Monthly Archives: October 2009

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“Toward a New Funding Model for Theater”

In short…

He riffs on a 37signals post on selling your byproducts. Tickets are a byproduct. The production process is the product. Involve your audience in the process in exchange for a membership or some other type of recurring monthly payment. But don’t make it any more complicated than a three-tiered “I’m just curious/I’m exploring/YES. I’m on board” kind of structure. Also, “membership” is different from a “subscription” in which you just buy a bunch of tickets at once.

It’s a long but easy read. Neat stuff in the comments, too.

(via)

Obama Family Portrait by Annie Leibovitz

As we say in Minnesota, oh fer cute.

Obama Family Portrait by Annie Leibovitz
Originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream.

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, sit for a family portrait in the Green Room of the White House, Sept. 1, 2009. (Official White House Photo)

Photo by Annie Leibovitz/Released by White House Photo Office

This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

You can really see in this photo how much Malia looks more like Michelle and Sasha looks more like Barack.

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Underground Railroad Bicycle Route

The history of this remarkable period comes alive as you pedal along the corridor that traces the Underground Railroad route from the Deep South to Canada. This bicycle route memorializes the Underground Railroad, a network of clandestine routes by which African freedom seekers attempted to escape for many years before and during the Civil War. You can watch a short video about the creation of the UGRR (in four segments) on our YouTube Channel.

Join Adventure Cycling and our partners, the Center for Minority Health, in our efforts to promote lifelong health through a form of physical activity available to people of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Read further on the development of the route. Seems like a lot of thought went into it. Also notice in the description I quoted above that they don’t use the words “slavery” or “slaves” or anything like that.

If I had the legs and the butt for an extended bike trip, this would be a really interesting option.

(via m-bike.org)

“Taking back the streets one bicycle at a time”

Coming from me, you’d assume that an item about bicycles would be Minneapolis-related, but it’s not! It’s about Detroit!

Believe it or not, people in the Car Capital of the World love their bikes. And there is a huge movement to create a culture here that is friendlier to two wheels than four.

One such project would develop about 400 miles of bicycle lanes throughout Detroit. All it would take is some paint, new signs and a little cash, said Scott Clein, who heads the Detroit office of Giffels-Webster Engineers.

The firm, along with other key partners, mapped out every one of those miles with the city’s cooperation and a Michigan Department of Transportation grant. Clein and a support staff spent 18 months on the project, studying Detroit and trying to connect its waterways, landmarks and neighborhoods.

I frankly can’t fathom biking around Detroit. Like, can you see one of Eight Mile’s four lanes (in each direction) or one of Telegraph Rd’s four lanes (in each direction) being a bike lane? Or turning the dividing section in the middle of those roads into a bike highway (except that would totally screw with the Michigan Left)?

This is Eight Mile Rd, just east of Telegraph, looking back west. Four lanes in both directions, a boulevard in the middle, and a “Michigan left” just ahead of you.


View Larger Map

Crazy.

And!

Over the past weekend, an estimated 2,000 cyclists came to the city for the 8th annual Tour De Troit – nearly double the number that showed up last year. Its goal is in part is to raise funds for the Corktown-Mexicantown Greenlink, which could link these key communities to the Detroit riverfront.

One great example already exists. The Dequindre Cut Greenway, an urban recreational path, officially opened in May. The 1.2-mile greenway, developed through a public, nonprofit and private partnership, offers a pedestrian link between the Riverfront, Eastern Market and many of the adjacent residential neighborhoods. Formerly a Grand Truck Railroad line, the Dequindre Cut is a below-street level path that features a 20-foot-wide paved pathway, which includes separate lanes for pedestrian and bicycle or rollerblading traffic.

I must see this on my next trip home. Even though it’s waaaay on the east side, and my folks live waaaaay on the west side, and I’ll surely have to drive to it.

The comments are good, too. I appreciated the discussion about the appropriateness of spending money on these types of projects (and the sources of funding) given the financial difficulties the city faces.

Simply reading Detroit bikers comment on where they live and ride reminds me of the scale of the area we’re talking about. From my parents’ house in the northest/westest corner of the city to most points downtown or on the east side is 15+ miles. 15 miles from downtown Minneapolis gets you to the I-494/I-694 loop that generally separates the first-ring and second-ring suburbs. Detroit is just so much bigger.

This also reminds me that I haven’t spent any of my adult life in Detroit (except for that one year I was unemployed, which didn’t count). I have no desire to move back, but I really wonder what it would be like to live and work downtown or somewhere else that’s not the suburbs where the Catholic schools I attended are. What would it be like to live in a part of Detroit that actually mirrors many of the things that I like best about Minneapolis?

This article has kind of blown my mind grapes.

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Will Louisiana Denial of Interracial Marriage License Reduce Similar Denials to Gay Couples?

Gay Couples Law Blog, in the wake of Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell’s denial of a marriage license to an interracial couple, points out that it’s the same logic that makes it okay for this to happen to gay couples all the time, and without the accompanying uproar (or at least the accompanying uproar is not to the same degree as this particular case).

[W]hen it comes to gay marriage, officials deny marriage licenses based on their own personal beliefs without accompanying media attention. Several state and municipal laws let officials who don’t “believe in mixing the genders that way” refuse to give gay couples marriage licenses or to perform their wedding ceremonies.

Upcoming bills to allow gay marriage are particularly likely to include these provisions to help the laws pass. Without them, many state lawmakers won’t vote for the laws because of people like Thomas Messner from the conservative Heritage Foundation, who warns that

those who support the tradi­tional understanding of marriage will be subject to even greater civil liability under nondiscrimination laws that prohibit private discrimination based on sexual orientation, marital status, and gender.

Take, for example, the recently introduced bill [PDF] that would legalize gay marriage in Washington, D.C. It lets officials refuse marriage licenses to gay couples based on their own religious beliefs: “No official. . .shall be required to solemnize any marriage in violation of his or her right to the free exercise of religion.”

Also, Loving v. Virginia.

The Court said that the civil rights of interracial couples trumped the first amendment freedoms of licensing officials. Just as denying interracial marriage licenses for religious reasons was disallowed then, gay rights organizations could argue that denying gay marriage licenses for religious reasons should be similarly disallowed now.

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Interracial Couple Denied Marriage License In Louisiana

A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.

Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

“I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way,” Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.”

Really? REALLY?!

UPDATE: The judge resigned.

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Travel + Leisure: City Face-Off

Part of their 2009 America’s Favorite Cities section. Select two cities to compare, then select one category to compare them in (e.g., People, Culture, Quality of Life & Visitor Experience, etc.). It’ll give you one winner for the category and show the head-to-head breakdown of each subtopic within the category.