To start what is forecast to be a rainy week, here’s the latest on land use and transportation: This week’s Big Ideas: Equity: A recent theme in streets.mn posts is how we try to plan for and build more equity into our cities. This week’s equitable offerings If I Were Mayor… imagines some ways a mayor […]
Someday I will travel abroad and sketch the famous fountains of Rome and Tivoli. However, there are fountains right here in downtown Saint Paul, maybe not as famous, but every bit as wonderful, in a Saint Paul sort of way. What Saint Paul fountains lack in artistic splendor, or even water, they make up in bleakness and pathos. They are eminently […]
While walking along a sleepy residential street in my St. Paul neighborhood, I noticed something ugly about a traffic circle. There are eight signs in total; four warning of the upcoming traffic circle and four instructing each direction which way to navigate the circle. We need to design residential streets in a manner where most signs are not required. Here’s another […]
Road pricing in Germany by Lewis Lehe Road pricing in Singapore by Lewis Lehe
On Saturday April 26, 2014, I will be spending the day filming around MSP along with many other professional and amateur filmmakers documenting ten questions for the future of our city. Pick up a camera and join us! The result will be a geo tagged database of video clips and a national PBS TV series. […]
It has been several months since construction came to a close on Washington Ave SE’s stretch through the University of Minnesota’s East Bank, and I couldn’t be more conflicted about the result. Great design, terrible timing When comparing the reconstructed street’s physical design to its predecessor’s, what we have now is spectacular for all […]
Local architect Robert Roscoe recently published a book called Milwaukee Avenue: Community Renewal in Minneapolis. It details the Housing and Redevelopment Authority’s plan to condemn and acquire the area for urban renewal, and Roscoe’s role in ultimately defeating the plan and rehabbing the street. He kindly lent me his photo archives for this post. Milwaukee […]
Today’s Chart of the Day is Mode Share for Bike Walk and Transit in Minnesota Source: MnDOT Annual Transportation Performance Report 2012
Yesterday I presented at Cuningham Group’s “Urban Currents” series. The theme was “What if I Were Mayor?” Keep in mind the following ideas don’t represent a platform for getting elected, but rather to try and implement once in office (there’s a big difference). So here goes…. If I were mayor, I would: 1. Create a […]
Today’s Chart of the Day shows Transit Boardings in Greater Minnesota: Source: MnDOT Annual Transportation Performance Report 2012