For Spooky Pride Month, I wanted to imagine what some of our broad streets could ...
Industry and arts, community and commerce were again much in evidence in the Howe neighborhood—and signs of spring, even more pronounced that on my first visit five days earlier. Having stayed south of 38th Street East on that prior visit, I did the reverse this time. To keep the walk manageable, I took 36th Avenue South as […]
When Rectangular Rapid Flash Beacons (RRFBs) started appearing in Bloomington and Edina I thought they would be a huge improvement for pedestrian safety, but having used them numerous times I’ve realized they’re a compromise on safety and neither motorists or pedestrians are the winners. RRFBs are a safety device used at crosswalks in which a […]
Today I’m bringing you a conversation with Heather Worthington and Paul Mogush, two of the people behind the forthcoming Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan. The Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan is the basic planning document for the city, a ten-year update required by the regional government, and Minneapolis’ plan has been getting a lot of attention for […]
July 3, 2016 Macalester-Groveland, Rondo (Frogtown), North End 16.7 Miles The creativity of fellow Saint Paulites continues to dazzle and impress. Unique yards and remarkable gardens, the most commonplace form of self-expression I see on rides, is evident in every part of Saint Paul, which this trip proved. With an abundance of streets – more […]
Bloomberg carried a chart-laden article recently, written by Justin Fox, showing the disparate population growth rates in Northeastern and Midwestern cities. It charts the differences in growth rate distribution along the coasts, where three large metro areas are generating nearly all the population growth, and in the Midwest, where growth rates are more evenly distributed. […]
The Star Tribune got big local developer Kelly Doran to talk about Minneapolis 2040, a plan that would allow more housing across all parts of the city. Doran said 2040 was “silly,” and that triplexes won’t turn him a profit. He even sees it as a threat to neighborhood character. It’s funny because Doran is constructing […]
Every day at The Overhead Wire we collect news about cities and send the links to our email list. At the end of the week we take some of the most popular stories and post them to Greater Greater Washington, a group blog similar to streets.mn that focuses on urban issues in the DC region. […]
A recent post reviewing Bloomington’s Four Lane Death Roads covered the benefits to bicyclists and pedestrians. To follow up, I’m expanding the topic to Bloomington’s bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in general. First up is a photo tour of some of the worst of Bloomington’s existing infrastructure. A Photo Tour of The Worst of Bloomington’s Bike / […]
Via Lisa Bender on Twitter comes this map from a 2013 CPED report to the city about permitted demolitions and residential unit development in 2013: Yellow represent demolition and rebuild. Orange represent new buildings on vacant lots. Red X indicates a demolition without subsequent permit to develop. MSPaint circle is via Ms. Bender.
I had the wonderful opportunity to give a summary of the changes to the comp plan to a gathering of Neighbors for More Neighbors recently. Here’s what I said: The second draft of the comp plan is out. A “wide spectrum” of comments were received, and our comments were heard. I’d like to give a […]
This is a very cool map from the NY Times that reminds me of the famous Nolli map of Rome. It shows all the buildings in the state on a simple black-and-white scale. What fun to play around with! Here are a few views of Minnesota at different scales: Closer up to Mankato… Closer up […]
It is hard not to enjoy Fall here in Minnesota when the sun comes out. While it’s looking pretty beautifully orange, yellow, and red (against that clear blue sky and, even better, reflected in one of the lakes), Minneapolis has not yet reached “peak leaf” according to the DNR and our Bonus Friday Map: Minnesota Fall […]
Trees are pretty great, so we thought we’d share a bonus map this week. Via the Minnesota DNR, here is the current status of fall color in the state of Minnesota: , There is a lot of orange going on in that map, which represents nice leaves to look at! Consider this your streets.mn […]
Walking in my Longfellow neighborhood just after dusk last summer, I saw a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see two beady eyes shining out at me from a creature frozen in its horizontal climb across a cyclone fence. What is that, I wondered. My husband Peter recognized […]
Like the Hiawatha neighborhood to its south, the Howe neighborhood ranges from rail-side grain elevators on the west to the Mississippi River gorge on the east. As shown by the blue tint in the route map, from north to south it spans from 34th to 40th Street East. My route for the first day started and ended […]
Looking at the surface, an amphitheater at the Upper Harbor Terminal (UHT) would be fantastic. Selfishly, it’s just over 2 miles from me and the thought of seeing an outdoor concert at 10,000 capacity, and within walking distance is almost a dream. Awesome-O! I was intrigued enough to take a walk on the grid to hopefully […]
I had the opportunity to attend YIMBYtown in Boston. It’s a good chance to learn from other activists about what was going on in other cities, and to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Mostly though, people just asked me if I knew WedgeLIVE (yes) or if I was behind the […]
October 10 is Walk to School Day 2018. Per the official web site: International Walk to School Day is a global event that involves communities from more than 40 countries walking and biking to school on the same day. It began in 1997 as a one-day event. Over time, this event has become part of […]
This is an independent addition to the previous post titled: “How You, and All of Us, Can Escape Car Dependency” This twist is how to do so when you have kids. My journey going car-free began a few years ago. Household expenses forced me to look at the larger line items and figure out how […]
