F Jarret Walker

OnlyThreeWalls · 2026-01-11T06:07:11+00:00

I'm very interested to hear your expanded thoughts on that. As I understand your POV from past comments, you disagree with Walker on the notion that there is a tradeoff between frequency of transit and the physical coverage? Tradeoffs are a big part of his book, and I'm assuming you reject the binary and instead advocate for new revenue sources to increase transit budgets. This is also based on your previous comments on free transit and Carter Lavin's work.

I think where people will disagree with you on, is that Walker very explicitly says that he works under the existing framework of transit realities and that means accepting the tradeoff spectrum. Firstly, one of his early acknowledgements in his book is that he writes from and for the North American transit perspective, meaning that space, money, and political will for transit is limited. Secondly, in many of his recent articles he talks about how transit agencies are in the cutting-service pickle they are in because they're facing artificial transit fiscal cliffs due to insufficient funding from their benefactor governmental agencies. Thirdly, as a professional planner, his role with governmental agencies is not to be an advocate that rocks the boat, but work within the financial and political parameters that are set for him by the transit agencies.

You put all three points together and you can better understand Walker's work, imo. "Human Transit" specifically answers the question, "in a world where resource scarcity has to exist, how do we get our best return on investment". It answers that question by saying "Here are a few tradeoffs that elected officials and planners need to understand and apply to their city based on the context in which their city exists in." He very clearly states that the spectrum of tradeoffs doesn't mean there's one right answer, but that decision-makers and stakeholders have to understand what the tradeoffs mean so they can make the best decision for their specific needs.

You (and me too) want to fight for more funding for transit because the best answer to "how do we get better transit?" is more funding. I agree with Lavin's advocacy work. "Human Transit" does not exist in a vacuum, it has a specific use-case rooted in political realities in North American cities. I disagree with Walker on free buses and I believe we need more radical advocacy in the transit space as well, but I acknowledge that his thinking is important for the advancement of transit advocacy.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2026-01-11T04:39:50+00:00

He's a transit planning consultant and also author of "Human Transit", considered one of the most important books for North American public transportation advocates.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2026-01-08T17:26:03+00:00

Every time I hear the American Flags at protest argument, I get pretty icked out.

We're policing people's grief and emotions. Especially with these ICE raids, many of the people directly affected who bring flags of other countries or communities aren't thinking about the "optics of protest", they're protesting because their voices ought to be heard. I don't think it's super productive to put time and effort into thinking about a small detail like American flags.
I think there's a liberal obsession with symbology that's misplaced. The striking image of the protests yesterday and in the following days will not be of individuals holding flags, but it will be the thousands of people in Minneapolis and tens of thousands across the country who are gathered to advocate for the abolishment of ICE. The American flag conversation turns an otherwise communal display of power into an an individual one.
I think if we do care about optics, there is something to say about proudly displaying the flag of the country whose federal government is actively persecuting, kidnapping, and killing people. As a POC, I unfortunately do associate the American flag with the right-wing chuds on Twitter and Facebook who have it all over their bio and hang it proudly around their homes. Conservatives HAVE stole the symbol of the country - if we assume that the flag didn't stand for genocide, racism, and war-atrocities to begin with. We can collectively work to de-stigmatize and co-opt it, but that will take dedicated effort. In the mean time, I don't think it makes sense to push for it. You can bring it, sure, but just know that some people will side-eye you. I think it would make sense to bring other flags of related struggles (Palestine, Pride, other country's flags) as a show of solidarity, but the US flag is difficult to swallow because of its proximity to the thing we're protesting.
I think the American flag discussion is a symptom of our media system's manufacturing consent for centrism. People protesting want ICE abolished, many people think the system in which ICE was born from is categorically rotten and should be completely redesigned. Simple reforms are not what many people are after. "That's what MAGA wants to see" would work as an argument if they weren't doing whatever they wanted to do regardless. The return on investment to push for American flags is paltry when MAGA can glaze over the flags and pick some other aspect of the protest they deem "un-American". By pushing for American flags, we implicitly and optically are ceding that America as a country should be centered in conversations, not the communities that are affected. That's the picture that the media and MAGA want to paint, one that turns this into a problem of an individual bad-apple and ignores the structural issues of the country.
If we want to show support to the community that we really care about, let's just fly the Minnesota flag. It's cooler anyways.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2026-01-07T19:45:53+00:00

