The Venue at Dinkytown - (14th Avenue SE & 5th Street SE)

[Nick]

Oh my...

[mattaudio]

facepalm

[David Greene]

"...some of the most unique little shops and diners in the Twin Cities."

Oh please, these folks are as bad as those who bemoan the loss of "character" of Uptown's "small businesses." Dinkytown (and Uptown) are not the center of the universe.

I went to the Loring Pasta Bar once. Once. I was not impressed.

[min-chi-cbus]

Wait, who paid for that advertisement? Can't the developers spent a little money themselves and come up with something creative and strike back? Something like "out with the old, in with the new" and show an AWESOME rendering with great restaurant and retail options?!

[FISHMANPET]

That was in the Z&P info packet. Pages and pages of emails of support from Save Dinkytown, and... that.

I and another poster spoke in support, and it all passed.

The owner of the parking lot said that parking revenues are going down and it's actually not profitable to run that lot as parking anymore. Puts a lot of local concerns about business in perspective.

[TheUrbanGopher]

Fishmanpet had a killer response. "The biggest thing that could improve Dinkytown is more Dinkytown." Excellent point.

I was the other one who spoke in support - I wouldnt call it my best public speaking appearance, but regardless, Im glad the Commission sees the fantastic benefit of it.

[Snelbian]

Oh my...

Well, that's pretty horrific.

[Didier]

What is the math behind their "Do the Math" feature on the bottom right? It indicates that parking will go from 350 to 46, but I was under the impression from UrbanMSP that there will not be lost parking?

[lordmoke]

What is the math behind their "Do the Math" feature on the bottom right? It indicates that parking will go from 350 to 46, but I was under the impression from UrbanMSP that there will not be lost parking?

They're counting the parking lost at the UTEC site.

[FISHMANPET]

It will go from 150 to 146 or something like that. I don't want to call the Save Dinkytown people liars because I think they have a genuine concern about the neighborhood, but... they were doing a lot of lying.

The things that the owner of the parking lot said directly contradict what the Save Dinkytown people, and also what the letters from Loring Pasta Bar said (included in the packet we got at the event). And I'm going to trust the guy that runs the parking lot over a couple of old geezers that pine for Dylan's Dinkytown of their youth and a couple of young kids pining for the... Dylan's Dinkytown of some imagined glory day.

A couple of their comments brought up historic preservation, which pretty much came out of nowhere. And I'd have to say there's very little there worth preserving. And depending on the preservation, if Grey's Drugs was "preserved" would Loring Pasta bar even have been able to gut the place and turn it into the jewel that it is?

Gary made some really good points. He said that there are conservation districts being discussed all over the city, and Dinkytown is absolutely not one of them, so to bring it up is just pointless at this point. As much as Nick hates the word, I'd call that just another straw for a NIMBY to grab at. Gary also pointed out that the Dinkytown of right now is completely different from the Dinkytown of when he was an undergrad 20 years, and that's part of what Dinkytown is, it's always static, never changing. Finally, he pointed out that this is mostly a parking lot.

Is that whole packet available online? If not I'd be willing to scan it in at work and make a PDF available to people.

[Silophant]

I don't want to call the Save Dinkytown people liars because I think they have a genuine concern about the neighborhood, but... they were doing a lot of lying.

Rofl. I liked how Opus was totally prepared for them, and refuted many of their points before they got a chance to make them (again).

I also rolled my eyes when someone complained about how ugly the 4-story rendering was. You know, the one that Opus showed as an example of what they are absolutely not going to do?

[TheUrbanGopher]

Hmm... looks like the Podium isn't closing after all!

So, lets do a check for the businesses affected by this project:
- House of Hanson is selling and was going to close anyways
- Bookhouse isn't closing and moved to Dinkydale
- Podium isn't closing and moved to Minnehaha Avenue
- Duffy's pizza is closing, but the owners stated they want to open a new restaurant/store in the new building
- Not sure about the salon

[min-chi-cbus]

You're right, it doesn't seem like the "Save Dinkytown" folks have much of a case left.

[FISHMANPET]

I was cruising the Book House facebook page and they linked some articles from May that said they were moving to Prospect Park, but now they're in the DInkydale and no mention of Prospect Park, anybody know what was happening with that?

[Snelbian]

As far as I can tell they were shopping around for a location in Prospect Park and spilled those beans before a deal was finalized.

I'm glad The Podium decided to move after all. I just wish they hadn't contributed to this mess in the first place with that letter of theirs.

[twincitizen]

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/meetings/zp/WCMS1P-108185

No appeal for this Z&P meeting, but that doesn't mean one hasn't been filed. You'll notice on that agenda that the rezoning of the 15th Ave SE housing project is up for Z&P discussion, but the Opus project is not. Even if (miraculously) the PC decision was not appealed, the rezoning still must be approved by the Z&P committee.

[exiled_antipodean]

The Book House wanted to move to 2720 University Ave (where MPIRG is, where Obama campaign offices were) which is 3 buildings joined into one on the corner of University and St Marys. Street frontage, nice display windows. But the zoning is only OR-2, and a bookstore needs C2. Absolutely crazy given that the North Star office block across University is C3, and the building across St Marys is C2.

Application is pending for a rezoning to C2, but this came too late for the Bookhouse.

[mattaudio]

Irony that their preferred location was under-zoned?

Reason to ditch euclidian zoning and move towards form-based zoning?

[RailBaronYarr]

Irony that their preferred location was under-zoned?

I'd say.

[woofner]

It's probably OR2 because it's adjacent to residential. Certainly there would be policy support for rezoning, but then of course the Book House (which through an employee has been leading the Save Dinkytown effort) would have to acknowledge that rezoning is a standard and acceptable process.

It's pretty stupid that bookstore aren't allowed in OR districts, though. Maybe we can get one of the councilmembers that have been caught up in the deregulation craze to change that.