Special streets.mn stuff! First, Join streets.mn for a Special Gift. streets.mn depends on members for the finanicla support to produce our fine content; join us by December 19 (the date of the streets.mn winter fundraiser) and receive not only a streets.mn notebook but also a streets.mn water bottle as a special thank you. Then, we’d love to see you at our streets.mn Winter Fundraiser (click through to buy tickets) for The Theater for Public Policy, food, drink, conversation, and friends. And, finally, another streets.mn event where you can Join us on the Northstar Holiday Train December 15! to Union Station. Ride a train and meet streets.mn folks. Now here’s the regular streets.mn stuff last week:
Walk and ride
The Remains of a Lost Icon is Wolfie Browender’s latest bike ride around Saint Anthony Park, Como, and the North End in Saint Paul. With the history of the now defunct Linder’s Garden store, homes, streets, parks, and more.
Or, Walking All the Streets of Western Keewaydin on Lake Nokomis with Max Hailperin on his quest to wlak all of Minneapolis’ neighborhoods in alphabetical order. Or join Paul Jahn on A Neighborhood Walk Through the New Pedestrian Nicollet-Boom Island Bridge for a history of the project and the new bridge.
Nicollet-Boom Island Bridge (Photo: Paul Jahn)
Mascots!
Interview with Chris Carlier on Urban Mascots in which Bill Lindeke, identifying “the latent passion within the streets.mn community for urban mascots, bubbling just under the surface, I took the liberty of reaching out to Carlier the other day to get this exclusive interview about the nature of urban mascots” in Japan and elsewhere (like Gritty)
Not enough (real and imagined)
There’s No Parking Emergency at West St. Paul’s Garlough Environmental Magnet School says Kevin Hendricks. The school’s site plan was not approved; the plan showed facility additions, “adding a second driveway and expanding the southern parking lot to create a separate drop off/pick up loop, a change that should vastly improve morning/ afternoon congestion and safety issues.” But neighbors contend there is not enough off-street parking and now the issue is scheduled for tomorrow, December 10. Click through for much more information about the project and the politics.
Sam Newberg takes the affordable housing discussion beyond Minneapolis 2040 in Affordable Housing in Minneapolis and Beyond and a very practical look at inclusionary zoning, what is being built, and what’s needed, “First, more housing at all levels of affordability is critical to the future of the city, not for the sake of density itself but rather the city’s ability to remain remotely livable. Second, a well-calibrated inclusionary housing policy is a workable idea but only a tiny piece of the overall housing picture that needs addressing. And third, it’s up to the metro area, not just the city of Minneapolis, to accommodate more affordable housing.”
Garlough Environmental Magnet School site plan
Look, look, link, and listen
Look: Chart of the Day: US Cities by Tacos and Transit “showing a simple quadrant graph of US cities on the “transit” and “tacos” spectra.”
Look: Map Monday: Constellation City Map of Minnesota & Neighboring States “from the Barely Maps website created by Peter Gorman. These “maps” show the largest cities in any state as stars in constellations, with the largest city as the large star, the lines demarcate a larger distance)”
Listen: Podcast #121: Activating Nicollet Avenue with Lisa Middag. Bill Lindeke talks to the Director of Nicollet Activation and “the person who is charged with bringing street life and economic activity to Nicollet Avenue in Downtown Minneapolis.”
Link: Link around the country with curated National Links: Finally Allowing International Trainsets from Jeff Wood at The Overhead Wire.
