some of his statements: for example, his claim that “riding to work, done largely on main arterial streets at rush hour, is the safest of all known cycling activities” (Ibid 343). But while the book is filled with dismissible claims, at the same time much of the content is useful, technically accurate, and still taught in bicycle instructor classes. Many of Forester’s presumptions about bicycling are commonplace amongst planners and advocates today (Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee Meeting 2012a). Through examining more closely Forester’s arguments about how, where, and why people should ride bicycles, key differences about affect and mentality emerge.

Like many of the available bicycle manuals, Forester’s Effective Cycling goes through a range of topics that might be important to people riding bicycles at different skill levels (e.g. Petersen 2012, Hurst 2006, Haynes 2009). He includes chapters on what kind of bicycle to ride, how to perform maintenance, what to wear, and (most importantly) where to ride on the street. Not entirely unique amongst these guidebooks, Forester claims that his system is “universal,” that his approach can and should work for anyone (Epperson 2013). But unlike most guide books, as he builds his case for his style of cycling, Forester bases his claims on argument about human nature, naturalizing the idea that the bicycle and the human body have a synergistic relationship that dwells deeper than ideology or surface opinion. Forester goes farther, broadening his claims to include the “natural desires” all of humanity:

We like cycling because its suits our nature. However, our natural desires are not good guides for enjoyable cycling. We must operate in accordance with scientific laws and human behavior. The cyclist on a bike is a new kind of creature: part man, part tool, and part process, like the hunter and the bow or the dancer and the dance.
(Forester 238)

Here, Forester naturalizes the affect and experience of bicycling, in order to align it with or against a particular set of innate instincts, particular understandings of human body and capacities.

Forester uses these kinds of naturalistic assumptions to outline an evolutionary telos of bicycling, to create stages through which cyclists move as they gain experience. According to his implicit list, untrained beginners are “childish” or “silly bicyclists” and fail to understand how “the built-in control system [of concern and anxiety] should be overcome” (Forester 2012 302, 515). Eventually, as people move past the “toy bicycling” phase, the “facts and reason [of Effective Cycling] are overwhelming.” In this way, bicyclists slowly move to and from distinct categories, from being “people-on-bicycles” to becoming proper “cyclists [...] when they became strong and supple enough to spot out in the gear they started with” (Ibid 303). Implicit in this transformation is a gradual increase in speed and progressive upgrading toward higher levels of bicycling technology. At the endpoint of bicycling evolution, Forester places “the great road racing cyclists [who display] effortless performance, mile after mile, with no movement other than smooth leg and ankle rotation” (249). Fully evolved bicycling is thus synonymous with efficiency of time and energy, a machinic devotion to movement, which might be one reason why Forester claims that certain male- dominated professions make the best type of bicycling subject. He explains:

Cycle-commuting is more prevalent amongst technically complex professions and civil-service jobs. If you are technically proficient at a difficult job that requires lots of education or training, you are the kind of person most likely to see the practicality of cycle-commuting, and your employer is least likely to think less of you for doing it.
(Forester 2012 503)

Through his development of particular safety criteria for bicycling, Forester engages in an affective exclusion that eliminates young people, women, and people with less education from the pool of proper cycling subjects. It is perhaps for this reason that US cycling has been demographically disproportionate, skewing to older, upper middle-class male riders (Garrard, Rose and Lo 2008; Garrard, Handy and Dill 2012).

Forester’s other key affective assumption hinges on what is commonly considered to be the largest barrier to bicycling in the US: the role that fear and anxiety plays to intimidate potential riders (Horton 2007). How Forester suggests overcoming fear, particularly though how he narrates the decision making process, points to the affective assumptions implicit in some theories of bicycle planning. For Forester, fear of car traffic is an irrational behavior that he terms the “cyclist inferiority complex”, and he devotes multiple chapters to its role in the development of proper bicycling technique (Forester 2012 413). Here Forester uses early safety studies to argue that the fear of being hit by traffic from behind is misguided, and that these kinds of accidents rarely occur. Rather, the real dangers for cyclists are cars turning through intersections. For this reason, Forster’s key Effective Cycling tactic is lane positioning, moving far out into the traffic lane, particularly around and through intersections. Adopting this bicycling technique involves overcoming the "cyclist- inferiority complex,” which can be done solely through skill building and boosting one’s self-morale. In this way, the key to Effective Cycling is the adoption of a particular cycling affect. As Forester describes:

