Posted 1:02 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

History... vanishing right in front of you

I find it stunning, and quite disgusting, at how little notice we Americans take of our ever-changing surroundings. Sometimes it seems that we actually delight in tossing out the old in favor of something new... anything new. That attitude is part and parcel of eminent domain abuse... that we'll just erase an area so that something grand new can be put there. The part that is disgusting is the lack of appreciation for what is being erased. Take the infamous Best Buy headquarters complex squatting all over the south side of Richfield. Sure, it's an impressive building... an ugly architectural monstrosity, but impressive. It looms like a pyramid on a flat desert, overwhelming the view from anywhere near it. Soon, few will remember what used to be in that big space.

I used to get my Isuzu serviced at one of the several auto dealers on the frontage road along the north side of 494 just east of Penn, and it was a great place to go look at a variety of new and used cars. My daughter and I went to that area in search of her first car, found one she adored, and bought it. That's a memorable event. I often joined fellow workers for lunch at the Beltline tavern that had great burgers and fries, and a pool table in the back. There were many small industrial firms a block back from the frontage road, and dozens of buildings between there and 76th... buildings that people called their houses, their "homes".

Gone. Just flat out gone and almost forgotten. Many hundreds of lives disrupted, damaged, perhaps even destroyed, so that one corporation could have a large space. It was one of the most corrupt, illegal takings ever, but my point here is that most people don't even know what they lost in the process. We just move on, but we shouldn't... at least not without learning something.

When Americans travel to Europe (or almost anywhere else in the world), they're impressed by the sense of history they find... the ancient buildings, and the history that remains known because the physical structures are still in place, maintained, used, and revered.

America is a young country, but we're destroying most of our history as we go along. Perhaps the greatest loss we suffer is loss of neighborhood. We jump in our car and drive to a faraway shopping area. By doing so, we almost condemn our own neighborhood to destruction. When I sold my house and looked for an apartment, I looked for an area I could walk in... where I could shop without traveling far. During good weather, there is almost no shopping I need to drive to, including grocery shopping. I buy groceries often so I don't have to carry much. There are 20 restaurants within an easy walk, plus the whole Hub shopping center. I do drive to the laundromat 4 blocks away, but while I'm there, I have access, in less than a block, to Wendy's, a donut shop, a bakery, a Mexican restaurant, a liquor store, shoe store, the biggest rock store in town, a tailor, tanning salon, barber, and other small shops. I can visit one of them while my clothes are washing, and another while they're in the dryers. I know the people who work in several of those stores. Those are neighborhood stores. Nobody is going to drive very far to visit any of them. If the people in the neighborhood don't patronize them, they'll disappear.

One of these days, Richfield plans on just erasing those stores. They want a "gateway" project there, so that people driving down Lyndale Avenue from Minneapolis will notice that they've arrived in Richfield, and be impressed. They'll invite in "boutique" and chain stores that won't serve the needs of the neighborhood, so they'll fail and turn over frequently.

We can stop eminent domain abuse, but if we don't individually re-develop an appreciation for neighborhood, we will continue to force ourselves to drive to get anything accomplished. That's just plain silly. Even sillier is the development of some artificial neighborhoods... little shopping areas mixed in with housing developments. Some planner will decide that a few shops add to the ambiance of the area you live in. It doesn't work. Planned developments will always be artificial and dull, because planners want showcase places, which means chain stores. Coffee shops are a good example. There was a time when coffee shops were neighborhood hangouts... places to chat with whoever showed up, each with a character of its own. There are a few around, but they aren't chain stores, which are as dull as stumps. The only people chatting are the people who came in together.

Altogether, we're becoming a very sterile, dull, planned society. Zoning codes, regulations, and planners are driving us toward it, killing off individuality and innovation in favor of packaged, bland sameness. I could sneak out at night and scramble the names on all the Caribou, Starbucks, and Dunn Bros. shops and nobody would notice. Boooooooring.

Posted 9:02 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

In the presence of greatness

Good friend Charles Test gave me an unforgettable birthday treat last night, taking me to the Artist's Quarter in St. Paul to listen to the Roy Haynes quartet. Haynes has been a famed drummer since about the time I was born, and has played with every big name in the business. It was my first time listening to Haynes, but it's hard to believe that he's lost anything due to age. He was energetic, fast, and all over that drum set. Squint your eyes a bit and he could have been 30.

