urbanMSP

https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetin ... pdate.aspx

Metro Transit is announcing tomorrow to the Met Council that they are cutting service on the Green Line between 2am-4am and piloting replacement bus service.

Also nifty survey in the powerpoint on types of use during those hours.

I’m guessing that means we’re no longer considered to have a 24 hour service light rail since it’s overnight bus service instead.

Here is a link to an article about criminal activity on the light rail line.

https://www.fox9.com/news/danger-on-the ... l-stations

Well, that's a journalistic mess, making the chief sound like a buffoon (no opinion as to whether he is one) and using gruesome anecdotes from prior years to discuss a supposed current trend.

Took the kid (almost 3) for a brief ride on the Green Line on Sunday (she loves trains). Got on at Target Field and there was a man sleeping in the car we boarded. As it was the first stop, I was a bit surprised. She asked why there was a man sleeping. I said he was tired. It was fine.

Got off at Government Center Plaza and switched platforms to go back. A man visibly in some sort of crisis approached us and kept talking. Didn't ask for anything and wasn't threatening so it was actually fine.

Anyway, everything happening at the stations and on trains is on camera and because the chief claims to personally know all the bad guys, they shouldn't have any trouble cleaning things up.

They cut down all the tree branches in the Washington median on campus. So now there's just these weird stubs. Honestly I don't know who wanted to plant trees there in the first place, prairie grasses work better, could've spent that money improving the boulevard trees that are still to this day sticks in the concrete.

Pollarding trees is common in large cities in tight spaces, just not usually here for some reason.

Is that what that is? Well I feel dumb, I thought that was a certain species of tree that grew like that in Europe...

https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetin ... ation.aspx

Looks like a new storage barn for LRV's is going to be built slightly north of the Green Line OMF on land that the Met Council already owns.

Random side note to the new storage barn but I think it would be wise for Metro Transit to plan/create a new LRT vehicle drop off interchange around this area instead of solely relying on the one just north of Lake Street forever

My hot take on this area (going on 10 years now), is that this location east of the Lafayette Bridge is where the OMF should've been built in the first place.

Taking that idea further, both the OMF and CHS Field could have been built about 1,000 feet further northeast, as that would've opened up their current sites for infill development. Four city blocks would fit perfectly where the OMF and CHS Field are today.

Random side note to the new storage barn but I think it would be wise for Metro Transit to plan/create a new LRT vehicle drop off interchange around this area instead of solely relying on the one just north of Lake Street forever

This is a good idea. Gotta imagine there's more of a future for the BNSF transcontinental mainline than there is for the short line that crosses the river to serve one or two mills on Hiawatha.

OMF + CHS Field is to Lowertown what the 4th Ave Parking Ramp Wall is to Downtown East or ABC ramp wall is to the Royalston area.

OMF + CHS Field is to Lowertown what the 4th Ave Parking Ramp Wall is to Downtown East or ABC ramp wall is to the Royalston area.

I understand what you're going for, but I disagree.

If you go past the "4th Ave Parking Ramp Wall", you are still in the downtown loop with continuous buildings and street grid. The area feels different because it separates the CBD from a separate, but still downtown area. It's a total mood change, but you're still in downtown, just a less busy part of it.

The ABC ramps straddle the highway trench that forms the effective edge of downtown. It is a border, but tearing down the ramps would leave the highway trench. You would have to remove both to open up the area. If you did, the southern end of that area would re-develop much more quickly. As it is, redevelopment is moving down from the north loop and will be even more active if the green line extension ever finishes. The ramps are a barrier, but if you go past them, you are still in a developed area

If you go past CHS and the OMF, you have a parking lot to serve those facilities and then a large park, which will not get redevoloped, then another freeway border. On the north side of those is an even bigger freeway border. CHS isn't blocking any development. It forms the edge of development because it sits in a freeway armpit that wouldn't be accessible anyway. The OMF sits between the downtown and a park, so I guess it might prevent some people from going to the park, but you can still get there. The developable land area there between the park, the river and the freeway could still become something more than a parking lot for the union depot, but the available land is small and would still feel separated from downtown because of the shape of the area and the existence of highway 52.

If you are talking about the constrictions on downtown St Paul growth, the obvious one is the freeway loop, but after that, I would blame the large capitol complex with it's building restrictions as the most obvious one. If downtown St Paul reaches the point of demand where expansion is needed (I don't expect this soon), then it will spill down west Seventh or up into the industrial are to the North East of Downtown (comparable to the farmer's market district west of Minneapolis). If lightrail actually gets built down West Seventh, then it will pull development that way.

You called me out, and you are correct. It was a quick comparison not fully thought out, more of a derision on the Mpls examples than the Lowertown example.

Curious how much if any change in ridership there's been at the Snelling Avenue Station since Route 94 started serving I-94 & Snelling. I had to take the Green Line to a destination nearby, but going to downtown to make my connection with the Orange Line I took the 94 bus instead since I only had to wait 6 or so minutes.

Why are they closing down most of the Green Line in a couple weeks for a weekend?

I believe there's a few rail breaks along the route that need to be repaired. Currently trains have to run at restricted speed in those spots.

its more than a few I think they are up to 7 which is wild because its normally from expansion and contraction from really cold weather which we havent really had.