I don’t know how to write this post to ask you to join the streets.mn board. This is supposed to be my rousing invitation, and every time I start typing, I find myself writing about the IPCC instead. But that’s not actually all that far off. Climate change–our role in causing it, the consequences we […]
[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ometimes people ask if I am bummed to not win last year’s Minneapolis Park & Rec Board race and my answer is always a resounding No. Five seats flipped and my Big Ideas won, along with a new majority ready to implement the same goals. A personal favorite, the Triangle Improvement Plan, was fully and […]
Saturday, September 22 is World Car-Free Day! OurStreets Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Downtown Council and a few local groups are celebrating it on Friday, September 21st. In honor of this blessed event, I’m posting a few car-toons. The U.S.A. (including Minnesota) remain “The Land of the Cars!” Here’s a new American flag proposal so outsiders will […]
The world is getting hotter, so central air-conditioning is becoming standard — but that pressures our electrical grid, and so the world keeps getting hotter.
[This post originally appeared on the Our Streets Minneapolis blog.] Many bike commuters cite reducing carbon emissions as their reason for biking. Does switching from a car or bus to a bike reduce one’s carbon footprint and by how much? Japan, China, the Netherlands, and Denmark collect the most data on carbon emissions and bikeable […]
It’s a maddening time lately, with political actors denying obvious truths and using scare tactics to sidestep honest dialogue. In any debate about change, political winds favor the side with the simple message: NO. It’s easy to fearmonger, deceive, and put words on lawn signs that conjure impending annihilation. I like to think Minneapolis is […]
If you accept the criticism that the Minneapolis 2040 plan is “anti-family,” then perhaps you should examine what “family” means to you.
At a community meeting for a street reconstruction last year, a young mom made a passionate argument: it would be a generation, she said, before the street was reconstructed again. This was our only chance to create a neighborhood street where she could safely push a stroller, or walk and bike with her kids. It […]
This post is in conversation with Carol Becker’s post. I decided to write a post instead of a comment. My name is Pine Salica and I ride a bike. I know that I have encountered negative consequences for saying this. I don’t ride a bike because I especially like biking. I bike because I have […]
Via Planetizen and Governing, here’s a map released by the Federal Government Accountability Office that shows the “economic impacts of climate change.” Minnesota (or northern Wisconsin) appears on the map, listed as a place with “decreased cold-related mortality”: Personally, I’m a dubious that cold-related mortality is a huge economic problem for northern Minnesota, […]