“…the 3 weeks of summer…” Yeah, I spent a weekend at Fitger’s during the ‘Summer’ - I remember wearing a black turtleneck accessorized with goosebumps the whole time. I also remember driving to Hibbing, and returning the same night because I didn’t have any relatives there. No relatives = No accomodations.
But…you aren’t getting a break from state taxes because you live, as you say, ‘outstate’ *. Were your utilities discounted for living ‘outstate’? And your gasoline taxes, like mine, also paid for those super-diligent bridge inspectors who did what was minimally required to stay in the state employee union. (Was anyone fired in disgrace? Or did they retire with full retirement benefits when they finally ran out the public teat clock?)
*That’s the first I’ve ever heard that term. I’ve criss-crossed all over MN in the years I lived there, and I never heard that. I heard lots of St. Paulies whine when Minneapolitans referred to ‘Minneapolis’, and not ‘the Twin Cities’ because they felt everyone should be scolded into including them.
Farmington Steak House. The first time I ate there, I mistook the menu sign that said “1-2 piece chicken dinner” to mean “1 OR 2 piece chicken dinner” As it turned out, the sign meant “Half of a whole chicken, fried, and served with a pound of mashed potatoes and gravy”. One of the few times my gut has had to slink off in defeat.
…of course, unless you’re related to the family that runs the Farmington Steak House, where are you going to work?
I lived in Minneapolis since I was 18. Never really crossed the river until I was 40.
St. Paul is where it’s at.
Turf Club. Axe Man. Frogtown. Surly. Summit. Twin Cities Tai Chi. Morelli’s. Rice Park. Mayor Carter.
Plus the street lights are a lot cooler.
(Still like First Avenue and Lake Harriet Bandshell though.)
St. Paul remains the only city in North America (yes, yes, Canada and Mexico - this time you’re included) where I’ve had a close encounter with a BAT while shopping, and the store clerks were completely nonchalant.
As an Okie, I cannot understand the people who constantly vote against their own best interests. It’s like they vote for republican ideals because they don’t want the gub’mint gettin’ any of their money when they win the lottery.
Gas and electricity in Duluth is a municipal utility, so low by both state and Twin Cities standards. (Those public employees you derogate with your “public teat” remark usually bring extremely high value for money.)
As for “outstate”, I haven’t lived in Minnesota in many years but when I was there it was used pretty often, especially in political discussions, and some of my friends really hated it. I can imagine that someone in the Twin Cities might not even notice it.
So…you haven’t lived in Minnesota for years, but you still defend it to the point of claiming the bridge inspectors were high value for the money. That’s certainly not my opinion - I used to commute over that bridge. When I saw the collapse on the national news, I felt I had barely dodged a bullet.I had to drive my car because the bus driver’s union went on strike for so long, I wound up moving to Colorado before it was settled. The lowest transit employee was making more money per hour than I was.
Hey, don’t accuse me of calling Duluth ‘outstate’. I’ll call it a frigid economic dead end, but again, I actually lived in ‘the Twin Cities’ (Minneapolis), and I never, ever heard anyone call the rest of the state ‘outstate’.
The Minnesota bridge inspectors raised red flags on that bridge as early as 2003 with photo documentation that was provided to he Investigation teams. There’s a reason every civil engineer in the United States feels the United States is dangerously behind in funding infrastructure updates.
Since we’re fully entrenched in a battle of Trolls, would y’all quit picking on Dioptase 1? He wasn’t the one who said, “Meanwhile, in nearby Minnesota…”, that was written by Doctorow in the article/posting, and I presume Doctorow phrased it that way as an homage to Rocky & Bullwinkle.
from the Wiki: "In internal Mn/DOT documents, bridge officials talked about the possibility of the bridge collapsing, and worried that they might have to condemn it.[49]
The construction taking place in the weeks prior to the collapse included joint work and replacing lighting, concrete and guard rails. At the time of the collapse, four of the eight lanes were closed for resurfacing,[50][51][52][53] and there were 575,000 pounds (261 tonnes) of construction supplies and equipment on the bridge."
I would like to emphasize the second word of the first paragraph: Internal.
When I moved, that law was just a pipe dream, so to speak. Remember though, 40% of the state said “no”.
Two falls ago, the kids at the bus stop were greeted by a clutch of discarded dirty needles in the intersection next to my house. The following Saturday night, I got to see a junkie fall dead out of his car as he rounded the corner of the same intersection. The fire dept. and a meat wagon showed up, but not the cops.
Now, I have to wear leather work gloves pick up litter in my yard.
A local ‘music for youngsters’ radio station runs fake/joke PSA’s. I caught one the other day where one stoner ( presumably a native) helpfully points out to the other one (with a surfer accent) that CA has caught up to CO. The fake PSA ends with a fake narrator stating, “This ad paid for by the Committe For Pack Your Shit and Move Back to California.”
Yes, I have no reason to believe that the bridge collapse was the result of lazy public employees. It was privately designed, privately constructed, and public sector employees on many occasions called it out as problematic.
I’ve lived in 8 US states as an adult, and while I didn’t especially like either the climate or my job in Minnesota and we were happy to leave, it was pretty near the best of them as far as value for money, quality of public services for tax dollar, and livability. I can’t speak for how things look from the POV of someone in the Twin Cities.
MnDot are state employees. They didn’t close the bridge, they didn’t warn commuters, they approved the contracts, they distributed the money, and they approved closing half of the bridge (bottleneck traffic jams), and they approved parking construction vehicles and materials on the bridge they knew was crap. Crap when it was built, and crap when it aged. They kept its problems to itself.
Again, you’re mighty loyal to a state you left, and state employees who failed in a way that was heard around the world. I know it’s killing you that you can’t yell at me, “Oh, yeah? Why don’t you leave it if you don’t like it?” You left.
…and again: What is it with your hatred of people who live in the ‘Twin Cities’? You lived in Duluth, which better, right? For the record, I never lived in St. Paul, so it’s not accurate to say I lived in both cities. I lived in one of them. I had to work in St. Paul for a while, but I didn’t actually LIVE there.
That’s in your head, I love the Cities, and still have friends there. Your earlier post in this thread was a screed about what a hellhole MN is for anyone but the wealthy, my response was simply that there are many parts of MN that are perfectly affordable. I’d personally include the Twin Cities in that, but I think the clear affordability of the rest of the state is enough for that point.
MnDot is not responsible for the bridge collapse, it was a design flaw, and MN has already litigated and won reparations from the firms responsible. Later maintenance issues that might have contributed to the failure were not a secret, if MnDOT was trying to hide the results of their annual inspections they did a poor job of it. Ultimately the blame for infrastructure neglect falls on taxpayers, who are religiously averse to paying for work that needs to be done and punish any politician who dares to suggest that taxes need to be raised to keep public facilities functioning at a reasonable level.
