Let's see, behind a couple of Canadian cities (Calgary and Ottawa), Helsinki, and Honolulu, Minneapolis has appeared to the reporters of Forbes magazine to be the fifth cleanest city in the world. I'm surprised and I'm not. Happy to have beaten out various other Scandinavian cities and a couple of Swiss cities in the top ten, perhaps a closer observation should have been completed before putting us at five.
Though I haven't been to the other three, Helsinki certainly can qualify in my mind. Walking the often damp street in air freshened by the Baltic Sea, the city is indeed clean. Certainly not without its fair share of street crime, but people were generally brisk in the step and all but happy to afford directions.
The only drawback was the sun's appearance (in mid November) of roughly four to five hours. And even then it was really only twilight in photon strength.
Back to my point. Yes, Minneapolis wouldn't strike me as a clean city necessarily. Walking the streets of Downtown regularly, it's not uncommon to find trash floating about in the middle of sidewalks, street, and sometimes the skyways.
We have homeless people too. But I can't say they're bringing down the appearance or general cleanliness of the city. Generally they're pretty harmless. Almost necessary extras in a Shakespearean play, if only for that one quip that makes you appreciate your post in life.
Forbes did their homework though. Making note of variables intrinsic to both cleanliness and environmentally conscious policy, Minneapolis was given credit for, "heavy use of bike lanes ... [and] a well functioning light rail and bus system." Good news for those Metropolitan Council folks.
Critical is my spin, however. So let's look a little closer than the Forbes folks perhaps did. 3M has been feeling the heat for their chemicals being identified in Minnesota waters (more specifically, Lake Calhoun!). Our skyscrapers remain nearly 50% lit at night (a colossal waste of energy--wait, money--in my opinion) and if you live outside of Minneapolis, owning a car is requisite to any normally functioning life.
Yes, we have a light rail, one. It goes to the shopping Mecca of the Continent, airport, and of course, Downtown Minneapolis. Our bus system is admirable, though. And as the morning bus I take gets more crowded it seems, by the week, I know that more light rail is not far behind the cloudy plumes of diesel smoke left in the wake of my bus.
Perhaps the reporter from Forbes noticed people fishing Isles inlet off Dean Parkway and thought people actually take their sunfish home and consume them. And they were probably right. But thinking about it yourself, would you eat the fish out of Isles?
http://www.forbes.com/2007/04/16/worlds-cleanest-cities-biz-logistics-cx_rm_0416cleanest.html
Friday, April 27, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Minnesota Haze
As the Minnesota House of Representatives considers a bill that would ban smoking statewide (instead of the county and city bans we've been witnessing growing like tobacco in South Carolina), I was reminded of a day in February three or four years ago.
Every year, the Minnesota Private College Council organized a highly calculated and micro-managed lobbying day at the Capitol. Private college students from around the state (the organization is comprised of 17 private colleges and universities around the state and include all the standard Minnesota household names like Carlton, St. John's, St. Olaf, Gustavus Adolphus, etc.) would ascend the Capitol's meager hill and start hitting up their representatives and senators for a confirmed vote to continue the Minnesota State Grant funding.
The State Grant was a blessing for people like me who were always strapped for cash. It was really an enormous grant as well and the private colleges couldn't say enough of it as a benefit for students. But as legislation goes in an ever-increasing anti-intellectual society dominated by cutting taxes and funding nation-building projects, these grants were threatened. I dare make a pun here, but our college administrations did not want us to take this funding for granted.
Staring blankly at my Representative Ron Latz, formerly of 44A (and my former home), I realized I was being rude. Latz had just confirmed his support for the State Grant funding. But then he seized the opportunity of having real constituents in his office to prove his worth as a public servant.
He had just asked me what I thought of his very own bill that he introduced. A statewide smoking ban. I laughed. "Why on earth do you care about cigarette smoke. Shouldn't you be focusing your legislative efforts to put more patrol cars on the streets. Smoking may kill, but drunk drivers kill faster," I rocketed back.
He didn't like that. And rightly so. I'm brash for the sake of being brash at times, admittedly. Indeed, I had not considered the health of the individuals who work in bars and restaurants. Regardless, god forbid any new law create more difficult circumstances for a smoker, what might happen--I quit?
But then again, when I step outside to have a smoke during a happy hour, I somehow manage to start talking to a bar tender on break, having a cigarette.
Every year, the Minnesota Private College Council organized a highly calculated and micro-managed lobbying day at the Capitol. Private college students from around the state (the organization is comprised of 17 private colleges and universities around the state and include all the standard Minnesota household names like Carlton, St. John's, St. Olaf, Gustavus Adolphus, etc.) would ascend the Capitol's meager hill and start hitting up their representatives and senators for a confirmed vote to continue the Minnesota State Grant funding.
