Cities can be overwhelming. And our electronic devices don't necessarily simplify urban life.

Creative Commons/Jacob Bøtter

The United States ranks 31st in maternal death among the world’s 178 countries.

Here’s some disturbing news just in time for Mother’s Day: Women living in the United States are more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than they were two decades ago.

In fact, only 14 countries in the world have shown less progress than the United States at making pregnancy and childbirth safer for women, according to a report released earlier this week by the World Health Organization (WHO).

It is still safer to become pregnant and give birth in the United States than in most other countries, but we are far from being a world leader in this area of women’s health. According to the WHO report, for every 100,000 births in the United States, 28 women die, a number that has increased by more than 136 percent since 1990, when 12 women died for every 100,000 births.

That means we rank 31^st in maternal death among the world’s 178 countries.

Finland, Norway and Sweden — all with rates of 4 deaths for every 100,000 births — have the best rankings on the WHO list, while Somalia (850/100,000) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (730/100,000) have the worst.

The U.S. rate is worse than that of Croatia (13/100,000), Chile (22/100,000) and Iran (23/100,000). It’s better than that of China (32/100,000), but China has slashed its maternal mortality rate by two-thirds since 1990.

Possible reasons

Why the increase in the U.S. maternal mortality rate when most other countries are seeing their rates fall? There are plenty of possible reasons.

To begin with, the increase may simply reflect better reporting of such deaths, the WHO experts told a group of reporters in Geneva.

That’s possible. But it’s also possible, as Amnesty International pointed out a few years ago in its own scathing report, that the number of U.S. women dying from pregnancy- or childbirth-related causes may be underreported because there are no federal regulations about how the deaths should be reported.

The rising maternal mortality rate in the United States could also be due to women being older and heavier when they become pregnant, the WHO experts said. Women in both those groups are more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure and other pre-existing chronic conditions that can complicate pregnancy and childbirth.

Another factor may be the rapid rise in the United States of Cesarean sections and other medical interventions during childbirth. In 2011, one in three U.S. births were by C-section. Such procedures can be life-saving in many instances, but they also increase the risk of the mother developing life-threatening complications, such as uncontrolled bleeding, blood clots and infections. Research suggests that much of the recent increase in the use of obstetric interventions in the United States has been medically unjustified.

In March, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine jointly released new practice guidelines aimed at reducing C-sections.

A continuing scandal

A lack of health insurance is also a factor in many maternal deaths. For as the WHO experts pointed out to the reporters (and in their study), most pregnancy- and childbirth-related deaths are preventable — that is, if women have access to skilled and appropriate care.

The fact that so many women in the United States (and around the world) die during pregnancy or childbirth is therefore truly scandalous.

Marleen Temmerman, the director of reproductive health and research at WHO, gave this blunt assessment of the global maternal death rate: Although the rate has fallen almost in half since 1990, “it’s still like two plane crashes every day.”

And two or three of the women on those metaphorical planes — two or three of those daily unnecessary deaths — are American.

Again, these are mostly preventable deaths.

Stubble: How did you start painting signs?
Forrest: I started painting signs due to contemporary influence I guess you could say. I have a background in construction. My artistic style was like a folk art style — uneducated but charming — and then I lived in Olympia after traveling with a  punk rock band when I was 18. They kept going home and I stayed in Olympia with my buddy Ira who was a well established sign painter in Olympia. I started doing his fills. If there was a bookstore, I’d do the books because my pictorials were pretty decent.I remember that our colors were pretty gaudy at the time — pinks and clouds and bubbles and that stuff.

Stubble: Looks pretty different from what you’re painting today.
Forrest: Well this is pre-existing design stuff by Liz Gardner, but this style is definitely more similar to my own. After Olympia, I came back to Minneapolis and was painting signs really without knowing anything about letter structure. From a business perspective I was getting work from, you know, walking up to businesses all over the place — in Omaha and Albuquerque and Salt Lake City and New Orleans — and I would basically just copy from a book right onto their windows.

They were really receptive because often they didn’t have any signage at all. It wasn’t like I was involved in a boutique culture that was critical of my work. Typically, I would charge for whatever a hotel room would cost and a six pack of beer. That was a good way to sharpen my teeth in a noncritical way. This predates social media, so I would sometimes have a disposable camera to document my work. I have a few pictures, but sadly, I don’t have quite enough.

Stubble: How did you develop your technique to what it is now?
Forrest:Well, I approached this old timer painter and he basically abused me as a worker for the next ten years, pushing me very hard. He would say things like, “take the time to step back and look at your work and ask yourself why does it look like shit and what can you do to not make it look like shit?” He was critical in that way because he was traditionally trained and had many years experience over me.

He had learned the rules for that long in his life that he could break them. He instilled that same value system of “show me that you know the rules first and then you can break them.” I’d say that probably one of the contemporary weaknesses of sign painters today is that they come from a background of breaking the rules and then they try and find the rules. They consider the years of breaking the rules as their qualifications to finding the rules, but it’s actually backwards. Find the rules first, stick with your block letters and years and years and years later you can start breaking them.

Stubble: What else do you think does make a good sign painter?
Forrest: Correct fonts. Correct layouts. A lot of sign painters and people who are up-and-coming really consider it to be the control of the brush. There are plenty of people doing a quarter inch thick letter with a quarter inch thick brush, but I come from a much more vaudeville Coney Island educational system. In compromised systems in the wind and the rain and the hail, the flick of the brush is just thrown out of the window.

Stubble: These bricks look pretty textured too. I can’t imagine that’s easy to work with using a “flick of the brush” system.
Forrest: Exactly, I mean this surface took us 40 hours to bury to make it worthy of a sign. Design will always trump rendering. You can be a sloppy renderer as long as your design is solid.

Stubble: Really, I thought it would have been the other way around, that bad rendering would always mean bad product.
Forrest: It’s important, but I mean just don’t get carried away with the rendering. You see a California style of rendering that is all the flick of the brush and it ends up looking temporary and casual, because it sort of is. It shouldn’t say something permanent, it should just say “sale today” or “sale tomorrow” something temporary. Solid design and understanding of lettering is for permanent pieces of art. That’s just where I come from.

Stubble: I feel bad saying this, but I guess I never knew how alive of an art sign painting is. I probably just assume some machine does it all these day.
Forrest: Actually, it’s really super in vogue right now. At least I think it is, I could live in an insulated culture though, with only other people who are doing it. It appears to be in vogue. And then this is Barry Newman.

Stubble: Hi, Barry.
Forrest: Barry, do you want to tell your life story?
Barry: I’m a brush monkey.
Forrest: Barry’s actually been to school.
Barry: I went to MCAD. I studied landscape painting and drawing mostly. I do some murals.

Stubble: How’d you get into this racket with this guy?
Barry: Uh, I know Forrest and I got a job to do First Ave, the stars and all that stuff. So I called him up and said, “I don’t know anything about signs! Can you help me with this?” and then he badgered me into working. I paint houses, murals, art stuff, posters.

Stubble: Doing the stars on First Avenue seems like a pretty big honor.
Barry: Yeah, and I’ve probably been to maybe a third of the shows whose names I got to put up. I grew up on First Avenue. That was back in my college days when they had comp tickets.
Forrest: They don’t have those anymore?
Barry: Really, rarely.

Stubble: What kind of comp tickets?
Forrest: You used to be able to walk into The Electric Fetus and there would just be a stack of tickets for First Avenue. It was just a way to get bodies in the door.
Barry: For the really good shows you’d have to talk to somebody who was on the in. It was a good way to go to a lot of shows.

Barry Newman and Forrest Wozniak are sign painters in Minneapolis. They spoke to Stubble while working on the Black Coffee & Waffle Bar painting in the SE Como neighborhood.

This post was written by Tom Johnson and originally published on Stubble. Follow Stubble on Twitter: @stubblemag.

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The annual Minnesota governor's fishing opener is in the Brainerd area this weekend, with Gov. Mark Dayton buying his license this afternoon, then making an appearance this evening at a community picnic there.

Friday, Dayton flies to Rochester to make speak at a Mayo Clinic 150th Gala Signature Event — then it's back to the Brainerd area, where he'll head out on Gull Lake at midnight with guide Ray Gidow.

On Saturday morning, there's a breakfast at Grand View Lodge and more fishing on Gull at 8 a.m.

Miss Minnesota Rebecca Yeh is scheduled to be on the boat with Dayton, along with her brother, who has autism. The governor has a nephew with autism, his office said.

Lt. Gov. Yvonne Prettner Solon, in her last opener in an official capacity (she's not running with Dayton in November) will fish the lake with guide Toby Kvalevog.

Sen. Scott Dibble

In a legislative year that likely will be little remembered, there have been stars.

Typically, leaders of the big-ticket items — taxes and bonding — get the biggest media attention. And legislative majority and minority leaders are a constant presence in news stories.

But in all sessions, there are a handful of legislators who carry the toughest bills that have substantial impact on Minnesota’s future.

This year, no legislator has carried a heavier load than Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis. Dibble was the Senate’s lead on two of the session’s most controversial bills, anti-bullying and medical marijuana.

Additionally, Dibble chairs of Senate transportation committee. Along with Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, he has been working to set the stage for a way to fundamentally change the way the state’s transportation infrastructure is funded. That push will begin in earnest in the 2015 session, when the Democrats will still run the Senate.

