urbanMSP

I'm afraid the fantasy is sitting around wishing on a star that EVs will save us. The real fantasy is that transit will save us... I don't think anyone lives this fantasy. Investing in transit is just one part of a kitchen-sink strategy that needs to be employed to reduce transportation carbon emis...

MnDOT gonna MnDOT.

It's pretty clear that none of the layouts are prioritizing the driver first -- transit is definitely the winner here, as it should be. But the idea currently en vogue, that every commercial street in Minneapolis needs to have a full bicycle facility, is just a bad use of our limited infrastructure...

A plan that doesn't make any accommodations for left turn lanes is absurd and should be discarded immediately. In other hot take opinions that will be unpopular here, there's not room for bike lanes on Hennepin. There are other viable locations for the bike lanes, but there are no other viable rout...

Am I wrong or are 13'-0" bus lanes insanely wide?

The buses need 11', and the additional 2' is for the gutter. You can see it clearly on the left side, where the bus lane is listed as 11', but it's actually 13' with the gutter at the top of the graphic when there isn't the parking/flex lane.

I watched the Hennepin South open house last night. Here's the project page . Here are the preliminary concepts that were presented. Of the bunch, to me the clear winner is Option 1B: https://i.imgur.com/nHfNkH0.jpg Obviously to start, what this option has going for it is that it accommodates both b...

I tried at one point to understand what made Bright Health's model so special, and I'm not sure I fully understood it. They are an insurer, and they keep a really tight grip on their network, and try to more actively manage the health of their clients? Is that correct?

Two things still need to be improved. First, I'm hoping the City Council and Public Works establish the outer lanes for buses only, before the whole street opens. It's time to put the city's modal priority into action. If you want to put a transit (including a bunch of bus routes and the future E Li...

Reaching any of these destinations currently requires a walk along wide, desolate streets and crossing a bridge over an interstate highway. There are serious physical and mental barriers that make this site feel isolated, unpleasant, and unsafe. Obviously everyone is hoping in the near future that t...

This project raises a ton of questions. For one, it's is an interesting challenge to the ten story minimum, since it's quite literally an edge case. Does the city want to lose potential affordable housing by forcing a small developer to take on much bigger risk and cost? (Which would probably mean t...

Architect is BKV, same as for 240 Park. The similarities between the designs are striking, but this one is worse. I don't think anyone can accuse me of being opposed to development, but the design and bulk of this one are just not good. It's kinda telling that the rendering on Page 22 is from a view...

Or possibly Metro Transit can insert Xcel money into the B and D Line budgets, and shift other money out of bus procurement and into other items, closing the funding gap?

"Moving to downtown Minneapolis is an exciting next step, helping accelerate our transformation while deepening our community commitment," said Deluxe Chief Executive Barry McCarthy. The residential population [downtown] also is growing, with McCarthy among them. He and his wife purchased a histori...

Has there been any talk about redeveloping the car dealership directly next to the future Hopkins Station? It has always struck me as strange that there's been so much chatter about development at Blake and at Wooddale, and of course there already has been development at the Hopkins Station, and yet...

The facelift of City Center was a missed opportunity to simply tear that entire bottom structure down and rebuild it as housing with smaller spaces for ground floor retail. The businesses that fit in the existing City Center spaces are taking body blows all around the country and seem unlikely to re...

This is sort of intriguing: https://finance-commerce.com/2020/09/dakota-county-rochester-push-transit/ The first bit is about Dakota County's interest in transit, which of course they recently demonstrated by causing the CTIB to collapse. That aside, Dakota County actually does have a bunch of scatt...

Evidence seems pretty strong that airplane or train travel actually is safe, given the air filtration systems in these vehicles and the easy enforcement of universal masking. The problem for Amtrak with routes like the Empire Builder is that they are extremely unprofitable. I think it makes sense fo...

Via CM Steve Fletcher's email list (emphasis mine): This week, I visited encampments in the parks, and had a chance to meet with organizers and advocates who are working both to hold the encampments together in safety and relative comfort for now, and get to more sustainable housing solutions. Peopl...

The combined Nicollet-Central line from American Blvd to Northtown would be about 20 miles in length. There's definitely reason to continue the Central line up to Northtown, it's a major destination and anchor on the line. I think it would be plausible to send the Nicollet line down to 98th and 35W...

Public comment is now open for the Minneapolis 2040 Built Form Regulations that will be enacted later this year. You can review them and give comments here: https://minneapolis2040.com/implementation/built-form-rezoning-study#Regulations I think there are two changes that I'd make to the section on ...