Route

Route

PAVING THE WAY FORWARD

Reviving Nicollet

Redesigning a 12-block stretch

Asphalt Appetites

Are food trucks taking over?

Dude, Where’s My Car?

Why our transit is changing lanes

Who’s Watching You? The surveillance industry on our streets

SPRING 2014

FROM THE EDITOR

Our Paved Reflection

Street. Avenue. Thoroughfare.

Highway. Byway. Boulevard. We have no shortage of names for roads. But in its most simple terms, a road is just bitumen and minerals mixed together and layered to produce pavement.

Used not only to form the bustling grids that bring order to our cities, but also quaint back roads and interstates, this simple mixture has quite literally paved the way as the foundation of our modern society.

It’s easy to take for granted just how much we depend on streets. We see them merely as paths to our destinations, a convenient way to get from here to there. But that doesn’t quite do them (or ourselves) justice. They are also the very arteries that allow for the blood

flow of civilization. Streets provide a sense of identity, a platform for innovation, and a canvas for art.

These asphalted networks show us the purest reflection of ourselves and the state of the society we live in. In delving into our streets’ social footprint, this magazine explores the street’s influence on a city’s vitality with a feature on the growing food truck phenomenon (pg. 23) and a story on how small town Minnesota is fighting to keep their main streets alive (pg. 10). We highlight how the streets inform art and culture—from the role of hip hop in our perceptions of the inner city (pg. 4) to how street art has penetrated the advertising industry (pg. 36).

And we address the street’s role in some of our most pressing social issues, including gentrification (pg. 34) and sex trafficking (pg. 32).

We have come to realize that streets are as resilient as we are, and they provide an intriguing lens in which to look at the trends of society as a whole—culture, politics, art, food, technology, transportation. That’s why we call this journalistic endeavor Route.

We realized that we can tell profound stories that illuminate the path we are taking into the future.

So as you dive into the culmination of our months of hard work and learning, consider your connection with streets.

Consider your route from the past to the present, from today to tomorrow, and from here to there. Which road will you take?

MISSION Take to the streets with Route, an innovative magazine and website developed by visionary journalism students from the University of Minnesota. Our stories are taken from street level and explore the people who drive culture, technology, and social issues with a contemporary perspective. Route engages in storytelling through reporting, analysis, commentary, photography, and multimedia. We aim to remind, encourage, and enlighten readers that a street is not just a slab of concrete; it is a trail to trace the past and a path to find the future.

Route Editor-in-Chief Justin Miller Managing Editors Allison Turnberg Emma Stoneall Art Director Josh Jones Web Editor Colleen Case EDITORIAL Senior Editors Bibbit Erickson Eric Best Felicia Felmlee Laura Hoogeveen Associate Editors Ellie Geraets Emily Collins Rebekah Ellis Staff Writer Lauren Sauer DESIGN Assistant Art Directors Julia Burke Laura Marrinan Martha Lueders Photographers Charlie Kelley Sophia Khori WEB Senior Web Editor Michael Geissler

Justin Miller

Web Writers Emilie Radigan Luke Peterson

COVER

Downtown Minneapolis at dusk. Photo by Charlie Kelley

THANK YOU

We are extremely grateful for Elizabeth Larsen and Jeanne Schacht—without their infinite help and expertise, this magazine would not be what it is. We would also like to thank the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Albert Tims, Scott Dierks, and Wally Swanson. This publication is made possible by the Milton L. Kaplan Memorial Fund.

Contents Street Beat 2

Anything Helps

3

Foot Traffic

4

Street Sounds

6

The Truths of Trucking

Green Light 7

Faster, Brighter, Smarter

8

Your Brain On GPS

10 Main Street Minnesota

Median 31 One for the Road 32 Stolen Youth:

MN sex trafficking

34 There Goes the Neighborhood

Graffiti 35 Sign Design 36 Aerosol Advertising 37 Practice Safe Streets 38 When Art is up Against the Wall

27

pg

12

pg

16

pg

19

pg

pg

23

Dude, Where’s My Car?

Who’s Watching You?

Reviving Nicollet

Asphalt Appetites

How the Millennial generation is ditching autos.

Surveillance is a booming industry, for some a concern.

Minneapolis’ most famous avenue is getting a makeover.

Food trucks serve lunch with a side of Downtown vitality.

On the Fringe

Street Beat

Anything Helps

I

t’s a frigid, blustery afternoon in Minneapolis and the bundled up masses are moving as quickly as their feet will take them. Pedestrians look away and walk a little bit faster, but there’s no ignoring him. He’s a giant of a man with long flowing hair and a beard that hasn’t been groomed in months. He sits on his tarp, holding a sign that says “Anything Green Helps.” His name is Hank, and he’s a homeless panhandler. Today he’s been given a cup of hot coffee, half a meatball sub, a dozen cigarettes, and about $17 in small bills and change.

This is what he does and where he sits nearly every day, rain or shine, regardless of the temperature.

Chances are that you have reached into your pocket at least once to toss some change into a Salvation Army kettle. Maybe you’ve even been swayed into sponsoring a child or saving the planet through a financial contribution that you made because a stranger gave you a sales pitch on your walk home.

and artists of all kinds, hoping that you have money to spare. You may have a few bucks in your pocket, but is it always a good idea to give that money to someone just because they’re asking for it?

Many who panhandle or “sign” have problems that go beyond the need for your spare change. These problems include homelessness, mental illness, and addiction. Margaret Miles, Director of Development and Communications at St. Stephen’s Human Services, encourages people who want to help to refer those in need to services that can address these issues rather than passively giving them money.

“I never give a person with a sign cash. I’ll give them food or a gift card or something, but I don’t want to give someone cash to go and buy a bottle of booze or drugs,” says Peder Ell, a security guard who works in Minneapolis. This is a common stance that police encourage because if someone is an addict, giving him the means to continue his addiction is detrimental.

I DON’T WANT TO GIVE SOMEONE CASH TO GO AND BUY A BOTTLE OF BOOZE OR DRUGS.” While many of us don’t think twice about donating to charitable organizations, there is a dilemma that goes through a person’s mind when deciding whether or not to give money to somebody asking for it on the street. In busy parts of the city, it’s common to see panhandlers with signs, as well as performers 2 Route

However, not everyone on the streets asking for money is in dire straits. Musicians and artists also take to the streets because it gives them an audience. Across town, an elderly gentleman named Joe blows his horn outside of a department store along Nicollet Mall.

He’s dressed to impress, with a

Luke Peterson, Route

Donating to people on the streets is a game of give and take. | By Luke Peterson

sharp-looking sweater and black pants. The melody of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” can be heard from several blocks away. Many stop to listen for a few seconds before continuing on their way, and every so often, someone throws a handful of change or a crumpled bill into Joe’s trumpet case. He doesn’t need to ask for money. He’s playing for tips.

And then there are those who are less defined. On busy sidewalks around Minneapolis, a man named David frequently collects signatures on everything from bicycles to coats and then donates the items to artists. His black “March Madness” coat is his 131st signature-covered item since beginning this hobby over two decades ago. As people slow down and look for a spot to leave their mark on the jacket, David gives his pitch for a donation.

A stigma is often attached to these people of the streets. It is a lifestyle that most of us can’t relate to and it’s easy to make assumptions

about what happens to the money that we give.

Some, like local chef Kevin Heyers, do not think that much about where their donation goes. “I always give…if someone is out there asking for money, they obviously need it more than I do,” he says.

What you do with your money is entirely up to you. However, you may want to ask yourself whether or not your donation will make a positive difference in the recipient’s life. In the case of panhandlers, the answer is often times “no.” As far as street performers go, you may want to ask yourself if he has earned your donation.

Mikkel Beckmen, Hennepin County’s Director of the Office to End Homelessness, says that he will give to musicians, but otherwise does not donate to panhandlers. For Beckmen, the most important thing we can do is to “always acknowledge people, always wish people well, and treat them with respect.” R Spring 2014

Street Beat

Foot Traffic

Modern pilgrimages fuel self-discovery. | By Felicia Felmlee

T

Dr. Williams recognizes there is no way to predict who you’ll come across during a pilgrimage. “You don’t get to choose who’s on your path with you,” she says. “Treat everyone as a companion and know you are going to learn something from everyone you meet.”

The journey taught Bower to be open to what’s coming­—both on the streets and in life.

“You find that the path varies from moment to moment,” says Dr. Williams. “You can’t know what’s around the corner because it changes in an instant.” From spending 316 days answering to no one but himself to experiencing the variety of flavors the ocean offered, the walk served as a humbling, powerful and meditating experience, Bower says.

The streets are similar to life. If you see something you want, you start walking toward it. From each step you take, you get a sense of what you’re looking for, he says. “I was literally making it up as I went and that was exciting,” Bower says. “Everyday was a huge mystery.”

On July 13, 2011, Bower arrived at the border fence at Tijuana and reached a new point in his life. “I wanted to change the world,” Bower says. “And I changed mine, so I definitely achieved what I set out to do.”

“Pilgrimages are always something life changing,” says Dr. Williams. “You aren’t going to be the same when you finish.” R

TREAT EVERYONE AS A COMPANION AND KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN SOMETHING FROM EVERYONE YOU MEET.”

Jordan Bower and Benjamin Jenks

raveling by foot is not a new phenomenon. Pilgrimages have served as an experience for faithful followers of many world religions for centuries.

“People go on pilgrimage to discover something about themselves, to go to a holy spot, to seek a blessing, or to earn money. The motivators haven’t changed in modern times,” says Reverend Jane Williams, Ph.D., an associate professor of pastoral counseling at Moravian Theological Seminary. Jordan Bower and Benjamin Jenks embarked on modern pilgrimages, and experienced first-hand the exhilaration that comes with being part of this ancient tradition.

These journeys often spring from a yearning for self-knowledge. Whether it’s for one day or an entire summer, a pilgrimage teaches you a lot about yourself, says Dr. Williams. Jenks realized he wanted to explore the country after reading the novel Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.

He related to the main character—a man on a spiritual journey of self-discovery—and had an internal craving to experience adventure, so he hitchhiked over 5,000 miles across the United States, from Los Angeles to Maine.

Traveling across the United States also provides the chance to learn new things. It gave Jenks the opportunity to start an online blog

and practice his photography skills. Having to talk with strangers also improved his ability to interact with other people. “It helped me feel confident in any situation,” he says.

Sometimes these journeys spring from a place of pain. When Jordan Bower came home on a summer day in June 2010, he found a note on his kitchen table that turned his world upside down.

His girlfriend was in love with another man.

In efforts to win his girlfriend back, Bower acted on his longing to travel and embarked on a 1,800-mile walk from his home in Vancouver, Canada to the border fence at Tijuana, Mexico.

He uploaded a crowdfunding video to the website Kickstarter and in nine days Bower reached his goal of $5,000. Although his girlfriend declined the invitation, Bower remained committed to his 150 supporters and followed through with the trip.

Fascinated by people’s stories, Bower spoke with the locals in towns he passed through. At the time of his journey, America was just coming out of the Great Recession, and he heard deeply personal stories of struggle. But he wanted to hear happy stories, too. Bower approached people on the streets and asked them to share their love story. From the most traumatic breakup to listening to how a grandmother met her husband, the streets are consumed with people who all come from different backgrounds, he says.

Jordan Bower reaches San Fransisco. “I’ve always heard that ‘if you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear flowers in your hair,’ and for a bald man, this is your only choice.” route.sjmc.umn.edu

Benjamin Jenks was inspired to explore the country after reading a novel

by Hermann Hesse. He documented his trip by taking selfies with people he met along his journey.

Route 3

Street Beat

How hip hop influences popular perceptions of the inner city. | By Lauren Sauer

A

12-year-old kid sits in his bedroom in a quiet suburban house, waiting for his mom to drive him and his girlfriend of two weeks to the Regal 16 to catch a matinée of The Lego Movie.

Bumping through his speakers is the newest album released by hip hop prodigy Kendrick Lamar. Woven through nearly every verse are mentions of Compton, and references to Lamar’s life growing up on the streets of this notoriously dangerous neighborhood.

While the odds are that the kid listening to the music has never stepped foot near the streets of Compton, he has already formed a clear picture of his would-be life on the streets: dodging bullets and dabbling in crack cocaine on a daily basis. The question is: How much of what he’s hearing from hip hop is reality? Would a culture that grew from violent, impoverished city streets ever aim to escape them?

