Joy. Pure joy. Community. Safety. Relaxation. Riding down the middle of Hennepin Ave S, surrounded by 100 of my closest and/or newest friends. All ages, abilities, and an incredible array of bike types. We even had the first zero emission E Line bus join us on a bike trailer! Honestly, I haven’t felt this outside […]
By Seth Buikema Editor’s note: streets.mn is once again presenting essays on Twin Cities’ public space from students at Macalester College. Read through all the essays from this and previous years here. Discussion of public libraries in the mainstream media is often grim and uncertain. Taken for granted, these public spaces are often seen as […]
It’s possible you’ve heard this joke before: A motorist, a pedestrian, and a bicyclist are sitting at a table that has a dozen cookies on it. The motorist grabs 11 of the cookies and when the other two are reaching for what they each assumed was their cookie, the motorist exclaims: “Watch out! The bicyclist […]
We saw the streets of Minneapolis, and the whole country, become militarized last summer as peaceful protests were met with weapons of war by police. Now militarization is occurring again, this time through fences, concrete barriers, and barbed wire that seek to cut residents off from street spaces. For the community to heal and stay […]
Last February, I wrote a shopping comparison report looking at in-store shopping at local grocery stores, including co-ops like Seward and national warehouses like Costco. As I wrote then, Costco was the winner-winner five dollar chicken dinner. It’s been a year, and I apologize for not writing as frequently. The global pandemic has really taken […]
In 2020, I turned away from my car and became a bike commuter. In 2021, I’m tackling my first winter as a biker, and I’m doing it by riding every day in January. Flurries whistle past me, only a cotton mask standing between my face and the biting wind. Through the blowing snow I take […]
Transit enthusiasts got some much needed good news last October as the B and D Lines received funding from the State to begin construction. These lines are the most recent additions to Metro Transit’s Arterial Bus Rapid Transit (ABRT) program that offers enhanced bus services with higher frequencies and faster travel times on some of […]
It’s extremely unfortunate when parties break previous agreements and derail transit projects, as is the case for the Blue Line Extension, aka the Bottineau Line. Since we’re going back to the drawing board, I am hopeful that the collective “we” can begin to right previous wrongs and finally create good transit that will serve communities […]
In a few weeks, the Robert Piram Regional Trail will officially open between Saint Paul and South Saint Paul. Here’s why it just might be the Twin Cities cycling community’s new favorite trail.
Like many transit riders, I have been riding much less since the pandemic, mostly because I have been sticking closer to my home and neighborhood. (Though note: there is starting to be evidence that transit-riding is not a big contributor to COVID-19 rates.) That decrease is a personal sadness because of the lost human connections […]