Strikes and Sidewalks and Jimmy Johns' Labor Movement

[Minneapolis Jimmy Johns' workers try to start the nation's first fast food union by walking in a small circle on Washington Avenue.]

Sidewalks and strikes go hand in hand, foot by foot. I saw the Jimmy Johns' workers picketing out on the street today in Stadium Village (though, oddly, not near any Jimmy John's franchises). They had taken to the sidewalk, and were making a tiny circle at one end of Washington Avenue.

For most people today, especially young people, this is a very odd sight. Not only are labor unions increasingly harder to find, but sidewalks are far less important than they used to be. Back when factories were located in cities, in places with a lot of foot traffic and a lot of 'presence' in the community, it had much more of an impact when workers went on strike on the sidewalk outside the building. People might see it, support it, etc. The broader population would know what was going on, and might be there for solidarity or added to place pressure against a misbehaving company, or simply to watch and understand the dynamics of labor and capital.

Well, as public space disappeared after the 1960s, and as factories and unionized workplaces moved into increasingly remote "industrial park"-like locations, sidewalk strikes became a rare sighting. It's hard to picket an airport or a car plant when they're surrounded by freeways in the middle of nowhere. Strikes were reduced to headlines in the newspaper, where they were at the mercy of the vagaries of our media.

Sidewalk strikes are a different thing. They allow for interactions between the workers and the public, and a sense of the reality of the people involved in the labor situation. You actually get to see the people whose lives are being affected by the labor dispute. The old model of walking in a circle might not be the best idea, but why not the striking workers chatting with people on the street, or setting up an 'information booth' of some kind that allows people to ask questions and discuss the pros and cons of the labor movement?

Strikes demonstrate one way in which public space is important for our politics and society. Without sidewalks, is it really even possible to get much traction and support out of a strike situation?

Original Caption:

Sit Downers Hail 'Armistice Day.'

Flint -- Sit down strikers at the Cadillac and Fleetwood Plants here, led by a band playing "Hail to the Victors", march jubilantly from the plants after a truce had been declared permitting negotiation between G. M. officials and members of the United Automobile Workers of America. General Motors is determined however not to surrender exclusive collective bargaining rights for employees to the United Automobile workers. (1937)

Wholey Moley!

[Absentminded professors, Twin Cities Pogo Society might want to avoid Wabasha Street today.]

Neon Signs #3

[University Avenue, Saint Paul.]

[University Avenue, Saint Paul.]

[University Avenue, Saint Paul.]

[University Avenue, Saint Paul.]

[University Avenue, Saint Paul.]

[Fairview Avenue, Saint Paul.]

[University Avenue, Saint Paul.]

[Selby Avenue, Saint Paul.]

[4th Street, Downtown Saint Paul.]

Sidewalk of the Week: Dan Patch Avenue

[I love the smell of Dan Patch Avenue in the morning.]

So much has been written about the state fair. Every year, everyone goes down there to experience whatever it is that makes the event special. Every year, journalists and storytellers and everyone around the water cooler comes up with their own explanations of why they go, what draws them there, trying to put their finger on that je ne sais quois something.

Everyone has their own reason: "Tradition"... The food... The rides... The bandstand shows... Seed art... Butterhead sculptures... Half-ton pigs... Crazy looking chickens... The horse show... The fireworks... The sock monkey dress... Ye Olde Mill... The butterfly tent... Seeing "faces for radio" at the booths...

[Princess Kay of the Milky Way freezes in her buttery chamber as a dairy artist toils.]

[Reminds me of Han Solo in Empire Strikes Back.]

[The joy of the Pronto Pup, the original food on a stick.]

[Sittin' and watchin' the marchin'.]

All of those reasons are wrong. What really makes the state fair special is the sidewalks. Its one of the only truly car-free (carefree) experiences you'll really have in Minnesota. When you get to the State Fair, however you get there, however much of a pain in the ass it is to drive and park and walk for a mile, take the complicated bus, or bike through the density and chaos, once you walk through the gate and find your way to Dan Patch Avenue, you're free from worrying about cars. You've reached a pedestrian paradise, where you and 100,000 of your closest friends can wander around a truly fascinating urban scene on foot. And that's why people go to the the fair.


