March 31, 2005
Train a-Comin': Northstar Line gets Funded
The bonding bill that finally emerged from the state capitol includes $37.5 for the Northstar commuter rail line. See the Strib article.
That's $27.5 million more that the anti-transit House had grudgingly put forward in their version of the bill.
We're starting to get a real regional transit system, here. That's good for workers, for jobs, for traffic congestion, and for air quality. But if MetroTransit really has to cut $10 million, it's one step forward and two steps back.
March 30, 2005
Slots on the Train, Baby
The Boston Globe reports that Boston will soon have TVs on trains and at stations, subjecting transit riders to news and ads. Atlanta, according to The Globe will soon have a similar system: about 66% of the closed circuit programming will be news, with 33% devoted to ads.
As with commercial TV, the news will exist as an excuse for the ads, not vice-versa. Boston's MBTA hopes to raise $3.5 million in ad revenues. Numbers like that will surely get the attention of Minnesota's transit authorities, who are proposing 10% cuts in service to plug a budget gap.
Anyway, how's this for targeted marketing (from The Globe article):
"In Orlando, Chicago, and Milwaukee, the technology is advanced enough that advertising for businesses along the route can pop up as the bus passes, such as a McDonald's restaurant, with a commercial featuring directions for walkers."
It seems like half the buses and trains in this town are already shrinkwrapped in ads. And given that most of the print ads inside the buses are MetroTransit's own announcements rather than revenue-generating ads from external companies, maybe--just maybe--there's already ad saturation on the system? It sounds like the case in Boston (again from The Globe article):
"Said Darrell Murphy, 37, of East Boston, 'I'm too busy resting my eyes in the morning going to work, and I'm too busy sleeping on the way home to notice.'"
But why make people walk or wake up to spend their money, and why gamble that advertisers would want to pitch their wares at a sleepy audience? With Minnesota's governor and Republican legislators enamored of gambling revenues to fund the state, although tribal elders aren't as thrilled, here's an idea to solve that problem and set us apart from the crowd: Why not put slot machines on the buses and trains?
Other states have riverboat gambling.
But in Minnesota, people could lose their shirts on the way to work, while pulling a lever for the public good. Or maybe there could be games of Texas Hold 'Em. Ouch--this is starting to sound like a 70's country-western song.
And a Little Child Shall Lead Them
My kids are fully part of the Green Generation. They've grown up in the age of recycling, post-Rio, and post-Kyoto; they know about global warming (and would seem to have a better grasp of its reality than a certain presisdential administration and political party in power). They've heard about fuel cells. They're 8 and 11. One of their ideas of a fun project is to pick up litter up and down our block. The older one has been part of a Mississippi River Gorge litter clean-up event. They get genuinely excited about Earth Day, and consider it a major holiday.
They ask me why we don't have a hybrid car and solar panels on the roof. I say that we don't need a new car, and can't quite afford the start-up costs of going off the grid--but their idealism reminds me where I should aim.
So, knowing she'd be enthusiastic, yesterday I told my daughter (the 11-year old) that I had an Earth Day project in mind: picking up the litter around the bus stop and LRT platform at Hiawatha and Lake.
Her response? "Why wait until Earth Day?"
Guess we'll be on Transit Stop Litter Patrol sooner rather than later.
March 29, 2005
A trus? A brain? April Fool's.
The Skyway News has a funny front page story in their April Fool's issue about the next big thing in transit: LRTT, Light Rail Tranist on Tires. "LRTT cars are not confined to fixed routes, and indeed can run on paved streets already prevalent in the Twin Cities." It includes a fun photo of an LRT car with bus wheels.
There's also the story of a bike courier who discovers the automobile.
Unfortunately, the issue is not up online, so you'll need to grab a hard copy. It's not The Onion, but it has its moments.
It makes me wonder: What sort of April Fool's pranks will UThink bloggers devise?
Mr. Cell Phone Says: Size Matters
Upon boarding a crowded train at the Metrodome yesterday afternoon, I stood next to a guy who opened his cell phone and made a call (better on a train than while driving--transit is much safer for multi-tasking).
