Little inspector

Naimo checks out both sides of the temporary water main on our walk. Everything passed her sniff test.




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Location:Berry & University

Searching for TOD

Like many, I'm looking for TOD in the Central Corridor. A Transit-Oriented Dentist.

I chose my dentist based solely on location - Snelling and University, the transit epicenter of my little world. Anywhere in St. Paul that is served by 5 bus routes is a veritable hotbed of access. It's unheard of. I can quickly get there from home or from work, by local, limited stop, or even express bus service. I never have to look at a bus schedule.

So you can imagine my horror when I got the letter: We're Moving. To a newer and shinier building and all that. More modern, more accessible, blah, blah, blah. More parking! Great. Just what I need is more parking.

They're moving to a freeway frontage road with no sidewalk. Oh, but the letter tells me, we are only one block from the 16 bus! This is true, but that one block is 1200 feet long and comprised almost entirely of sad, poorly-configured parking lots.

Seriously? I mean, I have more than once taken the bus to the grocery store (in that same sad, empty block) and walked through Pavement Land, kicking away the trash tumbleweeds to obtain of a few necessary pantry items. But you have to think - surely these people have never ridden the bus, or they would be a little more embarrassed to tout transit access at the new location. I was thoroughly annoyed.

I went in to my appointment today ready to dump them, and of course, I chickened out. I was already late to a meeting, and I decided it's much easier to break up via phone. There was lots of chatter about the LRT construction and the nice weather. They poked around at my teeth. They took some x-rays. And then my dentist said something that made me kind of speechless.

"See you in six months - drive safely!"

This is definitely not TOD. Can anyone recommend a good dentist?

Legos!

Ok, this has nothing to do with anything, but is just too cool not to share...thanks to the Overhead Wire for posting.

Crikey!

When I studied abroad in Australia, there were a few dicey traffic moments from looking the wrong way for oncoming cars. Luckily, I had a pack of Aussies to remind me (read: mock me) that Americans need to look both ways before crossing the street.

I walked over to South St. Anthony Rec tonight and had a little Brizzie flashback. I was on the southeast corner (or what used to be a corner) at Eustis, inching up to the construction barriers to cross University. Now, I am hyper aware of the traffic configuration - one lane in each direction all pushed to the north side of the street. But for some reason, my brain was still surprised to see eastbound traffic on the north side of University. So please please keep your eyes open out there. And looking both ways is not a bad idea...

Magical mystery traffic capacity tour

I have to say, when I started to understand the construction phasing schedule, I got really anxious about how long my bus commute would get. The 50 doesn't do detours - it just sits in traffic.

And the first week or so of traffic being switched over was rough. Drivers were delayed and aggravated, and were taking it out on the neighborhood by slamming on the gas as soon as they could turn onto a side street. Prior west was a parking lot. The honking was ridiculous, like when I used to commute on the Crosstown (62 is devoid of any semblance of Minnesota Nice). The craziness was in full force.

But a strange thing has happened as people start settling into the dance of construction. Traffic started moving again. There's still a lot of it, but cars clip along at a pretty steady pace. Buses are running on time. Pedestrians aren't being mowed down at stop lights. It's like people have (gasp) accepted construction?! Is that possible?

Whatever magical capacity tour we're on, I'm really really enjoying getting home on time.

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Hotter + wild speculation

Kudos to the peeps who are out decorating my fence-neighbor. Keep it up.




Also, I'd like to add a potential streetcar track sighting to Paver Watch 2011...just saying, it looks a lot like rusty old track to me.

Up too early

Bad news - an early meeting is no way to start a Friday.

Good news - I ran for the bus this morning and got one of those cushy articulated deals with the big windows and the fluffy blue seats. Ah, luxury.

So from my choice window seat, I thought I would provide a little video tour of the action out there this morning.



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Location:Raymond & University