urbanMSP

But Frey is working on changing the ordinance so that people can drink in the parks.

Just saw Frey rolling his bike into City Hall a few hours ago; I resisted the urge to hug him.

http://www.vikings.com/news/new-stadium ... eddd5cf853

The game-day festivities also will expand to the easterly block of The Commons, a grassy patch between Fourth and Fifth Streets and Portland and Park Avenues that was recently completed. The Commons will be alcohol-free and feature activities for young people.

But Frey is working on changing the ordinance so that people can drink in the parks.

I've found if you're not being a clown no one really cares. But good news all the same.

Parks in general or just the Commons? I was under the impression it was just the Commons.

I think just the Commons, because it's not a MPRB park, so it's under city control, not MPRB's.

So is 5th Street just going to remain as is? Weren't there plans to close the section between the park and tracks to cars?

There were definitely plans to turn that section into a two-way cycletrack, that would connect to the one that crosses the plaza between Chicago and Park. Never happened though. I've been meaning to tweet at Jacob Frey or someone about it, but never have gotten around to it.

I use 5th street as a Bicycle Blvd for my commute..an okay number of cars use it to get into the ramps by the Hennepin County Government Center. One of those ramps is going to be torn down however for the new city offices.

I use it in the morning sometimes too (depending on which route I take to work) and it already makes for pretty good biking given the small number of cars and how short a trip they're making (i.e., don't need to go zoom zoom).

Would be very nice as an eastbound route, though. Both of the lanes on 4th and 6th are pretty stressful.

One of the ideas I had a few years ago was to turn 5th into a Greenway between the Commons and Target Field. Widen sidewalks, add bike lanes, plant a bunch of tree and add other landscaping, etc. I realize with the parking ramps that have access on 5th there would still need to be a few cars but the traffic counts could be lower dramatically. Not to mention it would be a great connections between the 2 ends of downtown that currently feel very disconnected.

With the removal of Strib HQ, there's no longer any curb cuts on the northbound side of 5th St between US Bank Stadium (Chicago) and City Hall (4th Ave). Couple that with the new I-94 to 7th St connection, and I see no reason to keep the lane on 5th St north of the tracks. And it should be policy to work towards removal of the lane on the south side of the tracks as redevelopment happens as well.

It looks like we may have missed that opportunity with the renovation of the Armory building. And it would have been easy to re-orient the *old* municipal parking ramp's access/egress to 5th Ave rather than 5th St, prior to swapping it for the ramp on 4th Ave as the site for the new Municipal Tower.

We could have had wide sidewalks, tree canopy, etc on the 5th St corridor between US Bank Stadium and City Hall. Along with the cycletrack on the south side of the stadium, this would connect bike lanes on Park and Portland, 11th Ave, etc with the heart of downtown.

I believe I've read before that trees can't be put on much of that stretch of 5th because of underground utilities.

Mostly a puff piece on the commons, but it does include this juicy tidbit:

Ryan will soon announce tenants for a building on what is called Block One, which includes land next to the new stadium parking ramp and the air rights above.

That's good it's not going to be spec. I'd feel very iffy right now about any spec office proposal.

I know that Amazon took up some space in T3. I wonder if they are looking for some additional space, and may serve as tenants in this new building.


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If Amazon wanted to scale up downtown, I'm guessing their preference would be 1. more floors in T3 then 2. Space in another building very close by (short walk). I can't imagine they'd want space on the complete opposite end of downtown.

I have a guess for who might be interested in more space (and I'm personally excited about the idea) but I'll keep it quiet right now as it is pure speculation.

“When we first looked at the opportunity, we thought there was too much land — there was going to be a great new stadium, but there was nothing to prevent the area from being another sea of surface parking,” Mr. Ryan said. “But having a major public green space at its core is the reason developers want to be there.”

Seems to contradict the headline: Super Bowl’s Minneapolis Stadium Brings a Surge in Development
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/busi ... state.html

Huh? How was the greenspace happening without the stadium?

I would rather have had Amazon where the stadium is...they could enjoy the park as well! (Seriously, it is valuable land being put to a very limited use.)