Across the Great Divide

Lemonade Stand is Only Start of Bike Geek's Excitement.

2009-07-09T05:31:00-05:00

Finally. My first lemonade post of the summer.

This stand was located along busy Vernon Avenue in Edina. I came upon it from the back side on Hansen Road as I improvised a different way home from a meeting near Southdale.

The serving was generous and the lemonade not too sweet. If I hadn't just come from lunch, I might've sprung for two Chips Ahoy, too.

Two teen boys on bikes stopped while I was there. The taller kid said, "Do you have change for a dollar?"

She said, "Yes, how many cups do you want?"

He held up one finger. His friend gave him a look.

"Two."

*****
At the top of Vernon, I ziggled left on Interlachen briefly and north on Brookside. Because of converging traffic there, a bike lane was well marked. I was only on it for a block, but I had to stop for this shot.

I can't deny it any more: I've officially become a bike lane symbol geek.

This was a new variation of the familiar pinhead hovering frameless over stenciled wheels. Compare it with a similar figure below from Summit in St. Paul, and you'll see the difference.

Neither set of tires is realistically round, but in the Edina version, they're nearly squared off, and the rider is seated much higher and more to the rear.

Green Building Code Creates Quandry for Renewable Energy CEO.

2009-07-08T21:25:21-05:00

The CEO of a Boulder, Colorado, renewable energy company has the motivation and the means to meet Boulder County's green-building code, BuildSmart, one of the strictest in the country.

Ronald Abrahamson has already maximized insulation, installed a geothermal system and sited the house to take advantage of passive solar gain, but he still needs to put up 2,500 square feet of solar panels to meet BuildSmart's requirements.

"I have the land for the solar system; that's not the issue," he said. "And I have the desire to put it in."

[...]

"I think that BuildSmart is a very well-intentioned law," Abramson said. "It's the implementation that's the problem."

County officials are planning to reconsider some of the rules, which set goals for energy efficiency. The larger the new house, the more energy it's required to create.

The only thing Abramson apparently hasn't tried is building a house much smaller than 13,000 square feet.

Bachmann's Census Resistance Has Deep Roots.

2009-07-08T08:27:56-05:00

You probably missed this exchange between Rep. Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck.

BECK: You've taken some hard shots for your stand on the Census, some of them from your House colleagues... Rep. McHenry... Westmoreland... Have you changed your stand on not completing the ...

BACHMANN: Not at all, Glenn, not at all.

BECK: They wrote: “The unfortunate irony is that Ms. Bachmann’s boycott only increases the likelihood that ACORN-recruited census takers will be dispatched to her constituents’ homes." You might say they have a point.

BACHMANN: I'm not asking my constituents not to complete that intrusive form, Glenn. I'm telling them my reasons, my principles for my family, and if ACORN — a national partner of the U.S. Government — comes to my home, they won't find me, because I'll be here in Congress working to defeat their funding. This is about taxpayer dollars going to those who play fast and loose with the law.

And you know, this is a Constitutional issue, and it goes back even further. Do you remember why Mary and Joseph were traveling to Bethlehem? Mary was with child, and Bethlehem was 70 miles from Nazareth! But they were being forced to go there to be counted in the Census. They didn't want Caesar or King Herod's men knocking on their door, so they had to pack up and go.

Maybe we should be grateful the government doesn't make us all travel to Washington, DC, to be counted. Instead, they ask our phone number and how many bathrooms in our home. Even the Roman Empire didn't ask the Jews those questions!

You probably missed it, because I dreamed it last night.

Stop... in Crosswalk.

2009-07-07T18:44:20-05:00

This crosswalk is in front of a middle school in America's No. 1 Small City.

But, hey, school's out, there's no evidence of blood.

I went in search of a Virgin Mary "caution" sign I saw over the weekend, but neglected to shoot when I had the chance. Unfortunately, it had been taken in or stolen.

However, I did get this shot a block away.

In March, I wrote about the closing of Sam's Wine Shop.

But last month, the store front had filled up again, with the old sign still in place. Now, it has a new name and a much better beer selection.

The War on Ridicule.

2009-07-07T12:27:48-05:00

Sarah Palin is not alone.

