Precisely As Predicted

“Go ahead, tear down a couple of stores that were half of the commercial heart of the Midway”, said all the people who don’t live in the Midway. “It’ll bring hordes of soccer fans in from their “Urban Life Theme Park” homes in Marcy Holmes and Longfellow over to pre-game at the local bars, and carouse about the place afterward!”

Trust us!”

I warned ’em. I sincerely tried.

The game day ritual:

  1. Watch hordes of cars (and a quick surge of people on the train) pack Snelling, Hamline and University, and the neighborhood streets all the way up to Minnehaha, clogging everything for a solid hour.
  2. A couple of hours of noise and pandemonium and hearing the mob singing “Wonderwall”. By the way, of all the songs they could have picked, why in the flaming hootie-hoo did it have to be “Wonderwall?” I swear, “Afternoon Delight” or “Pilot of the Airwaves” or “Who Let the Dogs Out” or a root canal are less irritating.
  3. Another hour or two of clogged streets and pedestrians stagging through the neighborhood as they get while the getting’s good. Because nobody wants to be stuck on University outside of a crowd.

One will spend less time waiting for Godot than for the wave of prosperity that professional soccer was supposed to bring to the Midway.

The Gift That Keeps Giving

If it’s a year ending in a number, Checkerboard Pizza on the East Side of Saint Paul is back in the news for less than uttelry savory reasons.

And as a Midway homer, it behooves me to point out that, name and signage similarities notwithstanding, the ongoing reality show that is the East Side Checkboard is utterly unrelated to the one on Snelling for the past couple of decades. While delivery pizza hasn’t been much of a part of my life for some time now, Midway Checkerboard is great stuff.

Fully Fungible

A friend of the blog emails:

How can St Paul Teachers be voting to strike for more money? Weren’t Minnesota schools fully funded?

They left themselves a pretty clever out.

  1. The DFL said they were going to spend a $19B surplus to “fully fund” schools
  2. But they would never define what “full funding” meant – cannily avoiding having two of Alinski’s rules, “framing” and “making them playi by their own rules”, against them.
  3. They did, however, do the end-zone happy dance over doing it (whatever it was)
  4. But now teachers are striking and districts want more, and…
  5. …DFLers are telling us to quit talking about the thing we asked them to define in the first place, knowing that…
  6. …they were never aiming their spiel at smart people with critical thinking skills.

It’s fiendish genius, really.

Also destroys education, and contributes to the destruction of a civil society, but tomayto tomahto.

The Usual Suspects

Grand Avenue in Saint Paul.

It was gentrified well over forty years ago – before the term really existed.

It’s been one of Saint Paul’s most durable commercial corridors since as long as I’ve lived here, and then some.

And it’s been having trouble lately.

Well, parts of it have. We’re told that some parts are doing quite well, all in all. Which, lets be honest, doesn’t surprise me; the parts of Grand that work, work well.

But it’s on the verge of becoming a “Berg’s Law” – whenever there’s a social or economic problem, look for a Public Employee Union.

Bingo:

“The problem isn’t the avenue, it’s that group,” [Golden Fig Fine Foods’s Laurie] Crowell said, referring to the out-of-state pension fund that owns some of the corridor’s largest retail spaces.

The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, known as STRS Ohio and based out of Columbus, has invested some of its teacher pension funds in real estate, including four buildings along Grand Avenue that it has owned since 2006…Salut, Pottery Barn, Lululemon, J. Crew, J.W. Hulme and Anthropologie, which closed late 2022, were all in buildings owned by STRS Ohio.

When looking for a storefront for Evergreen Collective, Hall said she was interested in the building where J.W. Hulme used to be, but said the rent would have been twice as high as her current location.

The vacancies along Grand Avenue are “not a sign that the avenue isn’t working,” Crowell said. “It is a sign that [STRS Ohio] isn’t working with the avenue.”

Of course, it’s not just businesses in STRS-owned buildings that are having trouble. And STRS pleads innocence, or at least competence.

Like most stories re Twin Cities business, there are two sides to the story.

It’s just that there really didn’t used to be a downside on Grand.

Meet The New Boss. Same As The Old Boss

So, Saint Paul has a new city council.

Sort of.

Just like the old city council, the new one treats the knobs and levers of government power as their toy and playground.

They’re just a little more overt about it:

And in terms of waving “Progressive” bloody sheets about in public?

