urbanMSP

The Strib reports (with pleasure): Pioneer Press to market part of its St. Paul office space Looks like 345 Cedar Street may go on the market as the other paper looks to shrink its footprint and liquidate some assets. Sub-leasing part of the building or selling it outright and leasing a portion back...

Lengthy article about how Oakland is firing cops but still paying for the Raiders: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-2 ... tain.story

I am sad to see Rybak go. On the bright side, this puts more council seats in play and should increase turnout at caucuses (de facto election) and on election day.

Everything we've ever wanted to know about the state of the downtown office market: http://finance-commerce.com/2012/12/lan ... buildings/ (free)

Station Area Plan document from 2008 http://www.stpaul.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/7500

Can somebody post a link to a map/plan of the Orange Line? I'm particularly interested in its exact downtown alignment. Thanks http://www.metrotransit.org/Data/Sites/1/media/pdfs/Schedules/RouteMaps/19/535Map.pdf You have 98th and Burnsville out of order. 98th should be north of the Minnesota River...

Great article. If Sherman and Gregory (Greco) are men of their word, they won't be pursuing any new projects (not already under or near-construction) in 2013. FWIW Greco has a bunch of recent and upcoming projects so it is understandable that they'd want to slow the pace a little bit. Not that I kno...

Looks great. It would require a lot of reworking on the south end, but I feel like the Minnesota river should be included as well. It is like THE defining feature of the south metro and what makes everything in Dakota County seem so far away. It is a strong geographic cue and would break up the swat...

Sort of related to this conversation: How come trolley buses are not a mode choice in the Twin Cities? You get the electric operation of LRT/Streetcar without the enormous capital expenditure of rail or disruption to local businesses. Much quicker implementation. Trolley buses are not uncommon...see...

http://finance-commerce.com/2012/12/saloon-move-makes-way-for-cedar-riverside-housing/ (behind paywall) Bob Kueppers, an associate with Fine Associates, said the move hasn’t been scheduled but that it should occur in time for groundbreaking to occur on the larger project this spring. Moving the salo...

The problem with CTIB-like structure is that it's undemocratic, just like the US Senate. Hennepin County gets 2 seats at the table, same as Washington County with 1/5 of the population. I'll take an unelected Met Council divided into population proportionate districts over some cobbled-together boar...

Ryan out, Mortenson in on $200M Mall of America project. Mall of America owner Triple Five Group has switched development partners for the first part of its Phase II expansion, mall spokesman Dan Jasper confirmed Tuesday.

Most "studies" are just ways of justifying the assumed outcome, so the alternatives are all framed and scored in a way that makes the assumed outcome look like the only obvious solution. Unfortunately we need to do a better job of separating out the political process of weighting criteria...

It was indeed.

Fotoapparatic and I got into a spirited debate about the merits of CM Meg Tuthill (or lack thereof). No hard feelings, I hope

If I'm commuting from just about any suburb to downtown Minneapolis, I don't really give a rat's behind about proximity to LRT. Proximity to the Marq2 express bus corridor is way more important now and for many years to come. Even with Southwest and Bottineau online, the vast majority of transit rid...

Holy effing christ: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/201 ... _bear.html

We need to get our house in order

URS was not awarded a contract! Whoa...huge loss for them. http://finance-commerce.com/2012/12/urs-due-to-lose-southwest-lrt-work-2/ (unlocked article) Kimley-Horn will design the eastern half (Mpls Interchange to Shady Oak) AECOM will design the western half (post-Shady Oak to Mitchell Road) There ...

Metro Transit wants to buy a six-acre site just north of the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit line in St. Paul’s Midway area. Locked: http://finance-commerce.com/2012/12/metro-transit-plans-to-buy-midway-property/ I assume this is for the previously announced facilities maintenance building, whic...

F&C has the deets on the renovation: http://finance-commerce.com/2012/12/ren ... le-center/

I think it's best to think of a Greenway streetcar and Lake Street buses as serving two completely different purposes. The Greenway is to connect the two LRT lines and provide quick travel between important nodes (West Lake, Uptown, Lyndale, Nicollet, Chicago, Hiawatha). The 53 remains as a peak-hou...