Had her resignation speech been more coherent, she might have more clearly pointed the point guard finger at the cruel forces that had driven her out of office — and the threat they post to democracy.

I speak, of course, about late-night comics.

Last month, during a court hearing on the case [over access to Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's interview with Dick Cheney about White House involvement in the exposure of CIA agent Valerie Plame], Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Smith told the judge that release of the transcript might open Cheney to ridicule from late-night comics and thus could discourage other White House officials from cooperating with government prosecutors.

"If we become a fact-finder for political enemies, they aren't going to cooperate," Smith said during a court hearing. "I don't want a future Vice President to say, 'I'm not going to cooperate with you because I don't want to be fodder for The Daily Show.'"

According to this, jokes in Africa are a way for ordinary people to make sense of "democratic" regimes that are indistinguishable from the preceding authoritarian ones.

In Nigeria jokes serve a double function as a tool for subordinate classes to deride the state (including its agents) and themselves. Jokes are therefore a means through which an emergent civil society, ‘behaving badly’, subverts, deconstructs, and engages with the state.

Either way, it seems, ridicule is the enemy of the state.

Because This Shirt Makes Me Look Fat?

2009-07-07T09:44:09-05:00

When I started volunteering with pre-schoolers, I didn't have a particular agenda. I like little kids, am concerned about the growing education divide in the country and wanted to do some service that would help those struggling at the bottom of the country's economic pileup.

Maybe somewhere deep down I envisioned imparting sage advice, but not too much of that since I'm too gray and white for my charges to see me as a role model.

But questions sages are asked are not necessarily the questions we are prepared to answer.

Like: "Why you tuck your shirt in your pants?"

How Should Baseball Honor the Fourth?

2009-07-05T20:47:13-05:00

The Twins beat the Tigers today wearing caps that honored the five U.S. military services. We will now proceed to a new paragraph to make one thing very clear.

I am all in favor of professional sports teams honoring the armed services, active military and veterans.

And baseball, especially, should do all it can to remain America's game and retain its anti-trust exemption.

Veterans Day falls too late for a baseball observance. But the entire month of May was National Military Appreciation Month, followed by Flag Day on June 14th.

So why now, should Independence Day weekend be devoted to armed services appreciation?

Shouldn't the country's birthday honor more than the military? Perhaps the Twins promotion department could show some imagination next year and include caps for: Peace Corps. Americorps. ACLU. NAACP. Federalist Society. Or maybe: Washington. Lincoln. Parks. King. Norquist.

But if they insist it has to be a military promo, how about: Jobs. Education. Housing. Mental Health. Peace.

They'd have the entire month of May to build up to it.

Self-Defense Overkill.

2009-07-04T23:46:25-05:00

One of the parties in a road rage shooting incident two years ago has pleaded guilty to reckless discharge of a firearm within a municipality.

I read a lot about the case at the time and wrote several posts about the confrontation that occurred between the shooter, Martin Treptow, a security guard with a concealed carry permit, and Landen Beard, an undercover police officer.

But I never came across this bit of information about the sequence of events reported in today's Strib story.

Beard admitted passing illegally on the shoulder in a line of traffic on Woodcrest Drive heading south toward 99th Avenue, causing Treptow to get upset and follow Beard. Treptow said Beard was driving erratically and yelling at Treptow and his wife. Treptow honked, and the feud continued, culminating as the two vehicles were stopped behind other cars at a traffic light.

Beard said he pulled his gun and identified himself as an officer after seeing Treptow brandish one. Treptow, who had a handgun permit, said he fired after Beard pointed his gun toward Treptow and his wife, who was in the front passenger seat. The couple's children were in the back.

The cop in an unmarked car drives past on the shoulder of a suburban boulevard, and a guy with his family in the car takes it on himself to chastise the driver. A chase ensues and guns are drawn. This looks to me like Treptow put himself and his family in danger.

I'll be interested to see what Joel Rosenberg, who takes this case very seriously, has to say about this account.

*****

This is not beat up on stupid people with guns week, but here's a case from Oklahoma City that seems a bit clearer because there is video.

Two masked teens burst into a pharmacy. One has a gun, the other appears to have sack for loot. A man behind the counter shoots the unarmed robber first, then chases the fleeing second robber.