Again – same as the old council, but more-so:

Couldn’t see that coming. Honest. Seriously.

I was casting about for the perfect way to describe the incoming City Council, when an email from a friend of the blog did it for me:

The New York Times thinks it’s important that Saint Paul, Minnesota has elected an all-female city council.

I was with a group of women the other day who also were saying how wonderful it was, how diverse this council is now, and laughing at unfunny jokes like “don’t we feel sorry for the middle aged white man?” 

“Change doesn’t happen with the same voices at the table,” Ward 6 Councilwoman Nelsie Yang says in the article.

Funny, I say to the group of women I’m with- these women who were recently elected, their campaigns all sounded the same. And on top of that, their campaign promises and priorities all sounded the same as Russ Stark. Is he middle aged yet? I’ll bet he is. And he’s definitely white. And, this entire newly elected council, why, their priorities all sound the same as another white man who has visited the Twin Cities often- Pete Buttigieg. 

But, their voices, their priorities, don’t sound the same as former Ward 7 Councilwoman Jane Prince’s priorities. She was often mocked and called all sorts of names on social media for being a different voice.

I’m going to break in here and say it: Jane Prince, the former staffer for Ellen Anderson, who used to seem waaaaaay out on the left. [2]

Their voices and priorities don’t sound 100% the same as former Ward 1 Councilman Dai Thao, who was the first Hmong American to be elected to Saint Paul City Council. While he was definitely liberal, because his voice was different, because he didn’t sound the same as those in power, he was often “accused” of being a Republican. LOL.

And Debbie Montgomery, who was mentioned in this article as the first Black Woman to win a Saint Paul City Council seat. I don’t remember her a lot on the council, but I do know that since her time on the council, she has been accused of being a Nimby and being out of touch with her neighborhood because she doesn’t sound the way these newly elected women sound. 

So, to Ms Yang and the rest of these women that are so proud to be a “different” voice on the council, you can ride that all they want, but the reality is, the majority percentage of the 30% or so of voters who bother to show up to vote in a local election really weren’t voting for change, weren’t voting for a new voice, they were voting for you because you sounded like the white men before you who were virtue signaling all the priorities that you virtue signaled in your campaigns.

Call me a cynic, or a realist, but I suspect our governing class thinks the not-at-all-new “New and more intesectional” council’s, er, predictability is a feature, not a bug:

As Alan Dershowitz once said in addressing a crowd we’d call “woke” today, but merely “PC” in the much less insipid early ’90s:

Your idea of “diversity” is someone with different colored skin, or in a skirt, who thinks exactly the same as you”

So that’s something that’ll never change.

[1] I acknowledge that I am not a biologist

[2] Jane Prince was also a great staffer – who made sure everyone, even pesky Republicans, got answers from Anderson’s office. Try that with Sandy Pappas or Rena Moran or Maria Isa).

Saint Small

SCENE. Mitch BERG is leaving a small cafe. Avery LIBRELLE is walking in. BERG is too tired to care and doesn’t try to evade or escape the encounter.

LIBRELLE: Mer…

BERG: Cut to the f***ing chase, Avery.

LIBRELLE: In “One MInnesota! (TM) “, we are all prospering in a future where we boldly stride forward together.

BERG: Can I have some blue cheese dressing for that word salad?

LIBRELLE: You just hate progress.

BERG: Nah. I hate decay and decline. Here’s an example. The entire Grand Palace center, which used to be the heart of a vibrant neighborhood back before “vibrant” meant “graffiti and panhandlers”, is empty with demise of the Pottery barn.

LIBRELLE: And you’re blaming the DFL?

BERG: Who else has defined the business climate in Saint Paul?

LIBRELLE: The wider state economy, duh.

BERG: Which, according to Governors Flanagan and Klinki, is…

LIBRELLE: Going gangbusters for One MInnesota! (TM)

BERG: So Saint Paul’s main commercial strip is languishing because the state’s economy is…too good?

LIBRELLE: Yes. It’s the GOP’s fault.

BERG: A party that has no power in Saint Paul is responsible for a business climate that isn’t really failing…?

LIBRELLE: Yes. That’s why.

BERG: Huh. Maybe if Saint Paul were to identify as a prosperous city, that’ll help.