Mr. Cell Phone was calling his cellular company. I (and others around me) learned that his wife was a long-time customer of YakketyYakAllDayAtGreatExpense Mobile Phone Company. Mrs. Cell Phone apparently, had been upgraded to some sort of package that gave her "great new benefits", including a new phone.
But Mr. Cell Phone was calling because Mrs. Cell Phone's new handset was "too big." For nearly ten minutes, from the Metrodome to Lake Street, he kept repeating the narrative of the upgrade, and how Mrs. Cell Phone really liked all the new benefits of the upgrade--except for the phone itself, which was simply "too big."
I kept wondering: too big for what? Her purse? Not likely. Her jacket pocket? No. Mr. Cell Phone never said in what sense it was too big. It just was.
Clearly, the new phone was just too big to be cool. As with most any piece of electronic gadgetry except for TVs, smaller is cooler. And our phones must be cool. What Mr. Cell Phone didn't realize, was that YakketyYakAllDayAtGreatExpense Mobile Phone Company wanted him and Mrs. Cell Phone to pay to have a cooler phone.
Just as I was stepping off at the Lake Street Station, Mr Cell Phone said, with resignation: "So you can't do this for me?"
Mrs. Cell Phone will have to pay to be cool.
March 27, 2005
Quiet Time
It's been fairly uneventful in the Tales department lately. Bus and train riders have been stereotypical Minnesotans: quiet. But also, it feels in part, like people are worn out by the winter, even though it's not been a very snowy one here.
On Tuesday last week, one day after the Red Lake shooting news, the silence seemed stunned and funereal. That certainly affected the mood all week.
There'll be a state-wide moment of silence Monday afternoon.
Will even Uthink blogs quiet down around 2 pm?
March 25, 2005
Sun Angles = Seasonal Transit Use
Mild sunny days, the higher post-equinox sun angle, and the absence of snow and ice on sidewalks, bikepaths and roads, have me looking forward to the time (soon to come) when I cancel my Metropass and commute to work either on foot (50 minutes) or by bike (about 18).
I guess that makes me a foul-weather friend of transit.
March 24, 2005
Camouflage Man
Slouchlng in the train seat
like you're hiding in a duck bllnd,
camo'd hood pulled low over
your face, camo'd pants
over the shoe tops.
The not-so-invisible man.
It's Only Money (and Particulates, and Smog, and Oil Wars...)
Jim over at Oil Is For Sissies asks this question about $75 per tank fill-ups.
Bus-ted
On the 21 last night, on my way home, a couple of teenage guys were sitting at opposite ends of the back bench--whether out of homophobia or some other reason, they were trying to hold a conversation while sitting about seven feet apart in the loudest part of the bus:
Teen 1: You're sure it's this way?
Teen 2: Yeah she works this way.
[We stop for a red light.]
Teen 1: (To the driver) Hurry up man!
Teen 1: If it isn't this way I'll be pissed. I hope she don't get mad at me--she'll kick my ass.
Teen 2: It's this way.
Teen 1: (To the driver) Hurry up motherfucker, I'm late.
[Just then I pull the cord to request my stop.]
Teen 1: (To me, or whoever might listen) Shit, you're makin' me late.
Me: [Exit bus with a strange sense of satisfaction at delaying Mr. Vulgar a bit more]
When Satire is All Too True
From this week's Onion:
EPA To Drop 'E,' 'P' From Name
WASHINGTON, DC—Days after unveiling new power-plant pollution regulations that rely on an industry-favored market-trading approach to cutting mercury emissions, EPA Acting Administrator Stephen Johnson announced that the agency will remove the "E" and "P" from its name. "We're not really 'environmental' anymore, and we certainly aren't 'protecting' anything," Johnson said. "'The Agency' is a name that reflects our current agenda and encapsulates our new function as a government-funded body devoted to handling documents, scheduling meetings, and fielding phone calls." The change comes on the heels of the Department of Health and Human Services' January decision to shorten its name to the Department of Services.
________
Sadly, I don't feel all that bad about classifying this under "News."