Then, he comes back in the store, gets another weapon from behind the counter and shoots the unconscious kid five times in the abdomen, killing him.

"I believe the majority of Oklahomans believe that what he did was justified,” said Jerome Ersland's attorney.

She's Not Quitting. She's Just Transferring to Another Institution.

2009-07-04T23:02:04-05:00

"Palin has a better resume than Obama had this time a year ago..."
– Mitch Berg

Right.

After all, she has gone to more schools.

Not all Palin fans are so deluded.

Ed Morrissey's entire post is worth a read.

If it’s her duty to always “protect” Alaska, then that strongly implies not walking away from the responsibility of governing it — a responsibility she sought, and with which her constituents trusted her to execute. No one leads by quitting. No one leads by quitting. Palin’s abandoning her post, and at least from her own description, doing it because she doesn’t want to deal with the issues of being a “lame duck,” a status all politicians have to handle at some point.

July 4th Bike News.

2009-07-04T12:53:38-05:00

The Bicycle Film Festival hits Minneapolis July 8-12, with cycling related films and events at different locations during the week.

Here's the trailer for THE THIRD WHEEL, a documentary about pedicabs in New York City, and the efforts by the taxi, hotel and theater industries to run them off the streets. (Says a guy who looks to be a big cigar in the cab license bureau: "It's not the American way. It's not the New York way.")

There are several films with local connections.

DOWN BY THE WEEP HOLE: THE STORY OF THE STUPOR BOWL is "the story of Minneapolis' Stupor Bowl, the world's coldest and most inebriated alley cat race. The movie chronicles the race's development from a twenty-person local event in 1997, through 2009 when over four-hundred national and international competitors made the harrowing journey through the Twin Cities' frozen streets."

Film maker and friend Mike Hazard has a short taken from his documentary MR. POSITIVE, called SOMETHING BRIGHT TO BE SEEN IN OUR WORLD. Carl Bentsen is a light in the neighborhood, in more ways than one.

*****

More Midtown Greenway mischief last week. Kids tossing rocks off one of the overpasses struck three riders (only the two without helmets were injured).

But things are dangerous for cyclists all over, including near downtown Wayzata, where a rider was struck by a four-time loser drunk driver. He was hit in a crosswalk when the driver backed over him.

That location is a dangerous spot even without drunks, where streets, train tracks and a bike path coverge where almost everyone is making a turn.

Dark blue on the left is the bike path; light blue is a downhill stretch of the popular Ferndale Road loop into town, where most bike and vehicular traffic is turning right.

*****

More bike trail news, the Luce Line extension through Golden Valley to Wirth Parkway has been completed. A nice paved trail winds through the south end of Wirth Park and comes out near the Par 3 golf course. I'm waiting for the first injury report of a biker hit by a duck hook.

Wear your helmet.

*****

Not exactly bike news, but "False Witness! The Michele Bachmann Story" is in stock at Big Brain Comics, 11th and Washington Avenue S. They have plenty of bike parking.

Palin Out. But Damned if We Know Why.

2009-07-03T16:49:49-05:00

Sarah Palin has announced her resignation as Governor of Alaska. The video clip at the New York Times story either starts part way into her remarks, or Palin is even more incoherent than usual.

Near the end of her rambling but perky statement, she says, "I'm doing what's best for Alaska, and I've explained my reasons." I wouldn't say they were explained. It's hard to know if they were even stated. As best I can tell, they're some amalgam of beating a full court press, spending more time with her family and being able to effect change more if she isn't the chief executive of her state. Without saying she wants to campaign for president full time.

It's possible she's trying to trump Pawlenty in the presidential derby by resigning from office as a sign of her conservative, anti-big-government purity. After all, that trick helped her win the governor's job the last time she pulled it.

Memo to politicians holding back yard press conferences: Make sure there are no geese in the background.

A few times during Palin's speech, it sounded like a gaggle of critics was making commentary.

Ewww, a Bug! Melting Ice Cap? Whatever..."

2009-07-03T12:56:28-05:00

Nicholas Kristof rounds up some research on why people gack about gay marriage but can't get worked up over climate change. John Haidt, who we've quoted here before, says evolution has prepared us to fear some things and ignore others.

