urbanMSP

For that triangle block to be made into a park, you'd have to do a lot of work to the streetscape there (particularly of Hennepin--cars move very fast through there, there are no crosswalks, and the sidewalks (where they even exist) are tiny. Besides, there's a park two blocks away adjacent to the M...

I've been impressed by how much foot traffic there is at even some of the lesser stations. The ethnic restaurants at Victoria have got to be seeing some increases in business.

Are the aBRT lines going to have METRO branding (/map prominence) or are they going to be under their own brand? It seems like it would be strange to have them anywhere else, but maybe that's the plan. Nah they will get the name Rapid Bus or something and be labeled A, B, C ect. They don't have ded...

The fact that so many people don't acknowledge that high density mass transit only makes sense in high density areas is not surprising.

Thank god that you understand all the issues behind urban transit planning way better than mayors and people with degrees in planning these things.

Are the aBRT lines going to have METRO branding (/map prominence) or are they going to be under their own brand? It seems like it would be strange to have them anywhere else, but maybe that's the plan.

But why? WIth the amount of vacant office space downtown, it wouldn't take a lot of shuffling to open up some big areas for businesses who wanted to be downtown. Why build a new tower right now (especially a tall one) except for vanity?

I don't know about that. Minneapolis and St. Paul are probably the two most liberal parts of the metro, but do you think they're more liberal than Susan Haigh? If the Council ends up being conservative overall, it's more because there are institutional and legal incentives up and down the line, from...

Ideally we'd get rid of the counties role entirely, and get an elected Met Council. It doesn't get rid of the politics, but it does mean we don't have multiple independent units of government trying to make these decisions, and then having veto power. An elected Met Council is a recipe for nothing ...

Is the Red Line (and the connections from it) not worth 12% of the pot?

It also has the advantage, in general, of having a clearer relationship with the neighborhood to the east, making it a little more tempting for North Loop residents.

The ING building is quite popular among normal people; I've had several people tell me they thought it was the prettiest building in town. It'll never be torn down.

How much would nixing the north tunnel save? Would that be enough for a decent chunk of Nicollet Streetcar?

It'll have to be addressed either way eventually, though; if they ever do any spurs off the existing lines, they'll either need to increase service levels or have them awkwardly stop at a certain point like TFS.

The simplest way to ease train congestion downtown would either tunnel it--which would improve service a lot, but would probably also be prohibitively expensive--or to make it into a loop on the shared section, with the existing track/stations serving either northbound or southbound traffic (dependi...

Don't rule out Phoenix, though; they might not be as good as we are per mile (though they're close), but they've got big plans and their ridership is still exploding upward (it's probably quite a bit higher than the Wikipedia list would suggest). Denver's too, mostly because they're pouring tons of ...

Keep in mind those other systems aren't standing still, though--Denver, Portland, Seattle, Houston, Dallas, and Phoenix all have new ones coming down the line as well.

This sounds like it'll be a really nice project.

Despite what we've seen in some preliminary renderings, I do not think streetcar tracks will be placed in the current auto traffic lanes, in the 3-lane configuration with center turn lane. Throughout winter, parked cars tend to move further away from the curb due to snowbank accumulation. This past...

4. This is actually in the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood. I'm sure we're all eager to hear how they react to the tower and rezoning request. MHNA is a lot less anti-development than they're stereotyped to be; given this is in an area of existing density and doesn't destroy historic buildings, I doubt i...

I really don't know of many 60's icons that we lavish praise on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transamerica_Pyramid

(construction started in 69, but design was earlier)