This photo is of the I-35 bridge, and the celebratory rainbow pattern of lights when gay marriage became law in Minnesota. The lights are part of the replacement bridge for the one that collapsed on August 1, 2007.
Today, August 1st, we are more free in Minnesota. We have recognized the civil liberties of same sex individuals to marry, and form families. It shows we are better than those states which do not do so, states which are willing to treat people as second class citizens on the basis of an ill-informed, and factually deficient religious bias that makes equally unfounded claims about both God and nature. Minnesotans have pushed back against the conservatism that gives empty lip service to liberty, but tries in so many ways to deny liberty to so many.
Minnesota has ended legalized religious bigotry.
Hooray for Minnesota! Congratulations to those who began exercising their new legal recognition, beginning at the stroke of midnight.
Today is also a day on which to note that while we have corrected a sad deficiency in civil liberties, we have not yet corrected serious deficiencies in our infrastructure, despite this being the 6th anniversary of the August, 2007 collapse of the I-35 bridge. Instead foolish Tea Party conservatism that is penny wise - or just cheap - and pound foolish has consistently failed to acknowledge that infrastructure maintenance and expansion is a necessary and wise investment in government spending that more than pays for itself in benefits to tax payers many times over beyond the original spending. Instead we have the kind of obstructionist policies and philosophy which seeks only to privatize and to obstruct progress.
In Minnesota, 1 in 10 bridges is in need of repair, some of them very seriously so; nationally the number is 1 in 9. A 2011 report by Senator Al Franken details these bridges county by county in Minnesota (good work Senator Al!) Grant County had only 3 deficient bridges, but Hennepin County has 842, St. Louis County 682, and Ramsey County, 317. The low number of deficient bridges in Grant County is not surprising; the 2012 census shows there are only about 6,000 people there, and unlike other parts of Minnesota, 5% is water and 95% is land. But I-94 does run through it, along with one or two US highways and a handful of state highways. Our state motto, 'land of 10,000 lakes', is too modest; the actual number is 11,842 lakes, and we have 6,564 lakes and streams; so we have a lot of water over which we need those 13,000+ bridges that are deficient. If you want to check how many deficient bridges you might be traveling over, the list by county is below.
Our population has grown, our industry has grown, but for the most part, there has been little new road and bridge building since the 1956 vision of President Eisenhower when he initiated the design and construction of our interstate highway system.
| County | Number of bridges | Number of structurally deficient bridges | Percentage of bridges that are structurally deficient | Bridge average annual daily traffic | Average annual daily traffic on deficient bridges |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aitkin County | 100 | 12 | 12.00% | 112,710 | 2,508 |
| Anoka County | 138 | 4 | 2.90% | 2,662,439 | 25,376 |
| Becker County | 52 | 6 | 11.50% | 63,138 | 637 |
| Beltrami County | 92 | 5 | 5.40% | 117,332 | 5,672 |
| Benton County | 115 | 3 | 2.60% | 239,478 | 93 |
| Big Stone County | 15 | 1 | 6.70% | 12,889 | 4,200 |
| Blue Earth County | 191 | 6 | 3.10% | 561,765 | 3,078 |
| Brown County | 111 | 9 | 8.10% | 90,845 | 2,469 |
| Carlton County | 134 | 18 | 13.40% | 417,615 | 15,174 |
| Carver County | 115 | 17 | 14.80% | 692,895 | 44,211 |
| Cass County | 77 | 2 | 2.60% | 119,543 | 3,840 |
| Chippewa County | 122 | 17 | 13.90% | 82,332 | 3,794 |
| Chisago County | 58 | 5 | 8.60% | 183,830 | 6,170 |
| Clay County | 227 | 22 | 9.70% | 476,996 | 4,329 |
| Clearwater County | 49 | 3 | 6.10% | 22,854 | 2,991 |
| Cook County | 49 | 7 | 14.30% | 44,775 | 560 |