Where The Skies Are Not Hazy All Day
Also courtesy of the Midwest hazecam here's a view of downtown St. Paul on a crystal clear blue afternoon yesterday:
Also courtesy of the Midwest hazecam celow is a view at the same time from Grand Portage on Superior's North Shore, out toward that jewel in the big lake, Isle Royale:
This camera is at the "Grand Portage Indian Reservation/Isle Royale National Park":
"The Anishinaabe Grand Portage Reservation is located in Cook County in the extreme northeast corner of Minnesota, approximately 150 miles from Duluth. The camera looks to the east out towards Isle Royale National Park, which is located in Lake Superior. Isle Royale National Park, which was established in 1940, is a federal Class I area and, as such, receives special protection from air pollution. The park encompasses a total area of more than 850 square miles and extends 4.5 miles outward from the island (which is 45 miles long and 9 miles wide at its widest point) into Lake Superior. Roadless Isle Royale is accessible only by boat or float plane. This area generally has lower levels of air pollution than urban areas in the Midwest."
March 23, 2005
The Between Space
From train to platform, or
from platform to train
is a quick step
over that thin gap between.
But just there in that space
lives the shift from place
to place.
Proposed Bus Cuts of 10%
According to the Skyway News Metro Transit needs to cut 10% to plug a budget shortfall.
This follows shortly after a big re-organization of (i.e, cuts to) bus lines with the advent of the Hiawatha line, fare increases, and numerous service cuts in the eight years that I've been riding Metro Transit (stops eliminated, longer waits between buses, etc.).
This state needs to make transit a priority, and fund it properly.
[Update: 3:32 pm I left out a crucial piece of markup, which resulted in the follwoing not showing up in my initial attempt at posting this at 10:57 am:]
Transit riders can comment on the proposed cuts at meetings or as follows (from the article):
E-mail to data.center@metc.state.mn.us
Fax to 651-602-1464
Mail to: Regional Data Center, Metropolitan Council, 230 E. 5th St., St. Paul, MN 55101
If your route is being cut, let'em know that it will hurt. They probably won't make all of these cuts, so the squeaky wheel will get any grease they happen to have left.
Find Local Polluters--and then what?
Check out MPCA's Environmental Data Access Tool, created by the state Legislature in 2001.
Currently, you can use it, among other things, to locate facilities that emit air pollution on a large scale (with the ability to locate smaller offenders and vehicle emissions soon to be added). You can also search for measured outdoor concentrations and emissions data by location.
This means that, if you really want to know who's putting nasty things into the air in your neighborhood, you can find out.
A quick search turned up eight firms in Minneapolis in the category of Industrial Machinery and Equipment
One firm for example emitted 6.3 tons of volatile organic compunds in 2003. And it's ranked only 457th in that category in MN. Scary. Another, which makes pumps and pumping equipment. put out more than 14.5 tons of particulate and particulate matter of <10 microns into the air, though only .01 tons of sulfur dioxide that same year.
Meanwhile, a less obvious suspect for air pollution, Abbot Northwestern Hospital, released 67.3 tons of sulfur dioxide in 2003, giving it a ranking of 56th.
Scary. But potentiall empowering. We're paying for this all of this data, so we should make use of it. Besides publicizing it, what are some good ways?
Air Pollution Reports
See an MPCA News releasefor information on two reports about Minnesota's air quality.
There are some good things happening: Metro Transit is trying to buy low-sulfur diesel; also something called the Metropolitan Emissions Reduction Project will (over several years, of course) reduce sulfur and nitorgen dioxides from three metro power plants.
But also according to the news release:
"The reports are timely. Minnesota's recent air alert beginning on January 29th, lasted six days and was the most severe alert since the MPCA began monitoring fine particle pollution in 1999. AQI levels were above 150 (unhealthy for all groups) for fine particles on three days.
Fine particles from the combustion of fossil fuels have emerged as a major health concern. They are associated with increased hospitalizations and deaths due to respiratory and heart disease and can worsen the symptoms of asthma. Ozone (smog) is the other pollutant that activates air alerts. It is linked to respiratory problems including asthma attacks."
