Author: Pine Salica

Pine Salica

About Pine Salica

Pine lives in Minneapolis and works in Saint Paul. Pine hasn't owned a car for over a dozen years, and can count on one hand the number of times they've operated one in the last 12 months. Housing is a human right, car storage is not. Member of the Climate Committee.

Pine pushes a ten foot ladder on a furniture dolly across the intersection of Hiawatha and the Greenway, because we decided to not push it up Sabo Bridge.

Moving a Ladder… with a Furniture Dolly??

So, as you’ve seen from my previous posts in this unplanned series, I’ve moved homes. We got rid of a bunch of stuff and now, the unpleasant part, we need different stuff. We needed a new taller ladder than we’d previously had. I scoped out the offerings at the Restore, because I am a die-hard […]

A map of USI's coverage area. Areas notably missing include Phillips and North Minneapolis. They're expanding in to Northeast Minneapolis, St Louis Park, and Edina next year.

Every Map Is The Same Map: USI Edition

USI has rolled out their 2022 coverage map. This map has a striking resemblance to some other maps I’ve seen around here. Hmm. Someone who has a username “tcarter612” on reddit posted a thread about this rollout, purporting to represent the company. Someone commented, Our thread opener responded. Another response from elsewhere in the thread. […]

He Had Something to Prove

I had a queen-size mattress I didn’t need anymore, but it still had a few good years of life left in it. I asked around, “anyone want this before I get Bridging to come pick it up?” Ian Buck said yes! And, in a move that sparked joy in my heart, he said, “I’ll borrow […]

Click here to save $83 a month on car insurance

There’s a narrative people like to spin about car storage spots being necessary for local businesses to thrive. As someone who doesn’t own a car, it annoys me every time I come across this argument. What not owning a car does is free up so much money to not throw down the car ownership drain. […]

A digital collage. A dog shakes off a rainbow of water in an empty parking lot in downtown Minneapolis.

A Car Storage Spot by Any Other Name

Fun fact: etymonline traces the word “park” meaning “to put (a vehicle) in a certain place” directly back to the storage of military equipment on commons grounds. Car storage spots aren’t a human right, but housing is. The way building codes currently are, you must pay for this luxury that is a couple dozen square […]

Climate Emergency 500x295

Celebrating the 1-year Anniversary of the streets.mn Climate Committee

On December 29, 2019, seven people met at Dual Citizen Brewery in St. Paul, and there we created the streets.mn Climate Emergency Committee. We had a few in-person writing meet-ups before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, and even though none of us could anticipate the events that followed throughout the year of 2020, we maintained […]

A bike helmet, turned upside down with plants growing out of it.

Rethinking “Rethinking I-94”

Despite its name, MNDOT’s project does not allow for “rethinking I-94,” it can only recapitulate I-94. And the community organizations’ letter, while we agree with its goals, does not push for the magnitude of change necessary. The urgency of our climate crisis requires more ambitious plans, and even the proposals by the community organizations will not manifest an I-94 corridor that has been sufficiently reconsidered.