Secrets of the City

Maybe the Mpls authorities could find out the address of the cable bill thieves and give them a ticket for not mowing their lawn.

Willkommen bei das Polizeistaat

That’ll put a stop to the gunplay. Peeling paint is a gateway drug.

Now you’ll be able to stumble to the front steps of a well-kept home to die after you get shot.

Quality. Of. Life.

Are we seriously down to like 8 people that post comments? No wonder the conversations have been lagging a bit.

At the risk of going meta myself, the mix of stories changes with the times, and anyone who doesn’t expect certain topics to grow tedious or unfriendly hasn’t been using the Internet for very long.

The conversations have been lagging a bit because there’s been a noticable decline in the quality of discussions, ie: too much rabidly partisan politics.

Willkommen bei das Polizeistaat

It’s “Willkommen in den Polizeistaat.”

“Staat” is masculine (der) and in this construction the proper preposition is “in.”

As in: “Ich heisse Ihnen willkommen in den Polizeistaat,” or “Ich bereite Ihnen einen herzlichen Empfang in den Polizeistaat.”

Love,
The Grammar Nazi
(now starting to confuse myself… it’s not “in dem,” is it…? Hmmm… ugh.)

I’m inclined to believe that postings decline with the nicer weather…can Matt run some numbers on this?

Are we seriously down to like 8 people that post comments? No wonder the conversations have been lagging a bit.

Why comment on posts when they all just turn into a shouting match between the Buds and the bleeding hearts?

It’s gone from MN Speak to MN Screech.

DaveM: a bit of googling says that several prepositions will work with “willkommen”. It seems that “in” is most appropriate for units of place, like neighborhoods, cities, etc., but I think there’s some leeway with der Polizeistaat, because it’s not a physical place… yet. That said, even if “bei” is legitimate, it would have to be “bei dem”.

they should hire interns to help the police follow up on criminal incidents.
You know, respond, take reports, and other things that help stop criminal activity.

I got one of the letters that says my yard is going to be inspected. Yahoo! I hope they don’t bust me on the HUGE dirt patches the city stuck me with when they “fixed” the perfectly good sidewalk in front of my house…

I live in an association-governed neighborhood, which is a blessing and a curse. It’s nice to know that everyone is held to a minimum standard of decorum and that you won’t see a car on cinderblocks in your neighbor’s yard. And since the lawns and common areas are maintained by a service, everything looks pretty consistently manicured.

The downside is that it can get kind of “Pleasantville,” and you always have a few Gladys Kravitz types who want to complain that someone’s flower boxes are askew or their shingles are the wrong color.

Not to sound like a 90-year-old man, but I do think that common civility has gone the way of the covered wagon. So I’m happy to have it enforced in writing by my neighborhood association. It’s too bad that people can’t take it upon themselves to be good neighbors so that government could stay out of it.

It seems that “in” is most appropriate for units of place, like neighborhoods, cities, etc., but I think there’s some leeway with der Polizeistaat, because it’s not a physical place… yet. That said, even if “bei” is legitimate, it would have to be “bei dem”.

I guess you could make an argument for “beim.” But in my experience you only use “Wilkommen bei” when referring to something which is not any sort of “place.” If you wanted to say “Welcome to my Web site,” you’d use “bei.”

Of course the best alternative is to avoid the awkward construction altogether and go with something less idiomatic: “Der Polizeistaat bereitet Ihnen einen herzlichen Empfang.” (Roughly, “The police state bids you welcome.”)

Disclaimer: I have a degree in German but there’s a LOT of rust and dust in that corner of my cranium.

I’m sorry… what was it we were discussing…?

srhcb, you detect a decline in the quality of discussions? Maybe you should start some. A quick check shows that you have started…let me see…zero threads. It is what you make it. Post away.

Ich bin ein Minneapolisianite!

It may still depend on how der Polizeistaat is perceived, but with all the “Willkommen in der Wirklichkeit” I find in Google, I’ve got a pretty good idea that “bei” probably isn’t the correct preposition. I wouldn’t call that decisive, but it’s good enough.

my god, talk about Attention Deficit Disorder, people.

I think people have been saying that its the political infighting that is decreasing the commenting but I have seen a massive decrease in that type of thing in the last few weeks/month. I just don’t think as many people are stopping by and/or being driven to comment on the issues.

I don’t have tracking figures but I haven’t seen much of a decrease in the quality of the posts, maybe just a change. Rex seemed to know everyone in town while recently its been more limited. We haven’t had a new 7QQ in weeks.

Just my 2 cents.

It’s too bad that people can’t take it upon themselves to be good neighbors so that government could stay out of it.

Who says we’re not? I have no complaints about my neighbor’s lawns! (They may have some about mine…) We’re a friendly little neighborhood who has suddenly been notified to clean up our lawns for when the Lawn Nazi’s come marching down our street. Batton down the pink flamingos and scrub down the yard gnomes cuz they is a comin’!!!

