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Author Archive | Evan Roberts

A Busman’s Holiday, or streets.mn Readers on Vacation

By on June 19, 2015 in Infrastructure, Sidewalks, Travel

There’s a lovely phrase in British [Empire] English: a busman’s holiday. It’s a simple idea, when a bus driver goes on holiday he—the phrase dates to 1893—takes a bus to his destination and might even ride on the box-seat beside a driving friend. Other professions can take busman’s holidays: locum physicians, teachers going to summer […]

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MetroTransit’s Signage: Still Room for Improvement

By on January 21, 2015 in Buses, Transit, Uncategorized

Maybe it’s churlish, maybe it’s against some unwritten bylaw of Minnesota Nice, but it does feel a little bad to be criticizing Metro Transit’s signage in the week they finally got real time arrival information working on the light rail. Nevertheless I will … In the last month little “Green Line” signs have appeared on […]

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Minnesota Needs Better Public Safety Advertisements

By on January 2, 2015 in Cars, Safety

The annual British Arrows Awards were a good reminder that the best thing on TV is sometimes the advertisements, and how good public safety advertisements in other English-speaking countries are. (Unfortunately the showings are sold out until the end of their run on 4 January) Here, for example, is one of the award winning ads: […]

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Selling Parklands to Save Them

By on December 18, 2014 in Land use, Parks

Yesterday on Twitter I suggested selling part of Iris Park in Saint Paul to developers for housing. Right across from Fairview Ave station is this desolate park. I say sell part of it off for building. http://t.co/QoqWrw1UTr — Evan Roberts (@evanrobertsnz) December 17, 2014 The reaction was mixed. Lots of people love Iris Park; I […]

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Minneapolis Should Rethink the Above the Falls Master Plan

By on November 12, 2014 in Development, Parks

It is hard to overstate the importance of the Mississippi River in the urban form of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Once a source of energy and an important transport route, the river’s main value now is environmental and aesthetic. With the imminent closing of the Upper locks and the Upper Harbor Terminal–basically the Port of […]

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An Introduction to Run Commuting

By on November 4, 2014 in Carfree

Long before Minneapolis/St. Paul was judged the 1st or 2nd or 13th best city in America for biking, it was recognized by Runners World in the 1990s as America’s 2nd best running city. Rankings change to sell magazines, but it’s still true. The Twin Cities are a great running city, and they’re a great area […]

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Chart of the Day: Homeownership Over Even More Time

By on November 3, 2014 in Chart, History, Housing

Bill Lindeke’s Chart of the Day from Thursday about changing homeownership rates shows what are indeed significant changes in the last decade in homeownership rates. For an even longer-term perspective, we can turn to IPUMS data from the American census. A question on homeownership has been asked in every census since 1900, with the exception […]

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Coupon Parking for Minneapolis and Saint Paul

By on July 21, 2014 in Minneapolis vs. St. Paul, Neighborhoods, Parking

Parking is a quintessentially local issue. There is nothing more local than wanting to park close to your destination, and caring about the parking spot in front of your house. Attend any meeting about new development in the Twin Cities, and the unique “parking issues” of a particular location will be related. Yet “parking issues” […]

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Chart of the Day: Minneapolis Per Capita Car2go Membership

By on June 19, 2014 in Carfree, Chart, Transportation, Uncategorized

Car2Go made a quarterly report on Tuesday to the Minneapolis City Council, and included a table of where members and trips were located by Zip codes. Some of the media coverage focused on the large number of trips and members coming from the 55406 Zip code (Longfellow). But Longfellow has a relatively large population. A little more insight into where […]

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Two Cities, Two Times

By on April 3, 2014 in History, Minneapolis vs. St. Paul

Check the date! No fooling today. In May 1965 Saint Paul actually did do daylight saving time differently than Minneapolis. At the time the Twin Cities’ discordant time change was the best example yet of absurd inconsistencies across America in recognizing daylight saving time. Today the story is both a cute curiosity of local history, […]

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