urbanMSP

There are a couple things I really like about this project so far. One is that the retail (West Elm and Circa Lighting) are fantastic window-shopping stores. Another is the cut-through and piazza that this development creates. By my count, there are now four North Loop developments (Brunsfield, The ...

I walked through the public areas of this building, and it's really something extraordinary. My phone camera did a poor job of capturing the overall feel of the atrium, it comes across as a bit darker than the reality. The space feels bright, open, and full of light. The integration between the grou...

Aerial photo of the Towerside area: https://i.imgur.com/nbZVg1P.jpg Still waiting on the Teamsters and Ruffridge-Johnson sites to bit the dust, but that may take a while. The Spire Bank site would also be a good candidate for redevelopment. In the near term, however, the opening of the Malcolm Yards...

I have zero idea what the DNR thinks, but I have to imagine that they will take a dim view of the Park Board rejecting this plan without any kind of replacement. The status quo doesn't seem sustainable and the pumping waiver seems hard to sustain if there is not an exit strategy.

In the interest of reducing greenhouse gas emissions & traffic congestion shouldn’t we be happy to see more flexibility in telework schedules? Is there a future mix between DT office work, residents and entertainment that would create a better, more balanced downtown? In terms of GhG emissions,...

Uff da!

At least the building is attractive. I'm not clear if the parking is intended for general use or for the residents of adjacent projects?

In the interest of reducing greenhouse gas emissions & traffic congestion shouldn’t we be happy to see more flexibility in telework schedules? Is there a future mix between DT office work, residents and entertainment that would create a better, more balanced downtown? In terms of GhG emissions,...

I hope that folks will also leave comments calling for "floating" bus stops on Marshall Avenue in St. Paul. Given that these stations will be built from scratch and the curbs will be moved, it's unbelievable to me that the plans still call for buses to pull into the bike lane. Why would th...

That's exactly it. The elements of SWLRT's design that have caused so many problems were pushed forward to benefit suburban interests at the expense of city interests. But because transit is primary a city concern overall, any potential backlash from this project is likely to rebound against transit...

Some photos from Councilmember Jalali:

https://twitter.com/Ward4STP/status/1415854475818983426
https://twitter.com/Ward4STP/status/1415862435592933379

I really don't think anyone should be hyperventilating about downtown offices until after schools reopen, and I'm not sure it'll be fair to say anything definitive until the start of 2022 at the earliest. Everyone has their own timeline depending on their own circumstances, and it's important to be ...

I don't know what there is to say about this that hasn't already been said on this forum.

But I agree that an after-action report would be helpful.

For some reason the submission doesn't break out how many parking spaces are reserved for each use, but the plans at the end of the document are pretty clear that there will be 32 spots reserved for residents (2 per unit) and 19 spots reserved for area shoppers. I know it's a lost cause to whine abo...

I understand the Washington Ave example and it shouldn't be dismissed. Obviously if a tunnel was proposed and the status quo was kept, that would be a real nightmare scenario. But at the same time, I think it's inarguable that the politics and practices around street design have changed massively si...

At-grade versus tunnel/elevated along the most constrained part of Broadway is probably a time difference of a couple minutes at most. At-grade allows the street to be better served for peds and transit users while a grade separation really only serves to keep the status quo. This is a weird thing ...

Glad to see things moving forward regardless. But the tunnel issue continues to be a source of frustration. I really wish it were on the table so it could be discussed and evaluated. The difficulty with the tunnel is that the primary advantage for Minneapolis (the chance to redesign the topside of t...

Violent Criminals need to be stopped, when we start questioning the need for this we're going down a literally dangerous path. ... It's time to stop imagining a world where we don't need a PD and start doing real work to implement MPD and OVP plans and ensuring their efficacy. At the top of this pa...

I'm no expert, but I can buy right now a commercial quadcopter that can be programmed to follow a moving vehicle for miles. Many cars being bought today can be remotely disabled. Traffic cameras that are used for detecting red light and speed violations will collect license plate data that could be...

I suspect the police were more concerned about "apprehending a suspect in a violent felony" than "recovering stolen property". It's pretty reasonable to expect a carjacker to cause imminent harm to other people in the near future. Somehow I doubt they're going to call it good at...

There's just no way that a 4-3 conversion of Lyndale is going to be able to handle the volume of traffic that the street has to handle. Take an honest look at the car queuing needs at lights throughout this stretch. It's going to make people livid. I mean, from a traffic engineering perspective, th...