I hope they come to my neighborhood. Our next door neighbor has a garbage and weed yard. He is a nice guy and we have felt comfortable asking him on more than one occasion to clean up his yard. We even offered to help him. He says he will, but never does. He has old snow mobiles and rusted bikes in his front and back yard, plus old yard tools and half-finished projects.

It really drags down the “curb appeal” of the block.

I got a notice that the St. Paul authorities will be stopping by soon. My landlord is screwed. This is going to be great.

German aside, this is not such a bad idea, although to us who are all too familiar with the tendency of a bureaucracy to focus on the little things like dirt in the yard and let credit card theft go, it seems hilarious, in a sad sort of way. We can investigate uncut lawns, but not take the obvious and easy step of busting someone for receiving stolen goods, like the paid up cable bill, when it would be easy to know exactly who it was.

YOU DAMN KIDS, STAY OUTTA MY YARD!

To me it is ironic about this is that homeowners are held to a higher criteria than investment property owners (i.e. landlords).

This is never more eveident than in the current lwas which make owners of single family homes pay for a Truth In Housing Inspection when they sell but if I were selling my 8 unit apartment building I don’t have do a thing. In that case, I’m not even required to disclose KNOWN defects.

It seems to be this is a decent strategy that is unfairly focusing on the people who are not at the root of the problem when it comes to urban decay.

A story on “fixing” a curb appeal problem. I don’t know if the landlord was told to fix the mess or if he/she just opted to:

A few blocks from me is a house with renters. The front lawn was worn to dirt by kid’s bikes etc. The landlord had some sod placed where there was no grass. The sod was flopped down on the rock hard dirt and there it sat unwatered and burning in the sun. Now instead of dirt there are dead yellow sod strips – so much prettier. I guess any job worth doing is worth doing half ass.

On the landlords side though, why are those kids riding their bikes on the lawn in the first place? The park is 1/2 a block away. Is it because its not your lawn so who cares?

You can’t legislate away indifference.

By the way if you want to “Narc on your Neighbors” in Minneapolis simply click HERE!

Anyone know what kind of inspections multi-unit condo/townhomes are subject to? I mean the newer kind, not the 90-year-old building where the four apartments get sold as condos.

PS – Never under estimate the power to legislate.

When I bought my condo there was a truth in housing inspection done. I also had my own inspection done for good measure.

kwatt, I probably should elaborate. You can always legislate, but you can’t make people care. If you could, you wouldn’t need to legislate them into doing things grudgingly that they should do as a courtesy and out of a sense of pride.

I know sometimes people can’t afford to make changes to their homes that would improve the appearance, but everyone can afford to pick garbage off their lawn. Although if they were holding the Lawn Garbage Nationals,
Ft. Worth would kick our butts.

It’s true that ignoring smaller problems has some impact on bigger ones. Isn’t the story that NYC’s crime went down by having zero tolerance for minor infractions that were overlooked in the past?

Obviously moderation has to play a part and some common sense needs to be used in enforcement. (yes, I know common sense isn’t so common.)

Kwatt -

Here’s the deal on condos: New Condo Conversions must have a Truth in Housing Inpection.

New Construction must be totally inspected and given a Certication of Occupancy.

If you own a condo that was converted before you bought it there is NO Truth in Housing inspection required.

Bizarre.

One note – these Truth in Housing Inspections are bare bones and should not be looked at as thorough or complete. Always get an Independent Inspection when you buy!

By the way if you want to “Narc on your Neighbors” in Minneapolis simply click HERE!

Thanks! I have a fellow owner in our condo building that is knocking out load-bearing walls within his unit. Time to sic the inspector on him!

What’s up with the comments in German? Why?

What’s up with the comments in German? Why?

Some of us were getting sick of all the Latin.

It seems the “Today’s Talk From MNspeak.com” (subscription e-mail) stopped working for a bit. Maybe that was just me, but now that it is back, I check out the headlines and may click through if I’m interested. That and the RSS feed are big traffic drivers, I would imagine.

We live in North and they sent us a citation for the tarps covering up our huge landscaping project we started two days earlier. They said that we had 6 days to clean up the “mess” or we’ll have to pay a crew that’ll clean it up for us.

We’re extending our yard, putting in retaining walls and putting up a privacy fence. It’s costing us thousands of dollars and a ton of hours in sweat. It reminds me of last year when they sent us a citation for peeling paint on our garage WHILE OUR HOUSE WAS COVERED IN SCAFFOLDING being repainted. They also called the vines that we planted along our garage “weeds over 18 inches.”

Drug dealers are on our corner every night and two kids got shot on the other end of the block. Instead of riding through the neighborhood at 6 am, they should try midnight. They’ll stop seeing peeling paint and start seeing the people putting freshly painted tags down.

Don Samuels, I invite you to spend a weekend at my place so that you’ll wake up to the signals for tolerance of misbehavior. They’re a lot more obvious than a loose fence. Loose fences don’t sell meth.