Star Tribune
Fridley transforms abandoned gas station into a multimodal hub
What do you do with a small piece of inherited property where an abandoned gas station once stood?
Of course, you turn the land into a parklet and a multimodal transit hub.
Last week, officials in Fridley held a ribbon-cutting for the yet-to-be-named space on the northeast quadrant of the intersection of 61st and University avenues NE., just across the parking lot from the city’s Northstar commuter rail stop.
Over the summer, the city used a $700,000 federal Community Development Block Grant administered through Anoka County to transform the former Citgo station into a gathering place serving anybody traveling by car, train, bus, bike or on foot, said Scott Hickok, Fridley’s Community Development director.
The site features a grassy play area and benches with solar panels allowing those with cellphones and electronics to charge up as they sit. There are bike racks and bike lockers, and a do-it-yourself bike maintenance station. The amenity allows riders to mount their wheels on a pole, which has all the tools needed to pop off a tire and put in a new inner tube or make other minor repairs, Hickok said.
Many multimodal sites like those at busy transit stops and stations in Minneapolis offer options to rent bikes and scooters. That’s not yet offered in Fridley. Lime did ask about bringing its e-bikes and scooters to the north suburb this year. The parklet has space reserved should the company come back in 2025, Hickok said.
Metro Transit buses already stop at 61st and University, and in the future will likely be served by the F-Line, a bus rapid transit (BRT) line currently in planning stages. The parklet is ready to incorporate a BRT station, Hickok said.
“Fridley is working to improve the image as you travel along University Avenue,” Hickok said.
A Blaine woman has admitted that she sexually assaulted two out of town teenage hockey players in a Roseville hotel room last winter.
Allison Schardin, 39, agreed last week in Ramsey County District Court to plead guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with the sexual encounters with the 15-year-old boys from Colorado at the hotel in the 2500 block of N. Cleveland Avenue.
In exchange for her guilty plea, prosecutors said they would dismiss a four-degree criminal sexual conduct count. In the meantime, Schardin remains free on bond ahead of sentencing, which is scheduled for Jan. 10.
According to the charges:
While in a hotel hot tub with the teens on Jan. 14, Schardin told them she was having marital problems. After the boys went to their rooms, Schardin sent a Snapchat message to one of the boys saying she got into an argument with her husband and wanted to stay in one of their rooms.
After she arrived, Schardin started talking about “sex and stuff,” got in bed with two of the boys and asked them how sexually active they were. She then sexually assaulted two of the teens and asked them to perform sexual acts on her. One of their teammates was in the room watching.
Schardin told investigators after her arrest that her husband and two children were at the hotel for a staycation and spoke casually with the boys at the pool.
She admitted having sexual contact with two of the boys and asking them for a condom, but she “claimed she wasn’t going to go through with ‘it.’”
Not only was September the warmest and driest on record in the Twin Cities, last month turned out to be the least cloudy September on record and one of the clearest months of all time.
Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist in Alaska, over the weekend released a graphic ranking the United States from cloudiest to the least cloudiest, and found that in September the sun shined in Minnesota and much of Wisconsin more than any place in the country.
“For Minnesota, not only was it a record for least cloudy September, it was a record for least cloudy month overall,” he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Brettschneider used data from 1950 to the present in his analysis.
The Twin Cities saw 18 days last month with clear skies and another 11 with partly cloudy conditions — meaning more sun than clouds — and just one day with cloudy skies, according to the Minnesota Climatology Office.
On the other end of the scale, Florida, known as the “Sunshine State,” and pockets in the Pacific Northwest saw the most clouds last month, Brettschneider found.
With abundant sunshine, temperatures in Minnesota were warmer than normal in September. In the Twin Cities, the mercury hit or surpassed 80 degrees 19 times during the month, the Minnesota Climatology Office said. That helped push the average monthly temperature to 70.4 degrees, making it the warmest September since 1873 when weather record-keeping began.
An absence of clouds also led to a lack of rain. Just 0.06 inches of rain fell during the month, which made it the driest September on record, the Climatology Office said.
At the time, Luca hadn’t spoken to many people about his queer identity, which he describes as an important but not outsized aspect of his life. Today he thrives in a socially welcoming charter school in Eden Prairie where, when it comes to gender identity and expression, “nobody cares — but in a good way.”
Still, he said, he loves being part of Queerspace, a place where says he can exist without judgment and find a friend like Kate, who is not his parent or teacher, therapist or peer.
“We’re able to have a lot of fun and joke around, but also have deep conversations,” he said. “Having advice from someone who’s lived longer than me is really important. After our hangouts, I’ve thought, ‘Yeah, that’s helpful. I’m going to use that.’”
A Queerspace celebration will be held Oct. 13, starting with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new center at 12:30 p.m. It will be followed by the organization’s annual Spirit Day festivities from 1-4 p.m., at 1936 Lyndale Av. S., Mpls. Music, drag queens and appearances from Mayor Jacob Frey and other elected officials and community leaders are planned. For more information, visit queerspacecollective.org.
