September 9, 2007

  • My first vantage point of the 35W bridge was from the Stone Arch bridge upstream.  This was from maybe 25 feet lower than the the 35W bridge deck original height.  Today I saw it, by car, from the 10th Avenue bridge.  That’s maybe 100 feet downstream and fifty feet above the original 355 bridge deck.  I didn’t really learn anything new but this “high view” but it sure shows the scale when you see eight lanes buckled and at angles. 

    It took more than 20 minutes to drive across the bridge Northbound and traffic wasn’t otherwise heavy.  One the Northbound end they have traffic chocked down to one lane.  One block up there is a left turn where you go a block to get to the northbound freeway.  Traffic would go a lot faster if they put a right turn lane at the first light.  Instead they have the bicycle lane.  There is a gas station on that corner.  It’s all concrete so they have plenty of room for the bike lanes, sidewalks and a right turn lane.  Minneapolis only grudgingly open the 10th Avenue bridge last week.  I sense that the Minneapolis planners have a built in biases against the automobiles.  All the rebuild/beautification projects seem to cut on-street parking by around 50%.

    I watched the light rail after the Vikings game and it took around two hours before the crowds on the cars were thinning out.  With the very high frequency of “duel cars” it looks like they put all 30 cars into it.  Our light rail cars have controls on each end but usually run with two cars linked together.  The stations are built for three or the 94 foot articulated cars hooked together.  Rated capacity is around 200 per car with a “tight stand” but they regularly hold 250 with tight squeeze.  

    I did my “post game research” from the smoking patio of the Cardinal Bar which is adjacent to my neighborhood LRT station.  _____ met me there and was tolerant on my noting times and passenger loads of the LRT cars.  She marveled “Do you get paid for doing this?  I replied, not yet!  I watched the bars on my cheap pagepluscelluar prepaid cellular phone and the “bars” stayed strong during the entire post game “show”.  Like I said, cell phones are getting really cheap.  I use Page-Plus-Cellular , aka “the terrorist phone”.  You buy a refurbished phone for around $25 and it comes for (I think) 100 minutes good for ninety days.   They you recharge.  You can recharge 70 minutes for another 90 days with a remaining time rollover if you recharge before the 90 days run out.  For light use you have a cell phone for under $4 per month.  For that price it is handy in a lot of ways if you manage it correctly.  If you are a heavy cell phone user a standard contract is better but for the standard “where should we meet”  or “I’m going to be late because of this traffic”  it works great.

    As for the “terrorist phone” thing I don’t mind a formal registration of these prepaid phones.  I thing that they should be traceable back to the purchaser.  The only problem I have with a credit card is that it might try automatic billing. 

    I picked up an anomaly on the latest Osam Bin Laden video message that I don’t think anyone else notices in regard to Osama’s rant on the sub prime mortgage mess.  If he had truly understood fundamentalist Islamic law he would have condemned our entire interest system.  The Koran bans “usury” interest.  Some fundamentalist clerics have interpreted this to mean a ban on paying interest.  Apparently Osama didn’t pick this up.

    Locally our Minneapolis Foundation did.  I found this on their web site.

    Page 11 of 16
    Islam also prohibits charging or paying
    interest, which makes it difficult to purchase homes or otherwise
    participate in Western economic life.