The Counties Transit Improvement Board (CTIB) met on December 21 to discuss the probable voluntary dissolution of CTIB and future funding options for metro rail and bus transit systems. The 78 page PDF was distributed and was the working document used at the meeting. Pages 3-7 offer a summary of the dissolution proposal as well […]
Minneapolis City Council Member Blong Yang would like you to choose one or the other. On Friday morning, the Minneapolis City Council voted 9-4 to approve the Glenwood Avenue North Reconstruction Project. Council members who voted against the proposed plan were Lisa Bender, Alondra Cano, Cam Gordon, and Elizabeth Glidden. Bender spoke in her best urban planning […]
The concept sounds appealing: create a family-like housing situation for like-minded friends. But the risk is that authorities target communities of color.
Minneapolis and St. Paul have a lot to gain by designing roads with walkability in mind — including a competitive edge with the suburbs.
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 […]
It came as no shock to me to read the Stantec report recommending major changes to the Rochester Planning Department. Rochester doesn’t have a planning department. When it comes to planning for Rochester, we have zoomed out and presently view the growth issues of our city through a countywide lens. Lost is the fine-grained detail […]
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 […]
On September 26th, the Obama administration released the Housing Development Toolkit, signalling to the country that they are on Team YIMBY (that’s “Yes In My BackYard”). The document outlines the barriers for housing growth that many cities, including Minneapolis and Saint Paul, have been experiencing in recent years. Local zoning laws, outdated land use regulations, […]
Without a doubt, now is an emotional and scary time to live in the Twin Cities. The widely circulated video-recorded death of Philando Castile has put the Twin Cities in a political and emotional uproar. Everybody is obviously running a little hot right now, so I hope readership will forgive me for speaking with cohesive candor […]
St Paul and Highland District Council are proposing to add left turn lanes and a 10’ median to Snelling Avenue between Randolph and Ford Pkwy. The stated purpose is to slow traffic, reduce left turns, and improve safety for pedestrians. Unfortunately, this project will make this neighborhood less pleasant, with increased and faster traffic, and […]