Tag Archives: transit-oriented development

Maps of Seattle and Minneapolis showing that both cities are largely zoned for exclusively single-family homes

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, […]

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Sunday Summary – March 3, 2019

Welcome to March and its Madness (although the finals at US Bank Stadium are in April) as well as the snow, melting snow, puddles, and mud. Before the snow melts, here’s the last week on streets.mn:   Transit Transit Oriented Development: A Progress Report from Aaron Isaacs. The post features slides from a “recent staff presentation […]

Five Reasons to Love Saint Paul’s Ford Site Plans

When you teach urban geography, you inevitably come across the concept of “post-Fordism.” The term refers to the shifting economic and geographic arrangements that followed in the wake of globalization, automation, and technological revolutions. The concept is best illustrated by the  transformation of the auto industry in places like Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and elsewhere in […]

Something Brewing in Northeast: A Mistake at Hennepin and Central

Just earlier this year the East Isles neighborhood endured the gut-wrenching disappointment of watching the proposal for a new Walgreens along Hennepin Avenue in south Minneapolis get approval. The project stirred up a lot of debate about what belongs in urban corridors and how suburban-style single story drive-thru commercial impacts the areas of Minneapolis with […]

Four Necessities for the MLS Bus Barn Site

Professional sports stadiums in the United States, as controversial as their funding mechanisms have become, have historically been transformative elements to their surrounding environment. They can induce a once fertile stretch of farm field to become clad with hot oil-fused asphalt for personal vehicles to lay, or can spawn dense, mixed-use communities which urbanists obsess about during their repeated […]