streets.mn is inviting all writers – current writers, potential writers, readers who think they’d like to write (or have thought about it even just a little bit) to the 2ndWriters Workshop on Saturday, February 27, 2016 from 2-4 pm in Room 155 in Blegen Hall on the University of Minnesota West Bank campus. There will be streets.mn board members and editors on hand to share more about how streets.mn works, answer your questions and listen to your input as we work together to carry out the streets.mn mission to expand and enhance the conversation about transportation and land use. And pizza and conversation, too. Please come! In the meantime, here’s this week on streets.mn:
History of various kinds
Adam Miller shows us one of Saint Paul’s ghost signs in The Produce of St. Paul’s Past along with the history of the Produce Exchange Bank named on the sign (and Adam has posted about more ghost signs over on Ghost Signs of Minneapolis).
Tech High School: St. Cloud’s Past, St. Cloud’s Future is a another post from Tech High School grad Claire VanderEyk. Last year, Claire wrote about Saint Cloud’s decision to call for a referendum for approval to build a new mega-school at the edge of town rather than reuse the 1917 Tech High; Claire presented information about the value of walkable, neighborhood schools, challenging the efficiency of huge schools, and asking about historic preservation, too. This year, after the referendum failed, Claire goes back to Tech High and takes us on a photo tour as she revisited the building “with the sole purpose of better educating ourselves on its current repair needs. I do not want to mislead you, the school has major issues, ones that would require consideration if a renovation, of any kind, were pursued…But I have not been provided evidence that these issues cannot be overcome, and that retaining Tech High School as an educational facility for another 100 years is impossible.”
A History of Downzoning is a follow-up post of sorts to a recent post on exclusionary zoning and income segregation, this time John Edwards looks at Minneapolis’ Lowry Hill East neighborhood and its neighborhood association history of seeking zoning changes to limit density and “taking one of the city’s most walkable, transit-accessible, bike-friendly neighborhoods, located on the edge of downtown, and freezing it in place. In the 1970s, Lowry Hill East was zoned entirely high-density–but that is no longer the case. The activists of the 1970s successfully protected the low-density character of the neighborhood’s interior.” Commenters pick up on themes such as rezoning to exclude renters (see this post, too), the great characteristics of the Wedge area which make it so desirable (proximity to lakes, transit, downtown, Greenway and more), affordable housing and more.
Produce Exchange Bank
Quick looks
Charts of the Day: Twin Cities Rental Market Stats shows us as a pretty affordable place to rent (despite recent news to the contrary) and kicks off some good discussion in the comments. Costs of Urban Travel by Mode come “from a wonky, slightly-old, provocative book called Transportation for Liveable Cities” and shows direct and indirect costs.
Map: Map Monday: Northeast Minneapolis “President Streets” Pros and Cons is a Presidents’ Day offering of both a map and a review of some history and other considerations.
And that’s the week on streets.mn with snow melting and making us think it might be Spring, but we’ll get surprised sooner or later and have to shovel those sidewalks again. Join us on Saturday and have a great week!