Does anyone know of any city or county services that will test your soil? Way back when, my father in Oklahoma had a man come out from the local agricultural group and do a soil test, which let him know if he needed to add loam or sand or clay or whatever to the ground to grow better crops. It let him know if tomatoes or corn would do better and what sort of additives or mulch or fertilizer he should use. Does Minnesota have anything like that? Does it cost? Who would I contact?
Similarly, I've heard things about the lead content of the St. Paul tapwater that makes me worry. Other than calling a private company and spending money, is there any resource or city office that monitors water quality and could tell me about average water quality in my area?
About the mentioned ban on SUVs - I disagree and think people should be able to drive an SUV if they want to. If the point is low fuel economy, then there are better ways to approach this than banning certain classes of vehicles. Such as simply raising the tax on gasoline - those with gas-efficient cars would not suffer nearly so much as those without. Or increasing the tax or tag fee on all cars with a listed fuel efficiency under a certain amount (say, +$50 for under 10 mpg, +$25 for under 20 mpg, etc.)
Instead of targetting a culture that you find disagreeable (which is pretty unethical, btw), you should target the behavior. It *is* the behavior that bothers you more, right? Or is it instead just an unrepressable urge to strike out at those different from how you think they should be?
Mary Baker East Side
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