The State Grant was a blessing for people like me who were always strapped for cash. It was really an enormous grant as well and the private colleges couldn't say enough of it as a benefit for students. But as legislation goes in an ever-increasing anti-intellectual society dominated by cutting taxes and funding nation-building projects, these grants were threatened. I dare make a pun here, but our college administrations did not want us to take this funding for granted.
Staring blankly at my Representative Ron Latz, formerly of 44A (and my former home), I realized I was being rude. Latz had just confirmed his support for the State Grant funding. But then he seized the opportunity of having real constituents in his office to prove his worth as a public servant.
He had just asked me what I thought of his very own bill that he introduced. A statewide smoking ban. I laughed. "Why on earth do you care about cigarette smoke. Shouldn't you be focusing your legislative efforts to put more patrol cars on the streets. Smoking may kill, but drunk drivers kill faster," I rocketed back.
He didn't like that. And rightly so. I'm brash for the sake of being brash at times, admittedly. Indeed, I had not considered the health of the individuals who work in bars and restaurants. Regardless, god forbid any new law create more difficult circumstances for a smoker, what might happen--I quit?
But then again, when I step outside to have a smoke during a happy hour, I somehow manage to start talking to a bar tender on break, having a cigarette.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
On Being Amble
One of the pleasures in my life is working Downtown. The IDS Center may seem like an enormous glass cage on a bad day, but the Crystal Court is the ultimate "Town Square" of Minneapolis. This means that the new, improved, and exciting all premier here.
Today being no exception, Metro Transit (http://www.metrotransit.org/) and a couple of other municipal transit and park authorities gathered to attract the attention of current and prospective mass-transit riders.
I signed the "Commuter Challenge" with ease being the daily rider that I am. While more than happy to count myself among record numbers of riders in the metropolitan area, I really just want to win that flat screen television.
My efforts are not entirely selfish, to be sure. I spoke to a Metro Transit representative about the University Corridor, due to start tramming around in 2014. While I've heard the argument off-hand that salaries in St. Paul are lower than in Minneapolis, and there had been considerable recalcitrance to the proposed railway because of it, I was surprised when the representative could not speak the effect of this discrepancy between the cities, nor could she verify development obstruction because of it. The purported obstructionists believed a small economic meltdown would occur is a simple, fast, effective corridor would be available.
Moving on, she did make note of the double-edged sword that will perhaps lacerate business owners along University Avenue. Whereas business owners, regardless of property ownership, might find the downtime caused by construction a wonderful opportunity to close and refurbish their store fronts and interiors, the value of the property will likely sky-rocket once the LRT is in operation (as property has along Hiawatha), perhaps crippling their business in high rent or property tax debt. The question is, will the new pedestrian and rail traffic bring more customers than ever to the establishments?
Time will furnish such answers. And I have no patience. Not after living in Geneva and Warsaw. I can't convey my enthusiasm for light rail. When it works, it works. And my word, to live in a city where a car is not requisite to daily life? Where would we put the choir of angels who whisk away the noise, smell, congestion, and oft-aloof Minnesota drivers? I'm just not hearing them yet.
Today being no exception, Metro Transit (http://www.metrotransit.org/) and a couple of other municipal transit and park authorities gathered to attract the attention of current and prospective mass-transit riders.
I signed the "Commuter Challenge" with ease being the daily rider that I am. While more than happy to count myself among record numbers of riders in the metropolitan area, I really just want to win that flat screen television.
My efforts are not entirely selfish, to be sure. I spoke to a Metro Transit representative about the University Corridor, due to start tramming around in 2014. While I've heard the argument off-hand that salaries in St. Paul are lower than in Minneapolis, and there had been considerable recalcitrance to the proposed railway because of it, I was surprised when the representative could not speak the effect of this discrepancy between the cities, nor could she verify development obstruction because of it. The purported obstructionists believed a small economic meltdown would occur is a simple, fast, effective corridor would be available.
Moving on, she did make note of the double-edged sword that will perhaps lacerate business owners along University Avenue. Whereas business owners, regardless of property ownership, might find the downtime caused by construction a wonderful opportunity to close and refurbish their store fronts and interiors, the value of the property will likely sky-rocket once the LRT is in operation (as property has along Hiawatha), perhaps crippling their business in high rent or property tax debt. The question is, will the new pedestrian and rail traffic bring more customers than ever to the establishments?
Time will furnish such answers. And I have no patience. Not after living in Geneva and Warsaw. I can't convey my enthusiasm for light rail. When it works, it works. And my word, to live in a city where a car is not requisite to daily life? Where would we put the choir of angels who whisk away the noise, smell, congestion, and oft-aloof Minnesota drivers? I'm just not hearing them yet.
