It’s Time to Practice ‘Place’
What is the cost of mobility — to our environment and sense of place? What if, instead, we developed our neighborhoods to be walkable and interactive?
Category: Shopping
Retail Districts Need a Local Base
The national problem of sagging shopping districts can be fixed with local stores in Uptown and Downtown Minneapolis and on Grand in St. Paul.
How Engaging With Stories Can Help Us Reclaim Local Power
We used storytelling as an engagement tool to make sense of the decline of St. Paul’s fancy-schmanciest shopping street. Could it inform work in other places, too?
Grocery Delivery 2023: How Grocer Inflation Compares
Tired of watching your grocery bill rise? Where you shop for groceries and what’s in your cart are the greatest influencers of cost.
Bikes and Business on Bloor: An Economic Study from Toronto
Recent discussion about Hennepin Avenue has raised the impact of the planned reconstruction on business. Fortunately we have a detailed case study on bike lanes and business from Toronto to learn from.
National Links: Gas Stations and Charging Futures
Banks and climate change, Parisian public spaces and more global sustainability news
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 […]
Grocery Delivery 2021: Target Is the “Pay Less” Leader, But With a Delivery Fee
Last February, I wrote a shopping comparison report looking at in-store shopping at local grocery stores, including co-ops like Seward and national warehouses like Costco. As I wrote then, Costco was the winner-winner five dollar chicken dinner. It’s been a year, and I apologize for not writing as frequently. The global pandemic has really taken […]
Twin Cities Lifestyle Centers Compared
This is the third article in a series on the evolution of retail and parking issues. Part One looked at issues with West End’s parking ramp as described in a Twin Cities Business magazine article. Then Part Two followed the evolution of regional retail from urban downtowns to suburban malls to suburban lifestyle centers. Now […]
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 […]