March 22, 2005
The Midnight Special
"Let the Midnight Special
Shine her light on me.
Let the Midnight Special
Shine her ever-lovin' light on me."
Leadbelly's Midnight Special, one of the great American train songs, is given some biographical context here.
March 21, 2005
Raiding the Bus
Evan over at Coffee Grounds is a bigger man than I, as he concedes that Phil (the Gas Tank) Krinkie may be capable of a good transit idea.
I just don't believe it. Krinkie, after all, is in league with Pawlenty on the so-called "turbo-charged truth in taxation" proposal, a thinly veiled attempt to give anti-tax groups an advantage over local governments in setting property tax rates.
Krinkie knows one thing: a strident anti-tax, anti-city stand gets him re-elected in his conservative suburban district.
What Would NASCAR Nation Drive?
From an article by Shawn Langlois, on MarketWatch.com
"Two out of three Americans now consider buying a fuel-efficient vehicle a patriotic act, according to a study "backed by the Civil Society Institute."
More:
"...Autos that go easier on the gas tank, led by the Japanese manufacturers, are flying off of lots. The Prius, along with Honda's Accord and Civic, can't get to dealers fast enough."
The kicker:
"Three out of five people who consider themselves conservatives and two out of three Nascar fans agreed that buying a car that stretches its fuel mileage is also a vote for America."
Even if it means buying Japanese? There's some cognitive dissonance there, but we could certainly do with a redefinition of patriotism in this age of Patriotic Correctness.
With Friends Like That
This morning, as I boarded a 24 to catch the LRT, I walked through the following piece of a cross-aisle conversation:
"Geez, Bob, if my mother-in-law was sick, I'd fly out to visit her. No wonder your wife doesn't like you."
Nothing like a bus-buddy to tell it to you straight.
Wabash, Pt. 2: Life Imitates Art
Venerable folkie Utah Phillips has an informative post about how the song created the train.
March 20, 2005
The Wabash Cannonball
Train songs are ubiquitous in American folk music (though, judging from the number of car songs on MPR's Car Talk, car songs are uber-ubiquitous).
One of the most important is The Wabash Cannonball, that hymn to the hobo's life ridin' the rails "from New York to St. Louie, and Chicago by the way."
The verse that always gets my attention though, is the last one, a tribute to "Daddy Claxton," king of the rails, who'll get a funeral train, hobo style:
"When his earthly race is over, and the curtain 'round him falls,
We'll carry him home to victory on the Wabash Cannonball."
In American ideo-mythology, trains span the continent, their tracks joined by with a golden stake; they're an associated emblem of technological progress, driving the heroic John Henry to his death; they're vehicles fo the Robin Hoodish robberies of the James Gang--and for the dispossessed hobos, who own nothing and therfore everything, they're the ticket to Glory. That's a lot to sing about.
March 19, 2005
Take That, Ownership Society.
As i was posting the previous entry, I heard our neighbor's snowblower go past. I had been just about to go out and shovel. Instead I opened the front door and waved a "thank you."
Such shared small engines make sense, especially in our neighborhood, with small lots and no real driveways to speak of. Of course, newer developments are built to isolate people form each other, and the long driveways to the three-car garages practically require a snowplow.
Still, why do we feel that we each have to own our own machines, rather than share? Convenience, and marketing primarily. That and an ideology of individual consumerism as identity and worth.
So here's to my neighbor, who just struck a blow against the Ownership Society.
Swampland for Sale
We usually head for the woods for vacation,
so going to Disney World last week was, for us, an adventure in an alien land.
Disney was about what I expected. They do what they do well, but you just know there's a dark, corporate underbelly behind all the magic and manufactured smiles, a labyrinth of HR policies, philosophies, practices, and training regimens as hidden from public view as the tunnels and vaults that are rumored to underlie the Magic Kingdom, allowing deliveries, maintenance, securty and garbage to be handled out of view of the Disney customer.
But Orlando and the surrounding area was truly horrifying.
