urbanMSP

Discuss fantasies and speculations!

[mod="Nick"]Changed December 27th, 2012 to be solely a "fantasy" topic. Rumors can be found here.[/mod]

My fantasy would be for Minneapolis to build a (man-made) downtown lake. It'd have to be a "lake", as defined by the State and/or U.S. definition and it'd be between the CBD and Downtown East, probably around 5th St. and 7th St. In this fantasy, downtown's future would develop East (South of Washington) and the lake would eventually (30+ years) be in the center of the updated downtown zone. Just as important as the development itself, the lake would be an American and International icon, akin to the St. Louis Arch, "the Bean" in Chicago, Statue of Liberty, Golden Gate Bridge, etc. that would be instantly recognizable and give this city a true "image".

wow, what a fantasy! unfortunalty I can only see this hypothetical urban lake lake getting super nasty from all the runoff (everything in those neighborhoods is concrete) and litter

This is not that far fetched, a giant rain-garden collecting all the runoff from the stadium site. My wish would be a plaza that would draw people even on non-game days. Let's do it correct this time and create something that we all can be proud of.

One of my long-time fantasies is that US Army Corps of Engineers would remove the upper lock and dam and restore St. Anthony Falls to what it looked like before the mills went in.

Lock and Dam will not go way even if they quit using it commercially. Too much structure to rid of.

I still dream about connecting the downtown to the river in some grandiose way like the Gateway Mall in St. Louis. I certainly don't have the billions to make it work, but hey we are talking Fantasies here right?

A link to a purposal by the Minneapolis Bike Coalition to transform Washington Ave. LOVE this idea.

http://mplsbike.org/blog/?p=2043#more-2043N

1200's idea is great.

We should get behind this, or t least I would. More protected bike lanes in general is a dream of mine. Also adapting another road going north and south would be awesome, maybe Portland or Chicago. This kind of infrastructure could really boost property values and enhance interaction with the street. Protected (and beautiful) bike lanes could be as appealing as the greenway is.

Dropping a lane for vehicle traffic and adding one for bicycle traffic on a street that is already pretty tough at rush hour might be a good recipe for getting some bikers killed. If you are an avid bicycler I can understand your enthusiasm for a project like this; as one that is not, it's a pain in the ass for a bunch of wanna-be Lance Armstrongs who refuse to obey the rules of the road. I'm not against bicycling, I just don't think this is the right place for this type of project. This will never be Bejing where half the population bikes to work. Bikes are not excluded from the roads, taking full lanes of traffic out of commission is overkill. I understand I'm probably a minority on this board when it comes to this, but I figured you should hear the other view point too.

The only reason Washington is busy is because of the 35W ramps and because people don't know any better. It's already terrible as a through street. 3rd and 4th take half the time to get across downtown.

So while I'm kind of on your side in general I think this is a great vision for Washington specifically and something like it should be implemented.

I want a "third downtown" along the Central Corridor, with mixed use buildings approaching 20 stories/200 feet in height. There are some *great* parking lots by Skyline where we can make it happen...

You simply cannot be pro-urban and anti-cycling at the same time. More people on bikes can only be good for the city. If we're going to continue the bike discussion, whe should start a new topic in the transportation forum.

I would like to see Uptown become more of a 2nd downtown in MPLS. 4-5 commercial and residential buildings between 15-25 stories. I think Uptown could really use some commercial office space down there to liven it up during the day.

I would like to see 1st avenue closed to traffic from 7th st. to 4th st. No one walks on the sidewalks down there anyways, lets take back the street!

I would like to see 1st avenue closed to traffic from 7th st. to 4th st. No one walks on the sidewalks down there anyways, lets take back the street!

Great idea IMO, but only for Friday and Saturday night from April to November.

I would like to see 1st avenue closed to traffic from 7th st. to 4th st. No one walks on the sidewalks down there anyways, lets take back the street!

Great idea IMO, but only for Friday and Saturday night from April to November.

I second this! Aside from the 3rd and 4th Steet ramps you could even stretch it from 8th to Wash. Then you would have a nice ped. mall ending right at the doorstep of 222.

I would like to see 1st avenue closed to traffic from 7th st. to 4th st. No one walks on the sidewalks down there anyways, lets take back the street!

Great idea IMO, but only for Friday and Saturday night from April to November.

I second this! Aside from the 3rd and 4th Steet ramps you could even stretch it from 8th to Wash. Then you would have a nice ped. mall ending right at the doorstep of 222.

Hmm, if 8th was turned into a two way from N 2nd ave to 1st ave closing traffic to 8th would work and not be as inconvenient to downtown commuters. Although, having traffic be able to turn directly onto 1st ave during the evening rush hour would mean considerably less of a traffic headache rather than all those cars going around the block. And if we are extending the pedestrian mall to Washington, why not bring it two blocks farther south to the river?

I would like to see 1st avenue closed to traffic from 7th st. to 4th st. No one walks on the sidewalks down there anyways, lets take back the street!

Great idea IMO, but only for Friday and Saturday night from April to November.

Good idea. And you could re-pave that stretch with granite cobblestones!

I know this is in the downtown sub-forum, but it didn't seem economical to create a separate thread in the uptown or anything goes forums.

Going for a run at the chain of lakes earlier, I thought how awesome it would be to have something really spectacular where uptown meets the chain of lakes. The less winded I get, the more I'm questioning the feasibility in such a tight space. Nonetheless, what I was thinking was how cool it'd be to have some sort of observation deck tower right at the intersection of Lake St and East Calhoun Parkway. This could have a space needle type design, but obviously much smaller than what's in Seattle, (or something else, that's just the first inspiration that comes to mind for me) say around 140 feet, in the red triangle below. That would be connected by a pedestrian bridge over the eastbound fork of Lake St to an elevated public space in the blue triangle below. Access would be via the blue triangle's public space, which I envision as a large public wooden deck about 15 feet high. There could be an ice cream stand or something similar on the deck in the blue triangle, and a high scale restaurant in the tower on the red triangle. There would awesome views of downtown, uptown, and the lakes from the tower.

Having written that out it sounds even less feasible. I just wish that intersection wasn't so dominated by cars. It's the gateway to the chain of lakes, but you have to get over that hurdle of heavy car traffic to enjoy the lakes. The lakes could really be leveraged more as huge assets for the city itself, not just great neighborhood amenities for the surrounding areas. Anybody have a better idea for that spot?