National Links: McMansions and National Randomization
The stubborn persistence of the McMansion, randomized tax pods for equity, New York City congestion pricing and more in this week’s National Links.
Category: Architecture
‘De-Lyton’ in My Time in the North End
Another St. Paul adventure with Wolfie Browender, another set of splendid city views from empty parking ramps.
National Links: Owner Occupancy Required
An argument against free transit, a mapping project of neighborhood-level climate impacts, and more national links for the week of December 26th, 2022.
Assessing the Stadium Village Green Line Public Space
There’s a the public space on Washington Avenue between the tracks of the Stadium Village Green Line station. What’s it like as a place to hang out in? What can it tell us for other spaces like this, which some of us wish for in the future, as in the Twin Cities Boulevard vision?
National Links: Energized Cities
Michael E Smith, professor of anthropology at Arizona State University, describes how early cities thrived through energized crowding; Oslo plans for major emissions reduction; and how Seattle has radically changed within this past decade.
Dog Nearly Bites Man and Converted Churches on Dayton’s Bluff
September 27, 2021 Downtown, Lowertown, Dayton’s Bluff 20.1 miles The route map of my September 27, 2021 ride. The map is zoomable. A sunny late September day with the temperature in the mid-70s is a day to ride. And so I was winding my way east on Kellogg Boulevard Downtown toward Dayton’s Bluff. At the […]
The ‘Irregular Hillocks, Ridges and Hollows’ of St. Anthony Park
August 25, 2021 20.8 Miles St. Anthony Park I’d never thought of St. Anthony Park as being unusually hilly – that is, until this ride. About halfway through it dawned on me that I was getting a nice workout thanks to the elevation changes. The 1920 edition of the Minnesota Historical Society’s Minnesota Geographic Names […]
A Look Back at a Kid’s View of Williams Hill
Wolfie rides a bike tour of the historic Williams Hill area in St. Paul, MN.
Shutter Spotting Around the City
This post focuses on a familiar but mostly overlooked decorative accoutrement – window shutters. Before I get to the multiplicity of shutters I’ve laid eyes on while riding around St. Paul, here’s a bit of historical context. A Brief History of Shutters According to several websites, shutters first appeared in ancient Greece; constructed of marble […]
The ADUs of St. Paul … and why aren’t there more of them?
With St. Paul having recently announced plans to once again tinker with its Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinance, it seemed like an apt time to try to figure out just how many people have taken advantage of the citywide ADU ordinance passed in late 2018, and to see just what they’ve been building. So, on a recent beautiful Saturday, I set off on my bike in search of the 12 ADUs that have been permitted and built in St. Paul under the rules set in 2018.