Last week, I went to the Downtown Public Library for a meeting on the Hennepin Avenue Reconstruct, which encompasses the street from Washington Ave to 12th. As I often do when headed downtown, I walked Hennepin, weaving between slower foot traffic, waiting impatiently at poorly timed lights, and enjoying the pleasure of moving under my own […]
Not sure what these are. They appear to be street furniture. In moments like this, it’s best to turn to the knowledgable streets.mn community for expert guidance. Thank you in advance for your invaluable contribution to streetscape awareness. [Official location, in front of Zen Box Ikazaya.]
If St. Paul wants to be accessible to people from ages 8 to 80, as it claims, then it needs to accommodate pedestrians in construction zones.
The intersection of Ninth Street and Nicollet Mall is one of the busiest in downtown Minneapolis. As a pedestrian mall, Nicollet caters primarily to pedestrian traffic and also offers a roadway for buses and bicycles. Ninth Street is essentially an urban highway, stretching 55 feet across and featuring three lanes for cars, as well as an unprotected bike […]
I walked to the grocery store on Sunday, pushing the jogging stroller all the way. I’m an able-bodied person and one of the things I like about taking the kid for a walk is that I get a greater appreciation for how others see the city: if you are mobility challenged, the winters must be full of […]
There’s a sizable patch of sidewalk out in front of Leaning Tower of Pizza, and in milder months they rope off almost all of it as a dining area for their customers. The sidewalk is big enough to comfortably share between diners and pedestrians. But Leaning Tower chooses not to. Maybe it’s because outdoor dining […]
Having recently moved away from downtown, I’m spending more time in other parts of the city, which means I find new things to critique/complain about. Case in point, a problematic intersection that stands between my new home and the closest grocery store: Cedar Ave & East Minnehaha Parkway. Let’s set aside for the moment how […]
It’s one of the rare rainy seasons in Minnesota, and for that rarity I personally am glad having grown up in a climate more like Seattle’s and Portland’s than the Twin Cities. Climate is an important motivator for infrastructure decisions. I have to confess that the climatic explanation for why we have skyways is not […]
I came across this news story last week about a public works proposal in Brooklyn Park, a northern suburb of Minneapolis (and future host to the end of a planned light rail line). As far as things go, this proposal is a pretty mundane function of local government: reconstructing a few 30+ year old streets, replacing some […]
Road construction season in Minnesota is winding down and, as a result, many of the orange signs that are seasonal visitors to our urban landscape will soon be warehoused away. If you’re a slab of concrete in Minneapolis with the purpose of providing space for people to walk, this may give you some breathing room. […]