Tag Archives | streets

Five Rules for Vital Streets

By on March 11, 2013 in Streets, Walking

Streets are vital when there is the feeling that there is something going on, of being where the action is. Successful places have vitality. By definition, dead places don’t. We don’t want too much vitality everywhere (I don’t want it on my street after 9 pm) and probably can’t support it. But surely we could [...]

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I Love Some of Our Streets

By on February 15, 2013 in Uncategorized

This week’s Streets.mn love-fest has produced good content. Curiously, none of its content involves any of us writers proclaiming love for the streets in our Twin Cities or suburbs. We talk about trails and parks, which Minnesota does very well. Brendon Slotterback loves trees that line our streets and Andrew Owen loves accessibility that comes [...]

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I Love Trees

By on February 12, 2013 in What I love about Minnesota

One of the reasons I choose to live in an older neighborhood is the trees.  Living on or moving down a tree-lined street with canopy coverage from curb to curb is just great.  Minneapolis, Saint Paul and many suburbs are blessed with large, old trees.  Minneapolis was recently recognized by American Forests as being one [...]

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Improving Community through Progressive Approaches to Construction Mitigation

By on October 12, 2012 in Bridges, Infrastructure, Shopping, Streets

Infrastructure projects such as road construction and bridge re-building are more than just public works endeavors. They are events that affect the whole community. Like any disruptive event, construction can pull a community apart or bring it together. If approached holistically with intentional collaboration and wisely applied funding, we can have better roads, and stronger [...]

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The Missing Link

By on May 7, 2012 in Streets

Though the automobile-highway system is mature, and we will not be building any significant mileage of new highways in the Twin Cities, does that mean we should build none? Connectivity is important, more connected cities are more efficient (at least to a point) from a transportation and economic productivity perspective. When I was young and [...]

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3/20/12 Minneapolis Transportation & Public Works Committee

By on March 26, 2012 in Environment, Governance, Infrastructure, Transportation

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 [...]

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Really Narrow Streets: A Missing Element in Twin Cities Urban Design

By on December 20, 2011 in Smart Growth, Transportation

Even the narrowest of Twin Cities streets are pretty wide. With few exceptions, streets in Minneapolis and St. Paul tend to range in width from 30 to 60 feet, curb to curb. Including sidewalks and boulevards, the width stretches to a ballpark range of 40 to 70 feet. Streets get even wider when you move into the [...]

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