Category: Schools

St. Paul Smart Trips Educates Colleges on Use of Cars

Ask urban homeowners what they dislike most about living near a college campus and they likely won’t cite noise or partying but parking — especially the inability to park consistently in front of their houses when school is in session. Macalester College in St. Paul is sensitive enough to the potential town-gown tension that it is running a […]

Secrets Within Saint Paul Central

September 18, 2015 9.8 Miles Macalester-Groveland, Merriam Park, Lex-Ham From out of the patchy grey sky came intermittent sprinkles and the threat of heavier precipitation, but none of that was enough to keep me from my 2 p.m. appointment. Working in my favor was the ride wasn’t long, so I’d make it, even in a […]

School Children Beg Dog Owners: Pick Up The Poop

Dogs–good. That being said, there are some dog owners in our community who are not. I live in Loring Park, which I like, and there isn’t a ton of open space other than the huge park the neighborhood is named after that nowhere in the neighborhood is more than a few blocks from, hmmm. A […]

Tech High School: St. Cloud’s Past, St. Cloud’s Future

This time last year, I was just finishing up a three month process of researching schools, a subject that, to be honest, has never interested me. I guess, on some level, I’ve always understood that schools are important. But I could have never anticipated the piles of research, hours of reading and the depth of […]

What if the University of Minnesota had 100,000 Students?

This is a thought experiment. According to the US Department of Education (reported in wikipedia), the University of Minnesota has (Fall 2013) 63,929 students, ranking 19th in the US. Of course, many of those larger schools are for-profit, non-residential, cater to part-time students, or college systems. Among “peers”, (land-grantish research schools) larger schools include Arizona State, […]

Metropolitan State University's new parking ramp

At Metropolitan State University Parking Defeats Education

Susan Klingenberg writes to streets.mn about an article from 2 years ago: Mis-structuring employee parking charges: An example from a local university, about beleaguered Metropolitan State University. The facts in this letter have been corroborated by Metropolitan State University staff. Relevant documentation can be found in this PDF, compiled from email messages to the Metro State Community: MSParking1. […]

Parachute Cloth Mural Builds Community in South Minneapolis

How can a new school introduce itself to a community? Folwell Performing Arts Magnet School in south Minneapolis is using principals of placemaking and robust community engagement to create and install a 2,000 sq. ft. public mural to say “hello” to their neighborhood. Folwell, located at the border of the Corcoran and Standish neighborhoods (20th Ave S […]

Great Cities – A Science Museum of Minnesota project

Streets.mn readers may be interested in the following: The Science Museum of Minnesota is pursuing the development of Great Cities—an exhibit about the past, present and future of cities. We want your help to prototype an idea for this exhibit that we are calling FutureHere. What we are inviting you to do is pretty simple: take a photograph […]

Image of Saint Cloud Tech High School

Tech High: A Tradition of Excellence, A Future in Flux

The other day I was wondering to myself, what makes the St. Cloud “metro” area different from the Twin Cities, aside from the obvious size difference? I think one of St. Cloud’s great qualities is how it changes from edge to edge – it has its historic downtown paying homage to the city’s beginnings, a […]

Community: First Grade Thanksgiving Edition

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 […]