Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/hindsight/)
For most Minnesotans, a trip to the mall means getting in the car, driving through traffic, and navigating a crowded parking lot before even stepping into a store. But for residents who are moving into the new luxury apartments at One Southdale Place, a mall is just a short walk across the parking lot. These structures promote high-density, pedestrian friendly cities that strengthen community development. Continue Reading
The sharing economy has received lots of media adoration over the last couple of years. A closer look reveals a more troubling truth. There are various types of companies in this new economy, but the ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft provide a useful example. In a recent article, Avi Asher-Schapiro details the effects of this model on the workers. Continue Reading
I wanted to go from my university in Massachusetts to the climate march in New York City so that I can come home to a Minnesota that has a brighter future. Continue Reading
The St. Louis River used to look bad. And smell bad. Dead fish were belly-up in the water, and industrial foam covered shorelines. The river looks a lot better these days, but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy yet. Continue Reading
Up in the beautiful realm of Northeastern Minnesota, there is a region aptly known as the Iron Range. The name comes from the ore that is abundantly in the ground: taconite. Continue Reading
The subprime mortgage crisis was a central cause of the recent recession. In short, lenders were providing expensive mortgages to low-income borrowers at an unprecedented rate. Once the housing bubble popped, subprime borrowers defaulted in droves, which helped push the deeply imbricated global financial system to the brink of collapse. Continue Reading
Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new set of recommendations and planning guides to help communities improve their flood resilience. Continue Reading
Due to a recent policy passed by the Minneapolis city council, macro-data about city processes and day-to-day operations will become available online. MinnPost’s Bill Lindeke best characterizes open data as “a movement that combines government transparency, bottom-up crowdsourcing, and high-tech geekery into an unpredictable stew of numbers.” Continue Reading
Thousands of Minnesotans are getting a long overdue raise as the state’s first minimum wage increase in nine years goes into effect. The state minimum wage for large employers, at $8.00 per hour starting today, will increase to $9.00 in 2015 and $9.50 in 2016 followed by annual cost of living increases. This is great news for workers, for businesses and for our economy. Minnesota 2020 joined members of the Raise the Wage Coalition to celebrate this important step in moving Minnesota forward. Continue Reading
Minnesota has consistently ranked among the relatively low in terms of pupil-teacher ratios in recent years. However, the pattern shown on the map below reveals that even adjacent school districts can have dramatically different average student-teacher ratios. Thus, it is clear that there is no single cause for the variation in ratios across the state; race, income, and basic population density all come into play. Continue Reading