Plans for a St. Paul Greenway face legal roadblock

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On most every workday Jason Tanzman leaves his south Minneapolis home, hops onto the Midtown Greenway and bikes east along the quiet, direct and car-free path. Things change when he crosses the Mississippi River into St. Paul. Here he takes a zig-zagging route down crowded city streets, only some of which are marked to accommodate bikes, until he reaches his employer, the Sibley Bike Depot. Like many area bike commuters, Tanzman likes plans to extend the Greenway into downtown St. Continue Reading

Another Twin Cities Bike Walk Week down, and plans to keep moving with more

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By now hordes of spandex-sporting bike racers have descended upon the Twin Cities, ready to perform extreme feats of endurance, strength and speed for the Nature Valley Grand Prix. But just days ago the Cities hosted a week-long party in honor of another breed of cyclist, one more likely to carry a cloth lunch sack than wear a tight Lycra kit. That’s the commuter, who eschews car travel in favor of pedaling through our cities’ warm sunshine, winter snow and every kind of weather in between. These folks, as well as the metro area’s many like-minded walkers who use only their own feet to get to work, were celebrated June 5 through 11. With 7,000 people participating in its group rides, educational events and free celebrations, it was the Twin Cities’ third and largest Bike Walk Week.The inaugural Women’s Wednesday events attracted dozens of participants, and the June 10 kickoff of Nice Ride Minnesota – now the country’s largest bike-sharing program – also generated a flurry of fanfare and media attention. Continue Reading

Biggest-ever Bike Walk Week aims to get people moving in Twin Cities

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From single-speeds barreling down Hennepin Avenue to cowboy boots strutting through Como Park, self-propulsion is gaining momentum here in the Twin Cities. Saturday, June 5, marks the start of the Cities’ third annual Bike Walk Week, a week of group commutes, social gatherings and shopping deals in honor of residents being their “own engines.” The festivities are tied together by several key happenings, such as Women’s Wednesday on June 9, Bike Walk to Work Day on June 10, and Bike to the Twins Game on June 13. “What makes this year really exciting is the breadth of activities going on throughout the week,” Amber Collett, communications associate for event co-organizer Transit for Livable Communities, said. “We’ve got something for everyone,” Collett added, “from people who walk all the time and very experienced bikers, to folks who are just thinking about taking that step off their doorstep for the first time.” Organizers hope to show that biking and walking aren’t just for recreation, but something people can build into their everyday lives, she said. Continue Reading

MN VOICES | Eric Jolly: Public science leader, private man of faith

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Dr. Eric Jolly’s eyes still showed his fatigue from a whirlwind work trip to Germany, but when it came time for him to show off some of his favorite things in the museum, the Science Museum of Minnesota president promptly perked up and transformed into teacher mode. He giddily zoomed through the Cell Lab, where children can don lab coats, gloves and goggles to study their saliva’s enzymes. Then he raced through the basement-level vault, where volunteers and scientists probe ancient fossils, and where other carefully cataloged treasures wait in metal cabinets to be explored.  Jolly enjoys taking special guests through the vault, which sports shelves of prehistoric pottery and dozens of nearly six-foot-long hunting spears stored upright against one wall. Though their shafts were mottled with age, the sharp tips looked as if they could still easily pierce the flesh of a charging beast. “The Secret Service did not appreciate that I brought (former First Lady Laura Bush) near those,” he admitted, glancing toward the weapons. Continue Reading

Like Minneapolis, these lady bikers have got “it going on”

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Shawn Postera pulled on a pair of stylish arm-warmers she’d sewn herself, hopped atop her beloved Surly Cross-Check and zoomed down the Midtown Greenway to show off her no-hands-needed riding skills.  Postera, 36, was taking a break from the hustle and bustle of Saturday’s first-ever Bikers’ Bazaar Craft Fair. Held in the Freewheel Bike Shop at the Midtown Bike Center, the event attracted close to 20 vendors, most of whom were women, and many, like Postera, who were there to sell bicycling-related gear. “There’s a lot of talent here in the bike community, especially amongst the ladies,” said Postera, who’s organized casual, women-only commutes to bars, shops and parties for years. “They cannot only bike, but they do a lot of other things.” The vendors offered a wide selection of reasonably priced treasures, from several brands of messenger bags, including Trash Bags and those made by Suzanne Janse-Vreeling, to Emily Floyd’s earrings crafted from used inner tubes (below). Continue Reading

Photo Essay: Dog Days at the Dome

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The big dog’s tongue slapped up against my camera lens with a wet thwack. 
Having said his hello, the bully breed sprinted down the Metrodome councourse, manically sniffing his large, small and mid-sized canine pals. I wish my lens and shutter finger had been fast enough to have caught that moment, but – despite the central subjects’ high speeds – I managed to catch a number of other decent shots at this winter’s last Dog Days at the Dome. The event attracted a large crowd of dogs and their caretakers on Thursday, March 5. Many good-natured large dogs were there, such as this grey Great Dane.  

There was a designated Small Dog Area, although it seemed to go almost completely unused. Continue Reading