They are almost here

Well, the major party national conventions are almost upon us. This is the latest they have been. The strange mixing of early primaries and late conventions may be a sign of the way things will be in the future.

And in time for the conventions, MinnPost runs a story by Albert Eisele, former DPP Washington reporter and writer of a dual biography of Hubert Humphrey [the real one, not the guy who was our Attorney General] and Eugene McCarthy, Almost to the Presidency.

Most of the cases he cites might be familiar to those who have studied Minnesota history, stories involving some legendary names like Donnelly, Olson, Stassen, Burger, Humphrey, McCarthy, and Mondale. The story seems to have been included because of the prominence Governor Pawlenty may be having at this year’s GOP bash.

Some may think that Pawlenty is a long shot for VP, and a cynic might be musing over Pawlenty not being able to give his acceptance speech because he is looking for the convention in Mpls. but regardless of one’s take on this year’s confabs, Eisele’s post makes interesting reading which can be commended to all.

Don Boxmeyer

Don Boxmeyer passed away. That is not news now. If you have followed the local media you have read about his history at the DPP and his years as both reporter and columnist, how his health has not been good, and how his burial has been delayed because of a government snafu.

I determined earlier that I would save my eulogies for January of each year and I won’t change that now. But it would not be in order to not point out that although I respected his work and had read his stuff for years and exchanged some emails with him, that I am only aware of actually meeting him once, when I was in line with him at a book signing for Curt Milburn’s The Phalen Corridor. [Before signing, Milburn had to ask Boxmeyer who he was.]

I wrote about Don Boxmeyer last October. As I noted then,

Most of the time it seems it seems the people of whom he writes are people I don’t know or know only a bit, but are on subjects I find interesting and even if I don’t know the people being written about, it seems that I must know several people who do know them.

I was interested in why the DPP had David Hawley writing the story of his death, since Hawley is one of the many people that no longer work there. Joe Kimball’s excellent MinnPost obit seems to tell us .

But the demise of Don Boxmeyer and the fact that the DPP went outside their own small roster of writers reminds us of how little we get for 25 cents these days. I might write more on that later, but this doesn’t seem like the right post.

Requiescat In Pacem

Quick note -- law enforcement Reaganomics

We’re getting police officers from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to help us during the GOP convention!?? [story]

This sounds like the Reaganomics of law and order.

Soucheray on what to show Republicans

Joe Soucheray has written about what places we might wish to show visiting Republicans. After running through some of the obvious possibilities, he seems to summarize by suggesting a boat tour noting that the city was formed because of its location by a conveniently-place bend in the river and the ability of a man called “Pig’s Eye” to use this fact.

In particular, I liked two paragraphs from the column. I might have added that we work and raise and educate our children and attend our places of worship, but his summary is good.

After reminding us that the state f-word [Where have you gone Turi Rider? We miss you] approaches soon, he comments on how comfortable we are with our “third places” [although I suspect that he would foghorn that phrase]. [Cf. Cafes as disapearing third places, 5/5/08]

The truth of the matter might very well be that the Republican delegates are coming to a place that is quietly content and, civically, has nothing particularly glaring to show off or brag about except the most important thing of all, which is a historically strong sense of place, a continuity. Compared to folks in other cities in the country, we have remained remarkably strong and will, by the time the convention begins, have survived another Minnesota State Fair, our blockbuster gastronomical festival of fried foods, even candy bars, served on sticks.

We cut our grass and sweep our sidewalks and shovel our snow, which might be witnessed given that we are talking about a September visit. There is still an orderliness here that is hard to sell on a tourist brochure. We have our favorite bars and restaurants, but here again, they are our favorites because they are not places to be seen, they are places to be comfortable, at ease. I could recommend a dozen, but the visitor would be hard-pressed to understand the appeal because the visitor could not possibly understand the laying on of hands that makes each place significant to its regulars.

Maybe he should have been doing the cab driver education.

A sign of the times [past times, that is]

Remember Johnny’s Bar which sat at 2251 University for so long? Remember the big stein sign which adorned its front? Apparently this piece of nostalgia is available for purchase.

So if you are a historian with an interest in West Midway/ South St. Anthony matters or if you are a bar owner looking for new adornment there is a chance for you to obtain this piece of history.

