Took some 272 photos today out and about Saint Paul. I'll get around to posting them but I tried using Photosynth with some marginal success. In case you didn't know, Photosynth is a Microsoft tool you can use to stitch a lot of photos at various angles and zooms in a scene together allowing anyone to examine your cohesive collection. Often times it simulates rotation around a subject or interesting panoramas. I went to Rice Park today in Saint Paul and created this Photosynth. It was only able to string 61% of the images into one photosything, with a few others making their own mini-photosynths and about 8 images failing to stitch to any other which I partially blame on myself and on whatever algorithm or formula the program uses. Anyway... Enjoy

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=108a6f5c-cb8d-4c85-81b8-8bb6cc31e94d

 Been a pretty busy time recently so I haven't gotten around to taking pictures of things like I wanted to and with weather not being particularly welcoming, I have resigned myself to waiting until the final thaw. Currently we have something around 18-24 inches of snow on the ground which isn't particularly bad, just annoying knowing full well that its here to stay for quite a long period of time. 

Unlike the East coast, storms rarely dump snow and start melting right away. Yes, the East Coast storms were massive this past winter and as an upper Midwesterner, we give them props for going through this. As much as we are proud of our winter heritage, we also realize that 30 inches of snow in a 24 hour period is nothing to scoff at. Minnesotan's for once were not envious of the East Coast. But despite the massive snow totals, I'm sure that we will have snow longer than the East Coast cities (I'm sure some of the higher elevations may beat us out). My parents had 11", 20", and 8" within a very short time frame burying theircity which usually experiences relatively mild winter. 

Our winter in Minneapolis has been stunningly average. October was colder than average and November was far above average temperature wise. December came in slightly below average and our very volatile January ended up balanced to be near average. Snowfall wise, we are just a couple inches up. Somewhere near 40". Although the airport had some anomalous totals this winter falling well below the rest of the metro on several occasions, but... statistically speaking, it should balance out (maybe not this year but in others). So while the East Coast digs out... Minneapolis lies relatively content with our easy average winter. Our forays into the negative territories were relatively minor and bearable. The only downside to this winter is the lack of an extended thaw that has led to a deep icy snow pack and particularly rough potholes. Minneapolis recently banned parking on one side of the non-snow emergency routes eliminating an estimated 80,000 on-street parking spots until April 1st or the snow melts significantly. The roads were getting so narrow that emergency vehicles were struggling to get to their destinations with some calls being forced to park a block or more away and hauling their gear to the scene.

Here's a few quick pics from the last week that I took...


After shoveling my Uncle's driveway for the umpteenth time, I took this pic. Sadly there was yet another snowfall after this storm bringing some piles in his area to the 4 to 5 foot area. 


I edited my iPod Touch's theme to be super cool :D.


More Snow pics


A look towards the Cathedral during one of our moderate snow events.
Crossing 50,000 miles on mmy car.


The Pupster at the computer :D



My first half-ass'd attempt at combining Minneapolis' and Saint Paul's skylines. Nearly height proportional. 


Before

After carwash!

Finally... 
I've been reading this book called... and don't laugh... Cop Book, which despite its rather poor title, has been a fascinating look into the life of a cop in the Twin Citie's suburb of Bloomington. Its been quite the emotional rollercoaster as he recounts his life and stories with such vivid details and a sometimes macabre sense of humor. I personally recommend this book to people who enjoy memoirs and have a decent stomach. Here's a selection of the book that I absolutely loved. He recalls his story as the first K-9 cop in his city and the rather funny situations his dog got him into. 

