A Primer on Housing Programs
Section 8 is often used interchangeably with public housing, but they’re different. An explainer on these and other housing programs.
Category: Governance
Welfare Queens, Performance Incentives, and Public Transportation Planning
If you ever attend pub quizzes you will be familiar with the question format where three things are listed and participants must say how they are related. Quick – welfare queens, performance incentives, and public transportation. How are they related? Stumped? Read on to find out. Myth of the Welfare Queen The myth of the […]
Exclusionary Land Use Regulations and Income Segregation
Advocates for fair housing policies received a boost recently, thanks to a UCLA study which demonstrates a link between restrictive land use policies and income segregation within cities. Instead of focusing on the issue of “concentration of poverty,” the study identifies the primary problem as a geographic concentration of affluence brought about by overly restrictive, […]
Minneapolis Property Taxes are High. Why?
Among urbanists, it’s basically an accepted Truth that more compact development patterns reduce public expenditures per resident. Fewer lane miles and feet of pipe per resident means lower tax bills, while also making it possible for services to cover more residents with the same physical infrastructure (police or fire stations, etc). There’s a whole organization around the idea based in […]
Minnesota Needs More Ghost Towns
Cargill may be headquartered in Minnesota now, but it got its start 150 years ago in a small Iowa town. Conover was one of many prairie communities that sprang up as the railroads ventured westward. It was sketched out in 1864 as the McGregor Western Railroad moved into the area and incorporated in 1866. The town […]
The State Non-motorized Transportation Advisory Committee
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is currently seeking people to apply for open positions for the State Non-Motorized Transportation Advisory Committee. Application are online. Applications submitted by today, November 24, 2015 are given full consideration. However, we will consider applications until all positions are filled. So please read below, apply and forward to others. We appreciate your help in getting this […]
Chart of the Day: TIF Comparison for Minneapolis and selected suburbs
Tax increment financing (TIF) is funding mechanism used by cities to aid redevelopment. Controversial at times, some cities make greater use of it than others. Over the years, Minnesota’s laws regarding how TIF can be used have changed. Cities with significant redevelopment areas tend to make greater use of TIF than more stable cities. Example: In the agenda for Saint […]
Applying the MAC Funding Model to Metro Transit
The recent hubbub around operations on a decade old runway at Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport (MSP), operated by the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), have unearthed a few interesting nuggets. I’m not really an airport or airplane operations buff. I mostly just appreciate that we have a fairly nice airport that I use relatively infrequently (though […]
How Amy Schumer Taught Judd Apatow to Love Cities
I’m a huge fan of Judd Apatow – from his TV show Freaks and Geeks to films like 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. I’m at least as big of a fan of Amy Schumer’s comedy. So I was excited beyond measure to see that they were teaming up to create Trainwreck. The movie, which did […]
Second Train to Chicago: Still Running Late
Last Thursday, after a delay of almost 2½ years, the Amtrak study for adding a second daily train between the Chicago and the Twin Cities was finally released. The agreement to begin the supposed nine-month study was signed back on May 3, 2012, and it finally arrived on July 2, 2015, thirty-eight months later. Cue […]