Dubiousask

[They look like this.] Good news! I have some new Northeast Flags in stock . If you missed the first round of Northeast flags, or my tell-all history  of the provenance of this vexilologically-sound flappable banner, do check it out. Here's an excerpt : The parking lot park was finally built in 1973, ten years after the bank building. It was the culmination of Rasmussen�s life-long dream of combining parking for cars with spaces for young people to play, drunk people to sleep, and arm-wrestling people to arm-wrestle.   ...   Amazingly enough, the winning flag design was crafted by a ten-year-old Northeast kid named Tony Di Giovanni.   ...  Rasmussen celebrated the unveiling of the flag with a polka festival in the parking lot park, and throughout 1975 he went around gifting flags to various civic institutions like the Police Department and the Edison High marching band.   Sadly, the Northeast Flag did not catch on, and today you rarely see it flying. One fl...

 [Grand Avenue, Saint Paul.]  [Skyway, Minneapolis.]  [Victoria, BC.]  [Downtown, Saint Paul.]  [Vancouver? Or maybe Seattle.]  [West 7th Street, Saint Paul.]  [Lowertown, Saint Paul.] [Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis.]

[A Fluxus work.]

Yesterday, there was a huge turnout for the memorial ride for Alan Grahn , killed a week ago on Summit Avenue by a turning school bus. At around 7 pm, hundreds of cyclists gathered in the Grand Avenue parking lot before one of the leaders made an announcement. Quickly, everyone saddled up and headed out in silence.  We went east on Grand, turned north on Dale, and then took over half of Summit Avenue to reach the ghost bike erected at the Snelling intersection. A dozen volunteer marshals rode in advance of the large group at the intersections to stop the cars and "hold" the intersections while the bikes went by. With so many people pedaling at a slow pace, it took a while for the memorial procession to pass. Of course the people driving cars were getting agitated, but that's constant state of affairs in Saint Paul. For the most part, though, people waiting the slowing traffic or stopped on the sidewalks seemed to be in silent awe at the mass passing of the bicycles.  �Wha...

Well, it's Ninth and Hennepin All the doughnuts have names that sound like prostitutes And the moon's teeth marks are on the sky Like a tarp thrown all over this And the broken umbrellas like dead birds And the steam comes out of the grill like the whole goddamn town's ready to blow And the bricks are all scarred with jailhouse tattoos And everyone is behaving like dogs And the horses are coming down Violin Road and Dutch is dead on his feet And all the rooms they smell like diesel And you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept here And I'm lost in the window, and I hide in the stairway And I hang in the curtain, and I sleep in your hat And no one brings anything small into a bar around here They all started out with bad directions And the girl behind the counter has a tattooed tear One for every year he's away, she said Such a crumbling beauty Ah, there's nothing wrong with her that a hundred dollars won't fix She has that razor sadness that only get...

It's been some years since we last checked in to see which cities are "on the move" , and I'm willing to bet that many more cities have gotten "on the move" since 2013, joining the ranks of cities like Detroit, Michigan and Sheffield, England. So let's "go to the tape" and see which cities are "on the move"... 2011 - Yellowknife, Northwest Territories is on the move. As they say in Yellowknife, "we're a city that's always on the move." 2013 - Syracuse, New York is on the move. Mayor Miner tells it like it is: "we're a 21st century city on the move." 2016  - Birmingham, Alabama is on the move. As they say in Birmingham , "Look around and you'll see Birmingham is not standing still. The city is on the move." 2017 - Tampa, Florida is on the move. As they say in Tampa, "Here in Tampa, we keep the good times going. We work hard, we play hard, and we never stop striving to be the best. W...

I am excited to share with you two fine new flag regional civic flag products. That's right, full-color deluxe looking patches that you can affix to just about anything! I have Northeast Flag and Saint Paul flag patches for sale on the store. I just got them in, and they look really nice! They're shiny and well made and the colors really "pop." Get yours today. Put it on your backpack or trucker cap or whatever! Get yours now before I sell out and have to dink around for two months getting some new ones... Saint Paul Flag Patch Northeast Minneapolis Flag Patch Thanks to The Minnesotan  vintage brand store in White Bear Lake for helping get these made.

[East Side stairs.] Join me for another tour. This is a new idea that's been buzzing around my head for a decade, ever since I happened across a "staircase" connecting two sidewalks over on the East Side . It was green and great, and the wooden "public" "sidewalk" staircase filled my heart with a curiosity for more public flights. A few years later I found myself in Portland, Oregon, and picked up a copy of this book: The Portland Stairs Book . Public stairs are ubiquitous in hilly Portland, especially in the Northwest and Southwest parts of the city, and it inspired me to search for similar stairs in Saint Paul. Years after that, I moved to the West Side and started seeing staircases, lost and found. Saint Paul is no Portland, and the majority of the old staircases that used to run up and down the bluffs have been lost to so-called progress, freeways, railroads, and the like. But there are still a handful of interesting staircases to climb and descend...

[A Villager enjoying a sidewalk caf�.] [Basically the problem is that the best source of Saint Paul streets & sidewalks news is the Highland Villager, a very fine and historical newspaper. This wouldn't be a problem, except that its not available online. You basically have to live in or frequent Saint Paul to read it. Until this newspaper goes online, sidewalk information must be set free. See also:   Three Reasons Why I Re-Blog the Highland Villager .] Headline: City getting ready to roll out its new organized system of trash collection; Residents will be asked in May to select service level Author: Jane McClure Short short version: Instead of having lots of trucks roll down your street or alley multiple days per week picking up one or two trash cans, one truck is going to roll down your street or alley once a week picking up all the trash cans. Illegal dumping is also mentioned. The project is going to cost $4M up front. Some people will pay more, others will pay less. A...

 [Seattle, WA.]  [Seattle, WA.]  [Seattle, WA.]  [Seattle, WA.]  [Seattle, WA.]  [Lilydale.]  [West Side, Saint Paul.] [West Side, Saint Paul.]

 PLEASE HELP I NEED $41.00 FOR A BUS TICKET TO FARGO [Skyway, Minneapolis.]  Welcome to my shop to taste Delicious shanghai cuisine. The best food in china is here. more have American dish [White board. Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis.] WALKWAY PLEASE DON'T  BLOCK [Cathedral Hill, Saint Paul.]  FOOD YOU CAN AFFORD [Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis.]  Coming Soon! Old School by Steeple People Stay Connected love peace thrift [Window. Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis.]  So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish [Door. Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis.]  NOTICE 10 MINUTE WAITING FOR RIDES ONLY [Wall. Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis.] PUSH LATCH REALLY HARD! [Location forgotten.]

 [Victoria, BC.]  [Victoria, BC.]  [Victoria, BC.]  [Downtown, Saint Paul.]  [Grand Avenue, Saint Paul.]  [Seattle, WA.]  [Seattle, WA.] [West Side, Saint Paul.]

The unique Dale Street dive, Malina's Sports Bar, was on the City Council agenda last week, which is something that fans of dive bars never want to see. Malina's is one of the last remaining bars on Dale Street, which used to have a bunch of dives but has become more economically marginalized ever since half of Dale Street was bulldozed and the street expanded back in the 1960s. Back when I living in Saint Paul's North End, Malina's was the most thriving place to go to hang out. The place was unusual, for sure. It was either very closed or very open, and you could tell which was which by just scoping out the parking lot. If there were a dozen cars there, then they were open. My roommate and I used to go there whenever we were bored to drink Beer Lao and watch the best karaoke in town. This was back in the day when a man named Vone owned the place, a guy who was already friendly towards us and often insisted on me singing Sinatra songs on the karaoke stage. (I usually ob...