The hop-thru

Huh. I posted this almost exactly one year ago.

Relevant to the political murders/shootings yesterday

Sorry I haven’t been on social media in a while, and I resigned from the Hennepin county active transportation committee at the beginning of the year

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For anyone who’s looking for a sewing machine in the Twin Cities metro, I highly recommend Creative Sewing Centers.

I’ve had a wonderful experience with the Minnetonka location. Outstanding customer service you won’t get at a big box or online internet retailer.

www.creativesewingcentersmn.com

I just got a Zeal and I’m loving it so far. It’s a highly rated mechanical machine that should be very reliable. Basically identical to the Janome Sewist 725S. Made in Taiwan, not China like Singers are.

You can download the manual at Baby Lock’s website. Good luck!

Map showing in red where the motorist drove around the Road Closed signs and tried to drive on the walkway to make a right hand turn from 44th St. onto France Ave., instead of following the green path on Sunnyside Rd. and then making a right turn on France

It must’ve added 50 feet to his trip

Oh I didn’t know that, thanks. Well with all the drought stress, it’s going to be a hard time for oaks.

Thanks.

Now I just worry if someone has a gun. Crazy that that’s something we have to worry about.

“Drive until you qualify” (rent/mortgage) means people accept that they have to drive/bus/bike “X miles/Y minutes” to downtown. So that’s their travel limit

Because of minimum lot sizes, you generally get people of similar incomes/classes within a wedge pointing to downtown

This is all by design

The motorist drove around the block and rolled down his passenger side window as he passed me and yelled “FUCK YOU!” as he drove by.

2/2

Urbanism is…

I just blocked a motorist in a white Subaru from a closed road under construction (44th & France). He was trying to drive his car on the walk/bike path. If I didn’t physically block him he would’ve continued. (A man and his daughters on bikes couldn’t believe what was happening.)

1/2

Not oak trees now. Ugh

Urban Lou A suburban view on urbanism

Started a new urbanism channel on YouTube:

www.youtube.com/@UrbanLou

First episode is about how Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo built an equitable & sustainable Olympics that also benefits residents.

Working on a series about “What Urbanists Don’t Talk About”.

(Forgive the terrible name & logo haha)

I ask Siri "What's the distance between Minneapolis and Chicago?" and it refuses to answer the question unless I disclose my current location (which has nothing to do with the distance between the two named cities).

Apple: We are all about privacy & security!! You are in control!!

Me: What's the distance between these 2 cities?

Apple/Siri: I NEED TO KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!!!!

Me: ??!

Capitalism is corporate & private equity buying up & destroying local businesses (here, bakeries, but also rural hospitals & medical facilities) to remove competition so chains can expand & own the market.

Remember when we used to have local pharmacies? Gone.

Expect the same for food & hospitals.

I Put a NexTrip Display in my Apartment (and You Can, Too!) Tired of having to check overly complicated and unintuitive apps for your transit? Here’s how to set up your very own display for bus departures!

Urbanism is...

making it easier to take transit than to drive.

That's our goal, full stop.

@streets.mn

streets.mn/2024/06/04/i...

In local governments across Minnesota, a reflection of national politics' divisiveness Recent incidents on city councils and boards across the state show how the rancor of D.C. has infected local politics.

Why do journalists make it seem like anger & divisiveness is just ordinary people acting alone, when we know from books like Dark Money by Jane Mayer that this is almost certainly all organized disruption of smooth, efficient government that benefits us all?

m.startribune.com/in-local-gov...

Capitalism is photo Alt-text so that AI model builders can suck up all the data and train their models better

Capitalism is EVs that make noise "to protect those of hard of hearing" but really just to make fart noises & mimic threatening engines

A friend and me getting dinner at the stadium under threatening skies, before the rain

Walked a little downtown, capturing St. Paul's great infrastructure (great bike lanes! They were right!), and the threatening skies

A double rainbow for the LGBTQ+ crowd at Pride Night

Great local food made before your eyes

Urbanism is...

taking transit & literally walking 2 blocks to Pride Night at the St. Paul Saints minor league baseball stadium.

Then having them win 5-1, and getting a double-rainbow as part of the deal!

