Pioneer Press Misses the Point: Rice Street Road Diet is a Huge Deal for Saint Paul

This Sunday, the Pioneer Press published a 1A front-page story about Rice Street and the North End, my old neighborhood. The piece described a changing of the guard in the local community group, the District 6 Council, which recently held an election where a new wave of board members ran for office and won, angering an old guard. The neighborhood schism hinges around a changing philosophy about streets and public space, particularly a proposed redesign of Rice Street, the main commercial drag, soon slated for reconstruction.

The reporter, Fred Melo, is one of the best journalists at the Pioneer Press and (mostly) does good work in trying circumstances. (For some context, consider how the newspaper’s hedge fund owners have admitted to “harvesting”the newsroom.)

But, as I pointed out on Twitter, he missed the key point here:

In short, Melo was right to cover the story, and has some good journalistic instincts on display. But by framing the piece around bike lanes, he and his editors needlessly turned an important story into another piece of bait for trolls.

An example of how the article’s framing quickly adopts bike lanes as its central focus:

Holst, a Marion Street resident and proponent of bicycle lanes and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, was appointed chair by the board members, and his friends and personal contacts took over the other leadership posts.

“A lot of people have served tirelessly for District 6 for a very long time,” said Holst, a rental property owner, on Thursday. “My focus is going to be on making the North End the best neighborhood it can be.”

The sudden turnover in leadership within the North End’s neighborhood planning council may underscore the extent to which bike lanes have become a contentious topic in St. Paul’s business districts. The districts have long struggled with how to balance the needs of drivers, pedestrians, business owners and nearby residents.

Scoffing at the prospect of adding bike lanes to a busy county thoroughfare, some business owners see cyclists as newcomers and outsiders inserting themselves into the discussion.

Cyclists and advocates of “new urbanism” say they’re a growing part of the city’s population, and too long overlooked. And they say the infrastructure they’re advocating for could help calm traffic, improve public safety and boost business sales by increasing general access. They believe it could save lives.

The article continues with some quotes from disgruntled neighborhood group members, a cursory mention of on-street parking, and that’s about it.

And that’s the problem, because the issue here isn't bike lanes, it's a street re-design around pedestrian safety.  The difference in focus is significant because street design is central to solving Saint Paul's safety problem, which has 140+ pedestrian crashes annually and 5 deaths in 15 months. Economically struggling Rice Street, more than anywhere else in the city, needs this kind of urban design change if it’s going to survive.

Here are three key pieces of context that the column left out:

[A "road diet", aka a safer street design.]

1. Road diets are a revolutionary safety improvement

[Seattle data.]

At first glance, the term “road diet” seems like flip jargon. Like “traffic calming” or (please God no) “woonerf”, it seems like cutesy self-help, something for the bougie “new urbanist” crowd (as Melo put it) to slap on convention brochures.

But it’s not. A 4-3 road diet is a very serious concept at the core of the contemporary shift in urban design thinking. They represent a huge change in civil engineering practice, a rethinking of the relationship between speed, congestion, safety, and walkability.

A quick definition: A road diet is when you take a four-lane undivided street (i.e. no turn lane) and replace the middle two lanes with a center turn lane. It creates a “three lane” footprint where cars can no longer swerve back and forth between gaps in traffic like they’re racing at Daytona. (Local examples include Marshall, Fairview, Lexington, West 7^th, Riverside, and Franklin.)    

Here are a few key points, from my 2010 article on deadly four-lane roads, following a tragic crash at Rice and Hoyt:

#1) 3-lane roads are much safer for car drivers. 

According to a Federal Highway Administration study, changing a 4-lane Death Road™ into a three-lane road reduces automobile traffic accidents from 20% to 50% depending on the context. (Note: this makes intuitive sense if you’ve ever driven on a street like this.) There are dozens of similar studies out there.

#2) 3-lane roads have marginal impact on traffic flow. I’m not going to suggest that a 4-to-3 conversion of a Death Road™ has no impact on traffic flow (though sometimes that turns out to be the case). Rather, fixing a Death Road™ usually sees a reduction in car throughput in the 5% to 10% range. As another Federal Highway Administration report puts it, “under most average daily traffic (ADT) conditions tested, road diets have minimal effects on vehicle capacity.” 

#3) 3-lane roads slow speeds. 

The main difference between a 4-lane Death Road™ and a 3-lane safe street is that traffic speeds go down and become far more uniform. It’s a proven fact that reducing speeds even a little bit, i.e. from 40 to 30 miles per hour, can make a huge difference on accident severity for pedestrians and bicyclists. 

#4) 3-lane roads increase biking and walking. 

After a 4-lane Death Road™ was fixed in San Francisco, “bicycle usage increased 37% during the PM peak hour, the number of pedestrians increased 49% during the PM peak hour, [and] public response has been overwhelmingly positive about this project.” That’s just one example; also, it’s common sense.

#5) Fixing a Death Road™ is really cheap. 

Unlike expensive street reconstructions or concrete bumpouts, cities and counties can quickly, easily, and cheaply fix these Death Roads™.