Meantime, in the House, there are three members whose work has seemed extraordinary.

Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley, who refused to crumble on minimum wages, ultimately got a reluctant Senate to agree to a package that includes a capped inflation index.

Rep. Carly Melin, DFL-Hibbing, was the lead on the “Women’s Economic Security Act," a combination of bills aimed at cutting into the wage gap between men and women. She also is the lead on medical marijuana in the House, where the going has been extremely tough.

“I said from the beginning, that I’m not willing to do an all-or-nothing approach," Melin said. “We have to pass something — even if it means some people will be left behind in the time being."

Rep. Carly Melin

But by compromising, Melin has not only been attacked from the anti-marijuana crowd, but those who support a far more open bill than Melin is desperately trying to get passed.

The biggest surprise of the session, though, has been the work of Rep. Dan Schoen, DFL-St. Paul Park.

Schoen’s a first-termer yet in this session he has carried a gun bill (that takes guns from domestic abusers), Steve’s Law (which makes it easier for people to call 911, without fear of penalty, in cases of heroin overdoses) and a bill that stabilizes the role of advanced practice registered nurses (a bill considered critical in Greater Minnesota, where sometimes a medical doctor may not be immediately available).

Schoen, a cop by trade, has gained huge respect on both sides of the aisle for his ability to doggedly work for bipartisan support.

GOP: harder to shine, but some do

What of the Republicans?

Given their minority status in both chambers, it’s hard for GOP legislators to shine. That’s especially true in this era when Republican politicians fear the backlash of activists in their own party who attack those who appear “moderate."

Most Republicans, then, have spent most of the session setting their sights on next November’s elections.

Rep. Ryan Winkler

Still, there have been instances in which GOP legislators have played important hands-across-the-aisle roles.

For example, Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, who usually is the GOP’s go-to guy on all 2nd Amendment issues, stood with Schoen on the bill that takes guns from abusers.

Rep. Jennifer Loon, R-Eden Prairie, worked with Sen. Roger Reinert, DFL-Duluth, to allow Minnesota liquor stores to be open on Sundays, even if the effort failed for the umpteenth time.

And Rep. Nick Zerwas, R-Elk River, is a first-termer who gets solid marks from a wide variety of people for genuine efforts to set party dogma aside and work on policy.

'No, you weren't screaming'

Still, for better or worse (depending on your political point of view), this has been a DFL session featuring DFLers in the starring roles.

Dibble, Winkler, Melin and Schoen share a genuine passion for the bills they’ve carried, which doesn’t mean they show that passion with flaming rhetoric on the floor. Dibble and Schoen seem to go out of their way to avoid rhetoric.

Dibble becomes almost monotone on the floor when he introduces controversial bills and when he counters criticism from those who oppose him.

“Two things on being emotional: Sometimes, when I feel like I’ve become emotional and started screaming at people, others tell me, ‘No, you weren’t screaming.’ That tells me that what I’m feeling doesn’t come out. That must be the Scandinavian in me,” Dibble said.

Rep. Dan Schoen

“Secondly, on being emotional: Especially when you’re dealing with controversial issues, I find it is far more effective to be as calm and reasoned and rational as possible."

Schoen’s approach seems similar. In his presentations on the floor, he tends to be a “just the facts" sort of cop. He’s known for making the necessary compromises to get legislation passed before he presents bills on the floor. During floor debates, he listens intently and responds calmly.

But the calm he shows on the floor is a facade.

The tough cop teared up Thursday when we started speaking about the legislation he’s carried and the Melin’s medical marijuana bill.

Steve’s Law — named in the memory of Steve Rumler, who died of overdose three years ago — not only lessens the fear of calling 911 for help, it allows first responders (think: police) and other non-healthcare providers to carry Naloxone, an antidote to opiate overdoses when used quickly.

“What we do here can actually save lives," said Schoen of the legislators’ work. “We can’t bring people who have died back, but we can save hundreds, maybe thousands, of lives by what we’ve done."

Melin, too, gets emotional when speaking of the medical marijuana bill that hits the House floor Friday. The House bill is far more restrictive from the bill passed in the Senate.

But, Melin said, in the legislative process, you get what you can get. For years, any form of medical marijuana has been blocked.

Whenever the going gets tough, Melin said she thinks of a 7-year-old child in her district with a form of epilepsy that has left her debilitated. Meantime, Melin said, a form of medical marijuana treatment has created seemingly miracle results in many cases in other states.

“I feel responsible for this child and for other sick kids," said Melin. “I’ve taken this on for them."

One can get really impatient at those frequently held conclaves purporting to discuss "what to do about X." For "X," you can substitute just about anything — campaign finance, anorexia nervosa, bank lending practices — but such conversations often skim the surface, piling on alternative after alternative until dizziness overwhelms.

So it went Wednesday night at St. Catherine University where 150 folks (more less) convened to hear Gil Penalosa, former parks commissioner of Bogota, Colombia, and featured guest of the St. Paul Riverfront Corp.’s Third-Annual Placemaking Residency. Under consideration was what should be done with another "X"— the now nearly empty site of the Ford Motor plant in St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood.  

Unfortunately, neither Penalosa nor the panel of five notables who joined him, gave the audience more than abstract ideas to chew on. St. Paul, Ford and some civic groups have been chugging along with planning. But, time is a-wasting. "We don't have the luxury of five years to discuss generalities," said Lynn Hinkle, an audience member and a founder of ARISE, a coalition of community groups and technical experts concerned about the site. In 18 months or so, Ford may be issuing requests for proposals to developers.

Ford first announced its intention to shutter its St. Paul assembly plant in 2006 (though it ultimately stayed open until 2011). Almost immediately, St. Paul set up a task force to study what should go in its place. It was obvious to everybody, after all, that the site presents a fantastic opportunity, a nearly blank slate of 135 acres within St. Paul city limits, lying 20 minutes from both downtowns and only 10 minutes from the two airports. What's more, it is bordered by a stable neighborhood of mostly single-family houses, a thriving commercial district and parkland overlooking the Mississippi. It could become a new town within a city that could realize the best practices in urban development.

'New vision'

In kicking off last night's session, Mayor Chris Coleman urged the audience to help develop "a new vision for the Ford site and do it in a way that enhances the river and this wonderful neighborhood."

Penalosa's signature program in Bogota was ciclovia, a bike path that closes 75 miles of city roadways to cars on Sundays and holidays to make way for runners, walkers and bikers. (Already, ciclovias have become popular in more than a dozen cities across the United States, including Fargo-Moorhead.)

Not surprisingly, he's a heavy-duty champion of walking, biking and mass transit, but, as he points out, "transit does not take you door-to-door." You have to walk partway, and "the glue in-between is nice places."

Photo by Nancy Paiva

Gil Penalosa

What makes a place nice? Room to walk, safety from cars, buses and bikes and spots to lounge, chat and watch the world go by. "You put benches, tables, a fountain, some coffee," he says. Such places give a city spice, and millennials (those born from 1980 to 2000), whom every city is trying to recruit to its workforce, seem to prefer cities that are spicy. The Twin Cities' blandness may be the reason for its loss of millennials, Penalosa claims, although, in point of fact (I looked it up), Minneapolis is fairly popular with this age cohort. Of course, one can always be spicier.

Unfortunately (for me), I'd already heard this same presentation, almost word-for-word, two days earlier, and it offered no specifics about the Ford site. Those, I hoped, would come from the panel. In that I was also to be disappointed. Mostly, they advanced general principles.

Jon Commers, a thoughtful member of the Metropolitan Council, for example, seeming to push for the Ford site to remain at least partly devoted to industry, pointed out that these days, proximity is important to innovation, and people now value it. They want to be in contact with each other, to exchange ideas that would create new products and companies. (This is quite a switch from the last 15 or 20 years, when social commentators decided computerization obviated the need for industrial or office hubs because the Internet allowed people to work from huts in the woods.)   

Jessica Treat, executive director of St. Paul Smart Trips, a nonprofit devoted to promoting sustainable transportation and land use, envisioned a community with a "village feel," not unlike Highland Park itself, which would combine different age groups. And, I would hazard a guess, she would also like to see sustainable transportation and land use.

Shawntera Hardy, director of the transportation and built environment program for Fresh Energy, a nonprofit for clean energy, to nobody's shock, urged people to think about clean energy.

Good design that incorporates the history of the place and a "rich mix of affordable and market-rate housing" plus economic development and living wage jobs was on the mind of Colleen Carey, president of the Cornerstone Group, an innovative housing developer.

Finally, Tom Fisher, dean of the University of Minnesota's School of Architecture, suggested that whatever is built on the Ford site follow the upheaval that is now occurring in work itself. "If a 3-D printer can produce a car, who needs Detroit?" he asked. He seemed to picture a modern version of a medieval city with people living above their stores or offices, labs or shops (or near to them) with some agriculture nearby.    

And so it went — with more ideas coming from the audience. Whatever was built on the Ford site should include a diverse array of people, have ultra-high-speed broadband, bring children into the process, include smaller companies, not just large corporations, reduce dependence on cars and so on. Listening to all this, I began to think that development of the Ford site might be able to end hunger and bring about world peace.

