The Deets

If you have any interest in the future of North Minneapolis and are not already reading Johnny Northside’s blog, you should find time to read through his plan on how to promote the North Minneapolis real estate market in a positive AND realistic manner.

Johnny explains that the North side has a ton of great housing stock that’s extraordinarily cheap due to the current conditions on the ground there (crime, drugs, prostitution). He proposes marketing the North side to people who are both adventurous and caring, starting with soldiers, then moving to students and South Dakotans. He explains below (click through for his full proposal).

My Theory of North Side Marketing Explained

Thus, for purposes of easy recollection, I describe three groups all beginning with the letter “S,” namely Soldiers, Students and South Dakotans. (FOOTNOTE SIX)

I am pointing out to all who will listen that Minneapolis is growing, and now real estate so close to the downtown retail core is too valuable to remain a depressed area. (FOOTNOTE SEVEN) Dramatic change has already happened in North Minneapolis. Even more dramatic change is inevitable. I believe positive change requires grappling with cold, hard reality instead of plugging one’s ears to bad news and singing la-la-la-la-la.

Other organizations such as the military use a form of “Market and Romanticize the Struggle” to gain recruits. When faced with negative facts, sidestepping and spinning “alternative facts” hardly ever works. It is far better to somehow turn a negative into a positive. In military recruitment commercials, recruits are shown sweating and struggling, yet emerging triumphant and transformed by their struggle.

These ads work, especially when combined with the economic reality of college tuition payments through the Montgomery GI Bill and a steady, decent paying job in the military, not to mention (in many instances) valuable vocational training. In a similar manner, “Market and Romanticize the Struggle” would work, especially combined with things like the Minneapolis Advantage Program to help individuals buy homes.

Impressive thinking. Find the people who are more comfortable than average with North Minneapolis’ living conditions. Help them get into homes they can improve - thus helping improve entire blocks. Watch things become more comfortable for groups who follow in the footsteps of the earliest adopters.

He makes a good point about the convenience of North Minneapolis to downtown. You can commute to work without ever dealing with a metered entrance ramp or even a highway. Just follow West River Parkway into town for a beautiful start to the day.

Nice work, as usual, Johnny.

Geoff Daily, a Minnesota native living in DC, and Christopher Mitchell, the Director of Telecommunications as Commons for the Institute for Local Self Reliance discuss the role of municipalities in the growth of broadband with a Minneapolis perspective:

Key lines from Christopher:

“Here in St. Paul and Minneapolis they’re building a $1 billion light rail line. You could probably wire the entire metro area for that kind of money.”

“The idea that anyone is going to be excited about jumping into new responsibilities is probably fairly absurd. I sympathize with those who say, ‘I just don’t want to get involved with this.’ But, when you look at a community that 100 years ago or 70 years ago said, ‘I don’t want to get involved with this electricity stuff.’ Those communities either got involved or they disappeared.”

A case of pizza blogging gone bad?

1st Av/4th St: Officers received info that man wearing yellow t-shirt was brandishing handgun in parking lot pizza restaurant; officers tracked down suspect’s vehicle, found his ID, silver handgun in plain view on seat, gun recovered
CID investigating

Running: A green alternative to ambulances after getting shot:

400 blk 3rd Av N: Officers called to double shooting in parking lot behind night club; victim who is known gang member, ran to HCMC; second victim arrived at Regents Hosp
CID investigating

You’re pretty much screwed if the stolen cell phone in your pocket rings when an officer calls the stolen phone’s number. Will he get the book thrown at him for the taking the soft drink?

2600 blk Colfax: Homeowner outside doing yard work when suspect entered rear of her house; suspect took soft drink, cell phone, cash; victim spotted him in back yard, called 911; while initial officer took report, another located suspect; in addition to being IDed by victim, suspect was carrying cell phone which rang when the officer called the victim’s phone number; suspect had other items from victim; Arrested/ BURGLARY (4th arrest in Mpls)
Precinct investigating

Famous Dave’s Blues & BBQ, originally uploaded by edkohler.

Famous Dave’s has shut down Nicollet Ave in front of Brit’s Pub for a BBQ fest I don’t know what the official name for this is but it seems like a solid event. Swing by.

Lots and lots of pigs touching flames.

You may be able to help secure $1 million for restoration work at Minnehaha Falls. But you may have to go outside to do it.

According to an article by Ron Way on MinnPost, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is willing to contribute around $1 million toward the renovation of the crumbling walls surrounding Minnehaha Falls . . . but only if they can verify that they’re historic in nature:

Corps doesn’t actually know whether falls’ walls are historic

The Minnesota State Office of Historic Preservation agrees that if the walls were built when the Corps said they were, they’d be historic. For something to be designated historic, the state office would formally concur with a letter from the Corps stating the basis for historic designation. But the Corps hasn’t sent a letter because it now says it doesn’t have the evidence it needs to write one.