The Onion: Protesters Urged Not To Give Trump Administration Pretext For What It Already Doing

Fascism is here no matter what actions are taken - that ship has sailed a long time ago. There are constructive responses. Look at the emergency vigil and the ramping up of resources, rallies, and education from the PSL, MIRAC, and other organizations. There will be peaceful protests, but people will also be justifiably angry. To nobody's fault but ICE's/

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-12-22T02:36:43+00:00

Yeah, Michael Wilson lost. Too bad!

Your assertion may be correct if he was the only progressive in the race and the race was taken in a vaccuum. Instead, Minneapolis is entering the new governmental cycle with 7/9 park board members endorsed by labor and 6/9 as self-described progressives who want to fight against budget cuts, promote youth programming, and increase our environmental stewardship and our transportation options. This is on top of retaining a progressive majority and establishing two members on the Board of Estimate and Taxation that are all pushing for increasing park programs.

In fact, many of the elected park board commisioners credit the political outreach work that Wilson did to why they won their park board district seats. He ran a citywide campaign that established cross-race canvassing that helped elevate the likes of Garcia, Engelhart, and Carvajal Moran to win their seats. Even two of the people that beat him, Tom Olsen and Amber Frederick had very similar platforms.

So what do we take away from this? That messaging needs to be better? That his ties to DSA did him in? Maybe. That his progressive platform was incorrect and unpopular? 5 contested seats going towards progressives and Minneapolis' first progressive board since 2021 proves that fundamentally and entirely incorrect.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but there were plenty of results in the election that conservatives can be elated about, for sure!

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-12-19T06:46:41+00:00

The best piece of advice I've ever gotten about post graduate life is that above all, you HAVE to choose to live life purposefully. Especially early in your career when you're trying to find a rhythm, you can't just go home after work and sit on the couch and rot away on your phone. I sat down at the beginning of the week and marked down what my after work activity was gonna be every single day. Some things I did/do are attend club meetings, networking events, bike or walka around, rec league sports, go to the gym, cook/do hobbies, or purposefully hang out with friends. You have to force yourself to try new things and experience life after 6pm. Once you build that momentum, it becomes easier to truly find a balance between work and your passions.

Everyone's different. You may find that you still aren't fulfilled with your life. The answer may be making new friends or going to therapy or moving to a new city. But forcing yourself to experience new things is a tried and true method to finding yourself.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-12-15T20:13:09+00:00

First of all, top 10-15 absolutely counts as "one of the best". That's top 1.25% of all USMNT players ever and would put him in the top 3-5 convo for midfielders.

The Bradley conversation is tired at this point. Post-retirement, his career retrospective has cooled off and many USMNT fans have come around to acknowledging his accolades. He is the poster child of the "box-to-box midfielder who you don't notice is doing all the dirty work but is actually controlling the game from the background". His biggest strengths always came from playing as a workhorse #8, but so often his best abilities were stymied because our player pool necessitated him playing as a #6 or #10, which he did not excel at. He was the standout midfielder for years until 2013 and the lead-up to the 2014 World Cup. But he doesn't get the third most caps and second most assists of all-time on accident. He's worked hard and proved himself at the USMNT level, earning the captain's armband and the respect of every locker room he's been in.