And having local restaurant Wok in the Park make your food fresh.

That's a great idea!

Then use those fees to make registering a small, light vehicle inexpensive or free.

People who can afford $100k+ huge vehicles because they're emotionally insecure can also afford huge registration fees.

Or, they can be misers & buy small vehicles.

Win/win.

Government needs to act like high-end business (i.e., capture rich $) when it comes to marketing used as a way to induce behavior bad for society.

Manufacturers marketing oversized SUVs? Fine, don't ban them, just make annual registration fees proportional to weight & size.

$10,000/yr for big SUVs

Why this electric 'car' the size of two motorcycles should be on your list Let’s just face it, America. We’ve got a weight problem. No, not that weight problem. It’s the size of the...

This is what Americans should driving on our streets.

Please, no SUV version.

Legislate very low insurance rates (they only go 25 mph), make registration a token amount ($10?).

Limited on car lanes to 25 mph. So e-bikes should be 15 mph on bike lanes.

electrek.co/2024/05/29/w...

Wikipedia:

“The Right to the City can encompass a variety of demands, including demands for government subsidized housing, access to public space, participation in urban governance, and laws against displacement and gentrification, all of which aim to address spatial inequalities in urban areas.”

And a great thing about this video is that rather than just debunk “Third Place”, @radicalplanning.bsky.social suggests a similar but alternative concept to embrace:

“The Right to the City”, originated by Henri Lefebvre in his 1968 book

“YIMBY”

“Third Place”

What will Josh ruin next?!

It pays to be skeptical of the new new thing. Ask yourself: who is behind this trending urbanism ideas?

Third Place vs. Right to the City Seems like everyone wants to talk about third place lately. Honestly, I don't really get it. Ray Oldenburg - the creator of the theory - was not progressive by most definitions and he built his theory off of strict masculinity rooted in misogyny and homophobia. I really don't like Ray Oldenburg and I'll show you exactly why in this video. And on top of that I'll give you something else to talk about - a more relevant theory called "The Right to the City," which is the idea that we control how the places we live change over time - not profit-seeking capitalists. --- Check out the Zoned Out Podcast! https://open.spotify.com/show/4zXsufctnkkn4DeiiUmZlM?si=d7d0e93ddda64a30 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zoned-out/id1607682312 --- Sources (in order of reference): Ray Oldenburg - The Great Good Place, 1989 (Third edition: 1999): https://archive.org/details/greatgoodplaceca00olde_2 Ray Oldenburg - Celebrating the Third Place, 2001 (unfortunately I cannot find a readily-available pdf online, I got the E-book for this video. But also you would be better served in avoiding this one, it's terrible) Karl Marx - Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/labour.htm Leopold Schwarzschild - The Red Prussian, 1947: https://archive.org/details/redprussian0000schw Erich Fromm - The Sane Society, 1956: https://historicalunderbelly.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/erich-fromm-the-sane-society.pdf Henri Lefebvre - "The Right to the City" (1968) from Writings on Cities, 1996: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/henri-lefebvre-right-to-the-city David Harvey - "The Right to the City," 2008 https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii53/articles/david-harvey-the-right-to-the-city

I jumped on the Third Place bandwagon.

This has got me rethinking it.

Josh always brings a fresh perspective to things you think you know.

“Josh ruins everything” haha

m.youtube.com/watch?v=8E5M...

Ultra-processed US foods are ultra-bad for you. Here’s what to know A growing number of grocery-store foods, from fruit-flavored yogurts to packaged bread, are being tied to health concerns

Forget diet pills, vitamins, EVOO, antioxidants, Kimchi, fiber, perfect foods, and other marketing fads

Urbanism is eating a balanced diet of mostly whole foods & simply prepared meals

Pro tip: a piece of whole fruit can be a dessert

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

How Can We Shape the Suburbs for Cycling? Suburban cycling does have its challenges, but cities and counties can make smart changes that encourage cyclists outside of the core cities.

2. At @streets.mn, there's this post by Katie Nicholson on biking in the suburbs (with my favorite suburban biking street pictured: 8th Ave bikeway in Hopkins)

streets.mn/2024/05/16/h...