There are all ages and varieties of walkers. Somehow, fanny packs begin to make sense. Walking sticks and canes and motor scooters are everywhere. Old people, young people, parents pushing strollers, kids and teenagers fill the fairgrounds and wander down interesting lively street after interesting lively street. You have so many choices for walking! You can walk on the sidewalk, down the middle of the car-frees street, wander into the many beautiful plazas surrounded by benches and ledges and tables and bandstands. You can wander into and out of the many open buildings. In some ways, there's no difference between inside and outside. Meandering into the Ag building or the Dairy Barn is just like being outside. Those are sidewalks too, bazaars and booths and things to see and do around every corner. And every street is lined with booths and stands and vendors selling you terribly unhealthy pleasures, every permutation of street food imaginable (except for the world of asian seafood, somehow... no squid on a stick?).

[An elderly gent contemplates whether or not to quit smoking while wheeling a motorized chair past be-shorted petooties.]

[Old folks and young whippersnappers over by the 4-H building.]

[The Thinker shares space with a well-dressed wooden bear.]

And I haven't even mentioned the people watching. This ancient art is probably the most interesting and rewarding pastime in the history of the human race. Watching other people, looking at them, seeing the great wide variety of types of clothes, hair, hats, and habits that Minnesota has to offer. Seeing farm folks and families and all the kinds of people you don't generally find in your neighborhood, and seeing all these people out and about on the street, walking past all around you, sitting and eating and playing and talking on the phone and yelling at their kids and the two ladies who spent the whole day looking for the “Gin Sue knives” and couldn't find them, and the guy who grew up in South Saint Paul and really wants to tell you about it, and everyone (for once) kind of willing to talk to strangers about the weather and the music and the crazy contraptions and concoctions and cuisine.

[Young Republican pursued by parents with strollers down Judson Avenue.]

[Sidewalk scene outside the Dairy Building.]

People watching is the currency of sidewalk life, and the State Fair is an annual gold mine. The State Fair makes Nicollet Mall during lunch hour look like a cold day in downtown Mandan. You'll not find sidewalks of this caliber this side of Manhattan. For most people, the State Fair is the absolute epitome of urban life (if bad for your cholesterol). You get home and your feet are sore and your brain is overloaded and you just saw 100,000 people stroll past you in a blur and you feel like you are part of something. You're part of a state that has community, a state with some sort of common identity, a state with a common place and common sidewalks that we all share, once a year, that we all turn to to walk past with each other, one big, fat, exhausted, overwhelmed, and finally quasi-vaguely-happy family (of sorts). Even when we don't agree (e.g. the liberalism is a mental disorder pig guy, anything having anything to do with Tom Emmer, or any of the old truck-driving farmers that I talked to about biking in the city while I worked at the Kick Gas booth that wouldn't touch Minneapolis with a 100 mile pole), at least we have the State Fair in common. At least we walk down the same street once a year and enjoy being together. At least we have the sidewalks of Dan Patch Avenue.

[But where is Waldo?]

Reading the Highland Villager #23 (September 1 - 14 Edition)

[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. That's why 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: 11
Total # of articles about sidewalks written by Jane McClure*: 10


Headline: Effort begins to rebuild St. Paul; city provides $15M to jump-start stalled projects and create additional jobs
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: Report on Mayor Coleman's recent announcement of how TIF money and “federal dollars” will help motivate investors and developers to start construction projects all through the city. Includes tibdbit that all the projects need to be started by July 2011. Includes list of projects: Highland Park Aquatic Center, Como Park pool, Cayuga Bridge, Central Corridor, Penfield condo/grocery, &c &c. Includes laudatory quote from Chamber of Commerce prez., construction unions.


Headline: Ford says it will close plant as scheduled in 2011; Package of tax incentives fails to sway automaker
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: Despite the pleas of Mayor Coleman and Governor [BridgeFAIL] Pawlenty, the Ford plant in Highland Park is not going to remain in business. Includes details of the history of auto manufacturing in the US. Article does not speculate about what to do with the 122 acres of riverfront land.


Headline: Walgreens project ushers in a redesign of 25-year-old Highland Village streetscape; Amenities selected for sidewalk in front of new stores may be replicated throughout the village
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: The new Walgreen's store is going to have a new sidewalk design, and the Highland Business Assn (HBA) would like to see a new plan because most people in Highland hate the [really slippery in wintertime] paving stones currently along the sidewalks that were installed in 1985. [Really early for such attentive, if flawed, streetscape design! -Ed.] List of complaints about current sidewalk includes: paving stones that “are popping up”, cracks and heaves, and trees that are being “choked by the metal grates”. List of streetscape suggestions includes: “gray-toned sidewalk with patterned concrete closest to the street and a long decorative metal drain parallel to the street”, fancy Victorian-esque double streetlamps, areas for plants, “silva cells” for root drainage for plants / trees. Also includes some kvetching by businesses (e.g. Walgreens) about costs of assessments.