In size, garishness, and sheer redundant sprawl, it dwarfs the tacky tourist hotspotss I'd previously tried to forget: Keystone, Deadwood and Rapids City SD, in and around the othwise sacred Black Hills (Oh yeah, there's that bizarre rock called Mt. Rushmore in there too); and Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, outside of the Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park.
Those travesties at least have something real at their heart, some amazing piece of nature that's struggling to survive the human onslaught.
But Orlando's heart is a pacemaker, a man-made money magnet built by the Disney coproration, along with their coprorate pals (the PR job aimed at kids by the plastics industry in the Innoventions attraction at EPCOT is breathtaking in its scope).
Highway construction was literally everywhere, but given the traffic volume, the future lanes already looked insufficient before they were done.
Transit was nearly nonexistent--except for Disney with its monorail, trams, and the shuttles to and from resorts. But that, of course, relegates transit to the land of make-believe.
Swamps are being drained, and I saw scrub land in the middle of nowhwere advertised for $59,000 an acre. Presumably for new snowbird developments or as yet unforeseen tourist enterprises, all to clog the as yet highway unbuilt lanes.
I gues it wasn't all that alien--just the apotheosis of American culture.
March 18, 2005
Planes, Trains, and Misery
So last week, four of us went to Disney World. To get there, we flew.
It was a reminder that speed trumps all kinds of other factors, since air travel is expensive, crowded and uncomfortable, full of waits and invasive searches, and all kinds of other unpleasantries.
There were the check-in lines, the security lines, the boarding lines, the disembarking lines. People removed their shoes and had their underwear unceremoniously scattered on a counter while their carry-on bag was searched. Once on the plane, anybody over 5'10" had insufficient leg room (not an issue for me, but the poor guy next to me had his knees near his chin--and he wasn't even tall enough to be a point guard in the NBA). My son had intense ear pain, thanks to a cold and the pressure changes of take-off and landing. And once in Orland, we waited nearly an hour in the rental car line. At least the tiny bag of "gourmet" pretzels was good for a laugh. As was the SkyMall catalogue, stuffed with useless products--like a $60 dollar paper towel holder--for the bored business traveller with wads of disposable cash.
So is there much doubt that people would flock to high speed trains (such as between the Twin Ciies and Rochester even if trains were as unpleasant to ride as planes?
Transit is Part of the Solution
Kudos to the City of Minneapolis for using the municipal consent process to force MNDOT and Carol Molnau to include rapid bus transit in the plan to rebuild the 35W/62 commons area..
Key points from the Strib article:
"The recommendations released Thursday ensure that the [bus rapid transit] station [at E. 46th st.] will be included in the project. They also promise coordination of environmental planning and permit issuance, and following best practices to enhance water quality."
and
"I-35W buses already carry 15,000 commuter trips a day. Minneapolis wants fast, frequent bus service that could handle double that number by 2020. The city wants low-floor buses, attractive stations and exclusive lanes that give buses an advantage during rush hour.
The recommendations also would configure roadway and bridge reconstructions to accommodate bike lanes.
The project will now include a new Minnehaha Creek bridge consistent with the environmental and historical character of the area."
and
"[Minneapolis mayor R.T. ] Rybak couldn't resist the opportunity to push a case for transit in the face of proposed reductions in bus routes. 'Adding mass transit on 35W is the only way we can address the congestion and gridlock, but it can't be met with a radical cut in bus service,' he said."
This line cracked me up, for its journalistic understatement:
"DFLers tend to be more supportive of mass transit than Republicans are."
And the pope tends to be more Catholic than atheists are.
Hummer Bummer
So, as I, my wife and kids were walking out of a car-themed thrill ride at a certain global conglomerate theme park (think big rodent ears) earlier this week, we were routed past a bunch of GM vehicles, since GM was the sponsor of the ride.
Prominently displayed, of course, was a Hummer. I thought I'd check the gas milage rating. It was blank, even though the other 7 or 8 vehicles all had their MPG rating listed (most were in the abyssmally low 18/City, 24/ highway range). They were happy to list the Hummer's price of $52,000 (only 1K per week, annualized!), but apparently figured the MPG numbers were too shocking to list. How low could they be?
March 11, 2005
Oil to $60 a Barrel Sooner Rather than Later?
