Andy Driscoll is the host of KFAI’s Truth to Tell, a show I have come to love and a must-listen for anyone who is curious about the issues we face in the Twin Cities metro. While something about Andy’s voice vaguely creeps me out, dude has been around a long time, knows his stuff, and knows all the players.

Apparently Archbishop John Nienstedt’s cancellation of St. Joan of Arc’s Pride celebration got Andy’s dander up. This commentary is included in the show notes. I’ve not yet listened to the 6/25/08 episode of TTT (”Sexual Violence and Offenders” is the topic), but I presume he read it on air as well.

A Question for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Let us digress for a moment to ask this question of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis: what in God’s name is going on with you people that you feel compelled to impose some Neanderthal view of sexuality and sexual orientation as if Jesus Christ himself would condemn all who don’t reproduce, never mind their deep devotion to their Lord and their church? What earthly, let alone, heavenly, harm - other than Archbishop John Nienstadt’s personal and professional disgust with gays and Lesbians, could possibly be driving this idiotic intervention over St. Joan of Arc’s annual celebration and worship of Gay Pride week in the Twin Cities? Is the Church so insulated from public view that it doesn’t sense the rank hypocrisy of this unwarranted authoritarian exercise in light of its own clergy’s sexual history?

Now, I haven’t practiced pure Catholicism in 50 years, but I’ve watched my former faith take ten steps backward recently for every inch gained in behalf of the seriously wanting human condition over those years and cannot help but wonder if Christ himself isn’t turning over in his heavenly home over this prehistoric return to religious fascism.

St. Joan of Arc has been a model of Vatican II principles, providing an overarching cover for all Catholics, including the disaffected, welcoming all of God’s children under its large umbrella. That congregation and others of similar bent are getting hammered into submission by a theoretically celibate male hierarchy which apparently believes that a return to the catacombs is the only way to maintain its iron-fisted authority over purely personal choices to somehow stave off the devil’s entrapment.

What nonsense. And a truly sad commentary on a religious government that was showing such promise that it could live up to its name: Catholic. The name literally means universal, all-encompassing. Universal includes everyone exercising their free will under the teachings and example of their Lord himself. So. Since when did a few men with robes assume the authority to define that term for their own narrow application?

Shame on you, Your Excellency. This will backfire big time, as it has for so many years in other arenas of dicta, driving many Catholics into exile and cynicism.

©2008 Andy Driscoll

Amen, Andy!

Sports stadiums are a hot issue in this state. Me and my wife have an argument over them once in awhile especially when taxpayer money is involved. I will have to admit, I am a sports fan, but not a super sports fan. I am just as happy to sit at home and watch sports on TV, the stadium experience can be expensive and crowded.

I found this article on the web that stadiums don’t benefit local economies. I also saw this quote “Public subsidies of professional sports stadiums provide no tangible public good” in the article.

I think this is a bit shortsighted, even though I hate the fact that public money is going to Companies that have millions and billions of dollars. The government gives subsidies to big companies all the time and not just sports teams.

Our quality of life in the Twin Cities looks better because of places like the Walker, The Guthrie, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and many of the other museums and theaters. I think the fact that we have more then 4 professional sports teams also enhances our cities and the state experience. This is a very well rounded state. We have all the cultural things and add the sports on top of that it’s a big plus.

You might not be able to quantify it, just by local merchants takes or which athletes live and spend in Minnesota. How about bigger companies who stay or decide to move here because of it. How about people who move here for jobs, or just move here because of our State being more visible.

With all this taxpayer money flowing into an endless quest for quality of life, I just wish they could make it more affordable for the taxpayers. A play at the Guthrie runs close to $40 per ticket which for a family of four can add up to well over $100, and tickets to a Vikings game would be over $200.

The bad part isn’t that we pay for all of this out of taxes, the bad part is we ending up paying twice.

 I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking about nice weather and being outside.

{Photo courtesy of White Pine Festival} 

As usual my wife has my back and when I arrived home I was given a little present. A brochure for the White Pine Festival.

It’s an outdoor festival billed as ‘Bringing great art & ideas together’ and it looks like a great way to spend time in some of my favorite local cities. 

Check out these venues and events.

I’m going to plan for Poems with Feelings: a conversation with Marie Howe followed by Sips & Sounds: Conversations About Music on June, 21.

You have to admit it Marie Howe has great hair.

 *Update - It’s my niece’s Science Museum Star Wars Bday on the 21’st. Now I’m looking at June 19th with Roger Bonair-Agard.

