Taking Issue With Pioneer Press

I should first say that I rarely read the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. I scan the headlines for anything that catches my eye. Yesterday's Pioneer Press article, "Do redistricting right, coalition of Minnesota political all-stars tells Legislature" did just that. I'm huge opponent of gerrymandering. I'd go as far as saying that it's one of the biggest faults of our current electoral system.

For those of you that don't know, gerrymandering is the reestablishing of electoral districts in favor of gaining seats for political power. Former U.S Representative Tom Delay was one of the worst at this in the late 1990s, and this helped multiple Republicans get elected in Texas and disenfranchised thousands of African-Americans who now found themselves living in Republican dominated districts.

So as you can imagine, I was thrilled to see a bipartisan effort to design electoral districts fairly. However, further down in the article the journalist paraphrases a University of Minnesota study, "That fuels political polarization, a study by the U's center said."

While I know that the "U's center" is making reference to the "University of Minnesota's Center for the Study of Politics and Governance," mentioned earlier in the article. This is not an obvious connection for someone outside of Minnesota. For one of only two major newspapers in the state to write for an audience of a few is disheartening. Yes, Minnesota is a few when we're talking about a much larger scale of the United States political system.

The subject matter at hand is larger and more serious than just a Minnesota issue. I can see college students researching a paper and coming across and wanting to cite this article. The reporter makes no reference to the term "gerrymandering" or that this is a problem that does occur across the country. By giving the audience no context to the problem, the reporter's minimizing the issue and selling the reader short.

The Star Tribune does a much better job at covering the same story, "Reformers want politics out of political mapping." At least they provide historical context to why this is important in Minnesota and how it's affected the constituency in the past. But again, there's a term for what they are describing, there's a larger context to the issue that both reporters ignore. We should know that the "reformers," as the Star Tribune calls them, are taking an even more impressive stand in the larger context of national politics. Limiting our World view helps no one, especially the reformers at hand.

A Favor to Ask For Live Journal RSS Readers

I have Live Journal readers who are actively comment on Frost-Bite. I appreciate your comments and the discourse we have, but can you please comment directly on the Blogspot entry. Follow the URL is listed at the top of the feed for access. I do not receive notification when you respond to the feed on Live Journal and the links disappear after a week and with it all of your comments. I hope you enjoy reading my entries and I'm looking forward to you following me when I move Frost-Bite over to frost-bite.us very shortly.

Again, thank you again for following Frost-Bite.

Travel Guide

Lake Calhoun, mid-summer, photographed by Me.

I stumbled across an entry in a travel blog touting "Minneapolis is The Largest City in Minnesota." While the headline left something to be desired, the entry skimmed all of the bases rather than covering.

A) Location: [Minneapolis] lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the rivers confluence with the Minnesota River and adjoins Saint Paul, the states capital.

B) Roots: "Minneapolis was born when two mills were built to cut lumber and grind flour for the men of a nearby fort." It fails to mention the huge numbers of Norwegians, Scandinavian and German immigrants that made their roots here.

C) Orpheum Theatre (Although they call it the Orpheus Theater): "When you walk into the huge theatre and get a glimpse of its gilded ceiling and huge chandeliers, you will feel like you are taking a step back into the old vaudeville days of 1930."

D) Shopping: No sales tax. What it does leave out is that most of the shopping is in Bloomington at the Mall of America and not Minneapolis. Let's give some credit where credit is due. Although I hate going to the MOA.

E) Health Conscious: [Minneapolis] has the "2nd highest percentage of people who bike to work." What it leaves out is the reason it's so easy to bike to work. The bicycle lanes throughout downtown, southeast and northeast and the green ways make all sections - minus, sadly, north Minneapolis, which is like the red headed step child of the Twin Cities - easily accessible via bike.

F) Sporting Events: It glosses over this aspect of Minneapolis. Twins, Vikings, Timberwolves, Lynx and all of the Gopher sporting events are available on a nightly basis to guests. Rarely do events sell out, so any tourist can go out to the old ball yard, if they so chose.

G) Arts: Minneapolis has "peerless museums," and a "music scene that has amazed listeners for decades," but they fail to mention that there are more theater seats per capita in the Twin Cities (mostly Minneapolis) than anywhere in the country. Any night of the week you can see top notch talent perform. I've been to old and new Guthrie and hope to see more plays this year. Where is the mention of the Walker Art Center or the Minneapolis Institute of Arts?

H) Parks: [Minneapolis] has "no less than 170 parks and recreational gardens..." I'm not so sure about this fact. Ah hah, according to the Minneapolis Parks.org, there are 150 parks in Minneapolis. While the parks are great, the entry makes no mention of the lakes. How can someone write an entry about Minneapolis and leave out the chain of lakes? Lake of the Isles, Lake Harriet, and Lake Calhoun are my favorite places to bicycle in the summer. What about in the winter? Taking the family tubing at Buck Hill in Burnesville promises good times even for the grouchiest of family members.

I'm sure the entry was written from a series of brochures or one poorly written and researched brochure. I really don't understand the need for such a blog. Why start something if you're going to half-ass it? We get it, "Dallas is a City in The United States" and so is Seattle, if you believe the blog. It seems like a waste of time to me. Although it was a funny to read Minneapolis described in 400 words by someone who had never been here.

