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A Tale of University Near Dale

By on May 21, 2020 in Bicycling, History, Housing, Neighborhoods, Roads, Streets

September 17, 2019 12.5 Miles Macalester-Groveland, Summit-University/Rondo Little Free Libraries have provided second, third or more lives to countless books. The wood and plastic boxes are ubiquitous in Saint Paul and beyond. The first seed library I’ve encountered is perched in front of 1930 Jefferson Avenue in Mac-Groveland. Side note: I am collecting shots of […]

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Every Tunnel Tells a Story: the Underground Passageways of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

By on April 29, 2020 in History, Infrastructure

Here’s a question: Why does Saint Paul have so many more tunnels than Minneapolis? Because we keep Saint Paul boring! Indeed, Saint Paul’s geography has featured the subterranean since the very beginning when Pierre “Pig’s Eye” Parrant staked his claim at Fountain Cave. And although Saint Paul was well positioned at the northernmost navigable point […]

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Virtual 1950s Streetcar to Richfield at Thursday’s Happy Hour

By on April 8, 2020 in Events, History

We’re having another streets.mn Virtual Happy Hour this Thursday. Plus, we’re going to kick off a new presentation feature, where folks stop in and present info about a topic they like. First up, streetcar history expert Aaron Issacs is going to share a video of a 1950s streetcar trip from Minneapolis to Richfield. Stop by […]

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Freeways and Freedmen: A Familiar Story from Canada’s Rondo

By on March 9, 2020 in Freeways, History, Maps, Neighborhoods, Transportation

Rondo was part of a roadmap which detailed the ways in which black folks across the United States could be removed from their homes and property in order to build the Eisenhower freeways. The Guardian has written about this process, alongside the Atlantic, ThinkProgress, the New York Times, and plenty of other outlets. But these […]

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It Began With a Tyrannosaurus

By on January 27, 2020 in Bicycling, Events, History, Neighborhoods, Parks, Photos, Streets

September 2, 2019 Downtown, Payne-Phalen, Railroad Island, Dayton’s Bluff 20.5 Miles In all my rides around Saint Paul, I’d never seen a dinosaur, nor had I ever expected to. That’s why the tyrannosaurus gazing out from a building on Pine Street on the edge of Payne-Phalen caused me to lock up the brakes on my […]

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The 150th Anniversary of People Being Killed By Cars

By on January 22, 2020 in Culture, History

Mary Ward was the first person to be killed by a vehicle that we would recognize as a car. The 150th anniversary of her death was August 31, 2019. She lived in Ireland, raised some children, and published scientific work about entomology and the wonders of microscopes, a developing field at the time. You can […]

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Saint Paul by Bike: A Short Jaunt to Ford

By on December 10, 2019 in Bicycling, Cars, History, Rivers, Streets

August 30, 2019 3.9 Miles Highland Park The State Fair, or more accurately, a park and ride lot for the State Fair, gave me the chance to check out a usually off-limits part of the old Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant (TCAP) and grounds. The 22-acre area is between Mississippi River Boulevard and the Mississippi […]

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Hightailing It to Highwood

By on November 25, 2019 in Architecture, Bicycling, History, Parks, Rivers, Streets

August 13, 2019 25.4 Miles West Seventh (West End), Downtown, Dayton’s Bluff, Highwood I had a simple plan for this ride. Bike the 11 miles-plus to Boys Totem Town for the closing ceremony and tour of the empty juvenile detention facility in Highwood. I estimated it would take about an hour and a quarter to […]

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Neighborhood Character and Redlining’s Legacy

By on November 19, 2019 in History, Neighborhoods, Public Policy, Race, Streets, zoning

“Neighborhood character,” it turns out, can be legally defined and covenanted, as I learned recently when I spent a morning conducting research at the Ramsey County records division. I found the warranty deed abstract for the multi-block plot of land that includes my lot and house, and a significant swath of Highland District Council (HDC) […]

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A History of Traffic Management Technology

By on October 16, 2019 in Highways, History

Earlier I wrote about the history of our Interstate Highway System (Part One and Part Two) and how they were partly a 1930s response to growing urban congestion, as big of a threat to the freedom of mobility as mud and ruts were only a few decades before. However the dream of ending congestion didn’t […]

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