 I've decided to share an entire FOLDER of my stuff (with a few exceptions to keep within the rules of Simtropolis). This folder was my random folder. This folder was for a long time my "stuff folder"... appropriately named "stuff". While surfing the internet or working on college essays/presentations or arguing in chat, I would save things to my desktop. After a short period of time, it'd get too cluttered and I'd clean up my desktop by throwing everything into this "stuff" folder. Additionally, I loved stumbling (using the Firefox add-on "Stumble Upon!") and I would save funny images or images I liked. Other images I found on websites I frequent often like skyscrapercity or wunderground. Some I've taken. So here's a quick view into my "Stuff folder" from back in August of 2008. Sorry, some of the pics are small, but the limitations of the blog software is forcing me to resize them to fit the average monitor. 

 So its the first Tuesday of November... the day we hold our annual elections (although for completely different offices, unless its only for a one year term). After the undoubtedly historic election of 2008 and the turmoil that occurred concurrently and since, this election appeared to have snuck up on many of us, some even asking "What election?" Yes there is one and there are a number of races that were highly watched as they were labelled a "barometer" of Obama's presidency as Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota put it. There were interesting races across the country from governorships to numerous municipal elections. I'll start with the big ones...

Virginia and New Jersey Governorships:
Before I get to each individual race, lets just analyze the current state of American politics, briefly of course. The big question is... Are these races in any way a referendum on Obama's Presidency. The answer, in my opinion is a simple no. Americans are GREAT at separating Federal and State Elections. Now I'm not discounting the existence of coattails... but thats usually a bigger phenomenon when the person pulling the coattails is ACTUALLY on the ballot. Obama is NOT on the ballot. Additionally... there are unique conditions in both Virginia and New Jersey that even I concede I don't have a clue about. Wins in the Republican column in no way mean anything in terms of Obama's Presidency. Lets put this in a simple caricature....

Lets leave the President and his current agenda and issues as is. Health Care Reform, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Climate Change bills being his main concerns. But say a state is choosing their governor.... do national issues ALWAYS trump local issues in elections? Of COURSE not. A state may be more concerned about slot machines, sales tax, budget crises and other things. There's a reason why we have a federal structure of government... issues are handled at different levels. So what may be the focus of the federal government it does not necessarily match state governments and I think most people realize that.  The election of a particular candidate at the state level does not mean that the approval or disapproval of the president has any bearing (especially since the powers of these two offices almost never overlap). 

Additionally... we are dealing with ACTUAL candidates in state elections. Its not "Obama's Party" v. "Not Obama's Party" (although after last years thwomping, it may seem that way). There are names and faces, debates and ads. State elections are inherently separate animals then their federal counterparts. ESPECIALLY when its an off year election as it is now. Off year elections almost ALWAYS favor the party NOT in power.

So specific to this year... What should we have expected before today... Voter turnout will be abysmal. I'm talking 20% in most places. This has very astounding effects. 
A) Federal elections get a lot more media attention and will attract more voters due to perceived "importance". What does this mean in terms of results. Biased sampling will be far more prevalent. Since people are not generally passionate about the off year elections, the people who DO turnout will not be representative of the population as a whole (sampling bias). The people who are more passionate will show up in greater numbers (and its usually the people who are not in power). The Republicans SHOULD do better in this election. 
B) Minority and Youth turnout is expected to be low. With 2008 numbers for both youths and minorities at record levels, it is only natural to see them collapse. But off years even more so. Older generations tend to vote with more regularity (only somewhat more). The enthusiasm gap that plagued Republicans last November is now reversed. Youths and minorities are not going to match the numbers they put up last year and never have come out in force on off years. Older white rural voters tend to have a greater share of the vote in off years. Again a plus for Republicans

So does this translate into wins in New Jersey and Virginia....

New Jersey:
Given Corzines approval ratings flirting with the freezing mark, yes, Christopher Christi should have one. Really, had Republicans put up a more qualified candidate who could articulate his thoughts (and apparently was skinnier), they would have solidly won this (easily by double digits). Corzines abysmal approval rating should have marked a tidal wave of votes for the Republicans and given the conditions of 2009, Christi's sub-50% win is actually disappointing. But, a W by a Republican in a blue state is still a good W. Besides, in non-Wave years, flips like this are rather pointless. Great, the GOP have a governor in New Jersey. Too bad he doesn't control the legislative agenda and his party is the minority in New Jersey. A pretty hollow victory.

