Happy Spring! If you missed the Annual Writers’ Workshop you can still be a writer, ask questions about how we work. Just take a look at our Write page and contact us. Beyond writing, there are other ways to get more involved with streets.mn; this page lists our committees and their standing meeting times and our Events calendar lists streets.mn events (but also many other area events related to our mission). Here’s what last week brought to streets.mn:
Bikes
Jeremy Hop writer A World Class Bike City Should Probably Enforce Laws Against Parking In Bike Lanes. Since Minneapolis keeps winning accolades for its bike-friendliness, “as a city should prioritize our bike infrastructure with actual enforcement. If we did as much “doing” as we do “talking” about our infrastructure, our city would be a safer place for everyone!”
Where the Grass Really is Greener is another Wolfie Browender ride around Saint Paul. This one from June 2016 rides 19 miles through Highland Park, Macalester-Groveland, Summit-University/Rondo, North End, and Como neighborhoods with history, people, and many images.
Photo by Paul Nelson
Housing
Accessory Dwelling Units: A Tale of Two Cities by Mark Thieroff looks at how Minneapolis and Saint Paul approached ADUs differently. Minneapolis amended their zoning ordinance effective December 2014 that allowed ADUs as a permitted use, citywide with only administrative review required; 92 units were permitted and built. In St. Paul, however, the story was quite different. Neighborhood opposition delayed adopting any new regulations and “in the end, the ordinance that took effect in late 2016 allowed all three ADU types, but in an area of just 3.5 square miles—i.e., one half mile on either side of the Green Line, from Emerald to Lexington. This is barely half of the Green Line corridor, and only six percent of the area of St. Paul as a whole.” By the end of 2017, only one ADU had been approved.
Election information
In recent weeks, streets.mn has featured interviews with Saint Paul Ward 4 special election candidates. This week, the first respondent (of three declared candidates) in the Ramsey County Commission District 3 race representing Falcon Heights and Saint Paul neighborhoods of Payne/Phalen, North End/South Como, Como Park, Frogtown and Hamline-Midway. Read what Ramsey County Commissioner District 3 Questionnaire: Trista MatasCastillo had to say about transportation and housing issues.
Trista MatasCastillo
Look, listen, and walk
Two walks around Minneapolis neighborhoods with Max Hailperin this week. You can follow him around Northern East Harriet on a fine summer day (flowers! boat rental!) and East Isles (more sunny summer pictures) for architecture, parks, and history.
Chart: Chart of the Day: Minnesota Population via Sankey where “via” means “illustrated using” a Sankey diagram showing population by metro and non-MSP areas, county, city, and micropolitan areas.
Listen to a streets.mn podcast: Bill Lindeke talks to State Representative Frank Hornstein (D-61A, South Minneapolis) in Podcast #110: Cars and Phones and State Transportation Policy with Frank Hornstein, a long-time eader in the Minnesota House on transportation issues, and “is currently the ranking minority member of a whole bunch of transportation-related committees.”
Listen to a Deep North podcast: In Cans to Mini-Golf: The Creative Enterprise Zone and One Building’s Transformation, Steve Ray tells us about “An old factory on the Minneapolis St. Paul border has forgone its 20th century widgets for much different wares. Today coffee roasts, beer brews, drills grind, and golf clubs putt. The building’s new tenants embody the potential of creative enterprise and inspire the artist in all of us.”
And a map: Map Monday: A Chain Retail View of Saint Paul’s Ford Site shows a map included in the real estate marketing packet for the Ford site identifying the locations of the franchise businesses in the area.