Changing lanes really highlights the difference in morale and technique between expert cyclists and those who feel inferior to cars. Morale? Yes. You’ll never do it right until you feel deep down inside that you are as important as motorists. But jumping into traffic with an “I’ll show ‘em” attitude and no technique is simply setting the scene for an accident.
(Forester 2012 413)

Forester unambiguously aligns safety with a particular “careful but forceful” affect, and anyone unwilling to adopt this affect is dismissed as incompetent or childish (Ibid 514). Extending Forester’s logic, the key barrier to increasing bicycling in the US becomes not a problem of engineering or infrastructure, but a problem of creating a particular affective subject. As Forester succinctly explains, the “the most important problem in the American cycling transportation system is the incompetence of cyclists” (Ibid 344).

Exclusionary assumptions are hardly unusual in the small world of cycling. Indeed, most dedicated riders have strong opinions about how and where to ride bicycles, about the right and wrong way to approach intersections, choose routes, outfit their equipment, etc. These discussions are commonplace at bike shops, during group rides, and in online forums. However, the crucial difference between those assumptions and Forester’s is that Forester was able to leverage his positions as an author, safety instructor, and influential advocate to translate his agenda into national policy. Forester’s normative claims – for example, he presents his rules as “all you need to know to use your bicycle any day you want to go, to any place you want, under all conditions” – derive from affective assumptions about how decisions are made and how he understands the values of bicyclists (Epperson 2013 30). For example, while many decision making models include different qualitative and quantitative variables that factor into decisions, Forester argues that time and speed trump all others (Forester 2012 499). Similarly, people evolve into vehicular cyclists whether they intend to or not:

This [desire to avoid traffic] may not be your original intention, but you realize soon enough with regular riding that cycling in traffic is not particularly difficult or dangerous... just like everybody else commuting, you will attempt to find a better route or shortcut. Your criterion will be speed or effort, not scenery or lack of traffic.
(Forester 2012 513)

Forester universalizes his own affective considerations, where environment or comfort are irrelevant, into a universal experience.



The affective exclusions characteristic of vehicular cycling have affected US planning policy two primary ways, both of which have limited the construction of a wider variety of bicycle infrastructure in the US. First, by resisting the philosophy of separated bicycle facilities on safety grounds, particularly through institutional positions within advocacy groups, bicycling advocates like John Forester managed to insert vehicular cycling assumptions into official transportation design guides. Most importantly, these policies institutionalized an “effective ban on separated paths” within the highly influential American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Guide to the Development of New Bicycle Facilities in 1981 (Furth 2012 117). Adopting a doctrinaire vehicular cycling philosophy, early versions of the document made almost no reference to on-street bicycle facilities (e.g. bike lanes), implicitly advocating for the vehicular mantra of riding within the middle of the regular car lane. Not only are these types of Federal guides extremely influential over transportation engineers at every level of government, once policies are instated within an official document they are slow to change. For example, the 1999 AASHTO Guide (the current version) continues to use “confidence” to describe a hierarchy of bicyclists, so that,

Basic or less confident adult riders may also be using their bicycles for transportation purposes, e.g. to get to the store or to visit friends, but prefer to avoid roads with fast and busy motor vehicle traffic unless there is ample roadway width to allow easy overtaking.
(AASHTO 1999 6)

Riding in ways that prioritize traffic avoidance is here sign of incompetence, of less evolved bicycle riding styles. The implicit hierarchy of these kinds of policies implies that advanced riders require little infrastructure, lessening the need for alternative designs for streets that might accommodate a greater variety of desires. In this way, Forester’s normative assumptions continue to guide discussions about bicycling in the US, privileging vehicular affects over others in ways that place limits on the kinds of infrastructures and treatments that are accepted and implemented within US cities.

The second key way that Forester and vehicular cycling have held influence over bicycle planning debates is through the inclusion of many vehicular cyclists within city transportation bureaucracies, influential advocacy groups, and or advisory committees. As Furth (2012) describes,

In many cases, bicycle planners hired by state and local government have been VC [vehicular cycling] adherents who used their influence to prevent rather than promote bikeways.
(115)

Two examples are Boston and Dallas, both cases where an influential bicycle planner maintaining a vehicular cycling approach effectively banned and curtailed discussions about alternative designs (Ibid 115). Similarly, though the League of American Bicyclists (LAB) has shifted its position regarding on-street and separated bicycle facilities, it continues to adopt an approach that places a great deal of emphasis on bicyclist education over the construction of more “forgiving” bicycle infrastructure. For example, the LAB focuses on the training of “league certified bicycle instructors” (LCI’s), who are encouraged to take lengthy classes designed around vehicular cycling techniques, to teach them to other riders in cities (St Paul Bicycle Coalition 2011a). As we shall see, these education-centered attitudes play key roles in official policies of the bicycle planning approach for Minneapolis and neighboring cities.