Hip hop is recognized as having grown from the streets of the Bronx and South Los Angeles, where poor kids were creating art out of necessity. “These kids didn’t have the access to instruments or opportunities that richer kids had,” says Toki Wright, a Minneapolis-based hip hop artist and poet. “That’s why there’s so much reference to the streets, because that’s the sole core of hip hop.”

The art of rap began in the South in times of slavery and outright African American discrimination. Once the migration to cities like New York and L.A. began, it really started to take hold as African Americans struggled to maintain live-

OU NDS S T

lihood in the harsh face of urban poverty. “These were young black people who weren’t going to put up with the same violence as in the South,” says Wright. Conditions on the streets only declined after the Vietnam War, when soldiers brought back knowledge of weapons to their inner-city neighborhoods. It was only a matter of time before the drug epidemics started to burn through the streets of Compton and the Bronx, where the black population was majority. It was then, in the early 1970s, when hip hop started to gain a loyal following of those looking to channel the anger and frustration into an art form, one that would grow into the street culture that we see today.

The trouble with hip hop and street culture is that it has successfully merged into mainstream pop culture, but most people still have no idea where it came from. While the social roots and context are paramount in understanding the music and art surrounding it, most people will just take it at face value as something aggressive or offensive. As a culture that was born from the streets, hip hop still maintains a certain amount of loyalty and pride of where it came from. This often results in repeated reference to specific cities and neighborhoods, so much so that many areas have garnered a nasty reputation.

“You absolutely develop a perception of a town,” says ADDAM, a Minneapolis musician and self-proclaimed creative safarist who has worked in scenes from New York to Nashville to L.A. “Whether it’s good, bad, wealthy, or poor, you inevitably have your own idea of that place, and any city made popular in hip hop will have a new reference from more individuals.”

With consistent reference to the streets in nearly every form of hip hop, whether it’s mainstream or underground, people everywhere inevitably will have their own idea of life on the streets. The trouble is that there’s likely a kid from some small farm town in the middle of Nebraska listening to Kendrick Lamar’s newest album outside of a 7-Eleven, thinking that he knows every-

AS LONG AS THERE’S POVERTY, I’D LIKE FOR THERE TO BE ARTISTS TO TALK ABOUT ITS REALITY.” 4 Route

Courtesy of ADDAM

STREE

Minneapolis musician and creative safarist, ADDAM, has worked in New York, Nashville, and Los Angeles.

thing about the streets of Compton. Record labels target these vulnerable people in their efforts to commercialize street culture for the masses.

“A lot of people like to take advantage of suffering,” says Wright. “But at the end of the day, it’s up to the listener to know how to filter through the exaggeration.”

This isn’t to say that all rappers are taking commercial advantage of their circumstances. Artists like Lamar are credited for telling a sobering and accurate story of where they come from and what they’ve had to deal with.

But Wright, who started rapping as a teenager in north Minneapolis, stands by rappers who offer an honest portrayal of their experience.

“If I actually went through this,” he says, “I should be able to talk about my experience through my art.”

Many fans of hip hop, especially those listening to it away from the hoods and streets it’s describing, see a glorified image of this lifestyle, which is very often perpetuated by labels looking to profit off of the culture’s gritty background.

Stanford University’s Ethics of Development in a Global Environment (EDGE) published an article on the social significance of hip hop culture, which delves into the circular relationship between rap and mainstream popular culture. Becky Blanchard, EDGE expert in the department of Poverty and Prejudice: Media and Race, writes, “With the ‘discovery’ of hip hop artists by corporate record labels, rap music was stolen from its community, repackaged by money-minded business people looking to create a wider appeal by erasing hip hop’s historic function, and sold back to the streets through marketing ploys such as music videos and Top40 charts.”

Spring 2014

Street Beat

Artists and labels aren’t the only ones portraying these stories, however embellished they may be. For those eager to actually see the street origins of hip hop, tours are available that show popular, highly regarded sites in hip hop culture. Tours go to neighborhoods all over L.A., including Compton, South Central, and Crenshaw-Baldwin Hills. The tour company, L.A. Hood Life and Hip Hop Tours, aims to show people the reality of life in these neighborhoods, as well as show landmark spots such as the place of Biggie Smalls’ assassination.

The owner of the company, Hodari Sababu,

started these tours after going to rap concerts and seeing countless white kids from wealthy areas around L.A. show up acting as if they came in off the streets. In a documentary with Pitchfork.tv he says, “They’re sagging their pants, they know all the words to the songs, they’re talking shit about what it’s like growing up on Compton and South Central, but these guys have never been to these places that they hear in rap songs.”

Despite these people taking the bait from record labels and creating wildly exaggerated ideas of street life, hip hop will always go back

to its origins. It’s always been about someone telling their story and speaking from experiences. Even today, hip hop serves as a channel through which social issues of urban poverty and violence can be accessed. While there certainly are outdated white-haired label execs spinning stories in their shiny, high-powered offices, Minneapolis artist Toki Wright still maintains that it’s crucial for rappers to keep telling their own experiences. “As long as there’s poverty, I’d like for there to be artists to talk about its reality.” R

LYRICAL LANDMARKS “Rap Quotes” is a guerrilla street sign installation project created by artist Jay Shells. His project converges art and culture as he takes standard street sign shapes and adorns them with hip hop quotes that call out street corners and specific locations. The project brings attention to the strong influence the streets have on both hip hop music and the players in the genre.

So far Shells has worked his signs into the streets of New York and Los Angeles, and plans to extend his project to additional cities including Atlanta and Philadelphia. He secures the red signs to street poles at the locations associated with the lyrics. As he puts up new signs, Shells tweets pictures to his nearly 6,000 followers. Those signs are often stolen by fans of the project before the day is Aymann Ismail/ANIMALNewYork

over. But the signs aren’t meant to stay up as a landmark; they are posted to call attention to the places that have influenced the genre of music and put a tangible mark on the impact of hip hop. R

By Laura Marrinan Jay Shells puts up street signs featuring quotes from songs by Lil’ Fame, Jay Z, and Nicki Minaj.

route.sjmc.umn.edu

Route 5

Street Beat

They block our views, pass us at seemingly inopportune times, and use their horns to spark fear in drivers and put smiles on kids’ faces; they’re the extra-tall, extra-long, semi-trucks found on roads across America. But what about the man or woman sitting high up on the seat inside those 18-wheelers? Named Minnesota’s 2012 Truck Driver of the Year by the Minnesota Trucking Association, Nathan Wick is a professional semi-truck driver with UPS Freight. I caught up with him to find out what truck driving and life on the road is really like.

How did you get into truck driving?

Well, I’m a third generation driver. Both my grandfathers and my dad were drivers, so it just

TRUCKER SLANG

Bear in the Bushes—Law enforcement Pay the Water Bill—Taking a bathroom break Granny Lane—The right, slow lane Hammer Lane—The left, passing lane Dragon Wagon—Tow truck Cash Register—Toll booth Black Eye—A headlight out Alligator—A piece of tire on the road Source: TruckerCountry.com

Truckers can drive

6 Route

14

hours per day

And what did you have to do in order to become a truck driver?

You have to learn from the bottom. My grandpa threw me the keys on a dirt road once saying, “Show me what you got.” I didn’t have a trailer or anything, but it was still a scary experience to drive a Peterbilt when you’re 16.

What does a typical workday or trip look like for you?

I’m home every day, but I do have long days.

We legally are only allowed to operate 14 hours out on the roads. So, my day starts at 9 a.m. here in Minneapolis, and then my route consists of going down 35W and stopping at Northfield, Faribault, Owatonna, and sometimes over to Waseca and Mankato.

Do you find yourself doing anything to pass the time when you’re on the road?

I listen to a lot of talk radio. You can’t listen to music all the time ‘cause you end up hearing the same thing over and over again. I mean, I love music, but it gets old. The view is always changing regardless of the weather. You’re going to see something you didn’t see the day before, even at the same place.

What is the most stressful part of your job?

With people having more electronics in their vehicles, just the most stressful part is basically having to deal with people that aren’t paying attention on the road. You can’t go down the freeway without seeing someone playing with something in their car; iPads, phones, radio.

It’s becoming an epidemic, really.

On the flip side, what do you like about your job?

Freedom. I mean, I do have to answer to a dispatcher...but after that I basically can dictate how the day goes. I obviously have to meet deadlines for customers but, I don’t have someone leering over my shoulder all the time and, you know, it’s kind of nice when you get those nice 70 degree days, it’s sunny

3.5 Million truck drivers in the U.S.

American Trucking Associations

A semi driver dispels the myths of his profession. | By Ellie Geraets

kind of seemed like a natural progression that I was going to become a driver.

out, and people are stuck in their offices with no windows. I’m outside, I’m out of the truck every five minutes.

There are a lot of stereotypes associated with truck drivers. Were you ever concerned about the stereotypes when you went into the job?

I found they were funny. The typical stereotypes: all truck drivers are … kind of brain dead … I hear them all the time—the fat, sweatpants-flannel wearing, ball cap, you know. If I say “truck driver,” you’re not going to picture me. I look like a manager. I actually have clean-cut hair. I don’t have any facial hair. A lot of the drivers I work with, whether they work for different companies [or not], they take pride in themselves. If I go into a truck stop and I see “that guy” that is the stereotypical truck driver, it angers me because they’re just keeping the stereotype going.

The thing I’d like people to know most is that we’re professionals. I mean, we work very hard and we have families too. So when we’re out on the road, don’t think we’re just a bunch of wandering gypsies, “tearin’ it up, trying to get that load there.” No, we’re just trying to do a job and get home to our families. That’s the number one thing. R

9 105000 miles per year Average trucker drives

Sources: Source: TruckerToTrucker.com Trucker to Trucker

Spring 2014

Charlie Kelley, Route

The Truths of Trucking

Green Light

Faster, Brighter, Smarter

HIGH LED PRESSURE SODIUM

Three innovations that will change the way you get from here to there. | By Emilie Radigan

Stoplight Traffic Flow

Researchers from the University of Minnesota have developed software designed to improve traffic flow at intersections with stoplights. The research team has been testing the software since 2007 and launched SMART (Systematic Monitoring of Arterial Road and Traffic) Signal Technologies in 2011. The company’s goal is to decrease traffic congestion and constant red lights on major roads. They designed the software to work with existing signal controllers to collect traffic information and suggest adjustments to address congestion issues in real time to analysts.

Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) first installed the system at 11 intersections along France Avenue in Hennepin County in February 2007. More recently, the system was implemented at 10 intersections route.sjmc.umn.edu

City of Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting

U

rban legend claims all roads are based on the measurement of a horse’s ass. Roman chariots were built to match the width of a horse’s rump and roads were laid to the measurements of two-horse war chariots. Wagons were built to fit in the ruts created by the chariots, carriages were built to accommodate wagons, and cars were built to fit with carriages on the road.

All based on the measurement of a horse’s rear-end.

This tall tale is a laughable oversimplification as street technology has undergone millennia of development since early Roman engineering. From the first automobile created in 1886 to the first paved roads on which they drove in 1906, street technology has advanced at a rapid rate in the past century. With the advancements in electronics, streets have become smarter and automobiles can almost drive themselves. Here is a look at some of today’s developments in street technology.

Before (left) and after (right) LED lights replaced high pressure sodium lighting at the Sixth Street Bridge over Los Angeles.

along Highway 55 to test how to reduce freeway traffic delays during peak hours. The team can reduce congestion on Interstate 394 by diverting traffic to Highway 55. After traffic is diverted, the software adjusts the stoplight signal timings to allow for fewer delays caused by the influx of traffic.

MnDOT has now used the software at 85 intersections in Minnesota, reducing the average delay by 26 percent. For motorists, this means less traffic and wasted gas, and more time and money.

LED Street Lights

LED lights are quickly becoming a standard improvement for city streets in the United States, providing improved nighttime visibility and reduced energy costs. According to

a 2012 report by Pike Research, the cost of LED lamps has fallen 50 percent in the past two years. As cities are able to afford the lower costs of refitting existing lamps, shipments of LED street fixtures are predicted to increase by 14 million in 2020. The new light fixtures consume 40 to 80 percent less electricity than common high-pressure sodium (HPS) light fixtures, and last anywhere from two to five years longer.

