Best and Worst of the Week

Best: Catenary poles and catenary wire-holder-thingamabobs. Can we pause for a moment and look at how good those tapered, tubular, Saint-Paul-Brown catenary poles look? Details matter. (I apologize to those of you that ride Hiawatha everyday and will never look be able to look at your galvanized i-beams the same way.) Special thanks to the traffic engineer who strategically placed that arrow for this photo.




Worst/best: A bus shelter on a cold, rainy day. So awkward. So clammy. And yet, such a sight for sore eyes. There's kind of a strange camaraderie among a bunch of half-soaked grumpy people who need to share a tiny space. And if there's not, some group venting about the bus being late usually does the trick. Everyone loves to hate on a late bus!




Best: Lumbermobile. Something that is so bizarrely American is this idea that cars are irreplaceable. A world without a roof rack? Gasp! I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard something like, "transit is great, but nobody is going to take the bus/train to Menards to buy lumber." You know what? They actually do. Take a seat, haters.




(I should say - Menards is a true superstore and sells virtually everything. We have a game trying to guess things they don't sell - it's impossible. Pudding? Coloring books? Deodorant? Flameless candles? The magic bullet? Hot pink zebra duct tape? It turns out all these things fit on transit! And here we had just written off customers in the Central Corridor shopping for things smaller than a breadbox.)


Worst: Parking fail. Failure. Failed. Fail.




Best: Granite Pavers (aka Paver Watch 2012). From deep below the streets of Saint Paul - reclaimed granite and sandstone pavers are now being reinstalled in the medians of the Raymond historic district. There's more to this design coming east of Raymond...wait for it...





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Total clarity

Some of us thought that the bus stop closures would cease in our neighborhood after heavy construction, but we were wrong. Now that Prospect Park construction has started, the traffic transitions (read: closures) are set up all the way to Berry Street. I suppose that's what I get for living in border country.

But what I love most about our liminal existence is the extreme clarity that Metro Transit provides so that we can find our bus stops everyday.

Posted at Berry Street: "The 8 bus either does or does not stop here. Hard to say. If it doesn't, it might stop down at Eustis. But don't worry, if you happen to miss it, it be back in only 30 minutes. Thank you for playing our game."

 Creepy Minnesota Opera lady looks annoyed...

Posted at Eustis: "Silly rider, I can't believe you fell for that! You should probably start waiving frantically at the approaching 8 bus, making your most pathetic face in hopes that some newbie driver will pity you. Thanks for playing our game."

 
Other things of note this morning: I see that the Hamline EB bus stop is up and functioning, and that Walsh has really outdone themselves this time. They've added luxurious grocery cart parking spaces on the temporary platforms. Who says this project isn't adding on-street parking? And does this gentleman know he is taking up a whole parking space? Sheesh.

March-ish

When the contractor said they'd restart construction "no sooner than March 1," I think what they meant was "the last few days of February don't really count anyway." That's ok, I suppose, especially since tomorrow is Leap Day, which barely counts on anyone's calendar. It's kinda sorta close enough. If I squint at the bottom of my calendar, it looks downright Marchish.

This morning construction was back in swing. I could tell because there were two large utility trucks in the White Castle parking lot (don't worry, White Castle is probably going to make it through construction ok.)

Medians are being peeled away.


Temporary bus stops are popping up (this one's at Lexington).


And cars are starting to do ridiculous things, like driving up next to large machinery in order to avoid having to go another block to turn left.


Belinda tells me to expect snow, wintery mix, and up to an inch of rain today. It's not really fair that I have to lug snow boots and carry an umbrella, but we'll take it over a foot of snow.

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Location:University Ave.

Best and Worst of the Week

November has made me feel lazy on the blog front, like if I just hibernate a little, Thanksgiving will come sooner.

So in the spirit of clip shows and other tactics of non-writing, I give you best and worst of the week.

Best: New bus shelter at Raymond and University.

It was like someone at Metro Transit heard that it was predicted to rain/snow/slush today and ran out to throw up this shelter at Raymond. It is so new that there were still lots of little metal shavings on the sidewalk from its installation. I am sad to admit it's winter, but happy to have something to cover my head.


Worst: Where the Sidewalk Ends.

That is to say, these days the sidewalk ends just about everywhere you are trying to go. I like new sidewalks (A LOT), but I reserve the right to be annoyed that I can't get a little detour action while they are being installed. ADA? Nobody? Ok, maybe I'm just high maintenance. But I think this poor guy across the street agrees with me. Btw, this whole scene gets waaaay more fun in the dark (5 pm) when people can't tell that the sidewalk is missing. It's like the X-Games. Only nobody wants to play.



Best: The (temporary) pedestrian bridge at Hampden.

I feel like the crews may have built this specifically for me to take these two photos from the middle of the guideway. So I did.



Worst: Gotcha, you're surrounded by orange tape.

Thanks, construction guys, for telling me that this sidewalk was closed/non-existent as I walked past 20 of you in this block. I love climbing through dusty construction tape in work clothes.


Best of the Best: My sister got a goldendoodle puppy this week. I mean, we're not going to do any better than that, people.



Worst of the Worst: Bus Driver got told.

You know how driving a bus is like, all sunshine and fatty benefits? No? Oh. Well, this guy apparently felt the need take out his road rage on this poor bus driver anyway. He got out of his car at a red light to walk back to yell at him, for...who knows what. All I know is that the bus driver is a better person than me - seems pretty tempting to just run this guy over. Way to keep your cool, Bus Driver Man. As for you, Mr. Yells-A-Lot, way to keep it classy. Why don't you scurry back to your car before I come chew you out for parking in a crosswalk?



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