MinnPost photo by Marlys Harris

The former site of the St. Paul Ford plant, 2014.

Big opportunity

To be Minnesota Nice about it, maybe the opportunity the Ford site offers is so broad that it's hard for anybody to wrap his or her mind around it. So here are some actual facts. Mike Hogan, site manager of the Ford plant, reported that pretty much all the buildings have been demolished down to their concrete slabs. Next week, crews will start to remove the slabs. Then comes an environmental investigation of what's underneath. Nobody knows for sure what's there — plain old dirt, some kind of toxic goo or a combination of both — but whatever it is, it may determine what the land can be used for and/or how much it will cost to remediate.

According to Merritt Clapp-Smith, principal planner for St. Paul's Planning and Economic Development department, Ford has promised that it will remediate the land to the point where it can be used for industry, and that work may take some time. But further work by a developer may be necessary to make the site suitable for "higher uses," say, single-family housing, schools or a hospital. "Ford bears the long-term liability; so they want to make sure it's safe," she says.

Hinkle pointed out that a great deal of work has already been done, and he's right. Studies have established sustainability guidelines, looked at green manufacturing and zoning. A 2007 study considered 16 scenarios, which it narrowed down to five for the redevelopment of the site. One was a kind of "more of the same" plan with mostly light industry. The second combined light industry and high tech with more commercial space along Ford Parkway and single-family housing on the Mississippi side of the site. The third made space for office and institutional uses and added townhouses to the mix. A mixed-use urban village with lots of single-family housing was the fourth scenario, and the last a high-density urban village with some five- and six-story complexes in addition to townhomes and single-family housing.

There are limits on what can be done. Part of the site lies in a "Safety Zone B" airport overlay district that allows no housing, no institutions (schools or hospitals, for example) and no buildings over 110 feet high. (That's about eight stories.) Another large slice of land is part of the Mississippi Critical Overlay District, which has its own special zoning requirements that would have to be revised for certain kinds of development to take place.

After the environmental investigation will come more studies and more public engagement, but St. Paul's timeline anticipates that Ford will start looking for a master developer by the end of this year.

If anyone noticed my absence for the past week, I took a break in an undisclosed (but warm) location. And, if I don't run into you before Sunday, Happy Mother's Day.

Haven't had time to start anything ambitious, but I'll just pass along Paul Krugman's column of today, in which he discusses the 25 highest paid hedge-fund manager of last year, who earned a combined total of $21 billion, or, as Krugman notes, more than twice as much as the combined income of all the kindergarten teachers in America.

Highlighting the fortunes of these billionaires isn't — as righty critics like to assume — about class envy, Krugman argues. In fact, it's about looking square in the face of the myth that righty critics prefer, "that the big rewards in modern America go to innovators and entrepreneurs, people who build businesses" that create jobs and upward mobility for the common people. These almost-a-billion-a-year guys (and yes, he notes, they're all guys) aren't big employers nor even big investors — these are the guys that manage the investments for the already-rich families so that the total wealth of the society can continue to be concentrated among the already wealthy, the hedge-fund managers themselves and their wealthy clients.

Krugman doesn't mention this today, but I will. The United States has long since stopped being a leader among the nations of the world in socioeconomic mobility — that is, the likelihood that a young American of modest means will make it into affluence through hard work, initiative, entrepreneurship, all that stuff. We are turning more and more into a society in which the best way to end up rich is to be born that way.

"But why does all of this matter?" Krugman asks himself; and answers: "Basically, it’s about taxes."

America has a long tradition of imposing high taxes on big incomes and large fortunes, designed to limit the concentration of economic power as well as raising revenue. These days, however, suggestions that we revive that tradition face angry claims that taxing the rich is destructive and immoral — destructive because it discourages job creators from doing their thing, immoral because people have a right to keep what they earn.

But such claims rest crucially on myths about who the rich really are and how they make their money. Next time you hear someone declaiming about how cruel it is to persecute the rich, think about the hedge fund guys, and ask yourself if it would really be a terrible thing if they paid more in taxes.

Have a good weekend.

The Council on Black Minnesotans has hired a community services program specialist for its new office in Rochester.

The Council is one of four Minnesota minority councils criticized earlier this year in a Legislative Auditor's report that "found little evidence that the four councils have been effective advisors or liaisons to state policy makers."

In a recent interview, Council on Black Minnesotans Executive Director Edward McDonald told the Twin Cities Daily Planet, that he was critical of the governor’s office and the Legislature for not providing more support and direction to the councils.

In December, the Council opened an office in Rochester, on the Rochester Community and Technical College campus, and now has hired Kolloh Nimely to work there.

Nimley is working on a Ph.D. in health care administration at North Central University in Minneapolis.

The Rochester Post Bulletin quotes Patwin Lawrence, state chairman of the council, saying the office was opened because "as the council seeks to serve all communities in Minnesota where there are people of African heritage, we find the need for a stronger a presence in Rochester."

The council has three other employees in St. Paul and a 13-member board.

As expected … . Christopher Snowbeck’s PiPress story on the Minnesota Medical Assocation’s choice between the Senate and House pot bills says, “The Minnesota Medical Association says it prefers a bill for medical marijuana that's scheduled for a vote Friday in the House, saying cannabis legislation passed by the Senate earlier this week is ‘overly broad in scope.’ The House bill from Rep. Carly Melin, DFL-Hibbing, would make marijuana available to certain patients from one state-regulated manufacturer.”

“Crystal clear”? The AP assures us, “An annual report card gives mixed grades to some of the most popular Twin Cities lakes. ... water-quality grades for Lake Minnetonka for 2013 show a slight improvement from 2012, ranging from A's for several bays to a D for Stubb's Bay. In the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes, Lake Calhoun has gotten straight A's since 2008. Lake Harriet got its second straight A-minus.”

It’s still amazing you have to legislate this kind of thing … .Says Tom Scheck for MPR, “A bill that aims to improve the working conditions of women is headed to Gov. Mark Dayton for his signature. Dayton's spokesman says the governor will sign the bill. ... The measure would require businesses to provide greater accommodations to pregnant and nursing mothers. It also requires large companies that contract with the state to certify that they provide similar pay to men and women in similar jobs.”

And she was not some ditsy teen … . Says Paul Walsh in the Strib, “‘Extreme’ distraction from a ringing cellphone is suspected of prompting a motorist to swerve on a rural Wright County road and fatally strike a college athlete out for a midday training run on the shoulder on a clear summer’s day. Linda L. Gullickson, 68, of Albertville, was charged by summons in Wright County District Court last week with criminal vehicular homicide in the death on Aug. 8 of Phillip G. LaVallee, 19, a running star at Monticello High School … .”

Not amused … . Stribber Rochelle Olson reports, “Law enforcement and rescue personnel are steaming over the latest Internet daredevil stunt, which marries two of Minnesota’s proudest pastimes — defying the cold and plunging into open water. On Wednesday night, a jumper’s embrace of the fad — informally called the cold-water challenge — resulted in a lot of wasted time, perilous duty and precious resources for rescuers, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.”

Fisher folks! Be aware of a serious bait-dearth. Dan Gunderson of MPR says, “Bait dealers say regulations designed to prevent the spread of invasive species are making it more difficult for them to collect the bait anglers want. … DNR officials say it's important to close infested lakes to bait collection when young zebra mussels called veligers are floating in the water. Veligers are too small to be easily seen and they could be transferred in the water with minnows.”

If you ran with Hunter Thompson, someone had to stay sober … . Euan Kerr of MPR previews the opening of a film of Ralph Steadman’s life and work. “Steadman is best known in the United States for his decades illustrating the work of journalist Hunter S. Thompson, especially in Rolling Stone magazine and the book 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.' But in other parts of the world, Steadman is recognized as one of the world's greatest satirical artists in his own right. The film, ‘For No Good Reason,’ which opens this weekend in Minneapolis, explores Steadman's extraordinary career.”

Here’s one to haggle out with other parents … . For the Forum News Service, Anna Burleson reports on a bullying incident — with video testimony from a couple little kids — that has gone viral. “Anna’s mother, Sarah Cymbaluk, posted a video to her Facebook page Wednesday night showing 8-year-old Anna in tears with her 7-year-old brother, Ben, by her side as the two described incidents of traumatic bullying on the school bus they ride in Fosston. In the video, Ben describes another child on the bus calling a high school girl a lesbian and telling her that she was going to kill herself, all while the bus driver sat idly by. When the bully turned his attention to Anna, the bus driver told her to ‘sit your (expletive) down’.” Here’s the video.

CC/Flickr/MIMA Photos

Target Field will host the 2014 All-Star Game on July 15.

Major League Baseball will no longer have the authority to approve temporary licenses and permits for events taking place in three Minneapolis “clean zones” during a 15-day period surrounding the All-Star Game at Target Field this summer.

A council resolution approved in February had granted MLB the power to approve temporary licenses for block events, parades, races, transient merchants, food sales, beverage services, tents, signs and banners.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in federal court earlier this week claiming the “clean zone” is unconstitutional and in violation of first amendment rights. The ACLU filed the suit on behalf of organizers planning a block party and parade to commemorate the 80^th anniversary of the 1934 Teamsters strike in Minneapolis when 67 union members were shot and two were killed by police officers.