Here’s a quote from a city engineer in Portland, Oregon:

Graff said the price of all five road diets considered in the city’s analysis was “in the $100,000 range,” or up to $120,000 or so for projects that added new median islands or other improvements. “The cost/benefit is really high,” he said. “For the cost of one improved crossing — a median improvement or rapid-flashing beacon that provides a point improvement, you can reduce crashes across 10, 20 blocks.”

[A forthcoming example from Hennpein County.]

If anything, the case for 3-lane designs has only gotten stronger in the last seven years.

Hennepin County is going to do a 4-3 (and 4-2!) road diet on Lowry Avenue, and just this week I’ve read about a proposed 4-3conversion in Bloomington and a 4-3 conversion on a 30,000+ ADT street in Denver that barely impacted congestion. (That’s over twice as much traffic as on Rice Street.)

The only thing I’d change:  

#6 Road diets solve the fatal crosswalk problem

[Four people recently killed on Saint Paul streets.]

I would also add that the 4-3 conversion solves the deadly“whip around” problem that Saint Paul has been wrestling with for years now. In response to a rash of crashes where drivers killed five people in just over a year, the Police Department has led “crosswalk stings” at dangerous points around the city.

But the truth is that Saint Paul Police can continue doing “Stop For Me” events until Sergeant Ellison is blue in the face, and it will make only marginal differences. Enforcement is facing huge challenges because of escalating distraction culture.

Two-hour police stings make for nice headlines, but when you install a 4-3 road diet, you can build 24-hour medians at key intersections. These designs will literally save lives on a street like Rice, and it’s not hyperbole or speculation to say so. They are the only thing that will make Rice Street (and others like it) safe for the thousands of people who live and work along it every day.

[A sign I once spotted on Rice Street.]

2. Social ties in the North End are very frayed

[Via MN Compass: North End is getting poorer, more diverse.]

The second big piece of the puzzle is that the North End is struggling and I’m very worried about its future. Think about this: I lived In the North End for seven years and barely met any of my neighbors. Keep in mind that I’m an outgoing, friendly guy, but after spending seven years living on Western Avenue, when I moved away, the only people I knew by name were the butcher down the street (since burned down), the bartender at my local dive bar (since burned down) and the owner of the pizza place (not burned down!).

There are a lot of demographic and social reasons for the weak social ties. The North End has always been a working-class place. A local bar (Tin Cups, featured in the story) sells a shirt that says “It’s a Rice Street thing, you wouldn’t understand,” and there’s a legacy of community there from past generations.

[Asked an old-timer the age of Born's Bar: "I came here in my mothers' womb," he said.]

But over the last few decades, the area has quickly changed and the institutions have not kept up. Looking at Rice Street offers a good example. Super old-school Tschida Bakery closed a few years ago, a building burned down next to Mama’s Pizza, bars that closed included Diva’s Overtime Lounge, Easy Street West, and the bar on Front Avenue (I forgot the name). Many in the neighborhood saw this as addition by subtraction, but I see these closures a as a bad sign.

(Or see also Melo' excellent story on the struggles of a Maryland Avenue beauty salon from 2016. It is very hard to start a business in this neighborhood.)

[Via MN Compass.]

The result is that the old North End institutions have disappeared through death, entropy, changing tastes, and demographic changes that have seen a transformation of the neighborhood away from older white residents toward younger people of color.  

The growing diversity is a good thing for Rice Street, which boasts businesses like Bangkok Thai Deli or Kathy's Live Bait, with more and younger people speaking languages other than English. But in an area that struggles with crime and gang violence, it’s a challenge, especially for the old-timers.

Another story: I felt really weird when I marched in the Rice Street Parade back in 2006, because the parade offered a long string of floats full of white people heading down a street lined with people of color. The parade dynamics really bugged me, especially when I saw the guy running for City Council on a “tough on crime” platform hoisting police logos against a segregated racial background. It was one the things that pissed me off enough to get involved in local politics in the first place.

(I door knocked for his opponent, who won a close election. Then, four years later, I door knocked for his opponent, Amy Brendmoen, who has shown a great ability to have tough conversations across some of the stark neighborhood lines.)

[The view from Tin Cups.]

One more story about Rice Street inequality: When I attended the North End/Como Ward DFL convention back in 2007, where the City Council nomination was being determined, there was a huge disparity between the different ward neighborhoods. My Rice Street precinct had three delegates in the room, while many of the other Rice Street precincts had none at all. (!) Meanwhile, every Como Park precinct was jam packed with dozens of supporters of different candidates.

This to say that political engagement in the neighborhood is hugely imbalanced. For years, it’s felt like almost nobody advocates for Rice Street, except in a reactionary way. Few people vote, politicians generally ignore the area, and the street has been stuck in a downward cycle of disinvestment and apathy.

It’s in the midst of this vacuum of social capital that Rich Holst, the new chair of District 6 (featured prominently in the story) has been doing some amazing work. Here are three quick examples that I've personally witnessed:

Last summer I attended an hour+ long meeting that Holst had set up in the District 6 offices. He’d invited an expert on co-cooperatively owned real estate developments from Northeast Minneapolis to give a “how-to” talk on setting up alternative community investment models on Rice Street, an area that has trouble getting regular business loans.

