Secrets of the City

Re: Dude caught brewing moonshine in Maplewood.

I swear it wasn’t ALAMN Bob making E85 homebrew.

While I see the a ton of benefits with a rail line to Duluth, the only thing that concerns me that Duluth would essentially become the latest outer-ring suburb to Minneapolis.

“It’s never been a great time to be a sex offender, and right now is really not a great time,” Colbert said.

I do not agree.

I’ve heard that the reason it’s E85 instead of E100 is so that people don’t drink it… is that true?

Ugh. Why the hell anyone would make sour mash whiskey from scratch is beyond me. Trust me, until it gets aged in charred oak it’s like drinking rocket fuel and you’ll be burping up corn for a week.

Sorta. All ethanol produced as fuel has some gasoline added to make it undrinkable (they call this denaturing) after if leaves the plant. The 15% gasoline in E85 helps start the engine easier. While it is technically possible to make engines that run on pure alcohol (like some race cars do), the flex-fuel vehicles sold today are designed for no more than 85% ethanol.

FREE THE MOONSHINE MARTYR!!!!

actually it’s possible for entirely seperate metro areas to be linked by rail and not become suburbs of one another. Back in MA the MBTA commuter rail linked Boston to Providence and Worcester, the 2nd and 3rd largest cities in new england, and each city retained its independence. In fact, there tended to be a decent amount of reverse-commuters going FROM Boston to work in the other cities.

I think we also need frequent rail service to Rochester while we’re at it. And St. Cloud. Maybe someday to Fargo/Moorhead and Madison too.

Regional rail, hurrah!

Tmay–
I was just going to bring up Boston. Seems like the trains there actually keep the suburbs from expanding (I guess because people can live in cities easier).

tmay-

I can see how it would work for Boston, Providence and Worcester but Duluth is a town where it’s not nearly as easy to find work, considered by many Twin Cities’ residents as a weekend vacation town and otherwise isn’t very reciprocal to Minneapolis in many regards. Quite honestly I hope what you and MLH say would be true for Duluth – I just don’t see it unfolding the same way.

-Aaron

tmay: Well, some of those cities are relatively likely to get something soon. Madison is in the process of getting upgraded service to Chicago (probably from an extended Amtrak Hiawatha service), and there’s hope it will eventually reach to the Twin Cities. St. Cloud was an endpoint in early plans for the North Star corridor, and if the link to Big Lake is a success, I’m sure the extension to St. Cloud will get more consideration. As for Fargo/Moorhead, if they ever make the Empire Builder a twice-daily train, it’ll probably be offset 6 or 12 hours from the current 3 AM stop times and actually become usable for those folks…

I’d ride the hell out of that line. Duluth is a fun little city.

Well, hello to youse too.

I’m all for trains, but who wants a two-and-a-half hour commute?

Oh, and yeah, Rochester, Owatonna, and Mankato could use a line. Plus, someday someone will have to create a north-south line through these United States somewhere in between Chicago and the west coast. The western 2/3 of the country has rather limited north-south mobility when it comes to rail.

…and I can’t seem to shut up. It’s pretty bogus to call this a commuter line, in my opinion. A considerable chunk of the people who would take it would be people who currently ride the bus (Greyhound or whatever) between the Cities and Duluth. If you schedule things right, commuting would definitely be a significant function of the line (but wouldn’t it be stupid if they called it a commuter line but made it so people couldn’t commute in to Duluth? Dunno if they’re planning that, but it’s possible). However, I figure most riders will be tourists or people visiting family, etc.

Hey! I got an idea! Why don’t we make roads that connect these far flung towns? Then we can get to them with our own car! Cool, eh?

Gee whiz, I could have sworn we ALREADY had roads to these places, but that they weren’t doing a very good job!

I remember the St. Cloud northstar proposal, and I really do hope that the Hiawatha service gets a boost up this way, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for amtrak to save the day. We’re going to have to take some bold steps on our own to get anywhere with longer distance rail travel, because the feds are always going to be trying to starve amtrak into oblivion. I’d love some better empire builder service, though.

I’ll admit, I’d like to ride the line to Duluth as a tourist, as I’m sure many others would, but making the city easier to access will surely give a bit more oomph to its tourist industry. I imagine the access may also spur some other sorts of business development that might help out other sectors too. Maybe at first the line would carry people to jobs in the TC metro, but after enough time you might find some reverse commuters amongst the daytrippers!

I’m all for trains, but who wants a two-and-a-half hour commute?

I seem to recall we once had fun on a train.

I’m all for trains, but who wants a two-and-a-half hour commute?

talk to people on the LIRR or metronorth out of NYC.

Speaking of Greyhound. I recently took the Greyhound to Duluth and it was quick and cheap. I was a little suprised to discover that one is more-or-less penalized for purchasing a ticket online in advane. Apparently, you’re supposed to buy a ticket right before you get on in a mad-dash scramble to jump bail in order to get the best deal.

Now they just need a shuttle running up and down the North Shore and we’re in business.

(Yes, I know about the SHT shuttle, but I want more, MORE!)

