Yes please

Yes!

And I strongly recommend people read the pithy and passionate "Field of Schemes" (book or blog) which opened my eyes even wider about the myriad & hidden ways that publicly-financed stadiums are a total corporate racket & giveaway to moneyed interests.

www.fieldofschemes.com

Not sure a full ban is in the cards or necessarily desirable in some cases.

But we absolutely must reconsider our relationship to parkways and I'm proud that the board voted to do just that. Will have updates on the pilot soon!

Be sure to stay tuned and engage with it so it can be a huge success!

Hey terrible news! Mn Sen. Ann Rest has cut the HCMC-saving sales tax plan from 1% to .25%, hiked the Twins’ skim (from $7m to $9m, way above current $1.1m). The sales tax will fall far short of what HCMC needs, so will do more to save the Pohlads than the hospital. assets.senate.mn/committees/2...

There's a new Delete-All amendment posted in the Senate Taxes committee. It cuts the tax from 1.0% to 0.25%, and increases the amount the Twins get from $7 million per year to $9 million. That would not leave enough revenue to save HCMC.

It would go to ongoing maintenance indefinitely

Appreciate Chris surfacing this - the Twins grafting on a take is a major concern on the D side even as they labor to rescue HCMC. I believe the initial lease only required $1.1m per year, adjusted for inflation, from the county. law.marquette.edu/assets/sport...

If you agree, it would be really helpful to let your legislators know that. Ask them to support the sales tax increase for HCMC, but not the $7 million/yr for the Stadium!

The bill should be amended to shift that $7 million/yr to HCMC, libraries, youth activities, homeless shelters or public transit. There are so many pressing needs that are way more important than subsidizing a billionaire's stadium.

In my job working for Senator Fateh, I get a lot of phone calls asking for him to support "repurposing the ballpark sales tax to fund HCMC." Almost all of the callers are under the impression that the bill would redirect money *away* from stadium. But it gives them way more!

Please understand that this would be *new* money for the Twins. The original deal was that when the stadium debt was paid off, the 0.15% sales tax would expire. It was not part of the deal to keep giving the Twins money after that.

I strongly support the sales tax increase to fund HCMC. We can't let our safety net hospital close. But I am intensely opposed to the $7 million per year that SF 4986 would also give to the Twins Stadium. It's a major expansion of corporate welfare. The Pohlads should pay for it!

Cost of car ownership: the million-dollar decision you're not thinking about One day, a PhD student mentioned the unexpected high cost of car repair—often over a thousand dollars, regardless of how cheap your car is. This got me...

Every car in your city represents $8-12K/year being sucked out of your local economy instead of being spent on housing, goods & services.

I wish more retailers & elected officials understood this.

#WindshieldBias
#CarBlindness
#CarBrain

I will endorse the 2029 mayoral candidate who pledges to bring us smaller firetrucks.

Transportation politics is about dragging people kicking and screaming into change that results fairly quickly in a widespread consensus that we can't imagine going back to the way it was before.

Yes of course we were biking around today. Yes of course everyone biking around today noticed that the parkways were choked with bikes and pedestrians. Yes of course our respective Park Boards/Departments should begin closing parkway roads to cars on weekends this summer. Or weekdays. Or both.

austin was told by habitat for humanity that it costs $700k to build a new house. calls that unacceptable

fateh is a big supporter of the “yes to homes” coalition. says parking spaces cost $40k to build! we love to hear this pointed out!

Lake harriet sidewalk and bike path packed with walkers, runners, strollers, and bikers

Lake Harriet walk and bike paths were packed. Thousands of people out enjoying the summer weather.

From the Star Tribune: “The damage to Harper's body was so severe, we were not allowed to see her, hold her, or be with her body ever again," [her mother] said. "And then, months later, as the pews were removed from that church, more of her remains were found. We had to cremate our daughter a second time. Imagine receiving that phone call. And then tell me, what is this gun for? Hunting? There are other tools. Home defense? There are other tools. What is this one for?"

Absolutely gutting story on Annunciation parents pouring their souls into enlightening legislators, knowing they’d the GOP brick wall. But the piece contains one of the most horrifying paragraphs an American parent could read; it will stay with me: www.startribune.com/in-living-ro... (gift)

You love to see it folks.

Bus lane enforcement hell yeah!!!

Hero. This spot is nasty.

A person stands at an icy streetcorner facing away from the camera holding a giant ice chunk above their head in a victory pose. The back of their shirt reads “end ice”

Bopping in to say that clearing ice from corners and bus stops is excellent community care and also good for getting out some kind of energy and connecting with strangers.

we elected such a fucking good park board, y’all. thank you to my park board reps @engy5150.bsky.social @olsenforparks.bsky.social @amberforparks.bsky.social

Fantastic protest art

Commissioner Kay Carvajal Moran votes against Al Flowers' preference on the Uptown Mall. Then he responds to her, "c'mon immigrant community, that I'm out there fighting for." (he thinks a Mexican American commissioner owes him her vote bc he's personally anti-ICE?)

Then Garcia yells at Flowers.

I live in Linden Hills and wrote to Cathy Abene saying I support pedestrianizing park roads----precisely BECAUSE I'm a senior! Precisely BECAUSE we are all either pre-disabled or disabled--and we need an alternative to car culture. Especially in our parks. Thank you for your leadership!

Do I have to watch the video of tonight's shitshow of a park board meeting? I'd rather just repeat what I've heard from witnesses:
➡️ open parkways resolution passed
➡️ Uptown Mall resolution passed
➡️ President Tom Olsen continues to be told to take his ass back to Edina
➡️ Al Flowers v Chris Meyer

Open streets has existed as a popular, regular local event for more than a decade. Yet the idea of exploring open parkways events on the riverfront is the crime of the century. You can thank MPRB commissioners Cathy Abene and Charles Rucker for working people into a rage over it.

Protesters carried a giant rendition of the U.S. Constitution through downtown Minneapolis on Friday, chanting "ICE out now."

📷️: Kyeland Jackson