Dead migratory bird-friend that I didn’t have supplies/time to gather for researchers. Will try later, but anyone nearby could gather it for science and love, on 1st between 4th & 5th, downriver side.

I'm hearing that NACTO people will be in Mpls next week. I'm wanting to join in the fun or give people walking tours. My interests: walking/accessibility, public outreach + art, winter ice conditions, benches, density, organizing, storytelling infrastructure, Hennepin Ave, the whole world. HMU.

I might be a lump, but at least I’m a lump whose lumpiness cannot yet be automated (lmk when machines crochet), and whose lumpy colorways sometimes match the transit I’m on.

In Minnesota, apartments are only allowed on about 7% of residential land. But the least efficient type of homes, large homes on large lots, are standard, and allowed on 97% of residential land. We should flip that. www.zoningatlas.org/snapshots?cb...

But also @happify.bsky.social also has valid critiques of sidewalks as infrastructure that doesn’t work

Went biking today (that’s why you didn’t recognize me). Was so so so whiny for the first three miles. “I thought biking was supposed to be easier than walking!” “My legs are tired.” “Why doesn’t biking use any of the same muscles as walking?” and on and on. Turns out back tire at 5psi will do that.

Sad news about what the city of Minneapolis is telling sidewalk inspectors is a compliant winter sidewalk: "If sand or salt was placed down, an attempt was made and sidewalk is considered compliant." Sprinkling salt on an otherwise untouched sidewalk: "an attempt was made"

Also also, just to be clear, the wastewater data referenced in this is from four treatment plants in MN, but not directly the metro. Given how exponential spread works, the particular risk factors for it in the metro since Jan 24th, and the effectiveness of masking, I'm alerting my circles anyhow.

Also, keep in mind that the infection rate is based on population but not everyone feels/is safe going to school/work/gatherings right now, so the denominator is functionally lower in MN right now (therefore chances of infectious person in a gathering space is higher). (Still spitballing armchair)

I’m thinking* this is the result of the combo of massive over-capacity m indoor gatherings of (unmasked) people wanting to help neighbors targeted by ICE and also in person caucusing, all in spaces without sufficient air filtration/ventilation. * Untrained. Untested. Spitballing.

Breaking: The CDC reports SARS-CoV-2 levels *quadrupled* in Minnesota in the past week. Using harmonized wastewater estimates, we project 1 in 12 people in Minnesota are actively infectious. This is equivalent to a 59% chance of exposure in a room of 10 people....

Watching @happify.bsky.social clearing curbs with a vengeance inspired me to go clear some mid block alley crossings. Lot of work! But smoother getting through now!

Here it is earlier in January when we cleared it of water (3rd and worst of three very flooded portions of the bike path). The water was 4” deep for about 10’, then tapering off for another 10-15’. My flame’s boots weren’t waterproof so I shoved ALLLL OF THAT WATER over a snowbank with a shovel.

Did some bike path clearing today. Took a while, but not nearly as bad as it was when we got it early-mid January (I hacked at it a bit yesterday, but fruitlessly with just the chopper). Tools used: ice chopper + wide blade shovel to push the water over the snow dams.

Out again today, and lots of water removal combined with ice chopping. Pro-tip: an ice chopper is also a pretty decent paddle to throw the water onto/over the boulevard. You think it can’t possibly work, but then suddenly the sidewalk is no longer submerged.

Trying to remember to bring our chipper to school patrol this week!

Living up north, I have wanted a tool like that ever since. And I think about the women a lot. Living through a Blockade, and then taking the great pride they did in Keeping Streets Safe. /end

And these women, who had lived through so much, would chatter the entire time, solving the world's problems among themselves, gossiping, commenting on passersby, scolding or advising them as they deserved, always taking great care to clear All The Ice. 4/

The scraper was too heavy to lift too far, but little lifts were all it took to shatter the ice. They'd leave the shards and then someone else would come by later in the day and shovel them all into the street, where they would either melt or get plowed or shoveled into a truck. 3/

They would come out in brigades in long coats and fur hats and heavy boots and move slowly down a block, lifting the scrapers maybe two inches every time, and dropping them on their blades, breaking ice that was sometimes five inches thick. Lift and drop, lift and drop. 2/

Something I think about all the time is when I was living in SPb, Russia, there were these armies of old women -- most of them Blockade survivors -- whose job was would clear ice from sidewalks with large cast iron scrapers. Basically shaped like a flooring scraper, but all one piece, and heavy. 1/

I’ve been wandering solo with an ice chopper, but have recently met up with friends with more tools. The crowbar + hammer was key to clearing the SE corner of 22nd and Lyndale a few days ago.

Bopping in to say that clearing ice from corners and bus stops is excellent community care and also good for getting out some kind of energy and connecting with strangers.

