Intentional Communities: Racist by Default?
The concept sounds appealing: create a family-like housing situation for like-minded friends. But the risk is that authorities target communities of color.
Author: Peter Bajurny
Minnesota Property Taxes Explained, Part 2: How are Property Taxes Calculated?
In Part I I covered the basics of what property taxes are. This time I’ll dive into how exactly property taxes are calculated, starting with (for Minneapolis) the half billion dollar question. What is tax capacity? In its simplest form, the tax capacity of a property is its taxable market value (explained below) multiplied by its class […]
Minnesota Property Taxes Explained, Part 1: What are Property Taxes?
It’s budget season in Minneapolis, and the rest of the state. This is a complex process, but the question on everybody’s minds is “how will my property taxes be impacted?” A simple question with a rather complicated answer. Hopefully I can shed a little light on it. In this first part of a planned three-part […]
When a Transit Shelter is Not a Transit Shelter
Last week Metro Transit unveiled a collaboration with the Downtown Improvement District to place a new bus shelter at 3rd Avenue S and S 7th Street downtown which is a very busy stop. This new shelter doubles as an herb greenhouse to better blah blah blah I can’t believe I’m writing this. Look. I can’t believe I have […]
Metro Transit and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Weekend Light Rail Shutdown
I am what transit professionals would call a choice rider. I have a well paying job and a rather new car at home. However, I choose transit and biking to commute to work, rather than driving. Because of this preference I’ve arranged my life so that transit and biking are more convenient for many of […]
A Primer on Zoning Codes: The Basics
Zoning is a complex and arcane topic, even for those who interact with it regularly. In spite of this, zoning is all around us, in nearly every city, village, or town in the United States. There have been many good posts here at streets.mn discussing the merits and implications of zoning, but they often assume […]
Map Monday: Minneapolis Residential Zoning
Minneapolis has eight zones dedicated to residential uses, R1 through R6, plus R1A and R2B. A full half of those, R1, R1A, R2, and R2B, are dedicated to the preservation of the single family character of neighborhoods by allowing only single family homes or duplexes (1 & 2 Unit Residential). The other four, R3-R6, permit larger […]