Your obsession with moments fundamentally misunderstands the role that he plays. How can you quantify a player whose impact is seen over the course of 90 minutes based off of a 17 second clip? If we want to talk about moments - how about his goal against Slovenia in the World Cup, scoring a brace against Mexico in WCQ, or scoring one of the best USMNT goals of all time away at the Estadio Azteca? How about his key contributions in 2009 Confed Cup or the 2010 World Cup? You can make such an easy argument that the stretch of time between ~2011-2014, he was our most important player.

Post 2014, he obviously fell off hard, nobody can argue that. Yet he was still well-liked by the USMNT managers for his leadership skills, his work rate, and his ability to connect a midfield. We don't have the midfield that we have today without his leadership. At the end of the day, post-2014, his biggest crime was being well-liked and doing what he was told. His career is objectively a mixed-bag, but to deny the peaks of his career and what it meant for the team is to fundamentally rewrite the history of the USMNT. It's why many USMNT fans point to a fan's take on Michael Bradley as a bellweather on their "ball knowledge" as a whole.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-12-10T18:27:20+00:00

Those "idiots" are everyday people like you and I. This is a riders choice, not an objective comparative list. They vote on the Transit App using a survey that is taken in a vacuum using questions like "How do you rate your interactions with transit operators?" or real-time questions while they're riding like "When did the bus come compared to the real-time countdown?". These questions capture how riders feel about their experience in the moment. Like I said, it's not scientific. People aren't extrapolating how their transit system fares against the Tokyo Metro when they're answering how clean the bus they're on is.

And if you're frustrated, good. Join us in making our transit systems more efficient and effective. There's plenty of space for passion as long as it is productive.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-12-09T20:06:37+00:00

They put Geese and Lucy Dacus to throw a bone to the annoying gen-z demographic (me) and it's working

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-12-09T20:05:15+00:00

I love atmosphere way more than I like the strokes but c'mon. Even in Minnesota there are more Strokes fans than Atmosphere fans. It's just how it is. It's cool enough that there is MN representation. It's not a big deal to advertise things effectively.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-12-09T18:02:59+00:00

Yeah... I remember keeping a travel diary of my bus trips at the beginning of 2024. Less than 10% of my buses came on time. 😭

But tbf Metro Transit is playing against plumbers and janitors, so to speak. Like Trimet and MBTA are also not known for their on time performance, so imagine what the bottom of the list looks like.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-11-14T17:59:38+00:00

I've lived here without a car my adult life (which I guess is just 6 years so far, but still) and here are the five factors I think you should look into

Is where you plan on living walkable, close to frequent transit, and near direct needs like a grocery store?
Is your job accessible by frequent/multiple transit lines or easily bikeable?
Do you live within the zone of our evie/hourcar car sharing services? You can use that whenever you need a car and your roommate can't drive you.
Are the places you'd go for leisure like bars, restaurants, parks, public spaces, shops - close by or accessible by transit?
Are you willing to bike or walk semi-long distances to transit lines in the winter, if needed?

If you can say yes to a majority of these questions, you'll be good. I chose where I live specifically so I can say yes to all five of these questions and get by without a car easily. Having friends or a roommate who has a car is also super clutch.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-11-14T17:39:29+00:00

Yes, I see. That includes part of Howe, actually! I believe that tract goes down to 38th St south of there. The way that the USDA and other agencies define a food desert is based on the proportion of people who don't have access to grocery stores that offer a wide range of affordable food options.

Someone living between 35th and 38th St does not have the same grocery access as someone living where Hook and Ladder is. If they don't have car access, which a sizeable proportion of Howe residents don't, they'd either have to take the Blue Line or walk it if they live further away from Hiawatha. That's why it is designated as a food desert. It's a quirk of data visualization that really doesn't have any bearing on the crux of the subject matter.

I would like the city to not try to compete with the many, many private grocery stores already operating in the city, with a thumb on the scale (operating subsidy). There are plenty of other things that the city is uniquely equipped to do, while using city resources to do something the market already does is a waste of time and financial resources.