Gaia Found a Way, This Time
It's no secret to those around me on a daily basis that I have often fallen victim to media disease. It's an ailment that has be omnipresent since the dawn of Gutenberg and his press. Nothing sells like blood and fear. It's arguably the epitome of a cash cow in the field of journalism.
My latest symptoms include a dangerous obsession with and vulnerability to weather. No, I'm not fearing tornadoes, thunderclaps, or biblical hurricanes. I am paralyzed by the notion that by 2050, we'll find this planet to be a terribly overpopulated, water scarce, and pestilence-ridden home to blast-furnace heat. And devoid of polar bears.
Well, as long as my symptoms have shifted this way for a considerably long period of time (this began when I saw former Vice President Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" in Santa Monica during the 2006 July heat waves), I took small steps and actions.
I don't buy trash-can liners. Accumulating plastic bags at an astounding rate (since I just moved into a new apartment and find myself driving once a week to Ikea and Target because I never thought to purchase a pizza-cutter--who does?), my collection suffices for the aforementioned purpose. We've all heard it: "Why buy something you're just going to throw away?"
Downtown Minneapolis may be home to some of the most ample parking facilities known to the modern world, it doesn't change the reality that is costs ten dollars a day to park. I ride the bus, and can happily admit to doing so out of financial rationality.
All the light bulbs in my apartment are fluorescent. I have neatly placed all the incandescents in a small plastic bag which will be turned over to my landlord upon moving out. The other bag I'll be holding will be filled with my fluorescent bulbs, because I'll be reusing them in my next home.
Chicago is a popular destination for me as my brother resides there. Going roughly three or four times a year can be costly via air. Thus I opt for the Megabus (www.megabus.com). It's the poor man's way to travel, but the funky-hip edge of their advertising and comfort of their buses eclipses any pauper-ish sentiments that may arise.
The list is extensive. More to the point, it yields an important introspective conclusion: I'm cheap. Never mind about the earth, these actions have been taken out sheer penny-pinching. My behavior is so easily validated though. People around me call me cheap.
I fire back: "I'm saving the planet."
My latest symptoms include a dangerous obsession with and vulnerability to weather. No, I'm not fearing tornadoes, thunderclaps, or biblical hurricanes. I am paralyzed by the notion that by 2050, we'll find this planet to be a terribly overpopulated, water scarce, and pestilence-ridden home to blast-furnace heat. And devoid of polar bears.
Well, as long as my symptoms have shifted this way for a considerably long period of time (this began when I saw former Vice President Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" in Santa Monica during the 2006 July heat waves), I took small steps and actions.
I don't buy trash-can liners. Accumulating plastic bags at an astounding rate (since I just moved into a new apartment and find myself driving once a week to Ikea and Target because I never thought to purchase a pizza-cutter--who does?), my collection suffices for the aforementioned purpose. We've all heard it: "Why buy something you're just going to throw away?"
Downtown Minneapolis may be home to some of the most ample parking facilities known to the modern world, it doesn't change the reality that is costs ten dollars a day to park. I ride the bus, and can happily admit to doing so out of financial rationality.
All the light bulbs in my apartment are fluorescent. I have neatly placed all the incandescents in a small plastic bag which will be turned over to my landlord upon moving out. The other bag I'll be holding will be filled with my fluorescent bulbs, because I'll be reusing them in my next home.
Chicago is a popular destination for me as my brother resides there. Going roughly three or four times a year can be costly via air. Thus I opt for the Megabus (www.megabus.com). It's the poor man's way to travel, but the funky-hip edge of their advertising and comfort of their buses eclipses any pauper-ish sentiments that may arise.
The list is extensive. More to the point, it yields an important introspective conclusion: I'm cheap. Never mind about the earth, these actions have been taken out sheer penny-pinching. My behavior is so easily validated though. People around me call me cheap.
I fire back: "I'm saving the planet."
An Explaination
It was a difficult decision to make. Having just arrived at O'Hare in Chicago, I realized my absence was indeed yielding what many ex-Patriots refer to as "Reverse Culture Shock." Three and a half months gone (see link to travel blog, "Freelancing Eastern Europe"), wandering a number of European and South American cities.
I had lunch with an editor of a major daily in Minneapolis, who after considerable encouragement, persuaded me to distill my observations and understandings of this world down to words, on a local level. And here are the fruits of my labor.
I had lunch with an editor of a major daily in Minneapolis, who after considerable encouragement, persuaded me to distill my observations and understandings of this world down to words, on a local level. And here are the fruits of my labor.
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