Search found 448 matches

by thespeedmccool
February 3rd, 2025, 11:08 am
Forum: Minneapolis - Downtown
Topic: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market
Replies: 1357
Views: 935992

Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market


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 ...
by thespeedmccool
January 28th, 2025, 7:42 pm
Forum: Minneapolis - Downtown
Topic: Nicollet Mall
Replies: 1488
Views: 649029

Re: Nicollet Mall


- 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 ...
by thespeedmccool
January 27th, 2025, 12:35 pm
Forum: Anything Goes
Topic: Housing Market/Economics - General Topics
Replies: 272
Views: 145146

Re: Housing Market/Economics - General Topics

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 ...
by thespeedmccool
January 23rd, 2025, 11:39 am
Forum: Minneapolis - South, Southwest, and Uptown
Topic: Hiawatha-Minnehaha Corridor - General Topics
Replies: 281
Views: 278584

Re: Hiawatha-Minnehaha Corridor - General Topics

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.
by thespeedmccool
January 23rd, 2025, 11:35 am
Forum: Local Politics and Governance
Topic: 2025-2026 Minnesota Legislature
Replies: 22
Views: 719

Re: 2025-2026 Minnesota Legislature

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 ...
by thespeedmccool
January 22nd, 2025, 11:58 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Street, Road and Highway Projects
Replies: 1421
Views: 719841

Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

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 ...
by thespeedmccool
January 15th, 2025, 1:48 pm
Forum: Local Politics and Governance
Topic: 2025-2026 Minnesota Legislature
Replies: 22
Views: 719

Re: 2025-2026 Minnesota Legislature


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 ...
by thespeedmccool
January 15th, 2025, 1:37 pm
Forum: Suburbs
Topic: Suburbs - General Topics
Replies: 1145
Views: 429428

Re: Suburbs - General Topics


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 ...
by thespeedmccool
January 14th, 2025, 5:31 pm
Forum: Suburbs
Topic: Suburbs - General Topics
Replies: 1145
Views: 429428

Re: Suburbs - General Topics


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 ...
by thespeedmccool
January 14th, 2025, 3:51 pm
Forum: Local Politics and Governance
Topic: 2025-2026 Minnesota Legislature
Replies: 22
Views: 719

Re: 2025-2026 Minnesota Legislature

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 ...
by thespeedmccool
January 14th, 2025, 3:39 pm
Forum: Suburbs
Topic: Suburbs - General Topics
Replies: 1145
Views: 429428

Re: Suburbs - General Topics

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 ...
by thespeedmccool
January 10th, 2025, 4:45 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Interstate 94
Replies: 415
Views: 192063

Re: Interstate 94

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 ...
by thespeedmccool
January 10th, 2025, 1:47 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)
Replies: 3108
Views: 880547

Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

I love the idea of speeding these up (which probably just requires smoothing out coordination and lining up funding more quickly,) but I don't think I like implementing "temporary" aBRT facilities to upgrade them later. aBRT is already a diluted mode for mass transit, and I'm hesitant to dilute it ...
by thespeedmccool
January 1st, 2025, 6:17 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Blue Line Extension - Bottineau LRT
Replies: 1848
Views: 1110824

Re: Blue Line Extension - Bottineau LRT

One caveat: when Republicans last had a trifecta and a chance to cut transit funding, they had a lot more suburban and urban members. They're almost 100% rural now, so very few of their constituents will care if transit funding gets cut.

I tend to agree that transit funding is probably safe, but I ...
by thespeedmccool
December 27th, 2024, 10:45 am
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT
Replies: 5418
Views: 1462947

Re: Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT

Whatever the reason for the Green Line being split into two routes, my message to Metro Transit would be "figure it out." It's plainly unacceptable to not have this be a through-running service.

There are half a dozen better ways to handle this than making every passenger transfer at Target Field ...
by thespeedmccool
December 18th, 2024, 5:39 pm
Forum: Minneapolis - Downtown
Topic: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market
Replies: 1357
Views: 935992

Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market


I had a conversation with some commercial real estate folks about conversions. The price per square foot needs to be absolutely decimated on a commercial property before they'll think about something like this.


I mean, is a 73% decline in value not enough? That's seems like a total collapse to ...
by thespeedmccool
December 18th, 2024, 5:33 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Interstate 94
Replies: 415
Views: 192063

Re: Interstate 94

I have criticized the boulevard concept, but I 100% agree that an expansion is unacceptable. Three general travel lanes and one transit/MNPass lane is all that this stretch needs; any more is silly.
by thespeedmccool
December 18th, 2024, 4:09 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT
Replies: 5418
Views: 1462947

Re: Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT


MinnPost article: With parts of the line completed, why can’t Southwest light rail trains roll?

Short answer: there's no maintenance facility on the line. Any trains needing maintenance would need to be removed from the tracks and trucked to the Blue Line OMF.

The most substantial update in the ...
by thespeedmccool
December 15th, 2024, 12:07 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT
Replies: 5418
Views: 1462947

Re: Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT


While I could imagine zoning changing with proposals, i believe all guidance is for Louisiana to grow as a jobs station going forward.


There is perhaps nothing more emblematic of misguided 2000s and 2010s transit planning than labelling stations as either jobs stations or residents stations ...
by thespeedmccool
December 13th, 2024, 4:23 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT
Replies: 5418
Views: 1462947

Re: Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT

I think the Louisiana station was needed for the ridership formula due to its park and ride lot. Could be wrong on that though.

Very redevelopable land uses around the station, but I don't recall any proposals cropping up there yet. Maybe the next big housing boom will build up that node.