Second, last year Holst successfully applied for a city grant to install new, branded bike racks on Rice Street. He pulled together a design for for the racks: a “North End” logo featuring a compass rose. They’re kind of like the ones in Highland, only it’s much easier to lock a bike to them. Then, by himself, Holst went up and down the street talking to business owners trying to convince them to agree to have the racks installed.

Finally, he and his neighbor, (newly elected Soil and Water Commissioner) Lena Buggs, have been hosting weekly (!) “pink flamingo” parties in his neighborhood for over a year. Every week, all summer, for over a year…  People gathering on each others lawn to talk about the weather and how to improve the neighborhood.

This kind of work is hugely difficult in a neighborhood like the North End, where poverty, crime, and demographics tend to keep people turtled up in silos.

[One of the "flamingo friday" parties in the North End.]

 

3. Neighborhood politics is always about getting friends to show up

[Meeting in Minneapolis' Central neighborhood.]

Maybe it was the petty quotes from the outgoing District Council members, but Melo’s article seemed awfully naïve about how neighborhood group politics work.

For one thing, there’s a huge range of difference in quality between the different neighborhood groups in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Some neighborhood groups reach out to city leaders and the community all the time; others seem like they don’t exist. (At the Saint Paul Planning Commission, the inequality is very apparent. Union Park, Mac-Grove, Fort Road, Highland, and Highwood, for example, have very active Councils. I have never heard anything from District 6, other than a complaint about a used car dealership.)

Secondly, some neighborhood groups take pains to try and reflect the demographics of their neighborhood. Others explicitly disenfranchise marginalized groups, like students, renters, or people who don’t speak English. A lot depends on where you live, each neighborhood’s unique history, and who steps up to get involved.

A few examples: I wrote an article about the great work being done in the Standish-Ericcson neighborhood; or check out John Edwards’ justified diatribes and hell-stories about LHENA and critique of Whittier's democratic process; or listen to Chris Meyer’s experiences with student disenfranchisement in Marcy-Holmes.

(Meanwhile, in my West Side district council, the annual meeting does a great job reflecting the diversity of the community and the board has many younger and/or non-white board members. In fact, a year ago, a group of board members ousted a long-time executive director in a contentious vote.)

[Meeting in Minneapolis' Standish-Ericcson neighborhood.]

In each case, the power dynamics are pretty simple. District Councils hold an annual election, and you try to get as many friends, neighbors, or others who live in the neighborhood to attend the three-hour meeting. After some period of mingling, they vote and elect the board. It’s straightforward, though group dynamics can quickly become petty in wrong circumstances. 

The point is that talking to friends and neighbors about the neighborhood is precisely the point of a community group. The idea that people who voted and ran for the board of a neighborhood group would know each other is a feature, not a bug.

The Takeaway: Bike Lanes Have Little To Do with It

[Drive down Rice, chances are good you'll see a crash.]

This kind of context is difficult to explain, and there’s no way that a newspaper story could fit it in. But my big critique of Melo’s story is that it focused on bike lanes instead of Saint Paul’s huge street safety problem.

(PROTIP: "new urbanism" is a term most commonly linked to developments like Seaside, Florida.)

It’s worth pointing out, as Osten does in the article, that bike lanes are just one of the options for the forthcoming street re-design. Compared to the safety improvements, they’re not anyone’s top priority.

It’s also worth pointing out that Rice Street can stand in for a half-dozen deadly Saint Paul streets in poor areas of town. These deadly streets are a social justice issue, because the high number of people of color and people living in poverty who depend on walking, biking, and transit. It’s a geographic issue, because of the imbalance of power within both the city and the county.

[A deadly intersection on Maryland Avenue.]

And it’s a political issue, because changing these streets isn’t a given, by any means. Almost all of Saint Paul’s deadly arterial roads are Ramsey County jurisdiction, so having a friendly Council Member does very little to advance the conversation with County-wide constituents, old-school County engineers, and little-known County Commissioners. These are the people shaping street designs on Rice, Dale, Maryland, and White Bear, and they’re only beginning to change the way that they make decisions. As Bob Collins predicts, it’s not a given that any of these streets will become safer in the next ten or twenty years.

(For example, the County Commissioner who represents the North End, Janice Rettman, successfully killed a 4-3 road diet on Dale Street a few years ago because she was worried about parking. She’s also consistently opposed bike lanes, and was *the only vote* against Ramsey County’s new All Abilities Transportation Network Policy, which aims to increase safety and ensure mobility for vulnerable people. There’s little chance that she will support safer designs for Rice Street.)

The work of people like Holst, Buggs, and Osten, and many others in these vulnerable neighborhoods, to build community and get involved, show up to meetings and stay positive, is one of the best things to happen on Rice Street in many years. In other words, this is exactly the kind of community work we need if we’re going to finally build safe streets in all parts of Saint Paul. It won’t be sufficient, but it’s a great first step. To me, it feels like blowing the dust off of the King of Rohan.

This isn’t the first time that media chosen a misleading slant for a street-related story. Bike lanes make both a convenient scapegoat, and an easy shorthand for more complex issues. But focusing on bikes does a disservice to the stakes and concerns of the people involved. It’s not about bikes, it’s about safety, and it’s about time. I wish the article could have figured that out. 