LIBRELLE: Oh! The city does identify as a prosperous city! And if. you disagree, you’re a MAGA white supremacist1

BERG: Oh, clearly.

And SCENE

Anniversary

Today is the 82nd anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

For those who observe.

As I often have over this past few decades, I call out the fact that the first shots at Pearl Harbor were fired by a crew of Navy Reservists from Saint Paul, who’d been mobilized earlier in the year as part of Roosevelt’s build-up to the war everyone knew was coming.

The ship – which was built during World War 1, was thoroughly obsolte, and had been pressed back into service to fill the gaps until new ships could be built – was converted into a fast transport in 1942.

The men of that crew are all gone, now – Alan Sanford, the last survivor, died in 2015. And the Ward itself didn’t survive the war – it was lost in action off the Philippines, three years to the day after it fired the first shot of the war, on December 7 1944.. The Ward was hit by a Kamikaze and crippled.

In a bit of historical poetry almost too unbelievable to be in a Hollywood script, after the ship was abandoned, the ship was sunk by gunfire from another destroyer, the USS O’Brien, who’s commander, WIlliam Outerbridge, had been the Ward’s CO at Pearl Harbor. (And, just because I’m a geek for this kind of thing, I’ll note that O’Brien was built just down the waterfront from this ship, which I wrote about a while back).

But while Sanford, his shipmates and the Ward ˆitself are long gone, the gun they crewed lives on…

…on the State Capitol grounds, acquired from some naval armory decades ago.

Wonder what pretense the Walz administration will use for removing it?

An Idea Almost Too Crazy To Comprehend

Enrollment at Twin Cities schools continues to erode:

We’ll wait for the Walz/Flanagan administration to register their theatrical shock that “free” mystery meat and unrestricted gay porn in school libraries isn’t drawing students like Dave Matthews fans to the last bag of Cheetoz.

But I have a question.

This seems like the sort of story where someone could spend some time finding out whether the parents of senior DFL leadership in the Twin Cities and the state overall – the ones who have kids, at least – send their kids to the schools their union patrons run.

How many City Councilpeople, Mayors, policy staffers, senior bureaucrats and school leadership send their children to Minneapolis and Saint Paul, or indeed any, public schools?

This is the sort of thing that would call for, I dunno, some class of self-styed monastic seekers of information, perhaps working for institutions with printing presses or transmitterds, to do some reporting .

Pretty crazy, I know. .

Trench Warfare

A friend of the blog emails:

I thought the whole stupid idea to make I94 a boulevard was a dead idea. No one really wants it. If the activists get it, it won’t be what they want. Neighborhoods were destroyed when I94 was built, but tearing it out now for some fluffy grade level street, probably close to what Snelling looks like now would really destroy what’s left of the neighborhood (after it rebuilt from I94 and was subsequently destroyed by the light rail).

But, it seems there are enough activists who do not care about the neighbors that they serve, who are only looking to move up by talking the points without even understanding the points that MNDOT appears to be actually considering the stupid idea.

I wonder if anyone who votes for these crappy ideas actually commutes to work, or if they work from home? Do they think their barista at the coffee shop they walk to should work from home? Maybe the barista could be at home collecting unemployment while the robot serves lattes. Do they think the health care staff that care for their aging parents should also work from home? Maybe all the service industry workers, doctors included, should just be shocked up in work force housing next to their employer. That way, they won’t have to see any of those workers driving to work. The streets will be clean for their errands. 

Is there no end to how little those with privilege want to interact with us?

Signaling one’s virtue is a social activity – but only with the right society…

I’ve asked one of the planners to discuss this on the radio with me – a resident of the neighborhood they keep trying to destroyo. I’ve heard nothing back. I’m not going to hold my breath.

Mediocrity

This is from the Pioineer Press letters to the editor:

With the Ford plant long gone — and with Henry Ford’s reputation of being a major anti-Semite — I have been thinking about renaming Ford Parkway.

The replacement name I would like to recommend is “George Latimer Parkway.”

According to one current city councilor, “Latimer was hands down the best mayor we ever had.” So who could be more deserving of having a major St. Paul street named after him? What an honor!

With all due respect to the “one current councilor” standard, let’s be honest: all it takes is for two or more Highland Park DFL busybody biddies to start agitating for it, and it’ll likely happen – and that was evenb before the St Paul City Council devolved into the pack of hyenas it largely is today, saved from being the worst City Council in Minnesota only because Minneapolis is next door.

