urbanMSP

Forgive me if I have less sympathy for the longtime owners whose mortgage is either paid off or insanely low due to the purchase being made 15-20+ years ago. If you're a moderate- or low-income homeowner (say, your home is worth $150k) and the value of your home rises by 50% over a few years (far mo...

Which is crazy since sales taxes are more regressive than property taxes, and they can be crafted to hit the land most positively impacted by infrastructure rather than hitting everyone, but whatever.

I mean yeah, but what else is the designer supposed to do? As an aside, I'm not really *wild* about my front stoop being "inviting" to people walking by (get off my lawn, etc). I know that makes me kind of a jerk urbanist, and it may even run counter to things I've said in the past on this...

I'm not sure the ground floor is so inactive. Obviously no commercial, but almost the entire frontage on all sides is raised patios with steps down to the street. The setbacks are less than, say, most single family homes, and you're far more likely to see people using these front patios because it's...

I doubt the Met Council would need (or want) to use that method with the likely future funding streams and CoP costs. But it was still something they were legally allowed to do and stripping that tool *specifically for LRT projects* has very little to do with any general conservative ideology.

The very short stretch between Hennepin and Lyndale was included in the 5-year capital request by the city for a reconstruct, and they're looking to widen the ped space (but I don't think they've presented any preliminary plans to any group yet). I think we've talked about Franklin between Hennepin ...

As a pedestrian, I find crossing a bike facility to reach a large waiting area to then cross only 2-3 lanes off vehicle traffic, where I'm much farther out into right turning cars' field of view, much better than almost all of the alternatives.

It's really impossible to know how effective any of them will be, but even if 1/3 of them turn out to be half as good as Bender, I would probably call that a win.

It's a dumb hill to die on. The logic is basically "spending $XX,XXX on YYYY issue is not equitable unless we also have a plan in place to prevent displacement or any bad thing that might happen, and also there are a ton of other things the city should be funding instead." The council appr...

I think this debate too often has sides talking past each other, and we've certainly gone around the horn on it many times here. I think it's probably true that new subsidized development in areas with a high concentration of below-AMI residents can certainly have positive outcomes, even measurable ...

A "small handful" of residents? I guess count me in the camp that says 152 units on 2.75 acres (or so) is a great way to house a bunch of people, even if they are wealthy. That's 152 households that might otherwise buy single family homes, tear them down and build new/larger ones. I'm also...

Wait, doesn't this contradict what you said in your immediately previous post? I'm all for public officials just deciding to do tolling. I was responding to your statement that that's not politically possible. Why do we need another study if politicians should just make the hard decisions? If they ...

I too was skeptical of the GOP's intent as I read through the language. It wasn't until I got 2/3 of the way through the section that it became mostly clear to me that they were more interested in expanding the program than killing it. I know this is an unpopular opinion in 2017 America, but this is...

They played a more important role in neighborhood activism around Milwaukee Ave than many would like to admit: https://i2.wp.com/streets.mn/wp-content ... .png?ssl=1

I know I'm a couple days late to this, but the bill's text was not adding funding to see if people would support tolling. I don't know if you misunderstood what the GOP wanted or if Dayton did and you're just taking his letter at face value. Here's a link to the bill I believe he was sent: https://w...

I actually like this color palette better than the original, even if the narrow sides of the building are a little less flattering. Can anyone explain the parking connection between the existing ramp and the new building? Is that a below-grade tunnel for the current ramp to use the new sub-grade as ...

Yep: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/www/gro ... 185181.pdf

I know this is getting off topic a bit here, but other than the fact that the 6 has multiple branches, I'm interested in how the relatively few jogs it does slows it down. If a goal of a Lagoon-France routing is that it could be limited stop along the way, why not for the 6's current route (ie, an a...

I'm super serious, folks. The Met Council needs to update their transit investment map that was just approved in Thrive2040 to better serve a few key job/residential districts like Southdale (to say nothing of serving a booming district just across the river from downtown Minneapolis with more than ...

Okay, #butactually, ramp meters have proven to have a net benefit even to urban dwellers who have longer wait times on the ramps but don't see the longer delays once they get on the freeway itself (unless you're making a short trip, around 3 exit lengths, on the freeway itself where the travel time ...