Los Angeles recently underwent the world’s largest LED light retrofitting project this past year, replacing its 210,000 streetlights with the more efficient fixtures. The city is expected to save approximately $7.5 million a year with the switch, and it has already seen a drop in crime since the project started. Las Vegas replaced 42,000 streetlights with LED last March, and Route 7

Green Light

Minneapolis began testing LED replacements in 2010. Researchers compared the LED installments to the current HPS lighting for two years, and found the new lights saved between 50 to 75 percent more in energy and maintenance.

Self-driving Cars

Cars might not be able to fly anytime soon, but according to a 2014 IHS Automotive report, about 54 million self-driving cars will be in use globally by 2035. The report predicts nearly all cars will be self-driving by 2050. Automakers and technology companies like Google have been developing the concept of self-driving cars for years, and some of these companies have already announced plans to release self-driving models by 2020 or earlier.

We have already seen self-driving technology at work in the auto industry with driver-assist features such as adaptive cruise control, automatic parallel parking, and collision-preventative brake systems. According to the IHS study, self-driving cars available in 2020 will have limited self-driving capabilities that will let the vehicle take control of all safety functions. They will also include autopilot for highway travel, requiring minimal attention from the driver.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates over 90 percent of auto accidents are caused by human error rather than mechanical failure. Driverless cars could drastically reduce the number of car-related deaths each year. Self-driving vehicles will also increase mobility for the disabled and elderly. But how soon will this technology be affordable? Self-driven vehicles are expected to be priced higher than most American consumers can afford. Autonomous technology will add about $7,000 to $10,000 to a car’s sticker price in 2025, according to the IHS study, but is expected to drop in the following 10 years to $3,000. R

8 Route

Your Brain On GPS

How turning on your navigation system may be turning off your sense of direction. | By Michael Geissler

S

arah Lewis finds herself glued to her smartphone’s GPS more often than she would like. But as long as it gets her where she needs to go, she doesn’t mind using it. “I’m only comfortable without one when I know the area really well,” she says. “But sometimes I feel like I’m dependent on it even when I shouldn’t be.” Lewis is not alone in her concern about GPS dependence, and research continues to uncover the effects of its use.

Global Positioning Systems (GPS) have become important in navigating the streets, but have they taken away our natural ability to get from point A to B? Research indicates that while we may be more successful in getting to our destination on time, we may not be aware of certain consequences for being too reliant on GPS. The researchers from McGill first found that the hippocampus is the part of the brain that is used for spatial navigation. In theory, this means that the larger your hippocampus, the less assistance you will need when navigating from one place to another. McGill’s first study in 1999 concluded that cab drivers had larger hippocampi than non-cab drivers.

Their reasoning was that because the cab drivers spent so much time learning the ins and outs of a city, they experienced hippocampus growth and thus had a greater ability to remember locations. In 2009, McGill conducted another experiment that indicated aging or damage to your hippocampus can have the opposite result. We need what’s called memory flexibility in order to remember how to get to our favorite locations.

So, how did McGill figure all of this out? First, they made the participants navigate through a virtual maze to find a randomized object. Some of the pathways led to an object, while others simply led to a dead end. The participants were supposed to dis-

tinguish which paths led to the object. Then, they mixed everything up and had them do it again. This meant that the participants had to remember what they learned in the first step and apply it to a new situation.

Drivers behind the wheel would need to recognize objects or landmarks on a particular route in order to more easily remember how to get to a location at a later time. The research indicated that as a person’s hippocampus ages or deteriorates, their ability to complete this process without help decreases. More importantly, the study suggested that using a GPS can have a similar effect on the brain. It is possible that repetitively using strategies comparable to a GPS could directly lead to a decrease in size of the hippocampus, according to the study.

Tools like a GPS can be rewarding in reducing stress, but relying on them even when we don’t necessarily need them can cause issues.

These decisions come down to two types of strategies: spatial and response. When people use spatial strategies, they are understanding the relationships between the different landmarks of their surroundings. When people use response strategies, however, the tendency is for people to turn on a mindset of auto-pilot.

So what does this mean for people who continue to use GPS as a crutch for navigation? Does this mean they will start to remember less about the routes they take every day?

It may already be happening. “I don’t try as hard to memorize directions because I have [a GPS] available,” Lewis says.

Another study from the University of Cal-

SOMETIMES I JUST DON’T HAVE THE PATIENCE TO TRY TO FIND IT ON MY OWN.”

Spring 2014

Green Light

ifornia—Berkeley found that using road maps was, in one sense, a better way to understand navigation. Participants showed more memory and knowledge of the area when using a map, because they actually needed to analyze where they were in relation to their destination. There is a paradox, however, as those using a map struggled more in getting to their destination.

Ginette Wessel, one of the researchers from the study, said that newer GPS technologies have been made aware of the importance of spatial awareness, and they are incorporating more landmarks and colors into their graphics. This helps drivers put what they are hearing and seeing into a real world context. As people who travel to new places every day, how do we balance getting to the right place at the right time with keeping our mind sharp?

Ron Doyle from Psychology Today recommends muting your GPS if you must use it.

“The device will still visually guide you to your destination, but you’ll be responsible for finding the upcoming street name,” he wrote in a 2010 blog.

This will help people continue to use the technology in a helpful, not harmful way. He also said a trick is to rely on your GPS to get to a new destination, but use your brain to make it back home.

Wessel believes people will continue to use GPS because it clearly makes navigation easier. Their study also suggested that because cities are becoming bigger and more confusing to navigate, GPS is becoming more prevalent. Historically, they said, cities were based around a main landmark to help people figure out where they were going. A church or city hall would be the starting point for many directions, and people would not typically have far to travel from there. As cities have grown, however, they have become more complex and just one landmark cannot be the basis of navigation. So, people are looking to GPS. Lewis says she has tried to get back home without help from a GPS. Her attempts highlight the struggle to balance our need for convenience with our own internal compass.“Sometimes I just don’t have the patience to try to find it on my own,” she says. R route.sjmc.umn.edu

FUNCTIONS OF THE HIPPOCAMPUS

• Memory • Spatial Navigation • Behavioral • Spatial Memory Source: Encyclopedia Britannica

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Main Street Minnesota

Can city planning save our small towns? | By Laura Hoogeveen

K

aren Soehl parks her Buick sedan along the curb, leaves the engine running, and then steps out to check her mail at the local post office. This is small-town U.S.A. It’s a place where people can leave their vehicle unattended in the middle of a street lined by brick buildings with large awnings, storefront windows, and flags flying from the street lights.

But the one word Soehl uses to describe her local main street in a town of 600 people? Dead.

“It used to be a busy street,” Soehl recalls. “Two grocery stores, they’re gone. A hardware store, that’s closed. Now it’s a sleeping community where people sleep here but work other places.”

While much has changed about main streets in the past few decades, they still remain recognizable and vital to the core of communities, particularly small towns. “Main street is the heartbeat, the aorta, of the community,” says Bradley Chapulis, director of community and economic development in Worthington, Minn.

Located at the intersection of Interstate 90

and Minnesota State Highway 60, Worthington is a regional economic hub in the southwest corner of Minnesota. With a population of 12,764 residents, Worthington has a six-square block downtown. The vacancy rate of the buildings is minimal at five percent or less, which is reflective of the city’s vibrant, healthy downtown.

“Forty years ago, it was all mom and pop shops of Norwegian descent,” Chapulis says.

Worthington’s racial makeup has now shifted to about 65 percent white, and about 35 percent Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2010 census. “We provide unique retail opportunities that reflect the ethnic diversity in our community,” Chapulis says. “You can go to a Mexican grocery store, eat Asian food for dinner, and then buy clothes and get your Lucky Brand jeans.”

Main streets have been a part of the community’s commercial life for many years, but they also used to play a much larger role in people’s social lives. Over the past four decades, the creation of the Interstate Highway System and growth of suburban communities have changed the way Americans live, work, and spend their time. People now travel longer distances to work or shop.

“It’s hard to have a retail presence on Main Street when it takes nothing to get a larger selection and more options elsewhere,” says Holly Sammons, the economic development director in Luverne, Minn., a town of almost 5,000 people. Traveling by Interstate 90, Luverne is only 30 miles away from Sioux Falls, the largest city in South Dakota with a growing population of over 160,000 residents.

IN A SENSE, IT BRINGS YOU BACK IN TIME.” Sammons says the city of Luverne is working to encourage people to pay a little more to get their items right in town. “[The retailers in town] know my name, my kids … the level of service is way more personalized,” Sammons says. Cities across the state are realizing that with lifestyle changes, it takes intentionality to promote the downtown area and bring people to main street.

One program seeking to bring life back into downtown is Minnesota Main Street, which is a part of the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota. The mission of Minnesota Main Street is to provide participating local Main Street programs with the training, tools, and networking they need to be successful in revitalizing their downtown, according to its website.

Currently, six cities in Minnesota are considered Designated Main Street Programs because they follow the National Main Street Center (NMSC) Four-Point Approach to encourage downtown revitalization: design, economic restructuring, promotion, and organization. Two dozen cities in Minnesota are considered Associate Members.

Emily Northey, the coordinator for Minne-

Left to Right: Main Street in Luverne. / The intersection of Main Street and Freeman Avenue in Luverne.

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Green Light

Laura Hoogeveen, Route

IT’S DEPENDENT ON HAVING THE COMMUNITY BE PART OF THE DECISION MAKING AND INVOLVEMENT.” addition of iron planters and new trees.

Promotion is another key aspect of Minnesota Main Street, which has helped the city of Faribault develop economically. “It’s helped bring business downtown,” Waldock says. “It’s a positive marketing story and has helped generate funding for economic comebacks.”

Faribault’s Heritage Preservation Commission recently created an iPod-based walking tour of the city. Participants follow maps and directions to learn about the history of buildings and view historic photographs. Some buildings also have QR codes, which can be scanned to get a description of the buildings.

So while restoration is a slow process, Waldock believes the revival of community investment will make for a promising future for main streets everywhere.

Northey, the coordinator for Minnesota Main Street, said she sees the program growing as people understand the national Main Street approach and get access to the tools they need to be successful. “[Main streets] are a reflection of a community’s identity…they matter for historical reasons and how we tie ourselves to where we live.” R

Laura Hoogeveen, Route

sota Main Street, said the program has been successful due in part to strong private-public partnerships. “It’s dependent on having the community be part of the decision making and involvement,” Northey says. “[Minnesota Main Street] looks at the geographical area comprehensively and how the downtown can be marketed to sustain work long-term.”

Faribault is one city that is a Designated Main Street Program of Minnesota Main Street. Faribault has a population of 23,000 residents and is

approximately 50 miles south of the Twin Cities. The downtown area is listed on the National Register as a Historic District. “In some cases, the buildings are 150 years old,” says Peter Waldock, Faribault’s community development director.

“The historic architecture lines both sides of Central Avenue, our main street,” Waldock says.

“In a sense, it brings you back in time.”

One challenge the city faces is the maintenance of historic buildings. Most of the buildings have kept in good shape, but they still need upgrades. Over the past 10 years, a steady number of buildings have been restored. Lower interest loans and grants have encouraged business owners to invest and repair the buildings.

According to Waldock, Faribault ranks fourth in the number of historic façade restorations in Minnesota, following the much larger cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and St. Cloud.

With the help of Minnesota Main Street, the city has received guidance in the design revitalization efforts, particularly to preserve the local heritage while also improving the physical environment of the Main Street district. For Faribault, this has meant improving worn sidewalks and bolstering the streetscape with the

Left to Right: The Palace Theater in Luverne, constructed in 1915, is on the National Register of Historic Sites. / Downtown Worthington covers six-square blocks. / Above: A payphone in Worthington sits covered in snow.

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Spring 2014

DITCHING AUTOS HOW THE MILLENNIAL GENERATION IS AND TURNING TO ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION

By Lauren Sauer

Adonia Lugo of the League of American Bicyclists went carfree three years ago, making the choice to rely solely on public transit and, of course, her beloved bike. While she now calls Washington D.C. her home, her West Coast roots ingrained withroute.sjmc.umn.edu

in her a passion for bike culture that has grown into her career.