Still and all, I have a list of alternative, better ideas:

3) Rename it “Quit Using The CIty As Your Playground, Highland Park Busybodies Parkway” (we’ll need longer street signs, which will provide jobs).
2) Name it for the last *good* mayor we had, Norm Coleman.
1) Leave it alone and and fix the roads and hire some cops.

Thanks.

Saint Paul Schooled

A friend of the blog emails:

Saw this on Facebook last night. My sense is that there is more to this story, but then again, it is Saint Paul Public Schools, so maybe there isn’t….

There may very well be more to the story. If I were a gambling man, I would say that that “more“ is a St., Paul Schools bureaucrat list ir misfiled the title.

As I’ve noted in this space, assuming the SPPS operates for anyone’s benefit but it’s own is always your first mistake.

Read:

I’m watching this one.

Heads You’re Racist, Tails You’re Destroying The Climate

A friend of the blog emails, with an accompanying social media blurb from Saint Paul City councilwoman Mitra Jalali:

Our councilwoman- Yes, there is quite a bit of vacant parking, but that’s because the city and the owners of the property made the decision to not allow the business owners to repair, but rather evicted everyone so that the Major League Soccer team could have more parking. Remember?

Prior to that, the parking lots were rarely vacant because people came to the area to support those businesses. They came to the area by car, by bus, and by walking. Now, there really isn’t much for people outside of the neighborhood to drive into the Midway for- there are some good restaurants, but lots of places have good restaurants. Those who can drive will go to the suburbs for more choice, and thus cheaper, groceries and retail options. Complaining about parking lots that are owned by businesses are not exactly the words I would use to attract any type of business back to the area…

We know the riots expedited the decline of the Midway, but we also know that propaganda policies going back to Russ Stark and Chris Coleman also played a role in the decline of the Midway. If he were any more aware than Councilwoman Jalali, Eric Molho might realize that the anti-car, anti-parking, anti-business attitude of city leadership has led us to where we are now. https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2023/06/reflecting-on-one-minneapolis-two-realities-as-a-friend-plans-a-move-outside-the-city/ His editorial could have easily been written about Saint Paul as well.

And why are we concerned about the “intensity of heat” that these parking lots produce. If there were businesses there, and if there were people coming to the businesses, those lots would be wonderful to have. What is more concerning to the neighbors of the actual area is the constant congregation of people lying around getting sun strokes while passed out drunk there, or people doing drugs worse than drinking and of course the crime that comes with those activities. Amazing that Jalali was able to find an angle to photograph herself without those elements around her. Ignoring these elements of the current landscape is also not the way to attract investment into the area.

Molho ends his editorial with “We love celebrating our parks and bike lanes but appear clueless about public safety and thriving neighborhoods.” Perhaps that is some self reflection? Perhaps all at the city leadership area should recognize their cluelessness and actually talk to the businesses leaving and talk to the businesses who are staying/who want to stay and figure out what they need. I would guess the answers would be opposite everything people like Jalali and Molho want, and the only way we get back to a reasonable city with improved economics is if activists like Jalali and Molho are humble enough to listen and learn.

I suspect Jane Prince is the only person on the council who can spell, much less practice, humility and listening.

Resolution!

The SPPD has arrested a suspect in the arson of a mosque on Dale Street in Saint Paul:

Police said Thursday officers arrested 42-year-old Said Ntamugabumwe around 8 p.m. Wednesday. He was booked into the Ramsey County Jail on suspicion of first-degree arson

Read More: Arrest Made in Minnesota Mosque Arson Case | https://krocnews.com/arrest-made-in-minnesota-mosque-arson-case/?trackback=twitter_mobile&utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

No word if Mr. Ntamugabumwe was carrying an umbrella.

The Same Thing Over And Over Again

“Juvenile Offender” alleged to have murdered a Saint Paul man while burgling the man’s wife’s car is already a frequent flyer:

FOX 9 has confirmed through multiple sources that the 17-year-old suspect in custody on suspicion of Michael Brasel’s murder is the same young man captured on a video that went viral last year inside a Saint Paul Harding High School bathroom…the teen, who we are not naming at this point, was charged and eventually pled guilty to aggravated robbery in that case. He was discharged from probation and supervision four months ago, in January.