Begging everyone with these kind of centrist senators to call their offices every single day. If you want to support Minnesota, set a daily alarm and call

We are observers, not protestors. We show up to document and film the atrocities ICE is committing. Using 5 year olds as bait. Kidnapping senior citizens. Breaking down doors without warrants. Murdering poets and nurses. Media has all of that information because *observers* were there to document it

"I insisted that the agents let me assess him. Normally, I would not have been so persistent, but as a physician, I felt a professional and moral obligation to help this man, especially since none of the agents were helping him."

“Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front me and I don't feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don't know what the agents will do when they find me.”

Especially if you're not in Minnesota. Especially if you have Republican senators. Please help us.

One thing that irks me: people keep calling the folks on the streets in Minneapolis protestors. They are not generally there to protest, they are there to observe and document. This is the product of organizing and mutual aid. It is telling that these acts of citizenship are seen as protest!

Friends. This is the long haul. Regulate yourself. Breathe. Act if you must today, but know that the work will be here tomorrow. Pick your lane. Connect to your people.

Things to do remotely, today: 1. Make donations to mutual aid groups in Minnesota. 2. Flood the Capitol switchboard with phone calls. 3. Don't give unsolicited, online advice to Minnesotans. 4. Be careful what posts you share. Stick to MN sources, or trusted journalists.

In the Emily Holmes' original "tetris can help reduce PTSD" study, what was found was that tetris is an activity which busies the part of working memory called the visuospatial sketchpad: imagining the rotation of shapes. www.psych.ox.ac.uk/news/tetris-...

Ways to help if you're local, ways to help if you aren't in MN. Also still need support for our unhoused neighbors, especially in this cold. Links in quoted post. www.standwithminnesota.com has links, including a way to send messages to Minnesota.

this is just my opinion and there's a good chance I'm wrong, but: it seems to me that one important thing people who aren't here can do is spread the word, calmly and relentlessly, to people in your life who aren't tuned into what's going on (or the reality of what's going on)

ALL MN PROTESTERS Absolutely nothing could be worse for our cause than violence and rioting. It is what ICE and Trump obviously want. Do not burn down our own city to protest invaders; they do not care; they will enjoy it. Do not do it. Do not let your fellow protesters do it.

If you know anyone who still supports this one or doesn't think it's that bad in MN, please send them this. People need to know.

It's stupid that the anti-accessibility/pro-car folks are spending so much of their time on this while most of us are trying to materially protect our neighbors, but they are. Email MPRB commissioners that parks that are for people + green and growing things, not cars + pavement, by 5:30 today.

Seriously, if you want to help the folks in Minnesota (& we could really use your help), please call your members of congress. Also spread the word to the less-online about what's going on. And if you've got money, throw it at something here: www.standwithminnesota.com

Any one of my bike rides, man.

Maybe don’t use people’s physical characteristics as insults or ways to demean them? Using “small” or “short” as an insult is bigotry based in and reinforcing misogyny and racism.

This is true, we fact checked

This is supposed to say “chud” not “child.” I like and respect children as vital members of our society. My apologies for not catching the auto-correct!

So in the age of social media and as an “influencer”, this child drew fewer people than showed up to the same intersection to protest Bill Clinton’s bombing of Iraq in 1996?!?!

“[T]he vast majority of men are only willing to engage in public violence if they feel like the people around them will approve of—and reward them for—that violence. ICE Watch works because it surrounds men seeking approval with people loudly expressing their disapproval.”

Our frozen Mpls lakes. The original, true, lover-of-all-people ice. The ice that holds us up, allows us to walk on water, welcomes everyone. (Pictured: Bde Maka Ska in December, where I talked to so many out for the miracle, including immigrant neighbors.)

‼️Our relatives cannot shelter safely outside due to ICE escalation. MIWRC offers a culturally grounded low-barrier sanctuary; services, warmth, food, safety, & support obtaining tribal ID’s/documents. This is survival. This is sovereignty. We take care of us. Help here: bit.ly/Healinglight

We are in fact DESPERATE for winter coats, waterproof gloves, and good boots. We get so many wonderful donations but it is so cold and the numbers of unhoused unsheltered people are going up at the absolute worst time for it, and we run out of coats weekly.

Middle of the night (or very early morning) is a good time for shy or awkward folks in the United States to leave messages for their members of congress. Being shy or awkward is not a requirement, anyone can call any time . . .

I am not in the vicinity of the gassing. If it makes to me, the winds will have to significantly shift. That said, it is BAD. If I can smell it from the freeway with windows rolled up is is BAD. A health disaster.

There is so much tear gas in the air it can be felt driving on the other side of highway 94 in Minneapolis - in your car.