Month: October 2025

A social model of Trick-or-Treat

Everyone laments the commercialization of the holidays. How tacky! How capitalistic! So why do these distasteful traditions continue to weave their way through our culture? Let’s investigate the social upsides to see if there are compensating factors.

First, it is necessary to identify the parties involved. There are the vendors of fun-size treats. These folks are unabashedly money-oriented organizations. There are parents who dutifully open their front doors and dig handfuls of treats out of their stash to parlay them into the bulging pillowcases or plastic pumpkins presented by the costumed youngsters yelping: Trick-or-Treat! These folks are subsidizers. They purchase the candy with no designs on a pecuniary return for their money. And then there are the kids. One might think they have no investment, but that’s not true. Their delight at the mystery of the evening, at the intrigue of mask-wearing, and at the innocent charm they exude is a draw to those around them.

For a proper evaluation, one must anchor the focus of discretion. This tracks which group is being considered in the balancing of accounts. Let’s start with the stores. They are commercial ventures, supplying items their customers demand in return for enough to pay their expenses and a little more. If Halloween went to the wayside, they would simply move on to something else. There seems to be very little to model here in terms of the social sphere.

Now, let’s anchor the view from the adult participants. They lay out the cash– so what do they get? They bring joy to their kids and perhaps a little to themselves. The event might rope in grandma and grandpa, a couple of worthy backstops in the activities of family life. Lastly, the business of activity on the streets brings out a Jane Jacobsian benefit. So, parents and adults can gain in private pleasure, family bonding, and community spirit.

Lastly, consider the kids. It might seem like a windfall for them. However, probably more than one parent keeps the incentives of a successful Halloween as a behavior modifier. So they too pitch in with a bit of work when it comes to supporting the holiday.

For the foreseeable future, the balance in favor of the social gains indicates a continued future for this spooky festivity.

Public says no Payment for rescuing Private parties

Usually actions to shore up safety are drawn from the public purse. But sometimes private actions pull this obligation out of the public sphere.

A Snowstorm Blew Over Mt Washington. More than 20 Hikers were trapped

More than 20 hikers needed to be rescued from the flanks of Mount Washington in New Hampshire after wintry conditions swept across the famed peak on Saturday, October 25.

…..

“Multiple people have arrived at the summit the last few days very unprepared for winter and required assistance. Be ‘wildly Responsible’ and please do some research on current higher summits weather and bring everything needed to hike in winter conditions or just hike another day,” writes the New Hampshire State Park on Facebook.

Personal responsibility in this case means personal repayment.

The New Hampshire fines stem from a piece of legislation called RSA 206:26-bb, which states that “any person determined by the department to have acted negligently in requiring a search and rescue response by the department shall be liable to the department for the reasonable cost of the department’s expenses for such search and rescue response.”

What you don’t know yourself

A home is a complicated purchase. The variables are numerous. The structure is what everyone thinks of first: bedrooms, bathrooms, beautiful kitchens. There are niche items, such as screened-in porches or swimming pools. There are external demands, such as level lawns and striking views. All that along with the nuts and bolts of square footage, the year the home was built, and the number of garage spaces go into the assessed values as calculated for tax purposes.

But there’s more that goes into the process of the home purchase at the time of the transaction. Market conditions, interest rates, and the time of year impact the buying and selling process. The condition of the home can certainly swing a property from very desirable to manageable, only for the most hearty investor. Sometimes the right buyer shows up and eagerly signs for the home in part because the semi loaded with their household belonging is on the way and will need to be unloaded, or parked at a considerable expense.

Real estate is a complicated product. So when a client looks over their showing sheet and wants to talk price, it is important to remind them that is set between buyers and sellers. That as participants in the market they are the best judges of the price based on the path that has led them to the home. As their agent, we can show how the numbers fall within an acceptable range of what the market has recently born out. But ultimately it is up to them to risk missing out by staying low or having buyer’s remorse by going high.

