The theme for this month for DailyPhotoBlogs is public transportation. I am not sure if this actually qualifies as I don't think that technically Nice Ride is a completely public entity. I have discovered that Nice Ride is non-profit so I am going to go with it, a bicycle based public transportation system.
The bicycles are short term rentals certainly reminiscent of Velib in Paris although not yet nearly as wide spread as the Paris rentals.Here is the Nice Ride website.
And here is the Nice Ride Wikipedia entry.
Nice Ride is currently only available in the densest parts of Minneapolis, the downtown, very near south side and the University. Today I visited the four Nice Ride locations closest to my home. The one above is on University Avenue a couple of blocks from the new football stadium and therefore a couple of blocks off campus.
The next one is located near Ridder Arena.
At this one FirstLOOK usurps a spot in the rental queue. TOPWLH will no doubt recognize that spot, it is where we park for hockey.View three is at Franklin Avenue and 28th Avenue South. Surprisingly enough, the rental kiosk is actually taking up pavement that is at least nominally part of the street.
I like this last one at 25th Street and 33rd Avenue South. This is a mostly residential neighborhood. The rental kiosk is nearly in front of the Birchwood Cafe. I approve of this restaurant. If you look closely you can see that in addition to the rental bicycles, right in front of the cafe they have signs designating that area as a "Bicycle Parking" zone.
I find it necessary at this time to issue another correction. Even at the time of yesterday's posting I had some misgivings about identifying that spring as the headwaters of a creek that flows over Bridal Veil Falls. I knew there was a Bridal Veil Falls and I just went ahead and decided that this was it.So, CORRECTION!
Today I did due diligence and conducted internet research. I soon discovered that the real Bridal Veil Falls is located in Minneapolis, near the Franklin Avenue bridge. Here is a link. I recommend the photos on that website, apparently Bridal Veil Falls was quite an impressive spot during the early history of Minnesota. As usually happens with small creeks and other small surface waters, the demands of urbanization resulted in the creek being buried and it now runs underground in a Minneapolis sewer pipe with only a much diminished discharge of water over the falls.
I was unable with Yahoo or Google searches to identify the correct name of the area pictured yesterday. I also searched Google maps without success. Finally I went to my paper reference materials and consulted "The Street Where You Live, A Guide to the Place Names of Saint Paul", by Donald L. Empson. I looked up the name of a nearby shortish street, Exeter Place.
Bingo.
I also need at this point to clarify out that I am not referring here to the Grotto located in a ravine near Goodrich Avenue on the grounds of Saint Paul Seminary. This is the best link I could find for the Grotto. Scroll down to Grotto. That ravine contains stone crosses to mark the Stations of the Cross. It is also listed elsewhere on the UST website (again, scroll down to Grotto) as a place on campus to pray. Shame on annoying boys for using such a place to scare unsuspecting females.
No, the gorge I am referencing runs towards the Mississippi from just across the street from the stadium entrance, right at the corner of Cretin and Exeter Place.
Saint Paul place names identifies the waterfall as Shadow Falls and the area as Shadow Falls Park. The guide says that the park is an 18 acre, deep, rugged, and very picturesque gorge. The park features a spring fed stream that is particularly beautiful in the winter. Here is a view of the falls and information about the park.
The Guide states that Archbishop John Ireland intended to donate the park to the city. In the end, however, the park board had to purchase the falls property.
2 comments:
Excellent theme-age. Nice Rides is a nice idea.
I really like those Nice Ride bikes. There is talk of an expansion plan next year, so they may yet make it into my part of Minneapolis. If so, Andy and I are planning a Nice Ride outing where we bike from kiosk to kiosk and do fun things at each stop.
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