Lots going on in my city.
Three signs with additions on the Greenway bike/walk path
1. DON'T RANK FREY
Jacob Frey is the mayor. He has not responded beautifully to everything that's come his way the past four years. (Admittedly, it's been a lot.) The City's handling of George Floyd Square, for instance, was ... unimaginative.
Though they didn't bring in machine guns, so there's that.
(And we don't have a strong mayoral system: a lot of the problems are down to the City Council, who've not reined in the Police Dept. all these years.)
We have ranked-choice voting, 1, 2, 3.
The poster is saying, don't even rank Frey as an option in this fall's election.
I just now noticed the fly ^. A visual rhyme!
Frey is pronounced "fry".
2. # STOP LINE 3
Line 3 is an oil pipeline from Canada being built across land that is protected by US treaties with indigenous Anishinaabe (aka Ojibwe and Chippewa) nations.
The United Nations recently asked the USA look into Treaty Rights violations. More here: StopLine3 site.
MN Public Radio overview of the pipeline.
3. BDE MAKA SKA (b'day ma-KAH skah) is the restored (in 2019) legal name for former Lake Calhoun.
It means White Earth Lake, the name originally given by the local Dakota (once known as Sioux) people.
The City has changed most signs, but if not, people have changed them themselves.
John C. Calhoun was the 7th vice president of the United States, and a strong defender of slavery and driving indigenous peoples from their lands. He "became known as the "cast-iron man" for his rigid defense of white Southern beliefs and practices". (Wikipedia)
Good to see proper original names returning, however they do!
ReplyDeleteGZ: I'm glad to see the name revert too.
ReplyDeleteA group of residents protested (who would approve of Calhoun?!), saying the City didn't have the right to change the name, but it was ruled legal.
Over here a lot of street signs and other signs for parks, etc, are having the original indigenous names added below the English names, so people will know both eventually. The different tribal languages are used for the relevant areas, for instance Adelaide was built in Kaurna tribal grounds, so street signs are in the Kaurna words, while suburbs further North or South have the proper words for their areas.
ReplyDeleteRIVER: Oh, that's interesting--thanks for saying.
ReplyDeleteI remember when the indigenous name Uluru was added to Ayers Rock but didn't realize the practice was widespread.
I like the idea of having both names, unless the name is really horrible, like Calhoun.