I’m teaching a class called “The Practical Cyclist” at Just Food Co-op here in Northfield on Tuesday, September 9, 2008, 7-8 pm. I welcome anyone who wants to learn more about cycling or wants to share their knowledge with others. Here is a description of the class:

The Practical Cyclist

Designed for those who want to replace car trips with cycling trips or simply travel sustainably and enjoyably, this classroom-based course will examine the advantages of cycling; potential obstacles; equipment and strategies; safety issues; and cycling advocacy. This is not intended to be a road skills course. Taught by Bill Ostrem, who has been a “practical cyclist” for over twenty years.

When: Tuesday, September 9, 7-8 p.m.
Cost: No charge. Donations welcome.
Location: In the Just Food Event Space, 516 Water St. S.

Pre-registration required. Call the co-op  at 650-0106 to register.

Yesterday my family and I came home from a week’s vacation in Wisconsin and, after a long day of travel, unpacking, and child care, I watched the Olympics on television. Flipping through the channels during the commercials, I landed on a local cable access channel and found the commissioners of my county - the elected officials that run Rice County, Minnesota - discussing transportation issues at a recent working session.

The county transportation engineer, Dennis Luebbe, proposed a policy that concerned me: banning county funding of facilities such as sidewalks and bike paths in future transportation capital improvement projects. The policy would immediately effect county funding of a recent local project that has been contentious: the Woodley Street/CSAH 28 project here in Northfield. Note also that the county receives funding from the state for transportation infrastructure; state funds, of course, come from our income tax, sales taxes, and other taxes and fees that we pay.

Mr. Luebbe said that bike/ped facilities might be considered in projects outside of the CIP, but that hardly seems satisfactory. I will await further comment until I locate the text of the policy and receive an answer from Mr. Luebbe regarding my questions:

1. Is the proposed policy available for viewing online? If not, would you send us a copy? If a rationale is not included in the text of the policy, we are interested in learning that also.

2. Do other counties have a similar policy? Which ones do you know of?

Here is the PDF of the policy, which was sent to me by Fran Windschitl at Rice County:

proposed-highway-cost-participation-policy

There was recently an interesting discussion on Locally Grown Northfield about bike-sharing programs. It coincided with some recent news on such programs: the roll-out of Washington, D.C.’s SmartBike DC program and the announcement that bicycles would be made available to the public at the Democratic and Republican political conventions, with the latter being nearby in St. Paul later this summer.

The discussion and the news prompted me to e-mail Paul DeMaio of MetroBike in Washington, DC. Paul provides consulting services related to bike sharing. I asked him whether a town such as Northfield, Minnesota (population 18,000) could attract one of the providers of the high-tech bicycle-sharing programs, such as Clear Channel Outdoor’s SmartBike program or JCDecaux’s Cyclocity program.

He said that a town the size of Northfield probably wouldn’t be able to attract those larger firms, given the costs of setting up such a service. But he did mention the possibility of a private service called Nextbike, which operates in Germany and New Zealand. He also thought that a non-profit model, with the cooperation of the colleges, city, and local businesses might work. He gave Toronto Bikeshare as an example, though after doing some research I found that program has been canceled. Perhaps another model is the Humana Freewheelin’ program that is being used at the political conventions. Some of those bikes will remain in the Twin Cities, so we can monitor how things proceed there.

Perhaps someone here might explore the option of the Nextbike model as a business opportunity. Their web site and a video describe how it works: users find a Nextbike, call a number and receive a code that they can use to unlock a bike, then they pay a fee for rental.

One advantage of a bike-sharing program is that people who drive in from surrounding areas could use these bikes while they’re in town. Others may like the fact that they don’t have to worry about maintaining and storing a bike.

In any case, the possibilities are intriguing, and I look forward to seeing what the future brings.

Following Barack Obama’s “elitist” comments about the residents of small towns, our local blog extraordinaire, Locally Grown Northfield, hosted a discussion about snobbery and elitism Northfield-style. In the comments, see my own take on class and elitism (with autobiographical details) and my views on the hidden agendas of those who call others elitist. Below is a quote from the latter. Note that Northfield is a town with two liberal arts colleges, St. Olaf and Carleton:

Perhaps some of the frustration certain people have with the educational status/intellectual elites in Northfield is that those elites lay claim to power and influence that other elites want to leave for themselves.

My March 10 post has been edited since the original publication to correct inaccuracies. The declaration it concerned was not a document approved by the Southern Baptist Convention, as I originally wrote. The inaccuracy was a result of my misreading of the New York Times article listed below. I apologize for this error.

Fortunately, I followed up on the post by going to the Southern Baptist Convention web site today. Please see the revised post for a more accurate story.

This blog got noticed in the February 27 Blog House, Tim O’Brien’s StarTribune column on political blogs. Mr. O’Brien quoted some of my February 26 post on the recent transportation bill.

Northern Letter is now aggregated on the BlogNetNews.com/Minnesota page. I’ll have to see if I can get aggregated on MNspeak.com again.

Our son is 1 month old today. Our Christmas baby, who could not lift his head, who seemed feather-light, can now hold his head up and scan his surroundings, can now weigh down our shoulders. The child who did not seem to focus his eyes can now gather us in with his gaze. The little one who could only flail unfamiliar limbs can now grasp with his hands. And most remarkable of all, the face that before was only able to grimace or register a lack of affect can now express a smile.

We are still short of sleep much of the time, particularly my wife, who must handle the nighttime nursing, while I do the graveyard diaper changes. But then we didn’t have children to make life easier, I’ve thought to myself. We did it because of the rewards they bring, despite the heavy demands.

Those demands include lots of laundry–one, two, or even three loads a day! Unwilling to pile up our landfills with disposable diapers, we use cloth diapers, as we did with our daughter, and they are the first load of laundry every day.

During the first couple of weeks after the birth, I did more housework and child care in order to let my wife rest and heal. She is stronger now and taking up most of the child care duties, since she has taken the semester off from her teaching job, while I need to earn some income doing my test development work.

We’ve experienced a somewhat isolated existence since the baby’s arrival. That is partly a function of the baby, but also a function of the cold weather we’ve been having lately. Yesterday morning the thermometer read 16 below, and we’ve had two other mornings that were just as cold in this long cold snap.

We look forward to warmer weather and more smiles from this wonderful baby.

If you feel strong, the wind may be at your back.

If you feel weak, it may be in your face.

Notice the wind,

and don’t be too confident or too timid.

On March 14 I wrote about my attempt to persuade our daughter’s preschool to change its snack menu. To date, there has been no change. I will cross my fingers, remain hopeful, and hope others will suggest changes as well.

Still bitterly cold here. Minus 14 this morning. On Monday the sub-zero run in the Twin Cities ended, with the temperature rising above zero for the first time in 63 hours - less than 3 days. The record run of below-zero weather for the Twin Cities, according to meteorologist Paul Douglas, is 168 hours, or 7 days, back in 1912.

The low-temperature spot in the lower 48 states has been in Embarrass, Minnesota, for at least the last four days. Starting with February 3, these have been the daily lows there: -34, -42, -38, -41. Embarrass is in northeastern Minnesota, near (on?) the Iron Range and not far from the Canadian border.

Sustainable transportation is out the window - out in the cold and freezing - for us at the moment. I’m driving my wife and daughter to work and to school in the car. The bike sits, patiently waiting for the next ride.