Former St. Paul Police chief Todd Axtell makes an appearance in the story, showing us again why he was literally the only public figure in either of the Twin Cities not to disgrace himself completely during the 2020 riots.

Remember – if the murder victim had instead shot the teen (while meeting all the other criteria for self-defense naturally), the Ramsey County Attorney’s office would have take a much greater interest in punishment.

That’s intentional.

And just watch – John Choi will not ask for the sentence enhancement for using a gun in a violent crime. Mark my words.

Unexpectedly

With great fanfare, Minneapolis and Saint Paul raised their minimum wages to $15 an hour. 

And now, the Minneapolis Federal Reserve says the policy has done…well, exactly what every conservative said it would do:  

 Pay is up 1% among those with jobs – but 2% fewer are employed as a direct result of the policies, and that’s just scratching the surface (emphasis added):

Many economists have reached similar conclusions about minimum wage increases in the past. Still, the size of the impacts the researchers measured — by comparing Minneapolis and St. Paul to data culled from other Minnesota cities from 2017 through 2021 — were eye-popping, especially in low-wage industries.

Take Minneapolis’ retail sector, for example: The minimum wage increase led to 28% fewer retail jobs than researchers would’ve expected from a similar city during the same five-year period. By this comparison, Minneapolis also saw a 20% drop in hours worked and a 13% dip in aggregate worker earnings.

Across St. Paul’s restaurant industry, the city’s 2018 minimum wage hike was responsible for drying up nearly one-third of available jobs, the study found. In “limited-service” (fast food) restaurants, both hours and earnings fell by more than half after the increase took effect.

“Good, they’re mostly terrible jobs anyway” say the white progressives from the non-profit/government/industrial complex. They re literally spinning this as good news – or excuses for more programs.

It’s possible that Big Left isn’t pushing these minimum wages as a way to gut opportunity for entry level workers. But if it were, I’m at a loss for what they’d do differently.

Meanwhile In Saint Anthony Park

Saint Anthony Park is Saint Paul’s neighborhood for “old money” without all the ostentation of Summit Avenue or Crocus Hill.

Its leafy streets and gently-cared-for Victorians full of university profs and senior administrative types and other moderately successful architecture geeks is the kind of place that makes city life look good.

It’s also a neighborhood full of people who haven’t been robbed, burgled and gone over enough to get hypervigilant just yet.

Fearless prediction: if they find a perp, he’ll be out of jail on his own recognizance for several felonies, and was moving up-market by going to SAP.

Condolences to Mr. Brasel’s family.

Cold Flint/s

Up until 2020, DFLers could respond to conservative concerns about the state of the Twin Cities with “Hey, at least they’re growing”.

And yes, both Minneapolis and Saint Paul grew, after a fashion, between 2000 and 2020.

But all that has come to a screeching halt, and reversed:

Unstated: most of the people hitting the doors are the productive, taxpaying ripe suck class. Whatever growth is happening is among the class that consumes government revenue – in particular, the non-profit industrial complex and its clients.

Former Crystal city councilman and slap target emeritus Jeff Kolb responds, as usual, economically and precisely:

The Met Council has been running a demographic ponzi scheme, trying to plump up the numbers of the productive class to justify spending, taxing and playing infrastructure games like the cities are healthy and growing.

Like Detroit, I suspect Minneapolis and Saint Paul are about to find out what happens when the productive class hits the exits.

Urban Progressive Privilege: It’s “One Minnesota”, And It’s All Theirs

It took a week for the story to get out – but somehow, it did.

A group of Mayor Carter’s staffers showed us what “One Minnesota” looks like when the new gentry cross paths with the proles:

“They just came in, they were obviously intoxicated,” recalls restaurant owner Jason Dorweiler.

He says a group of seven people came in asking for a table, while three men went to the restroom.

“They were very loud, we heard noises from inside the bathroom, outside while service was going on,” Dorweiler explains. “We kind of checked in on them. It appeared that they had urinated all over our floor, which is a bad sign, in addition to them coming in and just being annoying. They proceeded to sit down and were just being belligerent the whole time.”

Too tl:DR,and need a summary? Here you go:

Naturally, they tried to play the victim card after the fact:

A second police report, filed days later, shows Cruz Williams called police, saying she wanted to report an assault.

In the report she says ‘she was trying to de-escalate the situation’ — and that she told the manager she and her friends were going to leave.