Virginia:
Despite the rather large victory by Obama in 2008, Virgina is still a fairly red state. But as I pointed out earlier, this is not an Obama Referendum. The candidate the VA Democratic Party put up for governor was a poor candidate and may have lost for NOT being liberal ENOUGH and resulted in a piss poor enthusiasm in the Democratic base. When polls earlier this summer suggested a close race for tonight, instead of trying to enthuse his base and getting the Youth and Minority demographics out in force, he tried moving left of center suggesting he'd opt out of the public option being among his most controversial things. As McCain struggled with alienating his base (his TRUE moderate base), Deeds has repeated that problem. This and the off year election factors that favor the Republicans in 09, there is no surprise that Republicans won. 

Here's how it should be looked it... the Two Governorships falling into Republican hands SHOULD have occurred. If they didn't, that would have been a very large upset and would have spelled huge troubles for the Republican Party. So tonights victories, although still good, isn't stellar. 

The GOP should be worried about losing NY-23, a district that normally favors Republicans. But the confusing split in the Republican ranks may have just handed the election to the Democrats. A big loss indicative of the moderates becoming disillusioned with the Republican party and following Dede Scozzafava's advice of backing the Democratic just shows that the ideological split in the GOP can and will still spell trouble in 2010. This is a race that the Republicans should have held on to, but the Teabagging wing of the Republican Party has turned off many moderate Republicans. 

My local races:
Nothing terribly exciting in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. The mayors of Minneapolis and Saint Paul cruised to re-election by garnering nearly 70% of the vote in their respective cities. The big news of the day is that Minneapolis used Ranked Choice voting (instant runoff voting) and ran very smoothing and across the Mississippi, Saint Paul's voters voted to use this same system for future elections. The vote won with around 53% of the vote. 

Other major races include... 
Atlanta (First white female?)
Houston (First Openly gay mayor?)
The Gay Marriage referendum in Maine

As of the writing of this post, Atlanta and Houston were poised to make history. The Gay Marriage referendum may overturn the legislature's efforts to legalize gay marriage although a recount is possible in Maine. If there are any races anyone else wants to comment on ... go for it.

 So... as fall rolled around I was really excited to take pictures of my stunning neighborhood. With the homes of famous people like the Governor of Minnesota, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James J. Hill, and many more in my area, I was looking forward to taking snapshots of old and eclectic Victorians, brownstones, and other buildings. But unfortunately, as everyone knows, Minnesota's weather is... chaotic (at best sometimes) and between my work schedule and bouts of snow and continual rain, I didn't get many photos and most were taken on very cloudy days within the hour before sunset (forcing me to put my ISO on high making my images grainy).  Additionally, because Minneapolis-Saint Paul was at the heart of the drought for much of the year, most of the fall colors were quiet drab and dull making the color display rather... tired. Finally... an early cold snap that sent the temperatures diving much earlier than normal had made many of the trees drop all their leaves in just a couple of hours. With this perfect storm of conditions.... I rank this fall's color display a meager 3 out of 10. During this wild October, there were three bouts of snowfall as well and clearly it was colder than normal. Minneapolis ended up having its 4th Coldest October (average temperature 43.2 F),  5th Wettest (250% to 300% of our average rainfall) and 7th snowiest. Its been a crazy month. 

Anywho, here are my pictures. I know they aren't the best but I'm still gonna share them cause its my neighborhood and I like it. 

This is Day 1 of my October phototour. My battery died on the last pic so I went out on a day that wasn't cold and snowy. Oh, btw, I apparently need new shoes. There's a hole at the bottom of my soles that allows water in. What I do for you people (that an look at all these thumbnails I do!). I'm pretty sure I'm the only Simtropolite who does this. Anywho, more to come.

