While looking around for some data for another project, I ran into Minneapolis Health Department’s Reports. There’s a lot of great data there, but not all of it is necessarily in amazing condition for people to build off of. One data set, entitled Minneapolis Birth Data, caught my attention. Locked away in mostly tabular PDFs are a […]
Some people inside and outside the bicycling community believe that we should require cyclists to get licenses and/or register their bikes with the state. License and registration fees would help pay for bicycle infrastructure and ensure that all cyclists are adequately trained in correct riding techniques. Motorists like this idea because they think cyclists don’t […]
In preparation for Thanksgiving, my son’s first grade class constructed three villages to compare and contrast the ways of life of three peoples: The Wampanoag Indians, 17th century Plymouth Plantation, and the Modern Suburb. First, the handout. This came home in his backpack, conveniently labeled with his specific assignment: Initial reaction: “He has to build […]
Updated November 6, 2014* Many veterans have come back from Iraq and Afghanistan with permanent, disabling wounds. Many suffer head traumas from concussions or fractured skulls when vehicles they’re traveling in are blown up by Improvised Explosive Devices. Pedestrians and Cyclists in Saint Paul are also seeing combat type head traumas—like Sowinta Kay, age 20, who was […]
Hm. So if you have kids, odds are they’ll be doing more walking today than on most days. The only problem is that they’ll also be eating more partially hydrogenated vegetable oil and corn syrup than on most days. Here’s a horrible chart from the CDC: [The figure above shows the prevalence of obesity among children […]
At what other night of the year would overprotective parents actually want their children out on the sidewalks, exploring their neighborhood in the dark?
People for Bikes and The Green Lane Project have introduced a new promotional tool—Build It For Isabella. I think that as a promotional and messaging platform Isabella is a great idea. Isabella gets the basic point across in a good and simple way when we’re talking about what kind of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure we […]
Well, it happened. The referendum allocating $47 million dollars for a new high school along with renovations to current schools passed with a narrow margin of 52 votes. Is it the end of the world? No, absolutely not. If I’ve known people from New Ulm to be anything, it’s responsible with their money and investments–we’re Germans […]
If you follow me on Twitter or are my Facebook friend, you know that I think the new Mankato middle school is a bad idea. You can read a great post about it here from my friend and Mankato native Nate Hood. Luckily for you friends, I’m not here to talk to you about this school. Unfortunately for […]
By U.S. standards we have fairly good pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure around the Twin Cities. For many years Minneapolis was ranked number two in the nation and quite proud of it. In 2011 we even jumped up to number one briefly. How times change. We were back to our comfortable number two in 2012, the […]