Here liesthe time and respect
Jacob Ramos gave
Nancy and Bill

Jacob posts his first video exploring the Saint Paul skyways, using the city’s ArcGIS map. It gives him the idea for a better map, with navigation that’s easier to use. 27 minutes long. By Oct 26, 2026: 14.5K views and 560+ likes.

First commit on the map. Nancy sees it that night: I looked at it and loved it… Thank you so much for lending your expertise.

Nancy, by text: I’d like to build on your Spark Saint Paul idea.

Nancy, by text: I’ve been claiming 50 members since somewhere back below <45. It happens with optimists like us!

Des Moines. Jacob and Nancy walk the Des Moines skywalk with a fellow member. The city’s skywalk manager shows them around.

Jacob picks the name and registers skywayfriends.org and skywayfriends.com.

Jacob writes the mission statement and builds the first site.

Nancy, by text: Bill and I named me ‘President’… I anoint you ‘Technical Director.’

Jacob sends Nancy a proposal, a one-pager and a grant timeline for reopening the indoor park at Town Square. Nancy, by text: Thank you! This is really a big help right now!

Jacob gathers the city’s skyway easement agreements and writes a 9-page report on who maintains and pays for the bridges. Nancy and Bill are copied.

Jacob asks the City of Des Moines’ skywalk manager for its budgets. Saint Paul’s quotes run $1 million or more per bridge. By April 16 the Des Moines numbers are in: about $305,000 a bridge for HVAC, roof, carpet, soffits and lighting. Nancy is copied throughout.

The eat. app for the progressive dinner begins.

The Skyway Social app begins.

Jacob texts Nancy a 10-year budget to renovate every bridge in the system, built on the Des Moines numbers. Nancy: This is very nice work.

Nancy asks Jacob for an initiative proposal: You can keep it very brief — half a page or less. The next day he sends talking points, a one-pager, a business model and a business plan, then the renovation budget and the skyway math as spreadsheets.

679 surveys collected on the app he built.

He chose the name. He wrote the mission. He built everything. About 700 volunteer hours. Credit in the press: none he didn’t have to ask for.

Saint Paul Voice runs the first article. The map is uncredited. Jacob gets it corrected the same afternoon. Bill: Wouldn’t it be [great if] we could dictate how reporters and editors think and write! Unfortunately, in my 40 years as both a reporter and editor… it has never been thus!

Nancy tells Jacob that she and Bill offered the City first opportunity to decide if they want to ‘acquire’ the software. He never authorized it. It was his map.

The Skyway Buzz runs Jacob’s dinner statistics and prose nearly word for word, credited to “the technical director.”

Nancy, by text: Edits made by AI, after I included your statements almost verbatim.

A local scavenger-game operator asks about using the map. Nancy and Bill meet him without Jacob.

Jacob announces a five-day scavenger game across the skyways, built on the map with a local partner.

Nancy: This is not a Friends of the Skyway–approved event. Please take it down from the website at once. The game lived on spskyway.com.

Bill: we ALL need to respect her singular authority. In the same email, to Jacob’s partner: “we enjoyed meeting with you and look forward to continuing the conversation.”

Pioneer Press feature. The map and the website are credited to the organization. spskyway.com appears nowhere. Jacob asks, for the second time, for the agreement in writing.

Nancy cancels the verbal agreement in writing, by email: the previous verbal commitments can no longer be carried forward.

Nancy asks Jacob to confirm in writing that he and Open-Civ are the sole owners and rights holders of spskyway.com and skywayfriends.org.

Jacob tells the 577 people on the list he is stepping away.

Nancy asks that skywayfriends.org and skywayfriends.com be transferred to Nancy Kehmeier: Please initiate this transfer today.

Their last message.

Seek, the game they told him to take down, drops its final clue. Skyway Weekly №01 goes out the same morning.

The site is reset to fully positive. Every trace of the dispute is removed.

The map ships to iPhone. 80 beta seats.

Their newsletter lists the group’s initiatives. One of them is the Skyway Art Scavenger Hunt.

“A clean resolution.” Both domains offered at no cost, in exchange for written credit and mutual non-disparagement, plus an optional hosting plan.

Jacob builds a directory of their nine groups on his own site and routes volunteers straight to their leads.

Jacob returns the last $275: the $200 Nancy sent on April 13 for his development tools, and her $75 dinner loan from April 29. Every dollar she ever sent him, $320, is back with her.

The offer is withdrawn. The stone goes up. From fewer than 45 members to 573 Skyway Friends when he left.