I recently purchased my first-ever Brand New Bike. This is a really big deal for me! Despite always choosing The Bicycle as my primary mode of transportation, I had also been very frugal (cheap) and preferred to tinker with the frames and components I had in my parents’ garage. Over those years — with a […]
One of the things you get to see when you walk instead of drive is tile entryways to commercial (and sometimes residential) buildings. I’ve been collecting photos of tile for a while, mostly from somewhere other than the Twin Cities. Some of the designs are decorative only, as in the first row of images. Semi-floral, […]
At the corner of Portland Avenue and Third Street in Minneapolis, I stood in a large sneckdown corner, no tire tracks in the area since the snow had started falling only a few hours previous. (For the uninitiated, a sneckdown “is effectively a curb extension caused by snowfall,” according to Wikipedia, which calls this charmingly […]
The other day, my beloved elder child was looking around on Google for ideas on what we could do on a Friday night that included both his father and I as participants that was not “go to movie” or “bowling.” He used the very sane query “things to do in Blaine MN.” The result? Well, […]
[Part of the Saint Paul Field Guide to Public Spaces, put together by a Geography class at Macalester College in the Fall of 2018. See introduction here.] by Michael Wood Whether it be a train or bus—where public transit stops tells you who is included in the public. Viewed this way, riding the Green Line […]
Tomorrow is Festivus! Join us in honoring this celebration with appropriate decor and activities. The Festivus Pole We shall start the observance with a pole. While the traditional Festivus pole is aluminum, we feel that a proper Festivus pole for 2018 is the aluminum posts that hold up yard signs, no matter how ridiculous the […]
Not only sports fans love mascots. We track down a British photographer with a mascots blog to talk about urban mascots.
Halloween is still the best urbanist holiday. Last year, we offered up five exciting Halloween costume ideas for Twin Cities urbanists who were ready to party. Perhaps yours won the costume contest or the admiration of your friends and neighbors? Perhaps you have made new friends this year and can reuse last year’s options. But […]
When controversy happens… when tempers flare… we read the comments, so you don’t have to. Perhaps you are aware we sometimes read comments. The last batch depressed Julie pretty hard, so now she’s writing about herself in the third person as some kind of disassociative act. But the other day, she had an idea! An awful […]
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 […]