We had a pretty light week here on streets.mn, but here it all is:
Quick look department
Streets.mn is curiously devoid of Charts of the Day this week, but we do have a couple of highly visual offerings. The Miracle of Two Minneapolises in Prenatal Care maps the inequality in access to high-quality prenatal care. Minneapolis: An Urban Transformation? answers the question with side by side photos of Washington Avenue, Mill City District and more from 2007 and 2014. Comments supply a few more examples of transformation and veer into a discussion of architectural quality. In a quicker look back, Retrospective of the Day: Last Winter blunts the nasty windchills of the week with a reminder of the snow we had last year.
Washington Avenue transformation
Transit related
The Transit Line No One Is Talking About would connect Downtown Minneapolis to Southdale via Uptown. The post reviews other proposed transit corridors, the density of jobs in the Edina/Southdale area and other relevant justification. Although Metro Transit is not talking about this line, as the comment winner of the week, 50+ comments talked much about the route, transit modes, and provided additional details about points along the way. Following the Tracks of the Empire Builder maps the route of Amtrak’s Empire Builder line to show the single-track segments and the segments with sidings or two or more tracks as a way to explain why this route has struggled with delays (and seen a decline in ridership as a result). Prospect North summarizes what happened at the community meeting about the Prospect Park North transit oriented redevelopment.
The Missing Link
Policy problems
Measuring the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metro Area, and Getting Real with the Map reveals some of the flaws in the current debate over Metro v. Greater MN at the legislature by asking how the metro area is distinguished, looking at land use across the metro (and beyond) and suggesting tax dollars could be better spent by targeting investments more strategically. Streets.mn writers have lauded small, walkable grocery stores as an urbanist ideal, Destruction for Appetite: The Loss of Corner Stores reviews the history of corner grocery stores and economic and other reasons for their demise. Commenters tease out questions of scale for neighborhood stores and provide some local examples. Improvements Necessary in Order for Minneapolis’ Open Data Portal to Thrive gives a detailed analysis of the city’s new (launched December 2014) open data portal, its shortcomings, and some suggestions for improvement.
Metro area, Met Council jurisdiction limits
Cruising toward March this week – stay warm, keep reading and have a great week!