Open Streets Minneapolis: A Day Without Cars on Lyndale Avenue

Would your city do this, shut down one of you most travelled streets?  What would happen?  What would people do?  In Uptown Minneapolis, the cars were all pulled off the streets and the party started.  I thought I would share a few pictures of the day, because as we hear more and more about our growing dependency on oil, the residents of Minneapolis, Minnesota decided to come together to bike, walk, skateboard and draw in the streets for an annual event called "Open Streets Minneapolis".

Right next to Lyndale Avenue, the Harleys were parked, the street was closed off to any motorized traffic and slowly, on Sunday morning the people began to emerge from the neighborhood.  A group set up their ping pong table.  The tables and chair came out for all of the small eateries in the neighborhood.  There was an air of enjoyment of the warm weather that we crave.  After a long hard winter, these are the days we live for.  The only ones who stay inside are either sick or dying.  No one is watching TV or on a computer.  It's time to get out there and just explore.

 Parents took their children out to play, and it almost seemed like a memory of simpler days.  The kids were doing what they do best, play.

A whole 8 hours of no traffic jams, no cars, no trucks, no deliveries and no emissions.  There was nothing competing with the song birds.  For about a mile there wasn't a single car on the road and the people came.  Sounds odd, doesn't it?  All of this just so that people could ride their bikes up and down the street, enjoy the sunshine and look at how peaceful it could be.  But there was a purpose for this.  One of the reasons Open Streets exists is to promote our bike trails.  Minneapolis has an incredible amount of bike paths, trails and bike lanes, ranking within the top 5 in the nation.  As far as commuting to work, we're also near the top, and that's saying something, because our winters can be incredibly vicious.

So on this day of chalk drawings on the asphalt, instead of cars, the residents came to show we care (and also like to have a good time).   The kind smiles, the friendly hand shakes, the good natured feeling as people just exhaled, made me feel glad to be home.

To be able to see scenes that seem to go by the wayside in other places and see them here, reminded me why I call this city home.  A lemonade stand set up by an industrious little boy who bellowed out, "ALL NATURAL LEMONADE, 100 PERCENT REAL" made me realize our kids are paying attention and also know how to take advantage of a hot day outside.

 I also saw that we are putting into practice what we need to do to change.  If Germany, with a similar climate to ours can change to more solar energy usage, so can we.  This new solar program gives a person credit for allowing solar panels to be installed.  I gladly shared their information with a few friends that were wanting to reduce their energy bills.

 All in all it was a very beneficial day.

 And the gas stations were idle.

 And the kids...

well, they were having fun too.

The garage bands moved their shows to their front lawns.

And the dancers showed off their moves.

It's good to be home.

New life...spring is here in Daegu

This is Easter Sunday and bunnies are for sale in Home Plus...yes, tempted to buy the poor animal, but realized I just don't have the time to care for the creature. I am not home long enough...so my rational brain overtook the desire to possess the creature. The poor thing would die in my care.

Spring has certainly arrived, and the cafes and restaurants are expanding their real estate out into the sidewalks. For some reason, it reminded me of Paris, how they have catered to the smokers and have placed the plastic out to keep the smokers dry. Though, in Korea, there isn't the ban on smoking that Paris has endured for just over a year.

Already, the trees have come to life with new leaves...the world is green and alive. You can smell the blooms...fragrant and overwhelming is the heat of the day. It caught me off guard, this temperature change. I had just became accustomed to winter, the cold and infrequent snows....to now just beginning to feel the coming heat. As I walked around the stores today, I was amazed by the total lack of air conditioning. It is an odd thing for an American to say this, but I have always disliked air conditioning...and preferred the feeling of a fan. Perhaps it was because of how often they were used in Miami. You would just get used to the heat of the outdoors and walk into any building, and you were blasted with an arctic breeze.

At times, I felt many buildings were cold enough to put my body into shock. The irony was often I would have to wear a sweater indoors, even if it was 90 degrees outside.

There isn't that problem here. It is simply spring. I am sure the air conditioners will come out of their mothballs soon.

As I continued my walk today, I went down to a riverbed....well, what was once a river bed. All you see now are the various rocks and puddles of water that dot the path. During the winter, the children were able to skate on the ice...and looking at these remnants made me wonder where did all of that water go?

Blooms of Cherry

Sometimes noticing things like the blooms of Cherry blossoms take you by surprise. It's cold one day, and the next thing you know, you are walking down the street and you look up and see cherry blossoms. Most people I know don't care for four seasons. They hate the bitter cold of winter and the blazing heat of summer, but I found that with living in Miami (in a past life), I missed the four seasons. The perpetual summers that spanned 7 years of my life make me appreciate the changes that come with each new season.

There were always blooms, but soon they were unnoticed in the state of constant green. Rarely was there an extreme change in temperature. For me, it seemed time stood still in the perpetual summer of Miami, Florida. Seems like such a silly thing to complain about, but in reality I had missed the bitter snows stinging my face...going out at night just to see the snow reflecting its perfect crystals from the street lights before the first cars would dirty the snow. Seeing the black branches bleached white and the world loose all of its color...just to know that one day spring would arrive and you could look up and appreciate the budding leaves again.

Summer will be here soon enough, but for now I can enjoy the earth coming alive again in the springtime of South Korea.