urbanMSP

I was union at Byerly's and made barely over minimum wage throughout the first couple years (2007-2010). I left making $10/hr 5 years later, but that's only because I worked as a "prime-time part-time" cashier later on (20 hours a week/max at busy periods), which meant I was ineligible for...

I hope the empty lots around the Warehouse District station get the same type of treatment (except probably at shorter heights) within a few years. It's pretty sad many of our LRT stations are facing large surface parking lots, even in the most urban of stations.

I never get the deal with business locations in Roseville: - The Starbucks across from another Starbucks on 36/Fairview (even if the original one was busy, it still looks ridiculous having two standalone locations literally across the freeway from one another) - The Wal-Mart at the Twin Lakes develo...

Basically something more like these types of crosswalks? (I did a quick crappy visualization via MSPaint

This is great to know especially now many people can take the train after last call. Worst case scenario, they can always just use the buses during maintenance times. I have a feeling though that sooner or later this idea is going to get flak once somebody gets beat up or mugged while riding or at a...

Given that they made the panels black in reality, I'm sure that's not the actual set-in-stone implementation of the development. I am guessing it's just a picture to show future tenants what the development will look like completed in a general sense.

Well at least it's warm out haha.

Another embarrassing confession: I have driven my car to another parking lot that is only across the street many times instead of just walking over there. Though of course the roads usually aren't pedestrian friendly to begin with.

I just like the skyways because it saves me time avoiding intersections and waiting to cross the street when it's busy. I was at that Met Council building for the interviews, and it has one of the oddest entrances that I have ever had to use. The blank walls and semi-hidden entrance are pretty stupi...

One of the main reasons (other than stating one of my ideas about transit planning) I wrote that streets.mn article "Can we kill two birds with one stone when it come to light rail planning?" was to have something to talk about what I have done recently for an internship interview at the M...

I hope the signal algorithms are set up better than Hiawatha because the lights are really odd at times when I've driven on it, and they seem to bunch up traffic unnecessarily. I remember spending a few minutes at the stoplight at 26th, and it stayed red for 5-10 minutes even though Hiawatha wasn't ...

It's a shame that this didn't make it on the NRHP. The poop-colored concrete really brought a sense of vibrancy to the neighborhood.

I'm for more public bathrooms all around the city (especially if they are 24/7), but the problem is if they aren't staffed or cleaned often, they are bound to be a real craphole in a very literal sense. I worked maintenance for Byerly's, and it just seems like some people make it their goal in life ...

Something like Midtown Global Market would be cool to see there (I think someone suggested that in the Armory's page on this site way back). Sexton could have a restaurant or a small convenience store, and other retail (maybe even a pub or bar) to serve the surrounding area. Something geared towards...

A Trader Joe's could serve both the DT East, Mill District, and Cedar-Riverside/West Bank pretty well at the Ryan Project site since its pretty close to the light rail and the area should be more walkable for nearby residents after it's completed. Given it's a mid-end grocer, it shouldn't lead to an...

Found the files on a flash drive: https://i.imgur.com/z1jKgm1l.png Inner city district (South Central district), just south of downtown with a SuperTarget; commuter rail to CBD or Southern Cross (southern outer suburb/edge city), subway to CBD or Kingston (inner-ring southern suburb) https://i.imgur...

Yeah when it came to large-scale commercial development, I had very few actual skyscrapers outside building landmark ones. Usually I had a downtown core surrounded by a few dense residential areas, and some dense areas in inner-suburbs, and then stereotypical sprawl. Realistically my suburbs probabl...

It's actually a hotel (probably some mid-end one is my guess), but while this is a pretty generic suburban development, this will at least look better than what was there before according to looking at the site on Google Maps. Reverting the strip mall to the street would be an improvement. Keep the ...

This made me laugh:

The one thing I really liked in SC4 is making my city more realistic with Wal-Mart supercenters along with strip malls and fast food chains on my avenues in my sprawled out suburbs. I just like having one or two large dense cities with that have suburbs sprawl all out across the map since it's so la...

My guess is they are as well because when I went to an interview yesterday in downtown Saint Paul, I saw a train strolling down Cedar when I was on 7th. I got a bit excited once I realized it's getting closer to the opening date.