[The corner of Rice and Hoyt, where Bickram Phuyel was put in a coma.]

The Road Diet Cut-Off

I wrote a piece for streets.mn last week that generated a lot of traction called Four-Lane Death Roads Should Be Illegal. Basically, it was my standard boilerplate rant about street design and the tradeoff between (high-speed) traffic flow and safety for people living in urban neighborhoods.

Then this weekend, the Pioneer Press picked up the thread. Mara Gottfried talked to me about my ideas, and on Sunday a column front page (below the fold) story came out about walkability, safety, and street design in Saint Paul.

Saint Paul Walks?

[Grand Ave surrender flags.]

This is a long-term issue in Saint Paul, and all across the city people have been working for years trying to figure out how to improve safety for people trying to walk around their neighborhoods, visit businesses, and cross the street. For example, I've been an on-and-off collaborator with the Saint Paul Walks group, which started a "stop for pedestrians" pledge campaign last year, among other things. And there's the crosswalk flag situation going on along Grand and Snelling Avenues.

I'm not really a fan of these approaches, because I think they place too much responsibility (and blame) on the pedestrians instead of the automobile drivers, who are the real danger in this situation. In my experience, enforcement (more police) and education campaigns (like the pledge) have marginal impacts. In the face of a dangerous street design that tells drivers it's OK to speed, text, or eat a burrito, these things won't accomplish much and won't help Saint Paul become a thriving, safe, walkable city.

4-3 Road Diets

I've written a few times now about why 4-lane undivided (or "Death Roads™") are unsafe and frankly, in my opinion, should be banned throughout the city. I suppose that's an extreme position (though it shouldn't be), but even if you're not willing to prioritize walking and neighborhood safety over traffic flow, we can still have an intelligent conversation about when and where 4-3 conversions might make sense.

For example, here's a comment from someone on the streets.mn post about White Bear Avenue, which I mentioned as an exemplary Death Road™ in my piece:

We have had long discussions in the neighborhood about White Bear Avenue and if it would be better or worse if it was changed to 3 lanes. The bottom line issue is that White Bear Avenue is the only north/south through street between Johnson Parkway and McKnight there aren’t any other options for drivers to choose if they live in that area there is no place else to go. In the District 2/Greater East Side neighborhood there are 28,000 people living between Johnson Parkway and McKnight and between Minnehaha and Larpentuer…. and there are 2,000 jobs. That means its a bedroom community with almost no employment in the area. To live there you work somewhere else and if you do, in the morning and in the afternoon you drive on White Bear Avenue… its the only way out. If we made stacking times longer than they already are the fear is nobody would want to live in the neighborhood.

I don't think this commenter understands the problem very well, particularly since there are many examples of streets that got 4-3 conversions throughout Minnesota and the rest of the country without seriously changing traffic flows. (I'll post about some of these examples soon.)

I'm glad the conversation same up, but I'd be willing to bet that whoever gave a presentation on this topic years ago over-emphasized the congestion and de-emphasized the safety, quality of life, and local economic benefits of the three-lane design.

[White Beat Avenue is not safe.]

Where is the Cutoff?

[Minneapolis examples.]

The Federal Highway Administraiton says: 

Under most average daily traffic (ADT) conditions tested, road diets have minimal effects on vehicle capacity, because left-turning vehicles are moved into a common two-way left-turn lane.^(1,2) However, for road diets with ADTs above approximately 20,000 vehicles, there is a greater likelihood that traffic congestion will increase to the point of diverting traffic to alternate routes.

But here in Saint Paul, as quoted in the Pioneer Press article, the Public Works' department claims:

"In St. Paul, roads with more than 15,000 vehicles traveling on them daily aren't good candidates because that can lead to traffic congestion and backups. Rice Street, in the area of Hoyt Avenue, has average daily traffic of about 15,000 vehicles."

Why this difference? As it turns out, changing the traffic threshold by 5,000 daily cars makes a huge difference because the majority of the unsafe urban streets in Saint Paul and Minneapolis fall into this traffic sweet spot. For example...

Some 4-lane Death Roads™

[St Paul examples.]

• Hamline Avenue (North of Summit): 14-17,000 cars per day
• Cretin Avenue (South of Marshall): 7 - 17,000 cars per day
• White Bear Avenue: 18 - 23,000 cars per day
• Maryland Avenue (West of Jackson): 10 - 15,000 cars per day
• Rice Street (where the kid was hit): 14-15,500 cars per day
• Franklin Avenue (central part): 13-20,000 cars per day
• Cedar Avenue (between the lake and I-94): 14,000 cars per day
• NE Broadway Avenue:14-15,000 cars per day

Safety vs. Speed

As opposed to some really low-traffic streets, fixing these streets might involve changing the balance between high-speed traffic flow, safety, and quality of life. As a city, we need to have an intelligent conversation about what these trade-offs are, and how to value them.

Saint Paul and Hennepin County should increase the threshold where they're favor 4-3 conversions on streets. Even if some traffic conditions become more congested, the trade-off in terms of pedestrian safety, neighborhood quality of life, and improving access to small businesses is well worth it for often struggling urban neighborhoods.