No wonder the DFL is so keen on gun control. They’re afraid real. people may start protecting themselves from the DFL.

Learning From Failure?

A friend of the blog emails:

The tides seem to be changing

I remember when a similar editorial was written about downtown Minneapolis and the man who wrote it was basically canceled. And the Star Tribune took it down.
It’s interesting to note how the writer says, “I don’t raise these opinions in certain rooms, because I am deeply enmeshed in the progressive ecosystem of belief, and have adapted to those spaces for much of my life.”

Glad he finally feels brave enough to raise these concerns. Hope we can get some real enforcement nationwide on Fentanyl use, crime, etc. 

Hope springs eternal, I suppose. But that would involve admitting there’s a problem – and what the causes of those problems actually are.

Baby steps, maybe.

Defining His Place

So what exactly does Mayor Carter do?

Fix roads? No.

Put criminals in jail? Please.

Play the social media game?

Well, now we’re onto something:

I bet he has a completely lit Instagram account…

Priorities

SCENE: It’s1989, in the home of TONI and MELVIN Carter (JR.). Melvin is a police officer; Toni an aspiring politician. They sit on a couch in the living room, watching the news. Their 10 year old son Melvin the III walks into the room.

MELVIN III: Mom? Dad?

MELVIN JR: Yes, son?

MELVIN III: What’s for dinner?

TONI: We have no food.

MELVIN III: What now?

MELVIN JR. We bought an acquarium.

MELVIN III: Uh – cool?

TONI: Absolutely cool. You know how we love fish.

MELVIN JR: We also got the driveway cobblestoned.

MELVIN III: But our driveway was perfectly fine…

TONI: I’ve always wanted a cobblestoned driveway.

MELVIN III: But…why?

MELVIN III: It’ll set off the look of the1932 Cord Roadster I bought at the car show.

MELVIN III: The what what what?

TONI: It’s a classic car.

MELVIN III: I didn’t know we were “classic car” people.

MELVIN JR. We’re not. Just seemed like a good idea.

TONI: Provided we got a cobblestone driveway.

MELVIN III: But…dinner?

MELVIN JR: My boss is just going to have to pay me more.

MELVIN III: Huh

SCENE dissolves, flashing forward 34 years. Melvin III is now the mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota.

MITCH BERG: So we’ve got money for student savings accounts, universal basic income, reparations, and trying to build a new Rondo neighborhood on a land bridge over I94….

…but we’re waiting on the Legislature – and apparently the minority party in the legislature, at that – to pay for something that is one of government’s unambiguously legitimate jobs?

Planting Season

A regular reader sent me this:

Social services get funding based on how much need exists – which means it’s in their interests to make sure people know to get their needs out, front and center.

No stone left unturned.

I’m From The Government, And I’m Here To Help Fix History

1950: The “Expert” class pushes “Urban Renewal” – the freeway system was part of it. Neighborhoods destroyed, downtowns gutted, replaced with inorganic bauhaus canyons – because Big Government and the Expert class said it was for our own good.

But it sure transferred money into the hands of the political class!

2023: Sure, let’s try it all again.

Big Government is the problem behind every other problem.

Other Peoples Money

Back when I worked in downtown Saint Paul, I commuted down Summit Avenue.

There’s a bike lane down the entire length of the street. And while the condition of the lane is the same as the condition of the street itself (I’m looking at you, Summit and Oakland) it’s already one of the most beautiful urban corridors in the city.

Let’s review: for the price of the paint it took to create it, two-way bike lanes co-exist with two lanes of traffic each way, down a gorgeous parkway. It’s how biking should be.

“The City of Saint Paul” wants to spend $`12 million to build raised lanes on both side of Summit, reducing the street to one lane each way. And by “the City of Saint Paul”, I mean a thin, entitled, smug, innumerate veneer of smug upper-middle-class members of the laptop class – the peolple who run the city.

The city can’t hire cops. Its streets are a disaster. Every year, we hesitate to call the snow-plowing “the worst ever” because that merely temptes the next year.

And, make no mistake – the fact that this story is being publicized means the decision has been made. Oh, here will be “public hearings” and “listening sessions” – which are stamps on the procedural ticket to show they’ve done their due diligence before doing what they wanted to do anyway.

But speaking as a biker, I’d like to have a word with Zack Mensinger.