Woody Allen (or perhaps it was Harry Truman) famously said decisions are made by those who show up. Streets.MN readers who are also Minneapolis residents may be interested in these opportunities to show up (and make decisions): Bicycle Advisory Committee: advise the Mayor, Council and Park Board on bike-related issues. (13 vacancies) Pedestrian Advisory Committee: advise [...]
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Assessing our Future
The concept of a special assessment contains little dark secrets that city officials like to keep to themselves. The ability to assess the cost of maintenance — a questionable concept at best — is the only thing allowing many cities to avoid facing their true reality. Elected officials and the public need to understand assessments, [...]
Transit-oriented political developments
The session’s not quite over, but probably all the bills that will pass this year at the MN Legislature have been introduced. I thought streets.mn readers might be interested in those bills that affect the state’s transit landscape, so here is a bowdlerized version of a summary from my personal blog. Warning: I am not [...]
3/20/12 Minneapolis Transportation & Public Works Committee
The Transportation & Public Works Committee of the Minneapolis City Council discusses a lot of interesting stuff but seems to either use too many or not enough words to describe what they’re talking about. Here is an attempt to add some context to the dry but vital meeting topics. I’ve been summarizing them here at [...]
Four Ways to Build a Better Advocacy Event
March (thus far!) has been a month of summits — the Minnesota Bicycle Summit happened March 5, the National Bicycle Summit is happening right now, and several Transportation and Tourism Summits occurred in Minnesota. All have focused on various forms of advocacy in various venues. I’ve been to a few of these events this year [...]
Some perspective
On Wednesday, President Obama signed a bill authorizing the construction of a new Stillwater Bridge, a $690 million project that will serve possibly 18,000 car trips per day. Here are some other transportation segments that serve at least 18,000 trips per day. Nicollet Mall, north of S 7th Street SE – 20,000 pedestrian trips per day SE Washington Ave, [...]
Is Minneapolis Ready for Form-Based Codes?
Recent development debacles and near-debacles in Minneapolis have made me wonder if form-based codes could help the development process here. I’ve been researching form-based codes around the country lately, and I believe they may well have a role in my hometown. At a minimum, they can provide developers, city staff and elected officials, and neighbors [...]
2/28/12 Minneapolis Transportation & Public Works Committee
The Transportation & Public Works Committee of the Minneapolis City Council is a not-very-interesting meeting where a lot of interesting stuff is talked about. Here is an attempt to add some context to the dry but vital meeting topics. I’ve been summarizing them here at streets.mn since the beginning of the year; here’s a list [...]
Get involved in regional planning
If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice the Metropolitan Council, the Twin Cities regional planning agency, is stirring. They’re getting ready to update the Regional Development Framework. The RDF provides the basis for pretty much everything the Metropolitan Council does around four “systems”: transportation, aviation, water resources (including wastewater collection and treatment) and regional parks and open [...]
Not on My Bike Path!
Midtown Greenway Coalition email subscribers, twitter followers, or website visitors will have seen this notice at some point today: Let the Sun Shine In The Midtown Greenway Coalition fights excessive shadowing on the Greenway. What the Coalition is fighting is the shadowing of the Greenway that would result from the proposed development of a 6-story mixed-use [...]
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The Magic of Streetcars, The Logic of Buses
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Urban Highway Removal in Minneapolis?
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The Problem of Hiawatha Avenue
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A Typology of Beg Buttons
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Time for a change on Park and Portland
