A few weeks ago a post about a business located inside of a single-family house on Grand Ave in St. Paul wanting to expand out to the sidewalk reminded me how much I like single-family houses with storefronts on them. As far as I can tell, this type of building represents the best of all worlds in urbanism: it’s an incremental intensification of land use that also preserves existing structures (resources), and is generally undertaken only by locally owned businesses, keeping money in the local economy.

Bryant Ave. and 36th St.

Franklin and Lyndale

West side of 11th just North of Franklin

Nicollet and 34th St.

East side of Bloomington just North of Lake St.

Grand Ave. and 33rd St.

East side of Chicago Ave. North of 38th