If you have ever traveled through the intersection of Franklin/Cedar/Minnehaha, you know how confusing, wide, fast, and unfriendly it feels. With the second-most bicycle crashes, this is the second-most dangerous intersection in Minneapolis. It’s also one of the most dangerous intersections in Hennepin County, with crash rates more than two and a half times the […]
Via Strong Towns, here’s a map that lets you compare state-by-state break-downs of how state agency transportation spending according to a few set categories. This shows the Minnesota breakdown of those categories, along with the state-by-state comparison for “new road capacity.” The caveat is that this data is really tricky to come by, and it’s […]
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, […]
Street lights are disappearing in Bloomington. Last summer I noticed red spray-paint on a bunch of the poles on Lyndale Ave. Then they started to disappear. One day I drove out during my lunch hour, and crews were literally cutting them down with a Sawzall. An email to the city revealed that many of the […]
When the state has authority to regulate speed limits, local authorities — who are more attuned to local circumstances — have limited leverage.
This story is not unique: a mid-sized Midwestern town is preparing to adopt a 50-year-old neighborhood. If you read between the lines, news of annexation often times read as case studies against low-density suburban development. This article from Mankato demonstrates (unintentionally) why these types of subdivisions can be so problematic. All quotes related to the annexation were taken from the […]
Minneapolis has a number of great trails and on-street bikeways, but it currently lacks a direct and safe north-south route through the city for bikes and pedestrians. For the past few months, a local group of community members, nonprofits, and neighborhood associations have been discussing the possibility of building that north-south connection in the form […]
Via Fresh Energy’s blog, here’s a chart showing the number of “community solar” applications that are in the pipeline since Xcel Energy began the program in 2014. (This is accurate as of December.) While there’s a lot of interest in the program (which allows individuals or organizations to purchase solar electricity without having to build […]
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 […]
In the wake of yet another pedestrian tragedy, it’s incumbent upon all Twin Cities residents to push policymakers for safer infrastructure design.