Laugh for the Day - The Busy Hectic Life of NoMi Revitalizer

they aren't even close...wtf?

A fun hearted laugh at my expense...

Keeping up with neighborhood volunteering and the activism life as a NoMi revitalizer can be hectic and hurried.  This morning I got a glaring reminder to slow down and have a good natured laugh at life, ya know, keep my celebrity status from blowing up my head too much (sarcasm font). (after all, people are very concerned with my footwear, as already documented elsewhere...kisses to my fan club!)

This morning, sitting next to my front door, where I removed my rain soaked shoes at 9pm last evening upon returning from the Northside Transportation Network light rail meeting held at UROC, I noticed two different shoes sitting by the front door. Not two different pairs of shoes. Two different shoes.  I wore two different shoes last evening as I hurried out the door to get to UROC by the six o'clock start time.

It reminded me of Mayor Rybak and his mismatched socks.  Needless to say it gave me and my morning coffee NoMi Homie a good chuckle.

Word of advice: if you are hurrying out the door to get to a NoMi revitalization meeting, double check your shoes and socks. (Don Samuels, I'm talking to you!)

Happy Friday NoMi Homies! xoxo

Happy 2010 - The Year of Hookers and Light Rail

Happy 2010! Photo by John Hoff

Here's to looking forward to a great year filled with advancement and success in NoMi. I have no doubt that this year we will see huge leaps and bounds in forward progress, based off a rebounding effect of the many successes we collectively accomplished in 2009.

Successes like this.

And this.

And hopefully, many more successes like this.

Towards the end of 2009, after basking in the afterglow of some of those aforementioned successes, I started thinking "What will I do with my free time next year"?

And I immediately knew that my two main focuses were going to be Hookers and Light Rail.

One I want.

One I don't.

I'll let you figure out which is which.

Bringing the LRT to NoMi

Photo of Hiawatha LRT from tboard's flickr photostream

As a NoMi passenger, I see the development of Light Rail Transit (LRT) as an important, no, VITAL, step in the resuscitation of this urban core neighborhood.

Most readers probably know that there is a new LRT route in the works to connect the northwestern suburbs with downtown Minneapolis. One of the proposed routes for that line would come through NoMi via West Broadway (the North Memorial Hospital)to Penn Ave towards Highway 55, a.k.a Olson Memorial Hwy. Part of this blog's mission will be to organize, advocate for and promote that proposed route through NoMi. It simply must happen.

Thinking about the reality of having that LRT line be developed, built and run through a slice of our community makes my mind boggle with hope. Excitement. Complete fascination with witnessing first hand the changes in thousands of people's lives that would ensue. And for the record, yes, it does conjure up the desire to go into a certain amount of defense and preservation mode.

What I mean by that is, despite what some neighborhood activists will cry, there are many, repeat MANY other revitalizer activists that DO want to preserve the diverse ethnic culture and character of our northside community. I consider myself one of those revitalizer activists who believes there is a happy-medium to be found with the right balance of high standards of livability, high reaching goals and expectations for community, family and education, and high expectations for public conduct and civilization combined with the acceptance and embracment of diversity and culture. An integration of class, race, religion, age and lifestyle that is an integral part of the fabric that makes up NoMi. As another blogger would put it: Urban Utopia. I believe it is possible. I know it is, and I've committed myself to helping to find and achieve it.

The most recent piece of news that got me thinking about the LRT development was this article, click here. For a quick summary, the article mentions a recent bill passed by congress that grants federal dollars to various projects in Congressional District 5, including $250K for the Bottineau Corridor LRT {Bottineau Blvd is the new name of County Road 81 that travels NW/SE from Minneapolis into the suburbs of Robbinsdale, Crystal, Brooklyn Park, Maple Grove and Osseo}.

So as I sip my Sunday morning coffee, listen to my favorite radio program, Acoustic Sunrise, and enjoy my candle-lit house become bathed in the light of day, I read this article with a more hopeful vision of being the first passenger at the NoMi LRT platform located at Penn/WBro in a few years down the road.

Cheers to that.