Navigation

Author Archive | Bill Lindeke

It’s Not the Non-Profits that Keep Saint Paul Poor, It’s Their Parking Lots

By on June 27, 2017 in Land use, Parking

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Saint Paul has a weak tax base. Compared to every sizable city in the state, a huge portion of Saint Paul’s city land is occupied, not by taxpaying residents or companies, but by state and county governments, colleges and universities, and non-profit institutions. For this reason, so the logic goes, […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading 23

Chart of the Day: Twin Cities New Housing by Urban Type, 2005-2016

By on June 8, 2017 in Chart, Housing

The Met Council data crunchers have a new housing report out with the latest year’s worth of data. Here are three chart-y highlights: According to the report, there is still a lot of “balance” in the forces of housing in the Metro area. The report says this about the recent years’ trend: In our five-year retrospective […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading 7

History Theater’s “The Highwaymen” Hit on Some Crucially Unexplored Themes

By on June 7, 2017 in Freeways, History, Planning

I am finally putting up my “review” of The Highwaymen, a play produced by the History Theater that centered on the construction of I-94 through Saint Paul’s African-American Rondo neighborhood. Thanks to the generosity of a friend, I got to attend the play during its closing week. I liked it but, since I’m so interested […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

Chart of the Day: Percentage of Twin Cities Freeway Miles Congested

By on June 6, 2017 in Chart, Traffic

Here’s a great chart from the archives, from a 2015 post entitled “Twin Cities Traffic Congestion Goes From Fine to Still Fine.” The whole post is worth a read but the key point is embedded in this wonderful chart from MnDOT: As the chart shows, congestion has been largely flat since it peaked around the year […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

Map Monday: Dakota and Ojibwe Place Names in Minneapolis

By on June 5, 2017 in History, Maps

Via Nick Magrino’s Twitter feed, here’s a map of Minneapolis with some indigenous place names. Dakota and Ojibwe languages are different. Minnesota and Minneapolis both feature the same root, the  word “mni”, which means “water.” (E.g. the Lakota phrase mni wiconi, or “water is life” one of the slogans from the Standing Rock movement.) Here […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

Chart of the Day: New York City Uber Effectiveness with and without Surge Pricing

By on June 1, 2017 in Chart, Economics

Here’s an interesting chart from The Economist (sent in by Board Member Dana Demaster) that centers on the effectiveness of “surge pricing” as used by Uber in Manhattan. Here you go: The concept of surge pricing is something that comes up a lot in urban design discussions, especially around solving issues like parking, transit fares, […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

Introducing the streets.mn Comment Policy and a Call for Moderators (CFM)

By on May 24, 2017 in streets.mn

At the recent meeting, the streets.mn Board of Directors voted unanimously to adopt a new comment policy that will help clarify the kinds of comment and discussions we value on the site. One main outcome of the new policy will be a clearer picture of why and how comments get moderated, and hopefully this will […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

Chart of the Day: Mode Share for Select Cold Weather Cities

By on May 23, 2017 in Chart, Weather

Via Kevin Gallatin’s Twitter feed, here’s a chart that shows some different “cold weather” cities and their commuting mode-share. Voila: Gallatin plopped the Ford site targets and Highland, Saint Paul status quo into the chart to compare it with similar places around the world. He writes that “some say the Ford Site plan has unrealistic […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

So Much Depends on the Next Six Weeks on Maryland Avenue

By on May 19, 2017 in Experiments, Safety, Traffic

I’ve spent years beating the safe streets drum on this site and elsewhere. Of all the dangerous streets the Twin Cities, the ones that upset me the most are the 4-lane urban arterials, aka the “Four-Lane Death Road™“. These are found everywhere in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, particularly in poorer areas of town, and I’ve been calling for […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

Chart of the Day: Minneapolis and Saint Paul Populations as Percent of their Peak

By on May 17, 2017 in Chart, Demographics, History

Via erstwhile gadfly David Brauer, here’s an interesting chart. The 2016 census population estimates came out last week and sparked an interesting conversation on Twitter this week. Here’s the original population chart, via former streets.mn board member / forum founder Nick Magrino: (He got the chart from a recently released Met Council report…) Following the chart […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading