The twin cities area has miles of hiking and biking paths. The run along the Mississippi, and around the lakes.
The best source for maps and information about the paths and can be found at the Minnesota map store. Prices range from $5.00 to $25.00 and the maps are worth every penny.
It is Friday once more and Friday’s are for fun. The weeks fly by so fast I can’t believe that just a year ago it was last year.
This is a real estate blog but on Friday’s almost anything goes. I have not written a post about my husband so now I will. His name is Jack and he is a great guy, I was going to say saint but then I thought about where he leaves his power tools after he gets done using them.
Jack has a sense of humor and a lot of patience and I push both to the limit. I can make a grown man cry but that is his side of the story and this is my blog so you won’t get to hear it.
I take a lot of pictures. Most of the pictures on this blog, including the lovely rocks, were taken by me for no apparent reason. Other bloggers ask where I find the time. I don’t find the time. I carry a camera in my bag and have a phone with a built in camera. I have a photo blog too. It has random pictures on it taken with my blackberry phone and posted to the internet via phone shortly after they are taken. The good pictures, which are few and far between sometimes end up on this blog.
So what does this have to do with Jack? When we walk the dog I take pictures and post them, or sometimes I have my camera with and use it to take pictures.
He gets irritated with me for stopping and has tried to take pictures of me sending messages, or posting photos with my blackberry while walking the dog. So far he has not been fast enough to get a good shot. I think he wants evidence so that he can prove to the world that I can’t walk the dog without internet access. Not true, can’t be proven.
I have explained it to him that if I don’t take a picture and send it to my blog it never happened. He isn’t buying it. Like the picture above of our neighbor dogs, and a couple of neighbors, and some legs too. Not my finest picture, but I posted it anyway because that is what I do.
Jack will deny this to the bitter end, but he raises his voice when I stop in the middle of the street or on a sidewalk and take a picture. He says I drive him nuts. I think he uses me as an excuse and that he just doesn’t want to seek professional help for being nuts.
What really gets on his nerves is when I shoot pictures out the car window while I am driving. Sometimes I pull over, but other times I block the street or take them while the car is moving. Jack does not approve of this behavior. His reasons make sense when he talks about car accidents, blocking traffic and inciting road rage. Yet I just can’t stop myself.
Maybe one day I will make it all up to him somehow, I could just leave the camera at home. Nah bad idea.
Have a great weekend – take pictures.
There are a number of brownstone buildings in St. Paul. Why don’t we build them like this anymore?
Choosing the right agent to sell your home is important but there are other factors to consider. Price, condition and location
Sellers have the most control over the price and condition. When buyers search for homes they do some comparison shopping. How does your home stack up?
Also see: April Numbers, local real estate market conditions.
For five years straight I attended every meeting of out local district council. The Fort Road Federation, District Council 9. I wrote a story for our very local newspaper, The Community Reporter. The districts councils work as liaison’s between St. Paul residents and local government. For handling problems in your neighborhood your district council office is a good first step. [see district councils]
I still attend these meetings as issues come up or if asked by my neighbors to give support on important issues. I attended Monday nights meeting to support neighbors who live on the blocks just outside our permit parking district.
There are 27 permit parking districts in St. Paul. They are area’s near large businesses, schools, hospitals, or in the case of district 7 near downtown and event parking. They were created so that theoretically area residents who wish to park on the street can park near their home.
Every year we purchase parking permits so that we can park in front of our homes. They cost $10.00 each and we are entitled to 4 regular permits and 2 guest permits. Rules on the number of permits home owners can purchase vary from district to district as do the hours of parking enforcement. Guest permits good for one day are also available for $1.00 apiece, they are dated but I understand the quantity that can be purchased exceeds the number of parking spaces available.
On our street we can park for up to two hours without a permit and from 7:00 PM until 7:00 AM. In the adjacent permit parking area no parking is allowed 24 hours a day without a permit. The two hour parking rule has not worked out very well. Our local enforcement officers simply don’t have the time to chalk tires, and come by two hours later to check. In general people do avoid parking on our block because they are afraid of getting a ticket. They should not be afraid of getting a ticket. When there is an event they simply start parking at 5:00 PM and take up every available inch of street parking.
We have off street parking. I may have scandalized my neighbors by admitting that my car is the only one in our household without a parking permit. I use the guest permit when I feel like finding it.
For the most part I don’t bother to grab the permit and in 15 years I have never gotten a ticket. Sometimes my car is in front of our home all day long. Two hour permit parking really doesn’t work because it is so hard to enforce.
The blocks just outside of our permit parking district are packed full of cars everyday. Some of our neighbors have to walk a block with their groceries and dodge the cars that turn around in the middle of the street as they frantically search for a parking space so they can walk the half mile to the Xcel center.
I think we made a strong case for having a couple more blocks included our permit parking district and for requiring a permit 24 hours a day. The city will do a traffic study and let us know. People were passionate when they spoke about parking. Over the years as a group we have fought for many things. As I looked around the room at the familiar faces it made me smile to think of what we have accomplished in the last 25 years. Neighbors working together can accomplish amazing things.
St. Paul does not have on-line maps of parking districts or the rules and boundaries for each posted on the internet. To get this information call the city at: 651 266-6200. For home buyers each district has a number and each street that requires a permit has plenty of sign-age, you might want to check the parking regulations before buying or moving into a home. When you do buy a home get involved in the neighborhood, you will be happy that you did.
New resident? Are not sure how to get a parking permit?
W hat happens to renters the property they live in is going being foreclosed on?
About 45% of properties going through foreclosure in Minneapolis and St. Paul are rental properties. By law tenants do have six months to leave in a foreclosure situations. Tenants are not always being notified and are ending up with out a place to live.
Rental property owners who are going through foreclosure don’t always pay the utilities or make needed repairs leaving tenants in the dark. Some renters are ending up in homeless shelters. Yes we do have homelessness nation wide and even in Minnesota.
After recently touring some of these properties in St. Paul and Minneapolis I can say that it is not a pretty sight. This problem has been in the news but is just not getting enough attention. Read Minnesota public radios report.