“The original resolution seemed to indicate that Major League Baseball had a role in that approving licenses and permits,” said Council Member John Quincy. “I wanted to make sure that everybody knew that Major League Baseball would be conferred with but the city retains those authorities.”

The original resolution forbade the approval of temporary licenses and permits in the clean zones “without additional approval of Major League Baseball.” New wording approved by the council Friday states that the City Council will not approve such licenses and permits “without conferring with Major League Baseball.” [Emphasis added.]

“Major League Baseball was consulted [about the changes] and they had no objections,” said Quincy, who added that the city will make the final decision about issuing the temporary permits and licenses.

The resolution also shortens the time in which the clean zones will be maintained, from 15 days to six. The original resolution covered July 5 to 20; the new language covers the period from July 10 to 16.

Festivities at Target Field begin July 13 with a softball game, followed the next day by the Home Run Derby. The All-Star Game itself takes place July 15.

The three “clean zones” outlined in the original resolution remain unchanged and include downtown, northeast Minneapolis and the University.

A comment on the changes from the ACLU has not yet come forward.

Six months to the 2014 elections in the United States

from Thoughts Towards a Better World by Dick Bernard

My succinct opinion in all of this is that everyone of us who are eligible to vote (whether we vote or not makes no difference) deserve exactly who and what we get in all of the many offices we elect this November.

This is an uncomfortable truth.

Republicans can’t use the 'kitchen sink' strategy against Franken

from politics.mn by Michael Brodkorb

The question remains as to what role the Republican Party of Minnesota will have in messaging in the upcoming U.S. Senate race. If they continue with their current communications strategy, they may end up being more of a distraction than a help to Republicans hoping to win the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota.

Al Franken: He’s good enough, he’s smart enough, and doggone it, people… are a little bored with him

from Wry Wing Politics by Joe Loveland

To paraphrase  Franken’s Saturday Night Live character Stuart Smalley, Senator Franken has proven to Minnesotans that he’s “good enough” and “smart enough.”   But when it comes to likability, sometimes it’s difficult for Minnesotans to warm up to Franken, simply because they don’t see his less serious side very often.

Building social capital from diversity in Austin, for student success

from Growth & Justice Blog by Dane Smith and Maureen Ramirez

It started with platters and bowls heaped with tasty fresh-cooked food — a taco bar and a build-your-own-casserole table. Before long, as comfort levels rose, people began to hold each other’s babies, toddlers from South Sudan played with pre-schoolers from Central America, and grandmothers from continents apart began to share stories about their grandchildren.

The answer won’t be found further on down the road

from streets.mn by Sam Newberg

All choices have tradeoffs, and sure, you may have to give up a larger yard, among other things, in exchange for benefits of city life. I respect Mr. Greene and Mr. Turnquist’s decisions to live where they do – I can sincerely say I understand the positives. I also want them to understand, that by virtue of where they live and the land use and transportation options available, options are limited, but it doesn’t need to be that way. Choose to live in the city and your transportation options improve in terms of safety, sanity and finances. My relatives understand, through my lower bill for gas, just how valuable that choice is. It is also safer (for me and my kids) to drive less, and my well-being is greater because I get a little more exercise and don’t sit in traffic on highways as much. If Mr. Greene or Mr. Turnquist ever want to visit my neighborhood, I’ll be glad to show them around, by bike, of course!

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CC/Flickr/Wonderlane

If you’ve ever had a fender bender, you’ve probably received stacks of unsolicited offers of assistance with promises that seem too good to be true. They are.

Unless some semblance of reason prevails in the next two weeks, the 2014 legislative session will finish with an incredible paradox. DFL legislators rammed through some of the most partisan, and I think we’ll find damaging, pieces of legislation in a long, long time. Yet this Legislature will have failed to pass into law a truly significant reform that has broad bipartisan and geographically diverse support.  

Rep. Tim Sanders

The bipartisan issue we can still take care of is getting at the root of insurance fraud in Minnesota. Our state has become a magnet for those seeking to game the system as it relates to insurance. It has been shown that Minnesota families would save over $1,400 every year by rooting out insurance fraud.  

Every Minnesotan probably knows exactly what I’m writing about. If you’ve ever had a fender bender, you’ve probably received stacks of unsolicited offers of assistance with promises that seem too good to be true. They are. If you’ve ever had storm damage in your neighborhood, you’ve probably seen the door-to-door “salesmen” selling you an unbelievable deal to replace your roof or siding. Don’t believe it.  

Families could do a lot with $1,400

Think about what the average family could do with that $1,400 estimated savings. Families might be able to afford part of the increases in health-care premiums and deductibles. They might have some relief from the tax hikes instituted during this biennium. Maybe some families will donate their savings to help pay for the palatial, $90 million legislative office building being constructed for our part-time Legislature. With the brunt of the surplus now being spent, setting new floors that future legislators are going to be forced to deal with, the savings for families could provide some relief for the inevitable future DFL attempts at broad tax increases to continue irresponsible and wasteful spending.  

We have a bill [H.F. 3073] that was introduced to us earlier this year with a wide range of support that should have made all Minnesota voters proud. The insurance fraud legislation introduced was meant to get a handle on accident solicitations, provide some common-sense civil penalties for prosecutors, and ensure more robust information sharing. It was Senate and House, Democrat and Republican, rural and urban.  

If these common-sense reforms were allowed a straight-up vote in either the House or Senate, this bill would have passed with overwhelming majorities. Juxtapose that with Obamacare/MNSure, which passed without a single vote from Republicans and is now a law that doesn’t work for Minnesota.

Citizens must weight in with House members

I believe DFL leadership in the Senate is prepared to “let” this bill [S.F. 2372] get a fair vote on the floor. If they do, I applaud them and mark my words that bill will pass by an overwhelming bipartisan vote. The House is another matter. Trial lawyers have overwhelming control the House DFL agenda. It is up to the citizens to weigh in with members of the House DFL Caucus and tell them that $1,400 is not chump change to their families.

We have simple steps at our disposal to make some of these fixes around accident solicitation and the ability of prosecutors to impose civil penalties around the pervasive issue of insurance fraud.  

With so much partisanship in the political process, my hope is that we can make real progress on a bill like this that has such broad, bipartisan support. Citizens watching the end of this legislative session will learn all they need to know if Democrats stand up for trial lawyers, who have become the ATMs  for their campaigns, or if they’ll stand up for Minnesotans.

Rep. Tim Sanders of Blaine, a Republican, is the minority whip and represents District 37-B in the Minnesota House of Representatives.

WANT TO ADD YOUR VOICE?

If you're interested in joining the discussion, add your voice to the Comment section below — or consider writing a letter or a longer-form Community Voices commentary. (For more information about Community Voices, email Susan Albright at salbright@minnpost.com.)

Once upon a time, enthusiasm for innovative, neighborhood-oriented eateries, bars and clubs inspired Twin Citians to investigate low-profile areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and often inspired a neighborhood renaissance. The placemaking potential of public art and cultural institutions has also been well documented and celebrated. Lately, local brewing startups deserve credit as well.

Since the passage of the Minnesota Pint Law or "Surly Bill" in 2012, entrepreneurs have rapidly opened craft breweries with taprooms in neighborhoods throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul. Fulton Brewing may have been the first taproom to open, but Summit Brewery, which has been brewing since 1986 and is often credited with introducing microbrewing to the Twin Cities, also opened its taproom in 2012.

In 2013, 14 new craft breweries fired up fermenters and taproom operations. The City of St. Paul recently produced a video of St. Paul's beer boom. A dozen or so more breweries have — including Day Block Brewing Co. and The Freehouse on Washington Avenue in Minneapolis — or will open in 2014.

All are doing their part to turn neighborhoods into top-of-mind destinations. New taprooms planned just off the Green Line at Surly Brewing Company and Urban Growler Brewing promise to become neighborhood hubs that draw revelers by train, foot and bike. Bang Brewing, around the corner from Urban Growler, is already a Friday night hotspot.

Courtesy of HGA Architects

A rendering of Surly's planned brewery.

Northeast craft breweries like Dangerous Man Brewing Company and 612Brew support local restaurants — and even nearby bars — by allowing in outside food and welcoming food trucks to their curbs. Brewing is at the forefront of East Lake Street’s transition from shopping district to bona fide cultural hub. From the Ward One councilman who advocates for the “Northeast Brew District” to the development cooperative that houses Minnesota’s first brewing coop, local leaders and entrepreneurs are facilitating the craft beer industry’s development, which is reinvigorating neighborhoods in the process.

Northeast: Beer making territory

Perhaps nowhere is the craft beer movement’s power more obvious than in Northeast Minneapolis. Indeed Brewing Company, the district’s largest, opened in 2012; Dangerous Man, 612Brew, Northgate Brewing, and even a cidery — Sociable Cider Werks — have followed. There are a half-dozen breweries within a mile of Central Avenue, with more in the works for this year and next.

In part, Northeast can thank its rich brewing heritage for the head start. The historic home of Grain Belt still bears the cultural imprimatur of the German immigrants who built it, and its old-school neighborhood watering holes — Nye’s, Mayslacks, Stanley’s, the 331 Club — do a brisk trade with new brews and old-timers alike. Beer is very much on locals’ minds, and the new arrivals are building on the sense of place that the old guard created long ago. Northeast is beer-making territory.

