Author: Dana DeMaster

Dana DeMaster

Dana DeMaster, MPP, is a program evaluator and researcher for human services programs who lives and bikes in Saint Paul. When she’s not analyzing data, she can be found rabble-rousing for neighborhood bike improvements in Saint Paul, playing Legos with her two children, or sewing practical things. You can find some of her other writing on the Grease Rag and Wrench blog.

As Easy as Riding a Bike

Dana DeMaster • April 28, 2016

I have recently had the pleasure of watching two people learn to ride a bicycle. I have vague memories of learning to ride a bike around age five. Like many people I rode as a child and stopped as a teenager. I took it up again in my late 20s and have now been riding […]

Emanuel 3 Supportive Housing. Img. RS Eden.

A Primer on Housing Programs

Dana DeMaster • March 8, 2016

Section 8 is often used interchangeably with public housing, but they’re different. An explainer on these and other housing programs.

Welfare Queens, Performance Incentives, and Public Transportation Planning

Dana DeMaster • February 12, 2016

If you ever attend pub quizzes you will be familiar with the question format where three things are listed and participants must say how they are related. Quick – welfare queens, performance incentives, and public transportation. How are they related? Stumped? Read on to find out. Myth of the Welfare Queen The myth of the […]

The rink outside the Landmark Center in Saint Paul.

Thanks to Theodore Wirth for My Skating Rink!

Dana DeMaster • January 13, 2016

I used to live at 33rd Street and Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis which is within two blocks of two parks – Painter Park and Bryant Square Park. Nearly every night in the winter, after dinner I would grab my ice skates and walk over to Bryant Square for a little skating. Usually I would skate […]

Lesser of Three Evils for my Saint Paul Bike Commute

Dana DeMaster • December 17, 2015

Commuter cyclist Dana DeMaster reflects on the choices from “bad” to “worst” after being hit by a car just weeks into her new commute.

Tales from Saint Paul Alleys

Neighborhoods

Dana DeMaster • December 1, 2015

When people comment that there really are no differences between Minneapolis and Saint Paul there is one thing I can tell them that always makes jaws drop: Saint Paul does not plow its alleys. It is the responsibility of each block to figure out how to get its alley plowed. Seriously. Want to see neighborhood […]

Hit By a Car (again) in Downtown St. Paul, or Why We Need the Bike Plan

Dana DeMaster • July 28, 2015

My six-year old son and I got hit by a car in downtown Saint Paul last night. We’re fine, except for a good scrape on my leg, a busted fender, and a nervous little boy. It could have been worse. Before leaving work on 10th Street and Cedar Street I carefully studied the routes I […]