So, in other words, yes I could have taken the train, or, if I didn’t happen to live half a mile away from the 12-mile corridor of the light rail line, the bus. And when I worked downtown, I did take the train every day to work. But I would say less than 50% of the people who work downtown take public transit and if you don’t work downtown you’ve probably never set foot on a bus, and the only time you’d have taken the train is if you rode it to a Twins or Vikings game as a novelty.

I really shouldn’t complain though; I don’t have a commute at all, and even when I did it was short and I was driving a fuel-efficient car. (After I quit working downtown in March I worked in a suburb for 3 months before going solo.) Paying $23 once, that is something I can just call a mistake. Or I can think of the duplicate title has having cost $40 instead of $17. (That’s probably how I’ll think of it.) But really… I just don’t think a car-sized piece of real estate in downtown Minneapolis is worth that much. And it really bugs me that the money went to a private company. If the city or the county owned that parking garage, the money could go into the government budget to improve public services.

CAPTCHA: “old keister.” That’s appealing.

This, to me, seems completely insane and must be a touch illegal. But this afternoon on my site, I’m going to post a little piece about how much more insane it could become ;)

Actually, come to think of it, this information is decidedly discomforting. I would expect parking in Manhattan to be substantially more than it is here, not approximately the same!