For this gig, Haynes surrounded himself with incredible young talent, especially Jaleel Shaw on sax. I hadn't heard of Shaw, but that says something about my knowledge, not about Shaw, since he has already, at a mere age of 27, played with some of the best-known groups. Thanks to our great bartender, Jaleel came out after the 2nd intense set and chatted with us. Quiet, polite, and unpretentious in person, on stage he and his sax blend into a music machine, and every part of him seems dedicated to pushing music. I am astounded that anyone can achieve such a high level of skill and artistry at such a young age, and I suspect that Shaw will be a household name at some point. Shaw has an excellent website.

As I told Shaw, I don't even like modern jazz much, but I can recognize and appreciate skill and talent, and he has both to a high degree. It was a great evening. Thanks again, Charles.

Posted 12:10 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

Let's hear it for SUE

Some 17 months ago, I wrote this about Sue Jeffers:

"she's fighting for her livelihood, and for all of our rights to run our own lives without forceful interference from a government that is supposed to serve us, not dominate us."

Well... Sue has been fighting that fight ever since, and she's raised the stakes... she's running for Governor of Minnesota, and she's very serious about it. In that 17 months, I've come to know, like, and admire Sue. Originally, she was fighting the smoking ban in Minneapolis, but she's about much more than that. The smoking bans are just one of the latest attacks on our right to live as we choose, as long as we harm nobody else. Those of you in the know will recognize that I just stated the essence of libertarianism. Believe me, Sue understands that clearly. She is running as a Libertarian candidate, and her campaign will be about the many violations of our liberties.

I'm convinced that if you make the small effort to listen to Sue, and apply what she says to your own personal situation, you WILL vote for her. Each of us has hot-button issues. If there is anything about Minnesota government that ticks you off... that tenses you up and prepares you for argument, I can almost guarantee you that you'll find that Sue agrees with you, and she'll be fighting for change in that area.

If you get a chance to meet Sue, take it. She's feisty (one of my favorite things in people) and she's smart. She's fun to be around (wouldn't that be novel from a Governor?) and she's a tireless worker. Business owner (Stub & Herb's), single mother, homeowner, and political gadfly. Those qualifications alone should be enough to earn your vote, but I'll give you one more enormous reason:

We have to find a way to break the tax-grabbing, high-spending, corrupted hold the Republicans and Democrats have on this state (and the nation). There is only one legal way for us to do it; vote them out of office. It takes a lot of courage and hard work for someone to even run a serious campaign against the entrenched powers, and Sue is doing that.

She deserves our help, and she damned sure deserves our votes. Check out her website and do what you can to help her. Believe me, you'll be doing it for yourself.

Posted 10:56 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

This holiday

Isn't it ironic that the U.S., the most militarily agressive nation on earth, and currently waging a bloody war on the other side of the planet, has this national holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., who believed in change through non-violent means? A pinnacle of hypocricy!

Posted 2:35 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

Not a city... it's a tourist attraction

A week ago, in "The Changing Landscape", I said that the fad of "loft" building that seems to be sweeping downtown Minneapolis was very disturbing to me, and said that I would explain why.

Historically, cities have been diverse... the home of major companies, small businesses, wealthy individuals, working-class residents, and all manner of folks in between. None of those population segments can exist without the others... large companies need smaller suppliers, who need other small suppliers... and they all need workers, and investors, and executives, etc.

As the American middle-class grew and became more prosperous, many were no longer satisfied living within the city, and suburbs grew in population and number. For a time it seemed as if cities would perish as people abandoned them for the suburbs. Minneapolis was left with a large number of residents who were too poor to make it to the suburbs. Since that time, cities have been using many means to deliberately drive poor people OUT of the city. "Urban renewal" in the early 60's simply leveled the poorer half of downtown Minneapolis, evicting most of the poor people and the small businesses that supplied them. Urban renewal changed the landscape for everyone.

There was little about these changes that was natural. We were all forced to pay for the construction of freeways, which made it feasible for people to live in ever more distant suburbs but still work for corporations downtown. Many small businesses moved into the suburbs, and a lot of larger corporations did the same.

The city hasn't stopped changing. People go where they can... they go where they're wanted, or at least not punished for being, and the city has excluded most of us. Artificially low interest rates have been driving up the cost of housing space, creating a market for expensive "loft" apartments and condos in older converted industrial buildings.

