News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Friday December 26th 2025
Transit: Loos, Fare Hikes, and Detours
BY JOHN CHARLES WILSON
Finally! A month with Phillips-specific transit news, after two months of waiting.
The Lake Street light rail station is being renovated, including fixing the elevators and escalators, cleaning and re-coating/re-painting surfaces, replacing broken glass, and putting in new signs and lights.
Now if only the Met Council would do something about the elevators smelling like urine. I recommend installing a “Portland Loo” (http://www.theloo.biz) at light rail stations, park and ride lots, and other transit facilities. The Portland Loo is a metal outdoor toilet designed for areas where people often misuse provided facilities. It is vandalism-resistant and affords just enough privacy and comfort to be usable while not encouraging loitering or improper use. Passersby can”'t see your genitals, but they can hear everything and see if more than one person is inside.
Non-rush hour local fares are going up from $1.75 to $2.00 and rush hour local fares are going up from $2.25 to $2.50 as of October 1, 2017. Express and Northstar fares are also increasing by 25 cents across the board. The Transit Assistance Program, an experiment which provided lower fares to people with low incomes, becomes permanent with a fare of $1.00 at all times, the same as the revised limited mobility fare.… Read the rest “Transit: Loos, Fare Hikes, and Detours”
History: what and who chooses? After 150 Years Gone, But Not Forgotten
Mike Barth, Pioneer and Soldier Cemetery Caretaker “through rain or shine” on the lawnmower or here on a bobcat helping Brian Orth setting a Veterans grave marker. Tim McCall
In his book “In the Memory House,” author Howard Mansfield raises questions about who we, as a society, choose to remember and why. The “why” has less to do with the accomplishments of those being remembered and more to do with our sense of who we are as a society. Some people”'s stories get told; others”' stories do not. Who decides?
In 1993, when he wrote the book, he made an observaation that describes what we are witnessing today:Â “History is like that; you”'re gone but a hundred, a hundred and fifty years, and someone takes you off your pedestal, or they leave your name off of your portrait.” After last week”'s events in Charlottesville, statues, monuments, and markers honoring the military leaders of the Confederacy are coming down but with tens of thousands of books written about the Civil War, those men are not likely to be forgotten.
The monuments and markers in Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery are mostly in memory of individuals and none of them would be viewed as offensive or hurtful.… Read the rest “History: what and who chooses? After 150 Years Gone, But Not Forgotten”
Keep citizen journalism alive!