“If we cannot confirm that these walls are historic, we cannot recommend the project,” said Tom Crump, project chief in the Corps’ St. Paul office. That’s because the project would have to compete nationally for funds, and without a historic designation it’s unlikely the project would be approved.

Interesting challenge.

The Minneapolis Park Board seems to believe they were built in the 1930’s by the WPA:

Retaining walls built in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), above and below Minnehaha Falls, have been eroding.

According to a U.P. article from October 27, 1937, there was WPA work being done at the falls, including, “throwing up a retaining wall at the edge of the stream bed.”

(click for larger versions)

And here is a photo of a Minnehaha Creek bridge building project in 1935 at Hiawatha Ave, so just up from the falls:

There may be photos of WPA projects at the falls, but I couldn’t find any online.

And a book called, “Legacy of Minneapolis: Preservation Amid Change” includes the following nugget about the WPA’s work at Minnehaha Falls:

The WPA also left a mark on the parks and parkways of the city during the Depression, most notably in the massive effort to shape the Minnehaha Falls area and in the River Road parkway.

According to a December 6, 2006 report put out by U of MN students from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences called, “Sustainable Use, Management, and Preservation of Ecological Heritage Within the Minneapolis Park Board and Recreation Park System” (PDF) there was work related to stone walls and stairs at Minnehaha Falls in 1934:

In addition, in 1934 the Works Progress Administration constructed a walkway and stone stairs near the Falls. Stone walls and stairs were erected at the Falls and along West River Parkway from rock quarried near the Falls. The idea that this parkland was to be used for recreation and entertainment was now firmly placed in the minds of current inhabitants of the region.

It might be worth talking to the people to wrote that report.

Or, one could look through the microfilm of WPA projects conducted in Minnesota to see what was conducted at the Falls.

Or, maybe someone could swing down to the falls and see if there is a date stamp on any of the walls. It’s pretty darn common to see one on WPA projects. A millions dollars is at stake. Someone get off their butt and check it out. Snap a picture if you find one. Here is an example. Sometimes they’re just dates in concrete:

It’s like a medallion hunt with a shared million dollar prize for the community and future visitors to Minnehaha Park.

Paul Graham is a venture capitalist, artist, techie and writer who pens some excellent columns from time to time. His latest, on Cities and Ambition, takes a look at what makes different hubs tick.

Essentially, he seems to be saying that like-minded people tend to be drawn to each other and end up creating cities where a theme can describe their ambition:

New York tells you, above all: you should make more money. There are other messages too, of course. You should be hipper. You should be better looking. But the clearest message is that you should be richer.

What I like about Boston (or rather Cambridge) is that the message there is: you should be smarter. You really should get around to reading all those books you’ve been meaning to.

When you ask what message a city sends, you sometimes get surprising answers. As much as they respect brains in Silicon Valley, the message the Valley sends is: you should be more powerful.

The Cambridge perspective sounds right on to me. Style is meaningless. It’s all about knowledge. Basically, the opposite of South Beach in Miami where the experts in style end up. New York is a tough one to pin down due to its size, but money is certainly a big one. Although New York also excels at things like writing, like performance, and news, which aren’t primarily financial pursuits.

I think “influence” would be a better term than “power” for describing the Silicon Valley scene although they’re very similar. If you’re the head of a huge Silicon Valley start-up, are you powerful or influential? I’d say your more influential than powerful.

Graham describes Berkeley as, “you should live better” which sounds about right. People there will sacrifice a lot in order to have what they consider to be a utopian lifestyle.

Minneapolis: Where do we fall? I’ve thought about this a bit. It’s a bit tougher to nail down than some larger cities or cities with very distinct personalities like Berkeley. The more I thought about it, the more I came to realize that Garrison Keillor is right: “we’re the place where everyone is above average.”

Drive around Minneapolis and you’ll see more people out running or biking than just about anywhere in the nation. We’re very interested in being above average physically - although not surgically created 10’s like South Beach in Miami.

Look at the success of health care companies here and you’ll see that people here really care about other human beings. It’s an above-average mindset to want to solve other people’s health problems for a living.

Look at the popularity of coops, farmers markets, and CSAs and you’ll see that we’re above average eaters and well above average consumers. We put quality above price. We eat better than average, locally produced foods in healthy portions.

We’re not huge risk takers, yet we strive at making incremental changes to the world. Look at how companies like Pillsbury, General Mills, Cargill and 3M have continually introduced products that provide incremental improvements to our lives. Make things 10% better for people one product at a time, year after year, and the next thing you know you’ve got some Fortune 500 companies down the block.

