MN Blog Cabin Roundup, 6/5

Up-zoning is scary; the thought of massive, neighborhood-wide construction is a doomsday scenario for most (though most seem blissfully comfortable with the scale of redevelopment that allow us all to hop on freeways today). We can’t even replace single family homes with slightly larger single family homes without slamming the brakes.
But I’m a curious man. I’d like to know what it would even look like if we did something totally crazy and up-zoned the whole city to R5 tomorrow. Would the world end? Grab a huge block of salt, suspend your disbelief, and join me on this thought experiment with rough math.

The soccer stadium should pay taxes

from streets.mn by Scott Shaffer

My attitude is the same as Council Member Andrew Johnson’s: I’m in favor of a new soccer stadium, as long as it’s completely privately financed. The confusion arises from Mr. Rogers’ implied assumption that if Minneapolis must give tax breaks to the stadium to show that the city wants it. This assumption is wrong. It’s impossible for a city to give tax breaks to every establishment that belongs in the community.
If you look around the city, you’ll see that many establishments necessary for everyday urban life also pay property taxes. Grocery stores irrigate our food deserts, and provide the literal sustenance for our lives. And yet, the Uptown Cub Foods pays $158,000 a year in property taxes. Coffee shops facilitate knowledge spillover and cross-pollination of ideas (as they have since the Renaissance), and caffeine rejuvenates our workforce. And yet, the Spyhouse in Northeast pays $95,000 a year in property taxes.

My brother, Professor Brown and avian flu

from News Day by Mary Turck

Professor Brown, Belushi, Bronzie and B2 strutted toward me across the June-green farmyard, accompanied by their entourage of hens. Back toward the barn, the neat little Production Red laying hens and glossy Black Jersey Giants scratched in the gravel, overseen by Goliath and the other Jersey Giant roosters.
They’re obviously healthy, and even state-certified healthy, but in quarantine nonetheless. Why? Because some unidentified commercial flock in the area, tens of thousands of birds that never once walked outdoors in sunlight or scratched the ground for bugs, was infected by avian flu and destroyed to the last bird.

Millions of philanthropists

from Next in Nonprofits by Steve Boland

Donors, as it turns out, are largely people. Yes, nonprofits consistently chase grants from foundations, governments and other still bigger nonprofits because it feels great to catch a large sum of money. But the majority of giving in the United States comes from individuals. Giving USA reports at least $335 billion in charitable giving in 2013. 72% of that number comes from individuals. Those donors don’t all think of themselves as philanthropists and mission communicators.
At least, not yet.

Intrinsic genderhood: Womanhood and femininity

from Girl Meets Geek by Kate-Madonna Hindes

I suppose in some circles, I’m not a woman. Women have reproductive systems that enable the creation and birth of children. After cancer, I don’t have any of the necessary ingredients to create another being.  Sometimes, I call it, “Phantom Womb Syndrome.“ I’m losing my body, piece by precious piece- to what can only be assumed to be a tub of medical waste. The unnecessary. Here I am without my womanly bits. But say it again- I think: The unnecessary. I am still here. I am still a woman.

MN Blog Cabin Roundup, 5/29

What’s wrong with the agriculture, environment and natural resources bill? It’s hard to know where to begin. Partly, the problem is the bill is too damn big. Along with the budget items, (mostly) Republican legislators threw in a pile of bad laws that they thought they could get through at the last minute. They figured, wrongly as it turned out, that Governor Dayton would focus only on the education bill and would let them get away with murder in environmental rollbacks. They were wrong.
Here’s a short list of bad items in the bill, followed by an explanation of what’s wrong with the omnibus process.

When our animals get sick and die

from Minnesota Farm Living by Wanda Patsche

One of the hardest things about farming is when our animals are sick.
We hate it.
And the only thing worst than sick animals are dead animals. We just can’t get around the feeling that we have failed them.
So why do pigs become sick?

LEADERSHIP: A choice — you decide

from Gov. Arne Carlson’s blog

…Now Eric Kaler, the new President, who has a most impressive academic resume, did not create the stonewalling or the untruths of multiple investigations that were “exhaustive” and “found no fault”.  However, he had a choice when he arrived in 2011.  He could meet with the Professors who were waving the red flags and who had fully informed him as to what was transpiring in drug testing which brought millions of dollars to the University and its researchers but was also rift with financial conflicts of interests, false claims about investigations, and abuse of enrollees. Or he could take the road of least resistance and continue the cover-up. He knowingly chose the latter.
Currently, President Kaler is under siege from some of his faculty and others for his lack of truthfulness and participation in a cover-up that protected serious misconduct.  Their claims are fully supported by a recent report by the Legislative Auditor. Yet, there is no acceptance of responsibility.

MN Blog Cabin Roundup, 5/22

Within minutes of the crash in Philadelphia the NTSB had swung in to action and began organizing a ‘GO Team’ to investigate. According to news reports there were a couple of people there within hours, a few more by 4am, and more later in the morning. This team will devote themselves full-time to this investigation for weeks, months, or years and they should indeed do so where a single incident or the mistake of one person can have such a huge impact. It is because of this dedication that air and rail are as safe as they are. We are not the safest, but we’re not horrible either.
This doesn’t happen so much with crashes on our roads.

A view from baseball’s most important seat with Minnesota Twins scorekeeper Stew Thornley

from RedCurrent by Mark Remme

There is one seat inside Target Field and every other baseball park in America that carries incredible responsibility—and it’s nowhere near the field of play. At the Twins’ Home, it is the first seat in first row of the press box, tucked just to the right of home plate with a bird’s eye view of every angle at which the ball might travel.
This seat can impact milestones, records and batting titles. Without ever touching a baseball or stepping on the warning track, the person occupying this seat can be the difference between a no-hitter for the history books and a one-hitter forgotten in time.
Stew Thornley takes this responsibility very seriously. He and his colleagues who rotate into that seat as Major League Baseball official scorers understand each moment, each pitch, could leave them in a situation where judgment dictates reality.

Seven short quotes about the St. Croix from Walter Mondale

from St. Croix 360 by Greg Seitz

Former vice president and U.S. Senator Walter Mondale was interviewed by the Pioneer Press recently. The St. Croix’s “elder statesman” had a lot to say about the history of its protection, and its future.

Effectiveness, and the case of Dr. Oz

from Community Matters by Paul Mattesich

Dr. Oz became famous on Oprah, then developed his own TV show. Millions of people who seek health and medical information hang on his every word. But can we believe him?
…
The controversy focuses attention on evidence-based practices. So, what do we mean by evidence? What constitutes credible information that a treatment works or that a specific behavior promotes good health?

Honoring rural life st Heritage Park of north Iowa

from Minnesota Prairie Roots by Audrey Kletscher Helbling
“COME BACK ON SATURDAY,” Monte Topp advised. “There’ll be 25,000 people here.”
“No, thanks,” I said.
And that is how I learned about the May 21 – 24 Tree Town Music Festival in Forest City, Iowa, with Saturday headliner Blake Shelton. Yes, the Blake Shelton, whom even I, not a fan of country western music, know as a judge from The Voice.