Search found 2625 matches

by RailBaronYarr
April 5th, 2018, 1:15 pm
Forum: Minneapolis - South, Southwest, and Uptown
Topic: 36th and Bryant Area
Replies: 121
Views: 26064

Re: 36th and Bryant Area

Per the always excellent website Nextdoor dot com, there is a proposal brewing for this corner. Lot where the Volunteers of America building still stands and the vacant lot/pit just to its south. Neighbor says the developer communicated 3-4 stores, 41 units, 19 parking spaces accessed by the alleywa...
by RailBaronYarr
February 11th, 2018, 9:21 am
Forum: Minneapolis - South, Southwest, and Uptown
Topic: Daymark Uptown (Sons of Norway site) - 3014 Holmes Ave S
Replies: 137
Views: 52998

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

If the takeaway from land use and development in the USA ca. 2018 is that neighbors are now powerless... man I dunno. Context/framing is everything: R6 on a site like this in a city like this is actually a fairly ridiculous zoning as it only allows 6 stories/84' by-right. The same block has R2B on i...
by RailBaronYarr
February 1st, 2018, 10:57 am
Forum: Anything Goes
Topic: Stress relief
Replies: 222
Views: 37917

Re: Stress relief

I think that cities across the world have a long history of tearing down and rebuilding themselves, done both by private and public actors, sometimes for generally pure/rational reasons and sometimes not so much. I wouldn't say Minneapolis has any more of a tendency toward doing this out of a sense ...
by RailBaronYarr
January 21st, 2018, 5:32 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Replies: 1121
Views: 240935

Re: Orange Line (35W BRT) & Lake St Transit Access Project

This might sound like blasphemy, but if they're seriously considering extending this thing so far south, it would be silly to continue the route along I-35 south of Kenrick P&R. CSAH 50 has relatively high speeds, and with some bus priority at a few key lights it could hit 50/Dodd and downtown L...
by RailBaronYarr
January 18th, 2018, 2:47 pm
Forum: Suburbs
Topic: Southdale Area - Edina
Replies: 797
Views: 239537

Re: Southdale Area Development - Edina

I'm not in disagreement with your strategies by any stretch. I just think that a common 'urbanist' trope to lob rocks at folks who drive to whatever physical fitness they'll partake in, or over-sell the health benefits of, say, walking 1.5 blocks to a bus to sit and read on your phone until you get ...
by RailBaronYarr
January 18th, 2018, 1:28 pm
Forum: Suburbs
Topic: Southdale Area - Edina
Replies: 797
Views: 239537

Re: Southdale Area Development - Edina

I mean getting a bit of physical activity as part of living in an urban environment is certainly a plus, but I'm not sure it should be one of the biggest selling points. Many people walk farther from their downtown parking ramps to the office than people who get off the local/express routes do. Biki...
by RailBaronYarr
January 18th, 2018, 11:26 am
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)
Replies: 2909
Views: 692570

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

They are not putting bus lanes on the Hennepin stretch from Lake to 36th St. However, the project team worked closely with MT and decided to 1) reduce bus stops (thank god, it is so painful stopping every block in this stretch), and 2) are planning for the bus stops to be "aBRT-ready" - ha...
by RailBaronYarr
January 10th, 2018, 2:52 pm
Forum: Minneapolis - South, Southwest, and Uptown
Topic: West Lake Station / Calhoun Village area - General Topics
Replies: 70
Views: 27138

Re: West Lake Station / Calhoun Village area - multimodal study, development, etc.

http://www.southwestjournal.com/news/development/2018/01/developer-proposes-hotel-at-bp-site-at-lake-excelsior/ Hotel/restaurant/possible residences planned in a short-ish tower on the BP gas station site at Lake/Excelsior. Very conceptual at this point, but still p cool. It'd be, I dunno, nice if L...
by RailBaronYarr
January 5th, 2018, 2:29 pm
Forum: Anything Goes
Topic: Housing Market/Economics - General Topics
Replies: 255
Views: 112692

Re: Housing Market/Economics - General Topics

I think the route many housing/transit advocates have taken in tying up-zones to transit access is generally not great. The reality is that a place like CARAG or the Wedge or any neighborhood in Northeast is pretty dense despite relatively bad transit. And the neighbors who fight development by scre...
by RailBaronYarr
January 4th, 2018, 11:35 am
Forum: Minneapolis - North, Northeast, and Southeast / University of Minnesota
Topic: Prospect Park - General Topics
Replies: 201
Views: 128568

