Author: Ryan Ricard

About Ryan Ricard

Ryan Ricard is a software developer from St. Paul who likes it when we build things that help people. He is a member of the Macalester Groveland Community Council transportation committee. He blogs at firewally.net and posts dog photos at MSP Social

A green line meant to resemble a graph in Excel has been drawn on a photo of stairs on the outside of a brick building painted in large blocks of red, yellow, and blue

Build More Housing: The Big Picture

• March 16, 2021

Neighborhoods are designed, slowly and constantly, by the people who live in them. We make decisions about what gets built and who gets to use it or live in it through a network of community meetings, zoning boards, and city and state governments. In the process we create something we call “housing policy”. I have […]

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The Gas Tax is Too Damn Low

• January 31, 2019

The price of gasoline in the Twin Cities is very low right now, averaging $2.22 a gallon across the metro. Cheap gas is a short-term benefit to people who drive cars, but is horrible for just about everyone in the long term. Cheap gas incentivizes people to drive more miles, make more solo trips instead […]