As Pete Boetkke recently wrote in What Hayek Understood About the Unknowable Nature of Markets:

But the dynamics of a market aren’t a given to be applied as one thinks wise when powerful people want to mandate lower rent or produce more computer chips. They must be generated, discovered, utilized, and conveyed—constantly adapting and adjusting to the changing circumstances of economic life. “The continuous flow of goods and services,” Hayek wrote, “is maintained by constant deliberate adjustments, by new dispositions made every day in the light of circumstances not known the day before, by B stepping in at once when A fails to deliver.”

Although these words are generalized, the ideas are there. It is a process of discovery that encourages or dissuades people as they navigate their choices amongst the homes for sale. And when they identify one that offers more of what they really desire with fewer compromises on items that bother, then they move with confidence in securing the transaction. Often, until that point in the process, they don’t know what they want themselves.

Number Nuance

Yesterday’s post showed off a range of house prices across the country. Since housing expenses are the largest portion of most people’s budgets, they greatly influence people’s standards of living and disposable income. To live a lush life in St. Louis might only allow you to squeak by in Salt Lake City.

For that reason, it’s funny when someone brags about their “six-figure salary” — and then you find out they live in Washington State. Sure, congratulations on your $100K, but that’s basically a modest Minnesota income with prettier mountains and pricier coffee. There’s a strange amnesia that kicks in when people talk about money across states, as if groceries, gas, and rent were all federally standardized.

Then there’s the gross-up crowd — those who love to quote the full sticker price of their income, conveniently forgetting everything that comes off the top. Taxes, insurance premiums, pension contributions… not to mention the hidden perks that don’t show up on a pay stub: flexible hours, remote days, or a workplace that doesn’t mind if you pick up your kid at 3 p.m. Some of the most valuable parts of a job can’t be cashed out — they’re lived.

Each region and industry really runs on its own microclimate of opportunity. What looks “low pay” in one city can mean stability, a yard, and free weekends somewhere else. Meanwhile, other jobs look golden until you notice the 70-hour weeks, commutes, and housing markets that never quite forgive you.

And then, of course, there are our Canadian friends. Always happy to tell you about their million-dollar home — in Canadian dollars, around $720K USD. Not quite as flashy a number. But don’t worry, we’ll do the math for you, eh?

MT is up to $495!

California is always high. I remember when Colorado pricing surged ahead of Minnesota’s, but that’s been like that for a while now.

Connecticut seems low for the east coast. And Alabama is a bargain! Especially since their school system is starting to put out some strong scores.

Which state’s average price of housing surprised you?

Historical Fact of the Day- Zoning

Zoning, a means of controlling the land and housing markets by dictating acceptable uses for particular parcels of land, was invented during the 1910s and spread to most American cities by the end of the 1920s. St. Paul and Minneapolis passed their first zoning ordinances
early in the 1920s. The goals of zoning were similar to those of the building permit and inspection programs: to promote public health and safety, and to preserve property values. Zoning is an effective control mechanism, but it is essentially a preventive tactic.

Past Choices/Present Landscapes

Real Estate Books

There aren’t many. There’s the ‘how to get rich in real estate’ type of literature, which is only vaguely helpful to those with no real estate experience and, in equal measure, misleading. There are books developed to help salespersons pass the required testing to obtain a real estate license. There’s material on all sorts of financial instruments used to finance property. But I’m not talking about that type of thing.

I’m talking about the manner in which real estate features in people’s lives.

Judith Martin, a former professor of geography at the University of Minnesota, wrote Past Choices/Present Landscapes: The Impact of Urban Renewal on the Twin Cities. This project spotlights some of the effects I like to talk about. It focuses on the massive slum-clearing and subsequent redevelopment of large sections of inner-city property. In hind site Martin points out:

Much has been written about the ideas and the implementation of the urban renewal program in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. Most of this literature views urban renewal as a program that: (1) worked to the disadvantage of people most in need of improved housing -a great deal of substandard housing was removed, but a relatively small amount of low-income housing was constructed;(2) was a boondoggle for developers-they were able to acquire land inexpensively from city authorities, and often made large profits on the projects built on this publicly acquired land; and (3) focused on
economic development issues C’let’s fix up downtown”) at the expense of housing and neighborhood concerns (Anderson 1964; Hartman 1964; Gans 1965).

