Saturday, December 10, 2011

One way streets must go!

I have always hated the one way streets in Crookston. First of all, it encourages drivers to drive to the maximum speed limit, 35 mph through the heart of downtown. So much so that every year the police department has to put out those yellow markers to watch for pedestrians. People in cars speeding past them do not even look to the sides for pedestrians wanting to cross the street. Talking on your cell phone while going 35 mph is just not right! Trucks taking the "shortcut" through town drop their chicken feathers and noise all over the place. Now granted we don't have too much to offer to look at (yet) but at least slow down enough to watch for pedestrians. Furthermore, if you are a retailer, only one side of your window and building can be seen. Retailers hurting for business downtown get only 1/2 the chance to advertise!

Furthermore you can no longer tell me it can't be done. Just look at Fargo:

Fargo to convert two major downtown runways

By Associated Press

Crookston Daily Times

Posted Dec 05, 2011 @ 09:26 PM

Fargo, N.D. —

North Dakota's largest city in coming years will be converting two major downtown one-way streets to two-way traffic.
After a decade of discussion, Fargo leaders voted last week to convert NP and First avenues, which have been one-ways for more than half a century. Reconstruction could start as early as 2013, with the multimillion-dollar project taking years to complete. Eventually, each avenue will have two lanes in the current direction and one lane in the opposite direction, along with a bike lane.
The vote was 3-1, with Commissioner Dave Piepkorn (PEP'-kohrn) casting the lone dissenting vote. He worries about increased traffic congestion downtown. But many business owners back the move, saying it will bring more business and investment downtown.

So what do you think, Crookston?

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Friday, November 25, 2011

Too Much Taupe!

Everywhere I look I see too much taupe. Yes taupe it is, not tan, not brown, not beige, but taupe as in the color of pantyhose. It doesn't go well with the rich natural colors of red pressed brick or yellow common brick seen in downtown Crookston. If you look closely, there is a soft teal color on the four upper story windows on the right. This is a much better color and combined with gold makes for a historically correct color combination for this building. Much more pleasing to the eye. This much taupe calls attention to the remuddling of the storefront and the wrong sized windows. I know it was popular in the seventies to fill in and put in smaller windows for the sake of "energy savings," but now there are triple glazed windows for a bigger R Value while matching the original window opening. Worse yet, is the missing parapet. Where did they all go? And when? But I digress, back to taupe, covering homes it is the perfect backdrop for colorful flowerbeds, but downtown, yech. Even if I wasn't a historic preservationist, too much taupe is just not in good taste. Check out the historic color collection at Crookston Paint and Glass. Please rate this article, Too Much Taupe, on a scale of 1 to 10. 10 being the least hateful thing about Crookston, 1 being the most.

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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Ten Things I hate about you.

This is the introduction to a series of ten blogs focused on ten things I hate about my hometown, Crookston, Minnesota. I was inspired to write this series by the following quote from the work "Othodoxy" by G.K. Chesterton on loving the world enough to change it. If you like this quote, follow this blog for my Top Ten. Feel free to comment as well.

"What we need is not the cold acceptance of the world as a compromise, but some way in which we can heartily hate and heartily love it. We do not want joy and anger to neutralize each other and produce a surley contentment; we want a fiercer delight and a fiercer discontent. We have to feel the universe at once as an ogre's castle to be stormed, and yet as our own cottage to which we can return at evening.
No one doubts that an ordinary man can get on with this world...(but) can he hate it enough to change it, and yet love it enough to think it worth changing?"