urbanMSP

Since we're all repeating ourselves, it's worth noting that introducing something the size of a city bus into an underground garage complicates all sort of things with the design and engineering of the space. It's certainly achievable, but it may be viewed as an extra complication to the project tha...

Yes, it was a magnificent building that will be very difficult to reconstruct. A real loss.

It looks like the DM&IR tracks up to Tower and Ely have been abandoned and converted into a snowmobile trail.

Yeah, I noticed that too.

This tweet shows a proposed extension of the North Shore Scenic Railroad up to Biwabik . Has anybody seen anything about this before? While I could see at least some potential for a train connection up to Giant's Ridge, the track from Two Harbors up to the range is still in active freight use with ...

Stunning (and not at all surprising) that they've managed to take the only part of this process that had built any consensus (the new seal) and turn it into an own goal.

I don't know if it's politics, or lack of imagination, or what. But with the visibility and symbolism of this site, let's get some foundations on board and make this the best dang affordable housing project this city has ever seen. Mixed use, good design, something that helps super-charge the re-ima...

I know elections are important, but... is this really the best use of this piece of property?

Places like the Guthrie, the Walker, and the Minnesota Orchestra all received significant state funding, if I recall correctly.

Doesn't it make sense that numbers for any route, anywhere in the country, are going to be lower because of our new WFH world? It's also entirely possible that, since MSP's transit usage has rebounded more slowly than elsewhere, our numbers would be down more.

The question about what's a reasonable ticket price for a one-way or two-way trip is dumb, since I'd probably pay twice as much for a two-way trip...

As near as I can tell, they're not touching 93rd at all, which seems strange. https://www.blainemn.gov/3629/Thrive-on-65 It appears that they're able to execute most of the project with minimal property takings, so maybe the relative density of development at that location makes improvements at 93rd...

If that diagonal path were well programmed, it could be a fantastic experience. If it's not, it will be an unpleasant and dangerous feeling space.

We don't have a great track record on things like this, I'm afraid.

The presentation materials I've seen suggest extending 8th Avenue only to 4th Street, and that is just a dashed line on a single map. If they did extend it to 3rd Street (and by extension to Washington using the existing street), that would help somewhat. But even then, you lose the connection throu...

I'm not opposed to the 10th Avenue routing, but I think it needs to be acknowledged that the street does serve a critical purpose in circulation around the area.

Did the trains actually come through the tunnel? I always assumed that there wasn't enough room in the trench for a wye, so that they just unloaded from a siding and passed it through the tunnel on carts or whatever.

Baltimore often has good flight availability, and is much more interesting than Denver. Just tossing that out there.

Interesting that this parcel still has an Emerson Avenue address -- in its current configuration, it certainly feels like a Hennepin Avenue property. That parking access seems problematic -- I wonder if they could get an easement to share the existing curbcut of the building to the north.

Given the interest rate issues that you've mentioned, and the current wave of apartments downtown hitting the market, it might be that they're just willing to sit on the site for a bit until the market is ready to pay top dollar for the land.

That's a bummer, if not terribly surprising. This project always looked to be very expensive on a per square foot basis, so I'm impressed they made it as far as they did. Hopefully this can get sorted out quickly.