I’ve been learning about what the Americans with Disabilities Act requires when it comes to our sidewalks. Here, I want to share my single favorite discovery. Hennepin County has an interactive online map with photo images and descriptions of every intersection, curb cut, signal actuation/beg button, and sidewalk obstruction on county streets. That map is […]
There’s little to report about the March service change, mostly fine tuning. That’s not surprising, considering it follows a major effort to beef up service for the Super Bowl. The only change of note is the rerouting of eastbound express routes 294, 350, 351, 361 and 364 from downtown St. Paul via the 6th Street […]
I was at a retreat at Camp DuNord in Ely, MN this past weekend where outdoor activities were the focus. There was snowshoeing, cross country skiing, sauna-dipping, hiking, stargazing, and just plain old wandering in the wilderness. Fortunately, we had perfect outdoor activity weather – 30’s during the day, dipping down to the single sub-zero […]
The University of Minnesota is known for its academics and beauty in all seasons. A 3rd party site did at least rank it #50 in the Most Amazing College Campuses for 2018. I usually notice the more subtle notes like the perfectly curvy bike lanes along the West Bank campus, the grand piano in Coffman […]
If you can order a coffee from a window while standing on a sidewalk, you just might be in a great urban place. On a recent trip to Santiago, Chile, I walked out of our AirBnB and just up the sidewalk was a coffee shop with a window facing the sidewalk. The street happened to […]
Now that the days are shorter and colder, summer’s blooms have given way to dried seed pods and stems. Gardeners across the state are making final preparations to rest their green thumbs this winter. So, this is a perfect time to post a love letter to all of the people who make walks so enjoyable […]
Signs are a fascination of mine. For one thing, signs are all around us. Pretty much everything is a sign: the tiniest graffito, the chalk mark on the curb, the entire skyscraper… they are all signs in some way. Deliberate urban signage, though, is a category unto itself: the official sign, deemed legitimate by conforming […]
This is part of a series of posts about a study on Little Canada’s transportation infrastructure for people who take transit, walk, and/or bike. In Transit: Parts One and Two, I discussed my motives behind my study along with some information and statistics about transit ridership in Little Canada. This part has an analysis of Little Canada’s pedestrian […]
A front porch wasn’t necessarily on the “must have” list for our house when we were shopping in 2015. But, as we looked into housing, it moved further and further up the list. The house we bought has a full length porch on the front. It is long and it is DEEP. It’s about 12 […]
The measurement and meaning of “neighborhood character” can be hard to pinpoint and define. But the debate is worth having, as our cities grow and change.