More information

What every cab driver needs to know

I was indeed curious about what taxicab drivers needed to learn to be able to transport Republicans. [Cf. Republicans are SOO Special (8/7/2008)]

So I went to this morning’s meeting to which our friends in DSI had sent all licensed taxicab drivers a summons. The summons said that there would be two meetings, the first of which was scheduled for 7:30 this morning at the North Dale Recreation Center. Attending either this meeting or one Thursday afternoon at the Wellstone Center is supposed to be a requirement for drivers who wish to operate under a “reciprocity” agreement which includes Saint Paul, Minneapolis, Bloomington, and the International Airport. [Although there is no reciprocation at all by the Airport and Bloomington has put the megamall off limits, so “reciprocity” must have a new meaning.] The room was full with no more than fifty present which means that either they can expect a really large crowd Thursday or they are conceding that there will be a lot of taxi owners who are not applying for the extra-fee and expense “reciprocity” stickers.” [Of course, as anybody who was at the West Side Citizen’s Organization 2006 annual meeting knows, there is a room at Wellstone Center which can hold a lot of people. And one might expect that there would be very few drivers or owners from the other jurisdictions applying for the chance to work here since locally our licensing department never looks for unlicensed cabs anyway.]

Handouts on the table in the front for us to grab included copies of Mpls. ordinances referring to taxicabs, a list of cab stands there, maps of downtown Saint Paul, a notification that Minneapolis 311 will be extended to other metropolitan locations during the RNC season [cell phones only], flyers promoting the Mpls. Civic Fest, a Roseville Visitor Guide, a list of events scheduled for Mpls. for August 29^th through September 5^th, and a Venue Guide for both cities.

The meeting did not get started until almost 8:00 apparently since there had been some confusion among DSI or Host Committee or somebody about the starting time. Richard Jents who takes care of enforcing taxicab regulations in Saint Paul when he has time arrived at about 7:50. His boss, Bob Kessler arrived shortly after 8:00.

It seems as if nobody from our own officialdom in DSI has the expertise to address local cab drivers on local rules and regs, since the person leading the session was a Minneapolis licensing official who was there with another man from that city well before the publicized 7:30 opening. Neither of the Mpls. people introduced himself. For that matter, neither did either of the Saint Paul DSI people mentioned, but we know who they are. There were also a couple of women there who were not drivers and who seemed to act as if they had something to do with things, cut it was never clear whether they were from government or the host committee.

The Mpls. presenter began by telling us of a bad experience he had with a taxi driver in Okinawa in 1969 when he was on his way back from service in Viet Nam and then went on to tell us many things, some not particularly germane since he kept referring to provisions in Mpls. codes and places.

Among the things our drivers learned:

> to stop at red, octagonal signs. [No kidding. It was prominent on the PowerPoint or similar presentation.]
> good service can lead to good tips.
> the number of people expected in the metropolitan area is comparable to the number who go to Viking game, but they will have fewer cars at their disposal.
> distribution of business cards can be good business
> it is illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving. [Mr. Kessler corrected the man on this, noting that there is no such prohibition in our city.]

> drivers should wear slacks, collared shirts, and shoes. This means no tank tops, shorts, or sandals. T-shirts also are not allowed. [Once again, Mr. Kessler had to correct the man, noting that local code has no dress requirements. Additionally, a driver asked if t-shirts are not allowed why were t-shirts being distributed and was told that even in Mpls. one can wear t-shirts if they are part of a community event and their licensing office has approved it.]
> customers are entitled to receipts.
> drivers should check for lost items after every trip and if a found item is not called for during a shift, it should be turned into one’s dispatching center at the shift’s end.
> drivers cannot smoke with passengers in cab
> drivers must take people by the most direct route unless the passenger requests otherwise.
> drivers cannot overcharge.
> drivers cannot refuse service to an orderly passenger.
> if Minneapolis authorities catch an unlicensed cab picking up there they will impound the car and issue citations. The fee to get a car out of impound is $638. The civil citations carry fines of $250 for the driver, $250 for the owner, and $250 for the dispatching company, although in the last case there is usually just a warning sent. Nobody knows what the penalties for a similar violation in Saint Paul would be since nobody has ever been cited.
> drivers should have a map book [GPS does not count] and a Braille business identification card in their cabs. [Once again local officials had to note that there are no such local regulations.]
> there may be traffic jams during the convention. Don’t honk. It won’t do any good.
> call 911 for emergencies or when you need police. [This is pretty much what I have heard police say at community crime prevention meetings, but when I tried to call the new Ramsey County 911 for a driver who had a passenger refusing to pay the fare a couple of months ago, the operator told me that I should not use that number since it was not an emergency.]

We also learned what has been pretty much released locally lately, that vehicles will not be allowed between Walnut, Shepard Road, St. Peter, and I-35E, but that traffic will be allowed on all of those perimeter roads. Access will allowed to St. Joseph’s Hospital, but how one gets that access or how much hassle one will face was not made clear. Let’s hope that we can get the passengers in before the patient dies or the baby is born.] Access to Chestnut from Shepard Road will not be allowed.

