urbanMSP

Why the marathon though? Lay people are going to see this and go 'Huh?' There's no thematic resonance. No one is going to seek out what their stated goals actually are.

Something to add: developing a property with greater density such that valuation is significantly higher will increase the amount of property taxes collected. So allowing the development of high-value luxury properties should at least provide the opportunity for improved services in lower-income nei...

Maybe they have guarantees from the Saudi royal family or something. I know they've used the Mayo system before.

Most likely outcome is that this private endeavor breaks down in a year or two and we're left back where we started. There's no way that the group is going to be able to raise multiple billions of dollars for this suspect plan. This almost feels consortium-level to me, but apparently there are actua...

This whole debate just reinforces why the teardown moratorium was such a bad idea. It takes away the option of building new and big on existing infrastructure rather than in greenfields.

(1 new house) - (1 old house) = 0 additional houses. Doesn't really address the demand issue.

What in the world happened with that environmental bill? I decided to skim through the text of the bill after reading a few articles about how it went down and how many unsavory provisions made it in. Some of the language inserted basically looks as if mining and agricultural lobbyists personally di...

Also, it's universal pre-school, not universal daycare.

Since it seems to be proceeding as a privately-funded operation, none of these considerations really matter. If terminating at MSP can make money for them, that's it. There's no incentive to do anything else.

The problem is that this service is not going to exist in a vacuum. Whenever our region can get its act together and finally develop the MSP-Chicago high-speed rail corridor, this segment is going to get a hard look as the final leg to MSP. If the private alternative ends up being a subpar connectio...

The Met Council has a well-documented tendency to overestimate growth in the core areas; not surprised they're having to revise those predictions downwards. Looks to me like they overcompensated downward for the suburbs at least. These are 2013 census estimates: Bloomington: 86,319 (3426 people add...

This isn't some sort of false flag operation is it?

I think it's time for the DFL to stop investing any effort into the transportation funding debate. They might as well hold off until they have a more favorable legislative climate. The GOP proposals have been absolutely terrible. It's hard to imagine coming to any sort of rational consensus that doe...

Why would anyone even waste time negotiating with him? This kind of blanket gag-order legislation is horrid governance. It shouldn't ever be taken seriously.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/sta ... 70441.html

Projected budget surplus revised upwards by a significant amount, $832 million dollars. $1.9 billion total surplus.

One possibility is that the right-of-way is purchased by a public entity and converted to a bike trail in the short-term (extension of the Hardwood Creek trail or something).

Oh, and this editorial written by Rick Christenson on the same subject: http://www.postbulletin.com/col-rochester-s-airport-can-divert-dollars-from-the-twin/article_ad49df51-9860-56ff-9586-5cf0d6b58354.html Does anyone with familiarity of the hoax accounts notice any similarities here with regards ...

a shortfall in funding that we can all see coming Tell me more? Shortfall, yes. Funding shortfall? Maybe not. Unless we keep building more and more roads that eventually need to be maintained/replaced. We can change course in ways other than paying for more of the same. To sum up, DFL and GOP both ...

After the destination medical center wrangling, I can't imagine Dayton or the Senate torpedoing a complimentary high-speed rail service.

http://www.mnrides.org/sites/default/fi ... packet.pdf

This shows $49,010,288 in funding sources for the "Northstar: Safety Enhancements at Armstrong Boulevard" project. They apparently also got a $10 million TIGER grant for it.

Eh, if the new majority wants to play hardball on public transit, DFL can play hardball on rural infrastructure. The last bonding bill was full of rural pork projects, and that was with complete DFL control. I hear angering rural voters is a great way to flip just-lost House seats from red from blu...