Figured I'd post part 3 of my phototour from the Cathedral to Lowertown and back.

Part 2

Shortly after 7 PM on the night of May 3, 1878, the largest mill in Minneapolis (and also the United States), the Washburn A mill, exploded decimating the Milling district and shattering large plate glass windows in the business district. Just 20 years after the founding of Minneapolis and the acceptance of Minnesota into the Union, the Great Mill Explosion was the first mammoth disaster to challenge the fledging settlement sending shockwaves into futures markets and receiving great notice from the East Coast cities like the New York Times. Minneapolis was just beginning to become the largest flour producer in the world due to its location on the Mississippi River near St. Anthony Falls as well as being close to the immigration hub of Saint Paul. A spark ignited the flour dust in the Washburn A Mill creating a massive explosion that would eventually decimate half of Minneapolis' milling capacity. The resulting fire further spread through the ruins completely decimating the damaged mills and threatening the extensive lumber yards further downriver (Minneapolis was the sawmill capital of the world at this time but it was on the downslope as forests were exhausted). 18 men died in the resulting explosion. Damage estimates put the total losses at over a million and a half in 1878.

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 After World War II, specifically after the creation of the Interstate Highway system, the Twin Cities fell victim to suburbanization. Like almost all major cities, specifically in the Midwest and Northeast, millions fled what was perceived, and often times accurate, increases in crime and poverty. Unfortunately, this rapid suburbanization became a positive feedback loop. With more people, who were generally white and middle class, leaving the cities, a larger urban immobile poor, who were generally minorities, remained leading to increased crime and poverty convincing even more to leave. What was most unfortunate about this white flight phenomenon was that many provisions of the National Housing Act of 1934 promoted what was almost something similar to aparthied in the United States. Some minorities were capable of leaving the inner city but were forced away from the suburbs because of the practice of "redlining" which pretty much delineated where minorities could live. Although not specifically spelled out in law in most places, the act of redlining allowed banks to determine who was eligible for housing assitance and loans in the suburbs based on their own criteria. This resulted in blatant racist application processes which in many cases had questions like "Does he/she act black?" and "Were the applicants great great great grand parents eligible to vote?" (In case you aren't following, blacks couldn't vote when they were slaves). With the practice of redlining, suburbanization wasn't just a trend based on capitalistic desires for cheap housing using relatively low prices of commuting by car, it was also a social phenomenon based on separating races. In cities such as Detroit, redlining was actually a PHYSICAL manifestation. Although the practice of redlining has now been illegalized, the social ills of decades of racial separation are now apparent. Although ironically, many inner cities are seeing a return of what is now their white minorities due to high gas prices and increased urban amenities. But in the 70's many cities struggled to keep businesses and retail customers returning to their central business districts. Especially after shopping malls became the newest construction fad. The first fully enclosed and fully climately controlled mall was built in Edina, MN, a suburb of Minneapolis in 1956 called Southdale Center (and is still in use). Designed by Victor Gruen, an Austrian immigrant, Southdale was a rebuttle of American suburbanization, or at the very least an attempt at a rebuttle. He despised American suburbs do to their down right anti-social arrangement and transportation dependent travel. He attempted to design Southdale like European arcades to act as a community center where people could socialize, eat, drink and mosey about. However, Gruen couldn't exactly emulate the arcades of Europe. His main issue with this assignment was the weather. About Minnesota's weather, Gruen said it was "either freezingly cold... or unbearably hot" and "From these personal experiences, under which I suffered greatly, I came to the conclusion that a[n outdoor] shopping center... would never do. So I carefully prepared the Daytons for the shocking idea of establishing completely weather protected, covered, and climatized public areas." Although Gruen attempted to reinvent the suburb by creating what would be akin to a high street in the UK or arcades in Vienna, but instead closed, he inadvertently created a suburban icon... the shopping mall. 

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