The influence of vehicular cycling over the debates and direction of US bicycle planning is difficult to over-emphasize, and, despite Forester’s age and obstreperousness, continues to this day. The crucial difference between a vehicular cycling approach and that of European-influenced “third way” bicycle planning is the degree to which the responsibility for improving bicycling is placed on the individual cyclist, as opposed to the larger assemblage that includes infrastructure and road design. In his book, Forester focuses on education, so that “the most important problem in the American cycling transportation system is the incompetence of cyclists” (Forester 2012 344). Problematizing a shift in mode-share in this way, stating “that almost all Americans riding bicycles are not competent cyclists”, gives transportation officials at all levels of government permission to neglect or marginalize expensive infrastructure solutions in favor of largely fruitless education campaigns or enforcement debates (Forester 554). Particularly during fights over the allocation of scarce funding resources, this education-first attitude results in the defunding of infrastructure approaches that might accommodate a broader range of affect.


2020-04-17

Twin City Doorways #59

 [Tokyo, Japan.]

 [Japan.]
  [Japan.]

  [Japan.]

[Japan.]

  [Japan.]

  [Onomichi, Japan.]

[Tokyo, Japan.]

2020-04-16

Reading the Highland Villager #255

[Alpha and Omega Highland Villager.]
[Basically the problem is that the best source of Saint Paul streets & sidewalks news is the Highland Villager, a very fine and historical newspaper. This wouldn't be a problem, except that its not available online. You basically have to live in or frequent Saint Paul to read it. Until this newspaper goes online, sidewalk information must be set free. See also: Three Reasons Why I Re-Blog the Highland Villager.]


Headline: Our readers' support is more vital than it's ever been; with continued assistance we hope latest challenges will only make us stronger
Author: Michael Mischke

Short short version: The owner of the Villager is asking people for money. Some people are giving him some. They raised  $17K over the last few weeks, but it's not enough because advertising has disappeared. They have a PPP loan. Key passages from the article: "mass communication [!] ... [has] wreaked havoc with the business model.... $17,500 in donations will cover the cost of printing, delivery and compensation of our freelancers -- but only for a single edition of this newspaper." [Wow.] The key passage: "The Villager is quickly pivoting to greatly enhance the value of our website by distributing our editorial content online. We envision our online content to be further enhanced with an archive of past editions and a separate gallery of historical photos and accompanying historical feature stories. ... online content will be available to readers by paid subscription only.  It's our intention to continue to distribute a printed product should our financial resources allow it, but in the current depleted advertising environment those resources will have to come largely from our readers." [So you'll have to pay to read the editorials online -- by far the worst part of the paper -- and as long as people keep dropping off $17K a month at the offices on Snelling Avenue, they'll keep printing it. First, that's a lot of money and its clearly unsustainable. Second, who is the money going to support? This edition might be the last of the Highland Villager folks, which is something I've been worried about / expecting for years anyway. Jane McClure, who is solely responsible for 90% of the value the Villager provides, should just have a Patreon and a blog. She might even make more money without all the overhead. I'd sign up, and would finally stop doing this re-cap.]


Headline: Traffic study offers clearer picture of challenges posed by 3-lane redesign of Ayd Mill Road; Public comment sought on $7.5 million project [Whoever does the typefaces for the Villager layout must be furloughed or something because the headline typefaces are all over the place in this issue.]
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: Neighbors are concerned about traffic and parking. [Also, there is no traffic and parking any more.]  There are two online videos and some people have watched them. Events held at Allianz Field will not affect the road very much, if at all. [Also, all events have been cancelled. There is no traffic any more. In fact, bicycling is the only thing that exists now.]


Headline: Hope for a new spirit of giving; Breakfast Bar steps up with free meals for needy in a city ravaged by a virus
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A new restaurant is giving food away.


Headline: Ryan Cos. wins some, loses some Ford site plan changes
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The Planning Commission met online to consider changes to the Ford site plan proposed by the developer. Some were accepted, others weren't. The ones that were rejected included getting rid of a shared street, and reducing commercial requirements on the corners of the site.