Headline: Rebuilt initiative to bolster plans for Schmidt Brewery
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: Article on Schmidt Brewery redevelopment plans [see last fortnight's Villager] that claims “developers are confident that the $76M project is finally moving ahead”, though it may take a long time. [Read: 'a really loooong time'. -Ed.] Brewery to get $1M in TIF money from the city as part of Mayor's plan mentioned above. Current development plan is for a “mixed-use urban village” w/ lots of housing and commercial space. Developer is a coalition of the local neighborhood group, “Dominium Development” [yikes!] and something named Welsh Companies. Goes into detail about where and how everything would happen. [All the detail about the developers and which-parcels-will-be-what makes me slightly more optimistic that this might actually happen, at least sometime in the next decade. -Ed.]


Headline: Though now empty, brewery has long played role in West End's history
Reporter: Lisa Heinrich

Short short version:Historical piece about the brewery. History of Christopher Stahlmann's cave, Schmidt family, Schmidt beer, prohibition, the ethanol plant, etc. Most interesting factoid: leveraged buyout in 1987 by an Australian “bond corporation” [uncreatively named "Australian Bond Corporation"] screwed the employees and killed the company, though the shareholders made a hefty profit. [Same thing pretty much happened to Northwest Airlines, though it took longer to die. -Ed.]


Headline: City Council takes proposed sign at I-94 and Pascal down a peg [Witty! -Ed.]
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: Along a 4-3 vote, the proposed [yet unnamed] big box hardware store at Snelling and I-94 will not be allowed a variance to erect a 60 ft. sign. Vote fell along typical business v. community group lines, with Boston, Helgen and Harris supporting the tall-sign variance. Includes interesting detail about how the contractors worked furiously to make sure the foundation was completed before the 'current site plan' expired and the development would have to comply with new transit-oriented development requirements.


Headline: Federal court ruling is not a good sign for billboard foes
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: St Paul lost a recent appellate ruling in a legal battle w/ Clear Channel over a city ban on billboard extensions. The nonprofit groups Scenic Minnesota and Scenic Saint Paul are behind the initiative to ban the extensions.


Headline: Efforts on track to preserve Selby Ave. streetcar tunnel
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: A group's quest to “commemorate” the [completely awesome -Ed.] Selby Avenue streetcar tunnel took a step forward then the local planning council agreed to team up to request money. The tunnel fans want to up a plaque near the entrance.


Headline: St Paul finds regulations on sidewalk cafes come up short
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: Because there are lots more sidewalk cafes than there used to be, the City Council adopted an ordinance to better control where they can and cannot exist and/or serve booze. Sidewalk cafes must now be “compact and contiguous”, and must allow for space for peds to pass by. Includes gripe from Councilmember Thune about how people with wheelchairs or walkers don't have room to pass by. [I wonder which particular cafe he's thinking of? -Ed.]


Headline: Historic Uppertown; Preservation status may be in store for West End district
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: Non-profit Histroric Saint Paul and the MHS are looking at whether or not to designate “Uppertown” [the area right at the bottom end of the High Bridge. -Ed.] should be a historic district, It seems they are basically doing a survey of the neighborhood (along w/ Frogtown and Payne/Phalen) to see whether or not many of the homes and buildings are old and/or historic.


Headline: Light-rail rezoning raises red flags for property owners
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: It seems lots of people don't like the new “dense, mixed-use, pedestrian oriented” development zoning changes going in along the light rail route. [At least, it seems that business owners and “tenants and advocacy groups” are attending meetings to complain. -Ed.] A lot of the zoning changes involves the TN zoning category, which will allow for mixed-use development and taller [perhaps up to 12-story in places] buildings. Singled out as being particularly sqeaky wheels: the St Paul Port Authority [they of the ultra-low density strip-mall developments along the West End of University Avenue. -Ed.], the St Paul Federal Credit Union, and long-time citizen of note [and very well-named] Metric Giles. Article buries quote from Episcopal Homes CEO, who likes the change.


* The hardest working woman in local journalism.