The Fulton neighborhood’s northeast corner is in Lake Harriet. Rather than wait for the lake to freeze, I started on the shoreline path at 47th Street West. The dark blue lines in the following route map show the main loop I took back to that spot, aside from one detour I took around a temporarily […]
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Sunday Summary – June 24, 2018
Here’s last week on streets.mn: Minneapolis 2040, the conversation continues Chris Moseng continues his Arguments ...
Chart of the Day: Driving Distance versus Atomic Bomb Location
Here’s a blast from the past that is technically a chart: I saw this on Twitter the other day, but I don’t remember where. So apologies to whoever posted it. As you might recall, the 1956 Interstate Highway Act was actually titled the “National Interstate and Defense Highways Act.” According to Wikipedia: The addition of […]
Arguments Against Minneapolis’s Draft Comprehensive Plan, Addressed (Part II)
This is the second in a series of posts addressing the arguments against Minneapolis’s Draft Comprehensive Plan; the first is here. It Doesn’t Achieve “Affordability” I’m not an economist, or an affordable housing expert. So I want to start with a link to this post by Atrios, who is (or, at least, has been) an […]
My First Bikepacking Trip! Part 3 of 3
Start at the beginning, with My First Bikepacking Trip! Part 1 of 3 (which also has the map of our route), and then read the middle, My First Bikepacking Trip! Part 2 of 3, before this one. We woke up at sunrise with trumpeter swans and many nice songbirds greeting the morning. We needed to be on the […]
Updating the Summit Avenue Bikeway
The recent death of Alan Grahn on Summit Avenue at Snelling has provoked widespread calls for improvements to the Summit Avenue Bikeway. His is not the first death, the first crash or even the first crash of that type at that intersection. A gentleman named David Wuest was similarly hit by a motorist turning northbound […]
Three Reasons I Support Saint Paul’s Plans for a Smaller Pedro Park
If you don’t know about downtown Saint Paul’s Pedro Park controversy — or even how to correctly pronounce the name “Pedro” (hint: you probably don’t) — here’s a quick summary from the recent Pioneer Press article, “Six residents quit St. Paul’s Pedro Park design committee in protest”: On Saturday, residents of several downtown St. Paul […]
National Links: Learning from Los Angeles on Water
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. […]
The 2040 Comprehensive Plan: Completing Minneapolis’ Neighborhoods
Minneapolis is a city of neighborhoods, 72 to be exact. They are the places we live, learn, and play. While we all live in a neighborhood, most of us don’t live in a complete neighborhood. Instead, for too many of us, neighborhoods are the places we leave nearly every day. Nine out of ten trips […]
Map Monday: 11′ Ribbon Map of Minnesota (and the rest of the Mississippi River)
Via Kottke, here’s a cool and very old (!) map of the Mississippi River, which of course begins in Minnesota. It dates to 1866, before the railroad era, when the river was still the main route of transportation in the upper Midwest. Here’s the whole thing with the Twin Cities marked: And here’s a close-up: […]
Density Does Not Have to Equal More Driving (and Less Parking)
I know a woman who lives on Hague Avenue in St. Paul, within two blocks of the frenetic intersection of Selby and Snelling. She parks her car in the driveway that runs alongside her house, by the “Drive Like Your Kids Live Here” sign in the front yard. I asked her recently if she minded […]
Sunday Summary – June 17, 2018
This week, We Read Carmageddon Articles & Comments So You Don’t Have To and continue to provide this valuable public service – this time for media coverage of the 35W construction project. Julie Kosbab says, “Perhaps you have heard it is road construction season in Minnesota? Exits from I-35W northbound into downtown Minneapolis are closing for important bridge […]
I Find Your Appeal Most Unappealing
A local Saint Paul group calling itself Neighbors for Responsible Development recently appealed a decision of the Saint Paul Planning Commission to approve a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for building height for construction being proposed for 246 Snelling Ave S. by TJL Development, LLC. This group has repeatedly claimed that their voice is not being […]
Electric-assist Bicycle Owners Share Their Story, Adventures
The first time I rode an electric-assist bicycle (ebike) was around 15 years ago. My workplace, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, actually had ebikes as part of their vehicle fleet. Our work site is a mile away from downtown Saint Paul and a little over a mile away from the Capitol, and many people have […]
Walking All the Streets Of Fulton from Farmers to France
I confess, “from Farmers to France” is more alliterative than strictly accurate. I started immediately adjacent to the Fulton Farmers Market, but I devoted a few minutes to the environs before going into the market itself. And I returned there at the end of the walk, after France Avenue. The Fulton neighborhood in southwest Minneapolis extends […]
Can Suburb-to-Suburb Express Service Work in the Twin Cities?
Two years ago Route 494 began service between Shakopee and Maple Grove as part of a partnership between Southwest Transit, Minnesota Valley Transit Authority, Plymouth Metrolink, and Maple Grove Transit. There were station stops at Marschall Road Transit Station in Shakopee, Southwest Station in Eden Prairie, United Healthcare and Optum campuses in Minnetonka, Hopkins Crossroad […]
Please Color Outside the Lines
Recently I realized my complaints about three new urban improvements boiled down to the same thing: Careful thought and design work seemed to stop at the edge of the project. Something just outside the lines had screwed it up. My first and longest-standing complaint like this concerned the lack of a bus shelter on University […]
We Read Carmageddon Articles & Comments So You Don’t Have To
When controversy happens… when tempers flare… we read the comments, so you don’t have to. Perhaps you have heard it is road construction season in Minnesota? Exits from I-35W northbound into downtown Minneapolis are closing for important bridge work. Local media has been hyperventilating about the project for days. We are getting regular Star-Tribune coverage of […]
Podcast #113: Extreme Victorian Restoration with Matt Mazanec
I’m really excited to share this podcast with you, because it’s a new topic for me — an in depth look at restoration of a unique old house on the East Side of Saint Paul – and I personally loved talking to Matt about his incredible passion for his house. I first came across Matt […]
National Links: Horizontal Skyscrapers on the Way
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. […]
Confessions of a Former NIMBY
When I was a teenager, a multi-family housing development was proposed next door to my family’s home in Little Canada. The developer wanted to put two rows of townhomes where there was a small home on a large lot. People in the neighborhood resisted (including my family), and ultimately the city council decided not to […]