Sunday Summary - March 10, 2019

Check out the new experimental feature Forum Friday: Threads of the Week. Did you know about the Forum? Somewhat hidden from the rest of the website, lots of good conversation happens on the Forums and this feature aims to bring a little bit of that into the blog space. Let us know what you think.

Enjoying winter

Those sneckdowns are good for more than showing how much space cars don’t need. Pine Salica was Feeling Angelic in the Snow:

Getting around

Route 614: Can (or Should) It Be Saved? asks Eric Ecklund. This route serves the Ridgedale Mall and Minnetonka locations, “Instead of cutting more routes and service, the Metropolitan Council should be trying to find ways to improve a route before cutting or abandoning it. If Route 614 is cut, it should certainly be brought back when Route 645 receives a frequency increase (every 15 minutes most of the day), which could happen in the near term (within the next 5 years).”

Sharing Streets with Scooters by Julia Curran describes some conflicts (near miss and collision) between her walking self and scooter riders, but finds some pretty basic wisdom for coexistence (which probably has broader application), “Scooters increase the speeds at which this happens for some of us, just as bikes do. But unlike cars, scooters don’t remove us from the public space we’re sharing. There’s no steel or glass or airbags protecting scooter riders the consequences of a crash or the voices of people around them. We’re as equal here as we are on the bus, and we learn its etiquette just as surely.”

Minneapolis Neighborhood Organizations Fall Short of Diversity Targets John Edwards reports from a survey conducted by the Neighborhood and Community Relations Department, “People of color make up 36% of the city’s population, but are only 18% of neighborhood boards. Renters are 50% of the city’s population, but make up only 17% of neighborhood boards.”

2018 Neighborhood groups

Another streets.mn “how to” guide

In the last month or so, writers have provided guides to winter walking, winter bus and bike commuting (here and here), and now Kyle Constalie tells us Bicycle Safety is Totally Rad, Dude! This upbeat guide starts way before riding with bike advocacy and supporting local bike-related companies, then planning routes, packing for the journey, and finally some guidelines for the riding itself.

Big project

The Planned Failure of the Ford Site by Michael Daigh looks at Ryan Company’s variance requests for additional parking on the Ford redevelopment site and the lack of real transit to make it transit-oriented development, “Ryan’s line in the sand on parking is the most definitive statement of its limited vision of the development. The Ford Site requires either plentiful transit or parking to support the density and sustain the businesses, but Ryan officials did not say they would abandon the development unless the city gets serious about transit.”

Ford site retail parking

Regular features

Lots of links: Two installments of links from the Overhead Wire: National Links: Autonomous Buses and Sim City Planners and National Links: Concrete and Congestion Pricing

Listen: Latest Podcast #123: Saint Paul’s Ward 6 with Terri Thao who is running for City Council in Saint Paul’s 6th Ward, “Terri Thao is a long-time non-profit professional, former Planning Commissioner, and community organizer, among other things, who has spent years working on issues around housing, transit, and economic development in Saint Paul.”

Look: At one Chart of the Day: How Long Is Your Daily Commute? and one Map Monday: Natural Springs of the Minneapolis/Saint Paul Area.