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Planned Parenthood triumph

I was recently in attendance at a Stone Arch discussion group and caught Sarah Stoesz speaking about how Planned Parenthood had helped to defeat South Dakota’s abortion ban last year. Click here to go to a pod cast of the complete talk.
The most important element of the discussion revolved around learning to talk to the other side. Folks spend so much time framing political opponents as being zealots of evil that we forget that having done so, any future coalition is dismissed. It is literally burning the political bridge. So that is something I’m going to take to heart. Not focusing so much on demonizing the opposition, and instead just talk.

Diversity of housing types

Sorry about the delay in posting. I was on a trip to SXSW in Austin Texas. Good times, and lots of work. While on one of the many planes I took to get there I picked up my copy of The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Still a good book. I love this passage from page 278 from my addition. “Elevator apartments do not produce standardization by virtue of being elevator apartments, any more than three-story houses produce standardization by virtue of being three-story houses. But elevator apartments do produce standardization when they are almost the only way a neighborhood is housed—just as three-story houses produce monotonous standardization when they are almost the only way in which a neighborhood is housed.”
The Minneapolis Planning Department has put great stock in increasing housing opportunities and unit density. There is also great stock put into housing diversity. However, just a gander at sections of North or South Minneapolis and all we have are huge tracts of three-story housing without any interruption. Jacobs point is that housing diversity creates vitality. Think about where housing diversity exists, and then think about where vitality exists.

Ed Funding

I'm still finding good stuff on the DFL Education Foundation site. This makes posting feel a bit like cheating. Click here.

Taxation Fairness

I found a great pod cast on the web at the DFL Education Foundation site. Take some time to listen to it. The pod cast is long, unlike most pod casts, but its a great argument. Check it out here.