Jay Walljasper

The Tea Party, libertarians and other so-called conservatives devoted to slashing all government spending not related to the military, prisons and highways have an easy answer when asked what happens to people whose lives and livelihoods depend on public programs. They point to volunteerism -- the tradition of people taking...

For the past year powerful voices around Washington have singled out programs to improve biking and walking as flagrant examples of wasteful government spending.

Since last summer, proposals have flown around the Capitol to strip away all designated transportation funds for biking and walking -- even though biking and...

1. The Commons is Essential to Our Health, Security & Survival

The Commons comprises valuable assets that belong to all of us. This includes: clean air and fresh water, national parks and city streets, the Internet and scientific knowledge, ethnic cuisines and hip-hop rhythms, the U.S. Weather Service and blood...

After being acclaimed as America's best city for biking, what can you possibly do for an encore?
Well, in the case of Minneapolis, you do even more bicycling -- and more walking, too.

People here biked and walked 16 percent more in 2011 than in 2010, when Minneapolis...

How in the world can biking and walking be controversial?

They're good exercise, fun to do and -- as an alternative to driving everywhere -- help us save money and the environment.

Both biking and walking are increasingly popular for transportation and recreation today, thanks in large part...

Here's some great news in these tough times! Everyone has a long lost aunt who's giving us an inheritance of incalculable value: clean water, public services, the Internet, parks, scientific knowledge, fashion styles, and much more.

The name of our aunt is the commons -- and while she is metaphorical,...

On the 4th of July, my wife Julie and I were biking through downtown Minneapolis to see fireworks at the Mississippi River when someone shouted at us: "Take your clothes off." We weren't sure whether to be offended or flattered, until realizing we had pedaled into the midst of a...

The commons is a fresh way of looking at political, economic, social and cultural life that means, in short, everything that belongs to all of us. This includes the environment and the Internet, public spaces and human culture -- and much more that we share together rather than own privately....

From the Fox-Wolf-Jackal Network
26 May 2035 1:15:29 p.m.

CATO, TX (USA) -- Libertarians, with their revulsion of government and worship of greedy individualism, dominated politics in the U.S. from the 1980s until the second decade of the 21st century.

Their mission was to dismantle nearly all government programs...

A controversy has erupted in the streets of New York. At issue are the streets themselves--and whether vehicles should share them with pedestrians and bikes.

New York is America's least auto-dependent city--more than half of all households do not even own a car (75 percent don't in Manhattan). And most...

The influence of the new digital commons in democratic uprisings from Tunisia to Egypt to Bahrain has been chronicled at length in news reports from the Middle East, with Facebook, twitter and other social media winning praise as dictator-busters.

But the importance of a much older form of commons in...

The eyes of the nation have focused on Wisconsin twice this month -- once when the Packers, the only community-owned NFL team, won the Super Bowl, and now as thousands of workers occupy the state capitol to resist governor Scott Walker's direct attack on the American middle class and union...

I'm just back from an invigorating bike ride. Nothing unusual about that.

I bike almost every afternoon -- not only for exercise but for the mental lift that comes from feeling the wind in my face and blood pumping through my body. For me it's a form of meditation,...

This week the country awaits to hear what direction Barack Obama charts for the next two years in his State of the Union speech. A masterful orator, Obama often reaches higher toward the common good in his vision than in his policies. He's one of a number of American leaders...

These are uneasy times for anyone who believes that "liberty and justice for all" still has meaning in modern America.

Triumphant Tea Partiers don their work gloves in anticipation of dismantling three generations of hard-won social progress on Capitol Hill and in the nation's statehouses. The drumbeat throughout the...

Are we witnessing history in the making?

One of the front-page stories in last Wednesday's New York Times suggests that rising fuel costs are sparking a shift in the American dream. 

A downtown condo or cozy little rail-line bungalow in a first-ring suburb may soon replace the big...

Antibiotics. Solar energy. Rock 'n' roll. And, of course, urban bike trails.

I count myself a lucky man this time of year because I always take a couple of days off around my birthday and bike all over town. I feel lucky not only because I was born into the...