urbanMSP

Really narrow streets are often associated with small block sizes, so I think it's a good idea to just subdivide a regular city block with tiny streets! That's been one of my "if I was a developer" fantasies. A regular block in Minneapolis or Saint Paul could chop up into six pieces about 150' by 200'.

And we already have alleys slicing up most blocks... seems like if there was a critical mass of garages and accessory dwelling units that were designed to enhance the alley aesthetic, it would become a viable space. Right now most residential alleys are just for garage access and service/solid waste, which is fair, but they have potential in a different environment down the road.

Oftentimes I find my favorite streets in older residential areas to be those that seem to walk the line between being a street and an alley. Another thing I love is navigating via alleys in areas where the street grid is somewhat irregular.

Not sure how relevant those feelings really are to planning or if anything can really be done to enhance them, though.

Ripped from the headlines of my life:

Is it okay to buy one of those cool Six One Two shirts even if you have a suburban area code?

Is it ever okay to buy one of those 612 shirts?

Aw sad really?

I remember when they were just starting out... it's awesome that they've gotten a pretty big following. I wanted one SO bad my freshman year at ASU. Then I had a 480 area code...

Yeah it's only ok to wear an area code shirt if you used to live in that area code and now live far far away. If you live in an adjacent area code that is a complete no-no.

It's like I imagined David Greene wearing an UrbanMSP shirt until he came back.

ps what about the 800 number area codes? can you get shirts for those?

"Call 488-8888! Pizza Hut deliv'ry is really great!"

Ha! Just tonight I noticed a suburban-boomer-mom wearing one of the Rhymesayers' Six One Two shirts and all I could think was 612Brew named their brewery ten years too late.

Now, 218 -- that shit is hot.

Damn. Guess I'm not that cool.

Nick, don't worry, running a forum on the internet instantly makes you cool in any setting.

-1

Nick, don't worry, running a forum on the internet instantly makes you cool in any setting.

Damn straight. Just make sure you bring it up casually in conversation -- don't force it.

On par with "celebrity transportation blogger"

Or so says this article on Slate, anyway: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2013 ... omery.html

But we all knew that already

Not to get all serious, but my dad challenged me (in a pretty rude way) about my upcoming (less than 3 months til we list our current house!) move back into Minneapolis, saying how much crime there is, etc. I said it's likely safer in South Minneapolis than Lakeville when you consider chance of car deaths. He asked me to prove it. So I aggregated all of South Mpls neighborhood crime data for a 2 year period, used 2012 MnDOT car crash data for deaths and injuries as a car occupant/pedestrian/bicyclist (they even break it down by city for overall deaths, not split out by mode though), and came up with these 2 data points:

- If you bike, walk, and take transit for most of your trips in Minneapolis and drive in Lakeville (or any suburb), you are 1.76x more likely to die in a car crash/homicide in Lakeville than you are to be hit by a car or be murdered in Minneapolis.

- Including said data above, your chance of being killed in homicide/car crash, injured in a car crash, or have any violent/property (including larceny) crime occur in Lakeville is only 75% that in Minneapolis.

This is when he insisted statistics lie and liars use statistics.

[as most here know, rural areas are where road deaths are astronomically high, and the share of deaths in urban areas (municipalities with >5,000 people) occur mostly on county/state highways, interstates, and 4-lane arterials]

Not trying to start a flame war, just relaying a story I had and a very specific data point (since it didn't include other suburbs or areas of Minneapolis with notably higher crime).

EDIT** Pedestrian/Bicycle death and injury rates from car accidents was actually taken as Minneapolis and St Paul since MnDOT only had this information by cities of population ranges. They had "Cities with 250,000 people or more" which is only Mpls/StPaul. I assumed the likelihood is relatively the same everywhere. Just clarifying

Lazy anecdote to go with your really nice data: My wife has a friend who lives as far south in the 'burbs as you can get (there are active fields just across the stroad). Said friend occasionally passive-agressively posts links on Facebook to news stories about crime that happens in the central cities along with stupid commentary like "we love our suburb!" or whatever. Schadenfreude: their garage got broken into (possibly because they left the door open, but that's yet-to-be-determined) a week or so ago and their [unlocked] cars cleaned out. Whoops.

Lazy anecdote reply: About a month after my dad challenged me, my mom's car was broken into when she was at her friend's home in Lakeville visiting. She had her purse stolen (which somehow had $300 in cash and my sister's Kindle Fire. !?). I resisted the urge to lol @ my dad.

People sure get crazy ideas about the twin cities. It is frustrating.