urbanMSP

Royalston from SWLRT is the planned connection. Not really a 'connection' though, is it? The map shows no station between Olson/7th and "Ramp A"/7th St. Transit Ctr. [alternatively 7th & Hennepin]. The document mentions transfer to Royalston from Olson/7th - but the planned Royalston ...

Difficult to understand how they managed to get the line within spitting distance of the Interchange/Northstar station, but made no provision for their connection. In fact, aside from the theoretical future Bottineau overlap, there isn't any LRT connection here at all, right? The least they could do...

Honestly, I'm not sad to see the water feature go. Expensive to maintain, only seasonally in operation, unsightly when out of operation. There's a lingering cultural belief in water as expressive of luxury, and thereby denoting status (like the US lawn fetish), that is a bit silly. I am sad to see t...

2014 Restaurant of the Year Brasserie Zentral to close a week from today http://www.startribune.com/goodbye-spaetzle-with-rabbit-brasserie-zentral-to-close/364754831/ Ate there once, it was tasty but not something I really needed to go back to. Wasn't that busy either and seemed a little...off. Cou...

This tunnel will weaken one of the main points in my Minneapolis-Helsinki analogy (relative isolation). Also (half a year later): Helsinki has a great public transit system. It only has one Metro line, but it has an excellent tram and suburban (essentially LRT, or S-Bahn) system, as has already been...

8 trees plopped into a concrete triangle seems a bit sloppy for the plaza between the streetcar tracks, Nicollet, and Washington. Isn't landscape architecture a profession?

Gotta wonder how developed the farm fields in Brooklyn Park will be by the time we eventually build Bottineau. Hopefully not developed at all. Justifying transit out to the metro edge with TOD language, as Metro Transit is doing, strikes me as bizarre. Transit and sprawl are not friends. They work ...

Gotta wonder how developed the farm fields in Brooklyn Park will be by the time we eventually build Bottineau. Hopefully not developed at all. Justifying transit out to the metro edge with TOD language, as Metro Transit is doing, strikes me as bizarre. Transit and sprawl are not friends. They work ...

12 foot southbound travel lanes? Seems a bit wide, doesn't it? http://www.citylab.com/design/2014/10/why-12-foot-traffic-lanes-are-disastrous-for-safety-and-must-be-replaced-now/381117/ It doesn't seem a bit wide when you consider the amount of bus and truck traffic on this major artery going into ...

12 foot southbound travel lanes? Seems a bit wide, doesn't it?

http://www.citylab.com/design/2014/10/w ... ow/381117/

Cool before/after video neatly illustrating the benefits all door boarding (in Los Angeles):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNIblkXB_tc

A similar 69 to 31 second reduction in boarding time on the "A" line would shave 10 minutes; admittedly, it is unlikely that boardings take so long now.

Nathan, I agree - this building would have been immeasurably more appealing if it were clad in brick and stone. There is a childish plasticity to the pre-cast that is a bit repellent. At the same time, most passers-by will notice the other people coming and going from this building (and the means by...

Well, no. Obviously aesthetics are important. But if we're honest about it, there aren't really any buildings of significant architectural merit on Nicollet Mall. Some might argue for the IDS building, Orchestra Hall, or the Central Library -- all nice buildings. But in general, the Mall is lined w...

this [...] just shouldn't be acceptable for Nicollet mall. As long as the facade of City Center continues to inflict itself upon Nicollet Mall, I question whether the street has a legitimate claim to architectural pretensions. Now there's some logic for ya, thanks for that insightful addition. city...

this [...] just shouldn't be acceptable for Nicollet mall.

As long as the facade of City Center continues to inflict itself upon Nicollet Mall, I question whether the street has a legitimate claim to architectural pretensions.

I would generally not advocate the use of eminent domain ... However, wouldn't it perhaps be less expensive to relocate/pay FMV to Wendy's and the car wash, and allow a grade crossing at 71st, rather than an aerial crossing at 73rd?

Not exactly gridlock, is it?

Quite possibly this has been shared elsewhere, but if not, this seems like it might be the right place to do so: "The Idiocy of Traffic Studies" See: http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-idiocy-of-traffic-studies.html?m=1&utm_content=buffer3ce8b&utm_medium=social&utm_sou...

So I think what helsinki is saying is that it's not a percentage tax, it's just literally an extra cent tacked onto to every transaction, whether that transaction is one dollar or a billion dollars. But as best as I can tell, that's not true. Prop A, Prop C, and Measure R are all percentage taxes, ...

In this context, they are basically the same though, since it's implied that the tax is 1 cent per dollar, which is a 1% increase in absolute terms. It's mostly quibbling, though. I'm not sure I follow. A sales tax of 1% on $1 is 1 cent, yes. But this is the only time this is true. A sales tax of 1...