Colby Brown @colby@transportation.social

Welp. Shorts feed still full of trash so maybe it had nothing to do with my stay in downtown Minneapolis. The YouTube algorithm has been acting very weird lately for sure and/or Cops 2024 might just be its default setting. Is there a Fediverse clone of TikTok?

Before someone whatabouts the skyways let me remind you that they close at 8pm and are lined with empty storefronts. Many restaurants are only open from 11am to 2pm. The sushi bar I ate in last night had started closing its doors at 7pm. This is not a substitute for streetfront retail.

I can't imagine what it's like to try to live in this neighborhood. We talk about revitalizing downtowns by converting the tall buildings to housing but there has to be some drastic changes to almost everything else around them before enough people will want to reside here for that to be a viable solution. Honestly the best case scenario I can think of might be to convert large portions of downtowns like these to hydroponic vertical farms (for food not weed).

I also have to say, after exploring a bit last night, that this is one of the least walkable places I've ever stayed in and I don't know how I never noticed that before when I lived in the Twin Cities 15 years ago. It seems to have been emptied out by the pandemic in a particularly dystopian and sad way. The poor streetscaping was always there, but now it's laid bare because so few downtown workers are moving about.

I just need to tell someone that the contrast between my YouTube Shorts feed when staying in Downtown Minneapolis and when back at home is wild. Lots of videos of armed confrontations between people, racially charged conversations, viral videos of police acting stupid etc.. You can't convince me that this doesn't have something to do with Google using my location to adjust its algorithm.

if I didn't know better, I'd say the app-based ride service industry was ripe for disruption by taxis

I'll also be wandering around the conference on Monday and staying in the Twin Cities for Tuesday afternoon, so to any friends and colleagues in the area, let me know if you're interested in getting together to catch up!

I'm honored to be speaking at the #APA National Planning Conference in Minneapolis on Tuesday morning about "Socioeconomic Forecasting in the Post-Pandemic Era". Thanks to my friends Todd Graham and Dennis Farmer at the Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities for organizing the session and inviting me to be part of their panel.

#NPC #NationalPlanningConference

https://npc24.eventscribe.net/agenda.asp?startdate=4/16/2024&enddate=4/16/2024&BCFO=&pfp=Browse%20by%20Day&mode=&fa=&fb=&fc=&fd=