[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 […]
[Part of the Saint Paul Field Guide to Public Spaces, put together by a Macalester College course in the Fall of 2018.] Intro written by members of the Political Geography of Urban Public Spaces course taught by Dan Trudeau, Professor of Geography. A field guide lets us be curious about the world. The form allows […]
“The alley is the outback world of the unmentionable, if not the unwanted, the displaced of modern society,” ~ Grady Clay, Alleys: a hidden resource Perhaps I will never be considered “from here”, having moved from Cincinnati nearly three years ago. I may not get invitations to house shows or hot dish socials, or share […]
Preface: I buried the lede. If you don’t make it to the end, I want you to know about HF 322: “Governmental units allowed to sue to recover costs related to unlawful assemblies and public nuisances.” Also, this post has been boiling under the surface for me for over a year. The topic continues to remain […]
Since The Commons opened this summer, I’ve visited a few times and passed by several times, making a point of counting patrons and observing how people use this new public green downtown space. After all, how people use a new park is the best indicator of success, right? Here is a collection of observations so […]
How important are connections between inside and out? Panino’s, a place my wife and I enjoy eating at fairly often, recently expanded into the space next door. The original space was kind of a quirky collection of areas but it worked and felt comfortable. Unfortunately the new space is a giant windowless sterile echo chamber […]
In the span of just a few months, the Mall of America (MOA) became the center of two debates regarding peoples’ rights in quasi-public spaces. On December 20th, 2014 the Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization staged a protest in the MOA rotunda: If you’re unaware of the whole issue, bone up here. Specious allegations that […]
As I’ve worked on walkability surveys of routes to Green Line stations over the last few years, one of the issues consistently raised by community members is the need for more benches at bus stops and along major arterials, to provide places to rest, especially for seniors and people who use canes or walkers, and […]
When I was in New York City a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to get together with Nolan Levenson, a Macalester graduate who now works as a transportation planner in New York City. We met near his office in lower Manhattan to talk about ways the City of Saint Paul might apply some […]
The podcast this week is a conversation with Nathan Clough, a professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota Duluth, about the history and theory of protest and public space in stadiums. Clough did his PhD research studying the protests and police backlash at the 2008 Republic National Convention in Saint Paul, and is something […]