“I consider it a fun game,” she says of finding ways to navigate without the luxury of owning a car. “Sometimes you have to go out of your way to choose not to drive.”

Cover photo by Sophia Khori Inside photos by Charlie Kelley

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etting from point A to point B has always been a complex issue, highly influenced by the ebb and flow of generations. A decade ago, your options would have been pretty simple: drive your own car, get on the bus and try to aim within a five-mile radius of your destination, or ride your bike and enter a cutthroat battle with traffic. But looking at urban streets now, the situation has seen drastic changes largely driven by those born between 1983 and 2000­ —the Millennial generation.

Now streets are being designed with not only drivers in mind, but also alternative transit systems, bikers, and pedestrians alike.

This modern model of transportation brings together several different means of transportation into one accessible and sustainable form of transit. “I may take the bus to work, but while at work I might want to take a bike to my meeting,” says Bill Dossett, executive director of the Twin Cities’ Nice Ride program. “We have to stop thinking of transportation as a single tool.”

VANISHING VEHICLES

Though there was a consistent increase in individual cars on the road from the 1970s through the 2000s, reports over the last nine years show a steady decline in the number of individual vehicles. This decline was largely brought on by a spike in gas prices and the collapse of the economy that led to the recession in 2008. But even as the economy shows noticeable signs of recovery, people are still drawing away from personal car ownership, suggesting a shift that could greatly alter the state of U.S. transportation policy.

Programs like the Twin Cities’ Nice Ride, one of the first modern bike-sharing systems in the United States, are part of an urban push away from individual car ownership and toward alternative means of transportation. This initiative first took hold in several Western European cities like Paris and Barcelona, which is how former Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak got the

A man bikes across the Stone Arch Bridge.

IT MAKES MUCH MORE SENSE TO PAY FOR A CAR ONLY WHEN YOU NEED IT.

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idea for a bike-sharing system in the Twin Cities. Since then, it has grown to encompass 170 stations and roughly 1,550 bikes around Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Programs like bike and car sharing are just variables in a larger shift toward public transit in urban areas around the U.S. This change has largely been brought on by the maturing Millennial generation who have had to enter the job market in times of economic decline. Traditionally, people have had their own personal vehicles, making for costly transportation and heavily congested roadways. But as access to efficient

public transit is opening up, young people are flocking to urban areas in efforts to save on the unnecessary costs of owning a car.

“Owning a car is expensive, and it often goes unused,” says Christopher Bineham, program manager of HOURCAR. “It makes much more sense to pay for a car only when you need it.”

Car-sharing systems, which work similarly to bike-sharing systems like Nice Ride, are picking up speed in cities around the world.

While HOURCAR is solely in the Twin Cities, larger companies such as Zipcar have hubs in cities all over the U.S. and Europe, showing

Spring 2014

PUBLIC OFFICIALS WHO WANT TO STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE SHOULD BE TAKING NOTES.

Car 2 Go is one of many car-sharing systems in the Twin Cities.

that people around urban areas are moving more toward more cost-efficient and environmentally friendly options.

Exacerbated by the large number of vehicles on the roads, the growing issue of air pollution has garnered the attention of young and older generations alike.

“There’s certainly a growing awareness that cars are polluting our environment and clogging our streets,” agrees Bineham. This is largely why car and bike-sharing programs have been especially effective in areas of higher density where it becomes much more difficult to drive and park a car for a low cost. Making transit more accessible in these areas allows residents to adapt to this car-free lifestyle by offering affordable and efficient alternatives.

CAMPUS SOLUTIONS

These shifts toward more cost-efficient and eco-friendly means of transportation are particularly evident among urban college campuses. Many campuses are enacting policies in which students can access public transit for free or with a discount. Through systems like U-Pass, which offers bus and rail passes for University of Minnesota students for a lower cost, young people are able to get virtually anywhere within the Twin Cities without a car. This creates a mutually beneficial system in which the students benefit by not relying on personal means of transportation, and public transit agencies are supplied with a steady revenue from student populations.

According to a report published by the United States Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG), college campuses are leading the change in transportation by heavily utilizing public transit, as well as bike and car sharing programs.

Research has found that the younger generation route.sjmc.umn.edu

often prefers communities that integrate various modes of transportation rather than relying on a single vehicle.

“University and college campuses are at the forefront of encouraging new ways to get around that don’t depend on personal cars,” says Phineas Baxandall, a senior policy analyst at U.S. PIRG. “Public officials who want to stay ahead of the curve should be taking notes.” The report discusses the future of transportation policy, as Millennials begin to replace the Baby Boomers as the country’s largest generation.

Aside from cost and environmental benefits, enacting these alternative methods of transit saves on limited urban space that would otherwise be used for extra parking facilities. On college campuses, parking lots and garages take away from space that could be used for school buildings or valuable walking space. Costs of parking facilities can range from $4,000 to $30,000.

“Universities have a lot in common with cities,” adds Baxandall. “They must get the most value out of limited land, they are acutely aware of problems associated with being overrun by cars, and they need to focus on the tastes and aspirations of young people.”

Bineham and Dossett agree that these systems of integrative transit and sharing are most effective and evident in areas of higher density, like Downtown Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota’s Dinkytown neighborhood.

EXPANDING ACCESS

Although these programs have seen the most widespread success in urban areas like the Twin Cities, Bill Dossett of Nice Ride says that the system is now operating in Bemidji, a small town in rural northern Minnesota. But because the destinations are much more spread out than they would be in a dense city like Minneapolis,

the bikes provided at the Bemidji station were redesigned for more distance. The bikes stationed in the Twin Cities are built with heavier frames, designed for trips of no more than a few miles.

The idea of expanding these types of systems to more sparsely populated areas outside of the Twin Cities requires some reworking in order to be as effective. But as mass transit expands to suburbs, greater access is available for people who wish to ditch their cars and take advantage of alternative options.

Dossett says that this change in preference isn’t merely a matter of cost or convenience, but a choice in lifestyle. “It’s about things like choosing to live Downtown, choosing to support local coops, and choosing to utilize public transit that all come together to create a lifestyle,” he says.

Urban communities will continue to see sustainable integration that ties together several means of transit like city bus lines, bike sharing, and car sharing. These programs have also been greatly aided with the rise of mobile technology and social networking, as more people have onthe-go access to the information they need to effectively utilize them.

While the task of creating sustainable systems of public transit may seem daunting to most, Adonia Lugo is cheerily optimistic that these alternative initiatives can take hold in urban and suburban areas throughout the U.S. “The key is to increase visibility and awareness,” she says. “The mental barriers are much bigger than the physical task.”

As a proud member of the Millennial generation, Lugo describes herself as a direct reflection of these trends. She has happily adapted to her car-free lifestyle with no intention of looking back. In fact, if it was up to her, car ownership would be nearly nonexistent. “I wish I had the authority to tell everyone to just stop,” she says. Â Route 15

Who’s Watching You?

Surveillance is a booming industry.

For some, it’s also a cause for concern.|By Eric Best Senior Katie Livingston walked through Northrop Mall at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities like she did each day to get to her history lecture. She

flipped through Facebook on her phone as dozens of other college students walked past her, all focused on getting where they needed to go. They didn’t

seem to care that a camera was streaming their picture online for anyone with an Internet connection to see.

“I had no idea [the camera] was there.” Livingston says. “I’m not exactly

shocked. If anything, it’s something I don’t even think about.”

The camera that caught Livingston on the Mall, along with numerous live webcams around campus, is part of a College of Science and Engineering resource for parents, students or anyone else online to view a stream of the University’s sidewalks. However, it’s not the camera that left Livingston surprised, she says.

It was the fact that she didn’t know about it and that she was unaware live video of her was streaming online.

Recent surveillance realizations have also surprised the country. Whistleblower Edward

N

OTHING IS TOTALLY PRIVATE OR PUBLIC. PRIVACY IS ABOUT YOUR EXPECTATIONS.”

Snowden incited public outcry when he released classified documents to the media last year detailing the wide-ranging monitoring practices of the National Security Agency (NSA) into the everyday lives of Americans.

The mass surveillance industry is a nearly $5 billion private trade, and growing. Surveillance concerns raise questions on whether both the private and public recording of open places is encroaching on civil rights. Somewhere, George Orwell is rolling over in his grave.

Scandals have emboldened distrust of increased surveillance, and recent polls show many Americans have mixed feelings on being watched. In a June 2013 Pew Research Center poll, 56 percent of Americans believed that NSA’s program tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism. In a Gallup poll from the same time, 53 percent of adults nationwide disapproved of the government surveillance program. Regardless of where people stand, the NSA scandal reminded the country that some surveillance occurs without much notice.

One reason for the growth in the private security industry is the lower cost of technology.

For example, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that the cost of monitoring someone with a GPS for a month is just 36 cents per hour, far cheaper than $50 per hour for agents. The FBI had about 3,000 GPS devices for tracking individuals just two years ago. Cheaper technology is also available to businesses and regular consumers, who now can easily buy devices that capture both video and sound— that is, if they don’t have the ability with a phone or tablet.

While surveillance was at one point focused on specific security threats, it’s now multi-dimensional and ubiquitous. Surveillance is coming in diverse forms like the city of Minneapolis considering body cameras for law enforcement, Boeing’s Maritime Surveillance Aircrafts and, 18 Route

of course, the infamous Google Glass. Instead of corporations trying to catch thieves, they now want data, crowd-sourced trends, and information trails. Even journalists—the transparency ethicists—are investing in surveillance technology, albeit for journalistic purposes, in organizations like the Professional Society of Drone Journalists.

The growth in the private surveillance industry isn’t just coming from corporations; it’s also coming from everyday people participating. With 1.26 billion Facebook users, nearly

1 billion Twitter accounts, and 150 million active monthly amateur Instagram photographers out there, the public may be a gigantic collective of moving cameras.

When people take out their phones to take a video of an event, they are, in essence, providing potential data from public places. When Google updated its semi-annual Transparency Report last year, it revealed that the number of government requests for user information from websites like YouTube or Gmail is rising. The government asked Google to release user data via subpoenas, search warrants, and other requests more than 21,000 times—up 70 percent from 2009.

The fact that Google provided a report at all is part of a trend of private businesses taking transparency issues seriously, says William McGeveran, a law professor at the University of Minnesota specializing in data privacy. “[Transparency] doesn’t hurt their image,” McGeveran says, “It’s public relations. It’s brand management.” Many companies see government surveillance as bad for business, McGeveran adds. While most customers won’t refuse to use services like YouTube because of privacy concerns, he says, customers are increasingly expecting companies to be more transparent—and companies are listening.

“Before the web, no one had privacy policies,” McGeveran says. “Now everyone does.”

In an American Civil Liberties Union blog post, Senior Policy Analyst Jay Stanley calls private surveillance a “Little Brother” that will inevitably lead to an encroachment of privacy and problematically omnipresent surveillance.

Stanley also wrote that there is little we can do to stop the “Little Brother” industry from growing as “default expectations” of surveillance become the norm.

While he avoids the Orwellian industry, McGeveran says the world now requires consumers to give third parties all kinds of infor-

mation, from app developers to banks. “There’s so many third parties in a digital world that have your stuff,” he says. “It’s fundamentally different than it was years ago.”

Recent events call into question the concern over surveillance. The Boston bombing case showed the potential benefits of widespread street surveillance in times of crisis. In the search for information and possible suspects during the chaos following the bombing, the FBI looked at nearly 13,000 videos and more than 120,000 photos before finding the video that incriminated brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, according to a March 2014 “60 Minutes” report.

While public opinion and recent events are mixed, McGeveran says he questions the assumption of privacy altogether. He says that the binary between what we can consider public and private doesn’t exist.

“Nothing is totally private or public. Privacy is about your expectations,” he says. Â

Notable Dates in the History of

SURVEILLANCE 1928

The Supreme Court rules wiretapping legal.

1949

George Orwell’s 1984 is published.

1967

The Supreme Court overturns the wiretapping ruling.

1992

The “nanny cam” is invented so parents can keep a closer eye on their families.

1995

First court-ordered Internet wiretap.

2003

A Phoenix middle school has facial recognition cameras installed to recognize registered sex offenders and missing children.

2013

Ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden discloses thousands of NSA documents regarding global surveillance.

