National Links: Biodiverse Cities and Transit Construction Costs
How can cities be generators, not destroyers, of biodiversity? This and much more answered in this week’s National Links.
Category: Race
Together, Building an Anti-Racism Resource Library
Streets.mn wants to collaborate with readers on our new Anti-Racism library.
The Sound of the Police
Excerpt from Sparked: George Floyd, Racism and the Progressive Illusion edited by Walter R. Jacobs, Wendy Thompson Taiwo and Amy August. Reproduced with permission from the Minnesota Historical Society Press. On June 12, 2020, the Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to disband the police department and replace it with another model, an extraordinary step. Like most white, […]
National Links: Lumber Prices and Solar Pavement
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 […]
Reconnection, Revitalization, and Restitution for I-94 Communities
Saint Paul’s historic Rondo neighborhood is a thriving, diverse community and home to many immigrant families and Black-owned businesses. It’s situated between University Avenue and the METRO Green Line to the north and Selby Avenue to the south. Black churches, businesses, and schools set down roots in the area in the late nineteenth and early […]
“Urban Progressivism” Didn’t Cause The Racial Housing Gap, Racism Did
Since the murder of George Floyd and the social unrest that followed, the Star Tribune has been publishing a series of editorials reflecting and commenting on the proposals that have emerged to address the issues of police violence and the racist system that underpins and fuels it. Unfortunately, before retroactively seeking out and publishing the […]
Neighborhood Character and Redlining’s Legacy
“Neighborhood character,” it turns out, can be legally defined and covenanted, as I learned recently when I spent a morning conducting research at the Ramsey County records division. I found the warranty deed abstract for the multi-block plot of land that includes my lot and house, and a significant swath of Highland District Council (HDC) […]
Camera Enforcement Questions & Answers
The ongoing conversation over the role of enforcement in creating safe streets and cities has raised a number of important points, both on streets.mn and elsewhere. I believe camera enforcement is a key component in creating safe streets and can be done without sacrificing our commitments to equity, privacy, and safety through better design. To […]
Who’s Filing All These Property Valuation Appeals?
Every Spring in Minneapolis, Nextdoor.com blows up when the annual property assessments went out. Many neighbors ask questions and give tips on how to convince the City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County that the real estate they own is actually less valuable than the assessor thinks. I should probably point out that there are some […]
Map Monday: Twin Cities Diversity Trends by Neighborhood, 2000 – 2017
The New York Times published a compelling map-based article this weekend about how white and non-white ratios are changing in neighborhoods around the United States. Their key thesis is that white homebuyers are rapidly changing the demographics and real estate values of neighborhoods that have long been home for people of color in many US […]