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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 4h

Bizarre and terrible governance to have a two month lame duck period for a local office. If only there was a body that was meant to think about these things for our city 😒 (there is, we are getting what we pay for, which is not much)

Josh Martin @joshmartinmpls.bsky.social · 2d

Application period is open now for Park Board, District 2, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Becka Thompson.

Application deadline is October 24, and the board will fill the vacancy at the November 5 meeting. Term ends January 2.

form.jotform.com/233054936736...

Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board opens applications for District 2 Commissioner vacancy

Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) commissioners are accepting applications for a vacant commissioner position following District 2 Commissioner Becka Thompson’s resignation effective 11:59 pm on Oct. 3, 2025.

“Commissioner Thompson was an intelligent, creative and passionate Park Board Commissioner who cares deeply about Minneapolis and its world-class park system,” said MPRB President Cathy Abene. “I appreciate the time we served on the Board together and thank her for her service to the city.”

Applications to fill the vacant District 2 Commissioner position that serves North Minneapolis are due at 12 pm on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. Applicants must live in District 2.

Dates and Deadlines

Any eligible resident of District 2 is invited to apply for the Commissioner position by completing and submitting an online or print application by 12 pm...

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 5h

It's Corridor 6, but heaven forfend you put a cafe on the ground floor opposite the park!

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 5h

But the same kind of hesitancy about allowing nearly contiguous commercial to expand is everywhere. Here's 38th and Columbus, and a stranded commercial use on Park. You can build up to 4 stories here, but no commercial uses allowed by right!

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 5h

In fairness, I suspect that the existing uses here are valuable enough that conversion to commercial is probably not going to be attractive, even if allowed.

Two apartment buildings and a townhouse complex

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 6h

The city's policy of "we don't want to encourage more neighborhood nodes" reaches its nadir or apotheosis on 36th St where existing businesses are shown in red, but the idea of letting those parcels in between be small-scale commercial was apparently too much.
(beige here is no businesses allowed)

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 6h

All the way to Rustic Lodge, in fact. And yet there's a weird two block gap opposite the park, which kinda gets at the issue here. Commercial uses near parks are good for making non-car trips viable!

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 6h

Only exaggerating slightly to say that the city’s zoning policy is to make it hard for any one former streetcar node to rise above the others and add commercial density. All those little commercial nodes are limited to existing parcels. City could zone adjacent parcels to allow new business by right

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 6h

Gotta quibble with the “many Minnesotans are terrified of contact with people they don’t know”. When I am walking I’ve long been surprised by how Minneapolis and Saint Paul people will just say hi on an otherwise quiet sidewalk.

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 6h

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

Data changes format decadally

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 6h

Housing prices in Minneapolis are so high there is an encampment of Lorde fans in downtown

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 7h

Minneapolis is a suburb of our state's one true city, Saint Paul (defining city as front setback requirements. Not as dumb as it sounds)

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 7h

Love to see some existing ideal width setbacks in a "city" which largely requires a suburban style 20'

Houses with a 5 foot setback on 24th Street, Minneapolis

Houses with a 5 foot setback on 29th Street, Minneapolis

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Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 7h

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

She burned their letters.

Natasha Simonova @philistella.bsky.social · 7h

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

New library catalogue website.

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 3d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 7h

My Strava friends (mostly) would not get the silly joke that I wanted to call this route the Whittier Alleyance. Some of my Bluesky friends might ...

A map of a run through the Minneapolis neighborhood of Whittier

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 10h

Planning department policy to only have retail on arterial streets.
Public works policy to not have trees on arterial streets.

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 10h

absolutely. the interesting question is whether there's less walking than one would expect given population density, which cannot be answered by comparing to Chicago or New York. Denver, Milwaukee, Portland, Seattle, fairer comparisons.

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 10h

Oddly enough the spacing is basically the result of the walkable city that grew around streetcar lines and stops. But to a close approximation it is city policy that no new neighborhood retail can ever open in a location that wasn't a streetcar stop in the 1920s.

