2022 Bikeable Community Workshops
Help communities in Minnesota become more bike friendly through Bikeable Community Workshops. Learn ways to advocate for biking in your community in 2022.
Category: Culture
Car Culture Is Getting Even Worse
I wrote an article a few years ago for my blog that I rediscovered the other day. It turns out, nothing ever changes because I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the same asinine dynamics of driving in America. For example, “fake engine noise,” which was kind of new five or six years ago, is […]
Hennepin Avenue: A Parable of Road Design in America
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 […]
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 […]
20th Annual Bicycle Film Festival Seeks to Diversify Cycling Culture in Minnesota
The Bicycle Film Festival, a virtual event for 2021, is running at places around the USA now. The local edition for Minnesota is Feb 26 – March 7, 2021 and is being promoted by Bike Alliance of Minnesota and Our Streets Minneapolis. The program features short films and a panel discussion dedicated to folks in […]
The Bleak State of Local Journalism in 2020
It breaks my heart to see Minneapolis CityPages, The East Bay Express, The Bay Monthly and dozens of other alternative newspapers and magazines around the country go out of business. It has resulted in hundreds, perhaps thousands of unemployed freelance writers, editors, cartoonists, artists and journalists. Many factors led to this moment but, more than […]
Bicycle-Friendliness
The League of American Cyclists is responsible for putting out report cards that assign Bicycle Friendly rankings to communities, businesses, universities, and states. To receive a report card, all you have to do is fill out a 42-page application and await their review. Reviews are good for 4 years. There are a number of interesting […]
Not Enough Community Input at Cedar-Isles-Dean Neighborhood Association
Over a decade of living in Minneapolis, I have found that a good way to hear many local government officials is to attend my local neighborhood association’s annual meeting. This is especially true during this time of pandemic and social unrest. The local association presents a roster of candidates to run for its board positions, […]
Curb Appeal: So Much More Than The Front Yard
At a house just one block away, the grass looks like turf instead of something real and diagonal lines run through the weed-free growth, evidence of a meticulous mower. I haven’t ever seen anyone either living there or working in the yard, but I imagine an elderly homeowner loving their lawn so much that they […]
A Poem for August 27th, 2020
Weep and know Death, Land of Sky Blue Waters. There will be no butter blocks carved of your daughters. Eighteen hundred siblings are already dead. All else holds its breath so The Thing won’t spread. The places you ate, the places you drank, The places you danced and flirted, The places you studied, and the […]