This is the difference between accommodating and prioritizing walking and biking. This is the difference between walkable cities and cities that you want to escape as quickly as possible. Saying that these road diets only make sense for low traffic (under 15K) roads is a cop-out, and fails to adequately value our urban neighborhoods, who are paying the price for dangerous high-speed road designs.

Today on Streets.mn: Road Diets are the One Thing We Can Do Right Away

Riverside Avenue in SE Minneapolis

January is dieting season, and I have a new post up at Streets.mn today about the greatness of road diets. Here's the key bit:

First, from a driver’s perspective: how you behave on a 4-lane configuration is really different from a 3-lane configuration. With two lanes in each direction, drivers are always thinking about passing each other. Driving down the road, you’re constantly scanning the cars ahead of you to see if they are slowpokes, or if they’re making a (dreaded) left turn. Cars are continually switching back and forth between the two lanes, glancing over their shoulders to see if the person in the next lane will let them in, speeding around turning and slowing cars and trucks. (For a good example, drive down Hennepin Avenue pretty much anytime.) This kind of situation means that car drivers aren’t paying much attention to the sidewalks, crosswalks, or looking out for bicyclists. This configuration facilitates speeding, and creates lots of dangerous automobile movements especially at intersections.

Contrast that wtih a 3-lane configuration. Here, each car has to follow the one in front of them. Left turning vehicles move to the center, and drivers are never stuck behind them. Nobody is passing anybody, and traffic moves along with the stoplights. Not only is the whole situation is more relaxing, but its far safer for everyone involved. Speeds are lower, and most importantly, you don’t have lane changes occuring at intersections or driveways.

From a pedestrian or cyclist perspective, the difference is even more palpable. Anyone trying to cross a 4-lane street has to deal with multiple lanes of traffic moving at different speeds in different directions. That’s a recipe for disaster.

Road diets are pretty much my #1 easy-and-cheap change that cities can make right now, without jumping through any bureaucratic hoops, if only we can muster a little political will. I'd like to see road diets on almost every 4-lane arterial street in Minneapolis and St Paul. Why? It's absolutely good for the people who live and get around in our cities (with or without a car). Anytime you have a 4-lane configuration, that street serves as a dangerous almost un-crossable moat for people walking anywhere.  (Unless there are tons of signalized intersections, in which case, why even have the 4-lanes in the first place?) Anytime you have a 4-lane configuration, it encourages dangerous lane changes particularly at intersections. Anytime you have a 4-lane configuration without a bike lane, you place bicyclists in the often terrifying position of having to 'take the lane' despite speeding traffic changing lanes. I'm as good a cyclist as you'll likely find round these parts, and just the other day I was almost run over by a speeding (and honking) pickup on the (2-block long) 4-lane segment of Marshall Avenue (ironically, right next to the 'Bikes May Take Full Lane' sign).

This is the #1 thing that cities and public works engineers can do today to improve safety and quality of life for the vast majority of citizens. We need to start prioritizing people who live and walk in our city's neighborhoods, instead of prioritizing people speeding through them.

Reading the Highland Villager #68

[The Villager loiters.]

[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.]

Headline: Park in progress sheds new light on Coldwater spring
Reporter: Kevin Driscoll

Short short version: The "coldwater spring" which is a American Indian site and former property of the US Bureau of Mines, is almost a park now.


Headline: Support grows for development ban on Grand Avenue
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: The proposed moratorium [a reaction to the apartment building on Grand which is a reaction to the neighbors' student housing ordinance which is a reaction to students who themselves react to the presence of limitless alcohol, liberty, and members of the opposite sex] on Grand Avenue received a hearing in front of the city council, and "most of those in attendance were in support." Quote: There was some concern over "whether the study will have a predetermined outcome." [PROTIP: yes.] Article includes description of the development ban, zoning along the street, quote from CM Stark and the developer in question.


Headline: Saints be praised! Lowertown may get its stadium; $25M state grand boosts city's plan for 7,000-seat minor league ballpark [This fortnight's cheesy headline award winner, by a landslide]
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: Report on the receipt of the money from the governor for the Saints stadium in Lowertown. [I was chatting with a colleague the other day who speculated that this pot of money, and the parking lot money in Duluth, were gubernatorial pay-back for the core cities' support of the Vikings stadium efforts. -Ed.] Article references the remaining $2M shortfall describes the complex sources for the stadium funding.  Article includes full- color map of the stadium site, laudatory quotes from the Lowertown wine shop owner, CM Thune.


Headline: Discussion continues on design of new Hamline Ave. bridge
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: Story about a public meeting to discuss the bridge over Ayd Mill Road at Hamline Avenue. The meeting was supposed to be about public art, but turned into a conversation about a possible 4-3 conversion for the bridge. TLC director Barb Thoman is one of the people mentioned asking for the 3-lane configuration [which really makes a huge difference to quality of life for people on foot and on bicycle, IMO; 4-3 conversions should be standard practice for city public works departments in many many places]. The story implies [but doesn't explicitly say] that St Paul Public Works doesn't seem that fond of the idea. The bridge is scheduled for replacement in November. 2013. 


Headline: Property values may slide but tax bills expected to rise
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: Self-explanatory. Article includes lots of numbers.