Re: Prospect Park - General Topics

Well the thing is, most neighborhoods don't have a giant brownfield zone directly across the street from them to direct growth to, which is why most neighborhoods don't end up having this conversation in the first place. It's also *extremely* convenient that the neighborhood's serious conversation c...
by RailBaronYarr
January 4th, 2018, 10:14 am
Forum: Minneapolis - North, Northeast, and Southeast / University of Minnesota
Topic: Prospect Park - General Topics
Replies: 201
Views: 128568

Re: Prospect Park - General Topics

Yeah, nobody can say they don't support development in their "neighborhood" because of where the boundaries for PP are drawn. Maybe if all of the SFH-zone of PP was zoned R4, developers would still prefer the brownfield sites across University Ave, and my belief is moot. But I have a hard ...
by RailBaronYarr
January 4th, 2018, 9:27 am
Forum: Suburbs
Topic: Shakopee - Savage - Prior Lake - Scott County
Replies: 47
Views: 42420

Re: Shakopee

Here is an opinion: Whether or not apartments and townhomes are perfectly oriented in an urbanist placemaking wet-dream fantasy is pretty irrelevant in a place like this. These are auto-oriented places, with little-to-no regular transit service, and maybe some quality MUPs on the side of major thoro...
by RailBaronYarr
January 3rd, 2018, 12:54 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: D Line - Chicago-Fremont/Emerson Rapid Bus
Replies: 225
Views: 74459

Re: D Line - Fremont/Emerson/Chicago Rapid Bus

During congested hours, signal preemption only helps if the bus is the next in line to cross the intersection when it would have otherwise turned red. And even then, if the lanes are stopped on the other side of the street, a bus shouldn't use the preemption to enter the intersection and block the b...
by RailBaronYarr
January 2nd, 2018, 1:10 pm
Forum: Minneapolis - South, Southwest, and Uptown
Topic: Uptown - LynLake - The Wedge - News & General
Replies: 1498
Views: 571657

Re: Uptown General Topics & Development Map

This guy also wrote a shorter, but still bad, commentary on the Hennepin Ave redo: http://www.southwestjournal.com/voices/2017/05/an-open-letter-to-my-city-council-member/ (which my wife and I penned an "other opinion" piece to: http://www.southwestjournal.com/voices/2017/05/an-open-letter...
by RailBaronYarr
December 27th, 2017, 10:11 am
Forum: Anything Goes
Topic: City living trends and predictions
Replies: 129
Views: 78861

Re: City living trends and predictions

Yeah I've always found the "cars sit idle" argument super unconvincing. As if people don't spend thousands of dollars on things like washers/dryers, dishwashers, stoves, televisions, video game consoles, clothes, power tools, spare rooms in the house, etc etc that individually may only get...
by RailBaronYarr
December 27th, 2017, 9:23 am
Forum: Suburbs
Topic: Southdale Area - Edina
Replies: 797
Views: 239537

Re: Southdale Area Development - Edina

Yeah but the land between York and France is decidedly different that the land west of France, which transitions very fast to single fam. This wouldn't be too different from the Westin building or many of the office towers further south. I've always had high hopes that continued infill like this, co...
by RailBaronYarr
December 22nd, 2017, 10:55 am
Forum: Anything Goes
Topic: City living trends and predictions
Replies: 129
Views: 78861

Re: City living trends and predictions

I think... I mean, man. We've got plenty of great ROW to allocate for better transit, and vehicle traffic could easily move to "side" streets (not even alleys. Alleys have obvious potential. Here's a thing I wrote: https://streets.mn/2015/12/16/i-love-alleys/ Yes, they are almost-woonerfs;...
by RailBaronYarr
December 22nd, 2017, 8:58 am
Forum: Minneapolis - South, Southwest, and Uptown
Topic: [Archived] Uptown Retail & Restaurant News 2012-17
Replies: 1427
Views: 237414

Re: Uptown Retail & Restaurant News

I for one am excited about the possibilities of BWW leveraging its new business overlord (and fairly adjacent neighbor) Arbys for some awesome sauce and curly fry crossover action.
by RailBaronYarr
December 22nd, 2017, 8:56 am
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Twin Cities Future Transit Map
Replies: 377
Views: 78595

Re: Twin Cities Future Transit Map

I try to stay out of arguing over the details of (p)fantasy stuff as much as possible (for reasons), but I think what thatchio was perhaps getting at was that some of the lines seem to avoid hitting a major center in downtown St Paul. If we're dreaming of a world where we have enough money and will ...
by RailBaronYarr
December 20th, 2017, 12:17 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT
Replies: 5248
Views: 1220840

Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

In fairness, SWLRT has actually been studied for far longer than 1988: https://gettingaroundmpls.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/the-best-laid-plans/ But ALSO in fairness, this isn't only a problem afflicting transit projects. The Stillwater bridge replacement had been discussed/planned for a long time, to...