The City of Minneapolis embraces the area’s heritage and the history now being made. “It is an active goal of City Council personnel to make this area a brewery friendly place,” says Matt Wallace, Dangerous Man’s marketing guru.

According to Rachel Anderson, Indeed’s marketing director and co-founder, Ward One councilman Kevin Reich has tirelessly advocated for the local brewing industry. Reich was an early, vocal supporter of the Surly Bill. He also understands the placemaking power of branding, as he’s the biggest booster of the increasingly popular but still informal “Northeast Brew District” designation, which covers most of his jurisdiction.

Brewing neighborhood synergies

The region’s producers have taken notice. Although it helped that Jim Watkins lived right around the corner from the site he and Wade Thompson selected for Sociable Cider Werks, they were impressed with the district’s infrastructure, particularly its ample parking. Also important were such local assets as small industrial businesses, neighborhood eateries, and a high proportion of creative types who work from home and conduct meetings at local coffeehouses and breweries.

“There’s a very interesting mix of old-school institutions and young, hip newcomers here,” says Watkins of Northeast.

Watkins loves that Northeast doesn’t always follow a 9-to-5 schedule. Many of Sociable’s regulars, he says, spend mornings with their laptops at Spyhouse Coffee, just down the street, then pack up and head to Sociable for afternoon meetings or early happy hours. The establishment’s placemaking power extends beyond its base of regular patrons, too. Construction related to the brewing industry in the neighborhood, says Watkins, has created sizable new accounts for local packaging companies, electricians, builders, and so forth.

Dangerous Man founder Rob Miller, formerly a produce manager for Whole Foods, agrees and is especially enthusiastic about the natural synergy between local restaurants — which may or may not have liquor licenses — and breweries like his. “We allow outside food to be brought into Dangerous Man,” he says, which “has been a huge community builder. Restaurants already in place maintain their established residency while benefiting from our presence.” 

Attracting weekend beer warriors

In the two years since the first “modern” breweries opened in the neighborhood, such reciprocal relationships have paid massive dividends. “We’re on the far end of 13th Avenue, an already popular street for bars and restaurants,” says Wallace, “and we’ve noticed an increase in traffic on the weekends.”

As the area raises its profile, more of these patrons are outsiders. Sociable’s Watkins notices an influx of non-Northeasters — suburbanites included — who devote entire Saturday afternoons to “brewery-hopping” in the area. Indeed’s Anderson adds that, “We get a lot of bikers in the summer, as well as a trend of people hopping from taproom to taproom in Northeast.”

612Brew, whose young owners all have business or customer service backgrounds, caters to these “weekend warriors” with low-alcohol session beers that bridge the gap between flavor-deprived macrobrews and the hop-forward, chewy beers that can intimidate novices. Although they take longer to brew, 612 has also expanded its selection of lighter, more drinkable lagers to appeal to visitors who aren’t sure about those heavy ales.

The entrepreneurs who run these businesses are ambitious, but all recognize that they’re part of a larger community. Indeed, for instance, takes collaboration with other local businesses seriously. It’s one of the biggest patrons of Northeast-based community organizations and charities, and recently released “Burr Grinder,” a special-edition beer made in collaboration with nearby Dogwood Coffee.

“We do our own thing as businesses,” says Anderson, “but there is a friendly camaraderie between us” that makes collaborations easy and rewarding. Indeed was initially drawn to Northeast by the district’s supply of old warehouses and storefronts suitable for breweries, but “we kind of fell in love with” the area’s entrepreneurial, community-focused scene, she says.

Cooperative brewing

Minnesota’s first cooperative brewery, Fair State Brewing Cooperative, answers to hundreds of member-investors who fund its operations and shape its growth. It’s the second tenant at the NorthEast Investment Cooperative’s flagship property on high-visibility corner of Central Avenue, and expects to open a taproom there soon.

Unlike other breweries in town, Fair State will serve as a hub for amateur brewers looking to practice their craft — and patronize the adjacent bike shop, bakery and other NEIC businesses. Perhaps more importantly, its cooperative ownership structure gives dozens of Twin Cities’ residents a stake in its success, and that of the surrounding neighborhood.

With more on the line, member-owners aren’t likely drop by a couple times per month for a pint — they’ll be around on a daily or weekly basis, walking or biking through the neighborhood and patronizing nearby suppliers and businesses. Members also enjoy exclusive happy hour discounts, financial rewards for referring new members, voting rights and pro-rated shares of the co-op’s annual profits.

The Central Corridor’s brew boom

The Central Corridor spanning Minneapolis and St. Paul, where the Green Line light rail opens June 14, is also sprouting new craft beer outposts. Burning Brothers Brewing, Minnesota’s first gluten-free brewery, recently opened near the intersection of Thomas and Fairview Avenues, in St. Paul’s Midway neighborhood.

Burning Brothers, founded by Renaissance Festival fire-breathers Dane Breimhorst and Thom Foss, was initially conceived as a Celiac-friendly production brewery, complete with a contamination-free canning line. Like Northeast, the Central Corridor had plenty of suitable, expansive spaces (the facility is 5,000 square feet) for brewing. But popular demand has already necessitated the opening of a taproom.

Bang Brewing is doing a brisk trade out of its silo-like building in the Creative Enterprise Zone of St. Anthony Park. Just around the corner from Bang, Urban Growler, the first woman-owned and -operated microbrewery in Minnesota, opens this summer and will include a restaurant.

Co-owners Deb Loch (a former biomedical engineer at Medtronic) and Jill Pavlak (who worked at Blue Plate Restaurant Company), found themselves frustrated by the local (and national) industry’s overwhelmingly white-male demographic, and resolved to appeal to women who love beer. The results will include low-to-moderate alcohol beers, session drinking, and decorative touches like purse racks and low chairs. Longer-term, they’ll also be working with community gardens in the area to source ingredients for their beers. Plans are in the works for a tasting/appetizer menu out of the small kitchen — the “come for a beer, stay for a bite” setup that works for myriad neighborhood pubs across the Cities.

Then there’s Surly. The Westgate brownfield on which Surly’s building a new taproom/brewery won out over nearly three-dozen potential sites across the metro. The area’s infrastructure, from the Green Line to an adjacent bikeway/walking path, and existing hospitality businesses, proved irresistible. Inside, the taproom will pay homage to European beer gardens and serve food from an in-house kitchen.

Finding and enhancing a South Minneapolis location

Further south, the bustling intersection of Lake, Minnehaha and Hiawatha already sports a collection of neighborhood watering holes, eateries, and performance venues. Now, Harriet Brewing Company is there, as well. Housed in a repurposed industrial space that retains an unpolished, even gritty feel, Harriet Brewing has an artist-in-residence: Jesse Brodd, a well-known local designer, is responsible for the brewery’s label art and many of the paintings that hang on the taproom walls.

Live music is also a staple of the brewery, which takes its status as an evening gathering space seriously. To celebrate Harriet’s two-year anniversary, the owners kept the doors open for 12 days straight in mid-March, welcoming spoken-word performers, standup comedians, bluegrass artists, and local singer-songwriters to mark the occasion.

With existing cultural assets like In the Heart of the Beast Theater, the Hub Bike Co-Op and Peace Coffee’s retail location already in place, the area was a natural fit for Harriet. Since the brewery’s opening, the neighborhood has sprouted new eateries and seen a marked increase in foot and bike traffic, especially at night. Harriet might not be the sole reason for this transformation, but is clearly responsible for drawing new visitors to the area and creating an engaging streetscape.

Boom … or bust?

Last year, some 10 breweries also expanded or announced plans to grow — many to double the amount of beer produced annually. Boom Island Brewing Co. on Washington Avenue moved to a spot five times larger and will soon have a taproom. Bauhaus Brew Labs, in Northeast, is set to open this summer and launched a Kickstarter campaign to solicit ideas for the build out (which may include a stage and sound system for the house band Viva Kneievel). Other craft breweries expanding include Indeed, Town Hall, Summit and Fulton.

The rapid craft brewing renaissance has some observers wondering if or when the local market will reach a saturation point, or experience a disruptive shakeout that forces multiple breweries out of business.

“We’re not even close to the point of saturation,” argues Sociable’s Watkins. “There’s still room here for a lot of neighborhood brewpubs.”

This article is reprinted in partnership with The Line, an online chronicle of Twin Cities creativity in entrepreneurship, culture, retail, placemaking, the arts, and other elements of the new creative economy. Brian Martucci is The Line’s innovation and jobs editor and frequently contributes feature articles.

This year, Minneapolis-based sports-bar chain Buffalo Wild Wings begins a companywide rollout of a next-generation design, in development since 2011, for its new and remodeled restaurants.

The growing chain, with $1.27 billion in 2013 revenue, opened its thousandth North American location in January. The new design, called “stadia,” was used in 13 new-store openings last year. In 2014, all but two of 46 planned openings will follow the stadia template (the pair of outliers were too far into the permitting process with local authorities to change course), explains BWW’s director of store design Bill Ferris.

