I saw my first NiceRider this week, an Asian student crossing the Wasington Avenue bridge on the University of Minnesota campus. It seems that, barring massive snowstorms forcing the bright green bikes to scuttle back to their hibernation caves, the Nice Ride season is upon us. They’re even expanding again, adding 24 new stations along [...]

Mis-structuring employee parking charges: An example from a local university
Parking in a structure is the quintessential private good. It is excludable (no pay, no park), and it is rivalrous (if I park in a space, you cannot). Someone at Metropolitan State University does not understand this, and is instead trying to get all employees and students to pay for a parking structure at the [...]

Big Roads, Big Clinics, Entertainment Districts & Class A Office Towers
What’s happening around the Twin Cities and Minnesota … Here is the Streets.MN Rundown! Bipartisan support for I-94 Expansion between Maple Grove & St. Cloud [Star Tribune] You know what we need? More lanes on I-94 to St. Cloud. “Republican U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, backed by a bipartisan cohort of about three dozen lawmakers, local elected [...]

Lowertown’s Parking Challenge
This map sparked a few disparaging tweets, including a small #twitterwar with a City Council member. As it turns out, people get riled up about parking. It is as if they feel they are entitled to parking and the benefits thereafter. These blue spaces represent off-street surface parking lots and parking garages; but do not [...]

Don’t be Misled by Parking Space Economics
Donald Shoup’s famous parking policy book arrived the mail last week. Even though I’m about 5 years late to the party, the book still seems revolutionary. I still remember the first time I realized that parking dominates local neighborhood conversation. I was young and naïve and just starting to pay attention to Twin Cities’ urban [...]

The Streets.MN Rundown
I’m going to steal a little something out of the Strong Towns Playbook (e.g.: Friday News Digest). Sorry Chuck, I’m stealing your idea! How does the saying go? Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery? Here we go … Sidewalk sales? Yes, please!, on Star Tribune Minneapolis is looking to change an ordinance to [...]

Podcast #25 – A Green Future for Saint Paul with Mayoral candidate Roger Meyer
This week’s podcast is a conversation with Roger Meyer, the Green Party candidate running for Mayor of St Paul. Roger Meyer is a longtime activist in the Merriam Park neighborhood, and has worked as a consultant for the YMCA and many district councils on issues ranging from mental health, transportation, to education. Fellow Streets.mn author [...]

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 [...]

I Love Rice Park
“This week (Valentine’s Week), we have challenged ourselves at Streets.MN to be positive, which is really much harder than complaining (you see, already I am complaining about having to not complain). So we have a theme, about which we are not entitled to be snarky, What I love about Minnesota.” – David Levinson, I Love [...]

Newflash: St. Paul isn’t Minneapolis (and that’s a good thing)
If you were to read the City of St. Paul’s legislative wish list, you’d see a list of big projects such as: $14 million to improve the Children’s Museum $7 million for parking and transportation improvements at Como Park $32 million loan forgiveness tied to the Xcel Energy Center (in an effort to not pay [...]
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Bikes and Businesses Must Unite
April 24, 2013
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Minnesota Vikings Stadium Needs Better Urban Design
May 14, 2013
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Why I’m proud to be “offended” by the judgemental map of Minneapolis
April 29, 2013
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Washington Avenue proposed layouts are posted
May 11, 2013
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SPUD
May 11, 2013
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No Parking and De-Signing Streets
May 20, 2013
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Podcast #35 – Twin Cities Greenways with Dacia Durham and Matthew Hendricks
May 16, 2013
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The Yard at Downtown East
May 15, 2013
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Minnesota Vikings Stadium Needs Better Urban Design
May 14, 2013
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Clarifying the Minneapolis Event Rate Meter Parking Debacle
May 13, 2013
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Matt: When I was working to start a car sharing organiza...
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Bill Lindeke: I like "car storage" too. They're just sitting ...
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Alex Cecchini: Also, even though it's somewhat assumed the natur...
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Matt: David, Thanks for referring to parking as car stor...
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Matt: Ross, the assumption that "the" alternative to o...
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From the network
- Riding Minnehaha Ave with Kids. Or not.: A few days ago, I was out for a ride with Isaiah's dad, Michael. You might remember Isaiah. He's the now 10-year-old who rode 150 miles in two days as a fundraiser for the Coalition. O...
- A Call for a New Model: Building a Strong Town is a complex, long-term endeavor. Much as a successful family balances their short-term spending needs with their long-term savings and financial commitments, so too must a Stro...
- 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...
- 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...
- 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...
- 7 Reasons Conservatives Should Embrace Bikes: There’s a certain bar in my city that is famous for being right-wing. It’s an old family joint in a run-down corner of downtown. The people are surly but friendly, and the inside of the place is h...
- 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,...
- 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...
- 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...
- The budget tax deal: mnpACT! Progressive Political Blog Sausage may make a fine meal, but don't watch it being made.And so it is with budget legislation. The DFL Legislature has agreed to a tax bill and...
- Has There Ever Been a Streetcar Feasibility Study That Found Streetcars Unfeasible?: I ask this as a serious question: Does a streetcar study exist that concludes that a streetcar is unfeasible? Check out the studies that show up from a Google search (link). Without spending too much...
- 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...
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