urbanMSP

Thanks RBY, for attending and asking good questions. I didn't read them as condescending. I do think the question of dedicated ROW is an important one for getting the most mobility value out of the streetcar. Obviously, dedicated ROW the whole way would be great. But perhaps the achievable outcome i...

I think Dinkytown is historic due to primarily to the events of 1950s-70s--its importance to the counter-culture of that time, central role in as a place of anti-war demonstration, the Red Barn protests, the folk scene (Dylan, but also Koerner, Ray and Glover, the Podium, its continued acceptance o...

Deference to the views of the local council member is, at some level, insane. Ideally the city council should be considering the interests of the city as a whole.

I think that an important point of overlap and agreement between the group on this board (often more pro-development) and Save Dinkytown would be to pressure the council to remove needless regulation like parking minimums and the like. There are high fixed costs to complying with regulation or getti...

The major issue there is that roundabouts are not great for pedestrians, since traffic never "stops". Roundabouts are absolutely great for pedestrians, since the traffic is going slower. Put crosswalks about 20 yards from the entrance of the roundabout and make sure they all have the sign...

Ironically Nashville abolished downtown parking minimums last year ... So this might actually be their market driven estimate of demand.

I can see the emotional reasons (safety, schools!) that SLP doesn't want the re-route, but do they really have a point? It seems like people have accepted that unlikely events (major disasters from freight derailments) justify co-location.

At the risk of over-generalizing my own situation, I think car sharing is still great for a city like Minneapolis because it can potentially reduce the number of 2+ car families. Given current land use patterns etc few people are going to be able to go completely car-less. But especially in the core...

Parts of the State Capitol lawn are becoming parking lots, so no-one has to walk too far ...

http://www.minnpost.com/political-agend ... rking-lots

Not sure if the economics or the historic preservation laws are different, but in Australia and New Zealand (latter an earthquake zone where those cute 100 year old Edwardian brick buildings are a big hazard) there's lots of new developments wrapping round old ones. Parking minimums are less stringe...

Also Malcolm didn't used to be signaled but I'm pretty sure it was added with the train.

Not true. Malcolm has been signalled for quite a while.

I think the Greenway itself shows that if you get the basics right, the private investment will follow. 29th St is an even easier case. The area (partly because of the Greenway) is already seeing a surge of private investment and good urban form. Since they're re-doing the street anyway, if they can...

One huge benefit of a Midtown station under the existing Lake St station is better pedestrian circulation at the street level. Hopefully there will be greater public and private interest in improving the pededstrian connections under 55. The bridge is high enough and the ROW wide enough that the ped...

If the street has to be repaved anyway, why not take that opportunity to make it into a woonerf and narrow the ROW. Doesn't have to be all done at once, or be sold as a big transformative project.

On the crossing lights: When I took the video there was a guy and a truck from Egan electrical there, and they went on and off.

You can go from the Stone Arch all the way to the Dinkytown Greenway, but you just have to ignore the signs that say UMN steam plant employees only. At "rush hour" there are so many people knocking off work at that steam plant, and jogging and biking home it's amazing. Lots of people in me...

They were testing the crossing lights near the Stadium Village station on Monday.

http://flic.kr/p/fuwnUt

Omar came to a Prospect Park community meeting, and confirmed that the property and building will straddle the municipal border.

file that one away for a pub quiz!

Here's some photos from day after the fire, before the place got boarded up. http://flic.kr/s/aHsjHhSQ9o The adjacent property at 2820 is owned by the same ownership group. They purchased the adjoining residential lot which fronts Williams to add more parking space for the DEQO daycare which has sin...

house was demolished last summer. it's a vacant lot right now.