“The objects of our phobias, and the things that are actually dangerous to us, are almost unrelated in the modern world, but they were related in our ancient environment,” Mr. Haidt said. “We have no ‘preparedness’ to fear a gradual rise in the Earth’s temperature.”

Daniel Gilbert, another professor of psychology

argues that the threats that get our attention tend to have four features. First, they are personalized and intentional ... Second, we respond to threats that we deem disgusting or immoral ... Third, threats get our attention when they are imminent, while our brain circuitry is often cavalier about the future ... Fourth, we’re far more sensitive to changes that are instantaneous than those that are gradual.

[...]

In short, we’re brilliantly programmed to act on the risks that confronted us in the Pleistocene Age. We’re less adept with 21st-century challenges.

Things I Learned Tonight.

2009-07-02T21:48:51-05:00

"Public Enemies": Waste of talent. Waste. of. Time.

There's a liquor store in Crystal that sells a no-name brand of beer for $2.99 a six pack and $4.99 a twelve, but if you're looking for Surly, you're out of luck.

The New Hope Cinema and Grill, on the other hand, has Surly on tap.

Denny Hecker Truck Gardens?

2009-07-02T14:51:48-05:00

Just discovered this post was gobbled before it made it to the blog. Too busy to reconstruct my part of it, but here's the quote from Bill Lindeke that prompted some musings about adaptive reuse of our dying malls, foreclosed subdivisions and abandoned car dealerships.

Suburban growth seems like a terribly wasteful way to operate a national economy. Much of the time, it means constructing brand new homes, shopping centers, schools, and sewers at the outskirts of town while simultaneously depopulating and tearing down homes, shopping centers, and schools in the middle of the city or in the first-ring suburbs. The network of real estate developers, banks, home construction firms, food corporations, big boxes, and auto dealers line US freeways in an endless loop of new construction and obsolescence, peddling giant homes and an endless stream of shiny products that nobody really needs... Is this really all we have to offer? Shouldn't there be another way to make money? Isn't new retail development just vulturing away the old retail development? Does economic growth have to come at the expense of our cities?

And here's another good read, about Surprise, Arizona, and how it illustrates how the housing boom went so wrong.

Generally, people move to a community for a specific reason -- jobs, climate, scenery -- creating a demand for housing. If the demand exceeds supply, then prices go up, and someone builds new houses to meet the need. Something else seemed to be happening on the fringes of Phoenix. Instead of being lured by jobs or amenities, people came in large part because houses were relatively cheap. "Phoenix and Las Vegas became the ultimate suburbs of Southern California," says Christopher B. Leinberger, a real estate developer and visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he studies urban planning. "They became the place for folks in California who could no longer afford the late 20th century American dream."

Just because a place is relatively cheap doesn't make housing affordable, however. That brings us back to the Guerros. They wanted a nicer house than they could afford, so their lender offered a solution: An adjustable-rate mortgage. Their monthly payments were $2,700. Of course, the bank would jack up their rates after two years, but it didn't matter. With home values climbing steadily, they could refinance before the rate reset, pull out enough cash to buy a jetski or a new car, and keep their mortgage payments in check. In other words, the banks were creating affordable housing where it didn't really exist; with easy and tricky loans, they were creating purchasing power, or demand. Tens of thousands of such loans were issued in Arizona, and the major homebuilders even got into the game, offering financing in a manner more often associated with car manufacturers.

This artificially inflated demand did the trick. In just five years, Surprise gained another 50,000 people, and added more than 7,000 homes in 2005 alone. Maricopa County -- which contains the bulk of the greater Phoenix metro area -- grew faster than anywhere else in the country, and the Phoenix area issued more than 62,000 residential building permits. The economy responded: In 2006, Arizona's gross domestic product grew by 6.7 percent, compared to 3.1 percent for the nation as a whole. The construction industry provided 9 percent of all non-farm jobs in Arizona, making it by far the biggest employer in the state. Those jobs drew more people, who took out more loans to buy more houses, creating more demand … you get the picture.

Housing prices soared -- nearly doubling, on average, over two years -- to create almost instant wealth. Speculation was so rampant that it threw population estimates for a loop. Last year, with the bust in full swing, state and local officials discovered that their method of counting people -- by starting with 2000 census numbers and then estimating population using the number of houses built and sold -- didn't work. They had assumed an occupancy rate of 98 to 99 percent, when in fact at least one of every 10 new homes was sitting empty, even before the bust. A lot of people were making a lot of money. A lot of people would lose money, too.