Ferris also expects many elements of the new design to appear in 20 to 25 remodels of corporate-owned stores this year, and about 40 franchised locations. Two Twin Cities remodels, one in Oakdale, the other on Snelling Avenue in St. Paul, have incorporated the new template, although special constraints would not allow the full stadia treatment. A new store with a more complete stadia design is scheduled to open in late spring at Edina’s Southdale Mall.

(Citing competitive reasons, the company will not reveal build-out costs associated with the old and new design, but henceforth, all new stores, whether corporate-owned or franchised, must adopt the stadia concept.)

Ferris says that no precipitating event or business trend sparked the move to a radical redesign. It simply arose from an ongoing desire to “keep our restaurant appearance fresh,” he says.

Once BWW got into the process, however, one thought led to another. The final new design differs from typical sports bars in some potentially groundbreaking ways. Interior furnishings use lighter colors. Windows above the bar area admit natural light. The acoustics, the audiovisual system and placement of TV screens are designed to make conversations at a normal volume possible at the tables in the dining area, even if there is considerable noise and excitement around the bar.

Can One Space Fit All?

One look at BWW’s redesigned central horseshoe-shaped bar, with its enormous video screens, makes the stadia label easy to understand. But, in fact, two seemingly contradictory priorities led BWW to pursue a design that would work well for different types of customers, even without major sporting events that attract crowds of hard-core fans.

Make no mistake—sports remain central to the marketing strategy, Ferris says, and BWW’s top priority was to “capture the energy” that sports fans have at a stadium event. “We didn’t set out to replicate a stadium experience,” he explains, “but if you can’t go to the stadium, you should be able to go to Buffalo Wild Wings and get similar energy.”

That suggests ramping up the intensity. The stadia design does exactly that—in the bar area. But a second priority was to calm, quiet and humanize the restaurant section. That goal was driven by the changing demographics of BWW’s customer base and the chain’s desire to be perceived as more than just a sports bar.

“We have seen an increase in family business,” Ferris says, “especially parents coming in with kids who are into sports—Little League and those kinds of things. . . . That’s a growth segment for us. And parents don’t want to feel that they’re taking their kids to a bar.”

Traditionally, sports bars (think Senser’s) have been windowless, darkly furnished and dimly lit, in part because big-screen projection televisions don’t show up well in daylight or normal interior lighting. “Bill [Ferris] and I went to a [Twin Cities] sports bar that was quite dark,” recalls Christian Davies, executive creative director-Americas for Fitch, the global architectural firm, with U.S. headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, which was hired to create BWW’s new design. “I said, ‘I’d never bring my kids here.’ After that we talked a lot about ambiance and what we wanted the space to feel like.”

The issue became how to create a space that would serve as a great place to drink beer and watch sports in a highly social and energetic atmosphere, while providing a comfortable environment for families and kids. For that matter, how about an environment that would attract chicken-wing fanciers even if they were indifferent to the games that might be showing on the television sets?

The challenge boiled down to one of flexibility, Davies says. Spaces within the stores had to be “zoned” to account for three sorts of differences. One he calls “dayparting,” referring to questions such as “How is lunchtime different from dinnertime, and how does the post-dinner experience change?”

He calls the second difference “game-on vs. game-off.” The venue doesn’t just have to appeal to fans during big games; it needs to attract customers 365 days a year. Finally, there are different kinds of guests: “How can you design for families without putting off the hard-core loyalist sports fans?”

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Joseph Dungca, an audiovisual consultant for BWW, says that technological advances now make it feasible to replace most projection-screen setups with flat-screen LED TVs up to about 80 inches. That is what really allowed BWW to rethink the concept of light.

And while they were at it, why not rethink acoustics so that customers in the restaurant area could actually hear each other speak over the echoing music or the television noise?

Ferris, Dungca and Davies are reluctant to criticize other sports bars too harshly; Steven Orfield, president of Orfield Laboratories of Minneapolis, has no such qualms. Orfield Labs is a firm specializing in experience-centered research and design. Basically, “that means we pay attention to human perception,” he says. He served as a consultant and researcher on the BWW design project.

What is wrong with the typical sports bar? Easy, Orfield says: It looks and feels like a dark warehouse with TV sets hanging at random off the walls and ceilings. The audiovisual system is designed with so little thought or skill that there is no table in the place where you can carry on a normal human conversation. Even if the food is good, the only people who want to go there are sports fans—and even they have no desire to be there unless a game of particular interest is on. If a sports fan manages to drag some middle-aged parents or a spouse or a friend to the joint, the guests likely will never return.

It isn’t hard to hang up a giant screen and attract a crowd for a Vikings game, Orfield says. But if that’s where your design awareness stops, “you’ll alienate a far larger market than you will attract.” If you want customers to show up when the big game isn’t on, he says, “the trick is to design a restaurant that happens to be a sports bar, not vice versa.”

BWW’s stadia design pays very close attention to light and noise. Ferris credits Orfield with research demonstrating that interior colors should be much lighter. “It goes against intuitive thinking: You’d think a darker environment would allow the TV screens to pop,” Ferris says. But an analysis found that a lighter background is easier and more pleasant for customers because their eyes don’t have to adjust as much as when they look from a dark background to a bright screen.

As for sound, in BWW’s legacy stores, Ferris says, “everything is open, and we got a lot of reverberation in the space. In the new design, we hung acoustical material from the roof structure that cuts down reverb.” Now, instead of sounds merging into “acoustical mud,” people can have conversations and also hear the game without the sounds blending. “It’s a much more pleasant environment acoustically,” he notes.

It’s hard not to interpret many of the changes as a play to female customers, who make most household dining decisions and typically deliver the veto in a sports bar debate, but Ferris says not so: “Our goal was to enhance the Buffalo Wild Wings experience for all of our guests.

. . . We weren’t specifically targeting women.”

Franchisees, who own about 56 percent of all Buffalo Wild Wings stores, have almost unanimously embraced the new design, Ferris says. (Nonetheless, the company would not allow a franchisee to be interviewed by TCB.) The company surely hopes so, as franchisees have to bet their own money on it. Like corporate stores, “our franchisees are obligated to remodel on a periodic basis,” he says. “They are not required to go back and remodel stores to the stadia design, but when they do remodel, they must meet the design standards for stadia.”

Initial research has found customers to be “very positive” about the new design, Ferris says.

Orfield sees the whole project as a bright exception that proves a gloomy rule about design: “Nobody pays attention to human perception,” he complains. “And science is almost never done in architecture.”

Inside Buffalo Wild Wings’ “Stadia” Design Template

1. SCREENS LED technology allows removal of projection TVs, which are not compatible with high levels of natural light.

2. BAR The remodeled stores feature bar areas more segregated from dining areas, allowing BWW to offer a variety of ambiences at different times of day.

3. COLOR Furnishings and wall colors/materials are lighter, resulting in a space that appeals to a broader variety of customers.

4. ACOUSTICS Acoustical material hung from the roof reduces reverberation, allowing more audible conversation, even with game sound from TVs.

5. LIGHTING Skylights let in natural light and overall light levels increase in stadia-design stores. Both sports viewers and other customers preferred the effect, the company says.

This article is reprinted in partnership with Twin Cities Business.

My daughter Violette and I just walked the Minneopa prairie. Later this summer, bison, the heaviest of North American land mammals, may once again graze these grasses, cultivate the soil with their hooves, and scrub their winter hides against boulders. The Department of Natural Resources is currently reviewing a proposal to introduce 40 bison into Minneopa State Park, 5 miles west of Mankato, where they once thrived and thundered wild in great numbers before white settlement.

Snowy owls, Violette says, are her favorite animal. “But bison and horses are next.” She’s 8, and her mind is open even as she enters the age of reason. Soon she will quietly be taught to deliver right or wrong answers for every query. But today her imaginary possibilities are cosmic. Here, in the tall grasses and shrubbery, potential for original ideas can grow. Her interests have yet to be limited. At 8, it is acceptable to be a naturalist, a historian, a musician and a poet all at the same time. She’s not yet been restrained by American specialization. At her age, she is free to discover the connectivity of all the earth’s disciplines and life’s lessons. 

We walk toward a large rock, maybe 5 feet in diameter and covered in dried green and yellow moss. The rock is split in two. “How do you think it broke?” I ask her.

“That’s easy,” she says. "Water did it. When it froze." She peers inside the crack and touches the inside. “This big rock,” I tell her, “was left behind by retreating glaciers.” But she already knows that, too.

Photo by Nicole Helget

“How do you think it broke?”

Wild places sustain and restore the human spirit, inspire and alert our highest intelligence. Who can argue the point when the girl solemnly climbs on top an erratic to have “some thinking time” or when she bends to observe a cluster of deer scat and breaks it open, bare-handed, to discover what the animal had eaten?  Every child ought to have a place where he or she can go and envision the origins of all. Of the wilderness, Pulitzer-Prize winner Wallace Stegner wrote, “It is good for us when we are young, because of the incomparable sanity it can bring briefly, as vacation and rest, into our insane lives.”

Children’s lives are and always have been insane. Violette is one of six of my children, spanning ages 18 to 4. Separate households. Different schools. Athletics. Lessons. Parents who work all day, but who still come home with work. Duties pulling people in every direction. Chaos that we euphemize as “busy” and “productive.” Like Violette, I’m studying the park’s meadow and breathing deeply, putting aside matters that claim to be pressing. Not one of them as interesting or serious as the fire out here. Park workers tend a controlled burn. Romantic gray smoke makes the sky drowsy and slightly hallucinogenic. It’s prime air for imagining specters.