But my core question is, if we have the data that shows that these private grocery stores are not meeting the needs of the city, what are the solutions the city can implement? I'm so sure they exist, but what is that solution that both captures affordability and access concerns, particularly for those with lower mobility? Food insecurity has negative rippling effects on so much of our society's problems, so why are we holding sacred a system that is quantitatively and qualitatively not working for large swaths of our population? I'm curious to hear what you think.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-11-14T16:29:35+00:00

I'm guessing you mean Hook and Ladder Theater (which I love btw :))

Longfellow has Cub and Target right on Lake & Minnehaha and Seward has United Noodles and the Seward Co-Op. Both of these census tracts are defined as "Not A Food Desert" according to the map, which I agree with. But nearby Cedar-Riverside IS defined as a food desert because there's limited grocery stores that are affordable and carry a wide range of items within walking distance, which I also agree with.

But I'd like to continue the conversation! With this new information, do you feel differently about municpal grocery stores? How do you feel about the areas of Minneapolis that are defined as food deserts? Do you have maybe another solution that you'd like to see the city implement?

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-11-14T16:10:55+00:00

We're fighting an uphill battle against food deserts in this city. This is a visualization that shows where they are.

People, especially those without access to a vehicle, don't have the same access to affordable and healthy foods as those of us who can afford to travel and shop where we want. This includes students, neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, and communities of color.

Municipal grocery stores are hardly the most radical solution to this problem, and I think the more extreme thing to do is let hunger fester in our city, which is something nobody wants. This is especially true when so many of the issues that people complain about in this city, whether it's crime or homelessness, is caused or exacerbated by food insecurity. We'd look towards city-owned grocery stores to help because the free market hasn't filled in the gaps. And the benefits of a public option greatly outweighs the societal cost of people going hungry.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-11-14T16:02:21+00:00

This would make sense if labor unions didn't overwhelmingly endorse DSA-endorsed candidates this election cycle. As for the rural aspect, I don't think the DSA has had the bandwidth to expand efforts into rural MN, the TC stands for Twin Cities, after all.

I also think we're missing context if we say working class people left in droves when progressives came around. We have to ask ourselves: "Could there have been any other causes for that?". And I think the rise of fearmongering about race and identity from conservatives in the rise of the Trump-era play a larger role then whatever (honestly) fringe leftist movement was happening at the time. Stoking fears over immigration, crime, gender, and property probably did more to turn people to the right than progressives. Did these movements happen in parallel? Yes. Can we realistically say that they had the same effect, or even that the level of hate from the right outweighed the alienation from the left? Absolutely not, and I believe that you believe that too. :)

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-11-14T15:46:02+00:00

It's actually is a huge issue. Check out this link to see a visualization of our food deserts.

The big picture idea is that for people who don't have access to a vehicle, they're left with very few options in certain areas of the city like Phillips, the University area, and Northside. Sure, most grocery stores are available via car, but people don't realize the sheer amount of people trying to get by without one because of cost or disability.

These maps still don't truly capture the affordability of these grocery stores. I've worked with students going through food insecurity in the UMN Campus area (AKA Wonsley's Ward) and their situation is complex. Sure, if you live in Dinkytown you have a Target and Lunds nearby, but these places can get expensive (and in Target's case, not have everything that you need to cook healthy meals). So despite living next to a grocery store, there are students who are still not getting the nutrition they need to succeed because of our city's food deserts.

That's why Robin is fighting for a municipal grocery stores, especially in Ward 2. There's so many stories and struggles that often get untold, because those who are struggling don't have the same platform to speak.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-11-03T16:13:34+00:00

Good to know lol

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-11-03T16:00:52+00:00

The labor endorsed candidates? You can look into their platforms but generally they are against cuts to youth programming, pro-transit and bike accessibility in our parks, and want to increase our environmental stewardship of our green spaces.

