On the week of October 19th, and 20th, the city councils of Hopkins and Saint Louis Park voted to do something exceedingly rare in Minnesota. The two city councils voted to go through with redrawing the city borders, annexing land from the other city. On paper, initially, Hopkins comes out on top gaining about 3 additional acres […]
The podcast this week is a conversation with James Warden, who as well as writing many fine columns for this site, is running for City Council in Hopkins Minnesota. Warden is a former journalist and media analyst, a zoning and planning commissioner, and a big fan of good urban design. We sat down at the […]
‘Tis been a hot and humid week here in Minnesota, but we have not been just sitting around drinking lemonade here at streets.mn. Writers have been at community events, continuing to chew over transit planning/projects, and getting on their bikes. Here are the week’s posts sorted and summarized so you can read what you need […]
It’s mid-July, and that means one thing in Hopkins: Raspberry Festival. This year, though, officials kicked off the city’s biggest week with a little tactical urbanism. The city closed Eighth Avenue to cars Saturday and set up temporary features that gave people a taste of what the street’s future could look like. Eighth Avenue is […]
Expensive is not the same as valuable – particularly when it comes to cities. Big price tags on large properties offer the alluring promise of boosted tax revenue for both taxpayers and city officials. Yet our cities’ tax system is based on both the value of the buildings and the value of the land. As […]
Lots of news on the Southwest Corridor lately. You may have heard about it: The question of which route is chosen is important not only for the light-rail system Hennepin County wants to build, but also for the rest of the metropolitan area in terms of rail transit philosophy. That’s because this southwest route offers […]
We’re delighted to have been named City Pages Best Local Blog Minneapolis 2015, but “we” could also include you. You can write for us or Join streets.mn Committees and Task Forces to have some impact. Or, you could just take a survey one writer has created to inform a future post: Questioning Our Pedestrian Lives Wrapping up the tournament […]
Hopkins has been the model of cooperation for the past few years. The city collaborated with Hennepin County on a Shady Oak Road expansion despite harms to longstanding businesses. It accepted the Southwest LRT’s operations and maintenance facility even though the city suffered the biggest hit to tax base of any community along the line. […]