I suspect that he could not commit to much because there are so many security authorities involved, but Mr. Kessler was unable to comment on how many existing cab stands will continue to be usable. [One has to assume that guests of the Saint Paul Hotel will have to get off by the back, formerly front, door on St. Peter and schlep their own bags.] He did indicate that there would be two temporary cab stands set up for convention people, but that they would have to walk a bit. One would be on Walnut Street between Seventh and Exchange. The other would be on Wabasha between Fifth and Sixth. This announcement was made late in the meeting and nobody seemed to notice that creating that stand on Wabasha means that there will be a stand where most people approach from the rear. Anybody who has driven a cab more than a week or so will see the interesting situations this can create.

When I tried to ask who was paying the expenses for the meeting since there were at least four people who were on municipal payrolls present, I could not get any usable answer. I understand that this may be a bit tricky since last week I watched the City Council try to figure out who was funding the police for things, but the lack of response seemed unnecessarily evasive and hostile. The other Mpls. guy assured me that he was being paid by his city just as usual, that his presence at the meeting just meant that other things were not getting done. That certainly did not help much. I am convinced that somebody’s taxes or fees were paying for the totally unneeded meeting, but have to guess that nobody thinks it is any of my business.

Anyhow, good luck to all of the city’s drivers who still want to make a living despite the RNC.

Phalen Park Crime Meeting

I am much more likely to attend meetings that communities call and have public officials come to than I am those which are called by the authorities [often without checking on what else may be simultaneously happening in the community] for the public to attend. That was not the primary reason that I did not attend last night’s meeting at the Phalen Recreation Center dealing with three recent Phalen Park crimes, but I have to admit that I was not there and am relying on what other have said about the meeting.

I have read the newspaper coverage and saw some of the local television coverage. It looked like a meeting attended by the usual people and quite a few more [Laura Pabst of MS-J&T estimates attendance at 200] . It seems that those present learned that the mayor, councilmember, and police chief are against crime and that the three crimes seem to have no common factor except for geography.

In general, crime is down. The stats are supposed to make us feel more comfortable. Having been the uninjured victim of a statistically rare but violent crime myself [not on the East Side], I do not find this much of an answer. Victims don’t care about the numbers.

I have often questioned what meetings like this accomplish. It’s kind of like the righteous in the world meeting in church, shouting Hallelujahs and thanking the Lord that they aren’t like those people.

But, based on what I have picked up from other sources, there may have been some gains from the meeting. It does appear that some linking of community organizations in crime prevention and neighborhood nuisance work has been accelerated by more people getting together at the same time and place.

Media links:

DPP, MS-J&T, KAAL

Scarred Statue

Last year an ugly statue was placed in Phalen Park, north of the picnic pavilion, east of the amphitheater, and within view of the Karl Neid, jr. bridge. I say ugly. Others disagree. That is well. Art is a subjective thing, And I admit that after seeing the statue in person, I concluded that it was not as ugly as the pictures I had seen would have led me to think.

But even though we don’t all agree on how lovely/ugly the statue is, what can be [and must be] agreed on is that the recent racial vandalism and defacement is clearly ugly.

On Friday the 15^th there will be a community ceremony to demonstrate neighborhood indignation at all that has happened there and to serve as a sort of kickoff to the cleanup of the statue scheduled to begin the next Monday. I doubt if I will be there since I already have booked the time for something else, but I do wish to announce it here for your information/edification.

Earlier post on the Karl Neid, jr. bridge: [10/14/07]

http://ccmusings.blogspot.com/2007/10/bridge-in-phalen-park.html

ADDENDUM [8/12]: I should have put this in the original post, but this morning's DPP has the infomation phrased concisely.

IF YOU GO: 'UNITY CEREMONY'

What: Unity ceremony prompted by a sculpture being defaced with hate graffiti

When: Friday. Viewing of the sculpture begins at 6 p.m., and the ceremony at 7 p.m.

Where: Phalen Park pavilion, St. Paul

Parking: Available at Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church at Arcade Street and Larpenteur Avenue. It's a short walk to the park; shuttle bus service will be available.

Will the Real Christian please stand up? [Or has he already?]

They still question Senator Obama’s religious bona fides. Former Senator Rick Santorum has labeled Obama’s faith as “phoney.”

Remember the Boschwitz “Jewish letter?” He said that Paul Wellstone was not truly Jewish and it helped make him a former Senator.

Well, Santorum already has the title “former.”

And, James Dobson wants people to pray for rain in Denver.

Cf. http://minnesotaindependent.com/view/religious-right11

August 9 -- A date to keep in mind

Today marks the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, the second [and last so far and we hope forever] time a nuclear weapon has been used in international combat.

People often note the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima three days earlier but overlook this anniversary.

