So, I’m addicted to this site called “Digg.” I’m sure that many of you are familiar with it but for those who aren’t, here’s a quick explanation: it allows anyone to submit stories and then the community votes them up or down. Once they get a certain number of votes the story reaches the frontpage (which is becoming increasingly difficult as the site is immensely popular). This ensures an oddly addicting collection of tech-geek, underground news stories, funny videos, legitimate news, and pure nonsense. At any rate, I tell you all of this so that you’ll have some feel about how incredibly surprised I was when I saw this headline on the frontpage: “Minneapolis Mayor First to Use Plug-In Hybrid as “Official” Car.” Rybak made Digg! That’s pretty cool!
A little snippet from the article linked to:
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak may be the first mayor in the nation to drive a plug-in hybrid vehicle as his official city car.
Since he was first elected in 2002, Mayor Rybak’s official car has been a Toyota Prius. But the dramatically superior gas mileage of a plug-in hybrid vehicle prompted him to make the switch: he had his hybrid converted to a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, from which he expects to get about 70 miles per gallon (mpg) compared to his average 40 mpg with the Prius.
In addition to this being cool both on the geeky “he made Digg” level and the “Rybak’s green-chic” level, I think it’s also an important example of how these little things put us on the map as a state. It may seem silly to put it in that light, but Minneapolis has fostered a reputation as a very techno-savvy, on the cutting-edge city (we were featured in Popular Science a year ago for as much) and these little stories push that image along. And image is a very fleeting, amorphous concept to capture and promulgate, yet it fuels so much of how the rest of the country sees us (and how they invest in us).
I don’t mean to make such a modest story into such a long post (and it is a modest story), but I’ve always felt that Minnesota is different. We take pride in being on the cutting edge from everything from crop yield to welfare roll conversion (getting people off welfare roles into good paying jobs); we reject mediocrity and strive for something better. Unfortunately, it’s felt as though we’re losing that as a state. We’re fine with lower education standards, we’re complacent when our infrastructure crumbles, we favor low taxes over good, cheap universities, and we ignore a falling edge over the rest of the country. I guess it’s just nice to be reminded that in some very modest way, our old spirit is still alive and maybe will rise again.
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Will you be my governor RT?
The UpTake just posted video of R.T. on the same subject.
this is soooo cool!
Wow, what a neat story!
How about addressing the biggest story in MN political news right now — Mark Ritchie getting busted using his official office for campaign purposes!
You are really showing your true colors by ignoring this story.
Ah, yes, I’m really showing my colors.
You know me so well “St. Paulite,” congratulations for decoding all my notorious intents. Maybe, just maybe, I have a pretty substantial life outside of daily Minnesota news right now and I hadn’t read the Strib story when I posted that.
But then again, you’re the expert on my motives, so I guess I’ll just defer to you.
Matt — you didn’t read MDE’s posts on the Ritchie scandal?
I think MDE is the most read political site in the state, surely you’ve been following the story there.
C’mon….in case you didn’t hear, in other Minnesota political news, Matt Entenza is no longer in the race for Attorney General.
What’s MDE?
Nice try Max, while the left hates it, Minnesota DemocRats Exposed (MDE) IS the most read political blog in MN. :)
Max — You can get the full effect of reading MDE by repeating “Democrats Suck” until you pass out.
If Mark Ritchie did what he is alleged to have done, that is reprehesible. The source of the news needs to be considerd, however. We know how MDE feels about the Secretary of State. That evil Mark Ritchie took the job away from Mother Kiffmeyer using dirty tricks like universal suffrage. Bad boys who do naughty things must be punished.
Very good point there Randy. The thing about Brodkerb is that Kiffmeyer during her lame-duck period allowed Brodkerb to attend meetings as her aide. Several of the people doing the alleging are the right’s equivalent of the guy who ran against Wellstone in ‘02 on the Green ticket because he thought Wellstone was a conservative sell-out.
“Minnesota Democrats Exposed (MDE) is the most read political blog in MN.”
And 82% of statistics are made up on the spot. :)