Want to come along? 

Northeast of St. Paul lies the unique suburban community of North Oaks and its 4500 residents.

According to the “city’s” Web site, “Because residents’ properties extend to halfway across the road, all residential roads in the City are private and for the use of North Oaks residents and their invited guests only. The City owns no property. With residents owning the roads, the North Oaks Home Owners’ Association owns the park and recreation areas and trails throughout the City.”

Hmmm…I didn’t realize Minnesota had its own secret yuppy compounds fronting as private cities. And apparently, they like to keep their private roads private. From KARE 11:

Several months ago North Oaks administrators found three dimensional pictures of North Oaks homes on the Google street map website.

This wouldn’t be a problem for most neighborhoods, but the entire community of North Oaks including its roads are private.

The city administrator says the contractor working for Google maps crossed right by the town’s no trespassing signs.

The North Oaks mayor sent a letter to Google explaining that its a private community and the internet giant apologized. The community of 4500 is now off Google’s street view website.

Google’s current policy is to remove any homeowner or business who requests to be removed from the service, but this is being billed as the first “city” to ask to have their entire community removed. I guess I would argue that a private community is a city.

There’s a compelling comment on the Strib story by Ripanderson, “The roads in MY town are funded by the residents of MY city too. But we let residents of North Oaks drive on OUR streets, why shouldn’t the City of North Oaks let our residents drive on theirs?”

Anyway, I highly respect the privacy issues that led to North Oaks asking Google to remove the street view photos. Pictured here is the last Google Maps Street View image you see of North Oaks before you’re left in the dark.

I’ll admit it does kind of make me want to go on a road trip northeast of town and take some pictures of my own.

And don’t you forget it.

Minnesota Monitor has an item on proposed corporate sponsorship for our parks.

Minneapolis taxpayers could soon be greeted at their city parks by banners advertising a national home improvement chain that has no stores in the city proper. Lowe’s says it’s willing to donate $90,000 in goods and services to six parks. The string attached: Lowe’s wants to hang 8-foot by 2-foot banners proclaiming “This area brought to you in part by Lowe’s” in outdoor locations such as Loring Park as well as smaller signs near donated equipment reading: “These products and more are available at Lowe’s.”

Say wha? No, WTFF?!

Like it’s not bad enough that there are parks called “Gold Medal Park” to begin with (scandal-ridden as it is) (not that it’s not a nice space).

I’d readily take my $30/year from the Twins Stadium and add them to my tax dollars that already go towards city and regional parks. Yes, I will gladly pay extra to keep your corporate sponsorship off our parks.

Funny how with a stadium, you’re glad that there is corporate sponsorship so that’s less out of your pocket to pay for a stadium you probably didn’t want to pay for in the first place.

There’s another argument in here somewhere about corporate interests in government affairs and privatization.

I guess the said thing is that we can’t find enough money in the budget to adequately fund the parks in the first place. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if Lowe’s made the offer anyway.

(Isn’t there already a water park in North Minneapolis somewhere with a corporate sponsorship? Or Cedar-Riverside? Or did someone blog it? I can’t remember now where I saw this.)

The Geo Metro gets about 40 mpg (highway), which is about as good as a Toyota Prius.

Brenton Netz from St. Cloud is doing brisk business reconditioning Geo Metros (or, as I like to call them, Pregnant Rollerskates) and Ford Festivas and selling them on eBay.

After buying a Metro on Craigslist in Montana and driving it back to his home in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Netz realized how rarely he was making trips to the pump.

He realized that he had stumbled upon a possible side business and began buying one-way tickets to states in the West to purchase as many of the cars as he could. Netz said he has sold about a dozen cars and has eight more sitting in his backyard…

It seems, Netz said, people are beginning to realize that their car choices need to be focused more on practicality than status and appearance.

I work in Eden Prairie. A great many of my co-workers come from farther south and west. Not just Chanhassen, Chaska, and Shakopee. Waconia, Jordan, Belle Plain, Prior Lake. One guy comes from New Ulm! And they’re all hunting and fishing types so they’re driving these big honking trucks. One guy was crying about how it cost him $95 to fill up his gigantic whatever the Dodge version of an F350 is. Boo frickin’ hoo! I’d love to see these manly men driving the Pregnant Rollerskate.

(via @aeklund)

According to J.D. Power and Associates, Minneapolis-St. Paul International is the worst airport ever.

The survey ranked airports on six factors including check-in and baggage claim facilities and food offerings. MSP received a score of 647 on a 1,000-point scale, the lowest among the 60 airports studied.

