So, tomorrow they are meeting to discuss the Allen Street redevelopment:

Along with Elmwood, I think this is one of the areas that has the greatest potential for ROI, and I'm going to try and attend. My thoughts on it below (which involve Wadsworth as well, which is unfortunately not a part of this project and gives me cause for concern). Much of it is geared towards increasing friendliness towards non-vehicular transportation, which I think should be encouraged for a drinking hot-spot.

- Extend bike path from Symphony Circle to Medical campus. This should be obvious, but after the debacle of Main Street, and the existing comments that mention a bike/pedestrian path between Washington and Oak but nothing of Allen, I'm worried the ball will be dropped again.

- Convert the street to one of the following: 1-way single lane (heading east, starting at Symphony Circle), 2-way with parking removed, or pedestrian zone. Seems safe to assume that only the first would be seriously considered.

The first two greatly improve the flow of traffic. Converting to 1-way would help with how difficult it is to use the parking lots adjacent to this street, allowing them to change to diagonal layout with cars reversing out instead of making the 20-point turn to exit going forward.

In the case of a pedestrian zone, Wadsworth could be connected to Days Park.

- Any additional space from the above conversion should be used to expand the sidewalk which is difficult to traverse during busy hours. Brick Bar, Nietzsche, Bend, and Hardware don't help with their patio's, but I doubt anything will be done about this.

- Convert College Street to 1-way going North, Mariner to 1-way going South, Park to 1-way North, and Peart St to 1-way South. The bottleneck created by (presumably) the selfishness of locals to avoid through-traffic creates a nightmare on Allen, and a dangerous environment for non-vehicle traffic.

- Increase bike rack access, hopefully incorporating an artistic theme for the area.

- Depending on some of the above decisions, implementing cobblestone may be beneficial, with elimination of curbs to improve bike/pedestrian travel.

- Extension of curbs at intersections of Delaware and Elmwood, though the latter may be less feasible due to the alignment. I find myself wondering if the Delaware intersection could be converted to a Roundabout considering its size (I can't recall where it becomes a 1-lane street).

- With Food Trucks clearly taking a permanent place in our city, it would be nice if there was a spot set up tailored to this business that would also generate revenue through a reservation system, although the amount of use it would see may not be worth it considering the limited real estate.

- Encouraging, perhaps commissioning, additional street art murals on non-historic buildings

http://www.salon.com/2013/04/26/swedish_high_school_institutes_gender_neutral_changing_room/

The solution is not to provide a separate space of equal rights, but to eradicate the barrier that is at best inconsequential, but often harmful, and certainly an impediment to progress.

Change the language to change the mental models and behavior.

Remove the barriers to empower all with one stroke.

Safe to say that I have beaten the game. In fairness, I took unfair advantage of the AI's unwillingness to give up and buy the final Province/Colony.



If anyone wants to guess at my game progression though, here are the end decks for each of us (trashing, sadly, is not accounted for).

It's been just over 5 years since Machiko and I ended things. Today was her birthday, and popping on FB to send her a small note turned into a far more emotional event than such a simple gesture should beget.

Each new encounter makes me feel increasingly unable to connect. Five years, a quarter of my adult life, of being alone. Amanda was someone I loved, but as much as I resisted it I still held back because inside I knew that her little Quinn was a piece that I couldn't appreciate as much as she deserved. The growing together, exploring and challenging...I associate these with being human, and this deprivation is taking its toll.

I believe I did the right thing with Machiko. I loved her with all my heart, and still do, but I knew she would always believe that we could have a child, and I could not deny something that I knew she could achieve and thrive at. The justification for this helped me through the wretched emotions I dealt with afterwards.

But less and less do I find myself truly relating to what is happening. A disconnection with reality is something of a fear of mine, and for it to take hold of such a part of my life only amplifies its power over me.

Michaelene recently became both engaged and available to expand our friendship, which was a pretty wonderful potential to realize. Yet with all of this the barriers remain, and my understanding diminishes.

I've always been a relatively independent person, but this is not an intentional extension of that trait. There is something about waking up next to someone and saying 'what should we do today' that dramatically changes my attitude over time, in a way I very much relish. The path out of this is wholly obfuscated.

The one change I've thought of is that I need a roommate on my next move, perhaps even trying to break my lease and expedite this shift. Little things like just hanging out in the afternoon during some generally monotonous activity have a noticeable effect on my state of mind. It seems obvious that there is more that can be done but I find myself at a place of ignorance and apathy; a thoroughly suffocating combination.

I need some help, to the point that I'm not even sure what kind of help to seek. Or perhaps I just need to rant to help diminish this paralysis. I've been able to ignore this much better as of late, but I think this medium might be a good way to get this out and hopefully limit the internal distractions.

Have a good night peeps. I'm glad I stumbled into this place in the world.

Having come across an article regarding a 6-year old identified as transgender, I found myself being very critical of the parents in this situation.

There is certainly an amount of admiration towards their openness. However, I find it ridiculous that someone so young is being identified as such. That isn't to say that the person isn't transgender; it just seems (very) premature. I would apply the same reasoning to a child identified as gay, straight, and anything else dealing with sexuality. In fact, the issue (and growing trend) of childrens toys relating to gender demonstrates this pretty well IMO:



In the same way that we say a child's sex is independent of the toys they play with, the activities and artifacts that the child uses should not be used to determine their sex.

I love that she is able to freely engage in these practices, but there is no need to neatly wrap it up in some package.

Of course, when it comes to bathroom use, that's where this breaks down, and it is of course why the 'controvery' and article came to be. It's something I'll be mulling over, along with the question of when such an identify becomes sensible and healthy (puberty being the most tempting answer, even though mental awareness is the far more important yet immeasureable factor).

This was a really powerful video for me...



I've been throw into chokes and armbars while training in MMA, been jumped by kids who did not know any better, and yet it is the words I had to deal with during my time at a poverty-striken high school that caused me the most pain.

The creators made such beautiful use of different mediums and storytelling techniques, all while capturing a message that is often ripe for target by those who commit these acts. This seems different to me.

Link

I don't have much to add...just a great compilation of art out in the streets