Headline: Better locks, vigilance can help block break-ins
Reporter: Larry Englund

Short short version: In other news, cigarettes may cause cancer.

Best (Urban) Articles from The New Yorker

[New Yorker covers love bikes.]

About two years back, my father got me a gift subscription to The New Yorker. I've been relatively diligent about keeping up on it, believe it or not.


Now that the magazine has opened all its articles to the public to read for free (for a short period), I thought I'd share some of my favorite bits that are vaguely interesting if you're interested in cities.

These are all the ones that jump out at me, and what I remember about them without going back and looking at them again.

[In chronological order.]

David Owen, Why Purell is Everywhere 3/4/2013

I guess it answers a question.

David Owen, Watch Where You Step in Florida 3/18/2013

All about Florida sinkholes, which are common there because of the unique geology. This story has some amazing details of all kinds of things coming up out of the ground! Worth a read if you're interested in Floridian eschatology, as I am.

William Finnegan, The Miner's Daughter 3/28/13

Long profile of an incredibly wealthy and secretive Australian mining heiress and magnate. You wonder where copper comes from?

Sean Wilsey, Open Water 4/22/13

Amazing true memoir of a guy who worked as a Venetian gonodlier. It has islands and gondolier codes and stuff. So cool.

Jennie Erin Smith, A State of Nature  4/22/13

OK, so there's this one tiny bit between Panama and Colombia where the roads in either direction don't go. It's kind of amazing that there's this gap. Read all about it. It sounds wild.

Douglas Preston, The El Dorado Machine 5/6/2013

History of people searching for "lost cities" in Central America. Very Indiana Jones. Great read.

Tad Friend, Crowded House 5/27/2013

This is a funny story about people trying a mythical great apartment in New York City that a scammer keeps promising people but never delivers on. It reads kinda like a Seinfeld episode, involving the apartment being rented out to multiple people at the same time.

Larissa MacFarquar,  Last Call 6/24/13

Story of a Japanese Buddhist monk who specializes in talking to people who are about to kill themselves, which is a big thing in Japan. Poignant and illustrates something about our / Japan's individualized culture.

John McPhee, The Orange Trapper 7/1/2013

Great short memoir about a life long hobby collecting golf balls outside golf courses. Very well written and interesting to think about fences and edges and golf.

Calvin Tompkins, Ed Ruscha's L.A. 7/1/2013

A short bio piece about a famous L.A. artist, talks a lot about L.A. in the 70s and 80s and the state of the art scene. Ruscha is the one responsible for this hilarious painting...

John Seabrook, The Beach Builders 7/22/2013

About how much work it takes to rebuild the beaches destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, and whether we should even be rebuilding those towns any more. Kind of wistful look at Jersey shore towns.

Julian Rubinstein, Operation Easter 7/22/2013

This one was literally unbelievable. There are people who spend their lives stealing the eggs of endangered birds in the U.K. So wrong! So strange.

Sarah Stilman, Taken 8/12/2013

Civil forfeiture is when police take your stuff when they pull you over. It's straight up extortion and happens all the time in the South. Heartbreaking piece.

Ian Frazier, Walking Normally: The Facts 9/9/2013

The funniest thing on this list. Trust me, you're gonna laugh your ass off.

Rachel Aviv, The Imperial Presidency 9/9/2013

Article about the controversial president of NYU, who has been buying up swaths of Manhattan and opening up a branch in Dubai.

Andrew Marantz, The Unreality Star 9/16/2013

OK I didn't actually read this one, but it looks good about surveillance culture and paranoia.

Calvin Tompkins, A Sense of Place 9/23/2013

If you're into architecture, this is about the guy who did the African American museum in D.C.

Josh Eells, Night Club Royale 9/30/2013

Apparently there's a huge electronic dance music (EDM) scene in Las Vegas now, which is the only think keeping that city from blowing away in the wind. 

Akash Kapur, Rush 10/14/2013

Fascinating story about a big highway being built through a tiny village in India. A lot changes! Learn about roads in India.

Ian Frazier, Bus Ride 4/14/2014

The most dangerous bus in New York is the B46, which Frazier rides from end to end. The quotes from the bus driver are amazing.

Burkhard Bilger, Auto Correct 11/25/2013

Short bit about the Google robo-car.

Calvin Trillin, Mozarella Story 12/2/2013

Lovely ode to an old store in Little Italy that sold handmade mozzarella for like forever. Really well written, of course.

Ian Johnson, In The Air 12/2/2013

Air pollution in China is amazing. Seriously crazy what their cities are like.

Emily Eakin, The Civilization Kit 12/23/2013

Guy in Missouri that is trying to build his own tractor (and all other machines) from scratch.

Elizabeth Kolbert, The Red Light 1/27/2014

All about traffic jam politics and Chris Christie. Pretty hard to believe that New Jersey politics revolves around traffic jams, but it does.

John Colapinto, The Real-Estate Artist 1/20/2014

Artist who is attempting to revive a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, one of the country's largest and poorest black ghettos. Really interesting if you're into Chicago.

Dana Goodyear, Death Dust 1/20/2014

About a plague of crazy disease-inducing dust in California's central valley, another incredibly poor part of the country. Really depressing and mysterious.

