{"id":25390,"date":"2014-04-05T21:49:01","date_gmt":"2014-04-06T03:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=25390"},"modified":"2016-05-07T11:16:13","modified_gmt":"2016-05-07T17:16:13","slug":"20-20-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=25390","title":{"rendered":"20-20-20"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spring \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Bee Hiving Moon<\/p>\n

Continuing the city theme from the post below. \u00a0I live in the exurbs now, just two or three miles or so north of us corn fields begin and our development is a small cul de sac of homes that jut out into a working truck garden. \u00a0The MUSA line, the intended sprawl container of the Met Council, runs a mile south of us. \u00a0Beyond it a city cannot extend sewer connections. \u00a0That’s why we have a septic system and our own well.<\/p>\n

But before I lived in the city. \u00a0First Minneapolis, then St. Paul. \u00a0In fact, over dinner with Kate, I realized I spent roughly 20 years in a small town, 20 years in the city and now have spent 20 years in the exurbs. \u00a0Those 20 years in the city were where I found my milieux. \u00a0The mix it up, bare knuckle politics of neighborhood economic development, labor organizing and straight political work appealed to my middle adult need for agency.\"Irvine<\/a><\/p>\n

The varieties of problems, the mix of people, the different communities, the history \u00a0rushing into the present all exhilarated me. \u00a0In the city years I wanted, needed to make change, get things done, improve life. \u00a0And through fortunate relationships with many active folks I had a chance to participate in some interesting and worthwhile projects.<\/p>\n

In the exurban years I’ve retreated, pulled back into my own work, writing, learning, gardening, sharing life with Kate and the dogs. \u00a0It was time to do that, to pull back. \u00a0That’s even more clear these days.<\/p>\n

Here’s an example. \u00a0A number of young activists, the age of my city years, especially environmentally focused activists lobby for urban density. \u00a0They want to tear down parts of old neighborhoods and build apartment buildings. \u00a0These are the same folks who advocate for bicyclists, mass transit and against urban sprawl. \u00a0They look at the city and say the way to stop sprawl is to keep people in the center city. \u00a0How do you do that? \u00a0Build up.<\/p>\n

In my years in the city we stopped apartment buildings, advocated neighborhood level \"400_late<\/a>decision making and tried to make communities stronger through increasing economic development. \u00a0These are different times and I understand the arguments of those who want denser urban areas. \u00a0Not only do I understand them, but I agree with them. \u00a0But fulfilling those policies often means riding over the protests of folks in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

This is one of those instances where momentum and the needs of the time have shifted thinking. \u00a0I can approve from afar, but I wouldn’t be able to wade into the politics. \u00a0I’d be too conflicted. \u00a0In that situation it’s best I’m removed from the scene. \u00a0Out here tending our garden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spring \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Bee Hiving Moon Continuing the city theme from the post below. \u00a0I live in the exurbs now, just two or three miles or so north of us … Continue reading 20-20-20<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1980,243,246,100,3996],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary-on-the-news","category-memories","category-minnesota","category-politics","category-third-phase-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25390"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38567,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25390\/revisions\/38567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}