One of the common criticisms you hear about the Minneapolis 2040 draft comprehensive plan, if you go to enough public meetings, is that it’s anti-family. People say if you want to support families, you’ve got to restrict the vast majority of city land for single-family homes. This criticism doesn’t hold water unless the only kind […]
Tomorrow – streets.mn Brainstorm Happy Hour (and maybe board games)
You might have noticed, but streets.mn is changing it’s mission. We’re having an impromptu happy hour to hang out with readers, writers, and a few board members to chat about what you’d like to see and the process we’re using to generate our mission and values statements. It sounds wonky but it’s not… For […]
Transit On-time Performance
On-time performance is critical to the success of all scheduled public transit. Assuming that speeds are competitive, fares are reasonable, service frequencies are convenient, the vehicles are clean and safe and the staff is customer friendly, the level of on-time performance can make or break ridership. The customer needs confidence that the bus or train […]
Arguments Against Minneapolis’s Draft Comprehensive Plan, Addressed (Part I)
It seems like it’s time to take stock of the arguments being levied against ideas in the Minneapolis Draft 2040 Comprehensive Plan. Here are some of the common themes that you might hear argued—or might be compelled to argue yourself!—and some point-by-point responses. Density Belongs Downtown (or Near the University, or…) The Draft Plan already […]
Comprehensive Plans: Where Do You Want To Live?
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 […]
“Good Enough” Isn’t Good Enough on Summit Avenue
I like biking on Summit Avenue, Saint Paul’s most well-used bike lane, but I always try and remind myself that not everybody enjoys it. Though I’ve been riding down Summit since high school, and after a few decades it seems fine to me, appearances can be deceiving. Yet the truth of the matter is that […]
Sunday Summary – June 3, 2018
Welcome to June, but first, a look back at the last week of May on the site: streets.mn Mission Hopefully, you saw the message from the Board of streets.mn — we’re in the process of updating our mission, and we’d love your input. Please click over and share your vision for streets.mn, and also share […]
It’s a Plan, Not a Code
“[S]mall-scale residential structures.” These are the words the draft Minneapolis 2040 comprehensive plan uses to describe the massing of buildings to be allowed in the Interior 1 category, most of which is currently zoned R1 or “single family.” Carol Becker knows this, because I’ve told her (also here). When asked last week at a Longfellow […]
A History of Minnesota’s Highways: Part Four
This is Part Four of an ongoing series of the history of Minnesota’s trunk highway system. Part One covered the early days of government and privately built roads. Part Two covered the events leading up to the establishment of the trunk highway system in 1920. Part Three covered the coming of the U.S. numbered highways […]
Help streets.mn Change and Thrive — What are your Place-Values?
Good news – streets.mn is changing its mission. Since streets.mn began in 2011*, we’ve had a value-neutral mission about “expanding and enhancing the conversation” around important and often-misunderstood issues like land use, transportation, and urban design. At the beginning, this value-neutrality was set up deliberately. As an organization, we don’t want to have a clear positions […]
Walking All the Streets in Southern Folwell
The Folwell neighborhood is named for Folwell Park in North Minneapolis, not Folwell School in South Minneapolis. (This means it is indirectly named for Folwell the park board president, not Folwell the University of Minnesota president—though they were one and the same person.) So the title “Southern Folwell” indicates not which Folwell I’m writing about, but rather which half of it […]
The 21st Century Southdale Vehicle Collapse
The perception that traffic congestion is worse today than in the past is a real phenomenon. Might as well call it traffic nostalgia. Plus, the perception that traffic is only going to get worse is a common objection for constructing new housing anywhere. A fourplex or daycare being proposed can bring forth primal concerns about […]
Dangerous Intersection: 3rd Ave & 16th St
[This post originally appeared on Our Streets Minneapolis blog as part of highlighting the most dangerous intersections Minneapolis. The author is Jesse Peterson.] The intersection of 3rd Ave and 16th St is a major interchange that users must pass through to access major downtown features. Features such as the convention center, an entrance to I-94, and the […]
Abolish Transit Fares
Abolish Transit Fares. Everyone stands to gain. Transit Riders will enjoy a heavier wallet. A few extra bucks every day to spend as they choose, not as they must. Service on non-rapid routes will speed up because bus drivers will no longer have to act as cashiers and security guards. Drivers, especially suburban commuters, […]
Autonomous Cars Can Be Safe or Mass-Marketable, Not Both
You might remember a rash of people on social media becoming suddenly interested in “the Trolley Problem” a few years ago. A classic ethical thought experiment about the dilemma posed by a runaway trolley, contemporary interest in it has been revived as corporations and engineers (PDF) begin grappling with programming and design decisions that will govern […]
Map Monday: Minneapolis New Construction vs. Land Use Zoning
It’s not technically Monday but it feels like it is, so here’s a map from indefatigable Tweetable map-maker Scott Shaffer. It shows the number of “new construction permits” (i.e. bulldozing of an existing building slash parking lot) in Minneapolis over the last eight years or so. As you can see, the vast majority of new […]
Jump Starting the Benefits of ADUs in Minneapolis
Let’s talk about ADUs. First the definition from the City of Minneapolis: An accessory dwelling unit (ADU) – also referred to as a granny flat, mother-in-law apartment, or carriage house – is a self-contained living unit that can be located within the walls of an existing or newly constructed home, or that can be an […]
The Quarterly Transit Report – June 2018
The June 6 schedule change includes some noteworthy improvements, both permanent and temporary. Route 4 Johnson Street NE-New Brighton reroute All Route 4G New Brighton buses will use 39th Avenue instead of 37th Avenue between Stinson Blvd. and Silver Lake Road. This is a classic case of diverting a route to access more traffic generators. […]
The Death of 4-Lane Death Roads
If you don’t know about Saint Paul’s Maryland Avenue, you really should. To catch up, take a look at these past Streets.MN articles: June 20, 2016 – Maryland Avenue Pedestrian Safety Meeting Recap May 19, 2017 – So Much Depends on the Next Six Weeks on Maryland Avenue July 12, 2017 – Maryland Avenue: The […]
Summit Avenue Fatality: No Charges, No Change?
(most of this post previously appeared on Ride Boldly) On Friday, the Ramsey County attorney’s office announced that no charges will be filed against the school bus driver involved in May’s fatal Summit Avenue crash. Initial gut response: WTF, with a side helping of “you announced this on the Friday before a holiday weekend for reasons, […]