Weekly Rundown of Links

Bay Area Links
SF Chronicle: 'Dykes on Bikes' trademark OKd - challenger rebuffed by high court
Appeals court allows S.F. to enforce health care law
San Jose Mercury: Editorial: California's kids deserve better
Group including Stanford, Monterey Bay Aquarium form center to protect oceans
Morgan Hill man cited for three DUIs over holidays now in jail
Oakland Tribune: Rockabilly Revival: Take a trip to the historic 23 Club in Brisbane for a night of Rockabilly fun.
Wikia Search founder: It's terrible
Contra Costa Times: Not staying abstinent

Twin Cities Links
Star Tribune: Larry Etkin: Investing in the arts is investing in our future
Minnesota has healthiest hearts in the nation
Do you live next door to a pot palace?
Pioneer Press: December DWI sweep arrests 3,354
Dakota County / Woman, 19, sentenced for sex ring
Minnesota Education / Magazine: Kids' future looks bright
From MNSpeak WCCO News 4: Man Who Had Sex With Dead Deer Gets More Jail Time

Traffic Meltdown

By Bruce Bisping , Star Tribune
I've vented many times about the horrible driving in the Twin Cities. It seems that no one has the ability to merge. Merging used to add an extra 20 minutes to my commute from Uptown into Roseville. But things have gotten "better" in recent months. I've learned tricks to get from point a to point b, with as little traffic as possible.

My commute to my doctor's appointment in St Louis Park took and extra 30 minutes this morning. I couldn't see what was happening on the other side HWY 94. Normally, the drive takes 15 minutes tops. There are times when you can add an extra 20 minutes due to other commuters rubber necking a car broken down on the side of the road.

Rarely is the accident serious. Only once have I seen anything warranting my attention - a Toyota Camery upside down, with smoke billowing from the engine. Usually it's a car with a blown tire. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to sit, waiting and waiting, and for it to turn out to only be a car broken down on the side of the road.

Today, though, it was the commute home on 694 E towards downtown. Unable to merge onto 94 W, I drove to through downtown. Thank goodness the architecture downtown is so amazing or I would have been really annoyed.

Is The Barn All Its Cracked Up To Be?

Because I've never experienced a basketball game at the University of Minnesota's basketball arena, "The Barn," my opinion isn't completely formed on Tubby Smith's recent comments in the NYTimes that "he wanted a new facility to replace Williams Arena, the venerable field house known as the Barn and the Gophers’ home since 1928, but was willing to wait while the university completes football and baseball stadiums" and again today in the Pioneer Press,""It's something I'm sure that everybody wants to see at some point in time," Smith said. "We know that (if) we're going to do the things we have to do, that they're going to want a bigger and better place.""

I've been reading the raucous responses and Benjamin Polk from City Pages scolding Smith for even considering a move, and yet I still haven't formed an educated opinion. I see a lot of dedicated fans holding onto the past, and at the same time refusing to look around the country. Top notch athletics programs need new arenas to recruit the best athletes and attract the most fans.

Simply being a top notch institute of higher learning isn't enough anymore. U.C Berkeley built Walter A. Haas, Jr. Pavilion in 1999 replacing the once beloved Harmon Gymnasium, showing it's possible to keep the intimacy and grow in capacity and technologically.

Tomorrow I'll contact the U's athletic department to get press passes to cover and upcoming game. With classes starting in only a two weeks from now, Gopher energy should be in high gear as Tubby Smith continues to impress everyone within shouting distance from The Barn. I look forward to seeing the turn around in U of M basketball firsthand. With the impending departure of Johan Santana from the Twins and the sad performance of the Timberwolves, Twin Cities fans can use something to root for.

Favorite Local Blogs

Sharyn Morrow’s Weapons of Mass Distraction
Jodi’s I Will Dare.com
Peter Scholtes’ from the City Pages has an amazing local music orientated blog, Complicated Fun.
Ericka Bailie-Byrne’s surlygrrrl
Diablo Cody’s The Pussy Ranch
Minnesota community blog: MN Speak

Please, I’m on the lookout for more quality Minnesotan blogs.

Hook a brotha’ up.

A Late New Years Post

When I moved to Minneapolis, everyone I met told me that it’ll get easier, that I should just write off my first year, but in year two I’ll find my rhythm and will love the city. I loved the city in year one, so finding love for the city in question.

The initial winter shock was debilitating.

But as I’ve said in previous entries, once you figure out the rules to the game, the winter really isn’t so bad.

They were wrong. It’s only been in my third year that I finally feel like I’m hitting my stride. I’m at two and a half years. The culture shock was fierce. I’d never expected living in another “blue state” to be so different. I knew living in the Bay Area that I lived in a bubble. I just never realized how air tight the bubble was.

Greg said to me the other day that I’d have been “just like them” had I been born here. That thought, honestly, is what kept me going two years ago. I’d flipped my car. I’d lost all of my friends. I was alone here, but I kept thinking that we are - on some level - the same. Culture shock was one thing, but it could only get better – right?

Now that I’m in year three things are better. I’ve learned – mostly – how to dodge the MN vs. CA comparison conversations. The bitterness is gone. I have some amazing people who do truly care about me.

I’ve yet to find my niche, but I’m no longer looking for it either. I’m just me. Imagine the descriptors you use to define your identity with are no longer true. That’s how I felt that first winter.

I was not a student.
I was not a reporter.
I couldn’t even bring myself to write.
I was no longer a promoter.
I was no longer a friend.
I was no longer a brother.
I was no longer a son.

It threw me into an identity crisis, and over the last two years I’ve rededicated myself to finding myself. I’m there, finally. This is me and I’m completely comfortable again with whom I am. This next year is dedicated towards exploring Minnesota with my true self in mind – and I’m looking forward to it.