urbanMSP

It's like a baby Rampton.

At least from my days working downtown, the skyways also stratified the population - it was rare to see vagrancy in the skyway, something that made it more comfortable for the office worker crowd.

Good points about Fridley or a hypothetical Foley Blvd platform being the only locations that could also support NLX.

Fridley is likely the better choice since it already has platforms, was built for a third mainline track west of the platform (something likely necessary between Northtown and Coon ...

Re an at-grade ped crossing at 4th St, no way - railroads are highly oppositional to new grade crossings of any kind. I've been working to try and add a MUP crossing next to an existing BNSF highway crossing and it's a nightmare. In a nearby city, BNSF policy required closure of two at-grade ...

Honestly maybe that's not the worst use for the inner floorplates of large downtown buildings, if it comes with better streetfronts, more residential, etc.

I thought some of the stations were going to stick around for potential Amtrak reuse...

Did this end up getting leased up?

All four approaches of this were 3-lane profiles until not much more than a decade ago, and there were major backups until the four approaches got the 4-lane upgrade. For designs like this, I wonder if there's ever a cost-effective way to tunnel the most high volume through movement underneath a ...

Pearson Candy factory, 2140 West 7th, is closing.
https://www.startribune.com/pearsons-ca ... /601873708

jack nicholson grin nod dot gif

Yes. Devolution of power back to state and local government is exactly what allows progressives and conservatives to both get the future they want, in different places.

More reason state and local governments should just build things on their own, because federal dollars create risk for delay and come with strings attached.

Speaking of youtube and LA transit... https://www.youtube.com/@nandert

News story 38 years ago about plans for "the first public Indian school in the nation." https://youtu.be/dxJxlhuctHg?t=898
Would not be a part of MPD. Didn't realize Indian was still the go-to phrase in the 1980s...

https://www.startribune.com/from-acts-of-kindness-to-beaming-smiles-st-paul-apartment-employees-killed-in-shooting-are-remembered/601870559

It doesn't take long to find comments from DSA-types on Reddit and elsewhere advocating for the killing of landlords or seeking a Maoist approach to housing ...

I'm generally anti-vacancy tax, however maybe it could work on Nicollet Mall if the proceeds of such a tax could be directly returned to activating and improving Nicollet Mall or even granting money back to the property owners to meet certain objectives. Make the fees of the stick tie to the grants ...

I had some major disagreements with how they engineered and presented the 3C options.
I also think it would have been worth exploring putting the rails in/under the 35W corridor when it was torn up between Lake and downtown. Could have had a stops at Nicollet/Greenway, Franklin/35W, and maybe even ...

Ah I was looking at the wrong segment on a list of rail dates. Yes, the thing that severed the through-routing of SOO/TCW trains was MnDOT's project to build a SPUI interchange at Hiawatha and Lake, right? That would have been in the late 90s.

Did the original uptown routing plan to use the midtown greenway trench?
And if so when did the trench get converted from a rail spur to the trail we have today?

Rails were removed in the late 80s, Hennepin bought the corridor in the early 90s, and the trail was built in segments during the ...

Seems like it could almost be better to extend the 2 south on Hennepin then west on Lake to the Green Line. Still would provide connectivity to the Green Line on the west end, but would also probably serve one seat rides that are more in demand (e.g. Uptown to West Bank) and increase frequency on ...

IDK, Owami vs Culvers is a compelling flip of the coin.

Green Line will have a fairly transit-accessible Culvers across the Hwy 5 interchange from SouthWest Station, and already has one at University/Snelling. And Sun-Ray has a Culvers at the footsteps of the Gold Line station, and the future is ...