Photo by Jason Miller, Franchise Graphics and Photography

Nicole Helget

The Minneopa pasture stretches out north of Hwy. 68 to the Minnesota River. This area of the park is separated from the more popular double falls area by a road, a cemetery and train tracks. Bringing bison to this area of the park has been toyed with for decades, at least as far back as the mid-1960s, when a flood forced the few animals kept at Sibley Park in Mankato to be moved to Blue Mound State Park in southwestern Minnesota. What’s left of Minnesota’s bison herds (many of them cross-bred with cattle genes) now remain in zoos, farms or park sanctuaries, a fate not unlike the people who once depended upon them for their survival.

“Isn’t it nice,” I ask Violette, “to think that the buffalo might be here again?”

She scans the prairie. Maybe she wonders where they’d gone in the first place. I know I did at her age. Out here, in southern Minnesota, where round hay bales sit in fields, I used to squint and imagine them. I missed them and mourned them though I had no natural memory of them being here. I’d dream the dancing calves. I’d dream the knowing fathers and mothers drooping their heads as if in expectation of slaughter. I’d dream the old, condemning eyes piercing me right in the heart.

Residual guilt: Some children are born with it. I’d seen the old photos of bones and skulls stacked high, smatterings of skinned bison carcasses lying alongside train tracks, representations of our forefathers’ attempts to starve out the Native American tribes, to clear the prairies for settlements of white families, farms and towns. I understood, very early, that my own livelihood came at the expense of people and animals preceding me by generations.

I’m a writer and a teacher by trade, but I’m also a bird watcher, music lover, leaf hunter, insect observer, and amateur history enthusiast. All interests were born outside. Most play for my sisters and me occurred in the woods or fields. Away from adults and televisions, we entertained ourselves in the grove, at the river, and along the field roads. Everywhere I turned, I saw ghosts of days past.

Minneopa is haunted with such inherited memories.

In January 2012, my friend and writing group member stole out here to Minneopa and shot himself in the cold and snow. I believe he selected the park for many reasons, though I can’t know. He left no note. But, with more than a year’s perspective, I can understand now that the selection of place was a gentle decision from a gentle man. I assume he didn’t want anyone to clean a devastating mess. He would have thought of that. But there was also his deep love of the wilderness.

It makes sense that he would have wanted to be somewhere as close to primitive as possible. I believe I, too, would like to go out on a moment that conjures, as closely as it can, the origins of first breath and first nourishment. We aren’t born under the stars anymore, but I can understand the desire to lie back and see them as a last spark, to allay what must have been an oppressive loneliness and hopelessness by covering himself with a blanket of galactic delights on a bed of earth on a frozen night, reminiscent of the urge, the gasp, and the cold shock of birth. Where he went out, I hope someday soon a bison calf is born in an urgent rush.

Bison herds will never again run truly wild. Once, between 20 and 30 million bison lived on the American plains. By 1900, fewer than 1,000 remained. Somehow, buffalo, with their stern countenances, elicit sorrow. Maybe our attempts to bring them back are an appeal for atonement. Forgive us. And we’ll move forward with more care. Will never again allow bison to roam freely. It’s a nice image, but fears of them spreading the brucellosis infection (probably irrational) and depleting grasslands and colliding with cars won’t allow it. Bison herds will from this point be tended and managed in parks and farms and sanctuaries where the animals seem to function best with as few intervention as possible. Following the example established at Yellowstone National Park, the bison at Minneopa will not be fed by park rangers. Other than the construction of a fence and the digging of a well for a water source, the land is ready to sustain the herd, and the herd will fend for itself.

Nights out here are beautiful. Stars glint abundant. If there’s an argument for ghosts, it’s put best by Neil deGrasse Tyson, who says that every evening the stars, some of them gone dark long ago, still shine. We see their sparkle, though the star itself no longer exists.  The glaciers are gone. The wild herds of yore, too. A friend. Minneopa Park is the holder of memories, natural and human. It’s a place of remorse and penance.

Nicole Helget is a writer, teacher and mother from North Mankato. "Ghosts of Minneopa" is the first in a collection of essays, accompanied by a soundtrack, about the state's parks. Her latest novel is “Stillwater.”

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If you're interested in joining the discussion, add your voice to the Comment section below — or consider writing a letter or a longer-form Community Voices commentary. (For more information about Community Voices, email Susan Albright at salbright@minnpost.com.)

I suppose there’s no point waiting until there’s a resolution on the Southwest LRT … . In a Strib commentary, county commissioners Rafael Ortega and Lisa Weik argue, “[W]e believe the state should invest in the next phase of federally required study for the proposed Gateway Corridor rapid transit line from St. Paul to Woodbury. … By 2030, population along the corridor is expected to swell by 40 percent (90,000 people) and the area is projected to add 61,500 jobs. Gateway Corridor rapid transit would ... would provide all-day transit service on either light rail or bus rapid transit (BRT) in a dedicated guideway.”

It’s law … .Eric Roper of the Strib says, “Gov. Mark Dayton rang in Mother’s Day Sunday by giving final approval to a package of bills aimed at improving conditions for women in the workplace. … The initial cost of the [Women's Economic Security Act] effort is expected to be about $2.46 million. About $711,000 of that will ensure contractors are meeting equal pay provisions … . Monitoring the pay equity component will have an ongoing cost of about $926,000 a year.”

Go for it … . Maya Rao at the Strib reports, “Minneapolis officials are taking early steps toward joining ­Seattle and San Francisco in becoming ‘zero waste’ cities where just about every scrap of trash is recycled. A public hearing to ban hard-to-recycle foam takeout containers is scheduled for Monday and City Hall is drafting a plan to pick up food scraps and other organic items from every home by next year, something several metro-area cities already do.”

Interesting piece by Hal Davis of the PiPress on the topic of "policing for profit": “If a judge in a civil forfeiture case finds a bad bust, can he keep the state from seizing the defendant's property, even if the guy pleaded guilty in a criminal case?” The state recently made it harder for law enforcement to keep seized property, but this Supreme Court case preceded that change.

Five chihuahuas have suffered death by hookah … . Also in the PiPress, Raya Zimmerman reports, “A St. Paul woman escaped a house fire through a small basement window Sunday, but five dogs died in the blaze. St. Paul fire investigator Jamie Novak cited an improperly extinguished hookah, or water pipe, as the cause of the fire.”

Also under “a tough weekend for dogs” … . The AP says, “Two puppies that were discarded in a recycling bin behind a St. Paul animal hospital were found this week, one dead and the other barely clinging to life. As the surviving dog continues to recover, police are investigating the case as possible animal cruelty … .”

Cool video of a crippled Cirrus plane landing via parachute, via the Duluth News Tribune. This is how the Duluth-made plane's safety system is supposed to work; the incident happened in Australia. It was a demonstration flight.

Have you spent your pasta money yet? Dave Kolpack of the AP tells us, “A  [North Dakota] company accused of falsely advertising the health benefits of its nationally distributed Dreamfields Pasta line has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit and pay $5 million to consumers who bought the products in the last decade. … Under the agreement, consumers will be refunded $1.99 for each box of pasta bought since February 2004. It limits the payments to 15 boxes of pasta bought at any store … .”

Just when locals had visions of another Wild Stanley Cup series win, the Blackhawks beat Minnesota in Chicago 2-1 for 3-2 series lead. The PiPress's Tom Powers laments the Wild losing an early lead, as does the Strib's Michael Russo.

U.S. Senate candidate Mike McFadden continues to put a soft-focus filter on his campaign statements. But in an interview with MinnPost, he reveals some specifics on policies he’d pursue if he defeats Sen. Al Franken in November.

It’s not that the others seeking Republican endorsement have done much more than articulate their support of traditional conservative positions. It’s that, unlike McFadden, the most serious challengers — State Rep. Jim Abeler, State Sen. Julianne Ortman and St. Louis County Commissioner Chris Dahlberg — have voting records. 

McFadden, a mergers-and-acquisition consultant with a Georgetown law degree, declined to participate in early debates and often gave generalized responses when pressed for policy details. Both the DFL, and his GOP competitor Dahlberg, have accused him of dodging the issues. 

Below, McFadden defined a few of his positions, including tax reform, energy sector growth, and foreign affairs:

MinnPost: What did you think of Congressman Dave Camp’s tax plan — it eliminates write-offs and lowers the overall rates — and how does this compare to your concept of tax reform?

Mike McFadden: I think there’s a huge opportunity to sit down and really make some dramatic improvements here.

It shouldn’t be a partisan issue; it should be bipartisan. Sitting across the table with like-minded Democrats and say, “Let’s agree it’s going to be revenue-neutral,” because we’ve got $17 trillion of debt that we have to address.

But we can all agree that we have something that’s much more simple and much more transparent. Every economist will tell you that we’ll see economic growth from that, because it’s just more efficient.

Let’s sit down and talk about what that looks like. The 15,000 deductions; exemptions … I think you start with a white, blank sheet of paper and say, "This is the amount of money we need to run the government, here’s what we’re going to do. Here are the rates. What deductions or exemptions do we absolutely need and why?"

