How Minneapolis Makes Navigation Difficult for Outsiders

from The Deets by Ed Kohler

St Paul gets its share of criticism for being a tough to navigate town for outsiders due to the lack of pattern is their street naming and non grid conforming downtown. But, Minneapolis has its share of issues for outsiders too. Here are a seven examples:

DFL Shouldn’t Politicize Makeout-gate

from Wry Wing Politics by Joe Loveland

The messenger is the message. If a professor delivers a message, it tends to sound objective, studied and evidence-based. If an elder statesman delivers a message, it tends to sound thoughtful, even-handed and rational. If a reporter of a credible news outlet delivers a message, it tends to sound legitimate, consequential, and relevant.

Walk-Shaming in the Media

from streets.mn by Matt Steele

Media outlets frequently shame walking in the way they cover issues related to walking, and these tactics contribute to a culture where death and destruction are accepted as unavoidable byproducts of our auto-oriented mobility norms. I noticed this in the reporting on a bus-pedestrian collision last week in my neighborhood, which critically injured a well-liked long-time city councilwoman.

Make the right choices easy

from Biking in Mpls by Lindsey Wallace

I was talking with an engineer the other day about how she spends a lot of time thinking about how to create machines that make the right choices easy and the wrong choices hard. For example, someone operating a machine that could maim their hands has to press two buttons in two different places, which keeps their hands safely away from the dangerous moving parts. She concluded, “If you make it possible to do the wrong thing, people will do the wrong thing.”

Restored Clock Telling Time Again In Historic Downtown Faribault

from Minnesota Prairie Roots by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Saturday afternoon, much to my delight, I spotted Mike Elwood of the Hickoy Dickory Doc Clock Shop atop a ladder peering inside the clock. His goal, he shouted down to me, was to get the clock working by the end of the day. He led the restoration and repair of the clock’s inner workings while Faribault artist Jim Pichner crafted the stained glass clock facing and lettering.

The International Day of Peace 2015

from Thoughts Towards a Better World by Dick Bernard

The United Nations has had an International Day of Peace since 1982; and in 2001, set the day for future annual observances as the autumnal equinox, September 21, of each year. The theme is “an annual day of non-violence and cease fire”

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