Source: PopSci and SuperCircuits

Spring 2014

REVIVING NICOLLET MINNEAPOLIS’ MOST FAMOUS AVENUE IS GETTING A MAKEOVER.

BY EMILY COLLINS

On an average Saturday in March, you’d be lucky to see a handful of shoppers bustling along Minneapolis’ Nicollet Mall. Cracked pavers, rusted light fixtures, and mismatched furniture line the often empty street that links Loring Park to Washington Avenue.

Charlie Kelley, Route

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BEFORE

AFTER

A BEFORE

As the first transit mall in the United States, the shopping and entertainment district was once a pioneer in city innovation. But today, the historic 12-block stretch—home to Target, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo—is a tired artery that struggles to find its footing beyond just a way for Downtown employees to get to lunch.

The city of Minneapolis is spending millions to change that. After 20 years of stagnation, Nicollet Mall will finally receive an update.

The $53 million overhaul, the largest bonding project in the state this year, aims to make the Mall a must-see destination through an extensive design initiative, starting in 2015. Three design firms were given $30,000 and eight weeks to create a vision to turn Nicollet Mall into one of the most appealing pedestrian spaces in America, according to the project’s Request for

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AFTER Qualifications (RFQ). Daoust Lestage, based in Montréal, and Tom Leader Studios, based in Minneapolis, were beaten out by New York City-based James Corner Field Operations. “[ James Corner Field Operations] is process-driven, they’re rigorous, they know how to work with constraints,” says Peter Brown, the City of Minneapolis development consultant hired to facilitate the Nicollet Mall design competition. “They can do a lot with a little… maximize the benefit and make the best possible design.”

This long awaited revamp will likely feature urban furniture, hundreds of new local Maple and Honey Locust trees, art installations, outdoor theaters, and high-quality design to drive Minnesotans back to the street. But it will take more than new seating arrangements and a few Spring 2014

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER sculptures to lure people out of the City Center/ Gaviidae Commons skyway that sees an average of 14,915 pedestrians per day.

Steve Cramer, CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, thinks James Corner Field Operations is up to the challenge.

“They’ve had a track record of creating very compelling public spaces around the nation, most recently the Highline project in Manhattan which has become a tourist mecca,” Cramer says. “We think that in addition to being a key transit way, Nicollet Mall can also be that sort of attraction for visitors.”

The firm’s plan includes three distinct zones that are tailored specifically to their individual purposes. The “Live” zone will include gardens, fire pits, social seating, and

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a tree grove to facilitate outdoor living; the “Work” zone features skyways with direct connections to the streets below, farmers’ market tents, a newsstand, and innovative transit shelters to serve the 140,000 employees on the Mall; the “play” features public art, outdoor dining, creative lighting and a meandering tree line to signify the area’s distinct separation from the Mall’s business center. The design firm presented a concept with room for flexibility as the city’s goals for the project change.

“Urban design and city building is about experimenting,” Brown says. “You try things and they go a little left or right. There’s a whole programming piece to it that goes on after the design team leaves.”

There is great potential for the area to beRoute 21

come a green haven within Downtown’s urban sprawl. Gateway Park, a 1.5-acre green space at the north end of Nicollet Avenue, could become what Minneapolis has been lacking: a central, urban park. If developed, the park space will help connect Nicollet Mall to the riverfront. The park would stretch from Fifth Street to the Mississippi River and would sit on the former site of the Nicollet Hotel. Purchased with federal transit funds, the park was encumbered for years by regulations that prevented the city from developing the land. Now, Minneapolis sees Gateway Park’s enormous potential impact on Downtown.

Urban parks have worked for other cities.

Chicago’s Millennium Park, finished in 2004, had such a favorable effect on the area that it increased residential property values by 25 percent, a $1.4 billion increase. New York City’s Central Park is estimated to have contributed $1 billion to the city’s economy in new business

and property appreciation. While Gateway Park is much smaller than these well-known public spaces, the city of Minneapolis recognizes its capability to facilitate change.

The livability of Downtown Minneapolis is certainly the focus for residents. Nicollet Mall, completed in 1965 and redesigned in 1990, has never been revamped with Downtown residents in mind. The city anticipates that the project will have a huge impact on the community, bringing 70,000 Downtown residents by 2025 and more than 13,000 new permanent jobs corresponding with the development, according to the Nicollet Mall project website.

As a result of the Mall’s projected impact on the Downtown community, the city of Minneapolis is asking Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton to contribute more state money to the effort. Already promised $20 million in Dayton’s 2014 bonding bill, the city is look-

ing for $5 million more. The other half of the funding will come from Minneapolis business assessments.

Former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak thinks the project is set up for success. In addition to adding new business, new residents, and new aesthetics, the area has the ability to introduce streetcars to the city. “There’s a romance to the idea of a pedestrian only area, and that may be where people ultimately go,” Rybak says. “A streetcar enables us to stretch the Nicollet Mall experience into one that crosses the river into Eat Street.”

While the exact plans for the Mall remain in flux, the ideas behind them are exciting. We might have a new park, a new transit system, and a nice place to stroll on a Saturday after lunch on one of Nicollet Mall’s restaurant patios. You might even get to see a play in the Mall’s new outdoor theater. But one thing is clear: you won’t catch your heel on another broken paver. Â

All Nicollet Mall design renderings created by James Corner, Field Operations.

URBAN DESIGN AND CITY BUILDING IS ABOUT EXPERIMENTING.

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Spring 2014

Asphalt Appetites O

n weekday mornings, food trucks roll into Minneapolis with eye-catching paint jobs and young, energetic owners. At five minutes to nine, the trucks play musical chairs for limited parking spots along Marquette Avenue, the food truck mecca. Downtown workers line up, tempted by lunch choices such as pulled pork sliders, duck confit, burgers, falafel with hummus and fixings, and tacos.

Food trucks serve lunch with a side of Downtown vitality.

By Rebekah Ellis

All photos taken by Sophia Khori and Charlie Kelley, Route

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As the food truck phenomenon swept across the nation, the number of registered food trucks in Minneapolis jumped from 10 in 2010 to 75 in 2013. But the trucks are doing more than just introducing new lunch options to workers; they are contributing to a street renaissance in Downtown Minneapolis.

The health of a city is measured by the state of its street life, and there has been a renewed push to bring Minnesotans back to the streets. Developing Downtown Minneapolis into a progressive, economically vibrant area is dependent on making it welcoming for local business and culture. “The city would be more active, the streets would be more fun, and people would come down from the skyways because they want to participate in that,” says Thomas Fisher, the dean of the University of Minnesota’s College of Design. “I think that this is all part of—largely the younger generation— taking back the public realm.”

Lined up bumper-to-bumper along Marquette Avenue, food trucks are a part of the movement and have been a fantastic addition to the city, says former Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak.

Inside Out

“MINNEAPOLIS SHOULD BE BENDING OVER BACKWARDS TO GET MORE OF THIS KIND OF EXPERIENCE ONTO THE STREETS”

Understanding the impact food trucks have made requires a look at Minnesotans’ love-hate relationship with the Minneapolis skyway system.

While the skyway is appreciated on frozen winter days, it is frequently cited as a major source of Downtown’s uninspiring streets.

Since its inception in the 1960s, the Minneapolis skyway system has expanded to link over 80 buildings and now

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runs over eight miles long, making it the largest continuous skyway in the world. Many buildings are constructed to be interior-focused, resulting in zero frontage and an unappealing street-level, says urbanist Sam Newberg, who writes for streets.mn. Having active streets is a challenge for any city, but Minneapolis has tried to elevate street culture to skyway level, resulting in the problem of “dead streets” down below, says Fisher.

“We have this mistaken idea that economic activity is related to getting your car in and out fast.

It probably is almost the opposite,” Fisher says. “Part of being in a city is the pleasure of looking at the diversity of stuff going on—not just moving quickly from point A to point B.” Fisher cites Portland, Oregon, which has a thriving food truck culture with nearly 500 trucks, as an example of a city that prioritizes pedestrian culture, and is economically vital. Food trucks causing traffic jams are a concern for traffic engineers, but to Fisher, healthy cities are difficult for drivers.

TV personality and Minnesota native Andrew Zimmern, who owns the AZ Canteen food truck, says that compared to other cities he has visited, “there is no street culture [in Downtown Minneapolis].” Grand Avenue in St. Paul, and 50th and France in Edina, are areas of the Twin Cities that have the commerce and energy that Downtown needs. They also prove that Minnesota’s climate is a weak excuse for not encouraging street life.

Lisa Carlson, co-owner of Chef Shack, says that food trucks have brought people outside and connects them with others in a way the city hasn’t seen in the past.

Spring 2014

“It’s like you’re in a real city,” adds Star Tribune restaurant critic and food writer Rick Nelson. “[Minneapolis] should be bending over backwards to get more of this kind of experience onto the streets.”

But shifting the way Minnesotans interact with the streets has created tension. While popular with its patrons, food trucks have also rolled over a few toes. Skyway restaurants and their building owners are less than thrilled by their new mobile neighbors, who could be stealing their customers.

The skyway system is home to restaurants and fast food franchises that cater to a captive audience of hungry employees scouting for a cheap lunch. “Generally, they’re a lowest-common-denominator kind of experience: lots of chains or indies with fairly low standards of excellence,” says Nelson. Food trucks are “showing people in the skyway you have to stop serving crap.”

Food Fight

“THE FACT THAT THE SKYWAY RESTAURANTS LOSE BUSINESS TO US—THAT’S AMERICA, THAT’S CAPITALISM, THAT’S THE WAY IT WORKS.”

Culinary competition is great for those who want new and better food options in Downtown, but it may be costing some restaurateurs dearly. Peter’s Grill closed last year after 99 years in Minneapolis. In an interview with Nelson last June, owner Peter Atsidakos blamed the food truck phenomenon for his troubles, saying “It’s the worst thing that could have happened to me.”

Last summer, four restaurants closed and over 100 jobs were lost, says Doug Sams, owner and founder of D. Brian’s All Natural Deli and Catering, which has multiple locations in the skyway system. He anticipates more restaurant closures this summer, and says that while he is not against food

route.sjmc.umn.edu

trucks, they “overwhelm sidewalks, parking ramps, and nearby businesses.”

These issues are shaping a nearly two-year conversation between the recently formed MN Food Truck Association, and the Minneapolis chapter of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), which leases out space to skyway restaurants. The Association says it has seen a decline in sales per unit that correlates with the increase in food trucks.

BOMA’s Executive Director Keith Lewis says he does not want to get rid of food trucks, which he feels started as a positive addition to Downtown culture. But he says immense growth and heavy concentration have caused “unintended negative consequences.” Lewis argues that food trucks have an unfair economic advantage because they’re not required to pay the same property taxes or rent as traditional restaurants. They also do not fund the Downtown Improvement District, which helps keep the streets clean. Brick and mortar restaurants versus food trucks is “not an apples to apples comparison,” Lewis says. If a skyway or street restaurant closes, then the city loses property taxes and there’s a vacancy, which doesn’t benefit the city. To help lessen the impact on local restaurants, BOMA wants a new ordinance to limit the number of food trucks to between two to five per block.

Rybak is a big fan of the food trucks, and was a key player in getting them onto Marquette Avenue. After talking to most food truck owners in Minneapolis, Rybak found that the vast majority are entrepreneurs who want to eventually start their own brick and mortar restaurants. He doesn’t understand

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why the building owners are not taking advantage of the eager entrepreneurs outside their front doors. “I’m sympathetic to the bricks and mortar restaurants,” he says, “I’m not sympathetic to the building owners who complain about their businesses being hurt, and don’t do enough to lease the street-front space.”

The Association’s founder John Levy sees no reason to limit the number of trucks, and says they have their own taxes and fees to pay. “They claim, that in the summer months, the skyway restaurants closest to Marquette lose like 20 percent of their business,” Levy says. “The fact that the skyway restaurants lose business to us—that’s America, that’s capitalism, that’s the way it works.”