That’s my take. If you have a 10% better perspective on Minneapolis, let’s hear it.

Rex took at shot at this and came up with “You Deserve Better“. If someone feels that NYC, Miami, Cambridge, or Berkeley is the perfect fit for them, I could see that. However, I think “we all deserve better” is more of a Minneapolis mindset. A collective perspective.

The guys from 612 Authentic did a ride-along with me on a recent graffiti removal adventure and turned out the following video for MinnPost (you can go full-screen with the video by clicking the square icon in the lower-right after starting the video):

Here are a few “behind the scenes” comments:

1. Gabe & Jacob were going green. Their office is in the Longfellow neighborhood and they walked over before the shoot.

2. Yes, there is an extension cord running from the back of my car to under the hood. The paint sprayer uses a lot of juice. I’ve used previous models that weren’t as robust. Those could be run off smaller (400 watt) power inverters hooked up to the cigarette lighter, but the compressor based model requires a 1200 watt power inverter and that needs to run directly off the car battery.

3. Do building owners know you’re doing this? No. I don’t ask. Occasionally, a business owner will see me painting on their building and to date they’ve all given me similar responses: “I was just going to paint over that today.” They also assume I’m with the city and that they’ll be assessed for the clean-up. I don’t color-match, so they still have plenty of opportunities to take pride in their property. I think some of the challenges come from businesses who are leasing their spaces. They don’t seem to want to hassle their landlords. This leads to calls to the city with graffiti complaints (call it in to 311). The city then sends someone out to document it, then sends a nastygram to the property owner telling them to clean it up. I believe they have 10 days to do so at that point or they’ll face fines. In high graffiti areas, this policy pretty much ensures that walls will be covered unless someone steps up and paints them (or, better yet, a mural is put up).

4. Where were you in the video? I picked up paint at Paint Liquidators (3869 Minnehaha Ave Minneapolis, MN 55406) then rolled down 38th Street East and hit a few walls between Cedar & 35W. I came back on Lake Street and hit quite a few tags in the alleys on either side of Lake between 35W and Chicago.

5. What about murals? Murals help A LOT. There are many walls on E Lake Street that used to get hit all the time near South HS. They now have murals, so it’s very rare to see graffiti on the wall of a business between Hiawatha and Cedar. There are a few walls that could still benefit from murals. It’s pretty obvious which ones need them.

6. Why was I pushing my car in the opening scene? A wall in an alley to the South of Lake Street near the Taco Bell has a ton of large tags on it. I just rolled the car forward rather than turn it on to drive it 30 feet. It’s an eco-friendly touch to counter spraying latex all over town.

7. What kind of gear are you using? A Wagner Paint Crew Sprayer (Minnesota based company) (available at Menards but cheaper online), a 1200 Watt Power Inverter (available at AutoZone on E Lake St), an extension cord, and paint.

Update: There is a predictably polarized discussion of my antics on MNSpeak worth checking out.

36th Street East is a popular route for dog owners on their way to West River Road for a run or walk with their dogs. Unfortunately, it appears to be a bit too popular for the home owners who happens to have a dumpster parked out front of their house.

They’re fighting the problem by plastering their dumpster with notes to dog owners:

With both portrait and landscape printing:

I like to think about the home owner sitting at his or her computer pounding out the all-caps note and running one off the printer in portrait mode with slightly unsatisfied results then thinking, “I’ve got it: landscape! That will really get the message across.” They would then go on to think about whether they should just throw away the portrait version and decide to use it anyway while realizing that the landscape version is the one that will most likely deter the neighborhood’s dog poop dumpers.

While taking taxi home from the MSP airport the other night, a cabbie lectured me about the directions I gave him to my house. To my house!

As a frequent traveler with a frequent traveling wife, I make at least 50 round trips to the airport from my house a year, so I tend to think that I have a pretty good grasp on how to get from these particular Point A to Point B as efficiently as possible. But, upon arrival at my house, the cabbie told me that he knew how to get to my house better than I did.

Here is the route I guided the cabbie through from the Humphrey Terminal at MSP to my home in the Longfellow Neighborhood of Minneapolis (1):

I was checking my email when we left Humphrey, so I didn’t immediately pick up on the fact that he went South on 34th rather than North to Post Rd. After that, I am responsible for the rest of the turns. Hwy 5 to Hiawatha to 46th St E to 46th Ave S to home.

Upon arriving at my home, the cabbie noticed that it’s close to Lake Street and asked me why I didn’t take Hiawatha to Lake Street like this (2):

I told him that it’s a longer route because Hiawatha moves further West as you head North.

