I run. Since middle school, that has been my answer to the infinite number of questions I’ve been asked, or asked myself, throughout my life. When I was young, the questions were easier, though they seemed monumental at the time. As I grew older, the questions changed, but my answer didn’t. How to survive my first broken heart? I run. How to work through any decisionmaking process, from what’s for dinner to how to repair a relationship after an argument? I run. How to clear my head when the demands of school, work or parenthood become too much? I run. But this has also been my answer to a question of identity, one specifically that has always been difficult for me to answer directly: Are you a runner?
Claiming the identity of a runner gives me the most intense case of impostor syndrome; it has always felt just out of reach. Runners are fast. They aren’t asthmatics who struggle through a nine-minute mile. Runners strength train. Runners compete at the collegiate level. Runners run every day. I am not a runner, but I do run. And this weekend I take another step, or rather 40,000-some steps, toward claiming the identity of a runner. So, happy marathon weekend to all the runners out there, and to those of us who run.
I appreciated Eric Roper’s profile of Jazz Hampton, my first choice for Minneapolis mayor (“Jazz Hampton wants to be a City Hall bridge builder,” StarTribune.com, Oct. 1). One comment: It should not be newsworthy that Hampton believes “he can find some amicable path between warring factions at City Hall.” The reality is, each faction has a big enough constituency that none of us can expect the side we disagree with to just go away. Under circumstances like these, forging compromises is what a good mayor does.
I co-hosted a meet-and-greet for Hampton last month. There were guests whose beliefs fall on either side of that factional divide. It was nonetheless friendly, with the candidate speaking credibly to everyone in the room. It gave me hope that a Mayor Hampton could build the consensus we’ve been lacking.
In person and in his (now daily!) clips on social media, Hampton demonstrates infectious optimism; clear, in-a-nutshell communication; and an affinity for win-win thinking rather than black-and-white thinking. That win-win mindset can be seen in TurnSignl, the app he co-founded. TurnSignl connects a driver to an attorney when there’s a traffic stop, helping make the interaction safer for both officers and community members. How many of our other toughest issues — between the homeless and homeowners, for example, or landlords and renters — are crying out for a win-win approach?
The Sept. 30 article about the long-vacant CVS Pharmacy building on Snelling and University avenues promotes the false premise that administrative citations can motivate large property owners to repair or fix their properties (“Neighbors beg for city action on long-vacant CVS in St. Paul’s Midway,” StarTribune.com). The fines will either be too insignificant for a large corporation or so high as to provoke legal action. The CVS owner has remained silent to the city’s ultimate threat of demolition. Expect a drawn-out court battle at taxpayer expense once the bulldozers appear on site. Downtown St. Paul’s largest private property owner, Madison Equities, represents another facet of an unresponsive corporation: a bankrupt company unable to even pay its utility bills.
The intersection is a major one in St. Paul. The Minnesota Department of Transportation estimates that 48,500 vehicles cross it daily. A light-rail stop is located there, and Allianz Field borders it. A recent public hearing on the issue brought city officials in to explain the process of trying to tear down the eyesore. The city needs to begin reaching out to the absent landlord located at a mail drop in Spokane, Wash., of all places. Unfortunately, if successful, this will just leave a vacant lot. In other words, one lesser blight will take the place of a greater one.
There is, however, an alternative that could help to revitalize this corner and redound to the larger neighborhood. I refer to a legal process known as eminent domain, a constitutionally protected mechanism (via the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment) where the city could seize the property from the owner in exchange for its fair market value. Once accomplished, the city could develop the now-former CVS lot into something needed and attractive, such as housing with space for retail, or maybe a small parklike square honoring a local notable like former Mayor George Latimer.
I do not know how much it would cost the city to buy the lot. But my fear is that without seizing the property the current owner will find a buyer just as absent from the community as the current one is. The city needs to take an approach that solves this problem and not just defer it with a half measure. Once the demolition is accomplished, then eminent domain proceedings should begin in earnest. This intersection is worthy of the investment given its prominence not just in Midway but in the city as a whole.
What is more disturbing, though, is why the personal emails of the Education Department workers were tampered with, without their permission. Instead of these nonpartisan employees communicating to their constituencies that their future communications would be delayed until the government shutdown was over, the emails were changed to, “Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently in furlough status” — in violation of the Hatch Act. Even when the employees noticed the involuntary partisan change of their emails and tried to change them back, the emails were again changed to blame the Democrats.