Viewed in retrospect, much of this criticism is valid, but it does not tell the whole story. Critics have portrayed planners who developed and implemented urban renewal programs as heartless beasts who turned a deaf ear to the real needs of “the people.” But it is hard to see most renewal officials as greedy and profiteering, or as consciously
trying to exercise their power over helpless city residents. There are, for example, no notable cases of renewal officials growing rich working on these programs. If anything, the views of those who implemented urban renewal programs in the Twin Cities and elsewhere can be considered somewhat naive. They assumed that renewal could be
accomplished quickly, that private developers would clamor for the opportunity to build in available areas, and that the renewal process could be carried out with relatively few snags. None of these assumptions proved to be true.

Real estate is a tricky wicket. If people want to follow along, they need to, as Judith indicates, read the whole landscape and not cherry-pick a brief situation in the misty flow of time.

Decay

It takes a long time for a house to completely depreciate. Many of its structural elements have lives longer than decades. Exterior features in like roofs, siding, windows, and doors may need little maintenance for years.

Yard work left to run free may give the appearance of a property left to nature. But eradicating the growth is of little cost compared with replacing all new heating and cooling systems, water heaters and appliances. Most of these have an average life of 12-15 years. And then, of course, there are the plumbing and lighting fixtures that are often replaced for both cosmetic and functional reasons.

At each phase of putting off a replacement and trying to patch things up and get by, a debt of maintenance is created. If the property were to trade hands, a new owner might be willing to take on a few additional repairs for a concession on price. At some point (and what would that be?) the average buyer turns away. There’s too much to do. There are too many lurking money pits under the subfloor in the bathroom or behind the paneling in the lower level.

This is when the structure’s value falls to zero. The parcel will only command the price of the land it sits on, with an adjustment for the cost of debris removal. But it takes decades to get to this point. The built world is durable, and there are many opportunities for rejuvenation.

Mobil Homes

There continue to be mobile home parks across the metro offering one of the most affordable form of housing. The structure is considered a vehicle and licensed as such. The home is anchored on a lot in a mobile home park and rent is due every month in a similar fashion to association dues. People like to talk about tiny homes now. Still, manufactured homes can be reasonably constructed in a factory and meet the same quality and amenities as RV’s, another acceptable form of shelter.

:Here are some current listings and recent sales:

Few mobile home parks rise to the level of civic engagement that can be seen in Landfall Terrace, a community on the eastern side of the metro. As with many good things it starts with its history.

James and Mitzi Olson used to own all of the land in Landfall. They moved here in 1953 into a cottage that was hardly better than a log cabin. …The Olsons had lived in a mobile home during World War ll and knew that there was a shortage of affordable housing, so they developed their site into a mobile home park. As it was on the early highway between St. Paul and Hudson, Landfall developed several businesses, including a truck stop, restaurant and nursery, most of which left when Interstate 94 was put through and access became limited.

Often successful things are born out of a basic need of local people. But it is only through nurturing and ongoing maintenance that group projects survive. Especially one a s successful as this.

Landfall is a city in Washington County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 843 at the 2020 census and it is the smallest community in Washington County in terms of area. It lies on the eastern shore of Tanner’s Lake on Interstate 94.

Landfall is an incorporation of a manufactured home community, contributing to its reputation as the most affordable community in the Twin Cities. In 2008 & 2010, the city was named one of the 100 best communities for young people by America’s Promise.

Landfall is one of only two incorporated cities in America that consist primarily of manufactured housing. 

Plat map from 1884

I was digging around the county historical society lately because I thought it would be fun to find where my relatives made a land claim when they arrived in the US. Plat maps, which track ownership, were not updated on a routine basis in the days of primary forests and pioneer wagons. This one was done in 1884, and the next printed update didn’t get published until 1902. Even though the family of five children, all born in Norway, are said to have arrived in 1874, the family name has yet to appear here. It does in 1902.