I have been to a few airports (as I’m sure many of you have as well) but I don’t know that I’ve had that bad an experience at MSP. A D minus? Maybe I’ve just been conditioned to a horrible customer experience, considering this is my home airport.

Do you hate our airport as much as J.D. (Jerk Dummies) Power and Associates?

And, speaking of air travel, I am off to Europe for the next two and a half weeks. I shall return to my blog-reading public refreshed and with pictures.

• The Four Firkins. Minnesota’s first specialty beer store opens Saturday in SLP. Grand Opening on June 14. (via east-lake and MN Beer)
• “The Neighborhood Energy Connection (NEC) (formerly the Saint Paul Neighborhood Energy Consortium) is a nonprofit organization that provides energy efficiency information, services and programs to residents, businesses, and communities across Minnesota.” They provide a lot of info, connect you to a lot of resources, and also provide some for-pay services.
• NextStep: “This site has been designed to provide Minnesota Sustainable Communities Network (MnSCN) members and others with information, access to resources, opportunities for networking, and inspiration on the topic of sustainable communities. NextStep site users have the ability to post information and resources on the site as well as to access the resources and information posted on the site.” Great event listing. Sortable by regions around the state.
• The Sibley Bike Depot is “a non-profit membership-based biking and walking organization. We promote healthy transportation and help new riders through advocacy, classes and the Sibley Bike Depot (a community education, repair and retail facility).” Located at 712 University Ave in St Paul. They have a pretty cool Earn-A-Bike program.
• Matt and Colin are filling in for Taylor at Mediation this week. Matt starts off with a self-pimp of a legislative session wrap up. “If you are a lunch room lady…
• Citizen-penned marriage equality bill introduced in Minnesota legislature. “The bill is modeled after a similar bill that has passed the California Legislature twice, only to be vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger said that the issue was for the courts to decide — and they did.”
• Bob Collins is a Lynx fan! Sunday afternoon’s home opener was a stellar display. Only one game, yes, but the win over Detroit (three Eastern Conference championships in a row) bodes well for the team’s 10th season. I had courtside seats!
• The Uptake on the RNC media walk through.

My friend Autumn happened across a film crew in Northeast Minneapolis last week. Here’s her account of what she saw.

The film is called “Nobody” and it’s being written and directed by Rob Perez, who wrote 40 Days and 40 Nights. He moved here to shoot the film, apparently. It’s about an artist trying to find inspiration while attending art school. The lead is a guy named Sam Rosen, apparently a friend of Josh Hartnett. The film is being produced by someone named Christine Walker, who we saw yesterday on the set.

The film is supposedly a “low budget indie film” but as someone Tiffany works with pointed out, low budget these days just means it costs less than 50 million dollars. On site yesterday were several rental trucks, a couple of semis, a trailer or two, a giant pile of snow, and lots of Prius’ and SUVs lining the surrounding streets with city obstruction permits on their windshields.

There was quite a large crew. Camera men, site techs, costume people, interns shoveling snow into a wheelbarrow and wheeling it over to the bus stop, and kids in orange vests making sure no one ran over the crew as they crossed back and forth on the street. It was windy out, so it was even one girl’s job to hold up the corner poll of a rented tent over the director, so that it didn’t blow over. They took over an entire office building, two blocks for crew parking, a small stretch of road, and the church across the street, which they were using as a home base for bathrooms and crew lunches.

More from the set of the movie “Nobody”

Stop the ReRoute: taking a stand on sacred land will show at the Riverview Theater at 7pm on Thursday, May 22.

Stope the ReRoute tells the dramatic story of a community’s opposition to the State of Minnesota’s plan to drive a road through its birthplace, Camp Coldwater between Minnehaha Park and Fort Snelling - land considered historic to some and sacred to others. This inspiring film bears witness to the commitment of citizen activists to live lightly on Grandmother Earth, preserve precious natural resources, and resist car culture at the end of the Petroleum Age, as neighborhood and environmental champions, Native American activists, and young people coalesce in nonviolent civil disobedience.

Cost is $10. Doors open at 6pm, there’s “entertainment” at 6:30, and then the film screening will be followed by “honoring of activitists” and Q&A with the film’s producers.

I’m not sure if the Preserve Camp Coldwater Coalition is at all affiliated with the folks who made the documentary. A pagan activist person I know suggested that there’s not complete alignment between different groups with interest in preserving the land.

I attended a winter solstice celebration at Coldwater Spring last year.

More about Coldwater Spring