It could be.
Will Hummers and Hummer-wanna-be's be parked more than driven then? I suppose not. If you've got the 40K or whatever those things sell for, you've surely got the liquidity to keep the pricey liquid in the fuel tank. Or not.
If you're in over your head on a vanity vehicle purchase, don't count on using personal bankruptcy to bail yourself out--or even if you're in over your head because of catastrophic medical bills.
Shouldn't Have Gloated
Yesterday I had to wait 5-10 minutes or more at all three of my stops.
It took 40 minutes to get home.
March 09, 2005
A Personal Best
Yesterday, it all worked perfectly:
A thirty-second wait at Northrop Mall for a 50;
A train pulling up just as I step onto the Metrodome platform;
A 53 at Hiawatha and Lake, seemingly waiting for me to turn the corner and board.
Virtually no waiting at stops. No running to stops.
I was home in less than 25 minutes.
Other days, it can take 40.
Either one of those splits the difference of my other options: 15 minutes on a bike, 55 minutes on foot.
Transit Funding, or, Personal Financial Planning
Scene: A small coffeehouse near campus
Time: Lunch hour
Cell Phone Guy: I don't have enough money for the bus. Could you pick me up? I've only got a dollar in my wallet, and I should have checked before putting the change in the tip jar.
Cell Phone Interlocutor: [mmnbmnbmbnm.]
Cell Phone Guy: I've got two more appointments at one.
Cell Phone Interlocutor: [mmnbmnbmbnm.]
Cell Phone Guy: As soon as I get my tax refund, I'm gonna buy a car from my cousin.
Cell Phone Interlocutor: [mmnbmnbmbnm.]
Cell Phone Guy: I'm getting 1500 dollars.
Cell Phone Interlocutor: [mmnbmnbmbnm.]
Cell Phone Guy: She's selling it for 800 dollars. A Ford Escort.
Me (silently): Don't do it! That's a money pit on wheels! Save your change and ride the bus. With a little planning (like not having so much of your income withheld) you'll be able to tip your barrista AND ride the bus--and still come out ahead. mmnbmnbmbnmmmnbmnbmbnmmmnbmnbmbnm.
March 08, 2005
Today I Rode the Paddy Wagon to Work
At least, that's what it felt like when, at the Cedar-Riverside stop, two transit police boarded, escorting two young men with hands cuffed behind their backs.
This was a bit jarring--usually the transit cops escort people (non-fare-paying people) OFF of the train accompanied by either a warning or a $180 citation.
I'm guessing the captives had been doing something more serious than sneaking an unpaid ride on the southbound. Repeat freeloaders? Vandalism? Drug trafficking? (yes, pun intended).
Some riders were clearly uncomfortable at having a bust intrude into their morning commute--does Metro Transit want riders to be uncomfortable?
The obvious question was, "Why use the LRT to transport them downtown, if not for a bit of public humiliation, a bit of PR ("Look, upstanding and fare-paying riders--we do our job"), and a bit of example-making ("Pay your fares, any non-paying riders, or risk sliding into degeneracy such as this")? This little spectacle sent all of those messages, and probably others.
But I soon realized the answer to "why?" might be less calculated (not to say those other reasons weren't also at work). The train would take the foursome right where they would need to go: they got off where I did, at the Metrodome station, but started a perp walk over toward the conveniently-located Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center. Why call for a Transit Police squad car when the train stops right at the Little Big House?
To Snow or Not To Snow
The skiier in me wishes for more snow in what has beome a depressingly familiar snow-deprived Minnesota winter.
But I must confess, there's a part of me that takes some comfort in the fact that certain loud, polluting monstrosities
are doubtless seeing less action. Of course, the ATV's and SUV's can always provide a subsititute winter speed/power/macho/polluting/littering fix.
So here's to a wish that if is going to be cold here, it might as well snow at least once more this winter.
Misdemeanor Profiling
Since the Hiawatha Line opened, most buses now carry the following "public service announcement" among the ads and other Metro Transit posters:
"lt's your call.
Those who try to rlde tralns or buses without paylng will be charged with a mlsdemeanor and flned $180."
