Look at the photo above. This is a bus stop. In St. Paul, a city committed to “creating safe, pleasant, lively streets and public spaces that work for everyone from eight to eighty.” If you are eight years old, will you be secure climbing over the snow to the bus? If you are eighty, will you be secure walking a block over the unplowed, unshoveled side of the street to get to the bus? Continue reading
Tag Archives: St. Paul Notes
Eight to eighty?
Filed under St. Paul Notes
Snowstorm coming: Watch out for St. Paul alleys
It’s coming. Paul Huttner says so.
“It’s way too early to pinpoint specific storm tracks and inches, but it’s worth saying there is the potential for several inches of snow somewhere across southern and central Minnesota by Monday night. … what could be a significant slop storm with heavy wet snowfall accumulations from late Monday afternoon into Tuesday morning.”
That means sidewalk shoveling and snow emergencies, and that most intractable of St. Paul snow problems: unplowed alleys clogging with snow or turning to icy, impassable ruts.
Filed under St. Paul Notes, Uncategorized
Good news: Growing communities and gardens
Monarchs loved the bright red zinnias in the Merriam Station Community Garden
Monarchs fluttered through the giant red zinnias during the Merriam Station Community Garden Day. A few people listened to the program as I wandered through the gardens, snapping photos of pumpkins and flowers. Some 70 well-tended garden plots occupy this spot, a block north of I-94 and not many blocks east of my home. Volunteers run the sign-up and clean-up details for the community garden. People grow vegetables and flowers in their individual plots, and also donate food to Keystone Midway Food Shelf, both from individual plots and from a plot dedicated to producing for the food shelf. Continue reading
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“Those people” are our neighbors
Sue Swain speaking at NAMI press conference. Also pictured, Sue Abderholden and Jill Wiedemann-WEst
“In February 2009, I was desperate,” Sue Swain said. “My life was out of control and I needed help.” Already stressed by work and being a family caregiver, she now had to contend with a cancer diagnosis. The combination was too much to handle. But Swain found help at the Diane Ahrens crisis residence. During three days there, she ate nourishing meals, got help with managing prescriptions, and found counseling to deal with her burdens. Her short stay at the crisis residence, she says, was the “first and most critical step on my path to wellness.”
Continue reading
Filed under health care, St. Paul Notes
Trash talking in the Twin Cities
Eureka Recycling graphic for St. Paul recycling
People have lots of questions about recycling. Should you wash out beer bottles and jelly jars? Paper is good — but what about shredded paper? And what about light bulbs? Or window glass? What kind of plastic can you put in the blue box? And then there’s the big question: is recycling really worth it?
The Washington Post recently reported that recycling isn’t profitable any more. Whether recycling turns a profit is the wrong question. As a recent Mother Jones article points out, recycling succeeds financially if it just costs less than burying stuff in landfills. But financial success isn’t even half the story. Recycling succeeds by keeping trash out of landfills. Continue reading
Filed under environment, St. Paul Notes
Sun shining, solar power coming in St. Paul
From the Saints stadium to Ray Pruban’s Energy Challenge homes, St. Paul is getting its solar energy game on in a big way. Continue reading
Filed under environment, St. Paul Notes
St. Paul Notes: Grand Goodwill and Ordway openings
Never mind the Minneapolis Miracle — St. Paul had it all this weekend, with grand openings for the Ordway’s new concert hall and the new Goodwill store on University Avenue. Admittedly, I visit Goodwill far more often than the Ordway, but I did get to the free open house on Sunday afternoon, and the new Ordway is just as impressive as the old. Of course, any place that has a gentleman in a top hat and caped coat opening the door for me is pretty darned impressive. Continue reading
Filed under St. Paul Notes
Mary Turck
News Day 