The Center for Neighborhood Technology has an interesting map where they compare the affordability of neighborhoods and cities based on percentage of income. Here’s a look at the greater Twin Cities metro: To me, this helps illustrate the challenge with driving until you can afford more home. In real estate, the term “drive until you [...]
Clay Christensen shares a story about the popularity of milkshakes for breakfast during long morning commutes. They’re both something to eat and something to do while bumper-to-bumpering from the exurbs. For me, this is a good reminder of why I prefer reverse commutes or no commute. I’ve heard similar stories about coffee shops in the [...]
Bob Ingrassia has a post up on the Fast Horse blog about the painfully slow parking meters being installed in downtown Minneapolis. The post includes a video showing how long it takes between when money is inserted and a receipt is kicked out. Beyond the long delay, there is no feedback that the machine is [...]
This is what’s left of the Kia Forte after the accident I was in this past Monday in Santa Monica, California. The car is clearly totaled, but I’m not. Damaged, yes, but in ways that should fully heal. This was the first time I’d driven a Kia Forte. Overall, I was pretty happy with the [...]
I spotted this unfortunate situation near Lake Nokomis on Saturday morning. I imagine there’s an interesting story here, assuming the driver can remember it.
In Warren Buffett’s biography, The Snowball, a lesson in longevity that Buffett shares with college audiences is retold. He asks students to ask themselves how they’d approach buying an maintaining a car if, when they turned 16, they had the option to buy any new car on the market that year. He gets into how [...]
You’ll often hear people talk about the benefits of ownership as it applies to owning vs. renting. You get some tax breaks, don’t have to worry about annoying landlords, and you probably won’t share a thin wall with undesirable neighbors. However, for most people, home ownership isn’t really ownership in the true sense of the [...]
CarZen helps narrow down car make and models based on a series of profile questions. According to that site, here are the top-10 cars I should consider buying: This set of results came from my interest in a reliable, high mileage car with some cargo space for under $25,000. Reliability plus high mileage seems to [...]
This baffles me: Why does it cost $1.75 more for an online renewal than mailing in a check? Here’s my current theory: They’re Ignoring Labor Costs At some point in history, someone with the state probably noticed that accepting credit card charges involves absorbing merchant fees. I don’t know what the state’s merchant fees are, [...]
After parking in the ramp behind Metropolitan Lofts recently, I noticed that a vehicle in the lot had a note on it. Figuring it may be some sort of classic passive aggressive note, I checked it out. That doesn’t really fit the profile of a truly passive aggressive note. For example, there are no underlined [...]