What you do notice is the number of parcels denoted by St. Paul Minneapolis and Manitoba Ry Co. or St. P. M. & M. Ry Co. These parcels were owned by the railroad built by James J. Hill. The school land is also a major player. There were 168 schools in Leaf Mountain Township. The forty acre plots with no names listed, or US, are the ones open for homesteading. It seems the US government priorities rolled out in that order: transportation, education, and homesteaders to make it all work.

Cabin from nearby site built in 1890

Shop Talk

A convo with ChatGpt: What does ‘shop talk’ mean

ChatGPT said:

“Shop talk” means conversation about work or a particular profession, especially when it happens outside of work or in social settings.

It often implies that people are talking about technical details, jargon, or inside-baseball topics that only others in the same field would fully understand — sometimes to the boredom of outsiders.

Examples:

  • “Let’s not get into shop talk at the party — nobody else here wants to hear about accounting software.”
  • “Whenever those two doctors get together, it’s all shop talk.”

So, it’s basically work-related conversation among colleagues or professionals, often used with a slightly negative or teasing tone (“ugh, enough shop talk!”).

You said:

Name three reasons why an outsider does not follow the insider baseball.

ChatGPT said:

Here are three clear reasons why outsiders often don’t follow inside baseball (or shop talk):

  1. Specialized Knowledge or Jargon – Insiders use technical terms, acronyms, or references that make sense only within that field. Outsiders lack the background to decode the language.
    Example: A software engineer says, “We just migrated from monolith to microservices,” and a non-tech person hears gibberish.
  2. Different Context or Priorities – Insiders share a sense of what’s important in their work — the stakes, the rivalries, the subtleties. Outsiders don’t know why those details matter.
    Example: A debate about which research framework is superior means little to someone outside academia.
  3. No Emotional Investment – Insiders are personally invested — their reputations, routines, and identities are tied to the topic. Outsiders lack that emotional hook, so the conversation feels dry or trivial.
    Example: Two chefs passionately argue about knife brands while everyone else at the table just wants to eat.
You said:

Take these three reasons- are they not the features of an institutional network?

ChatGPT said:

That’s an astute connection — yes, those three reasons are very much features of an institutional network.

Let’s unpack that:

  1. Specialized Knowledge or Jargon → Bounded Communication System
    Institutions build and maintain their own languages — technical terms, shorthand, and shared references that mark belonging. This linguistic specialization not only allows for efficiency among insiders but also creates boundaries that separate members from outsiders. It’s a classic form of social closure: if you don’t speak the language, you’re not fully in.
  2. Different Context or Priorities → Shared Frames of Relevance
    Institutional networks define what counts as important, legitimate, or meaningful. Insiders share a frame of reference shaped by the institution’s history, goals, and internal hierarchies. Outsiders, lacking that frame, can’t easily interpret why certain details matter. This is how institutions reproduce themselves — by shaping what participants see as relevant knowledge.
  3. Emotional Investment → Identity and Belonging
    Institutions aren’t just about rules and roles; they generate emotional commitments. People’s sense of identity becomes tied to their institutional membership — whether it’s a profession, academic discipline, or bureaucratic body. That investment reinforces the network’s cohesion and its internal culture, even as it alienates outsiders.

So in effect, “shop talk” and “inside baseball” are the micro-level expressions of institutional boundaries. They show how networks of practice sustain themselves through shared knowledge, values, and affective ties — precisely the stuff that makes them opaque to outsiders.

Dynamic Private-Order Institutions

From a newly minted Nobel prize winner, Joel Mokyr.

Slowly, and perhaps not always quite perfectly, British formal institutions adapted. But the same was true for private-order institutions: the rather sudden rise of country banks in the second half of the 18th century illustrates the high degree of  adaptiveness of private-order British institutions; they were not coordinated or supervised by some central authority, and no political revolution was necessary to bring them into existence. Yet once the circumstances were suitable and opportunities arose, these banks emerged almost ab nihilo. They replaced the informal activities of local merchants, notaries, and attorneys who had previously intermediated in credit transactions.

This natural and spontaneous progression of credit extension brought real estate ownership to the greater populace.

Read his insights at Ideas Mattered, But So Did Institutions.

