First Place 9  Dale Chumbly ClarkCountyRealEstateBlog.comm

Second Place 7  Elizabeth Acosta-Pearson,

Third Place 5  Sellsius Real Estate

Congratulations to Dale!  This years virtual pumpkin carving champion.  Some how his pumpkin looks vaguely familiar.  It could just be my imagination, but it almost looks like one of the avatars I use on the internet.

Both the avatar and the pumpkin are scary, so I guess it works.  Dale is a REALTOR, in Clark County Washington.  He did win a prize, but I have to contact him to see if he is interested.  Thank you all for participating, come back next year for the 2008 addition of the worlds first, and maybe only, virtual pumpkin carving contest.

It is Halloween.  Please be careful out there.  If you live in the Twin Cities and are looking for a safe, fun and warm place to take the children this evening consider the Mall of America home the worlds largest indoor trick or treating event.

Rotunda Entertainment Schedule
5:30 p.m. Costume Contest
6:30 p.m. Spooky but not Scarrry Magic Show
7:30 p.m. Creepy Crawly Animal Show

The picture is of the statue up on Summit Avenue, near the top of the Ramsey Hill.  She is looking out over the river bluff.  She doesn’t look happy but I guess I would not look happy if I were made of wood and had to stay in one place.  She must get a kick out of watching us all try to climb that hill when it is covered with ice. 

Please stop back later, when we announce the winner of the virtual pumpkin carving contest.   The voting  is open until 1:00 AM, I am a morning person, but not that early.  The last time I looked there was a tie, in the event of a tie Erik Hare will choose the winner. 

1  Jake Hines, Minnesota new Homes	2 Dave Smith,  Tucson, AZ Real Real Estate Blog
3 Les Sulgrove, RE/MAX Real Estate Group, Des Moines Iowa	4  Maggie Brady, Her dad's blog
5  Sellsius Real Estate	6  Bob Carney, Focus on Frederick
7  Elizabeth Acosta-Pearson,	8  The Undressed Network

99  Dale Chumbly ClarkCountyRealEstateBlog.comm

Welcome to the second annual virtual pumpkin carving contest. The idea was invented right here on this blog in St. Paul, Minnesota.  I have to say this years entries are amazing.  If you have ever tried using the paint program on your computer you will understand why I say amazing, and truly frightening.  This years contestants are not only artistic but courageous, just nine brave men, women and a child were willing to give it a try.  Each one is a winner as far as I am concerned.  This years youngest contestant, Maggie is six years old.  She has never been to Minnesota, and she had to send her entry all the way from California.   

Vote for your favorite pumpkin using the poll.  Each pumpkin has a number in white, just below it and to the left.  Each button on the poll has a number.  Select the number on the poll that is the same as the number below the pumpkin that you would like to vote for.  I really do have to explain everything.  I don’t have to say you can only vote once because I set up the poll so you can only vote once.  The order of the voting buttons is random.  I just thought that would be a nice touch.

Mr. Boardman likes to put up outdoor decorations for most every holiday.   There is more but I don’t want to scare anyone.  I am not afraid of anything, I am a Realtor.  Please come back later for virtual the virtual pumpkin carving contest. 

Sometimes I can tell a lot about a person just by looking at their car.  I found this van on the Grand Avenue Hill.

There are many Queen Anne style homes in the older parts of St. Paul.  This home is located in the Summit Hill neighborhood.  These were built in the 1880’s through the 1890’s.  The pieces were made in factories.   Machines had a big impact on late 19^th century architecture. Parts could be ordered and shipped so these elaborate houses have extra details and gingerbread on them.  Queen Anne’s are easy to spot and fun to take pictures of.  They almost always have some kind of a turret, a front porch, steeply pitched roofs and a lot of ornamentation. 

Not all Queen Anne’s are as elaborate as the home in the picture. If you would like to own a home like this you won’t find many in the suburbs, or more than four miles from downtown.  Like most cities, St. Paul, grew from it’s center just West of downtown, and as you travel further away from the center the homes get newer. 

By Erik Hare

"Ever wonder why we drive on parkways and park on driveways?”
George Carlin

Parkways wind their way through the neighborhoods of Saint Paul, connecting two or more parks together into one whole. These tree lined green ribbons soften the effects of traffic, and provide bike lanes and jogging paths not too far from every doorstep. The net effect is that rather than have some parks in the city, we have a city in a park.

These parkways take many forms, and below are four examples of parkways that are loved by our whole city.

Johnson Parkway is the pride of the Eastside, connecting Mounds Park to Phalen Park, a distance of about 2 miles. It takes the form of two through lanes of traffic that have wide boulevards on either side. Beyond the boulevards are two service roads, just wide enough for one lane of local traffic and parking. The service roads are not marked for jogging and biking, but this is what they are used for in addition to reaching people’s houses. The entire street is about 180 feet wide through most of the Eastside.

Highland Parkway connects Highland Park to Mississippi River Boulevard, which is a broad Parkway itself that connects many parks along the Mississippi. It covers about 2.4 miles in total. This is a much more residential street, and is by far the narrowest at only 80 feet (the width of West Seventh Street and Grand Avenue). The configuration is very much like any neighborhood street, except it has a 14 foot median in the middle with many trees. On the sides there is barely room for one driving lane and some parking, which keeps the traffic slow. There is no biking lane here, but residents feel very safe using the street for bikes.

Summit Avenue is the big daddy of our parkways, having first been developed as a parkway in 1886. The center median is as wide as 120 feet west of Lexington. It goes from the State Capitol to Mississippi River Boulevard, a distance of 5 miles. The full width varies a lot along the course of it, but at its widest it is a full 200 feet. There are bike lanes that are well used all along it, and a jogging path is well worn in the center median away from traffic. The form here is one lane each way, with parking, separated by a wide park in the middle. It is so wide, in fact, that events such as snow carving contests are held in the median.

Jefferson Avenue isn’t really a Parkway, at least not yet. This is just a pet idea of mine, but by comparison to the other parkways our city loves you can see how it fits in. This would connect, via Edgecumbe Road, from Highland Park to the Mississippi River and the parks we are developing along her banks. In addition, this would also allow a connection via Cliff Street to the High Bridge and Cherokee Park on the other side. The total distance would be 1.2 miles. This street is currently 100 feet wide most of the way, meaning it could support bike and jogging lanes. That, and a few trees, and I think we are there. It’s a matter of giving the West End neighborhood the same things that Highland has come to love so much.

Parkways are what make Saint Paul a “City in a Park”. As we realize more and more that the needs of cars have to be balanced with the needs of neighbors, improving the parkways we have and creating new ones will be an important way to accomplish what seem like disparate goals. What’s most important about them is that the beauty provided by just a little space for trees makes all the difference. They are one of the things that make Saint Paul a great place to live.