Levy is co-owner of Zimmern’s truck, AZ Canteen, and he started the MN Food Truck Association to organize the trucks and develop food-truck friendly ordinances. He says the Association would be willing to restrict the number of food trucks in exchange for

“THE HEALTH OF A CITY IS MEASURED

BY THE STATE OF ITS STREET LIFE, AND THERE HAS BEEN A RENEWED PUSH TO BRING MINNESOTANS BACK TO THE STREETS.” being allowed in more areas, which is perhaps the first sign of compromise between the MN Food Truck Association and BOMA. But Levy warns that the restaurants should be careful what they ask for. “If we go from eight trucks per block, down to four trucks per block but spread all over the city, there’s going to be a lot more restaurants that will be losing business. A lot more. And you know what? That’s fine with me.”

In Andrew Zimmern’s opinion, new dining options only serve to bring more people to that area.

“There’s not a single restaurant that has ever been put out of business by a food truck or had their income negatively impacted by one,” he says. “They close because they’re poorly managed, or they close because their food sucks.”

Minneapolis has yet to see food trucks reach a saturation point, but already their influence on the street culture is undeniable. “As a diner, I am always about more options, more creativity, more quality, more of an energy in the dining scene,” says Nelson. Food trucks are bringing these elements to Downtown, as well as exemplifying the benefits and challenges of moving people from the skyway to the streets. Â

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Spring 2014

On the Fringe Life on the streets of Minnesota.

Photos by Sophia Khori & Charlie Kelley Minnesotans living on the street may appear dangerous or even deviant. But through the camera’s lens, they’re not so different from us. These snapshots of a day in their lives push you to stop and look again. route.sjmc.umn.edu

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Over 13,000 estimated • Between 2009 and 2012, there has been a 22 percent increase in the number of two-parent homeless families and a 4 percent increase in the total number of families experience homelessness in Minnesota.

• In the St. Paul Public Schools community alone, there are over 606 known homeless students. This doesn’t account for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers who also face homelessness in the St. Paul area.

Source: The Wilder Foundation, 2012 Study Bear • Fourth St. & 15th Ave., Minneapolis

I was born and raised in Minneapolis.

I’ve been drawing for 47 years. One time someone gave me $100 just to look at my drawing.”

— Lloyd

Lloyd •• Fourth Fourth St. St. & & 15th 15th Ave., Ave. Minneapolis Lloyd 28 Route

Spring 2014

homeless Minnesotans I’m out here for my son. He’s two. He’s taken care of and has everything he needs. But just in case something goes wrong.”

—­­Tom

Tom • Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

Glen • Washington Ave. & Harvard St., Minneapolis

I have PTSD ... You see that a lot these days, especially with the new crowd—the guys coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.”

— Dutch

Dutch • Washington Ave. Bridge, Minneapolis route.sjmc.umn.edu

Dutch • Washington Ave. Bridge Route 29

Most of us on the street are alcoholics, and most of us stay on the street because we’re alcoholics. ” — Bryan

Anonymous • Washington Ave. Bridge, Minneapolis

Anonymous • Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

We take turns at this corner. It’s first come, first serve, for 30-minute intervals.”

— Richard

Richard • Fourth St. & Tenth Ave., Minneapolis 30 Route

Spring 2014

Median

One for the Road

A new Hennepin County position paves the way for alternative transportation. | By Eric Best

What got you interested in planning?

I always cared about urban form, even when I was young. It started in White Bear Lake, Minn. where I went to school. I lived near White Bear Avenue, which I hated; it’s a horrible road. I had come back from the University of Wisconsin–Madison where I studied polit-

2

miles of bike trails in Hennepin County

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Minneapolis is going through huge growth.

Does this make it difficult to keep up?

It’s a challenge, but it’s fun to solve the puzzle. Working with Hennepin County means making sure we’re working with other groups — Property and Community Works, Active Living staff. I have worked with Shaun Murphy, [bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for Minneapolis], as he is on his way out.

What is your favorite project or facility to plan?

I really enjoy planning temporary materials, like a temporary plaza. They’re short-term projects built right on the sidewalk for pedestrians. They’re more experimental, and they’re temporary. The city could just rip them up if it wanted.

Sophia Khori, Route

How do the Twin Cities and New York City compare?

I miss New York City’s subway system. I rode the subway, I biked, or I walked everywhere.

I’m back to driving in Minnesota, but I’m waiting for when it’s warm so I can start again.

New York City has no trail system, and nothing like Hennepin County’s Midtown Greenway, which would be a luxury over there. New York City also has a huge variety of urban form because it’s so dense.

ical science and international relations, and it was kind of an epiphany moment. I realized that planning was what I cared about. I spent a lot of time on [White Bear Avenue] and I was always thinking of ways to improve it. I went to Rutgers University in New Jersey for my master’s in city and regional planning.

How do you think Hennepin County will change in the next 10 years?

I think we’ll see more active living — biking, walking — and coordinating bike, walking, and transit into all of our projects. I think we could see an extension of the Twin Cities’ amazing trail and bike networks, especially farther out into the suburbs. R

50

bike shops in Twin Cities

2ND

MPLS ranks in % of daily bike commuters Sources: Hennepin County, Bicycling.com

Route 31

Charlie Kelley, Route

I sat down with Kelley Yemen, Hennepin County’s first-ever bike and pedestrian coordinator. A Minnesota native, Yemen moved to the East Coast to study planning and work with New York City’s Department of Transportation. The Federal Highway Administration set out about 20 years ago to add bicycling and pedestrian coordinators to state transportation departments nationwide, but city and county governments have adopted these positions on case-by-case bases. People in these positions develop facilities for non-motorized transportation, and work to educate the public on road safety issues.

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Stolen Youth: A look into Minnesota sex trafficking

Minnesota’s sex trafficking shifts from the streets to the web. | By Emma Stoneall

13

th in the nation for sex trafficking

$31 Billion made by traffickers in 2008 buying & selling humans

world has been introduced to the international idea of “sexploitation.” Approximately 20 million people, over 75 percent female and 50 percent children, are held against their will around the world, according to Breaking Free. The concept has been portrayed as an issue abroad for so long that it’s difficult to imagine the issue being prevalent right at home in the United States.

“How could you not become involved once you learn how big of an issue this is in your own backyard?” Wendy Assal, the women’s program manager at Breaking Free says. “Trafficking is, unfortunately, occurring everywhere but I think people are less aware because they do not know what to look for.”

While Minnesota is a great tourist destination, the FBI has also ranked the state as 13th in the nation for sex trafficking. Minnesota’s connectivity to other borders through Interstates 35 and 90 has become an issue with the growing ease of transporting people through the sex trade.

“Minnesota has a high runaway youth population, and this is a huge contributing factor,” says Rebecca Kotz, the president and cofounder of the St. Cloud State University student group Students Against Sex Trafficking & Sexploitation (SATS). “One in three runaways will be sold for sex within 36 to 48 hours of being on the street.”

100 , 000 children are exploited for prostitution in the U.S. every year.

13 is the average starting

age of female sex trafficking victims in Minneapolis. youth living on the street.

50% of victims are runaway

MINNESOTA HAS A HIGH RUNAWAY YOUTH POPULATION, AND THIS IS A HUGE CONTRIBUTING FACTOR.” on the website.

“We can’t solve any problems until we are informed and educated on the issues,” Kotz says.

“Our mission is to educate and motivate our campus into action. We also aim to shift attitudes towards sexual violence, ending the ‘rape culture,’ and stop blaming victims of slavery, ex-

girls under 18 are sold any 45 given weekend night in MN via internet & escort services.

$1,500 is earned by a pimp

an average night of trafficking.

1%

of victims are rescued.

Sources: Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, CNN Freedom Project, A21 Campaign

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Spring 2014

Charlie Kelley, Route

W

hat we know of prostitution has completely changed. The street-walking woman who turned to this profession after becoming down on her luck is no longer the prototype for adults and children being trafficked in the U.S every day.

With the “Minnesota Nice” mentality drilled into our brains, it’s hard to imagine the land of 10,000 lakes as the land of over 8,000 daily sex slaves, according to the Advocates for Human Rights.

From the streets to the winding roads of the web, the Advocates for Human Rights report Minnesota’s online distribution of underage sex solicitation increased by 55 percent over six months in 2010.

With such a boom of minors’ involvement throughout the sex industry, nonprofit organizations such as Breaking Free have taken matters into their own hands.

Started in 1996, the St. Paul, Rochester, and Minneapolis branches of Breaking Free along with founder Vednita Carter help anywhere from 400 to 500 girls escape the world sex trade annually.

“Prostitution is not the world’s oldest profession,” Carter says on her website. “It is the world’s oldest oppression.”

Through films and other forms of media, the

On any given weekend night, 45 girls under the age of 18 are sold in Minnesota through the Internet and escort services, according to Breaking Free. “The vast majority of those trafficked in the U.S. are actually U.S. citizens and are trafficked domestically within the U.S.,” Kotz says.

“This is happening in our own [state]; it is not ‘another country’s issue.’”

What role does the Internet plays in modern day sex trafficking? Since Craigslist came under fire for enabling the sex industry in 2010, Backpage.com has become the new hotspot for online adult interactions. Adult, ironically, refers to the content, not necessarily all parties involved.

While listings explicitly mentioning prostitution of any kind are prohibited, police have discovered 50 occurrences of child sex trafficking

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PROSTITUTION IS NOT THE WORLD’S OLDEST PROFESSION, IT IS THE WORLD’S OLDEST OPPRESSION.”

SEX SELLS The underground sex trafficking market has become more profitable than both the gun and drug markets, according to a study released by the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center. The study, commissioned by the U.S.

ploitation on a daily basis will not come across the same luck as the princess saved by a brave prince. This isn’t Hollywood, it’s real life, and it’s time someone yells “cut.” R

Justice Department, was the first of its kind and analyzed the structure and size of the underground commercial sex economies in seven major U.S. cities.

Beginning in 2010, researchers interviewed over 250 pimps, sex traffickers, prostitutes, and child pornographers, many of whom were in jail. The interviews focused on

46 %

sex trade’s financial impact. Local and federal

e

tud

ion

18,000 to 20,000 people are estimated to be trafficked in to the U.S. each year

%d 27

omestic servi

business tactics, gathering new data on the

Pro st

t itu

ploitation, assault, and abuse.”

The boom of social media outlets like Facebook has also served as a way to target future victims of sex trafficking, primarily through friends or even family of those sold. In many cases, the victim knows their seller.

“One [woman] was sold by her own mother,” Assal says. “Another [girl] was adopted as a baby, kicked out as a teenager, and sexually exploited soon after by a couple who [claimed] they wanted to take care of her.”

Due to Minnesota’s increasing presence in sex trafficking, Governor Mark Dayton signed Safe Harbor into law on July 20, 2011. According to the act, trafficked children under the age of 16 will be looked at as victims, rather than criminals, and fines for those buying sex from minors will increase funding for victim support services.

With the law in support of victims, we can hope to see more people reach out for help. “The people crazy enough to think they can change the world are the only ones who ever do,” Kotz says.

So while the image of a damsel in distress still lingers in our media-conscious minds, the thousands of women and girls who face sex-

law enforcement officers and lawyers were interviewed as well.

Included in the study are statistics comparing the size of the commercial sex market with illegal drugs and guns. In four of the seven cities, the sex trade was more profitable than the other two vices. Atlanta ranked highest, bringing in $290 million, more than both

12% Misc.

10% Agriculture

5% Factories

drugs and guns combined. The statistics are from 2007.

Underground Markets in 2007 Sex

$976 million

Drugs

$738

Guns

$754

Human Trafficking Across the States

Cities included: Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Dallas, San Diego, Denver.

Source: The Urban Institute

Those interviewed gave insight into pricing, Number of calls to NHTH

market structure, and sex workers’ motivations. It was discovered that pricing is

0-99

consistent in the different cities, averaging

100-199

at $150 an hour for prostitution. That price is

200-299

affected by the sex worker’s age, race, and

300+

drug use. Pimps and traffickers in the study said they would earn between $5,000 and nearly $33,000 per week, with Atlanta again

Total tip and crisis calls made to the National Human Trafficking Source Center hotline from December 2007 to today.

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Source: The Polaris Project

ranking the highest. R

By Charlie Kelley

Route 33

Median

There Goes the Neighborhood Twin Cities activists make a preemptive strike against gentrification. | By Allison Turnberg

I

that threatens the socioeconomic health of communities, and the Twin Cities are no exception.

