Chris Daniel
@chrisdaniel
Saint Paul bike and computer and tunnel and aerospace guy, local anti-fascist. Proud to live in the free state of Minnesota. chrisdaniel.net
Visited the Highland Park water tower on Saint Paul Regional Water Services’ open house day. RIP old underground reservoir (formerly in the depressed field between my bike and the towers)
2026, northern American empire Running some errands on a marginal air quality day, thanks to smoke from boreal forest fires. Wildfire smoke is now a seasonal occurrence for most in the empire homeland. Yet, transport policymakers continue to prioritize heavy, inefficient private vehicles.
Yes, we're still doing this ... ICE put ~37 shackled people on a plane to the ICE processing center in Alexandria, LA, today. This is every Tuesday and Friday ottergoose.net/ice-flights-...
CW: Trash politics This week, someone took a portable AC unit we were throwing away because it didn’t work. Great! I figured they took it for scrap value. This morning, it is back??? Only in Saint Paul
Google seems to have turned the “let bikes take interesting shortcuts” knob a little too far
Felt a chill like a car drove over my grave when I found out the block I used to live on could have been razed for freeway construction. source: archives.hclib.org/repositories... (Line Diagram Map of the City of Minneapolis, 1959)
New rule: you’re only allowed to park shared bikes in front of houses whose occupants need them most
Today I walked Grand Ave from Dale to Snelling, during Grand Old Day. The festival's character actually shifted with the built form of the street -- in the east end with less car-oriented design, things seemed much more vibrant. Toward the west end: calmer and shadier, more religious solicitations.
MnDOT needs to hear from you about the 24th St pedestrian/bike bridge closure. Send them your comments: www.dot.state.mn.us/information/... (image shows how to fill the bottom of the form)
Scenes from 24th St and 26th St at Hiawatha from this morning (photos from a friend) - 24th St bridge totally closed - Incorrect signs at 26th directing people to detour via 24th MnDOT needs to pay any attention at all to people outside cars, please.
"Every map is the same map" The concentration of pedestrian connection closures across highways align perfectly with where the poorest people live. Who could have predicted this?! go.minneapolismn.gov/minneapolis-... is just greenwashing until the poorest people can safely get to non-car options.
Imagine you are at 24th and Cedar in Minneapolis, and you want to take the light rail (~1200 ft or 1/5 mi away). You have to get past Hiawatha/MN-55, so what are your options, without walking into car traffic? Take the red or orange path. (orange questionable due to construction at 26th/Hiawatha)
This is a completely legal cat check point. Please present your most recent cat photo for inspection, and don’t ask any questions, catizen.
A very quick Google Earth overlay of 1903-04 Sanborn (you can kinda see the steps through the trees)
It sorta seems to match the vacated Floral on the sewer strip maps (#2160, Heather Pl, excerpt rotated to orient north up) in how it goes up and turns
This stairway in Saint Paul, which is on private property today, coincides with the vacated Floral Street (off Grand). Anyone know if this is actually Floral? It sure looks old enough …
I think these “scare signs” are a decent middle ground between “fence off everything that isn’t constantly run over by cars” and “let camps take over every pedestrian connection”. It is stupid that we have a housing crisis, but at least I can walk through here (2nd Street in downtown Saint Paul).
It was a good day to ride across town to produce some cargo bike propaganda