Yesterday, Brendon Slotterback (my colleague here on Streets.mn) tweeted something that caught my brain. It was about the plans for Washington Avenue through downtown Minneapolis: The comment was a reaction to a debate taking place online this week (in admittedly small circles) about the recently released Hennepin County study on over traffic projections and alternatives [...]
Tag Archives | planning
Models for tackling climate change at the regional level
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the next regional plan (called ThriveMSP 2040) may be one of the most significant pieces of policy that gets made in Minnesota in this decade. Every ten years, the Metropolitan Council looks at how the “systems” of our region are performing (land use, transportation, water, wastewater, [...]
When Cities Get Serious About Climate Change…
A recent comment on Streets.mn planted a seed in my head. The discussion was about the utility and futility of buses vs. streetcars, and for some reason I was particularly struck by (fellow writer and Minneapolis sustainability program coordinator) Brendon Slotterback’s statement about BRT: If we build A-BRT, we can always go back and put [...]
A Streets.mn Bibliography
I got some rare feedback about the Streets.mn podcast the other day, from a listener. Check it out: Hi,Thanks for the excellent podcast, I’ve been enjoying it. I was wondering if you guys would consider posting a page that’s just a reading list of all of the books that get mentioned in passing in the podcast. [...]
I Love St. Paul
As a lifelong Minneapolitan I’ve lived a scant 1.5 years in St. Paul. They were wonderful, and nowadays I frequently visit St. Paul for shopping, dining, entertainment and just to get perspective on my own city. St. Paul has a wonderful opportunity to create a new neighborhood and catalyze that through preservation of a piece of [...]
Solar access, land use and 30-year planning
By law, every community in the seven-county metro is supposed to adopt a comprehensive plan that includes “an element for protection and development of access to direct sunlight for solar energy systems”. This requirement dates back to 1978, when there was an oil crisis and gasoline was $1.30 per gallon (or, close to what it [...]
Will Rybak follow through on his plan for “Washington Boulevard”?
Five years ago, RT Rybak made my day. Somehow I ended up at an event he was hosting at the Riverview Theater. I think I had glanced at an announcement in the newspaper, some sort of meeting about architecture and city planning for Minneapolis. Being an underemployed urban peripatetic, I had nothing better to do. [...]
It Can’t Happen Here
Because we, the righteous, live in the blessed Midwest, we do not face God’s Wrath We are protected against all such natural disasters. CNN can entertain us with Disaster Porn while we comfortably eat popcorn in our homes. The local news can try to frighten us with “Superstorm Sandy, can it happen here?” stories, but [...]
Three Lessons from Minneapolis’ Pyrrhic Victory on Lake Street
An interesting vote took place this week in Minneapolis City Hall that illustrates a lot of reasons why cities have been struggling in America today. Item #22 on the agenda for the Transportation and Public Works Committee, way down at the bottom of the list, was a resolution supporting the “35-W Access project.” The project is [...]
How should the next regional plan address climate change?
You could argue the update of the regional framework now being undertaken by the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council (now called Thrive MSP 2040) is the most significant piece of land use policy that will be developed this decade. The framework guides the development of various policy plans, which in turn shape the development of [...]
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Bikes and Businesses Must Unite
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Minnesota Vikings Stadium Needs Better Urban Design
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Why I’m proud to be “offended” by the judgemental map of Minneapolis
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Washington Avenue proposed layouts are posted
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No Parking and De-Signing Streets
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The Pros and Cons of Saberurbanism
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No Parking and De-Signing Streets
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Podcast #35 – Twin Cities Greenways with Dacia Durham and Matthew Hendricks
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The Yard at Downtown East
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Minnesota Vikings Stadium Needs Better Urban Design
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Jeff Klein: Wow, I never thought I would see a blog post that ...
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Garrett: Jeff, just to clear something up, user fees and ga...
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Jeff: As far as signs go, there does seem to be a lot of...
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Ross Williams: "We have induced demand for car storage by provid...
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From the network
- NLX Promotional Material: Just for the historical record, please find attached a scan of the 1 page / 2 sided brochure that the promoters of the Northern Lights Express distributed at the May 11, 2013 National Train Day event...
- Washington Ave Public Meeting Recap: The Washington Avenue public meeting was held on May 14 from 5-7pm. It was an "open house," which means that people could drop in anytime in that two hour window to see the four different op...
- Bikeway Functional Class: I’ve been reading a lot of bike plans lately, and there seems to be a pretty wide variety of frameworks used by agencies to categorize bikeways. In particular, I’m intrigued by the variet...
- 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...
- Pedestrians prohibited on streets.mn: Today on streets.mn I examine Bloomington’s latest bungle. Bloomington is the suburb I lived in the longest, it has some really nice topography for the Twin Cities that great parks like Hyland,...
- Tuesday Network Update: There is a lot happening at the Strong Towns Network. Here's a sample: Andrew Price shares an idea from Australia called Thinkers in Residence. Is this a concept we could adopt here in the United St...
- A Bold Vision for a Downtown Park and a More Beautiful City: The great mayor of Charleston, Joe Riley, likes to say “there is no reason to build anything that won’t add to the beauty of the city.” Inspiring words. It behooves the Mayor of Minneapolis, R.T...
- Do Local Policies Explain the Decline in Driving?: Driving is declining. Reports like this recent one by USPIRG claim that "The Driving Boom—a six decade-long period of steady increases in per-capita driving in the United States—is over.
- Jobs, economic development and housing budget bill makes important investments in our state: Minnesota Budget Bites As the 2013 Legislative Session closes, the final budget bills have been passed by the House and Senate. Last week the omnibus jobs, economic development and h...
- Today on Streets.mn: Comparing SABR to Critical Urbanism: Baseball is one of my favorite things, and I wrote a post for Streets.mn today about the lessons that SABRmetrics can teach critical urbanists.Lots of good stuff:First, baseball statheads rigorously t...
- Minnesota Vikings Stadium FAIL – We need better urban design: The architecture of the Minnesota Vikings Stadium: take it or leave it? Personally, I think it looks like a cross between a laser jet printer, a drunk Frank Gehry and something out of 2001: A Space Od...
- 2012 Nice Ride flows revisited: For the last two years, I’ve mapped the flows of the Nice Ride bikes. I’ve always been slightly dissatisfied with the results, since bikes were obviously shown taking routes that any san...
