4 posts tagged “minnesota”
What happens when you ask Minnesotans to weigh in on an issue like the reopening of the I-35W Bridge? You get some pretty good stories.
For a few years now, Minnesota Public Radio news has gone
out to hundreds of you and your neighbors, asking for help to report and
understand issues in the news. It’s called our Public Insight Network.
We’re asking a fairly straight-forward series of questions around the opening of the new bridge: How did you use the span before it collapsed… and how might you use it now? We’re also trying to find out if alternate routes (or means of travel) during the construction of the new bridge have become permanent.
Add your two cents by clicking here for a short survey.
Some in the Public Insight Network have already weighed in – and it’s hardly a surprise that many plan on resuming use of I-35W when the bridge opens. Others who used the bridge before the collapse say they will pass on it now, like a Roseville law professor who will stick to her new bus routine.
Others are uneasy about the span. A Minneapolis man said he’ll use the new bridge only after it’s been in use for “at least a week to a month.” A Minneapolis woman who was a first responder to the tragedy said she’s not sure if she’ll drive across it. “I cringe each time I see the work trucks on it,” she told us.
Then you have your unique views. A commuter by bike and one who prefers strolling to work say they look forward to safer, saner car-less commutes as the new span reduces traffic on other roadways. Then there is a man who said he was initially inconvenienced by the detours… until he started to learn about the Twin Cities during his travels on alternate city roads. “It expanded my personal map of the Twin Cities,” he said.
We should all be so open to new experiences.
So what’s your take? Let us know.
It was a gift... unexpected... and unaware you needed it until it was there.
The best kind of gift.
Lunchtime in downtown StP. The tension of a work morning at a terminal screen raised the anxiety level.
Where was the relief?
It came in the form of music.
Everywhere you turned the notes came at you - on a course to soothe.
From Mancini's Pink Panther theme to Brubeck's "Take Five" to Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower."
The songs were different but they all plucked the same chord within.
You found yourself noticing the friendly nods of the musicians to those who went by.
You smiled at their understated "thank you" as the passerbys dropped money into the plastic coffee can or the saxophone case.
It was a gift, by God.
A few bucks wasn't nearly enough in return.
Al Franken should take a seat with someone about the recent poll numbers that came out of Quinnipiac University.
It says that here in Minnesota, the man heading the Democratic ticket, Barack Obama, is up by 17 percentage points while Franken is losing his Minnesota Senate race by 10 percentage points.
Not so good. Franken needs counsel, someone who can relate.
He needs a coffee... maybe a lunch... perhaps an all-night bull session with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Why just nine years ago, it was Clinton trying to break into the Senate. Hillary soft-launched her bid n New York on the farm of then-Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Of course,she had to move into the state. She held a listening tour. Then found out Rudy Giuliani would oppose her. Then she learned he wouldn't. Then she got a little-known congressman named Rick Lazio as her foil.
And through it all, Ms. Clinton had one undeniable fact - people knew her and had their minds made up about her. And there were those who were never, ever going to vote for her. Plenty.
No name-recognition building needed for a sitting First Lady. So she spent her considerable campaign money on two things: Maintaining her appeal to those who liked her ... and trying to attract the meager few who were still on the fence.
Clinton spent plenty of time in Upstate New York (read, places outside of the Big Apple). She embarked on trying to show she was no doctrinaire liberal hell-bent on socialized medicine and unwilling to hear from Republicans. No, she would get things done... and do it by working across the aisle.
And it wasn't going to be easy. People forget that when Giuliani was the Republican candidate it was a nip-and-tuck affair. And that was before Rudy became "America's Mayor." Clinton got a break when Giuliani stepped away and a second one when the clearly not-ready-for-prime-time Lazio entered the race.
She won by winning over the more conservative hearts of those outside on NYC, at least as many as could be swayed. It was a remake of sorts.
Franken has clear name recognition. And he clearly has many more people in his state who have made up their mind about him. The poll shows that nearly one in five Democrats jump the aisle and go with Republican Norm Coleman. Can they be swayed?
Franken better find out. He has money - just as Clinton did. What should he do with it. Clinton would probably tell him -- shore up the base. And then remake yourself to appeal to those on the fence.
Clinton could probably tell him what her strategy was to get the centrist, the fence-sitters -- talk about working to get things done. Coleman's already doing that, so Franken's climb might be steep.
And maybe the senator from New York could talk about learning from her own recent strategy misfire. In her 2008 presidential run, she rode the experience horse. And Clinton was overtaken by Obama's message of change by comity.
She could relate that recent lesson, if Al would just pull up a chair at a table with Hillary.
But hurry, Al, get on the former first lady's calendar, before it's too late.
I can't remember the last time I heard the kid gasp and exclaim like he did seeing the Thunderbirds and Caddies, the hot rods and rag tops on display.
I admit doing a few audible sighs too.
But once in a while the commercialism slammed hard enough in the chin that it overcame gushing. "I think that some of these people are here just so they can get money," said the little guy, allowing me to breath a little easier that he wouldn't be completely sucked in by the glitz.
It's not surprising that you'd find somethings on sale. Tumbling dice and shades... old automotive manuals and pamphlets and, of course, the usual edible crap that one must ingest if they are going to walk about the fairgrounds site.
I think it was only once or twice that the boy actually asked for something from the vendors. That allowed me to keep the wallet intact.
But here's the thing -- as you walk around looking at these hulking cars you get a sense of being in a museum.
And the commercialism itself smacks of some kind of American wake, marking a time of purchasing might that has passed us by.
It's a stubborn, defiant kind of display. Like all of us -- the visitors and the vendors, the gawkers and the hawkers -- we are going to keep at what made the good ol' U.S.of A. great. I'll look at the big, expensive cars and not give a moments thought to how impractical they might be. I will consume and not have a thought about an economy tottering about like a broken-down junker.
We look in a mirror these days and see an image that we might not like so much. So instead, we peer into the chrome and the glossy finishes of these roadsters and, like that gel they put on movie cameras for aging starlets, we look a little better. Right?