| Cottonwood County | 150 | 12 | 8.00% | 53,876 | 4,125 |
| Crow Wing County | 69 | 3 | 4.30% | 155,800 | 269 |
| Dakota County | 237 | 2 | 0.80% | 3,032,938 | 32,625 |
| Dodge County | 169 | 8 | 4.70% | 148,770 | 8,929 |
| Douglas County | 41 | 4 | 9.80% | 146,903 | 29,150 |
| Faribault County | 222 | 28 | 12.60% | 123,658 | 6,539 |
| Fillmore County | 336 | 51 | 15.20% | 159,136 | 14,740 |
| Freeborn County | 141 | 6 | 4.30% | 427,934 | 1,433 |
| Goodhue County | 323 | 27 | 8.40% | 607,160 | 33,251 |
| Grant County | 32 | 3 | 9.40% | 91,258 | 1,216 |
| Hennepin County | 842 | 48 | 5.70% | 17,452,513 | 491,462 |
| Houston County | 160 | 29 | 18.10% | 201,122 | 3,858 |
| Hubbard County | 41 | 7 | 17.10% | 52,981 | 3,965 |
| Isanti County | 37 | 2 | 5.40% | 80,517 | 2,680 |
| Itasca County | 159 | 13 | 8.20% | 194,970 | 3,577 |
| Jackson County | 190 | 23 | 12.10% | 95,999 | 2,530 |
| Kanabec County | 78 | 0 | 0.00% | 80,844 | 0 |
| Kandiyohi County | 88 | 5 | 5.70% | 139,923 | 1,146 |
| Kittson County | 159 | 9 | 5.70% | 33,075 | 2,414 |
| Koochiching County | 94 | 4 | 4.30% | 45,990 | 180 |
| Lac qui Parle County | 169 | 13 | 7.70% | 38,206 | 2,240 |
| Lake County | 77 | 5 | 6.50% | 87,697 | 7,543 |
| Lake of the Woods County | 61 | 1 | 1.60% | 25,815 | 784 |
| Le Sueur County | 67 | 3 | 4.50% | 105,693 | 4,543 |
| Lincoln County | 102 | 20 | 19.60% | 47,869 | 986 |
| Lyon County | 233 | 9 | 3.90% | 161,953 | 3,185 |
| Mahnomen County | 41 | 2 | 4.90% | 13,371 | 14 |
| Marshall County | 215 | 15 | 7.00% | 46,546 | 1,908 |
| Martin County | 161 | 12 | 7.50% | 225,036 | 3,002 |
| McLeod County | 75 | 5 | 6.70% | 124,120 | 2,961 |
| Meeker County | 62 | 1 | 1.60% | 49,180 | 24 |
| Mille Lacs County | 108 | 5 | 4.60% | 293,803 | 13,135 |
| Morrison County | 167 | 11 | 6.60% | 229,682 | 2,214 |
| Mower County | 327 | 77 | 23.50% | 330,010 | 68,466 |
| Murray County | 129 | 8 | 6.20% | 29,872 | 350 |
| Nicollet County | 48 | 3 | 6.30% | 138,823 | 8,199 |
| Nobles County | 300 | 8 | 2.70% | 160,479 | 1,151 |
| Norman County | 151 | 16 | 10.60% | 40,939 | 6,624 |
| Olmsted County | 351 | 16 | 4.60% | 1,755,790 | 33,349 |
| Otter Tail County | 146 | 15 | 10.30% | 280,513 | 15,480 |
| Pennington County | 51 | 2 | 3.90% | 49,866 | 6 |
| Pine County | 162 | 11 | 6.80% | 273,537 | 27,782 |
| Pipestone County | 177 | 39 | 22.00% | 70,607 | 5,740 |
| Polk County | 259 | 10 | 3.90% | 147,285 | 1,481 |
| Pope County | 44 | 2 | 4.50% | 17,259 | 3,345 |
| Ramsey County | 317 | 27 | 8.50% | 7,890,402 | 987,272 |
| Red Lake County | 58 | 2 | 3.40% | 22,616 | 1,977 |
| Redwood County | 194 | 34 | 17.50% | 103,739 | 10,470 |
| Renville County | 136 | 27 | 19.90% | 64,087 | 3,311 |
| Rice County | 142 | 10 | 7.00% | 563,252 | 21,517 |
| Rock County | 251 | 33 | 13.10% | 184,989 | 17,300 |
| Roseau County | 137 | 20 | 14.60% | 64,204 | 682 |
| Scott County | 102 | 4 | 3.90% | 1,017,301 | 3,193 |
| Sherburne County | 46 | 4 | 8.70% | 237,302 | 26,022 |
| Sibley County | 102 | 27 | 26.50% | 95,987 | 9,266 |
| St. Louis County | 682 | 100 | 14.70% | 2,118,740 | 150,948 |
| Stearns County | 216 | 3 | 1.40% | 1,144,503 | 866 |
| Steele County | 128 | 7 | 5.50% | 502,158 | 10,439 |
| Stevens County | 45 | 0 | 0.00% | 23,997 | 0 |
| Swift County | 97 | 16 | 16.50% | 42,246 | 3,837 |
| Todd County | 131 | 9 | 6.90% | 100,418 | 4,553 |
| Traverse County | 120 | 10 | 8.30% | 15,553 | 654 |
| Wabasha County | 147 | 7 | 4.80% | 148,170 | 6,406 |
| Wadena County | 70 | 3 | 4.30% | 46,897 | 1,125 |
| Waseca County | 75 | 8 | 10.70% | 50,488 | 3,779 |
| Washington County | 96 | 6 | 6.30% | 1,603,385 | 96,974 |
| Watonwan County | 167 | 6 | 3.60% | 93,330 | 1,331 |
| Wilkin County | 197 | 13 | 6.60% | 69,604 | 2,102 |
| Winona County | 223 | 20 | 9.00% | 494,923 | 30,257 |
| Wright County | 72 | 5 | 6.90% | 488,524 | 56,560 |
| Yellow Medicine County | 220 | 18 | 8.20% | 96,494 | 1,487 |
| Totals | 13,067 | 1,149 | 8.80% | 51,254,063 | 2,436,031 |
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