It’s easy to laugh at the Elk Run “Interchange to Nowhere” with it’s roundabouts to cornfields, traffic signals with no traffic, and pedestrian push-buttons that don’t work. While acknowledging we’ve wasted some money on the extent that we’ve built it to accommodate vaporware, I prefer to look at the big picture and think of it […]
I have a problem with celebrating menial things. I didn’t want to graduate from pre-school and I don’t want praise for doing things that should just be done. North Mankato though, a bit of a different story.
We’re number 2! Northfield ranked second on Livability.com’s Top 10 list of Most Livable Small Cities (the top spot went to Los Alamos, NM). It’s fun to win something unexpectedly and gratifying to have an unexpected voice tell the world what a great town Northfield is. Add the additional media coverage around the region spawned […]
Well, it happened. The referendum allocating $47 million dollars for a new high school along with renovations to current schools passed with a narrow margin of 52 votes. Is it the end of the world? No, absolutely not. If I’ve known people from New Ulm to be anything, it’s responsible with their money and investments–we’re Germans […]
Excelsior, Minnesota is home to Minnesota’s second operating streetcar line (part of the Minnesota Streetcar Museum). Being good transportationists, we visited a few weeks ago. Excelsior is legally a city, though really a town, with about 2,400 people. Excelsior is located about 20 miles southwest of Minneapolis (map), connected directly by Highway 7, and more circuitously […]
After basking in my 15 minutes of internet fame when my post hit the front page of Streetsblog (which was here on streets.mn first), I was quickly shaken from my pedestal by pro-roaders, one of whom accused me of doing “no research” and “spewing bullshit.” I’ve come to address such concerns of “the haters” that I’ve encountered on the interwebs […]
Streets belong to you…and me…and everybody else; streets are public spaces – like parks – and might just be our most undervalued and underutilized community resources. Northfield and Rice County are beginning to plan a reconstruction project on Woodley Street and this particular street is a golden opportunity to add value and change the conversation, too. What […]
Chisago City is, not surprisingly, a City in Chisago County, and has just under 5,000 people. Just to the west Lindstrom has just over 4,400 people. Neither of these cities however, possess the County Seat, which is the tiny Center City, with 628 people. All three cities share US Highway 8 (Lake Boulevard) as their […]
We need roads. We need good roads that are built with a purpose and have a high return on investment. Roads that have purpose and efficiently connect productive places. The road I’m talking about though, doesn’t really fit the above criteria.
Northfield should be the sort of city where bicycling makes a lot of sense because it’s small enough to put most destinations within a couple of miles, there are regional trail connections (existing and planned) we have multiple formal and informal cycling groups (lycra-clad road cyclists, off-road, gravel riders, seniors and cruisers) Carleton and St […]