urbanMSP

One thing I tried doing, and part of what inspired the thoughts outlined above was literally going on Google Maps to the center of major American CBDs and just looking up "stores" and see what pops up.

What I noticed immediately about both Portland and Seattle is that their main downtown retail ...

More broadly, I get that there is online shopping, plenty of fairly successful suburban malls nearby, etc. etc. but a quarter million people live within a few miles of downtown! Based on local discourse I assumed urban retail was a dead thing everywhere but I've visited several other cities in the ...

The section of Nicollet between 9th and 12th Streets is actually doing pretty well. That section isn't even fully occupied but goes to show you really don't need much space leased out to create an activated street. It's just unfortunate that none of the property owners to the north of that segment ...

https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetings/Committees/Transportation-Committee/2026/July-27,-2026/Info-2_Quarterly-Service-Change-and-Workforce-Upda.aspx
August service changes:
Better Bus Route 14 (part 2) splitting 14D branch into route 48 (which will eventually connect to SWLRT at Basset Creek ...

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 ...

I've been thinking a bit about how to improve the Nicollet Mall lately, and I think I've got some ideas!

The biggest question mark is always going to be: do we move transit off of it? I’m of the opinion that transit should remain on Nicollet in some capacity, but that there are just too many routes ...

For Bassett Creek Valley Station (fka Van White), it really seems like there should be a new circulator route connecting Near North to Loring Park via Van White / Dunwoody. The problem with a direct connection to the station is the platform lies below the middle of the bridge, which wasn't built ...

There isn't a good place for operator layovers at 21st Street for bus drivers so I'd imagine that isn't being considered. Outside of West Lake and Blake stations the planned bus connections as per Network Now are underwhelming. They missed several really obvious connection points, like the 705 being ...

This is a really pedantic disagreement here. I think the primary motivations for people when they go out to eat generally revolve around the desired type/quality of food first, and transportation second. I realize I am a transit nerd but I have never once chosen to go to a fast food place nearby ...

I don't think there have been any comprehensive studies on this, but I do know that plenty of suburbanites frequent the chain of lakes for recreation, meeting up with family, etc. I also know several suburban high schools have had their proms in venues like the Uptown Theater in recent years ...

Via a very gross AI-sloppy announcement, Harold's Chicken is officially coming to the former Daisy's space:
https://bsky.app/profile/daviss.org/post/3mqcyljnrks2z

Unfortunately, it does appear to be operated by the same people as Daisy's so it could just become the same fake bar thing all over ...

I think you might have missed the broader point I was making with those examples: for lots of residents it is definitely a viable option for things other than going to downtown, they just might not realize it.

I have to give credit to the leaders of suburban communities here: they've stuck with this project despite opposition both at the state level and from residents, and they've overall done a pretty good job embracing density and TOD near their station areas. There's already a lot of density ...

The current one is 65% utilized as per the Metro Transit park and ride report so this capacity probably has enough space to absorb any marginal increases in park and ride usage in the coming decades. With the entire park and ride system being only 17% occupied on an average weekday I doubt they ...

There was a meeting yesterday on the funding situation for the Bottineau extension. This was the slideshow but I’ll do my best to summarize. https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetings/Committees/METRO-Blue-Line-Extension-Project-Status-Update-Br/07-08-26/0708-BLE-PPT.aspx

$1.586 billion has been ...

I did this awhile ago but I can't remember if I posted it anywhere... I divided the LRT system up into corridor segments and compared weekday boarding in 2025 to boarding in 2019 to see more granular recovery info. This is percent recovery of weekday boarding in 2025 compared to 2019:

Downtown ...

Apparently one of these fake bars, Daisy's (as far as I can tell a fake version of the former Cowboy Slim's), has actually been under renovations for the past few months and might actually become a real restaurant/bar? Harold's Chicken + Sports Bar. This was the only info I could find on it (from ...

Macy's closed when my age had a single digit... I know that this project opened at the worst possible time but can someone enlighten me as to why it is *still* unable to be anything than an empty eyesore with peeling "Dayton's Project" stickers after like 5 years? Like I get downtown office is not ...

It looks like Southwest Transit was inspired by the MVTA’s better bus stop program and has silently been replacing/adding stops to their routes over the past month or so with new, more informative signage. These are nearly identical to the standalone stops that were added along the 686L route in ...

Ok, updating my numbers from earlier:
Year - Average Weekday / Average Saturday / Average Sunday
Fall 2013 (route 6) - 10,685 / 5,758 / 4,255
Fall 2019 - 8,298 / 4,015 / 3,381
Fall 2024 - 4,253 / 3,092 / 2,724
Fall 2025 - 5,238 / 4,030 / 3,288

December 2025 (E Line) - 4,616 / 3,893 / 2,916
January ...