There's an image of a citation, partially obscured by a Hiawatha Line tlcket. The citation is written out as follows:
Lic. No. 000-000-000
Doe, John
Address 2425 Minnehaha A [the rest is obscured]
Mlnneapolls MN
Blrth 0|00|00
Eyes blue
Helght 5' [the rest is obscured]
First observation: It says "trains or buses," but trains are the real issue here, since payment is by an honor system enforced by periodic Transit Police sweeps through the cars. Yet the announcements appear on buses--apparently because the trains don't have advertising/announcement space.
Second observation: The creators of the sign made some of the entries on the mock citation generic (license # 000-000-000, name "Doe, John"). Yet the sign betrays a certain profile of a cited freeloader: male, urban rather than suburban, and a resident of a particular Minneapolis neighborhood: 24th and Minnehaha--aka the Seward neighborhood. Why pick on Seward, when the address could have been made generic like the license number and birthdate?
And why list blue eyes, and a height in the 5' range? That sounds like me. Should I feel profiled?
Three-Inch Nail
At the Franklin and Minnehaha Bus Stop
Tattoo man, your body pierced and modified
to the tune, I'd guess, of many months' rent,
skin stretched like sandwich wrap,
branded, dyed, punctured, reconfigured.
Dressed in leather and studs:
I've seen it all before, though not on you--
recognize you from across
Franklin, though I haven't encountered
precisely you before.
The type is so common, I muse, that
It fails to shock--
Such a pastiche of cliches that it fails
to express individualism just as much
as I do.
But then, as you walk up, smiling, bobbing,
saying "Quite the spring day,"
I see, in addition to the standard-issue
nose rings, a nail.
A good-sized nail, maybe 10-penny.
It had been a moustache when you
were across the street.
That got me.
That got me writing.
March 07, 2005
There's a Railroad Club at the U
Look it over here
These guys are into trains in a big way.
They have models.
See their section on the Hiawatha Line
And who knew that there was such a thing as "railfanning"--or so many places to practice it locally?
March 06, 2005
These Boots Were Made for Talking
The other day, at the Metrodome stop, a garrulous fellow struck up a conversation with me. I learned that he was from Colorado, that he was working on a construction project at the U of M, and that his cowboy boots carried some sort of designer label (the concept of "Designer Cowboy Boots" hadn't occurred to me, even though many of us apparently can't live without designer water or designer underwear). The kicker (bad pun) was that these boots cost him "something like" 500 dollars. (for that price, I hope those silver toes were actually platinum).
I bit my tongue, and then almost choked on it. My shoes were thrift store specials--10 bucks. So his shoes cost about 50 times what mine did. It's an intriguing complication to easy definitions of social class-- or at least the sometimes meaningless distinction between "working class" and "professional."
He works construction, so he's working class. I do intellectual and bureaucratic work in an academic department, so I'm professional.
By all the stereotypes, I--the "professional"--should be wearing the pricey shoes, but not be so gauche as to divulge how much I paid for them. Of course, I just did divulge, to the whole world, how much--or how little-- I paid. And of course, academics are a different kind of professional, less well-paid than doctors, lawyers, and many other professionals, and often openly scornful (intentionally as well as unintentionally) of fashion.
Shoes and class--the dissertations are waiting to be written.
To Hell and Back--oh, and About Those Stadiums
Last night, my wife, kids and I took the LRT to the destination we usually love to avoid: the Mall of America. The occasion was a birthday. As we entered, we passed some sort of Pro Wrestling promotion, with a big screen and something about a "chance to announce a match." Big, beefy guys were hanging around, apparently for the chance to scream about pile-drivers.
The Mall was crowded and garish, hot, cold and exhausting, smelling of fast food and cleaning solutions, plastic. Someone has surely observed this before, but with people going round and round in circles of conspicuous consumption, it felt like the postmodern version of Dante's Inferno. The Mall police are like Dante's demons, keeping people in line. At the hollow center of it all is Camp Snoopy--hellishly campy.
So I focused on the train.
