The draft of Saint Paul’s comprehensive plan has been released. It is not as exciting as Minneapolis, or as ambitious as Red Wing’s. Deep within lies the above slide, noting ‘significant public views’. I had doubts so I went and looked myself. Cap Wigington’s iconic water tower is there, but to get an […]
Alleyways are streets unto themselves, with stories to tell about neighborhoods, landlords, homeowners and maintenance of these forgotten thoroughfares.
After 2017’s City Council races in Minneapolis and Ginger Jentzen’s strong showing, rent control has re-entered the housing discourse in the Twin Cities again, despite the fact that it is preempted at the state level. It’s my belief that the preemption and much of the opposition to rent control is based in a certain inflexibility […]
What happens when “history” becomes a gatekeeping mechanism to dictate who lives where — especially when voiced by “white hobbyist historians”?
A friend, who happens to be a Saint Catherine’s alum, told me a tale about the not too distant past. The city of Saint Paul was looking to run Prior Avenue straight through Saint Kate’s campus. Things like that take time and as soon as the nuns at the school heard the city’s plan they worked […]
Know what “negative externalities,” “induced demand” and “artificial scarcity” mean? Read on! You, too, can be an armchair urban planner.
It seems like every time someone wants to build a multifamily residential building, there has to be a public brawl about density and character in front of the City Council first. It’s completely unnecessary, but you get used it. This week I wasted another perfectly good Wednesday night of my quickly evaporating twenties in […]
What happens when Car is not King? A web of subways; taxis and buses aplenty; and car ownership only for the rich.
A handy, trustworthy tenant who paid his rent on time — nope, wasn’t enough for a suburban landlord who wanted to cash in.
Our town is filled with gates and walls invisible to the eye. Regulars at streets.mn know how the physical reality around is affected by zoning policy and staid old traffic development manuals, and it’s not my intention to bore you by banging that drum again. But when examples of bad practice come up, it’s important […]