Category: Parking

National Links: Curb Management Costing Cities Billions

Every day at The Overhead Wire we sort through over 1,500 news items about cities and share the best ones with our email list. At the end of the week, we take some of the most popular stories and share them with Urban Milwaukee readers. They are national (or international) links, sometimes entertaining and sometimes […]

Hennepin Ave facing Lake St, crowded with bus and cars. Not bike friendly.

Safe Streets are Good for Business

It’s a day ending in -y, so business owners are concerned about parking again. This time we’re on Hennepin Avenue, between Douglas and Lake. Is it Uptown? Only a certain former city council member could tell you.  Business owners on Hennepin got loud enough about the prospect of less street parking in the upcoming reconstruction […]

A digital collage. A dog shakes off a rainbow of water in an empty parking lot in downtown Minneapolis.

A Car Storage Spot by Any Other Name

Fun fact: etymonline traces the word “park” meaning “to put (a vehicle) in a certain place” directly back to the storage of military equipment on commons grounds. Car storage spots aren’t a human right, but housing is. The way building codes currently are, you must pay for this luxury that is a couple dozen square […]

Ridgedale Center photo from the parking lot

Urban Parking, Suburban Style

I recently attended an open house put on by the City of Minneapolis to discuss two options for the upcoming reconstruction of Hennepin Ave from Douglas to Lake Street. In a sign of progress on street design in Minneapolis, both designs reduce car traffic to a single lane to promote traffic calming and to provide space […]

2020 05 15 Viewfromdtstpbalcony

Why I Support the 9th and 10th Street Bikeways in Downtown St. Paul

The St. Paul City Council recently approved the 9th and 10th Street portions of the Capital City Bikeway (CCB), and those are expected to be installed this summer during the city’s Pavement & Sidewalk Improvement Project. Those opposed to this project have gotten coverage from various local media outlets (Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, WCCO, City […]

Arbor Lakes Main Street

From Shopping Malls to Lifestyle Centers

On why structured parking is allegedly problematic for regional retail in general, which is causing problems at West End.  This installment will look at the overall evolution of regional retail – from downtown, to the regional malls, to lifestyle centers like West End.  Downtown 2.0: The Mall With the massive movement of people to the […]

West End Main Streetr 500x262

The Shops of West End’s Parking Ramp Problem

A Parking Problem St. Louis Park’s lifestyle center, The Shops of West End, has problems. Its vacancies are more than double the metro average and a 20,000 square foot block has never been filled. In March, 2019 the Twin Cities Business Magazine did an article on why. The article is well worth a read; it […]