Some bloggers write all their posts at home in their pajamas, but Roadguy’s very name requires that he get out and about. So on Wednesday afternoon, I headed to one of downtown Minneapolis’ swankier office towers to check out a meeting organized by the Urban Land Institute. Now, if words like “meeting” and “institute” make your eyelids droop, remember that Roadguy always tries his best not to bore you, and these high-powered folks were talking about stuff that affects everyone — roads, transit, housing, even climate change. Plus, any event with dozens of giant snowflakes dangling from the ceiling is pretty much automatically festive and worth knowing about. So let’s dig in.

	Indoor climate change? Doug Foy speaks

MR. MAYOR, MR. MAYOR! Almost as abundant as the snowflakes were mayors, because the event was officially a meeting of regional mayors. (A person might have been tempted to call out “Mayor!” to see how many heads turned, but I resisted.) From Victoria to Shoreview, they had come to hear a presentation by a guy named Doug Foy, a former bigwig in the government of Massachusetts. An environmental activist, he was chosen by a Republican governor to lead the state’s transportation, housing, energy and environmental departments — quite a full plate. As a big fan of Minnesota, Foy said our state is at “an interesting moment” in its history, and he tossed us all sorts of things to chew on as we consider our civic priorities:

• “China is building a Manhattan a year.” Aspiring world powers have realized that they need transit to concentrate their talent and give it ways to get around town. America’s cities need to do the same, even relatively healthy ones like Minneapolis and St. Paul.
• 50 percent of the population does not drive. They’re either too young, too old, too poor, etc. Yet most public resources go toward driving-related infrastructure.
• “There was nowhere in my town for my 23-year-old daughter to live — other than my house.” Housing costs mean that young people often can’t afford to rent or own in communities where they’ve spent their entire lives, so they head outward from the core toward cheaper land, creating transportation challenges as they go.
• Building energy-efficient schools on the outskirts of towns is inherently contradictory: Any fossil fuels that such buildings save are negated by the transportation costs — plus, kids are getting fatter in part because so few of them can walk or bike to school.

POISED TO ACT? Many public officials said it was time for Minnesota to take some big steps. Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens of Eden Prairie talked about how the extremely popular bus system in her community no longer advertises for new customers because it’s out of room and out of buses. Melissa Hortman, a state rep from Brooklyn Park, pointed to the long list of metro areas that have enacted special sales taxes to pay for transit, and she questioned Minnesota’s resistance to the idea. R.T. Rybak accused governments of “wimping out” instead of funding transportation properly. There seemed to be agreement that the public was ready and perhaps way ahead of the game compared to the state — residents might be willing to pay if they knew what they might get.

TAX YOUR SOCKS? Paying for it, of course, was the big question mark. Foy noted that Massachusetts had a 20-year, “fully financeable” (imagine that) transportation plan, while Edina Mayor Jim Hovland said that Minnesota’s recently passed transportation amendment would only fund about one-fourth of what we really need. Curt Johnson, the former Met Council chairman who moderated the discussion, preferred modifying the sales tax to include items like clothing and haircuts, and using that new revenue; Foy wanted to use the new property taxes that result from transit-related developments to pay for the transit.

WILL ANYTHING REALLY CHANGE? The mayors seemed motivated and harmonious, but the Capitol has been a different story. Still, Johnson held out hope to the mayors. “When we meet again next December,” he said, “let’s be on the other side of a big decision.”

OVERALL, the meeting was a mix of the optimistic and the cautionary. The people in the room were intelligent, articulate and fired up, but the evidence that Minnesota is behind the curve on transportation was plentiful and worrisome. At least the conversations are happening.

AND YOU? Would you be willing to pay 20 cents more for a $20 haircut, or 10 cents more for each gallon of gas, if the money brought a rail line closer to where you live? Or led to nicer buses and better bus service? Or removed that freeway bottleneck on your way home? Have you witnessed how our “peer cities,” such as Denver and Portland, are moving far ahead of the Twin Cities on transit? If you’ve got thoughts, share ‘em below — and maybe send a copy to someone in power, too.

When Roadguy visited the Great Pyramids and the Great Wall of China, the easiest way to get to each site was by taxi (after some time aboard planes, of course). He hasn’t been in a cab in the Twin Cities in years, but he still found this commentary on Minneapolis taxis interesting.

A few layers of government in the western suburbs are debating some road improvements that were first proposed as early as 1977. If you can handle such madcap spontaneity, the Strib story is here.

Once again, Roadguy’s brilliance has gone ignored by the White House – I wasn’t even considered for this little opening.