Headline: Advisory committee plans for parks and open spaces on Ford site
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: There is group of people trying to figure out where the parks should go at the old Ford factory and what they should look like. One is named John Mountain [which is an excellent name for a parks commissioner]. There will be about 10 acres.


Headline: City closes playgrounds, reduces skyway hours, reins in spending
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The skate parks are locked, and there are signs by the playgrounds telling people not to use them. Skyways are closed sometimes too. Public Works has been asked to get rid of beg buttons by concerned people, but has not done so because it is focusing on "more pressing maintenance needs." 


Headline: Council OKs zoning change for new Rondo museum and gallery
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A group can renovate an old church into a museum near old Rondo Avenue, which was destroyed to build the freeway displacing a large part of the city's African-American community. [Very cool.] They have a grant from the realtors association. [Fitting. Realtors have a a lot to answer for, historically speaking.] They will not have to build any parking for the museum.


Headline: UPDC supports low-income units for 6-story Marshall Avenue flats
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A neighborhood group thinks a new 97-unit apartment building is fine, as long as some units are affordable at 30% AMI.


Headline: Emergency shelter allowed for homeless with virus symptoms
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A historic nurses dorm is being opened up for homeless people with COVID-19. [Yikes. I toured the shelter a few months ago. Very vulnerable population in very close proximity. The people that work at shelters are underpaid and so critical, but they seem also extremely exposed. Maybe we'll start funding anti-poverty and affordable housing programs in this country now?]


Headline: Commission moves hearing on multifamily zoning regs to May 1
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version:There will be a public hearing on proposed changes to the RM zoning code, which is apartment buildings that are not in the T traditional neighborhood category. The code dates to the 1970s, and will allow more density in more subtle ways than the T zoning does. Only written comments will be taken.


Headline: City agrees to $120K settlement for Midway Pro Bowl relocation
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: In a court settlement, the city is paying $120K to the bowling alley that was displaced for the soccer stadium They did not get properly paid for the "relocation" and took the city to court over it. [See also my story on the closing of the alley. Ironically, with proper ventilation, it seems to me possible to bowl while maintaining social distance, as opposed to soccer.] 


Headline: Union Gospel holds online gala with celebrity guests April 20-24
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A christian rock guy and Paul Douglas will be online. [You can send money to Union Gospel Mission here.]


Headline: Commission grants permit, variances for 5-story building at University-Hampden
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A one-story office building next to the McDonalds is being torn down and replaced with a five-story apartment building. It will have 147 apartments and 90 parking spaces.Neighbors are concerned about traffic and parking.


Headline: Businesses make most of a market rocked by stay-at-home; Customer service shits to the Internet or curb for those firms that can find a way to stay open
Author: Roger Barr

Short short version: Lots of businesses are struggling to stay somewhat open.


Headline: STA's idled 3D printers used to make face shields for health care workers
Author: Dave Wright

Short short version: A private school is printing plastic face shields.


Headline: St. Paul shuts down playgrounds, sports courts as result of pandemic
Author: Bill Wagner

Short short version: Basically the same story as above only with a different typeface and author.


Headline: Flooding from spring thaw closes much of Fort Snelling State Park 
Author: ???

Short short version: The river is high right now.

2020-04-15

Twin City Lampposts #25

 [Japan.]

  [Japan.]

  [Japan.]

  [Japan.]

  [Onomichi, Japan.]

  [Onomichi, Japan.]

  [Onomichi, Japan.]

  [Seto Inland Sea, Japan.]

  [Onomichi, Japan.]

 [Japan.]

2020-04-13

Quick Thoughts about Industries That Worry Me, or Don't

[From the Star Tribune video of empty streets.]

Mulling around in my mind are the medium-term impacts of COVID-19 and the changes of people's behavior that will stick with us, even if COVID-19 fatality tapers off.

I am thinking here not of the next month or two, but of the next year or two, i.e. until there is a widespread, effective vaccine.

What am I missing?

(In no particular order)

Tourism/Hospitality - Probably the worst hit industry, especially for international travel.

Airlines - See above.

Retail - So much shopping is moving online, how will that affect retail in general? Probably quite a lot. Hopefully, smaller local shops can remain afloat.

Transit - It's so important that people take transit again, but how will people feel comfortable sitting a foot from a stranger? It should be possible, but I don't see it happening easily. I'm very worried.

Theater/Music - For live performance, it sort of depends. Theater might be OK, but many theaters or concert venues rely on older audiences. OTOH, places like First Avenue or any venue that is not seated is going to create a ton of anxiety for people, packed onto a dance floor for example.