MP: So you’re looking at a revenue-neutral tax plan, but vastly simplified?

MM: And transparent. I want people to know what people are paying. People pay a lot in taxes, and they should have the confidence as to what that is.

We need tax reform. It’s so complicated, no one understands it.

We have a 35 percent tax rate for corporations. That’s too high. I believe that’s too high. But having said that, corporations are all over. There are reports that there are some large corporations in America that paid zero income tax last year. That’s wrong. It’s not illegal, but it’s wrong.

MP: Do you support the Fed’s monetary policy of keeping interest rates low?

MM: I’m concerned we are in uncharted territory.

The Fed has been manipulating interest rates for five years now. As they’ve been the predominant buyer of securities on the open market — they have affected that market greatly. As they stop buying the bonds, there’s a real concern that interest rates will spike.

… They announced some tapering last summer, and interest rates spike on five- and ten-year bonds. They pulled back immediately.The last couple situations where they decreased the amount of buying, it’s been smoother in the marketplace.

What’s absolutely critical is that we get … the underlying economy — manufacturing sector, service sector — doing better, creating more jobs so that the Fed can pull back.

They've got to pull back, and if we don’t have the growth, my concern is that we’ll see out-of-control inflation.

MP: Do you support a federal increase in the minimum wage?

MM: I support anything that increases wage and increases jobs. My concern is two-fold:

One is federal versus state. It concerns me that the government dictates a wage across the whole country. As we all know, the factors that we face in Minnesota are dramatically different than New York or California or Alabama.

The other … is when I read reports from economists that this will destroy jobs.

MP: So you don’t support a federal increase?

MM: Yeah that would destroy jobs. I think there’s a better way to do it. I’m a big fan of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

The other thing is that we gotta get this economy growing. That’s how you increase jobs; that’s how you increase wages.

I’m very concerned we’ve absolutely had stagnant growth. Last quarter, we grew 0.1 percent. While the unemployment rate has gone down, it’s somewhat misleading because the labor participation rate has gone done significantly.

… We’re going sideways and I know that. I’m a businessman. There’s a way forward. There’s a path to growth and prosperity, if we allow it to happen.

I think one of the reason we have so few new business starts is that regulation has made it so expensive to start a new business.

MP: In a bill, what regulations would you propose to eliminate?

MM: I don’t think it’s as simple as proposing language in a bill.

Someone was asking me what committees I would like to be sitting on in the U.S. Senate. I said one of the things I’d like to do is create a new committee, which would be the committee of de-regulation.

We have all these committees that create laws, then create regulation. There’s no one whose job is to look through and say what is still relevant.

MP: But specifically, where do you see these regulatory roadblocks?

MM: I am for smart regulation, efficient regulation.

Let me give you a real-life example in Minnesota that’s problematic. We’re sitting on the largest copper deposit in the world. It has the opportunity to have Bakken-like economic impact on our state and on the region.

Nobody in Minnesota, including myself, wants to do anything that harms our 10,000 lakes. We are all environmentalists in this state. What is problematic is this copper deposit — this has been under review for seven years, $150 million, and we don’t have an answer yet.

There currently are seven different regulatory agencies that have control over this project: the DNR, PCA, sovereign nations, Bureau of Land Management, Corps of Engineers, Department of the Interior and the Forest Service.

If we were in Germany, which has the toughest environmental laws in the EU, we’d have an answer in six months. Just tell us.

Nobody wants to do something that’s harmful, and my sense is that they’re going to allow this to happen because they can do it in an environmentally safe way — but nothing should take seven years and $150 million. We have such an inefficient, chaotic regulatory review process. That’s wrong. That stops economic impact.

MP: With these entrenched structures, how would you propose to make them more efficient?

MM: You need to build a coalition of like-minded people. Ideally, it’s bipartisan. I think this is ideally suited for people that have private-sector experience. I’ve solved problems my whole life, that’s what I'm trained to do. …

Let’s take the energy industry. We are sitting on the doorsteps of an energy renaissance, which is truly game-changing if we allow it to happen in a responsible way.

We haven't been energy independent; we haven’t been an energy superpower since the early 1960s. People forget that in World War II, we provided six-sevenths of the oil that was used to prosecute the war on behalf of the allies.

We have the opportunity — because of technology, because of innovation, because of horizontal drilling — to really be an energy superpower.

It’s a game-changer, because not only is energy the number one source of high paying jobs over the next decade, but also more importantly, with low cost energy, we have a manufacturing renaissance.

MP: What do you think Congress should do with energy policy?

MM: One is approve the Keystone pipeline, which has thoroughly passed multiple environmental reviews.

Two is natural gas. There are 24 [liquefied and natural gas plants] around the country that have applied for permits. I would fast-track the permitting process.

Let’s talk about Europe. France does use [nuclear]. Germany curtailed their nuclear program, and went to natural gas and I believe 60 to 70 percent of their energy comes from Russia. That’s a problem; that’s a huge problem.

Energy independence is not just to allow us to be an economic superpower — which we need to be — but it’s got huge implications on geo-political issues. If we had these L-and-G plants up and running, we actually could export to Europe. We could supply their energy — democracy to democracy.

Germany allowed themselves to get in a situation where they were dependent on Russia.

MP: Natural gas is a resource that produces methane that may contribute to climate change. If Congress decides to act on climate change — what is the most prudent course, in your opinion?

MM: One of the frustrations that I've had is the way that the question is posed. There’s a false choice out there. You’re either for the environment, or you’re for the economic growth or business growth.

… You can do both. You grow; you develop in a responsible way. With natural gas, the studies I've seen, there’s more methane produced from livestock than there ever is from natural gas production. And natural gas is one of the cleanest forms of energy.

I’m a big proponent of all forms of energy. Let the market determine what’s the most efficient way to provide energy sources.

Look at the improvements we made in the coal industry in terms of what we’ve been able to do there. Whether its coal, nuclear, natural gas, propane — let’s promote it in a responsible way.

If we're able to provide natural gas to Europe, they’re not held hostage by Russia. Russia’s economy is completely energy dependent.

MP: What is your opinion of U.S. policy regarding Russia and the Ukraine?

MM: I’m very disappointed in the current administration in terms of their foreign policy. I think they’ve put the U.S. in a place where we are in a less safe, more dangerous position today that when they got elected into office.

Let’s look at Benghazi. A U.S. ambassador was murdered. We had a rapid deployment force of Marines on an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. We did nothing and the world watched.

Then we drew a red line in the sand in Syria. They crossed it. We did nothing and the world watched.So no one should be surprised by what Putin did in the Ukraine.

MP:Do you advocate a more muscular U.S. policy in this situation?

MM: I advocate a more clear policy. I would have started in Benghazi. I would have sent a very strong message that we’re going to protect our embassies.

We find ourselves in a situation in the Ukraine. I would have immediately kicked Russia out of the G-8. We become the G-7. I would consider things like taking the [2018] World Cup from them immediately. I’m a big proponent of economic sanctions. We need Europe’s support to make them effective.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda. And last week, International Holocaust Remembrance Day happened.

Yet despite promises by the international community to never repeat such horrors, minorities in a number of countries around the world remain at risk of falling victim to the next genocide or mass killing, according to a new report by the British nonprofit Minority Rights Group.

Here's a look at the nine countries that are right now the most dangerous for minority groups:

1. Somalia

As I write this, it’s 50 degrees and raining. Yet summer has to arrive eventually, doesn’t it?

As a reminder: Our recent winter ranked as the sixth-coldest of all time, according to the National Climatic Data Center. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ “Winter Misery Index” (which combines cold and snow) rated it the ninth-worst, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ranked it No. 10. By any measure, it was one for the books.

And so a couple of new ad campaigns have rolled out, hoping to entice Minnesotans to shed their sweaters and take advantage of the blessed few months of fair weather that we hope are in store.

The chartreuse Nice Ride bikes have become a familiar sight around the Twin Cities, and Minneapolis shop Persuasion Arts and Sciences has added a new twist to its ongoing “Grab Summer by the Handlebars” theme. This year, prospective Nice Riders are urged to forget about the Polar Vortex and embrace the Solar Vortex. It’s the only sensible thing to do, said Dion Hughes, the Australian-born head of Persuasion.

"On paper, it would seem Minneapolis is the worst possible major city to have a bike-share program,” he said. “And that's exactly why it's the perfect place, because bikes are the perfect way of making the most of summer. And believe me, we need to make the most of it!"

Little

The long-running Explore Minnesota Tourism campaign by Colle + McVoy is getting a refresh with a new logo designed by Minneapolis design-and-branding firm Little.

The Explore Minnesota Tourism marketing budget has more than doubled in recent years; the Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton boosted spending by $11 million in the current biennium. That’s allowed expansion into new target markets, including Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha and Denver, plus two provinces in Canada.

Tourism generates $811 million in sales tax revenue annually in Minnesota and provides more than 245,000 full- and part-time jobs — about 11 percent of the state’s private sector employment. According to Explore Minnesota Tourism, each dollar spent on tourism marketing returns $8 in taxes to the state and $84 in consumer spending.

Persuasion Arts and Sciences