City landscapes and economic health are constantly changing, and gentrification is an indicator of those changes. Increases in housing market health, transit-oriented city development, and income of residents are some factors to look for when measuring gentrification in a city, according to CURA researchers.

Goetz says areas of the Twin Cities that may be showing the first stages of gentrification include parts of north Minneapolis, south of Downtown, and neighborhoods along both the Hiawatha and Central Corridor light-rail lines, also known as the Blue and Green Lines. The stretch of 38th Street near Hiawatha Avenue in south Minneapolis has had new additions to the neighborhood, including a confectionery and cupcake shop and a craft brewpub and restaurant. Lower-income neighborhoods are often hotspots for gentrification because the low housing costs generate an influx of new residents. The neighborhood becomes a “hip” and “cool” place to be, and more people join the trend. Eventually, Signs of gentrification near the University of Minnesota. this process changes the very culture of That’s the philosophy of Minneapolitan De- the existing community. vean George, who wants to use his professional An affluent person moving to a poor neighbasketball fame to positively impact his hometown borhood affects the neighborhood by contributing of north Minneapolis. He plans to make this kind to its overall economic growth, but there are also of paradise possible as a response to the frustration negative effects for the original residents. “The felt by residents of his old neighborhood who are classic profit of gentrification is the renovation of becoming priced out of their homes. George says the housing stock in the area,” says Goetz. When if we want to help low income neighborhoods, we wealthy people move into a neighborhood, the need to cater to the existing communities instead value of both their property and the surroundof building and improving to entice groups with ing properties increase when they spend money more income. on improvements to their houses. This increases “Gentrification is the simultaneous upgrading the total tax owed by the property owners of the of the physical conditions of a neighborhood and neighborhood, which can push out the lower-inturnover in the demographics of the neighbor- come residents. hood, namely a displacement of low and very low “I think what ends up happening with gentriincome households and their replacement with fication is that the people that are in the working middle and upper income residents,” according to class are pushed around the city,” says Scott FillEd Goetz, director of the Center for Urban and man, activist and resident of north Minneapolis.

Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of “It’s hard to be settled and rooted because, when Minnesota. Often referred to as “urban renewal,” an area becomes hot on that market, the people gentrification has been happening in cities nation- become displaced.” Fillman says he sees the movewide since the 1950s. It improves a neighborhood ment of gentrification throughout the city: as by raising property values, but it’s also a problem neighborhoods lose their cutting edge and trendy

Charlie Kelley, Route

magine a building with almost everything a person could possibly need: a computer lab, a counselor, a gym, a babysitter, even a food shelf for those days when the rent is due and supplies are low. That sounds like paradise even for a person who doesn’t have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. But for a family that relies on the neighborhood businesses that now have high-end boutiques and five-star restaurants in their place, it’s the kind of amenity that could change a dire financial situation.

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vibes, others become the next hot spot. The ebb and flow of bandwagon residents creates an issue not simply because the original residents become displaced, but also because it changes the character of the neighborhoods. Fillman says he already notices the growing distrust and resentment among residents of his north Minneapolis neighborhood that used to be a closely-knit community.

There are ways to benefit the original communities without displacing them. George grew up in north Minneapolis, and after 11 years of playing professional basketball for NBA teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks, he decided to start a real estate and housing development business to give back to the neighborhood he calls home. George’s nonprofit Building Blocks has plans to build a multi-family apartment complex on Penn Avenue in north Minneapolis, just blocks from where George grew up. “First I bought the plot, not knowing what to do with it,” George says. But then he found inspiration at a Dallas community center that he called a “onestop shop” for families, which features resources and amenities like a food shelf, fitness center, psychiatrist, after-school programs and computer labs. George wants to do something similar with his project, to be called The Commons at Penn Avenue. George says that, above all else, proper housing is the key to improving quality of life and neighborhood character. “We want to teach kids and parents how to eat healthy and go to school and provide for themselves, but if they don’t have a good place to live, who cares about all that?”

Ed Goetz believes that projects like George’s are the kind of thing that is needed to combat the negative effects of gentrification. While he doesn’t see gentrification totally in play in the Twin Cities yet, he says it’s important to be aware of the signs in order to be proactive. “This is exactly the kind of stage in which you want to take action, because once it’s in full swing you’re fighting a losing battle,” Goetz says. Proactivity and aggressiveness in noticing the signs of “incipient gentrification” will help to ensure that communities can enjoy the benefits of neighborhood revitalization. “Most gentrified neighborhoods have some geographic advantage to them,” Goetz says. Pinpointing areas in which gentrification is beginning to occur can change the effects, Goetz says, and instead “capture those improvements for the communities.” R Spring 2014

Graffiti

Sign Design The funds to change our road markers are coming—but from where? | By Laura Marrinan

Charlie Kelley, Route

F

The new and improved street signs in Minneapolis. The mixed-case lettering improves readability for drivers.

become worn, missing, or unreadable.

In Stillwater, Minn. Mayor Ken Harycki proposed the sale of the old signs to help offset the cost of new signs. The old versions of the signs were arranged to be sold for $10 each to help reduce the estimated $80,000 price tag on the re-signing project, says Beth Wolf, Stillwater engineering and public works secretary. Since the city began selling them in October 2010, more than 1,400 of the old street signs have been sold.

The city still has an inventory of about 350 signs and keeps an online updated list of which are still available. As the city continues to work on the re-signing project, more will be added to the list.

Wolf says many residents purchase signs from the streets they grew up on, while others seek out signs featuring particular names.

“I’ve mailed them all over the country with many different stories of why they want them,” Wolf says. “One even ended up in a bar in Colorado. [The buyer] wanted a sign of a tree name for their bar.”

Although this method won’t cover the entire cost of the project, it’s a good way to dig into the price of the new regulation, and it gives people across the country the opportunity to have a piece of street sign history. These recycled signs are mementos of the past that are helping fund safety for the future of streets. R

Laura Marrinan, Route

Laura Hoogeveen, Route

ont choices, letter size, and case mixing are all regulated to ensure street sign design is consistent and efficient. The design of signs across the nation is standardized by the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), which is produced by the Federal Highway Administration. According to the latest version, “the lettering for names of places, streets, and highways on conventional road guide signs shall be a combination of lower-case letters with initial upper-case letters.” Say goodbye to HORTON AVE. Now, it’s all about Horton Ave. The old design is being swapped out to improve legibility and durability. Signs are also now made with a more reflective material that helps improve road safety and sign longevity, according to the MUTCD. But is such an expensive and time-consuming change worth it?

Some have argued against the change because of the high costs of replacing the signs.

When the plan was initially proposed there were tight time constraints on towns to make the new signs without any federal funding. Since then, the deadline has been relaxed. Rather than doing a massive overhaul of the existing signs, the transition to the new design will occur as signs

The old sign design in (left) Luverne and (right) Sauk Rapids still use all uppercase lettering.

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Graffiti

Aerosol Advertising

Y

ou won’t find graffiti on a wall in the Met, or next to Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans in MoMA. But even art critics have come to appreciate graffiti or street art as more of an art form than defacement. Now, commercial graffiti has emerged as an effective way for companies to advertise to a very specific audience.

Why this influence of graffiti on advertising? It appeals to some advertising and design fundamentals like scale visibility, says Daniel Jasper, Assistant Professor for the Graphic Design Program at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities.

“Graphic design and graffiti are closely aligned because they are bold, type-based, use simplified forms, and are a very public form of mass communication,” Jasper says.

Along with these basic fundamentals, the evolution of advertising from the 1960s through today can also explain this influence, according to Jasper. Advertising agencies began using louder and more rebellious messages in an effort to appeal to a younger generation.

“Advertising became more sophisticated, and it used more tools to target a specific audience. It was a more pointed message,” Jasper says. Marketers are utilizing these site-specific and context-sensitive messages to raise the conceptual standard of advertising, and this connection to graffiti has raised it even more.

“What’s pushed advertising towards graffiti is that kids are smart and know when they’re being sold something, so ads had to be more edgy,” he says. This edginess has helped many large corporations appeal to a demographic that they may have never reached before because of the stigma surrounding graffiti. R

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Lisa Müllerauh

Once considered vandalism, graffiti has become an innovative form of marketing. | By Julia Burke

Green Works reverse graffiti in San Francisco, 2008.

ECKO UNLTD., 2006 A video of a man breaking into an airport to tag the president’s plane, Air Force One, was leaked on the Internet by Marc Ecko, owner of the Eckō Unltd. lifestyle company.

The video prompted security officials to check the plane, only to find it untouched. Ecko had repainted a Boeing 747 to replicate the president’s airplane and had the whole thing filmed as a guerrilla advertising stunt, and it proved to be quite effective—CNN, ABC News, USA Today, and other news outlets reported on the incident.

IBM, 2001 In April 2001, hundreds of “Peace Love Linux” logos were painted on city sidewalks in Chicago and San Francisco as a guerrilla advertising campaign for IBM’s Linux computer processing system. IBM got even more publicity than expected since the ads weren’t as washable as they were supposed to be, and ended up having to pay thousands of dollars to have them removed.

CLOROX GREEN WORKS, 2008 Six years back, Green Works, a division of The Clorox Company devoted to natural cleaning products, partnered with a commercial artist to create “clean” graffiti mural in an alley in San Francisco. Paul “Moose” Curtis, a British commercial artist, used reverse graffiti to create this piece of street art. The process involves using stencils and high-pressure water sprayers to selectively wash down pavement or walls, and after eight to 16 weeks, the graffiti cleans grime off of the building or pavement.

Spring 2014

Graffiti

Practice Safe Streets How simple design tricks can lower neighborhood crime. | By Martha Lueders

W

e’ve all experienced that feeling of uneasiness when walking home alone and the street lights begin to blink. Your heart starts to pound against your ribcage. As your brain reenacts scenarios from a horror film. You may be screaming inside your head, “What have I done to deserve such a terrible end?” Admit it, we’re all a little scared of being alone in the dark, but when the street light stops flickering and a police officer emerges down the block, you feel immediate relief.

Street designers are beginning to evaluate the current state of our streets and how the public perceives them by embracing the theory of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). It’s a theory that suggests specific street design elements, like lighting and public spaces, can lower crime rates through a chain reaction. These elements give people a sense of safety, which encourages people to come to that area. And in more urban areas, a little peace of mind can go a long way to deter crime.

However, some people can’t seem to overcome their gut feeling in certain neighbor-

Minneapolis DID. When he asked a group of students to estimate how many homicides occurred Downtown in the past year, some estimates were in the hundreds. Actually, in 2013 only three homicides occurred in Downtown, according to the Minneapolis Police Department. Only 10 percent of all crimes that occurred during January 2014 in Minneapolis happened Downtown. “[Street designers] look at [the] engineering aspect of how to move the most people,” says Nick Juarez, crime prevention specialist for the area surrounding the University of Minnesota. They aren’t focusing on the feeling of safety, he says, which is why problem areas exist in the city.

CPTED tries reviving the places that many would say have seen their last days. As crime prevention specialist for Downtown Minneapolis, Renee Allen, puts it, “Ambiance creates safety.”

Why a street gives an unwanted vibe can come from a number of factors, says Shardlow.

Years ago, Downtown had large fountains on the sidewalks. After they stopped working, they were converted to decorative flower planters. But their size has created congested sidewalks, leading to a sense of uneasiness for many pedestrians.

Even the smallest of details, like playing music, can impact an area. Allen worked on a project to improve the atmosphere of Block E by playing classical music, which effectively deterred crime. “It was like bug repellent,” Allen says with a laugh.

Another area Allen improved was the Northside Community Library. After school, kids would hang out on a retaining wall near the library. Library users passing the group of kids felt intimidated, which led to many people not using the library.

Allen recreated the atmosphere by setting sprinklers on a timer so they would go off after school, approximately around the time when the kids were on the retaining wall. The sprinklers caused the kids to find a new hang out.

“Engineers and architects are becoming more versed in environmental design,” Allen says. “It’s an everyday thing for the city of Minneapolis.”

Design may change a street’s ambiance, but personal awareness is key to staying safe on the streets, Allen adds. People should always take it upon themselves to ensure their own safety. R

PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE OF DOWNTOWN.” hoods. As a result they tend to avoid these places like a dark, dingy alley—Downtown Minneapolis is full of those places. The lack of people in the area is one of the top reasons Downtown feels unsafe to residents, according to a Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District (DID) report.

