Do you have an idea for a post that you’ve been sitting on for a while but haven’t brought yourself to actually write, or maybe a half-written post that you’re not sure how to finish? Have you wanted to write for streets.mn but aren’t quite sure what to write about? Join streets.mn contributors for a […]
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Sunday Summary – August 18, 2019
Do you have a draft post for streets.mn you’d really like to finish? Or maybe ...
Sunday Summary – August 18, 2019
Do you have a draft post for streets.mn you’d really like to finish? Or maybe an idea which needs to get started? Or just want some writerly conversation and assistance? All will be available at streets.mn’s first Post-a-Palooza – Thursday, August 22! at Blackstack Brewing. How can we help you create great content? For some […]
Walking All the Streets of Southwestern Longfellow
I already remarked that the Longfellow neighborhood is diverse, encompassing residences and industry, art and history, churches and schools, food and drink, and much else—signs on utility poles, for instance. So it came as no surprise that I saw some of those same elements south of Lake Street too. But diversity being what it is, this walk […]
Bicycles, Gender, and Risk
Disclaimer: In this post, I’m going to be referring to “men” and “women” because the study was done with a binary conception of gender. In a very real sense, this is garbage, but in a different real sense, it’s not only reasonable but a good idea to use that conception. I came across the recent […]
Uptown’s Mall: More Park, Less Parking
If you’ve ever been to Uptown’s The Mall, you might not have realized it’s a park administered by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. It can feel more like a nicely landscaped parking lot with a generous grassy median. The drive-able portion of The Mall seems to serve the function of letting drivers hunt for […]
12 Ideas to Improve Downtown Mobility
I was walking through the skyway near Nicollet Mall on Monday and watching the backed up traffic below. Single occupancy fossil fuel vehicles, car commuters, were “blocking the box” and preventing buses full of other commuters from getting home on time. The flow of pedestrians at every signal cycle was more than the number of […]
Why did Centerpoint Energy Close the Greenway for 10 Days?
On July 23rd, Centerpoint Energy closed the Midtown Greenway without providing any advance notice to the users of the trail. No signage was put in place in advance of the closure, and they did not notify the Midtown Greenway Coalition. They simply erected barricades and ripped up the trail. The detour provisions provided were wholly […]
Bike Routes to Get In and Out of Downtown St. Paul
Bill Lindeke recently posted a definitive ranked list of the Best Bike Lanes from Downtown Saint Paul to the West. The list was empty, and it was a good joke, because it’s true. Having bike commuted in and out of Downtown Saint Paul for the last 2.5 years, I’ve also got opinions about which routes […]
National Links: QR Codes Just Slow Everyone Down
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 D.C. region. […]
Brit Builds an ADU: The Surveyor and the Height Problem
Hey! It’s been a while, huh? We are out of spring and well into summer, and our project finally is getting into the swing of things. I owe y’all a few updates. When we last left off, we were concerned about what type of accessory dwelling unit (ADU) was possible on our property. So, we […]
Waiting For a Sign: ‘Don’t Block the Intersection’
The secret is out. Drivers are needlessly, pointlessly blocking downtown intersections, causing backups of Metro Transit buses, as Bill Lindeke detailed in an article for MinnPost (“Is there a solution for the buses vs. blockers bottleneck in downtown Minneapolis?“). The problem is acute at certain points, such as where Nicollet Mall meets Washington Avenue South […]
Sunday Summary – August 11, 2019
A couple of streets.mn events are coming up. On Friday, August 16, Join Us For Happy Hour + One Final Ride On The Midnight Bus From Wayzata the next week we’re hosting Post-a-Palooza – Thursday, August 22! where you can “Join streets.mn contributors for a post-a-palooza, which will basically be a co-working session/happy hour focused on […]
Review: Nice Ride Electric-Assist Bike (2019)
On Monday, July 29, Nice Ride launched its electric-assist bike or “ebike” pilot. The press release gushed about how riders could “supercharge” their rides, and also highlighted Nice Ride’s new “Nice Ride for All” program for low-income riders. The program gives annual memberships to Nice Ride to people on either nutrition assistance (SNAP) or transit […]
Fish Hatchery Trail: a Final Update
Several years ago, I came across the Fish Hatchery Trail, a mostly wooded regional trail that connects downtown Saint Paul to SE Twin Cities, such as Maplewood, Woodbury, Newport, Hastings, etc. It’s part of the Mississippi River Trail system, which goes from the river’s headwaters all the way to Wabasha and beyond. I’ve seen deer, […]
Lime Quietly Raises Prices on Scooter Rentals
Recently, Lime increased its pricing in Minneapolis and St. Paul from $1 plus 15 cents per minute to $1 plus 20 cents per minute. For a typical five-minute ride, this increases the total cost by 14 percent, from $1.75 to $2 even. For a longer ride of 10 minutes, the increase is 20 percent. Rival […]
National Links: 3D Crosswalks, Megacities, and Vacancy Taxes
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 D.C. region. […]
The Quarterly Transit Report–August 2019
These are not good times for bus ridership. It’s down 7 percent in the Twin Cities metro area for the first half of 2019 compared with 2018. In contrast, Green Line light rail ridership is up 5 percent, the Blue Line is down only 1 percent and the Northstar line is down 3 percent. What’s […]
Sunday Summary – August 4, 2019
First, there are two streets.mn events coming up. For transit fans and/or night owls, Friday, August 16th: Join Us For Happy Hour + One Final Ride On The Midnight Bus From Wayzata for a trip out to Wayzata Friday evening and back to Minneapolis in the wee hours of Saturday morning. For readers who identify […]
Walking All the Streets of Northern Longfellow
No collection of words and photos can capture an entire walk, but Minneapolis’s Longfellow neighborhood is particularly resistant to encapsulation. It features a diverse mixture of land uses: residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, and recreational. Large buildings and quirky little details. Artworks and functional structures. All very lived-in, seemingly with no two of anything alike. My […]
Friday, August 16th: Join Us For Happy Hour + One Final Ride On The Midnight Bus From Wayzata
Join the Events Committee for one final ride on the midnight bus from Wayzata on Friday, August 16! Two years ago, as part of Metro Transit’s restructuring of transit service to better serve the West End, they introduced the 645 for workers along the 394 corridor. The 645, like the 675 it replaced, operates from […]