Restaurants/Bars - Short-term, these are hurt a lot. But I actually think restaurants and bars can come back fairly quickly with some changes put in place. OTOH the business is so marginal already...

Food Trucks - They are events-driven. Without events, many can't survive.

Universities - Enrollment will be down a lot, especially for international students. This was already happening to some degree, but expect hiring freezes and for schools that were already struggling to get be worse off.

Catering/Events/Weddings/Funerals - I don't see how big events continue, especially multi-generational events with lots of folks traveling. They'll have to get smaller and change.

Festivals/Fairs - See above.

Night Clubs/Dancing - Seems bad, but at least young people are relatively invulnerable, I guess. Say goodbye to square dancing at the Eagles Club or Tapestry Folk Dance center, especially since their patrons are often older. When will it feel OK again to hold hands with dozens of strangers?

Seniors in Groups - Places that have moved past the epidemic stage seem to be maintaining restrictions and extreme caution for older people, who are by far the most vulnerable. Any kind of group activity for older people is going to be severely impacted.

Museums - If older people stop going to events, that would be bad for museums. So many museums rely on seniors, and seem to have doubled-down on events as a key part of their business model.

Sports: Spectator and Participation - I think it won't be too long before TV-only spectator sports return. They'll figure this out. That said, some sports are better than others. Crowds at stadiums, though? When will that happen again? Years from now?

Political Organizing - How do you door knock or hold rallies? Yet, people want to talk on the phone and have plenty of time to write emails to elected officials.

Churches - Mostly older people in close proximity, hugging and maybe even putting their hands near each others' faces? Seems bad.

Cruise Ships - Good riddance.

2020-04-10

Signs of the Times #163

Don't sit
it is really easy to break!!

[Foam cooler. Somewhere in Japan.] 

 I can't believe you
stole my bins.

[Particle board. Rondo, Saint Paul.]

WELCOME
:)

[Sidewalk. Frogtown, Saint Paul.]

 DON'T
GIVE UP

[Boulevard. Lex-Ham, Saint Paul.]

 The Women's
Drum Center
is Temporarily Closed
But things will get
better!

[Door. University Avenue, Saint Paul.]

 Trust Jesus
as much as
People Are
Trusting
Hand
Sanitizer

[Car. West 7th, Saint Paul.]

 Door is LOCKED
Please Knock for Service
- Tell Us Your Problems --
Nobody Permitted inside

KEEP RIDING -- WE'LL ALL
GET THROUGH THIS

[Door. Downtown, Saint Paul.]

 Everything
will be
ALRIGHT

[Yard. Frogtown, Saint Paul.]

BURGLARS
WILL BE
SHOT
SHOT
DEAD

[Window. Rondo, Saint Paul.]

SKOLSTREJK
FOR
KLIMATET

[Window. Summit-University, Saint Paul.]

Bike parking courtesy of
Hamm's!

[Window. Marshall Avenue, Saint Paul.]

2020-04-08

Sidewalk Poetry #65: Impression

IMPRESSION

A motor age
is this:
no hand, no heart;
trim, cold,
impersonal
as a motor car from a motor city
shooting a 4-lane hi-way.

[From Fragments, by Carl A. Weyerhauser.]


[Massachusetts freeway, 1940s.]

2020-04-06

Reading the Highland Villager #254

[A Villager bound on a residential walkway.]
[Basically the problem is that the best source of Saint Paul streets & sidewalks news is the Highland Villager, a very fine and historical newspaper. This wouldn't be a problem, except that its not available online. You basically have to live in or frequent Saint Paul to read it. Until this newspaper goes online, sidewalk information must be set free. See also: Three Reasons Why I Re-Blog the Highland Villager.]


Headline: Decade of construction work begins on Ford site; Ryan Companies lays out schedule for carrying out massive project
Author:

Short short version: A former car and truck factory was torn down and it will become housing and some office / retail buildings. There was a meeting about it. Construction will be noisy. Some trees might be saved. It will all take years. Some streets will be closed for a while. There will be dust.


Headline: Spring ushers in a long season of roadwork; Getting around by car in 2020 will include a maze of detours
Author:

Short short version: Some roads need to be fixed, and government workers are going to fix them. Article lists some o the projects.


Headline: City hosts discussion on Ayd Mill Road redesign
Author:

Short short version: There was a meeting planned for what to do about a city-owned freeway spur. [But it was cancelled due to the pandemic. There was a video instead; see also.]


