Attending Washington High School in Brainerd, Minnesota, my hot rod friends and I used several ...
[Part of the Saint Paul Field Guide to Public Spaces, put together by a geography class at Macalester College in fall 2018. See introduction here.] By David Black Phalen Regional Park is located in the northeastern portion of St. Paul, with a small portion extending north into its suburb of Maplewood. The park’s overall area is 494 […]
On March 27, we posted about the numbers surrounding the proposed $600 million investment to bring Amtrak rail service along a corridor between Minneapolis and Duluth. Many of you shared your stories of rail and bus travel, and many expressed a deep appreciation for the comfort and conveniences of travel by rail. To learn more, I created a […]
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. […]
On April 2, Nice Ride sent an email to members announcing the start of the riding season April 15 (now April 22, Earth Day, due to weather). In the email, the transportation network nonprofit shared that it was leaving the St. Paul market after nearly a decade on the streets of the capital city. St. […]
Here’s a cool “map”, one of the many aerial panoramas from the late 19th century Minneapolis. Here is an 1891 view showing downtown, Bridge Square, Hennepin, Nicollet, and Washington Avenues, the railyards, mill district, St. Anthony falls, and the street grid extending out towards the horizon of progress and real estate development. Link to a […]
On April 10 the St. Paul City Council approved zoning changes requested by Ryan Companies, the future developer of the Ford site. The changes included allowing single-family houses to be built along the river on Mississippi River Boulevard south of Ford Parkway. The city’s Planning Commission twice told the City Council that the city should […]
Final Four? Check. April snowstorm? Check. Taxes filed? Check. Sunday Summary? Yup, here it is: Roads A History of Minnesota’s Interstates, Part Two by Monte Castleman, “is the second part of the history of Interstate Highways in Minnesota. Part One covered the early plans and conceptions of the interstate system, from the 1930s to the Interstate […]
This is the second part of the history of Interstate Highways in Minnesota. Part One covered the early plans and conceptions of the interstate system, from the 1930s to the Interstate Highway Act of 1956. This concludes with the realization of the system. First, here’s some maps showing the completion of the interstates by decade. […]
Scientists estimate up to 1 billion birds meet untimely demise thanks to illuminated buildings. Light pollution of the airspace is a relatively recent but growing threat to nocturnally migrating birds. Minneapolis ranks among the top 10 cities posing the greatest dangers to birds in this most recent study, authored by researchers at Cornell University, along […]
Lime isn’t bringing its bikes back to Saint Paul in 2019 and I think that’s fine. And if I died while riding my bike the cops in Saint Paul would be nonplussed. I tried riding a Lime last year. Not the scooter; those were fine, if a little boring. But the green bikes were heavy, […]
While grocery shopping last week I witnessed a person roughly my age helping her mother shop. I couldn’t immediately identify her mother’s ailment or reason for needing help, and little did I know I’d be doing the same thing for my own mother this week following her eye surgery. The “silver tsunami” is rapidly approaching […]
I consider myself a savvy shopper. I check prices online and in-store and tend to avoid expensive places unless I need a few things I would have to drive to get elsewhere. The year is 2019, and we don’t have to be tied to our neighborhood geography when choosing where to buy groceries. With services […]
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. […]
There are many reasons to oppose Tim Walz’s proposed gas tax increase. When a DFL governor last tried to increase the gas tax in 2015, Charles Marohn of Strong Towns wrote two excellent pieces detailing all the ways that The Minnesota Department of Transportation’s road building policies are hurting Minnesota’s cities and towns, fueling suburbanization […]
We know that Minneapolis and it environs have a historically, dangerously low vacancy rate. The proportion of homes that are for sale or for rent is far less than a healthy five percent, so renters and buyers compete for empty units, and sellers and landlords make more money than they would otherwise. We need more […]
On semifinal Saturday, as the game between Virginia and Auburn was about to begin, I followed the streaming crowds backward to Nicollet Mall, where the other half of the fan base was enjoying our new pedestrian mall, now vehicle-free! Traffic was relatively light, and visitors were taking to the sidewalk pretty well. One Final Four […]
The Final Four has taken over downtown Minneapolis and you could write a post about how well the city managed its latest crowd scene. Before riding the ferris wheel on Nicollet Mall and other Final Four activities, I hope you attended the Writers Workshop in Saint Paul; we’ll report on that more next week. Top […]
NiceRide Minnesota is launching 500 #eBikes in Minneapolis this spring. I got a chance to ride one of the new bikes at the eBike Challenge. The new electric-assist bikes use the same frame as the blue dockless bikes, introduced at the end of last season. This includes the traditional low step-thru design that means you […]
Cheerier weather, a broader age range of development, and the inclusion of a commercial area differentiated this second visit to the Lind-Bohanon neighborhood from the prior, more northerly walk. Although this walk’s area overlaps with both that prior walk and the one yet to come, it avoids both the most northern and the most southern portions […]
I am a sucker for energy use and intensity charts. Looking at CO2 emissions is one thing, but total energy use is an even broader way to think about how our society gets around. That’s why I think energy charts are fascinating, and you should too. Just check out this one or this one or […]