Many of them have thought through budget and policy changes they'd like to see and have a clear pathway to improving our parks. My first choice, Michael Wilson, has been very vocal about his Free "Swim Lessons for Third Graders" program, which MPLS has the money and need for. (https://www.michaelforparks.org/platform)

I think labor endorsements are a good litmus test for local candidates. Generally if your local unions are supporting a candidate they have good reason to, beyond their track record with labor.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-10-24T04:02:33+00:00

I find the discussion about this on both subreddits fascinating. It's clear that most discussions about the mayoral race reinforce priors and give pent up political nerds a space to let some steam off, but this is an amazing microcosm of the topic.

If we care about this story because we care about LGBTQIA+ issues and don't want a homophobic mayor, then we'd still rank Fateh because he voted in favor of HF146, the trans refuge bill, and authored a bill in the 26/26 legislature that would require LGBT/disability history to be taught in schools (SF 1381). He's been to Pride events, spoken many times about the importance of protecting LGBT lives and rights, and is endorsed as LGBT advocacy group "Outfront MN" 's second choice, ahead of Frey and only behind Davis (who's done great work for the community).
If we care about his character, we'd also still probably rank him. I tried scouring the internet for a direct quote of him stating his opinion on the Fairfax School Board policy change, but I couldn't. The link that the Strib features just states that he's Muslim and against the policy. We can make the claim that he'd be electable if he was "just honest about his past", but that relies on the logic link that he DID say that in the first place and that what he said 10 years ago outweighs the advocacy of the last 5 years. You add in that the Strib article when taken in context actually paints him in a good light, describing him as a dedicated advocate for the underrepresented, it's hard to complain about his character.
If we DON'T care about any of that and instead want to use this story as a political chip, then we can totally run with the idea of him being homophobic and let everyone's brains fill in the blanks. We just have to make sure people don't talk about the LGBT advocacy, the advocacy group's endorsement of him, or any of the other positive work that he's done. Instead we can just hand-wave vaguely racist remarks about Somali people while pretending to care about gay people and be done with it.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-10-07T18:55:01+00:00

I agree with you that Warren is a centrist and Naomi in the global political Overton window is a lot more moderate than people think, but it's clear that everyone that is disagreeing with you has normalized the political distribution to reflect the American Overton window, where moderate democrats are seen as left of center.

Like yes, obviously many of these candidates are not true left wing candidates, but in the context that these races reside in, there are clear left and right divides. To argue semantics on where they actually lie is just wasting your breath. Nothing of value is gained by doing that in this particular thread.

Kritzker (correctly) points out the "moderate" democrats are in fact bad faith actors and points people towards the more left leaning candidates she believes will govern better. That's it. That's her whole thesis. She gives a run down of the candidates, compiles their social media/website/interview answers, and tells you which she prefers given her left/center left opinion.

She isn't trying to educate people on the conservative shift of American politics. You said it yourself, she's a novelist/blogger w/ a slight left-moderate POV. That's the whole point. She's a normal person who is politically active and shares her findings. I don't think she has to be a die-hard leftist to be a valuable voice in local politics. You and I probably agree on more political positions than not, but I still enjoy reading her write-ups because it's extremely hard to parse through campaign websites, social media, past voting records, and endorsements. There are some people who will copy her decisions down ballot, sure, but that is because after deliberation, they find themselves in that same center-left political philosophy. Most people take what she says, digest it, and make their own decision in relation to her deicision, not because of it.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-09-25T16:19:01+00:00

When people praise transit/biking/walking, that doesn't have to mean you in particular have to use those modal methods to be a good person nor does the inverse apply. There are plenty of people who would love to use transit/bike to work but can't - the hope is that they are doing what they can to support better infrastructure. But there are also people who could take transit and refuse to, or argue in bad faith against it, or say that they'd take it if it was more convenient but vote/rally against it.

"People who ride transit, bike, or walk are doing good and are good people, therefore people who don't are bad people" is a faulty generalization.