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 20h

The partial, but telling, counter to this observation is that people in the Twin Cities do walk a lot ... recreationally on the lake/river side trails. Some of the lakes are so busy no one goes there anymore (the paths are too narrow). But that merely makes the original point.

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 21h

The Twin Cities put a lot of things biking distance apart, at best. Fundamentally it's a suburban land use pattern outside of a few neighborhoods.

Bill Lindeke @blindeke.bsky.social · 22h

I think about this a lot. 99% of people walking in the Twin Cities at any given time are walking their dogs or walking to their car.

Sam Bergman @violanorth.bsky.social · 23h

Having lived through 25 years of Minneapolis arguments over transit, cats, and bikes, I have to say as (now) a visitor that as imperfect as the solutions have been, there are a lot of ways to get around this city now. BUT, and this is a big one…

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The Quarterly Journal of Economics @qjeharvard.bsky.social · 21h

Recently accepted by #QJE, “The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890–2006,” by Lyons (@ronanlyons), Shertzer (@econhist-allday), Gray (@econhistoryorbust), and Agorastos: doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1093/qje/...

Shibboleth Authentication Request

doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu

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Bill Lindeke @blindeke.bsky.social · 22h

I think about this a lot. 99% of people walking in the Twin Cities at any given time are walking their dogs or walking to their car.

Sam Bergman @violanorth.bsky.social · 23h

Having lived through 25 years of Minneapolis arguments over transit, cats, and bikes, I have to say as (now) a visitor that as imperfect as the solutions have been, there are a lot of ways to get around this city now. BUT, and this is a big one…

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 22h

When I was in grad school in the early part of this century I remember people from East Coast mocking Minnesotans for their "parking was terrible, I had to park half a block away" approach to life. I also joined in this mockery having grown up in a real city too where parking spaces were scarce.

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 23h

To be fair 15 is 1(2+3).

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James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 1d

It's incredible the extent to which Congress just utterly refuses to defend itself. You'd think for entirely self-interested reasons you would stridently oppose having the power of the purse arbitrarily ripped from you, ya know?

Why would you allow yourself to become the Roman Senate circa 27 BC.

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 1d

Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

It's #Caturday, pay attention to me!

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 1d

🚨 job alert! History of Modern US at Ohio Wesleyan (I'm the chair if you have questions)

jobs.h-net.org/jobs/69198

Assistant Professor History - Modern U.S. History | H-Net Job Guide

jobs.h-net.org

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Julia Raifman, ScD @juliaraifman.bsky.social · 1d

“Workers continued to see elevated health-related absences linked to COVID-19…

[which] has likely raised the value to workers of paid-leave policies & existing social safety net programs.

Measures to reduce COVID-19 transmission in the workplace may also mitigate these new exposure risks”

Enduring Outcomes of COVID-19 Work Absences on the US Labor Market

This cohort study examines the extent to which COVID-19 continues to generate work absences and decrease labor force participation beyond the pandemic period in the US.

jamanetwork.com

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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 1d

Deep dive into the surge in US pedestrian deaths:

"It’s not that more pedestrians are getting hit by vehicles; it’s that the ones that are getting hit are more likely to die."

"[That] seems like fairly strong evidence for the theory that the rise in large SUVs is behind the uptick in ped deaths."

Why Are So Many Pedestrians Killed by Cars in the US?

It’s unfortunately not uncommon for pedestrians to be killed by cars in the US.

www.construction-physics.com

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Josh Martin @joshmartinmpls.bsky.social · 2d

Application period is open now for Park Board, District 2, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Becka Thompson.

Application deadline is October 24, and the board will fill the vacancy at the November 5 meeting. Term ends January 2.

form.jotform.com/233054936736...

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 2d

I suspect the other difference is that the mass market TV crime drama/cop show came of age when America was experiencing a distinctively large increase in homicide that lasted for a long time. Cop shows were responding to different social realities.
kieranhealy.org/blog/archive...

America is a Violent Country

Update (October 2015). For an update including more recent data, see this post: Assault Death Rates, 1960-2013 Update (December 2012). For answers to some frequently-asked questions about this post, s...

kieranhealy.org

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