Author: Conrad Zbikowski

Conrad Zbikowski

About Conrad Zbikowski

Downtown Minneapolis resident covering local issues including parks, transportation, zoning, and development.

Cub Foods February 2020 Groceries

Grocery Wars 2020: Costco is a Winner Winner Five Dollar Chicken Dinner

Recently, I asked our readers to fill out a survey about grocery shopping habits, including where you shopped and what was on your most recent receipt. Thank you to the 53 readers who shared their data! I have been volunteering hard over the last half-month to bring you the most representative grocery index I could, […]

obama at national convention

Caucus 2020: Why should I? How do I? Who is running?

I made a grievous mistake in my last post. When I originally sent the copy to the editor, I was under the impression that caucuses were going to be held the evening of the primary at 7 p.m., in the same way the preference ballot and caucuses had been on the same day in 2016. […]

By Phil Roeder from Des Moines, IA, USA - Precinct 61, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58008907

How to Run a Ranked-Choice Caucus on the Cheap

This is what we woke up to last Tuesday. It didn’t have to be this way. From media reports, it sounds like precinct chairs were downloading an untested app the night of the caucus and running into bugs and connectivity issues. When they tried to call in their results as they had four years ago, […]

Whole Foods Produce

Help Design the Next Grocery Index

Dear streets.mn loyal readers, Last year, I worked on a grocery index that included local Minneapolis-St. Paul grocery stores and common staples. For the next index, it’s time to ask for your input on what stores and what staples you value. Since the last grocery index, I have learned that Instacart has a mark-up on […]

Steve Fletcher 3rd Ward Convention

Let’s Reform the Municipal Party Endorsement Process Before 2021

I have been involved with politics since I was a volunteer with Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s re-election campaign in 2012. I have been a campaign manager, a consultant, and a party official at an endorsement convention. I live in Minneapolis, and together with St. Paul and other cities, we have ranked-choice voting for our municipal general […]

2020 Tesla Model Y

It Takes 66,379 Miles for an Electric Car to Have Lower Emissions Than Hybrid

In 2020, Tesla is expected to release the Model Y, a battery-electric hatchback “SUV” that will compete with the recently announced Ford Mustang Mach-E and other crossover-type electric fastbacks. Putting aside all the arguments why electric cars will not save the planet in general, let’s explore whether these new family wagons are even better than […]

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Dispatch from Black Friday

Every year I make an expedition to the Mall of America on Black Friday with no specific agenda. Living in downtown Minneapolis, I can buy an all-day Metro Transit pass for $5, saving $1.55 in gasoline, 13 pounds of carbon dioxide and a chip out of my soul. We were riding the lemon yellow light […]

Lyft Nice Ride Electric Bike 2020

Nice Ride and Lyft Announce 2,000 Electric Bikes for 2020

On Wednesday, Nice Ride and operator Lyft announced changes for the 2020 season. There are new developements for electric bikes, dockless, the end of the season, and Nice Ride for All. Electric Bikes and the Future of Dockless Nice Ride plans to expand the electric bike fleet to 2,000 starting in April 2020, with different […]