The Roadguy at the Star Tribune posted a virtual look at the Sabo Bridge over Hiawatha Avenue that will give bicyclists and pedestrians easy access on the Midtown Greenway. The birdge will be completed in late 2007. A few facts:

* Length, including approaches: 2,200 feet
* Main span: 220 feet
* Height of tower: About 100 feet.
* Cost: $5.1 million, mostly from federal and Hennepin County funds.

It’s a lot of money for a bridge. But it does look quite fancy and will have lights at night and an observation deck. Check out the video, it’s kind of neat.

• Twinsville: Everything you ever wanted to know about the new Twins stadium. Including the fact that it’s going to be called Twinsville. (via an affair with urban policy)
• The Patrick Henry High School choir sings some holiday favorites. Scroll down a little. (via buzz.mn)
• Giant wooden crib floats to shore in Duluth. It was originally built and sunk to serve as a support structure for a railroad servicing a grain elevator. The people of Duluth are delighted.
• Northwest could buy Mesaba. This is not surprising to me, though the extent of the control that Northwest already has over Mesaba is.
• HWY 55 Tailgating Safety Project: Mn/DOT painted these dots on the road and you’re supposed to stay at least two dots behind the car in front of you. I’d go check it out, but you have to go all the way out to Wright County. I get twitchy just going outside the 494/694 loop. (via Roadguy)
• MNspeakers discuss what’s cool in North Minneapolis. Or they start out that way, anyway. The conversation quickly devolves, then sort of makes a comeback.
• Two Cities Two Wheels has a great wrap-up from the St. Paul Bike Summit that was held back in September.
• The Minneapoline: “Minneapolis St. Paul Street Fashion” aka “Things I would not be caught dead wearing except maybe on Halloween if I didn’t hate dressing up for Halloween.” (via east-lake.net)
• Andy sums up the year in gay news in MN.
• McClatchy selling Star Tribune. *yawn*
• NEWS FLASH: Ice rinks not doing so well in warm-so-far winter.
• mnpACT’s list of the 10 Worst Minnesota Politicians of 2006. Michele Bachmann’s only #6. Norm Coleman’s #2. I didn’t think he was unusually bad this year. (via the Minnesota Monitor)

Since I don’t spend a lot of time in St. Paul, I failed to notice Pizza Luce was even opening another location there. Turns out, after six months of construction, it’s finally open. Their new location, for those as completely oblivious as me, is 1183 Selby Ave.

Oddly, their website doesn’t make any mention of it. However, Pizza Luce’s MySpace blog has some pictures of the new location.

The Warehouse District location will always be at the top of my list as far as any Luce goes, but I’ll be curious to hear how the atmosphere at the new St. Paul location compares to that of the first four.

Bought a new car this week — supposedly the best week of the entire year to buy a car for ’06 closeouts and dead dealerships due to maxed credit cards and shopping fatigue. I don’t know how many of you have been to the bulk of new and used car dealers in the metro area, but now I have.

Here are a few highlights:
–Bloomington Lincoln Mercury Ford (off 494): Slimy salesman used every line in the book (e.g., “what can I do to put you into this today,” pimped the warranties, couldn’t quote a price on anything, etc.). They made us wait in the waiting room for 45 minutes while he “found us the car of our dreams,” when really the dealership was dead and everyone was watching the Vikings game. Actually ran outside to follow us to our car as we walked out – love it when the salesman chases you.

–Dodge Of Burnsville (off 35W): It was 8:45 p.m., and the dealership closed at 9. We were buying a car that night if they’d let us drive one. They didn’t let us drive one. We didn’t buy a car from them. That’s actually good, because their logo is the most obvious phallus symbol of any car dealer I’ve ever seen. People actually drive around with this logo on their car!

–Suburban Chevy in Eden Prairie (off 212W) – tried to sell us a Buick when we were pricing SUVS like Equinox and Trailblazers. I’m not kidding.

—Apple Auto Group in Apple Valley – no negotiation dealer with sales people who don’t get a commission. Thus, no problem on the greasy, slimy dudes or high pressure sales manager. Gave us an extremely good price on our trade-in and earned a repeat customer. Spread the word.

Originally uploaded by Tiffibunny.

Some holiday and/or wintery photos from the TC Flickr Pool that I’m particularly enjoying. Click through and enjoy them in all their large-sized glory.

More after the jump….
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I’m sure these sorts of things happen all the time, I just don’t hear about them. Or perhaps I don’t pay enough attention. But I swear all of a sudden there’s all sorts of news about robberies, assaults, and attempted abductions in my immediate surroundings.

buzz.mn has a rundown of recent activity in the Uptown area. Somebody at 28th and Lake of the Isles Parkway got held up in their own garage. Their own garage! 28th and Isles! I run by there all the time. Just goes to show you that this stuff can happen to anyone, anywhere, no matter how fancy (or not) your house is.

And then this woman narrowly escapes abduction over in LynLake (via).

I don’t generally feel unsafe around here. Even after that guy got shot in the face over behind Calhoun Square. Maybe it’s because I grew up in Detroit and while I didn’t live in the Eminem part of town, I know to be cautious and maybe I’m a little bit jaded. Or maybe I’m just naive.

In any case, be careful out there, kids.

Originally uploaded by inventivemedia.

All the best to you and yours from us here at Metroblogging. I hope you’re enjoying whatever it is you’re celebrating.

(I’m having my Christmas Cheer in liquid form.)

P.S. Go see the light show! I did. Very cool.

The Twin Cities will soon have its first housing directed at GLBT seniors. The development called “Spirit on Lake Housing Cooperative” will be built at the site of the current Spirit of the Lakes Church at 13th and Lake near the Midtown Exchange. The church itself will be housed in the lower level of the development.

There are several GLBT retirement communities around the country, but not enough to fulfill the need and none in Minnesota or the Upper Midwest. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force estimates that there are one to three million GLBT people over 65 in the United States.

“A number of the problems faced by LGBT elders also stem from the fact that they often do not have the same family support systems as heterosexual people,” NGLTF says. In addition, NGLTF has identified how United States law prevents GLBT seniors from accessing Social Security among other problems.

Reservations are open now, but construction will not begin until enough units are reserved. Estimates say groundbreaking will occur in fall 2007.

We broke the record for the latest snowfall ever. We haven’t had any snow over a half inch yet this year, and as of yesterday, we broke the record. According to the state climatologist:

As of December 21, the Twin Cities has not received a daily snowfall at or above one half inch. This is the longest the Twin Cities has gone into the snow season without a single daily snowfall of at least one half inch. The old record was December 20, 1998, when it snowed two inches. There still has not been a daily one half inch snowfall as of the morning of December 21, so the record may be expanded.

Fortunately, snow is on the way tonight and tomorrow, and we may see a few inches. Will it be a white Christmas?

One letter short of potty for a reason, I do believe.

The illustrious readers of the Star Tribune have nominated their choices for the Twin Cities Persons of the Year, both male and female. You can follow that link and pick your choice for both. The nominees are as follows:
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