Many of our suburban cities are updating comprehensive plans. These set the course for what our communities will look like over the next 20 to 30 years and are quite important. These impact safety, community desirability (and so home values, city tax revenue and ability to maintain infrastructure), quality of life, physical and mental health […]
Don’t accept the argument that roads are congested (and can’t handle new development) without looking at the data.
The Metropolitan Council reports net growth of the metropolitan area of 8% in the years between 2010 and 2017, with the greatest growth occurring in “Urban Center communities” — Minneapolis and Saint Paul and the region’s oldest suburbs. Growth in these areas has accounted for one-third of the region’s population growth since 2010. Growth by […]
Eric Roper had a must-read article in the Star Tribune this weekend about suburban low-wage jobs and the challenge of transit for those workers. It has a bunch of interesting stories for people who think about transit, density, and employment. It also includes this map! It’s worth noting that the total number of jobs in Minneapolis, […]
Note: Service Changes that went into effect on August 19th mean that this trip is no longer possible by public transit. Riding transit for fun is a pastime of mine. Prior to living in the Twin Cities, I was living in San Francisco, where I grew up in a low-income, relatively car-free household. The only […]
The supposed “problems” of Penn Avenue in Richfield really aren’t problems at all.
There’s been much discussion about car vs. pedestrian crashes in the Twin Cities and closer-in suburbs. Here is a discussion about one in an exurb and one in a small town. When a crash happens, eventually the investigating agency winds up saying someone french-fried when they should have pizza-ed, assigns blame, the insurance companies and lawyers […]
This is the final part of a series of posts about a study on Little Canada’s transportation infrastructure for people who take transit, walk, and/or bike. Final Thoughts As I finished up the last part last month, I have some final thoughts based off my experiences. I also discuss my biases and how they influence […]
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. Transit: Parts One and Two, and Walking addressed Little Canada’s buses and sidewalks. This part has an analysis of Little Canada’s biking infrastructure. What Exists Now And What Is Planned For Biking Biking can be rather difficult […]
On a 6-1 vote on August 3, the Blaine (MN) City Council approved an actual high-density housing development. I have previously questioned Blaine’s priorities for development, including years of bizarre hand-wringing over putting high-density housing in other locations, like in The Lakes development. However, Blaine has decided that it is time to approve some density. […]