UPS my ass. Did you know they aren’t even open for package pick up on Saturdays – EVEN THOUGH IT’S THE CHRISTMAS SEASON?

Brown won’t ever do shit for me again.

I would go to Duluth much more if I did not have to battle the in/out of town rush hour crap to do it. Go Rail!

If it stopped in Hinckley, I bet we could get the casino to pay for it.

TBar,
That’s an excellent idea.

This is for everyone:
I have a UPS-related question. UPS often makes delivery attempts to my apartment during the day while my wife and I are at work. It always ends up that we have to drive all the way to the Maple Grove/Osseo customer service station to get our packages. Most of the time we have to wait there for at least an hour to actually get the package. Does anyone else have this problem? For some reason, despite the presence of a UPS center in Minneapolis, our packages are routed thru Anoka, then to the driver for delivery attempts and then to Maple Grove.

Pure bullocks.

If we let them gamble on the train, it wouldn’t have to stop in Hinkley. And we could probably pay for another light rail line.

“Speaking of Greyhound. I recently took the Greyhound to Duluth and it was quick and cheap. I was a little suprised to discover that one is more-or-less penalized for purchasing a ticket online in advane. “

I live in Duluth and take the bus between here and St Paul often; not sure what you mean by the above. The price I see online is the same I pay in person, though it varies by day of the week. Is there an online fee or delivery charge?

And Duluth is already becoming a suburb. There are condos being built all over town for you folks to live in on the weekends.

I have a UPS-related question

wait, do you live in mpls or maple grove? i live in mpls and my ups packages are always at the shipping center on broadway. if you go at any time other than say 5pm, there’s never a line. weird.

I hate UPS so much. Why can they not have seperate delivery schemes for residential and commercial locations? You already have to check which type it is when you ship, don’t you? “Hey, let’s always try to deliver packages to people’s apartments and houses in the middle of the day! It’s not like anyone works for a living and has to adhere to regular business hours! haw haw haw!”

And then, because I’m never home when they decide to drop by, they hold my package (on broadway, btw). But I don’t have a car, and there’s only one bus that goes up there extremely infrequently. If my package is anything bigger than what I can fit in my bag, I’ve got to wait for the bus, hitch a ride with a friend or take a cab. None of those are particularly convenient options, and really kind of destroy the whole convenience of getting something shipped to you in the first place. I mean, am I supposed to take the day off work to wait for a package that *might* come by anytime within a six hour window they give you? If they could at least be a little more specific about what time of day the deliverman would be stopping by I would come home to sign for a delivery and head back to work. But no, we just get four neatly divided times of day that are way too long to bum around hoping for a lucky break.

For fuck’s sake, can I just have something shipped via the USPS and held at the downtown post office? At least that’s got a bunch of bus routes by it! UPS must realy hate city-dwellers.

Oh, and the lines at the broadway facility are always awful after the trucks come back in, which is of course the only time you can actually pick your stuff up, because it will roam around town for another 5 hours after they try to deliver it.

Tmay –

Can’t you just have it shipped to you at your work address?

Problem solved! No thanks necessary.

possibly, but it’s not really too good of an idea to do regularly. We get a lot of packages at work anyway, but I don’t know whether or not it would be frowned upon to get personal ones mixed in with that. Plus, if it’s anything heavy, I still have to get it home from work … which is, admittedly, much closer than the broadway facility, but still kind of annoying for heavier stuff.

I used to worry about that, but now I think of it as a benefit that my employer provides. It’s cheaper than dental insurance.

tmay, I have the same issues with UPS (and also Qwest–they wouldn’t schedule an installation at any time other than 9-5 M-F). I have a car, but I hate driving out to their facility. I’m convinced (and I’ve heard some stories to back me up), that there are times where a driver doesn’t even try to deliver. They’ll fill out the little “I missed you” form, even if the recipient happens to be home.

My old apartment had someone in the office during business hours and they’d receive my packages, but my new place is too small for that. So I do as others suggested and have it delivered to work. I do feel a bit guilty about making my receiving department deal with it. Maybe that’s just my Catholic upbringing.

I’m convinced (and I’ve heard some stories to back me up), that there are times where a driver doesn’t even try to deliver. They’ll fill out the little “I missed you” form, even if the recipient happens to be home.

Actually this happened to me once. I was home sick for the day and when I went downstairs to check my mail there was one of those notices. Never even tried to ring my buzzer. Fucking assholes, seriously.

I share the guilt about mixing it in with business stuff, though. It just doesn’t seem right to me.

Tmay…If you want to fully assimilate to MN culture you have to learn to never get sick, and if you do still don’t take a day off and come in and contaminate all your co-workers.

Don’t feel guilty about having stuff shipped to work. It’s really ok!

Signed,

Gen. Mills, Ret.

I only took one sick day all year long, so I think that’s close enough! Next year I’m shooting for zero! I can’t even take all my vacation time this year! (mostly just because I’m not paid enough to go anywhere, though)

I think it’s because my wife and I live on the west side of Calhoun. Maybe they divy it up that way…