Coleman's Concession is "Gracious" by Half.

2009-06-30T21:11:33-05:00

After his third (or was it fourth?) defeat in his appeal process, Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman may have been "gracious" in finally conceding the election to new Sen. Al Franken. But Coleman is doling out the graciousness selectively.

I heard an MPR reporter say that cameras from The UpTake were excluded from livestreaming Coleman's announcement. Instead, the news service shot shaky video from a neighbor's yard and posted it here — a mute commentary on the snub.

The UpTake has provided the most in-depth video documentation of the various proceedings associated with the recount, but has been systematically stiffed by Coleman's staff. If Coleman does decide to run for office again, he's certainly not paving the way with citizen media.

UPDATE: David Brauer has a good account of what went on.

Water: Simple Solutions to a Basic Problem.

2009-06-30T20:28:53-05:00

When we built our house in Colorado, we decided putting a cistern under the driveway to cache rainwater was going to cost too much. But it also would have made us lawbreakers.

Harvesting the rainwater that falls on your property is now legal on Colorado.

A study in 2007 proved crucial to convincing Colorado lawmakers that rain catching would not rob water owners of their rights. It found that in an average year, 97 percent of the precipitation that fell in Douglas County, near Denver, never got anywhere near a stream. The water evaporated or was used by plants.

As growth continues in the arid west, water rights will provoke a bigger fight than gay rights.

*****
Elsewhere in the world, access to water may produce greater conflicts than over access to oil. And clean water in third world countries may do more to extend lifespans than vaccinations.

Hal Davis sent me a link to this video awhile back. It shows the winner of the 2008 Innovate or Die design contest sponsored by Google and Specialized bikes.

The Aquaduct, like a Detroit concept car, is slick and visionary and so far out of sync with the realities of the market — in this case ensuring clean water in developing countries. They designers say they are "working to evolve the concept into a viable solution," but the hurdles of cost and maintenance seem pretty high.

Segway inventor Dean Kamen has another device he showed on The Colbert Report that uses vapor compression distillation but requires much less power than conventional technology. His solution to the cost problem is micro-capital loans to entrepreneurs who sell water and power in poor communities.

Contrast the Aquaduct solution for transportation with this simple one — and the purification solution with this very low-tech one.

Personally, I can see the entry from Mayapedal working better with the bikes and conditions I've seen.

*****
And one last related bike link. It looks to me like George is going all right with his current can-hauler.

"You Will Pay, Prendergast! You Will Pay!"

2009-06-30T11:11:24-05:00

Politics in Minnesota so far has the best take on "False Witness! The Michele Bachmann Story."

The comic is a great format to illustrate the ominous ideas and symbols that Bachmann's linked with -- from the black helicopters to the teabaggers, icons like this deserve a graphic treatment. Two other classes of characters, mainstream journalists and non-sectarian Republicans, get portrayed as happy faces and anxious elephants. Much wrath is justly directed at the journalists, who repeatedly failed to get Bachmann's most outlandish comments in print [though perhaps more blame ought to go to their editors].

You can order here.

Transparency Requires Time to Read.

2009-06-29T12:19:08-05:00

I hate to sound like Michele Bachmann, but sheesh!

Rep. Michele Bachmann was complaining Friday about whether Congress had actually read the "1,200 plus cap-and-trade bill that will impose massive energy taxes on businesses and consumers" — implying, of course, that she had read it.

But that's unlikely, if only because, as The Sunlight Foundation reported:

Today is the day that the House plans to vote on the cap and trade bill that has mysteriously changed this week. Last night, the bill changed again.

Overnight, the House Rules Committee dropped 300 new pages into the bill that was passed on Friday.

I don't believe for a second that even the most diligent members of Congress read entire 1,200-page bills — but even their staffs can't adequately vet 300 pages overnight. And watchdog groups have little chance, either.

Bachmann isn't all that interested in government transparency; she just wants it to disappear. But if you think effective government should allow time for someone to read the bill,The Sunlight Foundation has a petition for you to sign.