It's now going on two weeks after the solstice, and we have been enjoying our days of summer. With sunsets coming around 9 p.m., these are the days we Minnesotans yearn for in January and February.
Many people may not be aware of this, but an increasing number of people want to eliminate the ritual of changing our clocks for Daylight Saving Time. In fact, a bill was introduced in this year's legislative session (HF 2458) to eliminate DST. Thank Reps. Mary Franson and Mike Freiberg.
As you enjoy your summer, imagine no DST. Notice all the activities you've been to on athletic fields in the 7 to 8 o'clock hours. As we move through the season, those become less optimal. Pay attention to how the extra hour of daytime benefits Minnesotans.
Also realize this : We are currently in a two-month period when the sun rises within 10 minutes of 5:35 a.m. Eliminating DST would mean two months of 4:35 a.m. sunrises — yes, 4:35 a.m. We would be giving up our precious summer hours for that.
Of course, there will be some who would prefer the 4:35 sunrise; I run at 5 a.m., so I would have light instead of dark in August. But I don't see much else going on at 5 a.m. Eliminating DST might work some places, but in Minnesota, choosing 4:35 sunrises for 8:00 sunsets would truly be Daylight Wasting Time.
Cary Kangas, Lakeville
ROAD CONSTRUCTION
Commuters suffer, and again there's no accountability
We know drivers are frustrated — that's all we seem to get from the Minnesota Department of Transportation. This is now the third summer in a row that a combination of road construction projects has caused major gridlock in downtown Minneapolis ("Construction, utility work snarl Minneapolis commutes," June 29). When citizens try to get the bottom of who is responsible for this, not just for the frustration but for actively stealing hours of their lives and forcing them to miss family commitments, adding strain on already understaffed after-school programs and causing untold other forms of havoc invisible to the leadership at MnDOT, they're told, "Well, that's Metro Transit's project" or "You would need to ask the city of Minneapolis."
Minneapolis City Council President Barb Johnson says, "Everybody's got their projects and people do work together to try to make the projects not compete." OK, then how do they continue to fail so miserably year after year? Where were you when these agencies were deciding which projects could take place simultaneously? Are you even doing traffic impact studies and, if so, where are they?
Adding insult to injury is the Downtown Council's "Big Build" branding effort. It's great that Nicollet Avenue is going to look good for the tourists in fall 2017. Meanwhile, I've spent the last two years stuck behind the buses that were never meant to be on Hennepin. A lot of marketing, blame-shifting and tepid acknowledgments that people are upset. No changes in leadership. No investigations. Nothing resembling actual accountability.