Slow Horses- Series Review

This band of MI5 misfits shows real promise. All have backstories, with the leader of the crew showing the deepest scars of past wrongs. His assistant is haunted by tragedy with some sort of entanglement. There’s an assortment of others, including a team builder type and a digital guru extraordinaire. But it’s the two youngsters in the group– dashing and darling– who will engage the viewer the most.

After a bit of a dry spell, this series is one to look forward to for that hour of after dinner viewing!

C’mon people, still?

Check out the number of views of the YouTube shorts where historian and author Sarah CM Paine punches out a history lesson in spurts of ironic and bell clear words- 2.3 million views, 1.6M, 8.5M.

Who is she? It’s hard to know because, despite her online presence, a Google search generates no profiles written about her. Her Wikipedia page has a new photo above a brief description. Only this to stand up for a long time academic who has penned a respectable number of books.

Granted, this new exposure is due to one person- Dwarkesh Patel. He has hosted and promoted Sarah CM Paine’s material. He gets full credit. And there are pleanty of profiles written on him such as in Time or here.

What a grain elevator could say

The grain elevator was the most ubiquitous commercial building in Minnesota’s small and medium towns during the mid to late 1800s.

In most towns in western Minnesota, grain elevators were the dominant feature of the skyline 1837 Treaty | Minnesota DNR. As railroads expanded westward in the 1870s-1880s, grain elevators sprang up along every railroad line to store wheat and other grains before shipping them to Minneapolis and beyond.

This makes perfect sense given Minnesota’s economy at the time. Wheat farming dominated the landscape, and Red Wing held the title as the world’s largest primary wheat market in 1873, exporting 1.8 million bushels valued at more than two million dollars United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians – Wikipedia. Every town with railroad access needed a grain elevator to collect, store, and load farmers’ harvests onto railcars.

Typically, small services would pop up alongside the tall wooden structures. Or an eating and drinking establishment. Sometimes a church was erected down the road a bit. And for decades, the railroad infrastructure supported a node of activity in remote rural areas.

A shift occurred once the interstate system was established in the 1950s. Rail is still most beneficial for long hauls, whereas trucks carry the grain for shorter distances, typically under one hundred miles. With fewer stops, the isolated wooden elevators fell into disrepair. Often they fell for the useful purpose of serving as a training exercise for local firefighters.

The purpose of this short vignette is to show how land uses are tied intimately with public infrastructure. And these types of projects are engaged over long time frames. A slow natural progression of the property from peak usefulness to decline can be led by aging owners, people who can view themselves in a steady state for another decade or more. The insight for the outside observer to understand where in the process a parcel finds itself. And then to implement policy in relation to the receptive impulses of that moment.

Out with the Mall

In with the residential new construction.

“Utilizing existing infrastructure can bring homes to the market quickly, avoiding some of the delays associated with redevelopment or greenfield housing development,” says Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com.®. “The shift from retail to residential is a logical solution in a country facing a persistent housing shortage.”

She added that malls in suburban states like New Jersey and Florida—both with well-established commercial corridors and housing pressures—are especially ripe for this type of redevelopment.

This from Realtor.com.

Avidor apartments abutting a public park in what was Ridgedale Mall parking

Pooch with passion

There was this sweet service dog at the airport the other day. A working dog, they call them, helping their owners overcome a sight impairment or a hearing decline. Emotional support animal designations are often used to help college kids bring their feline friends into the dorm. It’s the law that pets can skirt the law. If they meet the standard of a group objective, and an opening of access to those with disabilities meets a group desire level need. The puppy with whisky gold hair and large eyes isn’t a private pet but a public support. The pouch is a new thing even if she looks like the same old thing. And hence in this new nature, is tallied up in a different manner.

MN Railroad Fact

Minnesota’s Land Giveaway

Railroads received 9.9 million acres of Minnesota land from the federal government—more than the 7.3 million acres claimed by homesteaders between 1862-1880. The Homestead Act’s promise of land for ordinary settlers shifted when railroads got the biggest share. Now it’s difficult for any major infrastructure project to command overarching commitments.