Dubiousask

 [Somewhere in Minneapolis.]  [Seattle or Vancouver.]  [Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis.]  [Downtown, Saint Paul.]  [Seward, Minneapolis.]  [Location forgotten.]  [Downtown, Saint Paul.] [Seattle, WA.]

 LOST PHONE! Friday March 23 I lost my phone here at Scott's Liquor.  My phone case had my Id and other important cards in it. If you have any information about my missing things Please leave me a message or bring the phone, ID etc. back to this store. Thanks you! Sara [Window. Mac-Groveland, Saint Paul.] DO NOT LEAVE DONATIONS OUTSIDE OF STORE [Somerville, MA.]  NO MUSLIM BAN EVER [Window. Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis.]  FOOD YOU CAN AFFORD [Window. Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis.]  WORK SAFELY [Wooden sign. NE Hennepin, Minneapolis.]  WORK  WITH YOUR  QUIRK [Location forgotten.]  FINALLY [Sandwich board. Grand Avenue, Saint Paul.] Record Store DAY Line Starts Here [Window. Downtown, Saint Paul.]

[Don't put all your old Villagers in one basket.] [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: Historic Fort Snelling revitalization proceeds; Historical Society makes do with $15M of the $30M it sought in state bonding Author: Dave Page Short short version: The state gave some money to the old fort to fix up the visitor center. Headline: City begins test of pedestrian improvements on West Seventh Author: Jane McClure Short short version: [After decades and decades of ignoring this deadly street] The city has installed temporary bumpouts and crosswalk improvements along West 7th street. [I saw th

 [Seattle, WA.]  [Seattle, WA..] [Seattle, WA.]  [Seattle, WA.]  [Seattle, WA.]  [Seattle, WA.]  [North Minneapolis.] [Northeast Minneapolis.]

[Eighth in the highly unpopular "metaphor series." See also:  New Orleans ,  Bicycling/Dancing ,  Vikings stadium/Star Wars ,   bikes/guns ,   gas/pop ,   NIMBY/Amtrak , and soup/housing .] [The guilty party.] The other day, my cat peed in my sandal again. This happens about once every six months and each time I curse loudly and then begin cleaning up. I scrub the sandal with baking soda and soap and leave it out in the sun to dry.  The one thing I don�t do is yell at my cat.  (I think I did it once, years ago, when catching her in the act. She ran away of course, but she kept peeing.) Yelling at the cat is pretty much the most useless possible reaction to the situation. It accomplishes nothing because cats do not speak english, nor do they comprehend human communication. Talking to your cat is a meaningless gesture*. Instead, the only effective response to a cat peeing in the house is environmental. Re-double your efforts to keep the cat box clean and tidy. Keep things off t

Already this week, there were two more tragic crashes in Saint Paul. While the details are yet unclear, in both cases the problem of streets designed to be dangerous is at the root of the problem, as Saint Paul's predictably deadly streets continue to cause injury and death. On Friday, there was the tragic death of Benjamin Leighton, killed crossing the street at Rice and Como just north of the Green Line station. Leighton was 56 years old. There are no details about what happened in the paper, other than the fact that the car was turning. Bicyclist in critical condition after being struck by motorist in St. Paul � A pedestrian who was struck by a vehicle Friday night died of his injuries Saturday afternoon, St. Paul police said.  The vehicle was traveling north on Rice Street and turning west onto Como Avenue about 9:30 p.m. when the pedestrian was hit. This intersection, where Rice Street, Como Avenue, and Pennsylvania Avenue come together, is designed to be deadly. Rice Street

Well, the first Public Stairs tour was a smashing success. So popular was the tour, in fact, that we could barely fit everyone on the staircases. People came and walked up and down and ventured forth through the Cathedral Hill, Crocus Hill and West 7th neighborhoods around old Pleasant Street (now unpleasant). This will be a similar adventure, only in my own neighborhood, the very bluff-laden West Side. So bluff-ish is the West Side, in fact, that streets are currently closed to traffic because the bluffs are so volatile and literally collapsing. How exciting! We will be walking a bunch of the public stairs on the West Side to see how many steps we can get in, and I can promise you a few long-lost staircases plus one super-secret staircase adventure that has me very excited. Hope to see you then! [ Facebook event is here .] Who: Anyone willing to walk for three miles up and down What: Group walk around the historic West Side to explore public staircases past and present When: Sunday

'm almost done with my epic cycle of Minneapolis and Saint Paul dive bar tours , but there are a few spots on the map that remain un-explored. This is one of them.  [The border.] Southeast Minneapolis is without doubt the most obscure of the four "quadrants" of the city. It has an odd and mercurial identity, part historic, part residential enclave, part active industrial area, and part massive and continually growing University. In some ways, the neighborhood's identity has always been driven by these contradictions and tensions, and the presence of the few bars of in area reflect this. They are odd places that (as you can see in the clippings below) have been sources of unease and/or community in the Como neighborhood for generations. Then you throw into the mix the city border, and all the de-regulation and  nonsense that comes with that... Saint Paul lurks on the edge of the Southeast Minneapolis like a sunset at dusk, and there you will find some weird stuff. We&#

[A Villager on a mat.] [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: Lawsuit targets organized trash; City�s proposed system is said to violate state�s Waste Management Act Author: Jane McClure Short short version: Saint Paul is still trying to organize the trash collection trucks. [Part 1502 of a long-saga of efficient governance, discouraging dumping, and decreasing wear on roads.]  A person is suing the city because of the fee structure of the new trash system. [If this state law does indeed govern garbage fees, file this under �dumb mistakes by the city�s legal team,� a too-thick drawer in the fil

I have a three big boxes of my new coffee table book sitting in my office right now, and I would be happy to sign them and send them to you. I will make the inscription out to you, your father, your pet, or your favorite Small Area Plan... anything you like! It's a cool book and looks really good. It has 144 different then-and-now locations featuring an old photo carefully curated alongside a professionally-captured "new" image taken from the same spot. You get a great sense of how the Twin Cities has changed over the last 120 years or so. They're available in my store and will ship ASAP . Here's the writeup: My 144-page photo coffee-table history book about the Twin Cities!   I chose most of the historic photographs which range from the 1870s to the 1950s, and I wrote the introduction and historical narrative captions for over one hundred (100+) historic sites in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, South Saint Paul, Edina, and the Fort Snelling Unorganized Territory. The &

[The blissfully rejected early version of the Canadian flag.] It's a little known fact that I'm a dual-citizen of the USA and Canada. My mother grew up in Alberta and half my family is north of the border, and as Trump takes the US down the toilet, picks fights with PM Trudeau, and even with the recent Ontario election, Canada is looking all the more appealing. So the question comes up: Which Canadian city should I move to where I can be happiest with the city flag? It turns that, just like with the well-designed and amazingly dynamic Canadian money, and the well-designed and surprisingly-recent Canadian national flag, the design sensibility up far better executed than it is in the States. tl;dr: Canadian city flags are pretty good! Note that most (but not all) of the Canadian city flags were designed in the last thirty years or so, and many are vexiologically sound. Here's my top 10 list: #10: Calgary, AB This city flag was brought to you by Arby's. It looks very 1980s