A few weeks ago a post about a business located inside of a single-family house on Grand Ave in St. Paul wanting to expand out to the sidewalk reminded me how much I like single-family houses with storefronts on them. As far as I can tell, this type of building represents the best of all worlds […]
Last week I got rear-ended by a car while biking south under the Hiawatha Avenue overpass on Cedar. I was chatting with a friend about a movie. I asked him a question, but before he could answer I was rolling back onto the hood of a silver Chevy Malibu. My head shattered the windshield from […]
When most of us see architectural renderings, we go through an automatic process of uncloaking them to create a mental image of what a building or streetscape might actually look like. Renderings are, of course, PR tools–slick representations of best-case scenarios under ideal conditions. Especially in the case of recent proposals for a new development on […]
Two old brick apartment buildings face each other across the 35W trench North of Franklin Ave: I happen to know two friends whose respective apartments in these buildings face one another. So close are these buildings, that when one of them ran out of eggs in the morning, he just texted the other, who tossed him […]
A Public Conversation is taking place about whether our metro area and greater minnesota are part of The Midwest, or if MSP is in fact the seat of a conceptual Northern region unto itself, i.e. the “North.” Mark Dayton’s son has gone as far as selling hats to spur debate on this issue. It’s hypothesized that […]
When people talk about parking at a public meeting. When you see Blaine for the first time. When you click “comments” on a Strib story about transportation. When Zygi Wilf and Mark Dayton negotiated the stadium deal. When someone has a “share the road” bumper sticker. When someone honks at you and you catch up […]
Gaze into the malevolent triangle. See it for what it is: a massive obscene gesture pointed at you, Citizen. A gesturing appendage wielded by powers in society that view you and your rights with contempt. To soothe yourself, look at this photo of RT Rybak‘s class at the U of M, and pretend they’re showing him […]
I’ve never ridden the Northstar line. But knowing what I know about it, I think it’s safe to say this house in Big Lake wasn’t expecting to see a train pull up a quarter-mile away, and its reaction is priceless.
When I walked up to Franklin Ave. to catch the bus to work last week, this is what I saw: A construction worker filling in windows with bricks at the former Wings Financial Credit Union building. This building, and most of the rest of the property on the entire block, have been acquired by an organization […]
Last month I posted a selection of photos from a road trip I’d been on throughout much of the U.S.A. Under the post, one commenter wrote that there was “plenty of good to go with the bad.” Later in the Sunday Summary, the post was described as a “highly selective and equally negative view of land […]