Undoing failed zoning by basing new rules on the development that occurred under that failed zoning is a cycle doomed to repeat past failures. If you want to get the diversity of buildings we used to have, you have to work back from what you want.
I still remember the first time I looked at a city zoning code, in a planning class at the Humphrey School. I both recommend it and, at the same time, would not wish the experience on anyone. City codes are interminable documents written in technical legalese. They go into painstaking detail about things like how […]
The Great Minnesota Get-Together is now in full swing (and still time to get there for my favorite Stock Dog Trials tomorrow starting at 9), it is back to school time, and early voting for Minneapolis and Saint Paul elections starts in only a few weeks. Here’s the week on streets.mn: Join us You’re Invited […]
Earlier this month, The New York Times ran an op-end titled “The Walls We Won’t Tear Down” about how some of society’s worst problems have a very boring cause: exclusionary zoning laws. Here’s the conclusion: Just as it is shameful for government regulation to exclude people from neighborhoods on the basis of race, it is similarly deplorable […]
Summer is waning with less than two weeks until the start of the Great Minnesota Get-Together and three until Labor Day weekend. Election season will be heating up, too, and the Saint Paul side of the streets.mn Voter Guide continues to expand with responses by mayoral candidate Pat Harris. You can find all our election […]
A handy, trustworthy tenant who paid his rent on time — nope, wasn’t enough for a suburban landlord who wanted to cash in.
In the 1930s, Hennepin Avenue in Uptown Minneapolis was a redlining boundary. Banks were instructed to give loans to people who wanted to live west of Hennepin, but the neighborhoods just east of Hennepin were labeled “definitely declining” and people who wanted to buy a home or renovate one were systematically denied loans. The redlining categories […]