Every Sunday here at streets.mn our longtime member and Board Secretary, Betsey Buckheit, has been cleverly ...
If Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer, come join us for our first summertime streets.mn Happy Hour of 2019! Fortunately, it looks like the weather will be kinder to us this time around. (Those of you who could make it through almost a foot of snow to attend Happy Hour in February, […]
Last weekend, a group of us from streets.mn gathered to clean up the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis. We lucked out with gorgeous weather (65 and sunny!), and a good turnout despite many other events going on in the Twin Cities that day. A huge thank you to everyone who came out! We met near the […]
I was reflecting on the May 8 Chart of the Day post on micro-mobility that mapped the middle 68 percentile of trips for 18 modes of transportation, and I collected a few thoughts on the future of mobility. I have written several posts recently on bike share, ride share, and electric scooters, the rented side […]
It is Bike to Work Day in the Twin Cities on Friday! Perhaps you are biking to work. Maybe you will see all those joyous cyclists and think, “I would like to try that!” We have content that can help! streets.mn writers have written more than once about bike commuting. Whether it’s your first bike […]
As part of the SWLRT construction, the Cedar Lake Trail is now closed between Hopkins and Minneapolis. For two to three years. Never fear, there is a detour. Let’s take a look at it. These detours certainly get a cyclist from one side of the closure to the other. The portion I’m focused on—between Hopkins […]
Previously I’ve written about how I don’ t think Transportation as a Service (TaaS), the rideshare model of electric self-driving cars will become as universal as soon as some optimists have predicted. Loss of the pride of ownership, privacy, and the “yuck” factor of shared vehicles are some factors working against it. Yet the economics […]
Edina’s City Council approved a draft comprehensive plan last Tuesday. While it’s not nearly as ambitious as the 2040 plan approved last year in Minneapolis, the Edina plan has still attracted some organized opposition. Bruce Christensen, creator of two anti-population growth websites in Edina (stopthelid.com and We Can Do Better Edina), led a contingent of of residents whose testimony […]
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. […]
Next week, join streets.mn for the first ever “Night at the Movies.” The peerless Trylon Cinema in South Minneapolis is showing an absolute classic film about US suburbia — Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House — and we’re hosting a film and discussion evening. If you’re not familiar with this landmark film, it’s a 1948 […]
Mother’s Day was yesterday, but moms don’t get days off. Especially if you’re a working mom with children under 6. This map comes via the Humphrey School of Public Affairs’ Center on Women, Gender, and Public Policy and the American Community Survey. It shows that some of Minnesota’s most rural counties have the highest percentages […]
Not long ago, I felt particularly invisible while crossing a street near where I live. A stop sign was to my left, and I was walking parallel with the busy, illegally fast right-of-way traffic. (Once, on the same street, on a corner where I walk at least a few times each week, a car careened […]
Apartment department Conrad Zbikowski offers another preview of a new mixed use building going up with the Iron Clad Mixed-Use Development Opening “Mid-June” at the southeast corner of Chicago and Washington Avenues in the Mill District. More policy-related, he also crunches some numbers to find It’s Impossible to Afford Rent on the Minimum Wage both […]
Iron Clad broke ground on October 23, 2017, and now nearly 18 months later, the project is close to completion. According to a leasing spokesperson, the 166 market-rate apartments and 153-key hotel will be opening in “mid-June” with retail opening up later. As of April 15, the development has no signed leases for retail space. […]
Here’s a chart about cars, showing the changes since 1975 in some key dynamics about how cars use energy and how big they are. It’s from the EPA’s latest report on automotive trends, and it pegs these three variables at 1975 levels, charting the changes. Check it out: As you can see, there were big […]
One thing I noticed very early on when I moved to Saint Paul was how difficult it was to get involved with city government and politics. For starters, I noticed a stark difference between St. Paul’s city hall and that of Minneapolis. The Minneapolis city hall is open, you can gather in the foyer. Minneapolis […]
May there be bicycles in heaven. Summit & Snelling Ave – Alan Grahn Memorial Ride The Alan Grahn Memorial ride, hosted by Hilary Louise Hancy and Rob Stepaniak, took place at 6:30PM on May 16, 2018 to celebrate the 75-year life of a husband, father, grandfather and outdoor enthusiast. He also inspired the #SafetyOnSummit movement. […]
Here’s a chart that caught my eye, from a post on Why Is This Interesting about micromobility. First let’s look at the chart, which, with its log-scale and comprehensive scope, is the kind of chart that makes me excited about charts. Check it out: (See also these other great comprehensive charts: Operating Speeds by Mode […]
Minneapolis and St. Paul both recently passed municipal minimum wage ordinances that were intended to lift up the working poor. In Minneapolis, the current minimum wage is $11.25 for large businesses, and that is scheduled to increase to $15.00 by July 1, 2022. The current minimum wage in St. Paul is the state minimum of […]
Metro Transit has stepped up a previously ill-defined “anti-harassment” initiative to promote “respect, kindness and inclusion among our riders.” This has manifested in station announcements, signage, and scrolling messages on buses that a lot of people probably find innocuous, or even welcome. However, the way it has chosen to go about this campaign is […]
You may have read the rumors that Metro Transit is going to cut overnight service on the Green Line, due in part to to too many people using the trains as shelter. It’s a tough situation, to say the least, pitting public transit against the basic human right to security and a roof over one’s […]
