Star Tribune
Camera monitors are coming to hundreds of Metro Transit buses
Eva Hyvarinen was recently on a Metro Transit Route 11 bus when she noticed movement near the front. She looked up and did a double-take.
She saw a TV monitor mounted behind the driver displaying images from outside the bus, then inside and finally an image of her.
“At first, I thought, what in the world is that,” said the Minneapolis resident who has been riding public transportation since 1982. “Oh, that is this bus. I found it disconcerting. It made me sick. I didn’t see any explanation for it.”
Metro Transit is installing monitors that show what is being captured by onboard cameras on hundreds of its buses this year as the agency takes more steps to improve safety on the state’s largest public transportation system.
Like cameras at self-checkout stations in retail outlets, the purpose “is to remind people when on transit there are expectations that you behave in a certain way. It’s a reminder there is a watchful eye and their behavior is being recorded,” said spokesman Drew Kerr.
As part of a concerted effort to beat back crime, Metro Transit over the past year has put into place steps outlined in its Safety and Security Action Plan to address issues such as homelessness, smoking, drug use and violent crime. The agency has stationed unarmed security guards at troubled light-rail platforms and transit stations, put Transit Rider Investment Program (TRIP) agents on trains to crack down on fare evasion and revised its Code of Conduct to give riders clear explanations of what is expected of them on trains and buses.
The monitors are part of the action plan.
Frontline staff like drivers like Howard Hudson suggested Metro Transit install the screens as another way to deter bad behavior.
“I like them,” he said. “I’m excited about being part of change. They record what is going on.”
The agency is spending about $3,000 per bus to install the system, which takes footage from six to eight cameras and displays what was recorded on the screen near the front of the bus. The images, which change every few seconds, are beamed back to headquarters where transit staff can watch and dispatch help if necessary.
“There are no dead spots,” said Metro Transit Chief Operating Officer Brian Funk.
Hyvarinen, who suffers from motion sickness, says the rotating images are nauseating and invasive. While she is aware security cameras are on the bus, she doesn’t see the point of broadcasting what they pick up.
“I don’t want to see anybody in the back of the bus, and I don’t want to see things I don’t want to see,” Hyvarinen said. “What do I do if I see something that looks dangerous? If people are going to fight, a camera won’t stop them from having a fight. It does not make me feel safer.”
Star Tribune
Minnesota electric utilities hope to keep Inflation Reduction Act benefits after Trump and Republican Congress take over
An October analysis by the Washington Post found that GOP U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach’s district has $423 million in investments related to the IRA, the most in Minnesota.
It will be up to the power industry to demonstrate the jobs and other benefits of the IRA and renewable development in general to voters, said Beth Soholt, executive director of Clean Grid Alliance, a St. Paul-based nonprofit representing wind, solar, battery and transmission developers.
“If you look at the election results and the analysis, a lot of it is like ‘people didn’t really see what the Biden administration was doing for their pocketbook and they didn’t see it in their day to day lives,’” Soholt said. “So how can you have more visibility that new taxes are coming into their community coffers and they’re getting spent on things that matter in their lives.”
Outside of the IRA, there could be room for common ground between Trump and Minnesota’s electric sector.
“Good to see you, Amy.”
That’s something I might expect to hear when my Lyft driver picks me up, I check into my hotel or I show up for a restaurant reservation. From a driverless car? Not so much.
But that’s exactly how I was greeted each time my husband, teenage son and I took a self-driving Waymo taxi through the hilly streets of San Francisco in August. Considering it was a highlight of our eight-day trip for my 13-year-old (who would rather have been back home playing Fortnite with his friends in our basement), we used it frequently to get around.
During our first few rides, I was uneasy about the autonomous vehicles (all-electric Jaguar I-PACEs), to which my kid exasperatedly declared, “Get with the times, Mom. Get with the times.” Fair enough. The more we used them, the more natural it became. I even developed a fondness for the ride-hailing service. It was a relief not to feel judged for short rides (again, those hills!), but I did miss insider travel tips from actual human drivers.
Of course, San Francisco is far more than the autonomous vehicles owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet. We decided on the City by the Bay because of cheap Sun Country round-trip tickets (under $600 for the three of us) and a good deal at the classy Argonaut Hotel on the outskirts of touristy Fisherman’s Wharf.
The hotel was the perfect base to walk from for watching sea lions jockey for position on the floats at Pier 39, playing vintage arcade games at the Musée Mécanique (big thumbs up from the teen), trying In-N-Out Burger (parents disappointed, teen another big thumbs up) and marveling at the picturesque views from the towering SkyStar Wheel. While the wharf was fun, we spent most of our time exploring other neighborhoods. Here are four stand-out experiences worthy of a place in your San Francisco itinerary.
A nighttime tour of Alcatraz Island elevates its eerie vibe. (Amy Carlson Gustafson/For the Minnesota Star Tribune)
“The first thing you want to learn when you hit Alcatraz is keep your mouth shut and walk with your back to the wall,” declares the narrator on the captivating Alcatraz cellhouse self-guided-audio tour. Told from the point of view of guards and prisoners, the chilling story guides you through the infamous federal penitentiary located on an island just off the coast of San Francisco.
Active from 1934 to 1963, Alcatraz was home to big-time criminals including Al Capone, George “Machine-Gun” Kelly and Robert Stroud (aka the “Birdman of Alcatraz”). With the nighttime tour, the darkness elevates Alcatraz’s eerie vibe as visitors explore the island, the prison’s dilapidated cells, long haunting hallways, and grim dining hall. And if the weather cooperates, you’ll be treated to a stunning sunset.
The giants weren’t really all gone, however.
While ornithologists argued about whether they existed, a flock was growing in Rochester.
In the 1920s, Dr. Charles Mayo purchased 15 Canada geese in North Dakota. He brought them to Mayowood, his more than 3,000-acre family estate in Rochester. At least some — maybe all — were giants. The flock attracted wild birds and began to grow exponentially.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt rode in a car with Dr. Charles H. Mayo, center, and Dr. William J. Mayo in 1934.
The birds got more help in the 1930s, when the city damned the Zumbro River and created the 20-acre Silver Lake. For decades, a power plant discharged warm water into the lake, keeping it from freezing over in the winter. Canada geese started coming by the thousands to make their home in Rochester.
Because Canada geese pick out mates based on size (called assortative mating) and then stick together for life, the giants among them maintained their subspecies. They became the dominant type of branta canadensis in Rochester.
Hanson, a bird expert who worked for the Illinois Natural History Survey, often came through Rochester during fall fishing trips. He was “perplexed” by their seemingly large size, he wrote, but could never be sure just how much bigger they were. Maybe he was misremembering what the Canada geese looked like in Illinois, he wrote.
