Sunday Summary – September 30, 2018

It’s the end of September and the beginning of a new week. Here’s the past week on streets.mn.

Winter is coming

The Winter of Minnesota’s Transportation Discontent by Christa Moseng looks at Minneapolis 2040 and comments about getting around in the winter saying, “It is not unthinkable that people might want to engage in active, non-car transportation in the winter in a northern climate. People may have strong individual feelings about the feasibility of a perfectly reasonable form of winter transportation but that doesn’t mean we should elevate those feelings into universal principles that should be embedded in public policy. These commenters are effectively saying “I can’t imagine biking in the winter, so nobody should be able to.”

Particular places

Paul Jahn gives us a tour of the Businesses and Community Along Nicollet Open Streets Minneapolis and introduces us to some of the local businesses and the Open Streets participants along Nicollet, including the folks at our streets.mn tent.

Devin Hogan has documented the history of Nicollet Island: Seeing the Forest for the Trees, in order to look ahead saying “The history of Nicollet Island is the history of Minneapolis, from colonization and industrialization to decline and rebirth. At 45 acres it is the size of Stevens Square, or about 85% of Île de la Cité, the medieval heart of Paris. The changes† in its built environment – good and bad – reflect the gamut of the Big Ideas foisted upon our landscapes over the generations to “solve” various urban social ills. The island’s current iteration of “restoration” took shape in the 1970s…I will examine the ideas that led to this agreement and the other contested landscapes Nicollet Island provides. This comparison over time will demonstrate the unique role this public land can offer for humanity’s moral imperative to ensure the survival of Life on Earth.”

In Maplewood, Tyler Hamilton proposes Building a Better Frost Avenue by offering some designs for Frost Avenue in advance of its reconstruction in 2019.

Minneapolis 2040

Ryan Johnson approaches the Comprehensive Plan discussion in a different way in Minneapolis 2040 Opposition: A Look At The Signs saying, “One highly visible aspect of this debate are the yard signs. You’ve seen them: the red yard signs with the apocalyptic messages, attacking the Minneapolis 2040 comprehensive plan. Even though a scaled-back second draft of the plan is about to be released, the anti crowd is still calling for the whole process to be shut down. But these yard signs provide a unique opportunity to analyze the characteristics of those most strongly opposed to the plan.” The mapping of the signs shows revealing things about who oppose Minneapolis 2040 by looking at home value, ownership, and location.

Where is Everyone Going to Live? asks John Edwards. The next draft of Minneapolis 2040 has been released and the debate over housing will continue because, “We’re missing all those homes in the middle (“the Missing Middle”). That’s why the battle over fourplexes is relevant. Fourplexes are the homes we used to build, but don’t anymore because we made it illegal nearly everywhere. People still live in them.”

Look, link, walk

Look: Chart of the Day: Mobile Homes as Percentage of Housing, US States useful because, “One of the things that affects the overall age of housing in any given location is the percentage of mobile homes in the mix.  The median housing unit in the United States was built in 1976, while the median mobile home was built in the 1990s.”   Map Monday: Hennepin Minus Minneapolis: Income Less Than $50K continues the series begun last week with maps from the Three Rivers Park District which look at Hennepin County without Minneapolis.

Link: More National Links: A Car Free Paris from The Overhead Wire.

Walk: Keep Walking All the Streets of Western Holland with Max Hailperin.