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Let’s stop calling people “NIMBYs”

By on May 9, 2013 in Culture, Trends

In my first post here, I come to you, oh humble readers of streets.mn, hoping to change your mind about one of the trendy words we urbanists throw around too often. The acronym NIMBY, which of course stands for “Not In My BackYard”, popped up at some point a few decades ago and has since [...]

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Time Evolution of Twin Cities

By on May 9, 2013 in Trends

Google Earth Engine lets you see the evolution of Landsat photos. We did this for the Twin Cities. Go here: Timelapse of Minneapolis – Saint Paul Andrew notes: I think the most amazing thing is seeing the path of the Minneapolis tornado appear in 2011

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Poll Shows Support For Sales Tax Hike to Fund Public Transit

By on January 21, 2013 in Featured, Governance, Media, Plans, Polls, Transit, Transportation, Trends, Uncategorized

A new statewide poll conducted by Minnesota’s three largest Chambers of Commerce—Minneapolis, St. Paul, and TwinWest—shows for the second year in a row that support for expanding the transit system in the metro area is strong. Seventy-nine percent of respondents said that Minnesota “would benefit from having an expanded and improved public transit system, such [...]

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Best Current Plan: Access Minneapolis Transportation Action Plan

By on December 30, 2012 in Best of, Governance, Plans, Polls, Transportation, Trends, Uncategorized

We are almost there, good readers; 2013, and the end of our gilded series on your opinions on where our fair cities are headed in the next year and beyond.  Unfortunately, I have the task of reporting on what was least popular subject: the Best Current Plan.  Woe is me. Of the 10 subjective and [...]

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2012 Best Farmer’s Market: St. Paul Farmer’s Market

By on December 26, 2012 in Best of, Featured, Neighborhoods, Shopping, Trends, urban agriculture

The farmer’s market: Among the oldest forms of direct-to-consumer sales, these truly urban agoras bring the rural to the city, and exist all around the world in some form or another. They bridge the gap between city and country with commerce, and thus, it was inevitable we at streets.mn would ask readers where their favorite [...]

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In Defense of Texting and Driving*

By on October 2, 2012 in Environment, Featured, Infrastructure, Transportation, Trends

I found myself stuck in traffic last week during rush hour on Highway 62 running along the southern border of Minneapolis into St. Paul. As I was creeping along at a snail’s pace, my phone beeped. Without hesitation, I picked up my phone and texted a friend with one hand while keeping the other on [...]

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Women on Bikes: The National Women’s Cycling Summit

By on September 13, 2012 in Bicycling, Trends

Today marks the kickoff of the National Women’s Bicycling Summit in Long Beach. Hooked up to the end of the Pro Bike/Pro Walk Conference, the scheduling is designed to try to capture some of the same audience and get them talking about women’s cycling issues in more depth than the agenda of a wider conference [...]

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Squashes & melons in a Fridley community garden.

Down With Lawns: Community Gardening in the Suburbs

By on August 30, 2012 in Environment, Land use, Trends, urban agriculture

The iconic suburban lawn may be losing popularity. Oh, sure. Restrictive covenants still exist, and the guy who uses his leaf blower to vacuum up the lawn mulch wearing nothing but a Speedo at 9 at night in July still wanders, white hairy chest on display, in many communities. But as suburbanites face slowed development [...]

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Golfing in the City of St. Paul

By on August 7, 2012 in Environment, Trends

Golf is a humbling game, especially when you lose to a 98 year old. [Above: The menacing 2nd hole at the Highland 9 in St. Paul. I bogeyed, which is good for me] Public golf courses are in the red. For that matter, golf courses in general. There is even dispute going on right now [...]

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Hipsterville: The Unprecedented Future of Small Town Minnesota

By on July 25, 2012 in Trends, Uncategorized

A growing issue throughout Minnesota is the uncertain future of our small outstate towns. The state is full of small towns with a few thousand or fewer people. To generalize, these towns have some difficult years ahead of them – aging populations, migration towards large metropolitan areas, little to no industry. In many cases the [...]

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