urbanMSP

Here's at least a version of the chart I was referring to, from this PDF. I guess it doesn't appear quite how I remembered it.

Yeah, I'm pretty much in the same boat with mnmike and go4guy. Maybe I'd feel a bit different if the site hadn't been encroached upon by parking lots to the extent it has been. I do find it a bit strange how older schools were often put on grassy plots, set relatively far back from the street -- kin...

Yeah, I'm sure the problem of heat/UV can be mitigated to an extent with magic films of this type or another. I'm not sure you need anything so exotic for solar, though -- even regular panels can be transluscent, like at Como Park's EV charging stations: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7255/7058854683...

The MN Daily had an article on this project on the 22nd: http://www.mndaily.com/2012/06/22/student-apartments-displace-mercil%E2%80%99s-stadium-village This will take out both the auto body shop and the neighboring Noodles & Co. building. Both are planning on relocating -- Mercil's is eyeing a s...

As I've said, that's Phase 2. The building shown there is highly speculative -- of no more real meaning than all of the Vikings stadium renderings we've seen over the years. However, they do kind of show how the plan is to build "fingers" extending northeast from 5th Street over the trench...

Getting *all* of the track done this year is impossible in my mind. I think there's a non-zero chance that the straight-through pieces can be installed by then, but I wouldn't place any bets on it. The crossover switches and the complex track layout at the operations facility will take quite a while...

I'm expecting it to just be on time, which I'm figuring is sometime in the 2nd quarter of 2014. Hiawatha got delayed by several weeks due to the bus driver strike (which must have halted operator training), plus the Mall of America's last-minute decision to have a relatively integrated station rathe...

I knew this was coming up a few months back, then it slipped my mind. On June 28, 1862, the first passenger train ran in Minnesota between St. Paul and St. Anthony. Trains magazine's news wire had this write-up : ST. PAUL, Minn. – Today marks the 150th Anniversary of the first train to operate in th...

Yeah, Bus Driver Dude collected some photos and put them up on his blog:

http://twincitiestransit.blogspot.com/2 ... -work.html

Hmm. I've taken eastbound #3 buses through the zig-zag of ramps at Cedar Avenue near the West Bank station twice now, and it's looking like there are clearance issues. While I really like the idea of changing the ramps to have (roughly) 90-degree turns in order to calm traffic, it looks like Metro T...

I'm not a big believer that residents drive traffic significantly higher. I think retail has the largest impact, followed by office. Yeah, I think apartment traffic often gets overestimated -- certainly if you put a place in an auto-oriented zone without any walkable destinations, things can get ba...

It'd be pretty easy to add/extend a rail spur to that 3171 SE. 5th St. location mentioned in the Star Tribune. Some of the tracks in that area are for an intermodal container yard, but there are some siding tracks and a half-abandoned spur that goes basically right to the site. Actually, looking at ...

I've been thinking more about side-to-side clearance than vertical clearance -- yeah, hopefully just digging down a bit would handle that issue if it is one at all. There's also the possibility that a type of third-rail system could be used. I think Bombardier has started pushing a system where only...

They claim it would be capable of 60+ trains/day with that configuration. The two/three existing tracks would still run-through, so there may be opportunities for more platforms on the southwest side of Target Field, but the new tracks next to the existing platform would be stubs. The Cedar Lake Tra...

So the LRT platform will be raised over a public plaza, and then there will be a large staircase leading up to the stadium? I hadn't gathered that from earlier pictures, but if so I really like it. Where does the Northstar train fit into all of this? I'm only seeing that one platform area. That's P...

Can't we call this a tram line or something other than a streetcar? It won't actually be in a street, after all. Would the line have to be single tracked under virtually all bridges, or just some of them? Would it need to be single tracked at stations as well? Obviously there would be passing track...

Yeah, I hate the parking ramp, but aren't later phases supposed to have basically no parking at all? Or, at least kind of keeping things at a status quo?

I went to today's meeting on the bus service restructuring related to the Central Corridor. Here's a travel-time matrix which I haven't been able to find online before. Keep in mind that it's just the estimated travel time. https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-eqjntnS6qL8/T-nrk_FDTxI/AAAAAAAABhM/BAX4U...

Will this thing block off 11th ave? If so, that would be a bummer. I think the theory is that the stadium will cantilever over the road somehow. ...as opposed to the wide-open dead zone that is there now? Yes, that's clearly what I meant. Of course I was saying the Metrodome and its surroundings ar...

I've always thought this was a pretty good design. I suppose my only quibble would be that I'd prefer to have one of those corner towers right at the intersection of Hennepin and Washington rather than the relatively low-slung grocery entrance -- Make that corner taller than the others, and maybe ev...