Southside - News & General Topics

[twincitizen]

Is Richfield's tag line really "The Urban Hometown?"

Indeed. Sadly, someone is always trying to change it to something even worse. "Minnesota's Oldest/First Suburb" for example. Or the Richfield Historical Society's "Proudly Suburban, Since 1854". Bottom line, if Richfield moves away from "The Urban Hometown", they're either going to get one of the above terrible examples, or something as mind-numbingly generic as Eden Prairie's "Live. Work. Dream."

Personally, I'm just fine with The Urban Hometown. It's not terrible, especially when you consider the alternatives.

[MNdible]

I kind of like the first two, actually. They're kind of a clever nod to Richfield's unique history and development pattern.

[FISHMANPET]

Yeah, honestly, "Oldest/First suburb" makes way more sense, and is way more in line with the image they want, than "Urban hometown."

[Wedgeguy]

Richfield is quasi-urban at best. There are about 3 urban nodes with a lot of very suburban areas. Oldest/First suburb is a much better fit. The pulse is that Richfield is developed more on an urban street grid like Minneapolis. But the Hub is about as anti-urban as you can get. 66th and Lyndale has 3 highrises, but one of them has a parking lot in front of it and the LA Fitness corner also is a big parking lot. They are moving in the urban direction, but they have a lot of work to do to rectify the anti-urban mistakes.

[Archiapolis]

Richfield is quasi-urban at best. There are about 3 urban nodes with a lot of very suburban areas. Oldest/First suburb is a much better fit. The pulse is that Richfield is developed more on an urban street grid like Minneapolis. But the Hub is about as anti-urban as you can get. 66th and Lyndale has 3 highrises, but one of them has a parking lot in front of it and the LA Fitness corner also is a big parking lot. They are moving in the urban direction, but they have a lot of work to do to rectify the anti-urban mistakes.

Several of which have occurred in the last 3-7 years so the trend isn't great...

[uptown82]

I am happy to see these signs go up. Hopefully they add some additional landscaping to the vacant lot on Lyndale and 62 in Richfield where that sign is going. As is it is a pretty barren place!

[blobs]

Richfield: "Forget the Megamall, shop at The Hub!"

The signs are looking nice.

[sdho]

The original plan was to put "Oldest Suburb" on the signs. I advocated to use the city motto, Urban Hometown.

Urban comes in many different shapes and sizes. Many parts of Richfield are bad urbanism, yes. But the bottom line is that it's an almost entirely intact Minneapolis grid, with higher density than all but one other suburb (Columbia Heights). It has better transit service and more ethnic diversity than most of South Minneapolis. The Met Council defines Richfield as part of the "urban center" of the Twin Cities.

In a world where only Loring Park and Uptown exist, this slogan might not make much sense. But relative to what most people think when they think "suburb" - Maple Grove, Woodbury - it does a good job expressing what Richfield is.

[cooperrez]

Looks like a new restaurant is planned for the old SA building at 39th Ave S and East Lake St. Anyone have any info on the project? Tenant on the Mpls. city website has the tenant listed as Peppers and Fries.

[seanrichardryan]

Peppers & Fries Burger & Burrito Grill- http://www.peppersandfries.com/

http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mp ... oDRDoUgzF3

Looks eh, Sporty.

[cooperrez]

Nice work! Thanks for the links. I did a quick Google search and didn't come across the website with the name of the restaurant. And yes, definitely sporty.

[Archiapolis]

Does anyone know what those bumpout things on Xerxes are? Poured concrete, slightly shorter than curb height, reflective "soft" bollards standing on them and, in a stroke of engineering genius, a blob of asphalt material that tapers down to the pavement. This asphalt blob is not a ramp that meets ADA requirements (the width of the blob and the bumpout itself is not wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair width-wise).
I'm asking because they look to be spaced about the right distance apart for bus stops but they are NOT integrated into the sidewalk (like the new design of Penn Ave.) too narrow for any kind of built shelter and could maybe have space for about 4-5 people standing "comfortably" out in the open. Any of the traffic wonks out there know what these things (seemingly stupid) things are?

[twincitizen]

Previous page: https://forum.streets.mn/viewtopic.php?f=14& ... xes#p68360

[mattaudio]

You might have seen that Hiawatha Academies is looking to open a high school in 2015 rather than the initial plan to open it in 2019...
http://www.minnpost.com/learning-curve/ ... igh-school
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2014/ ... -next-fall

They may be pursuing a temporary high school use for a building they planned as a middle school.

[woofner]

It looks like the owner of the strip mall at Franklin & Chicago ("which was developed with City support back in 1992" (!)) wants to replace it with a mixed use building with street-facing retail and 80 units of apartments. The City Council will consider granting exclusive development rights to some adjacent city-owned parcel this session:

http://minneapolismn.gov/meetings/cdrs/WCMS1P-118821

The RCA doesn't explicitly say the redevelopment will require tearing down the two decade old strip mall, but I imagine they'd have to in order for parking to be behind the building? This would be awesome and I hope the city throws more money into this site to correct their past mistakes.

[grant1simons2]

Apparently Ducati on Lyndale and 28th is closing I hope this doesn't mean they're done in Minneapolis, hopefully a DT store?

[seanrichardryan]

This Hideous Beast has been revealed for a week or two now. Will someone with a decent camera take a picture? You DON'T want to lose all the amazing 'detail'.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/2716+ ... 6f!6m1!1e1

[Nathan]

wait, what is it?

[seanrichardryan]

I heard nightclub by one of the Sabri brothers.

[Wedgeguy]

This Hideous Beast has been revealed for a week or two now. Will someone with a decent camera take a picture? You DON'T want to lose all the amazing 'detail'.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/2716+ ... 6f!6m1!1e1

Another of those projects that they get started on an seem to run out of money before they can get far enough along. THis has been going on for quite some time. This should have been finished by now with a good contractor. I hope the city does some thorough inspections on this building if it is a nightclub.