Minneapolis has been officially deemed “the best,” which is mathematically proven to mean “above average in rating pools greater than 1 unit,” in several recent studies published by various organizations. The American College of Sports Medicine has ranked Minneapolis its “fittest city” in its Annual Fitness Index. Cited among the metro areas strengths are park [...]
About Julie Kosbab
Julie Kosbab is an online marketing consultant and active transportation advocate living in Anoka County, Minnesota. She was one of Minnesota's only League of American Bicyclists Certified Instructors when certified in 2005. She is a past member of the National Bicycle Tour Directors Association. She has 2 children and 4 bicycles. Find her on Twitter as @betweenstations, Google+, or read her blog at Ride Boldly!
Hooray, Hooray: Velodrome Race Season Starts Today!
Readers of Streets.MN know that I often savage Anoka County, especially Blaine — what with parking drama, Safe Routes to Schools resistance, and more parking drama. It’s low-hanging fruit. So, today, I bring you a salute to something awesome about Blaine: The NSC Velodrome. Tonight is the first night of Thursday Night Lights for the [...]
Pets on Trains Act of 2013: A Solution in Search of a Problem
Apparently, amid the rising ridership of Amtrak — which had a record year in 2012, and has been busting records through March 2013 — there is a new class of passengers clamoring to get on. And pee. Yes, it’s apparently time for the Pets on Trains Act of 2013. Per the Humane Society of the [...]
Streets Weekend: Hooray! Hooray! May 11 is National Train Day!
Saturday, May 11 is National Train Day. In the past, I wrote a post about local train-related activities for the wee ones and their posse of elders. Today, there are a number of local activities of interest to rail fanatics, kids, and the curious to celebrate National Train Day. Amtrak has a National Train Day [...]
Too Little Parking? It Does Happen, In Fact
I’ve written previously about the angst and mayhem surrounding the parking situation at Blaine’s Lakeside Commons Park. To recap the history of this park and its parking situation: Lakeside Commons Park was opened in 2010 and built using standard set-aside land and monies from housing development in Blaine. The park has many features and amenities, [...]
Why Do We Need Laws To Prevent Parking in Bike Lanes?
Seriously, why? Today’s Star-Tribune features an article about current legislative activity at the state Capitol oriented to banning parking in bicycle lanes. Really? Why is this even an issue? It’s already legal to park there? Why? Is it legal to park in traffic lanes? No. Is it legal to park blocking alleyways? Don’t think it [...]
NIMBY: Park and Ride? But Think of the Children!
Now, sure. In general, parking lots are an urban blight. Streetsblog is doing a March Madness bracket of parking craters. Streets.mn has repeatedly covered the issues of subsidizing parking over investing in responsible alternatives. Meanwhile, in the suburbs? We learn that Park-and-Ride lots make intersections less safe, and apparently invite predators to watch baseball practice. [...]
PSA: Met Council Bike Study Public Meetings
The Metropolitan Council and MnDOT are conducting a series of public meetings requesting public input to an ongoing regional Bicycle System Master Study. Their goal is to improve the region’s network of on-road and off-road facilities, particularly working to link regional destinations and urban and suburban work centers. One of the purposes of the study [...]
Hoppy Easter from Streets.MN!
In honor of Easter, we bring you classic holiday knock-knocks, examined through an urbanist lens. Knock knock! Who’s there? Ether Ether who? ETHER BUNNY! Depending on the weather and your neighborhood, you are more likely to find a siding salesperson at your door than a bunny. If you are fortunate, you will luck out and [...]
A Public Transit Pope? Don’t Count On It
Yesterday, the Catholic Church selected a new Pope. Even here in quiet Minnesota, this was noted — the bells of the Basilica of St. Mary, the Cathedral of St. Paul, and the University of St. Thomas were quite notable to locals. One of the immediate reactions was for news organizations and transportation nerds to call [...]
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The Politics of Dumb Infrastructure
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Rails to Trails…to Rails
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No Parking and De-Signing Streets
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Free transit? A thought experiment.
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Demand Good Urbanism in Downtown East
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Three Half-Assed Freeways That Nobody Will Miss
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The Cases for (and Against) Public and Private Networks
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Podcast #36 – East Side Better Block with Andrew Howard
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Water for our future
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In a West End town, a dead end world
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Matt Steele: Imagine that we could develop the western half of ...
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Alex: Thanks for harping on these mistakes Bill. I belie...
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cl: Matt is right on in my opinion. Ayd Mill being be...
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Tim Santiago: Agreed. Selby and Snelling stands to become an eve...
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From the network
- What is the Constituency of a Local Land-Use Decision?: cross-posted at Streets.mn In the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis, a local entrepreneur put together a proposal to develop a surface parking lot into a 5-story condo building with retail s...
- Heart of Midtown threatened by widening of I-94 [in Detroit]: Opinion: Heart of Midtown threatened by widening of I-94. I read this headline to my students, who started laughing. Detroit, yes Detroit, Michigan is looking to widen a major highway, because presuma...
- All the Best US Cycle Tracks are Street Level: There has been a lot of discussion in the local bicycling scene about cycle tracks lately. “Cycle track” is a bit of a generic term. It may refer to a one-way or two-way facility. It may r...
- Water for our future: Over at streets.mn I have a new post on the importance of water supply planning for the next regional plan. What does all this have to do with Minnesota? We have tons of water, right? Well, on the...
- Are Minnesota craft breweries doing enough to market themselves differently?: Communications Conversations Last week, I attended a great event at a craft brewery here in Minneapolis named 612Brew (hosted by Minnesota PRSA). I had a great time catching up with...
- Reading the Highland Villager #86: [Basically the problem is that the best source of Saint Paul streets & sidewalks news is the Highland Villager, a very fine and historical newspaper. This wouldn't be a problem, except that its no...
- Greenways as a road to gentrification (happy hour Q and A): Who: Dr. Melody Hoffmann, bicycle advocacy researcher Where: Honey, 205 E Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55414 When: 5:30 pm on Thursday June 27th (program at 6:00pm) At this happy hour Q&a...
- If Washington Ave doesn’t deserve bus lanes, what does?: According to Hennepin County, around 7,500 bus riders will travel on Washington Ave at peak hour (4:30-5:30 PM) between Hennepin and 35W on an average weekday in the year 2035. For some perspective, t...
- A Timeline of Los Angeles Transit Agencies: This timelime and diagram of Los Angeles transit agencies is impressive. It presents an honest history of transit agencies in Los Angeles and doesn't promote the false idea that there was some type of...
- Walking Distance, Part 1: Today I'm starting a two-part blog post on walking in cities. In the first part of this post, we'll look at the question of how far people are willing to walk in real-world circumstances. In the secon...
- The Politics of Dumb Infrastructure [@ Streets.MN]: We have a political situation in the United States where Democrats are too eager to build anything if it creates a job and the Republicans are too willing to call a project a boondoggle without first...
- The Zoning Battle Over Al’s Breakfast – A Form Based Code With a Side of Bacon: “Why would anybody ever eat anything besides breakfast food?” – Leslie Knope “People are idiots, Leslie.” – Ron Swanson When I heard Al’s might get redeveloped, I thought the end of the...