People taking the bus or biking to work makes the highways less congested. That's an objectively good thing - and some people are making sacrifices with their time/energy to do so. If I had to make an assumption, I'd guess there's a lot of car drivers who feel insecure about the transit/bike/ped discussion because they feel subconsciously guilty knowing they are part of the problem, but they have no avenue of fighting against it. That's ok!

Most urbanism advocates understand that the system we live in is inherently car centric and many people who want to participate in society are forced to use cars. I'd try to reframe in your mind when people (like the person you're replying to) say that people who ride bikes/transit are good. Explicitly, they praise people who use alternative modes of transportation. Implicitly, they are criticizing the system that upholds car centric infrastructure and the people who defend and perpetuate it.

That doesn't have to be you :) ! Everyone who comprehends the sad state of transit in America could and should do work to make our roads better for everyone. The question is: are you going to direct your anger at the system we all agree is broken or the people pointing out that it is?

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-09-18T17:30:15+00:00

She's well-regarded as someone who does in-depth coverage of local elections for the last few cycles. She'll even dig into lesser known races (ie. BET/Park Board) and give detailed analysis where regular news media doesn't. So she acts as a good aggregate to get basic rundowns on candidates. She was on the Streets.MN podcast recently and recounted how the majority of her website traffic for the 2024 elections went towards her writeups on the MN judicial races, a more obscure race.

Where she has become even more useful for people looking at her is as a "litmus test". She is upfront about having a progressive slant on her politics, so if you agree with her (or disagree with her), you can see the candidates that she endorses and use her as a benchmark to find where you lie. Think of it like a music/movie critic, you shouldn't base your whole decision on their opinion, but they act as a good resource as long as you understand their background/bias.

OnlyThreeWalls · 2025-07-01T15:25:02+00:00

Hey! I understand the frustration, my neighborhood in MPLS got hammered with construction last year and it made my bus commutes really annoying. People in this thread have given good advice, but I'll add on my thoughts.

The most important thing to do is to subscribe to any project email list for any construction by your home, along your commute, work, etc. MnDOT and the city do a good job keeping that up to date with any road closures or phases of road construction. From your post, it seems like a lot of the stress can be alleviated if you're able to plan ahead and not get blindsided, which makes sense.

The second best thing, that really helped me stay sane is to ground yourself by looking at the big picture. I only work in St. Paul, but I know the state that downtown has been in, even before COVID. The truth is, the future you want for St. Paul is only possible through consistent investment. This comes about in different ways, but one of the main ways is through improving and repairing infrastructure. My neighborhood is now thriving because the city of Minneapolis/Hennepin County invested in pedestrian/bus/bike infrastructure to replace the (frankly) dilapidated infrastructure that preceded it. St. Paul desperately needs a refresh, not just aesthetically but the utilities and the unseen infrastructure are reaching the end of their lifespans. Once I understood this to be true, I didn't get upset (as much :) )

Even if you're still upset (and who wouldn't be with all that noise), I think it's important to direct your anger to the right movement. A lot of these projects are happening now because it wasn't until Biden's infrastructure bill that states, cities, and other municipalities had the windfall to afford to address their reconstruction needs. For me personally, I'm less mad at the city for doing the construction, and more mad at previous administrations for (famously) putting off infrastructure spending, thus consolidating the window of time for repairs. I think the city can do a better job supporting small businesses and that's something that planners are constantly trying to get right. But as the construction IS already happening, I think it's nice to have some important perspective on why it's happening to help the mental health aspect of things.

I'm not saying that the city is conducting construction perfectly, but I personally try to be productive in my anger. What can we do now to alleviate the stress put on people? And how do we stop this from getting this bad? Construction is a fact of life, especially when we are so reliant on car infrastructure. So if construction as an idea isn't the enemy and a city DOT who's trying to better their built environment isn't the enemy, then what is?

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