'I'm walkin' here!'
That line ricochets through my head every time some bozo nearly clips me in a crosswalk. For those of you that aren't movie buffs, "I'm walkin' here! I'm walking here!" was shouted by Ratso Rizzo (played by Dustin Hoffman) in the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy. And a damn, fine film it was. But the reason I bring it up is that Minneapolis is finally getting around to attempting to assert its state-given pedestrian rights. From 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. tonight, the city is hosting a Pedestrian Master Plan Open House at Minneapolis Central Library. People are invited to share their horror stories and make suggestions for how to improve automobile-pedestrian relationships. The Strib weighed in the topic this morning with a story written by a journalism student.