What a time to be alive!
There’s a lot going on around here: cranes and trains all over, new bike lanes, new parklets, and new possibilities! In the spirit of getting in on the March bracket-making action, we are happy to announce the first annual streets.m(ad)n(ess) Tournament! Using the suggestions of you, our readers, we’re going to set up a bracket and have public voting to find out what you, the community, are most excited about.
What time range? It’s broad! Probably in the past year or so? That way we can do it again next year if it goes well.
What geographic area? The whole state, though keep in mind that most voters will be in the metro. What types of things? Many things! Some quick examples:
- Green Line opening
- Hennepin/Lyndale bottleneck reconstruction public process
- Holidazzle Winter Market
Be specific!
We, the behind-the-scenes masters of streets.mn, will seed them accordingly on the bracket and then open it up to public voting later this month. We reserve the right to ultimately fill out the bracket in a logical way. Will there be prizes? Maybe! Who knows? Each submission will get a brief write up as voting opens–you may end up being recruited to help with that, but we’ll see how it plays out.
Potential categories:
- Transportation
- Development
- Policy
- Potpourri
But it depends what we get! I’m hoping for at least 32 submissions, but optimally we’d get 33 or more and do zany play-in games.
So leave some comments with suggestions! Or Tweet them at us, or share them on our Facebook page, or dispatch a carrier pigeon to our downtown offices.
In addition to the 3 (good) suggestions in your post, I’ll add:
Nicollet Hotel Block development agreement
Nye’s development voluntarily saving 2 older buildings
City Center snags Sports Authority and Saks Off 5th
Surface parking lots downtown disappearing at a furious pace
Downtown St. Paul Post Office Redevelopment
Lunds in Downtown St. Paul
Surly Brewery (the new one)
Apartment boom has not busted (yet)
Continued urbanization of the Southdale area / France Avenue pedestrian improvements
2014 MLB All-Star Game at Target Field
Target Field Station (the new one)
Municipal consent agreement for SWLRT
Charlie Zelle acknowledging the potential to cap 35W between downtown and the U of M
Real-time transit information goes live
Guerrilla urbanists who made those bus stop information stickers
State bonding money ($23.5MM!!) for Nicollet Mall reconstruction
Accessory Dwelling Unit policy passage
And a couple silly ones:
All of Jacob Frey’s colorful quotes in the media
MRRDC / MRRSVLD Facebook pages came into existence
urbanists’ discovery of New Ulm
St. Paul Depot renovation
How about: The Union Depot train station actually being used as a train station.
The upcoming Washington Ave. PBL will probably have the most direct effect on my life.
STP bike plan
STP post office building redevelopment
Clarification needed:
Is this primarily intended to be a “Best of 2014 (and early 2015)” bracket??
If so, I think we need to clarify if things that were just recently approved (but won’t be under construction for 1-2 years) should be included.
Because we’re already getting a mixture of both:
1. Cool things that opened or happened in 2014
2. Things that were just approved in the last month or so and are fresh on our minds, but won’t be a reality until 2016 or later.
Green Line
I am an idiot.
I’m going to generally say “in the past year” but it’s not an exact science. For Hennepin/Lyndale, for example, I’d say that the very successful public engagement process around that project is probably a cooler story than the actual project, and that has all pretty much happened in the past year.
Matt killed it with the suggestions. Others:
#Orthgazi
Block E redevelopment (nearly complete)
2015 transportation legislation (TBD? If at all?)
Urban wall along Washington Ave Transit Mall
Urban wall along the Midtown Greenway
WATM signage/signal craziness
Protected bike lanes on 36th
More Open Streets events
Parklets
Continued Nice Ride expansion
Minneapolis Open Data Portal (despite my streets.mn post ripping on it)
Clean Energy Partnership (w/ Xcel)
Curbside Organics
Just realized if I added “Beekeeping” that my comment could pass for the Ward 10 newsletter
“Bill goes to Minneapolis”
Mostly just
Green Line
Green Line
Green Line
Green Line
Green Line
But let me see if I can think of anything else.
Green Line-inspired bus restructuring (The 87 runs at night and on weekends! The 83 on Lexington!)
NexTrip for LRT stations (finally)
Not tunneling through all of Kenilworth (though I think that’s what Matt B. called “Municipal consent agreement for SWLRT”)
Selby & Snelling development in St. Paul
Elan Uptown (and/or the fancy pedbridge by the Greenway)
Parklets along Hennepin Ave in downtown Minneapolis
Food trucks going brick-and-mortar
You’ve reminded me: the pop-up park thing that was in the parking lot next to McKenzie’s for awhile this summer.
I know it has a name and is now located in the ground floor level of the Highland Bank Building (where very few ever encounter it, I’d bet), but I can’t recall what it was.
New Metro Transit Bus Stop signs http://www.startribune.com/local/south/280711912.html
– Preservation and pending re-use of the Pillsbury A-Mill, a national historic landmark
– Concrete and steel-frame residential/mixed use building (e.g., LPM Apts, Nic on 5th, 4Marq, Stonebridge Lofts, The Bridges, Latitude 45)
– Thousands of additional residents calling Minneapolis their home
– Parking lots being replaced with productive uses
– More students living within a short walking distance of U of M campus
– Target Field Station
– Green Line
– Car2go expansion to St. Paul
–Met Council identification of Regional Bicycle Transportation Network (fundamentally changing how federal bike/ped funds will be distributed throughout metro)
–Lilydale road/trail reconstruction (phase I, phase II still under construction)
–Trout Brook Nature Sanctuary opening (it’s a hidden gem, really!)
–Highland Sidewalk reconstruction?
–Charles Ave bikeway completion
–Mayor Coleman established 8-80 Vitality Fund to prioritize projects that are consistent with Gil Penalosa’s 8-80 theme.
–Reconstruction of Dean Parkway/Cedar Lake Ave trails/sidewalk
Winter 2015: A huge transit improvement over Winter 2014 and the development of not having one inch of thick ice on the roads for a solid month.
Things we’re most excited about?
Moving somewhere else.
/snark
These are not all good things but they’re important stories, I think. I’m not “excited” about the Red Line, for example, but I think it has spurred a lot of discussion of what BRT should be.
Green Line signal timing
Red Line
26th/28th sts. public process
Riverview study
A and C lines
Ford plant redevelopment
Permit parking defeated near Minnehaha Park
Downtown east Wells Fargo
Met Council housing plan, the first in decades
The Consortium
The Consortium will be at least a 4 seed
Great ideas. Here are my contributions in no particular order:
–Housing development on U of M campus
–Longfellow Market replacing empty block
–Du Nord Craft Spirits
–West River Parkway sitting on the bench for the entire season with slow-healing injury. Expect big things in 2015!