What surprised me, a rush-hour M-F user of the Hiawatha Line, was how crowded the train was on a Saturday night. We stood, along with many other riders, both ways.
That speaks to the popularity of Hell--I mean the MOA--but also to the fact that Light Rail is about more than serving commuters. Ask the people who rode it to Twins and Vikings games this first year of its existence. If the Twins get a new stadium, outdoors along the river, the train could become a ride to a little bit of heaven for baseball fans too long confined to the purgatory of the Metrodome (again, garish, loud, hot and cold, plasticine, smelling of fast food but not enough cleaning solution, people herded around and around those punishing concourses).
The Vikings? I'm not real sympathetic: the team signed a lease in purgatory through what, 2011? They've earned that time there, in payment for those four Super Bowl humiliations and their continued recent futility.
March 04, 2005
The HumMonster
In concert with the Orwellian Clear Skies Initiative, surely it won't be long until Detroit brings us this...
crossed with this...
as a way to co-opt the term "hybrid" from the fuel efficiency crowd.
The HumMonster: coming in a cloud of smoke to a narrow street near you.
Still Life at Bus Stop
Three young toughs,
maybe 13 or 14,
stand and kick at the cold.
Big shoes unlaced,
big pants unhiked,
big coats unzipped.
Two dangle cigarettes from their mouths;
the other works a Tootsie-Pop
from side to side.
Got Gas?
A key 'graph from the AP article:
"But for many drivers, it soon will be difficult to find any gas stations across America selling regular unleaded for less than $2 a gallon, analysts said. That's because gasoline prices on futures markets have soared 20 percent in the past week alone," says Brad Foss, The AP Business writer.
And the effect could reverberate throughout the global economy: "I believe oil prices and the economy are on a collision course and that it's only a matter of time" according to one petroleum market analyst quoted in the story.
But who needs transit options?
More and more people, at $2+ per gallon.
March 03, 2005
Generation Bob Rides (the Bus) Again
Funny, but also scary.
Hey Bob,
Most every bus has an "advertisement" listing a phone number that riders can call either to "report great service" (uh huh) or a problem. Look for it tomorrow and give 'em a call.
There Must Be a Word For This
The Japanese must have a term for the guy who shoves the last few pasengers onto the train. Anybody know what it is?
We needed that guy yesterday. I headed for home at about 4:45 pm, and it was Sardine City--so much so that a bunch of people chose to wait for the next train rather than enter the madness to become a salted fish.
It was one of those single car trains running in the middle of rush hour. I understand that the Met Council has three more cars on order from Bombardier. Three cheers from this sardine!
There's Been A Study
Little did I know when I posted on Feb.11th, wistfully advocating for high-speed rail lines to Rochester and Duluth, that there had already been a MNDOT-commisioned feasibility study from Jan. 2003 on the possiblity. The study concluded that there is "clearly a prima facie case for the development of a multi-modal corridor that would connect the Twin Cities and the city of Rochester by high-speed rail."
Such a line between Duluth and the Twin Cities has not, apparently, been studied.
March 02, 2005
Haiku
Hiawatha blues:
The train passing swiftly by
The red light remains
--Ali Gharavi
(Thanks to Ali, a master of the form; and to his colleague and poem-broker Scott, who has a future in literary promotion).
People Want--And Will Pay For--Transit Options
See the light rail advocacy site LightRailNow for a different perspective than organizations like the Taxpayers' League and Highways, Inc. would have you believe.
March 01, 2005
Twin Cities Trolleys--History and Conspiracy Theory
Several years ago, my family and I went for an outing on the Como-Harriet Streetcar, a museum piece at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis which constititutes all that remains of the Twin Cities' streetcar system that flourished (500+ miles of track, 1000 cars) in the first half of the 20th Century.
In addition to riding the streetcar, we walked through the replica of the Linden Hills station,
where as I recall, the man staffing the place referenced the General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy theory (though not in those words) as part of his narrative about the disappearance of streetcars in the Twin Towns and elsewhere in the immediate post-WWII era.
The Wikipedia has a fair and balanced (NOT in the Faux News sense of that term) entry on the conspiracy theory.