Austin Wu

streets.mn — Federal rollbacks on bike and pedestrian funding expose the weaknesses of Minnesota's fragmented transportation system, making the case for unified regional governance.

streets.mn — With the uncertainty of federal funding, Minnesota has an opportunity to step up and provide local funding for public transit, including trains.

streets.mn — Minnesota's suburban "donut" has devoured resources, jobs and hospitals - deepening decline in both rural towns and inner-city neighborhoods.

The Res Gestae — In the days leading up to the 2024 Michigan-Texas football game, significant activity and price fluctuations were observed in the resale of tickets to the game on the email listserv “Law-Open2.” Minimum and maximum prices were recorded for both the sale and purchase of tickets, as well as the number of sale and purchase offers made per day on the listserv. In late August 2024, the number of sale offers was consistently low. The first days of September saw the number of sales offers made increase dramatically, concurrently with a precipitous decline in offered resale prices. Sales prices remained at a high, stable price from late August 2024 before declining dramatically in the first days of September. Offers to purchase tickets remained insignificant initially, before becoming the majority of instances in the day before and the day of the game. Social factors on Law-Open2 may have played a role in creating momentum for the trends observed, initially in maintaining the high initial price, and later in motivating declines in listed prices as the number of offers made increased.

streets.mn — A recent opinion piece about the development challenges in St. Paul's Midway neighborhood misses a few key points, says one neighborhood resident.

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — To provide relief from a housing crash which was part of the Great Depression, and to ensure future stability in the American housing market, in 1933 the federal government created the homeowners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), which was tasked with buying troubled mortgages from banks and refinancing them for home borrowers.

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — Many months ago, when writing about land that the City of Iowa City had recently purchased near Oak Grove Park, which in turn is next to the former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad's yard (now owned by the Iowa Interstate Railroad) on the margins between the south and central parts of town, I mentioned the area's history as one of the first places wher e people of Latin American descent first settled in Iowa City, as workers for the Rock Island Line and their families.

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — Using public trains and buses while visiting cities can enhance your experience Over the past couple of years, I have adopted an informal habit whenever I have traveled or moved places - to collect transit passes from wherever I am.

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — In 2009, a minor controversy in a mid-sized town in Indiana involving two homosexual penguins was resolved when the penguins were transferred to a zoo in Iowa, where same-sex marriage had just been legalized a few months prior, suggesting a more hospitable environment for the bonded male birds.

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — In my last article about the benefits of boosting urban populations in older northern cities in the East and Midwest, there is one large concern I did not have space to address: gentrification. Generally, the process by which current residents of a neighborhood are displaced and forced to live elsewhere due to newer, wealthier residents moving in.

The Urbanist — When what is now downtown Bellingham was initially platted in the mid-1800s, it is likely that little consideration was given to parking. Mostly because cars did not exist in the mid-1800s. As automobiles became quintessential components of the American way of life by the 1920s when it killed off Bellingham's streetcars, parking grew in importance.

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — Only thing weirder than "keeping [X] weird" is accepting shrinking cities Recently, there has been some optimistic thinking coming from a couple of cities along the Great Lakes: a vision of a region no longer stagnant in population or shrinking, but growing again.

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — Diplomats & Admirals: From Failed Negotiations and Tragic Misjudgements to Powerful Leaders and Heroic Deeds, the Untold Story of the U.S. Navy's Victories at Coral Sea and Midway. By Dale A. Jenkins. Aubrey Publishing Company, 2022; Paperback pp. 402; $19.5 0.

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — A few months ago now, I talked with a representative from the National Agricultural Aviation Association, which bills itself as the "voice of the aerial application industry" - or the use of aircraft to apply pesticides, seeds, or fertilizer.

The Urbanist — On the whole, 2022 was not a bad year for intercity passenger rail service in the northwest.

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — Editorial Fellow | Austin Wu A few weeks ago I received what is a high-water mark in my short writing career so far: a very kind letter from a reader.

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to talk with Mike Barnhart and Kelzye Bedwell of the local nonprofit Horizons, particularly about Horizons' Neighborhood Transportation Service (NTS).

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — One of the sources used by Alexander Rapp in mapping out old public transit routes in eastern Iowa: an ad for the streetcar in Cedar Rapids and Marion, from the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette and Republican, from Friday, 9 October 1931. These lines were replaced by buses by 1937.

American Bicyclist — The magazine of the League of American Bicyclists (http://www.bikeleague.org), the grassroots, people-powered movement to build a Bicycle Friendly America for everyone.

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — When commenting on the recent purchase of land for a potential passenger rail station, Iowa City Manager Geoff Fruin was also cognizant of the very real possibility of plans for a route to Chicago falling apart once again, as I had written about earlier this month.

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — A few weeks ago, it was reported that three residential properties were purchased by the city of Iowa City for a possible new passenger rail station on a route to Chicago, in the immediate vicinity of Oak Grove Park toward the south and east of downtown.

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — In March of 2018, a classical music composer in Ohio wrote the following, as part of a larger comment on a political blog: "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law [protects] but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — Although it appears at the time of writing that a large strike among freight railroad workers has been averted, the contingencies of preparing for one still threw a wrench in the scheduling of Amtrak's cross-country passenger trains, halting them for several days in the middle of September, including both routes which pass through Iowa, the California Zephyr and Southwest Chief.

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) — There are more ways to measure development than wealth alone There is a famous quote attributable to Enrique Peñalosa, the mayor of Bogotá, Colombia from 1998 to 2001 and 2016 to 2019 and a noted advocate for expanding bicycling and bus routes during his tenure as mayor: "A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars.