urbanMSP

Can anybody make the case for why I should be expected to suck it up and suffer through this?

Yes. You live in a city. Stuff gets built sometimes. It's temporary, and in the grand scheme of things, will wind up being a brief portion of your life. And it's during the work day and week. Many people are not at home at during those times, or at least for significant portions of them.

Not that it's the same, because it was far enough away to not really be that disruptive, but I got to listen to the same thing for US Bank stadium from my office, also without compensation.

And it's When this is over and done will this project add some kind of significant value to my life that I'm overlooking?

You're getting a new grocery store within comfortable walking distance. That's is something I'd value a lot.

This thread has turned into a microcosm of the Democratic Party.

This thread has turned into a microcosm of the Democratic Party.

I think you're referring to the question of how much suffering we should be expected to endure, but perhaps you had something else in mind?

There are options other than "you live in a city so deal" and "compensate them for their impacts." Pile driving is only one method of earth retention, all with their differing levels of external impacts, design impacts, and costs. Months of pile driving right next to your home would be incredibly frustrating, especially when they're associated with projects that are generally slightly larger than what many of the master plans identify as the typology targeted for a location. While many of us think this scale of development is appropriate, construction impacts and generally larger scales than (in many cases) directly called for in plans, is kind of lame.

Excavation could be completed with a steam shovel and wood cribbing, but they clearly didn't see that as an option.

Excavation could be completed with a steam shovel and wood cribbing, but they clearly didn't see that as an option.

pile driving is loud

Excavation could be completed with a steam shovel and wood cribbing, but they clearly didn't see that as an option.

YES!

I'm glad you guys are having fun joking about it, but when you have to try and live your life a hundred feet away form that kind of noise and vibration I can assure you it's no joke. The vibration is comparable to what you might experience from having a large helicopter hovering 50 feet above your house. Your doors and windows are vibrating, things are falling off shelves (I have to take everything off the stove when they are operating it), and it takes an hour or two for the headache to go away. I've been putting up with this for over 3 months. I am amazed that it's legal to subject people to this kind of abuse.

That sounds super tough. I’m sorry you are going through that. (Especially the headaches)

Just saying that there often are alternatives. I worked on a project that used a grout-injected auger method and vibrated steel beam into the grout. Used that method as it was close to an adjacent business that would have had its revenue negatively impacted by noise.

Just saying that there often are alternatives. I worked on a project that used a grout-injected auger method and vibrated steel beam into the grout. Used that method as it was close to an adjacent business that would have had its revenue negatively impacted by noise.

As word spreads and people realize that the new project coming to their neighborhood may include the chance to experience pile driver operation up close and personal it's only going to harden the opposition of the long term residents. It's really in the best interest of those who advocate large projects like this to explore alternative construction methods which reduce the impact of the projects on the people who already live there.

While many of us think this scale of development is appropriate... generally larger scales than (in many cases) directly called for in plans, is kind of lame.

Not at all.

The FAR variance rejection looks like theater to me. Every once in a while the Planning Commission tries to prove they're not just a rubber stamp for developers.

Sheet pile appears to be done.

No piledriver action for a week now. I'm starting to get whatever small amount of sanity I used to have back.

Now we've moved into the excavator and dump trucks part of the project. It's been a parade of dump trucks down Garfield. There were 6 of them idling on the site yesterday. They were lined up out onto 26th street. Come on down folks, there's plenty of diesel exhaust to go around! Perhaps lining my lungs with ultrafine particulates will protect them from ozone damage.

MinnPost wrote a piece on this project. It may be in jeopardy according to the author.

https://www.minnpost.com/politics-polic ... es-urban-d

MinnPost wrote a piece on this project. It may be in jeopardy according to the author.

https://www.minnpost.com/politics-polic ... es-urban-d

Yes, they're making Gerberding sweat a little bit to make it look good. But seriously, this is Minneapolis, where the developer always wins. This is all theater.

Wait, I thought the NIMBY's always win?

I believe it’s that the house always wins:

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/2012081 ... lways-wins