Paige Williams, Drop Dead, Detroit! 1/27/2014

Bio piece on this one right-wing asshole who has been in charge of the burbs north of Detroit for years, and made his living cordoning off the white suburbs from the black city. I didn't know this history, but it explains a lot.

Jon Lee Anderson, The Comandante's Canal 3/10/2014

The president of Nicaragua is trying to build a second canal and the Chinese are helping. Incredible, really.

Evan Osnos, Chemical Valley 4/7/2014

Another really poor place, West Virginia, and how deeply rooted the chemical industry is there. it's so hard to imagine people drinking the water and taking showers during the chemical spill, and the government doing nothing about it.

Ian Frazier, Blue Bloods 4/14/2014

Unbelievable stuff about horseshoe crabs. I didn't know anything about horseshoe crabs, which live in on Long Island. I guess I really like Ian Frazier.

Sarah Payne Stuart, Pilgrim Mothers 5/5/2014

A nice memoir about living in Concord, MA, and how strange the old puritan culture is there.

Dale Russakoff, Schooled 5/19/2014

Long and interesting history of school reform in Newark involving Cory Booker, Chris Christie, and Mark Zuckerberg. Really. Reforming schools seems almost impossible.

Sarah Stillman, Get Out of Jail Inc. 6/23/2014

For profit work programs is when courts take your money for life when you don't pay parking tickets. It's straight up extortion and happens all the time in the South. Heartbreaking piece.

Reading the Highland Villager Op-Ed Extra #11

[The crazy is proliferating.]

[Note: in a first, this op-ed extra predates the actual Highland Villager re-cap. But witnessing this amazing piece of work I could not resist.]

Bicyclists share the road, they should share the costs of using it

Bicycles are here to stay. [Stop reading now. Let’s call it a day, shall we?] We are seeing many more recreational bikes, racing bikes, cruiser bikes, tricycle bikes [Are we? Are we seeing tricycle bikes? Are bears riding them?], and, of course, the green rent-a-bikes that are popping up at virtually every corner [Note that by “virtually every corner” Roger means one corner. There is one corner with a Nice Ride station in Highland and nobody uses it]. Our federal, state and local politicians are doing everything they can to promote biking. [Um, no they’re not. If by “everything they can” you mean, a tiny amount of paint mostly, and even then only if it’s practically free. If bicyclists had one dollar for every thousand dollars spent on subsidizing parking and exurban commuting, that would be huge.] The city of St. Paul even has a full-time bicycle coordinator. [No they don’t. Minneapolis does. Saint Paul used to have a “full-time bicycle coordinator” but the position was changed after she lost her mind dealing with the tailpipe people in Highland and got so fed up that she literally left the continent to live on the island of Madagascar.  That's a true story. With lemurs. These days there are a bunch of people who work on bicycle and pedestrian projects in Public Works, but nobody with a job title of “bicycle coordinator”]. Plans are in the works to establish bicycle boulevards or corridors north and south every mile or so throughout St. Paul. [OK, so this much is true.]

As bicyclists proliferate [proliferate is an interesting verb. What else proliferates? Nuclear weapons], they are becoming a much more significant factor in the overall transportation environment. Current plans envision more bicyclists, requiring more road space be taken for bike boulevards and bike lanes. [Technically, bicycle boulevards do not take up any “road space.” If done right –which they are not in Highland due to political obstinacy, lack of attention to detail, a failure to take safety concerns seriously, under-funding, and pushback from privileged drivers – bicycle boulevards offer pavement equally available to cars trucks and even buses, provided they are willing to drive slowly and defer to bicycles should they encounter them]. Lanes that are exclusive to bicyclists significantly reduce the traffic lanes available to cars, trucks and buses, though bicyclists are not required to stay within the designated bike lanes. [Actually it is rarely the case that traffic lanes become bike lanes in a straight-up swap. I suppose you could argue that a 4-3 “road diet” is swapping a car lane for a bike lane, but really that design treatment is all about the center turn lane and improving safety. The bike lane is beside the point. Much of the time, in fact, a 4-3 road diet has minimal impact on traffic volumes, though I suppose you could make a case that they have greater impacts on buses. Marshall Avenue is a good example of this. It would be much more accurate to say that bike lanes come at the expense of on-street parking than to say they replace traffic lanes. If we want to discuss fee-based on-street parking policies, I'm all ears.]

More bikes demand more traffic enforcement. [Well, not necessarily. This is not how traffic safety works.] Although bicyclists are required to comply with the same traffic laws as other vehicles, many bicyclists routinely run red lights, ignore stop signs, and drive the wrong way on roads. [“Drive”? Nobody drives a bike. This is terminology they used in the 1950s. This is straight up just like that 70s era Cosby bicycling video. And we know how Cosby turned out… And also, which one-way streets are he talking about? When confronted with a one-way street, most bicyclists would use the sidewalk, as I do downtown. One neat cheap trick of one-way streets is to create a counter-flow bike lane, like they did on Marshall Avenue just East of Western, by the creepy cult building... wait a minute... creepy cult?]. As bicyclists proliferate [Another thing that proliferates? I’d have to say guerilla uprisings. Or maybe creepy clowns?], accidents involving bicycles and other vehicles are bound to increase, putting additional strains on emergency medical technicians and rescue services. [So interesting thing here. As bicycling increases, accidents per mile traveled go down. It’s called the “safety in numbers” effect. Long story short, the more drivers see bicyclists, the more drivers see bicyclists. In fact, one of the key arguments for not having helmet laws, for example, is that if you increase the number of bicyclists on the street by making it as easy as possible to ride, the safety effects are so great that they outweigh the marginal safety benefits of helmets in the first place. So basically, Roger has it completely backwards here. Also worth pointing to the issue of crash severity, which has everything to do with speed. In a city where bicycling was very common, you would see health care and emergency costs go down for several reasons: people would be more active and thus healthier, and crashes would less often result in trauma or death because speeds would be lower and drivers would be paying more attention at intersections.]

