Reinventing SMAAC— beyond airport noise

By |

Later this Summer, the South Metro Airport Action Council (SMAAC) will celebrate its 40th Anniversary and the District Court’s order that the Metropolitan Airports Commission must provide noise mitigation equal to its own meager promises even if the airlines object. (If it were responsible to do so, we could declare success and retire.)
Forty years ago, soon after the Metropolitan Airports Commission was created and the first jetliners rolled up to the new terminal in close sequence, neighbors began asking: “What can be done about airport noise?” The South Minneapolis Airport Action Council was organized to advocate for disturbed city neighborhoods. Every step toward economic growth led to more air transportation; every increase in service led to more overflights. The Dual-track studies law, enacted in 1983, suggested solutions based on projected growth and costs of investment. Neither a new airport nor an expansion of MSP was a clear-cut choice. Continue Reading

VOICES: Robust system can rebuff education elitism

By |

School financing in Minnesota is bad and getting worse. While more demands are placed on schools through programs such as No Child Left Behind, the state continues to financially choke schools by refusing to spend enough to provide children even a basic education. The funding problem plays itself out in classrooms every day. State education experts talk a good game about increasing support for science, technology, engineering and math classes, but budget cuts have pruned advanced calculus and physics classes from the curriculum. At a time when leaders tell us that Minnesota’s economic health depends on our ability to compete with other nations, schools are cutting back on foreign language, world history and honors classes. Continue Reading

VOICES: Copper thieves at Coldwater

By |

The abandoned Bureau of Mines buildings around Coldwater Spring have been a magnet for gang graffiti, homeless people seeking shelter, and after-hours adventurism since 1995. Homeless people get ushered out, unleashed dog walkers get tickets. So go the priorities at Hennepin County’s last natural spring, a mile south of Minnehaha Falls. Since 1805 when Lt. Zebulon Pike signed a treaty for a fort on the Mississippi, Coldwater has been “federal.” Good thing, because our state allowed the powerful Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to carve up Fort Snelling’s river bluff with roads and freeways and the airport. Continue Reading

VOICES: Walking guarden duty

By |

A year ago this summer, I walked from Golden Valley to St. Paul three times to be ready for the 61 Mile Hike on my 61st birthday in August. This year I’m gearing up to walk Guard and Garden Duty around the perimeter of the Twin Cities during the Republican National Convention. When I garden, I plant marigolds around the border because, beautiful as they are, their smell repels many pests that might harm my chosen plants. When I was drafted and trained to do guard duty, I was made to believe the importance of patrolling the perimeter, alert to warn of any danger nearby. Continue Reading

Ain’t good enough

By |

Five cops who sued City of Minneapolis to get two million dollars. Ain’t good enough. And this bilge about MPD Chief Dolan instituting a unit to oversee diversity and race issues is just so much cosmetic crap. The Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. Continue Reading

Drinking Mississippi mud

By |

“The man they called Ed said the muddy Mississippi water was wholesomer to drink than the clear water of the Ohio; he said if you let a pint of this yaller Mississippi water settle, you would have about a half to three- quarters of an inch of mud in the bottom, according to the stage of the river, and then it warn’t no better than Ohio water – what you wanted to do was to keep it stirred up – and when the river was low, keep mud on hand to put in and thicken the water up the way it ought to be. “The Child of Calamity said that was so; he said there was nutritiousness in the mud, and a man that drunk Mississippi water could grow corn in his stomach if he wanted to. He says: “You look at the graveyards; that tells the tale. Trees won’t grow worth shucks in a Cincinnati graveyard, but in a Sent Louis graveyard they grow upwards of eight hundred foot high. It’s all on account of the water the people drunk before they laid up. Continue Reading

Our changing Minnesota landscape

By |

We all know Minnesota’s landscape is changing. But how much it’s changing may be a surprise. 40% of Minnesota lakes fail to meet basic clean water standards, according to tests done by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Minnesota’s population is growing faster than any other state in the Midwest. If we don’t conserve while we grow, over 1 million acres of natural areas and farmland could be lost over the next 25 years. Continue Reading

Corn and politics

By |

Boy you’ve got to miss Jesse when you see the likes of a totally owned subsidiary of the corn board like Pawlenty. I am personally ashamed of this shill. … (Full text here)
Get involved … make a comment! Continue Reading