Hmong New Year
thoughtportal reblogged
I was there yesterday! The best part was them letting kids write questions for the pencil, which were then communicated to it through an Ed, Edd n Eddy-ass tin can and string telephone.
One kid asked why the pencil was "in a cage," and the pencil replied, "so that I don't get scared and attack the crowd."
How Things Work: If the coop model can succeed in Minneapolis, that would significantly undermine the power of Uber and Lyft's threats to pull out of other cities in the future. Do you interact directly with those companies at all? Do they view you as a threat? Do they try to actively hold you back, or do they mostly leave you alone? What's your message to regular people about why they should use you, rather than those ubiquitous apps?
Forman: We're somewhere between the "first they ignore you" and "then they laugh at you" phases. People should use us because on average, we're a little cheaper than Uber, and drivers make 10% above the minimum wage. And it's worker-owned. We're building lasting power in this industry in a democratic, worker-controlled organization.
How Things Work: For people who can see the logic of a driver's cooperative, what's the best way to help—in Minneapolis, and also in cities that don't have such a thing yet?
Forman: For people who want to help—please download the app and share it with friends. We just created a new feature where you can see how many drivers and riders have been recruited in your area, and you can easily share the app with a QR code and other tools. Also, we certainly need funds to get this done. If you can, donate a bit to the effort to build a co-op in Minneapolis.
I was involved in the direct action in July 2016 when we took over I-94. They made a bunch of arrests that evening, and I was one of them. The way they took us to jail was on a city bus — the kind of bus I drive now.
So on Wednesday night, I was doing my regular shift. I knew there was this occupation going on at the 3rd Precinct, but other than that it was a normal night. I got a message over our monitor that’s on every bus — which is how transit control communicates with us — and they said, “Hey, we need police buses for 26th and Hiawatha,” which is the intersection of the 3rd Precinct. I remembered my experience of being one of the protesters that was arrested, and so at my next break I wrote that post.
I ignored [transit control’s message] because what they were asking for was if we want to work overtime, essentially. I wasn’t telling my boss no to their face, but thought it might be pretty easy to go back to the garage and talk to my coworkers and fellow union members and see if they didn’t want to drive around a police bus either. And maybe if there were enough of us, and enough of a pushback, then maybe they’d reconsider if this was a proper use of public transit.
MINNEAPOLIS—Calling for a more measured way to express opposition to police brutality, critics slammed demonstrators Thursday for recklessly looting businesses without forming a private equity firm first. “Look, we all have the right to protest, but that doesn’t mean you can just rush in and destroy any business without gathering a group of clandestine investors to purchase it at a severely reduced price and slowly bleed it to death,” said Facebook commenter Amy Mulrain, echoing the sentiments of detractors nationwide who blasted the demonstrators for not hiring a consultant group to take stock of a struggling company’s assets before plundering. “I understand that people are angry, but they shouldn’t just endanger businesses without even a thought to enriching themselves through leveraged buyouts and across-the-board terminations. It’s disgusting to put workers at risk by looting. You do it by chipping away at their health benefits and eventually laying them off. There’s a right way and wrong way to do this.” At press time, critics recommended that protestors hold law enforcement accountable by simply purchasing the Minneapolis police department from taxpayers.
n the last decade, Minneapolis has made some important investments in public transit. The city opened its popular Green Line light rail in 2014 and it now carries 37,000 riders a day. The region has also begin building a network of bus rapid transit service, beginning in St. Paul.
The city is also famously bike friendly and has been steadily adding bike infrastructure. In 2016, bike commuting rates reached an all-time high of 5 percent.
A recent report from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy singled out Minneapolis (and also Seattle) as one of the standouts among 25 biggest American cities examined for non-car commuting. In Minneapolis, about a quarter of residents walk, bike or take transit to work; 73 percent of the population lives near frequent transit. Minneapolis was helped along, ITDP writes, by its strong bike infrastructure:
The population near frequent transit is 9 percent higher, rising from 64 to 71 percent, when bike infrastructure is included in the analysis. The 9 percent increase from bike infrastructure means that 35,700 more people can reach frequent transit stops in 10 minutes or less on physically protected bike lanes.