There’s still time (but not much) to get your tickets to our FUNdraiser. We would love to see you on Wednesday, December 19 for entertainment and refreshment, as well as asking you to financially support our work. If you want multiple reasons to buy a ticket, make a donation, or become a member of streets.mn, board member (and events chair) Tim Bracket has answered the question Why Give Money to streets.mn? with a recap of our accomplishments for 2018 (we’ve been busy) and forecasting future work. Our mission is to foster positive connections and inclusive conversations about better places in Minnesota; can we count on your contributions to continue this work?
Minneapolis 2040
Janne Flisrand looks back on the Minneapolis 2040 process in Minneapolis’ Secret 2040 Sauce was Engagement starting with a great engagement plan from Minneapolis city staff, political leadership on the City Council, and grassroots organizing building support from groups like Neighbors for More Neighbors (Janne is a n4mn volunteer) saying, “welcoming engagement, well-framed questions, and always asking “how old will you be in 22 years, and what will you need then?” meant powerful people got to share space in the public process. People who tend to go unheard were heard and had the opportunity to organize for change.”
CPED’s Planning Team
Getting around
Monte Castleman continues Along Old Highway 61 to Duluth, A Phototour, Part Two from Forest Lake to Pine City (part 1 from Saint Paul to Forest Lake is here). There are photos from the trip supplemented with historic postcard images from towns along the way. Part 3 will take us all the way to Duluth.
Pine Salica writes about Getting Lost Going Straight riding her new winter bike home from the shop on the Hiawatha LRT trail. As it turned out, despite confusing gaps at intersections she was going the right way, but “Back at home, I’ve looked up the maps, and I was going the right way the whole time. The trail just… does that. Without any indication of the gap in trail coverage or anything to tell you that you’re going the right way.”
Eric Ecklund writes a brief, sad update One Month Later: A RRFB Crossing Failed saying, “Just over a month after I wrote a post criticizing county traffic engineers for a half-baked attempt at protecting pedestrians and cyclists crossing busy streets, I unfortunately was proven right by a crossing in Anoka County,” where two girls were killed at a crosswalk in Anoka County. The many commenters consider solutions (roundabout, 4-3 lane conversion, bridge, HAWK signal) as well as the culture which perpetuates roads like this.
Where is the trail? An artist’s rendition of the problem.
ADUs
Brit Builds an ADU: Who Would Want an Accessory Dwelling Unit? asks Brit Anbacht. Graphics show many of the reasons why people at different stages of life or a variety of sorts of families would want an ADU, including the author thinking how to make space for children in their current home (and office), “Two years ago my family of three adults, a polyamorous family with my wife and husband, bought a three bedroom, two bathroom house in south Minneapolis. It’s charming and has fantastic 1940s details like coved ceilings, stucco exterior, and a smallish footprint at about 1600 sq ft. I work from home full-time and we have a boarder to help pay some of the bills and because we like the company of old friends.”
Garage? Or future ADU? Picture of taupe garage through back window with s-shaped connection to alley.
Look, link, walk
Link: More National Links: Amazon’s Reconnaissance from Jeff Wood and the Overhead Wire.
Walk: Walking All the Streets of Eastern Keewaydin with Max Hailperin in our regular Friday feature.