Onyx Apartments - 6725 York Ave - Edina

[Archiapolis]

It's Edina. Of course they're going to put a parking lot in front. Nothing to see here.

Maybe we should just fold up this forum right now then or at least any discussion about suburban development. I guess we should just accept that things are going to KEEP being done the way that they have historically been done even if they are demonstrably bad. Are we really this defeatist/pessimistic about good urbanism?

[FISHMANPET]

I'm all for tilting at windmills, but even I have my limits. Edina is pretty dead set on their drivable urbanism, with dense development everywhere that often includes structured parking, all built along some of the stroadiest stroads I've ever seen. And worst of all, Edina has the money to do whatever the hell they want, so "the market" is going to take a lot longer to shift them to a "better" land use (better in quotes because, let's be honest, it's subjective, they must think it's pretty great).

I'd love for the building to front York, except as an actual human being I'd never really want to stand on York to do anything, so I guess I don't care about how the building fronts York. In places where the roads are more human scale, like the core cities, and some of the first ring suburbs, you can make incremental changes to make a building have better urbanism, but I'm honestly not sure what you can do in a place like this.

Urbanism is not just a series of line items you check off. It's more than buildings front the street, it's more than sidewalks, it's more than height, it's more than residential above commercial. It's a holistic thing that requires everything else in the area to play along with the idea.

Most places couldn't afford this drivable urbanism, but Edina is an exception. In a way, we all subsidize them by letting the high wage earners concentrate into the city. They can afford things that other cities can't. They can have their cake and eat it too. They can build an urban form and take up an urban amount of lot space, but it'll still be crammed full of parking, and people are still going to drive to whatever businesses are here, because quite frankly, walking any distance would surely be a miserable experience.

Ironically, I think the York Ave side is the urban back of this building, and Xerxes is the front. The Xerxes side presents itself at an urban scale to to relatively dense SFHs to the east. But people are still going to drive from those SFH neighborhoods to whatever market is facing the York side, because it looks pretty awful to walk from the Xerxes side of the building to the York side storefront.

[blobs]

It's Edina. Of course they're going to put a parking lot in front. Nothing to see here.

Maybe we should just fold up this forum right now then or at least any discussion about suburban development. I guess we should just accept that things are going to KEEP being done the way that they have historically been done even if they are demonstrably bad. Are we really this defeatist/pessimistic about good urbanism?

I was guilty of this when discussing Woodbury. It easy to throw ones hands up and declare defeat. But every person deserves good urbanism, regardless of wealth, income or where that person lives. Especially because poor urban form is not only an annoyance, but a serious health danger for those whose can't or don't drive, not to mention future generations who will inhabit the areas.

[Anondson]

Fences just put up around the entire site, equipment being moved in.

[mister.shoes]

There were dumpsters outside and signs of gutting going on when I cruised past on Friday. I would suspect we'll start seeing the building itself going down any day now.

Related and funny: I heard a commercial on the radio for Borofka's Furniture the other day. It went something like this: "Our landlord in Edina kicked us out so they could build condos. Imagine that... So we're overflowing at our Woodbury location."

[mister.shoes]

Furniture store is entirely gone now, including most of the rubble. That went pretty quick once it got started.

[sdho]

Furniture store is entirely gone now, including most of the rubble. That went pretty quick once it got started.

Cool! I may be the only Richfielder excited, but I can't wait for the new building to go up. I think Richfield really got the best side of the building. There's also supposed to be a trail or service road access to connect to York. (Currently the only connections between Xerxes and York are 66th and 69th.)

[Archiapolis]

Furniture store is entirely gone now, including most of the rubble. That went pretty quick once it got started.

Cool! I may be the only Richfielder excited, but I can't wait for the new building to go up. I think Richfield really got the best side of the building. There's also supposed to be a trail or service road access to connect to York. (Currently the only connections between Xerxes and York are 66th and 69th.)

Sidewalk along the north side of the site.

[twincitizen]

With the westernmost leg of Richfield's 66th St rebuild (Xerxes to Penn) going forward without bike infrastructure (the rest will have protected cycletracks - woot!), there has been talk of putting bike something (no idea...sharrows? bike boulevard?) on 67th. It would be great if the sidewalk along the north side of the apartment building included a ped ramp right there to facilitate bikes cutting through to Xerxes.