Headline: City committee frowns on proposed changes to Ford plan; Planning commissioners fear amendments would undermine intent of plan
Author:

Short short version: The developer of the former car and truck factory wanted to change some things about the zoning and street plan, and the Zoning Committee accepted some of the changes but rejected others. [I missed this meeting, but the full Commission recently met online last week and almost nearly unanimously approved the Zoning Committee's recommendations.] One of the issues was the amount of commercial space that would be required on the corners of the site. [The plan calls for the barest minimum of "mixed-use", 10% of the space, and the Commission decided to keep that in place.] Another issue was whether to build a "shared street" [in a back alley space or to have the 30' street delineated with sidewalk and curbs]. The Commission also voted to keep the shared street design in place. [There is no compelling reason not to do this, and in fact, many reasons to try it out and set a good precedent for walkable slow-speed street design in the city.] The changes will go to the City Council now. [If the past is any guide, the Council will simply give the developer whatever they want.]  


Headline: St. Paul outlines new regulations to better protect tenants
Author:

Short short version: Some people want to allow tenants to have more rights. CM Jalali and Mayor Carter are pushing a proposal that would install a set of things that would give renters more leverage in negotiations with landlords. [This is similar to the Minneapolis changes that were recently passed.] Article lists changes in detail, e.g. tenant screen guidelines, limits on security deposit, etc.


Headline: Blame it on bedrock - Plans revised for 7-story building on W. 7th
Author:

Short short version: An apartment building that was to be built in a vacant lot / auto garage might have to change because the bedrock is not low enough. There will be a new kind of parking ramp that "stacks vehicles." There will also be more units, and it will be higher. It still requires permits and variances. 


Headline: Four stories of affordable senior housing proposed on West End
Author:

Short short version: A new 47-unit apartment building for older people might be built in a "green space" in which children sometimes play. There would only be eleven parking spaces. Quote from neighbor: "it's not the most inspired building." 


Headline: Rejection of service shop demolition throws wench into Selby-Dale plans; HPC says developer can't replace garage in historic district with 5-story building
Author:

Short short version: A 49-unit apartment building was planned, but the Heritage Preservation Commission does not want a boarded up auto garage to e torn down. The garage dates to 1915 but was changed in 1926 to expand the road. Quote from preservation report: "the structure still architecturally reads as an auto garage." The developer thought about trying to keep and re-use the building but said it was not possible. A preservationist is quoted saying "[it is] an elegant example of a historic garage." Another Commissioner said that the apartment proposal "reminds me of Cabrini-Green, only shorter." [Well, there it is... I think that might be the most ridiculous thing I've ever read in a non-editorial Villager article! It's also probably racist.]  Another person was allowed to testify and said that there is "massive height drift" taking place in Cathedral Hill. ["Height drift"? I do have to give credit to this person for making up totally new and creative concepts. For reference, the proposed building is five stories. Fun fact: the also five-story Blair Arcade building used to be even taller, back when it had a turret. It would be so much easier to defend the preservation community if they were not so frequently absurd.] 


Headline: Bandshell, deck sought at Keg & Case; West 7th market also looks to lift liquor restriction
Author:

Short short version: The food hall in the old brewery would like to add a performance bandshell and a patio with a liquor license. CM Noecker is trying to figure out how to loosen up the regulation.


Headline: St. Paul looks at loosening its residential design standards
Author:

Short short version: It might become easier to do an addition to your house in the future. Some people fixing homes find it difficult to comply with the rules.

2020-04-01

Signs of the Times #162

 Not 
Suspicious!

[Door. Tokyo, Japan.]

Hey, cigarettes
and 
coffee, man,
that's a 
combination

[Wall. Tokyo, Japan.] 

 Please, take good care
of the stairs.

[Coffee shop steps. Kinosaki Onsen, Japan.]

 Don't Park Bike
here!!!

[Fence. Kyoto, Japan.]

 Do not call cats, as they
will enter sanctuary.

[Fence. Kyoto, Japan.]

 [Do not throw cans into angry boats.]

[Bridge. Seto Inland Sea, Japan.]

 [No cats riding bikes.]

[Park. Osaka, Japan.]

Do no absolutely smoke
on the street.
Smoking is prohibited 
on the street.
Please smoke just on the
stairs and use ashtray

New to Tokyo? Just visiting?
ARAKU Bar welcomes tourists and visitors
to Tokyo. Introduce yourself to our friendly
staff and we will happily waive the cover
charge. Come in and enjoy a unique
experience of the Tokyo night life scene.

[Doorway. Tokyo, Japan.]