خوبی؟ بد نیستام مرسی

-i'd much rather be happy then right.
-well, are you then?
-that's where it all falls apart then, isn't it?

Three hours until my final, my brains are fried. I've had enough of planning-programming-budgeting systems and the statutory requirements of impact bargaining for a good long while.

I just read in the star tribune that the met council is trying to lower the amount of public transit in Minneapolis because of a 60 Million dollar shortfall in the budget because of a decline in "auto sales revenue tax." So, fewer people are buying cars therefore we must have less public transit, says the city the I moved out of based, in part, on the lack of working transit opertunities. I am annoyed. Here's an idea, if fewer people are buying cars, spend less on public works for drivers. I've always had a vague idea that I would like to put a mark on Minneapolis somewhere, nothing large, just a park or train station or something. A place that people would love to be. Like Hackeschermarkt in Berlin or the East Boston Piers Park have been for me. And, it has felt that Minneapolis had been moving in a direction to take the place that a city its size should have; a place that I wouldn't mind returning to in 20 or 30 years, but it is such an uphill battle. Compare Minneapolis to St. Louis. Minneapolis is bigger, has a better cultural scene and (opinion here) a better culture. Yet, St Louisians think of themselves as a weltstadt, and Minneapolisers just don't. Result: St Louis has better transit, more tourists and better civic architecture. That sucks. Minneapolis has to stop thinking of itself as an oversized farm village and start acting like a city if it is ever going to be anything more then Winnipeg-south in peoples minds. grrrr.

In the catagory of things I'm looking forward to: I've got an Urban Development Symposium this weekend that I think is going to rock. The topic is "Reinventing the Urban Village," and it sounds like they are going to be a lot about focused density increases. The Director of Commonwealth Transit-Oriented Development, as well as the planning directors for Boston, Seattle and Chicago will be speaking. I've also been looking for a good internship, so hopefully I'll meet some interesting (or interested) people there.

OK. Back to the Urban Management notes. Four more hours and I can forget everything I ever knew.............

also...hitchhikers guide=disappointing / interpreter=rocks idi amin's ass to russia with a belt...