All those Democrat twitter account with Ukrainian flags will be Ukrainian flag-free by September 15.

Woman in the Phillips neighborhood of south MInneapolis describes the break-ins and arason that followed her criticism of a neighborhood “homeless camp”:

“This would not happen in Kenwood. This would not happen in Lowry Hill, in Linden Hills. This would not happen by the lake. We’re on our 18th camp in a six-by-six neighborhood,” that homeowner told us when explaining the last two years.

She is fearful for her safety after what happened at her home. It’s why we are not showing the woman’s face or using her name.

After being out of town, she came home to a horrible scene two weekends ago. Every room in the house where she’s lived for 20 years was ransacked.

“Everything destroyed and torn apart. Doors kicked in. Everything I owned [was] trashed. Stolen. Bags of stuff stolen and taken out of the house,” she said.

She believes it was retaliation for speaking out about homeless encampments in the neighborhood.

The woman may be anonymous. but she knows how things work in a modern, “woke” city:

The woman was candid about what’s gone on.

“So, when the city talks about equity in every breath, every breath they say ‘in the eyes of equity.’ I’ll just say it’s bullshit, because if it was in the eyes of equity, they would be containing crime here in the Phillips community,” the woman said.

Liz Collen at Alphanews has the whole story:

When people can’t count on government to keep them safe, they’ll figure out a way to do it themselves. And that’ll get very ugly, very fast.

Watching the ongoing slow dripping failure of the Southwest Light Rail line, it’s temping to remember a time when American could actually accomplish big public infrastructure projects.

Forget for a moment the breezy authoritarianism that went behind such projects as “Urban Renewal” and driving interstates through neighborhoods with less clout than their neighbors – that’s part and parcel of government “getting things done” whether your goal is to drive from Cleveland to Detroit or to stop the spread of a disease with a 99+% survival rate.

But there was a time when this country did get big projects done; the canal system, the coastal forts, the transcontinental railroad, the Panama Canal, the Tennessee Valley Authroity (again, forget the low-grade totalitarianism), the Interstate Highway System.

Those days seem to be over. America just doesn’t finish big infrastructure jobs anymore.

It’s a long read – but this piece notes the dismal record of American public infrastructure work since the beginning and failure of California’s “High Speed Rail” (HSR):

Despite its failure, the HSR project inaugurated the U.S.’s megaproject era. Once a rare type of project, by 2018 megaprojects comprised 33 percent of the value of all U.S. construction project starts. An alarming number of these have spiraled out of control for many of the same reasons that killed the California bullet train. The decade that followed the financial crisis was a kind of inflection point in the industry; this was when construction projects became noticeably worse and when the long-term implications could no longer be ignored. One of the most cited studies of the U.S.’s declining ability to build reviewed 180 transit megaprojects across the country, revealing that today, U.S. projects take longer to complete and cost nearly 50 percent more on average than those in Europe and Canada.

Having joined Kiewit in 2010, I witnessed these changes first-hand. I have since moved on, but have remained in the broader industry, including working on what are called “strategic pursuits”—the process by which companies compete for megaprojects. This experience has provided insight into the mechanics of how these projects are awarded and why they so frequently fail.

You can fill in “Southwest LIght Rail” (and some Twin Cities-y locations) at virtually any point in the piece, and it still makes sense.

The Star Tribune is complaining about “misinformation” today. You may hit a paywall (I did), and i”m not giving them any money.

Sort of unrelated aside: today is the fifteenth anniversary of the collapse of the 35W River Bridge, in downtown Minneapolis.

An event which prompted the most obscene tidal wave of concentrated disinformation I can recall – mostly, former Strib “Senior Columnist”, the late Nick Coleman, who beclowned his newspaper in print and on national TV by blaming Governor Pawlenty, and tax-accountability groups like David Strom’s “Taxpayers League”, for the collapse before the last of the bodies were cold. It was the most craven display of “journalistic” abuse on the local level, ever.

In the intervening years, the Strib’s fortunes have fared about as well as the late bridge. The Strib managed to do some good reporting on the story – but along with the photos and the survivor interviews, it’s hard to separate that story from Nick Coleman on MSNBC, bellowing bug-eyed at the camera about Tim Pawlenty’s responsibilty…

…for an engineering mistake made in 1967.

The bridge is back. The Strib is still here, technically. And “misinformation” has become an industry that’d boggle Nick Coleman’s mind from the great beyond.

The MInneapolis City Council – with crime, inflation and housing issues all solved, youbetcha – sees a shiny new progressive toy:

Two Minneapolis City Council members have joined forces with pro-choice organizations in an effort to push the city to pay for abortions

I mean, they’re not paying a lot of police salaries these days, so…

August 1, 2025: “Residents of Manila garbage dump: “Californians go home! You’re ruining everything!”

I mean, it’s more and more plausible every day.