Today, with the exception of bicycles [and skateboards and pogo sticks and segways and those weird two-wheeled automatically-moving Back To The Future-looking gizmos that the kids are using these days and probably other things too], all vehicles using the streets and roads are taxed via their license and fuel consumption to support this infrastructure and the road services they use. We also require all vehicle operators to carry sufficient insurance to cover liability for accidents or injuries that may occur. It is time to level the playing field and allow bicyclists the transportation equality they deserve. [This is such a hilarious attempt at a mind-f**k.  Much like the 70s Cosby video, it purports to offer these suggestions in the name of helping bicyclists. Which of course is the opposite of what this would be doing.]

Although I am normally loathe to get government involved any more than necessary [Ha, I bet that’s an understatement! This dude is probably one of the Malheur Refuge occupiers], I believe government has the obligation to provide well-maintained modern roadways and to ensure everyone’s safety. [“Well maintained modern roadways." I feel like I’m IN Back to the Future when Alex P. Keaton goes to the 1950s. This sounds just like Magic Motorways by Norman Bel Geddes, the famous pre-Interstate utopian tract by the guy who built General Motors Futurama.] As such, it is time to require all bicycles to be licensed with a corresponding serial number, registration, visible license plates [!] and an appropriate licensing fee. The license plates and serial numbers would facilitate identification in cases of bike accidents, traffic violations, bike theft, etc. and the fee would fund a portion of the infrastructure and services bicyclists use. [OK I just have to point out that user fees pay for less than half the costs of roads, and a vast sum of money to pay for roads comes from general fund dollars (i.e. income, sales, and property taxes) at multiple levels of government. Also bicycles weigh a lot less than cars. Don’t believe me? Try picking up your car, and then try picking up your bicycle. You can try this at home. (If you don't have a car of your own, just try picking up some else's car when they're not looking.) It turns out that whole “weight” thing is kind of important when it comes to roadway wear and maintenance, or so the engineers say. Bike lanes do not wear out because of bicycles, but due to weather. Roads are another story. It's all about physics or something.]

The requirement to have sufficient liability insurance would ensure that monetary damages for injuries caused by bicyclists would be compensated. Underage bicyclists would be covered under their parents’ insurance. [A word for "underage bicyclists" that actual non-cult human beings might use would be "children." Somehow I doubt Roger encounters very many of these, which is probably for the best.]

Some may say these requirements would be onerous. Not really. [OK, well then.] Biking is good for the environment, good for our health, and it replaces some of the cars on the streets. These are good things, but good things incur significant costs. [I can think of a GREAT MANY "good things" that do not incur significant costs. Like let's just take love as an example. Love is free and you do not need a license. Sometimes hearts are broken but it does not tax our ambulance system. Smiles: also free! Laughter: free! Conversation with interesting people: free! Going for a walk: free! Riding a bike: free, once you have a bike! Ice cream: NOT FREE, which is why Lisa Goodman hates it.] Law-abiding road safety is a must, and costly infrastructure must be maintained. It is time bicyclists not only share the road, but share the costs. [Apart from the massive amount of general fund taxes that go to build roads you mean. About 2.5% of commuting in Saint Paul is done on bicycles, yet nowhere near 2.5% of the road money is spent on them.]

All drivers and true bicycle enthusiasts know that using the roadways is a privilege, not a right, and strongly support compliance with traffic laws. ["True bicycle enthusiasts" like Bill Cosby and this guy. I bet Roger also pronounces the word "bicycles" wrong, just like Cosby and (strangely) the Director of the State Department of Natural Resources.] They are also willing to pay their fare share of necessary costs, and know it would be unfair to give bicyclists a free ride at the cost of other drivers. ["Other drivers."]

Bicyclists have long demanded equality on the roadways. Now is the time to get them on board as full sharing participants in our traveling community. [Funny coincidence because "Our Traveling Community" was the name of the one-act play that I wrote for a Freshman-year comp class. So either Roger is a libertarian gypsy, but that wouldn't make sense because he's really really into law and order. Or maybe he's a member of a traveling clown circus? That would explain the bear on the tricycle. Or maybe he's in some sort of conspiracy cult. I hear those are proliferating.]

Roger Maulik is a resident of Highland Park. [Yes. Yes, he would be.]

[It should go without saying that this is idiotic. It's unenforceable, impractical,  and would greatly reduce the number of people riding bikes in Saint Paul. The closest thing to this that I've heard about is in Australia, and it's really dumb there too.]