On Friday, Bill posted a summary of the top ten most read posts on streets.mn this year, concluding with a musing about whether it would make more sense to do the ten least-read posts. Providing some love to contributions that might have slipped through the cracks struck me as a good idea (and no, not just because none of my posts are anywhere near the top ten), so here are ten posts from this year among the bottom of the page view stats that are worth your time. This isn’t the literal bottom ten, as I left out some charts and tournament bracket posts and otherwise exercised a bit of judgment, but it’s close:
Number 10: The Difference Between the Tax Levy and Taxes Levied, and Why Wellstone Was Right – I know what you’re thinking. “How could a post with the word “tax” in the title not once but twice be toward the bottom of the page view stats?” You’re completely right. Everyone one loves reading about taxes. Okay, so maybe you don’t, but if you’re a homeowner, you probably got a 2016 property tax statement not too long ago, so you should educate yourself. It’s good for you. Like broccoli.
Number 9: Grand Rounds Branding & Design – If you’re like me, you can’t get enough of the Grand Rounds. Whether that’s walking, biking or driving on them or reading about their history and design, it’s all good stuff.
Lake Harriet section of the Grand Rounds Trail
Number 8: Following the Tracks to Duluth – In law school I worked as a clerk in Amtrak’s legal department, but that doesn’t make me a “train guy.” You don’t have to be to learn something about the potential train to Duluth that was in the news this week from this post that looks at the history of the service.
Number 7: Broadacre City in Minnesota – Frank Lloyd Wright designed a gas station. There’s one in Cloquest. Here are some pictures.
Number 6: The Rent is Too Damn High in Mankato – There’s literally (yes, literally) no excuse for a post featuring an image of Jimmy McMillan being low in the page view stats, so go take another look. Sure, you (probably) don’t live in Mankato, but your town is probably doing some of this stuff too.
You know how he feels about the rent.
Number 5: What’s the Right Metric for Transportation Safety – Who doesn’t like an argument about statistics, am I right? Here we get a discussion of how best to compare the relative safety of different types of transportation, and how the measurement you choose influences the outcome of the comparison.
Number 4: Kensington Park – Ten Years Later – Let’s take a look back at this post looking back on the where Richfield’s mixed-use Kensington Park development succeeded and struggled.
Number 3: Muckraking on West River Parkway – The process of re-opening West River Parkway to traffic after the June 2014 mudslides was projected to take a shockingly long time. Turns out it will be even longer still.
Number 2: Some Optimism for 2015 – A look at what we could hope for at the beginning of the year. Did any of it happen? Did things work out better or worse? Take a look and decide for yourself.
Number 1: Safety Means More Than Crime Rates – People cite “safety” as a reason they move to the suburbs, because they fear the rate of crime in the city. But crime is only part of the safety picture, in no small part because driving is one of the most dangerous things we regularly do without much thought of the danger. This posts pulls together some of the numbers to try to get to the bigger picture.
Honorable mention: I skipped over Ken Avidor’s Bicyclopolis: Episode Two, Cycling Into the Future as it didn’t seem right to just include the sequel, but go check it out too. And just for a touch of narcissism, how about my least-read post of the year: More On Bad Downtown Streets.