urbanMSP

seanrichardryan wrote: March 24th, 2025, 10:14 am https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EBoDHw4d5/

Oh Watchdog, never change.

It must be exhausting being one of these people who insists the government can never do anything positive.

City Council gets thrown under the bus(may be paywalled):
https://www.startribune.com/an-unserious-st-paul-city-council-fiddles-while-downtown-crumbles/601242635


I'll read a single word written by Andy Brehm when he's no longer a breathless Republican hack. Not that I think St. Paul has made ...

Considering that building it is still years away, it's going to be more expensive than expected, and there's a looming deficit, I actually think it's possible that the DFL gives up on this in the short-term to give Republicans a little win in negotiations.

Probably would get resurrected in the ...

I mean what are we even doing here, 8 years and $450 to $550 million for what amounts to a aBRT route with some dedicated lanes. I never wonder why people oppose transit funding when they are presented with idea like this


Closer to half that. That number includes a 40% contingency.

I would've ...

Madison Equities parking ramp at 6th & Wall was just condemned as well.

If I were the city/county, I would be doing everything in my power to dispossess Madison Equities of all their downtown properties.

They clearly don't care and are happy to see the properties decline until they're condemned ...

Nick wrote: March 5th, 2025, 10:48 am I noticed this morning that there does appear to be an orange placard on the front door.

I walked by and it seems like it's just part of the city's effort to replace old water meters. The land owner hasn't responded to the city's request to replace the meter.

I think it's pretty clear that the DFL isn't willing to fight for Northstar and Met Council sees the writing on the wall. It's something Dems can let Republicans win on and pay little to political costs.

DFL will let Republicans pass the "kill Northstar" bill, and the administration will try to ...

Better Bus Route plan for Route 61 is posted. Eliminates 61B branch.

Generally pretty small project. No route changes other than the branch elimination and stop consolidation.

You know, actually—how are downtowns doing in other countries? Hard to compare downtown Minneapolis to a nice Western European city center for 1,000,000 reasons but what about Calgary or whatever? Are Perth and Riyadh back to their regular Monday lunch rush? Can you get a skyscraper for 97% off in ...

- That same mayor's favorite constituency is the downtown business community who equate "I can see a poor person from my office" with "crime is out of control."


I think this is the key reason. They keep talking about making Nicollet Mall into "Minnesota's Main Street" and clearly transit riders ...

I hope they mean municipalities. Heavy-handedness is desperately needed.

Local governments think they run the show, but forget that zoning and land use policy is state prerogative that the state giveth and can taketh away. Time for state government to stop bowing to local government lobbyists and ...

Minnehaha feels like one of the last corridors to be reconstructed according to older styles, and probably won't be reconstructed again until 2060. Good evidence as to why climate and urban policy needs to be done now before bad policies are literally set in stone.

I doubt they would go along with it (to my recollection, Republicans are the reason that "guideway" projects have the Byzantine process they have today,) but maybe as part of a larger infrastructure permitting perform bill. To get them on board, you'd almost certainly need to exempt fossil fuel and ...

Ramsey County is planning to reconstruct the freeway stub that is Pennsylvania Avenue in 2028 or 2029: Link

Leave a comment, folks. This segment serves a surprising 10-12k drivers a day (I would've thought it was much less used) but there's still no reason this is an expressway. I'll be leaving a ...

If DFL were the adults in the room they wouldn't have nominated someone who wasn't a resident to run for a seat, and they wouldn't have held a private, secret swearing-in ceremony before the legally appointed time, and they would have shown up for work yesterday. Both parties are failing to be ...

My assumption is that familes that can afford a detached house in Chisago County "sprawl" aren't going to want to live with shared walls and no private back yard in Hugo.

No one who would buy an acre lot in Chisago County is going to opt for an apartment in Hugo, but maybe they'll opt for an ...

I feel like some of the underlying assumptions on this kind of thing don’t always make sense. Is a freeway armpit apartment building with a surface parking lot and water retention pond 30 miles from downtown better than five houses? Ideally, less people would be living that far out, which the five ...

Feels to me like Republicans overplayed their hand and they don't have all the cards. Politically, this spat is probably meaningless; most people don't pay enough attention to know what a "quorum" is. The DFLers not showing up won't look good, but people will forget in two months.

On the other hand ...

I don't know how densities are calculated, but I do know how the suburbs will react: they'll just zone a few blocks near a freeway exit as high density, slap some 5-over-1s on those bad boys, and call it a day.

The people upset over this seem to think this would mean "your suburb becomes ...

And considering the attached price tag of $450 million (which will probably be more like $700 after years of study,) it seems unlikely that this is in either the state's or local governments' capacities (unless maybe transit sales taxes can be applied to this?)

In other words, we better have the ...