He told me that I had wasted his time and fuel by taking him up 46th Ave S instead of Hiawatha. He wasn’t a fan of the stop signs every other block along 46th.

Here are a couple other routes worth considering for this discussion. Google Maps’ driving directions suggests this route of Post Rd and Hiawatha to Lake (3).

This is what I believe is the fastest route to my house from the Humphrey Terminal. Post Rd, Hiawatha to 46th St E, North on 46th Ave S (4):

And this, I believe, is the shortest distance, although it’s not the fastest since the park road through Minnehaha Park is slower than Hiawatha. Hiawatha to 54th through Minnehaha Park, then up 46th Ave S (5).

So, who’s right?

Here’s a breakdown of the distances along with time estimates from Google Maps:

1. 9.3 Miles - 23 Minutes
2. 10.5 Miles - 22 Minutes
3. 9.9 Miles - 20 Minutes
4. 8.7 Miles - 22 Minutes
5. 8.5 Miles - 21 Minutes

One thing is blatantly clear to me: The cabbie’s suggested route (2) is at least .6 miles longer than it needs to be because he goes the long way around Fort Snelling Cemetery when leaving the Humphrey terminal. While that provides faster access to a highway, it’s far enough out of the way to be no faster time wise. However, based on how cabbies are compensated (mileage) it’s pretty clear why he’s choose that route.

Beyond that, it’s very close. Google’s suggested route has the fastest estimate time. However, there is a huge X factor here: Stoplights. The time estimate for taking Hiawatha to Lake Street should have a huge asterisks next to it since that could vary by at least 5 minutes based on whether the lights are being screwed up by the LRT. Additionally, the cab would have to deal with at least 7 lights along E Lake Street. By comparison, from 46th & Hiawatha, taking 46th Street will involve three short lights before hitting 46th Ave S.

The current meter rate is $1.90/mile on top of a $2.50 flag drop and a $2.75 airport fee.

It looks like my optimized route takes the exact same time as what he suggested (although it could be even better based on stoplights killing his route). And my route is almost 2 miles shorter, so around $3.50 cheaper.

However, this is an expensable trip for me. After a long day of travel I just want to get home fast so the $3.50 difference isn’t my main motivator. I just want to get home ASAP.

The Green Angle

So, let’s assume the time would have been exactly the same for the cab ride whether we had taken my preferred route or his. Which route is greener? Could he have saved fuel by taking the longer route? I’m sure this is possible in some scenarios, but could he really drive 13-20% further and come out ahead on fuel consumption? I have my doubts but would love to hear your theories on that.

Negotiating Fares

The cabbie suggested to me that I could negotiate the fare so I could pay him based on my route while letting him drive his preferred route. Not a bad compromise, I suppose, but seems like a lot of work for over $3.50 difference, especially considering how difficult it could be to explain what I’m trying to do to a typical cabbie. And it doesn’t address my primary concern: time.

What’s your take? Is there a clear winner when it comes to route optimization in this situation?

Which route would you pick?

How would you deal with a cabbie who second guesses driving directions to your own house?

How many times do I have to tell you people to stop lighting farts when in sewers:

8th/Hennepin Avs: Officer discovered street sewer cover had blown off, on fire caused by underground explosion, fire was visible above street; Fire Dept responded, took control of scene, Excel Energy, officers provided traffic control

Loud car stereos are nuthin’ but trouble:

2600 blk Logan Av N: Officer attempted to stop car for extremely loud music; as officer approached, driver fled in car; after short pursuit, driver stopped car on walk between houses, hit fence, fled on foot, but was caught at 26th/Logan; gun reported stolen in St Paul recovered, 2nd handgun, bullet proof vest: Arrested/WEAPON (suspect with 50 previous arrest records) CID investigating

Calling the cops on street level drug dealing pays off in North:

3600 blk Fremont Av N: Officers responded to complaint involving drug selling; locate people matching descriptions, recover handgun, ski mask, gloves in suspect’s possession; cocaine, 110 grams marijuana also recovered: 4 Arrested/ WEAPON/NARCOTICS (all suspects in their 20 with between 24-58 previous arrest records) CID investigating

Another reason to avoid the Warehouse District clubs:

1st Av/ 4th St N: Officers attempted to break up fight at nightclub; arrested person, off-duty bouncer for club, who was celebrating his birthday; he punched an officer in back of head; as officers were trying to take arrestee out of crowd, another officer grabbed by shirt collar by an on-duty bouncer, in attempt to pull officer away from off-duty bouncer: 2 Arrested/ASSUALT/
OSTRUCTING LEGAL PROCESS
CID investigating