“People do not have the general right perspective of Downtown,” says Ben Shardlow, the director of Public Realm Initiatives for route.sjmc.umn.edu

STREET STATS

1,000

less crimes occurred in January 2014 than January 2013.

10%

of the crimes occurred in January 2014 were in Downtown.

MPD Data

Reasons Downtown feels unsafe: Loitering Groups of youth Panhandling Lack of people Lack of police Homeless individuals Public intoxication Lack of lighting DID 2012 Report

Route 37

Graffiti

When Art is up Against the Wall

A

dam Turman describes himself as an illustrator. His art, similar to comic book illustrations, has bold lines and bright colors. Turman is best known for creating screen print and graphic designs in his small studio in St. Louis Park, Minn. But in 2011, he had the chance to bring his work to a larger platform when he was asked to work with Minneapolis muralist, Josh “Jawsh” Lemke, on the mural outside Surly Brewing Co. Around the same time, a new restaurant called Butcher & the Boar was beginning to build its space in Downtown Minneapolis.

Co-owner Tim Rooney decided the grungy wall facing 12th Street and Hennepin Avenue could use some fresh paint, but he wasn’t sure what he wanted. When Rooney was checking out the beers at Surly Brewing Co., he saw the mural Turman and Jawsh had finished just

38 Route

a few months before, and checked out Turman’s other designs.

“We wanted something to stand out, something to pop on the side of the building,” Rooney says. “I had seen Adam’s work; I liked his style and thought it fit well with ours, so we gave him a call.”

When Rooney asked Turman to put his art on the side of Butcher & the Boar, he was psyched to have the opportunity to have his work shown on a large scale and on display with the many murals around Minneapolis, but he had no idea how influential this piece of art would be in creating new work for him.

The mural showcases Turman’s signature style, and its bright colors bring attention to a previously dull space. The piece of art was em-

Adam Turman

How a street mural put a local restaurant on the map. | By Bibbit Erickson

braced by the community and helped make Butcher & the Boar the Star Tribune’s 2012 Restaurant of the Year.

Turman started his work at Butcher & the Boar by collaborating with Rooney and his crew to come up with something that matched Turman’s style with the marketing motto of the new eatery—to be a sultry and rough “Live Full Boar.” For a mural to be legally approved, it must be free of advertisement, which means the design could not have any names or products that could be associated with the restaurant. Turman accepted this challenge. “I like to be influenced by limitations. That’s how my

Spring 2014

Graffiti the city and the nearby stores and was ready to begin the process of painting in October 2011.

Turman enlisted his assistant, Brian Geihl, to help him out with the laborious task of painting the wall. The first step was creating a grid on both the sketch and the wall. To do this, the duo stretches long strings covered in chalk across the wall. Then, to create a mark, they flick the string like a large rubber band.

Once the entire one-by-one foot grid covered the wall, they used a scaled-down sketch of the project with a one-by-one inch grid to put the large scale design on the building one square at a time. “It’s probably my favorite part of working on a mural. It’s a little bit old-school, but when you’re done it’s the first time you see your design up on the wall,” Geihl says.

Geihl, who is a self-employed web and logo designer, says working on a mural was a completely new project for him: “I had done nothing to that scale and nothing in a public setting like that,” he says.

Working right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Hennepin Avenue was an interesting experience for the both artists. At the time, Turman was working as a graphic designer at the University of Minnesota’s College of Continuing Education, so the artists had to work at night and often had a literal spotlight on them. “It was really cool to get instant feedback. People would walk by every day and appreciate the progress from the day before. It was really gratifying,” Geihl says.

One night while the duo were engulfed in

painting the first big panel of the mural, wearing headphones to keep out the distractions, Geihl looked up and saw a crowd of photographers from a local college. It’s a moment that still sticks out in his mind. “You’re sitting there staring at the wall, working, and you look out and suddenly there are like six students taking pictures of us, just appreciating our work. Geihl says, “It was really cool.”

On a different night, a man who seemed to have headed from work to happy hour, came up to the artists, looked closely at the wall, and then walked away. “Brian and I looked at each other and we were like, well that was weird,” Turman says. “Then, the man stumbled back and said ‘You missed a spot!’ and started cracking up. He was so proud of his little joke. Brian and I still laugh about it.”

Turman describes his experience making the Butcher & the Boar mural as a “variety of social diversity” because of the people from all different walks of life admiring his work right on the street. Turman is seeing its ripple with each new job: “People see it every day. It’s on a bus line. I’ve gotten a lot of work from it because it’s just in such a visible space.”

Since completing the mural outside of Butcher & the Boar in June 2012, Rooney has also hired Turman to do more work for the restaurant. Most recently, Turman worked on large art installations to be displayed in the beer garden. “Adam’s work has really become a part of our image, our brand. It helps us stand out,” Rooney says. R

Adam Turman

work thrives,” he says. Together, Rooney and Turman decided to combine Turman’s common “girl on bike” theme and the Minneapolis skyline for the first 20-by-10 foot section of the wall. It wasn’t until after this panel of the mural garnered positive attention from the community that Rooney hired Turman to complete his design on the entire 180-by10 foot wall. For the full mural, they decided to picture four women embracing the drastic seasons of Minnesota.

After coming up with a design idea, the sketching process began. For Turman, this is the most important part of any mural project because it’s difficult to get the proportions right if you create the design directly on the building. Turman created a small-scale rendition of his idea for the mural and brought it to Butcher & the Boar. “I don’t like to do a lot of the back-and-forth stuff. I create a pretty complete design and then make a few adjustments after talking to the client,” Turman says.

Rooney loved the original sketch, but there was one hurdle. “Everyone really liked it but one of the crew had a problem with the first lady Adam drew out because she was a bit too...voluptuous. We decided to button her up an extra button,” Rooney says.

Once the two agreed on the final design, Turman used his graphic design background to create a digital picture of the mural so the entire Butcher & the Boar staff could see what the finished wall would look like. With this realistic design, the crew got final approval from

route.sjmc.umn.edu

Route 39

The Street I Grew Up On

I

am from Green Bay. Whenever people around Minneapolis hear that fact, it’s always the same response, in one of two tones. “Oh... You must be a Packers fan…,” or “Oh! You must be a Packers fan!” But truth be told, I never really cared all that much about the Packers. Don’t get me wrong, I loved growing up in Green Bay. It was a perfectly good place to be a kid. And I always genuinely enjoy the city when I’m able to make a return trip home. But everything there is overshadowed by football.

Perhaps I take it for granted. It has become background noise to me. People from all over the world travel to Green Bay to see Lambeau Field. It is generally regarded as one of the greatest places in the United States to see

Luke Peterson

I

grew up on Browndale Avenue in Edina, in a historic district called “Country Club”.

The 14-block area was developed on the site of two farms; rolling hills have evolved into tree-lined boulevards with vine-covered mansions on every corner. The developers of Country Club once even enforced strict regulations which limited acceptable tree species and where to place garbage cans.

Our quaint tudor was surrounded by grand houses at least twice the size of our humble home. If you looked around on a Saturday morning, you probably would have seen one of my neighbors struggling to fit his golf bag into the too-small trunk of his Mercedes-Benz. The 40 Route

a sporting event. Every game since 1960 has been sold out. Think you want season tickets?

Just add your name to the waiting list, along with over 80,000 others. Your first chance for tickets will come in 30 years. Sit tight.

I appreciate the pride and passion folks have for their hometown team. It was always a happy day when the Packers pulled out a victory. But it comes to a point where enough is enough. You wouldn’t blink at people wearing green and gold to church on Sundays. Schools were closed after they won the Super Bowl in 2011. My family even had a life-size cardboard cutout of Brett Favre that resided in our living room every time football season rolled around.

There’s more to life than Packer football.

Just don’t tell anyone back home I said so.

T

he rural town I grew up in is about 10 miles west of the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. It’s surrounded by a chain of lakes and cornfields, and has a population of less than 3,000. Hunting and fishing is a way of life for many of the area’s residents. As is driving pickup trucks through the mud, drinking cheap beer and listening to country music.

All things considered, it wasn’t a bad place to spend a childhood. There wasn’t too much to do, but we found ways to entertain ourselves. There were about a dozen kids around the same age as I, and we frequently got together for pickup football games in an open field in the middle of the neighborhood. The hangout spot was a video store two blocks down the road. It was a staple of my formative years, but like almost every other

only place where anything even remotely rebellious happened was under the bridge near the entrance to our esteemed community.

Bored teenagers could often be found smoking, throwing rocks at cars, or vandalizing the underbelly of the bridge. My dad and I sometimes went there to hang out just because everyone else was so boring. I always had play-dates with horrible little girls who slammed my fingers in the door, stole my snacks, and told me that my shoes were ugly.

My mom quickly grew tired of pretending to like tennis and having to wear lipstick to take the garbage out, so we moved when I was about eight. Eight years was more than enough.

Charlie Kelley

video store in America, it isn’t there anymore.

Unfortunately, by the time I finished high school almost every family on the block including my own had fallen apart. There must have been some sort of domestic demon floating around. Shouting matches and for-sale-signs were commonplace on Akerson Street.

The street itself is just a slab of asphalt in the middle of a town out in the middle of nowhere.

But to me, it’s something special. It was the starting and ending point of all of my journeys growing up. It’s where I met my best friend, started my first band, and parked my first car. I lived on this street for 15 years and it is fun to go back there and visit some old friends every once in a while.

Emily Collins

Spring 2014

R

yan Avenue East. The words roll off my tongue in a way that’s almost as familiar as my name. The stretch of road that goes for a few hundred feet only to reach a dead end has always been part of my identity. It’s not just Ryan Avenue—that would be in Minneapolis. It’s not Ryan Avenue West—that’s in Roseville. It’s Ryan Avenue East, in my hometown of North St. Paul. It isn’t a neighborhood or geographic area of St. Paul. It is its own city, and though it would be easier for me to just tell people I’m from St. Paul, I refuse. No, I tell them, North St. Paul is actually a city established 125 years ago, population 11,694. It’s a matter of pride for me, and a chance to sneak in the fact that we boast the world’s largest snowman statue, one of the six bars along the main drag is “the oldest saloon in Minnesota” and the classic car show on Friday nights is second to none.

Growing up on Ryan Ave. East recalls vivid memories: the day the stop sign at the end of the street ceased to be my boundary marker in 2nd grade; the first time I hit the ball over the (180 ft.) fence at the baseball field a block away; the winters we spent building elaborate snow forts where the plows put all the snow at the dead end. Downtown North St. Paul was just a bike ride away. To go fishing at Silver Lake was just over a mile away.

Ellie Geraets

T

Justin Miller

I

spent my first 18 years growing up on an especially quiet street in southwestern Minnesota. I watched green soybeans and cornfields turn to brick, two-stories high with friendly new faces peering out.

Many days, the most traffic my street saw was the blur of my sister and me riding our pink and yellow banana seats from one end to the other and back again. The Schwan’s man drove down it once a week as he made trips from the plant on the other side of town to our doorstep to deliver milk and, if we were lucky, ice cream. People waved and stopped to talk as they biked and walked their dogs along the black tar. The driver’s education instructor taught teens to parallel park along its curb between three strategically placed orange cones. I devoted an entire summer to rollerblading its every inch after a smooth coat of tar covered the old, bumpy layer. It’s the street my parents turned down to bring me home from the hospital.

It’s the street I turn down every time I come home from college.

Laura Marrinan

he street I grew up on in Sauk Rapids, Minn. was infested with neighborhood hooligans, myself included, running up and down the block the moment we got off the school bus. It was often difficult to know for sure who lived where.

Living at the top of a hill gave my neighbors and me prime grasshopper-catching turf and the perfect surface for sledding in the winter. On the Fourth of July I could climb to my roof and watch the fireworks out over the Mississippi River.

Although I was definitely living in town, there was never more than one car driving down my street each hour. The lack of potential customers led to lemonade stands that definitely would not have cut it on Wall Street. We never made more than $3 a day, but that didn’t stop us from stirring up fresh batches every afternoon. We really just wanted to drink it all anyway. It’s a lot of work playing kickball and catching grass hoppers all day.

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Route 41