One result of the "loft" fad is that small businesses are being driven out because the real estate values have risen beyond their means. The city seems determined to become an expensive home for some, and an entertainment center. Each year, the city becomes worth less to me. I only go there occasionally now to see what has changed, and it's an increasingly boring trip.

I don't know what will happen to the city over time. Maybe it will become home to those few who can afford it, plus office buildings, plus tourist attractions, and little else. It will no doubt survive, but I suspect it will do it only on the backs of the rest of us. As government continues to grow, it will support ever-increasing downtown projects that we'll all have to pay for... museums, sports arenas, convention centers and hotels to accomodate out-of-towners.

I have a suspicion that such a city cannot survive. People have become tired of supporting projects downtown, and will continue moving further away from downtown. When the housing bubble finally breaks, those who have purchased lofts downtown will find themselves with very expensive property that isn't marketable. I can't imagine that many businesses will stay downtown unless they're subsidized. Perhaps the city will become only for tourists.

It's a huge loss... a terrible waste. What was once a dynamic, living city full of people has become a daytime workplace and a night playground, but not for the same people. Freeways will become increasingly jammed until then. It's what happens when a few powerful people get what they think they wanted. I really doubt that they'll be satisfied with what they've wrought.

Posted 2:05 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

The changing landscape

Occasionally, I drive in search of interesting locations, usually in industrial areas that most of us seldom see. There are thousands of small to medium size businesses in such areas... companies we've never heard of, many of them producing products and services we never encounter. Each of those businesses, in my experience, is an interesting story.

Starting a business of any kind is a gutsy gamble on the part of someone... someone with confidence in themselves and a determination to succeed. It may be a long time before a new business even breaks even financially, and even then, the job doesn't get much easier. Growth is change, and change is difficult and risky. Over many years, I've learned that creating and maintaining a business doesn't take genius, or a lot of money, but mostly dogged persistence and damned hard work. It is precisely what made our nation, and others, great.

My meandering today was triggered by a Pioneer Press article that the Old Home plant is closed, despite great effort by the owners and employees. You will probably recognize Old Home from this shot of their products:

The products won't disappear, but they'll be coming from another company, in Iowa. Local employees will reluctantly move on to other jobs, and local buildings will find other occupants or be torn down and replaced. The loss of a company is a death every bit as real as that of a person... in some ways much more of a loss. A business consists of a variety of individuals voluntarily working together to produce something of value to many other people. It represents a microcosm of a free society, and as such, has significance far beyond the mere total of its employees and facilities.

As I drove, I saw many older buildings that have been converted to other uses than they were built for, often housing many smaller businesses. I was shocked to see how many buildings had been converted to "lofts", the current buzzword for apartment-size condos. I find that trend very disturbing, and I'll explain why in a later blog.

These meanders never fail to make me uncomfortable, uneasy, and pessimistic about the future. The city is changing. It's outward facade is certainly improving, but I can feel the "heart" of the city disappearing, in a historical sense. In a simplified sense, "enterprise" is being replaced by "occupancy". More on that later.

Posted 10:50 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

Lady Luck is fickle

Since I recently complained about terrible luck playing poker, I really should admit that my luck has since changed, and rather dramatically. Playing at PokerStars.net, starting with $1,000 in play money, my account now stands at about $75,000. It was higher yet, but I got a bit cocky and sloppy last night, and lost more than I needed to. During my long spell of terrible luck, I learned how to deal with consistently bad cards, waiting for those rare good ones.

No-limit hold'em is a peculiar and complex game... as they say, it's easy to learn and hard to master. Play money is not the same as playing with real money. Although I try to play as if it were real money, many players do not. They squander money, knowing that they can get more if they lose, but hold'em involves so much luck that they will occasionally win a big pot they just don't deserve.

One never knows what will cards will turn up on the board. I had a royal flush the other night - I had the 10 of diamonds in the hole, and the A, K, Q, and J of diamonds came up. I've seem full houses and straights turn up on the board. Anyone still playing at that time gets a share of the pot, but I've scared a couple of novices into folding, losing their share, because they weren't thinking. On other hands with half a dozen players, the winning hand may be just a King or Queen.

Speaking of fickle luck... one evening, I had winning trip 5's on 3 hands. That has a tendency to make you hate to fold if you have a five in the hole. Hold'em is a fun game... often frustrating, but a challenge to play well... even with old fickle Lady Luck.