This may be a mistake. Historians have been arguing for sixty-three years whether President Truman made the correct decision in bombing both of these cities and history usually vindicates him, both because of the Japanese intransigence and because we know now that neither Truman nor anybody else had a full appreciation of the long-term effect of radiation.

Admittedly, it was not until after the dropping of the second bomb that the Japanese agreed to seek peace, but it does make me wonder if it was so necessary to drop the second one so soon. The jury seems to be still out on that one.

In the meantime we remain the only country to have ever used a nuclear weapon in wartime, although anybody under eighty-something can profess personal innocence. Let us hope that we remain the only country to ever use a nuclear weapon in wartime.

Peace.

Where are we?

I often wonder if people in Fort Worth or Superior or Moorhead or Oakland or St. Petersburg or Tacoma feel the same way we do sometimes. After all, we all have the same problem. We live in cities [clearly cities with our own urban identities, not suburbs, and in many cases good cities] which are located next to or near a larger city. And I wonder how often the media, even alleged news media for whom an obligation to factual accuracy would seem to be important, fail to properly identify them and what takes place in them.

We have already seen and heard more incorrect references to the site of this year’s Republican National Convention than most of us care to note.

These things are not new. I imagine that they have been going on since the nineteenth century. One of the earliest memories of seeing television screw this up was when Democratic Presidential nominee George McGovern stopped by during a campaign stop in the 1972 election. [Actually, I had never owned a television until that summer when I got a used black and white which only received VHF to watch the political conventions.] NBC showed the South Dakota senator speaking from behind a podium which clearly said “Saint Paul Hilton” and put a caption on the screen saying, “Minneapolis.” I don’t follow ice hockey, but have heard references to a hockey team going to Minneapolis to play the Wilds.

Well, Katie Couric recently made this same, common mistake and even our Governor got confused. [There was an incident involving Michele Bachmann, but I haven’t figured enough out about that one yet to figure out the whole context and, frankly, I doubt if she is worth the effort of finding out.]

Couric was confused, Pawlenty likely was just spiteful. Couric apologized. Pawlenty had his spokesperson waffle. We have no reason to suspect that Couric wishes us ill. Maybe she had just seen too many stories of Mayor Coleman the Second running around with Rybak acting as if their cities were sharing the hosting of this awful event. We know that Pawlenty wishes us ill. [In addition to living in Eagan which ought to be a clear enough indication of his spite toward us, he has compiled a legislative and gubernatorial record which make it manifest, his veto of Central Corridor notwithstanding.] He is the enemy of Minneapolis also, but it is easy to confuse ones enemies. After all Pawlenty’s friends Bush and McCain know that whomever is not ones friend is ones enemy, a blanket assumption which can lead to a lot of confusion.

I doubt that there is any easy solution. We can continue to call the errors to people’s attention, but that is likely no more productive than our efforts to catch traffic scofflaws on Edgerton or elsewhere.

I know that people still screw this all up for other places too. Local media, including the DPP have referred to the Twins or somebody else going to Tampa to play the Rays.

Well, let’s keep our eyes and ears open. As far as the pols are concerned we can do our best to influence or possibly remove them. And for the media we need to remember to factor all of this in when we evaluate the other things they tell us.

Glad hands under a Copper Dome [not the one on Selby]

I haven’t been to the Copper Dome in a long time, in fact for so long that I did not think to put it on my restaurant list on the right side of this page. But Barack Obama was there, glad-handing all around.

I don’t know what to read there. People paid good money to see in Mpls., but got to see him for free here. If I were one of the big wallets who saw him there, I might be urinated.

But I am not one of them.

And I can tell myself and whomever else might be interested that Obama and I eat at the same place, albeit not at the same time.

Republicans ar SOO special!

It would seem funny to suggest that our local taxicab drivers who every day provide transportation to Republicans, Democrats, Socialists, Vegetarians, Libertarians, Prohibitionists, drunks, union members, management, old, young, rich, poor, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Native Americans, Europeans, Africans, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, agnostic, atheist, Unitarian, tall, short, well-dressed, and shabbily-dressed, local people, visitors, and people of just about every other description, would need to go to special classes to learn how to transport Republicans and their guests for the Republican National Convention.

Yes, the suggestion would seem funny. That is, if it were not true. Local taxicab drivers have been sent a letter which seems to be more than an invitation and almost a summons to attend such classes. It seems that Bob Kessler and the folks at DSI can never run out of good ideas. Except, of course, for enforcing our ordinances against unlicensed cabs. That would require some effort and some night work.

Watch where you are walking

Let me see if I have this straight. The police are allowed to picket right up next to the Xcel/NSP Arena, but next month they’re going to be in charge of making sure that nobody else does [under penalty of arrest, punishment, and/or injury. Seem strange?