[sdho]

With the westernmost leg of Richfield's 66th St rebuild (Xerxes to Penn) going forward without bike infrastructure (the rest will have protected cycletracks - woot!), there has been talk of putting bike something (no idea...sharrows? bike boulevard?) on 67th. It would be great if the sidewalk along the north side of the apartment building included a ped ramp right there to facilitate bikes cutting through to Xerxes.

There hasn't been much noise about any sort of marked/designated route on 67th, in large part because of the lack of success on 75th. 76th seems to get more bike traffic, even with 0 bike facilities. And it's dramatically faster than using 75th, which has 7 stop signs and one extremely slow light. (Even more stop signs if you're on the trail.) The stretch of Richfield's 66th without bike facilities is also only slated to be about half a mile, so a block detour would feel even more tedious than on 75th, which is a full mile or so. I think in general, the feeling is that bicyclists who seek alternate routes will do so without guidance, and the focus should be on the most direct route -- even if that focus doesn't result in high-quality facilities everywhere (like this unfortunate gap).

All that said, my understanding is that 67th will be an alternate route to 66th for people who don't want to use the trail or the travel lane there. The access through this development was cited by city staff as an example of the possible uses for 67th, so it seems that Richfield staff are at least assuming it will connect through.

Then again, there are weird access things. The Stroaddale YMCA is pretty much centered between York and Xerxes, but there's no proper entrance -- or even ADA-compliant access point to the parking lot -- facing the Richfield side.

[Archiapolis]

With the westernmost leg of Richfield's 66th St rebuild (Xerxes to Penn) going forward without bike infrastructure (the rest will have protected cycletracks - woot!), there has been talk of putting bike something (no idea...sharrows? bike boulevard?) on 67th. It would be great if the sidewalk along the north side of the apartment building included a ped ramp right there to facilitate bikes cutting through to Xerxes.

There hasn't been much noise about any sort of marked/designated route on 67th, in large part because of the lack of success on 75th. 76th seems to get more bike traffic, even with 0 bike facilities. And it's dramatically faster than using 75th, which has 7 stop signs and one extremely slow light. (Even more stop signs if you're on the trail.) The stretch of Richfield's 66th without bike facilities is also only slated to be about half a mile, so a block detour would feel even more tedious than on 75th, which is a full mile or so. I think in general, the feeling is that bicyclists who seek alternate routes will do so without guidance, and the focus should be on the most direct route -- even if that focus doesn't result in high-quality facilities everywhere (like this unfortunate gap).

All that said, my understanding is that 67th will be an alternate route to 66th for people who don't want to use the trail or the travel lane there. The access through this development was cited by city staff as an example of the possible uses for 67th, so it seems that Richfield staff are at least assuming it will connect through.

Then again, there are weird access things. The Stroaddale YMCA is pretty much centered between York and Xerxes, but there's no proper entrance -- or even ADA-compliant access point to the parking lot -- facing the Richfield side.

Have you been IN this Y? The main bathrooms aren't even ADA compliant. This building is a mess.

[Wedgeguy]

I thought there was talk of building a new Y next door or doing a major upgrade. Did that fall through or still on the drawing boards.

[mister.shoes]

They did a major addition on the front several years ago (well after I cancelled my membership) that looks awfully nice from York, but I have no idea how much (if any) improvements were made to the existing building.

[Anondson]

I asked the city manager a couple months ago when something would start there, he replied "two weeks". It's been months since then and nothing still.

[Archiapolis]

I asked the city manager a couple months ago when something would start there, he replied "two weeks". It's been months since then and nothing still.

This is also the developer who controls the Superior Plating site...dun dun DUUUUUUUUUN!

[lorwest]

And the large Bloomington site at American Bouldvard & 34th Avenue (IndiGO at Bloomington Central Station - what a name). Maybe something has happened in the last few weeks, but it looked as dead as a doornail in mid-June.

[Anondson]

Equipment ... finally ... on site doing something.

[mister.shoes]

Digging holes. Multiple holes. Big holes, even. But nothing else significant that I can see.

[Anondson]

There had been gigantic corrugated cylinders on site. Looks like they are going into the pit nearest to York to be underground cisterns.

[Anondson]

Second floor framing underway.