While looking around for some data for another project, I ran into Minneapolis Health Department’s Reports. There’s a lot of great data there, but not all of it is necessarily in amazing condition for people to build off of. One data set, entitled Minneapolis Birth Data, caught my attention. Locked away in mostly tabular PDFs are a […]
Technology holds the promise of raising living standards for all. Yet, history shows that even with innovations as humble as cellophane, the results are often uneven. Today’s urban “food deserts” can be traced back to technological changes that began in our neighborhoods over a century ago. Winkler Foods, Lindour Meats, Lieb Bakery, Constance Candy. These […]
On a sub-zero Valentine’s Day morning, I walked over to Omar Ansari’s Surly Brewing company. Not for an early morning pick-me-up (I total tee), but rather for a community meeting about the status of the Prospect Park North redevelopment. It was a standing room only crowd, (no doubt enhanced by the offer of free breakfast, […]
In a previous post on my own blog, I mapped out properties in Minneapolis that were listed in the property records database as having been built before 1900. This was to get a sense of where older properties are and how many there are. It was also in response to a bout of local hand-wringing […]
Rondo, Downtown, West Side (West Side Flats) July 19, 2014 29 Miles Traces of history are all around us. Finding them can be a matter of unintentionally stumbling upon something or by consciously searching out plaques or markers. One can also be in the right place when a significant event occurs. The most deliberate and […]
Last Wednesday (February 4) I attended a public presentation by Ramsey County engineers for a proposed redesign of the Randolph and Lexington Avenue intersection. They are proposing to spend a million and a half dollars to purchase four properties on the northeast corner of the intersection and bulldoze them to make space for a dedicated […]
On January 12th, the Whittier Alliance held a tense and somewhat controversial meeting for the purpose of amending their bylaws. Among the more contentious aspects of the new bylaw language was the section giving the Whittier Alliance’s Board of Directors the power to screen Board candidates according to subjective criteria. A clause was also added to require […]
There’s quite a bit of chitter-chatter about lidding the I35W interstate through Cedar-Riverside, coming out of downtown. First, the Star-Tribune wrote about it. Then Charlie Zelle mentioned it at Policy & A Pint on January 16: Charlie Zelle’s mention of putting a lid on 35W between downtown & U of M solicits cheers from the […]
Unlike my usual posts, this one is not about a particular ride. Instead, it is a sort of compilation of many rides, most of them in 2014. Today’s post focuses on addresses, or house numbers, as they are officially known. You might correctly suspect that properties were first given addresses in the early days of […]
July 4, 2014 (Independence Day) Macalester-Groveland, Rondo (Summi-University), Downtown, Lowertown, Crocus Hill 19.9 miles The non-profit Express Bike Shop on Selby Avenue is an excellent example of a business doing good. Staff has been teaching young people how to fix bikes since 1995. Youth interns work with the trained bike mechanics to rehab donated bikes, […]
