Hat tip to Walker Angell for pointing me to this very interesting video about limiting the number of trucks accessing dense central cities, from Bicycle Dutch. Every year the proud 140,000 inhabitants of ʼs-Hertogenbosch (aka Den Bosch) welcome around 5 million visitors. Every week 5,000 lorries and vans enter the city center to get all […]
The Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District today released the 5th annual Greening and Public Realm Awards’ summer finalists. Winners will be decided by an online vote at through Sept. 19, and the winning organizations will be announced announced on Sept. 24. The Greening Awards are an effort by the DID to inspire local businesses and organizations […]
Much as Minneapolis has turned back to the Mississippi River, different cities and groups are turning back towards Minnehaha Creek, gathering up land that would have fallen prey to developers. I’ve had a fantasy that a new regional park could be cobbled together from this patchwork to make the first regional park in the inner […]
Last month during three events—an 8 to 80 event focused on the Ford Site, the 20th Annual Great River Gathering, and the U.S. Green Building Council of Minnesota’s annual Impact Conference, Mayor Chris Coleman touched on a concept that holds a lot of opportunity for the City of Saint Paul: net zero. But what does […]
I predict the Packers will win, prompting the biggest riot the city has ever seen! No, seriously, I support hosting the 2018 Super Bowl in Minnesota. After all, we need to start paying off our billion-dollar, publicly financed stadium that was supposed to be paid for with non-existent gaming revenues. Looking at the behavior of […]
Today’s Chart of the Day shows Fuel Use in Minnesota Source: MnDOT Annual Transportation Performance Report 2012
The curious case of Cupcake. It’s two years old now, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth every time I meander past Grand and Milton. This is old news. Now, we have a doggy spa. Three parking spaces. That’s the difference between cupcakes and family-friendly self-service dog shampooing. The successful University Avenue retailer was looking to expand on Grand […]
While walking along a sleepy residential street in my St. Paul neighborhood, I noticed something ugly about a traffic circle. There are eight signs in total; four warning of the upcoming traffic circle and four instructing each direction which way to navigate the circle. We need to design residential streets in a manner where most signs are not required. Here’s another […]
Today’s Charts of the Day concern air quality. Source: MnDOT Annual Transportation Performance Report 2012
Politics in America are split along urban versus suburban/exurban lines. Urban areas are likely to be more “liberal” when it comes to issues of public transportation, the environment, education, gun control, race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. A glance at presidential election maps by county confirms this and numerous studies correlate voting patterns to population […]