Neighborhood Character Is a Myth. Long Live Neighborhood Character
Fred Kreider • May 21, 2021 What good is “neighborhood character” if it contributes to climate change, car culture and lack of affordable housing?
Tag Archives: Minneapolis 2040
Fred Kreider • May 21, 2021 
Why are Building Height Limits in Minneapolis 2040 Delaying Affordable Housing in Whittier?
Speed Rogers • December 4, 2020 The City of Minneapolis’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan promised to change our city’s approach to housing. The plan’s central argument is that the city needs more homes, especially since Minneapolis doesn’t have sufficient affordable and supportive housing for our most vulnerable community members. Decades of racist and exclusionary zoning policies have made Minneapolis one of the […]
Will Minneapolis 2040 Live Up to its Promise?
Janne Flisrand • October 2, 2020 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.
Is It Time To Look Past the Missing Middle?
Conrad Zbikowski • September 21, 2020 In the “before-times”, housing advocates in Minneapolis worked with a progressive city council to pass the 2040 Plan. The New York Times proclaimed, “Minneapolis, Tackling Housing Crisis and Inequity, Votes to End Single-Family Zoning”. These were all great achievements, and it is clear that 2040, inclusionary zoning, and other reforms and investments have made real […]
The Lake/Minnehaha Rebuild Is an Opportunity to Redefine Our Alleys
Following the reprehensible conduct of police in the treatment and death of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020, peaceful protests became agitated by subsequent aggression and retaliation by police in riot gear. Some strayed from the initial focus of the peaceful protestors upon the Minneapolis Police Department Third Precinct building, setting fire to neighborhood buildings […]
“Urban Progressivism” Didn’t Cause The Racial Housing Gap, Racism Did
Since the murder of George Floyd and the social unrest that followed, the Star Tribune has been publishing a series of editorials reflecting and commenting on the proposals that have emerged to address the issues of police violence and the racist system that underpins and fuels it. Unfortunately, before retroactively seeking out and publishing the […]
Hennepin County Endangers Transit Funding
In a shocking 4-3 decision, the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority (which is to say the Hennepin County commissioners) voted last month to divert transit sales tax revenues to roads. At a time when transit funding is facing a crisis in the state legislature due to Republican opposition, it’s hard to imagine a more cynical […]
Rebuttal to a Rebuttal: Let’s Talk Functional Density
Carol Becker is right about one thing in her September 18 opinion piece in the StarTribune (“Let’s Talk About What Density Really Is“): Having 150- to 250-unit apartment buildings spaced a half mile apart or more, with little in between, is not functional density. That’s it, though; the rest of the opinion piece is, well, […]
Brit Builds an ADU: The Surveyor and the Height Problem
Hey! It’s been a while, huh? We are out of spring and well into summer, and our project finally is getting into the swing of things. I owe y’all a few updates. When we last left off, we were concerned about what type of accessory dwelling unit (ADU) was possible on our property. So, we […]
Drive-Through Ban Gets Positive Reception at Minneapolis Planning Commission
On Thursday, the Minneapolis Planning Commission was supportive of a proposed ordinance from Council President Lisa Bender that would prohibit new drive-throughs for banks, drugstores, and fast food restaurants (or any other “facility which accommodates automobiles and from which the occupants of the automobiles may make purchases or transact business”). It’s important to emphasize: if […]